The Save the Whales Post

On Sunday I headed down to the Mall with Eric, just to wander and enjoy the nice weather. It’s nice being back in DC and having an appreciation for how much ‘stuff’ goes on here. We walked the length of the mall and saw some pretty interesting things. The Marine Corps Marathon was finishing up right when we got there so we got to see people jaunting across the finish line while the onlookers cheered and applauded them. 26 miles…yikes. Well done guys. A little bit further down we ran into Mr. Can Head, posing by some landmarks in his trademark bin-on-head outfit. Don’t ask me why, here’s his myspace. I went over and asked him why he had a bucket on his head and he gave me his card and disappeared. Strange. Very strange.

The best part on our walk of seeming randomness was the Save the Whales rally going on in front of the Capitol Building*. Heroes’ Hayden Panettiere was there giving a press conference about the importance of whale conservation and whaling regulation. After she finished guys from the Whaleman Foundation staked out an area of the lawn and positioned people in the shape of a giant whale. They needed extra people and where giving out free t-shirts, so Eric and I joined in and became part of the whale's tail. A large cherry picker across the street with photographers took pictures…which I am yet to find on the net yet (here’s one they did elsewhere). Afterward we where going to stop for a picture with Hayden, but a reporter grabbed her for an interview that my bladder just couldn’t wait for (I had downed a large bottle of water on the metro and had spent the last hour laying on the grass as part of a whale butt), so we bailed and I sprinted for the Smithsonian bathrooms. If you’d like more info on the foundation you can find it here. While I personally agree that whaling and polluted ecosystems are destructive and need attention, I find it hard to focus in the issue at the expense of other travesties that are happening across the globe. That said I support the movement and think it’s great that people want to do something about it, I mean who wants to actually harm whales??

* I say seeming because we where actually looking for it.