Wonkette
Read the rest of this entry »
The war on terror is over, and America won! Here is proof, in the form of a rusty emergency box directly outside the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. If any homeland security threats remained, this box would surely be unblemished, maybe even operational!
But don’t let a little rust worry you; it’s still impossible to get anywhere near the Capitol without the requisite x-ray checks, metal detectors, and youthful tour guides.
So, Ken - what helps you decide if a post like this goes into “Wonkette” or goes into “Wonkabout”? Compare and contrast the two sites. Please deliver your answers in the form of complete sentences, using the provided Blue Book, and within the time allowed. You have 1 hour to complete the exam.
I walk by this box every day on my way to work and wish someone would paint it all flamboyantly colorful like those other fireboxes in Georgetown and such.
There’s a purple and pink one outside of NASA Headquarters on E St. SW. Who knew Buzz Aldrin was so flamboyant?
if you very carefully inside that box you’ll find a card with the phone number of a very important republican who’s trolling for boys.
Why isn’t this amazing work of casting and oxidization prominently displayed at the Hirschorn’s sculpture garden?
It’s so little used and erect, it reminds one of a husband.
Those painted fire boxes are no accident.
Police and fire call boxes were installed throughout the capital starting in the 1860s. They began to become obsolete with the introduction of the 911 emergency call system in the 1970s, and the working electronic components were all removed by 1995. Yet the call boxes remained, too large and heavy to remove and subject to deterioration from weather and vandalism.
Art on Call is a city-wide effort led by Cultural Tourism DC to restore Washington DC’s abandoned police and fire call boxes as neighborhood artistic icons. Cultural Tourism DC partners with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the District Department of Transportation on this initiative.
The Art on Call initiative began in 2000 when the call boxes were surveyed and identified for refurbishment. More than 1,100 abandoned boxes have been found to date. The District Department of Transportation stripped, primed, and prepared about 700 boxes in 2002 and 2003. It recently renewed its commitment to the project.
Twelve neighborhood organizations are actively working on call boxes as part of Art on Call (five have completed projects). They have formed coalitions with residents and artists to propose, and then carry out, ideas for refurbishing their neighborhood’s call boxes. Each community selects a theme or color palette for its boxes, thereby creating recognizable identifiers for its geographic area.