Vacation Photograph

Last Sunday I watched the Redskins-Cowboys heartbreaker in an Ethiopean bar in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington D.C.

Between plays my oldest and dearest friend John and I talked about women, while drinking the native beer. Lanky men kept climbling the stairs to (what was rumored to be) a back-room cockfighting venue. The bar was filled with cigarette smoke, TV monitors, and shouts of "Goskins!" between hushed Amharic conversations.

It was the least Midwestern scene possible, and a breath of fresh air.