[accordioneur]

@Mtansill 208005 wrote:

I have decided to cancel this prize because we’re more than half-way through the competition, and no one has posted any submissions. Besides, we appear to have plenty of other pointless prizes this year. Perhaps next year.

It’s been removed from the list. Thanks for sponsoring the prize!

[accordioneur]

2/16/21 – Crown or Mask (with eyeholes)

This is the first time in years that I haven’t had a Mardi Gras gig. Blah. I will have to mix myself a sazerac and play some bayou tunes on the squeezebox.

Throughout this contest I’ve been trying to avoid the easy way out of just going to a store that sells the day’s thing. Today I was going to finally cop out and photograph Mardi Gras masks at Ayers Hardware and Variety in Westover, but once again I forgot that in COVID times they’re closed on Tuesday. Fortunately, the Walgreens was open and they sell Hallmark cards. Laissez les vélos rouler!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24135[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

@Kbikeva 207580 wrote:

So — the coffee snob prize listed here uses a different hashtag than listed on the freezingsaddles.com site. The site says: Leaderboard for the BAFS 2021 Coffee Ride prize

Note that the hashtag to appear on this list is #FS2021coffeeride, and it’s case-sensitive and subject to review by the offerer of the prize or any other BAFS staff member (which is every participant because this is a volunteer game and we all are in charge (some of us more in charge than others but totally not in a 1984 kind of way))

#FS2021coffeesnobride is what the prize sponsor specified, and it appears to be what’s currently showing up on the Leaderboard. It did take a long time (until just the other day) for the leaderboards to be updated to this year’s prizes, so maybe you were looking at it while it was still using last year’s hashtags? Or is there a deeper problem that needs to be investigated?

[accordioneur]

2/13 – Diner

Went for a ride first thing this morning to get the picture before the precip started. I guess I wasn’t fully awake since I forgot the part about getting my bike in the picture. Oh, well – I’m not going to ride back and re-take the picture now.

Metro 29 has the feel of a New York diner, unlike Bob & Edith’s, which has more of a Southern diner feel. Unfortunately, Metro 29 has been completely closed due to COVID.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23999[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

2/11/21 – Ox or other bovine

When I saw today’s challenge I immediately thought, “How sad that Mad Fox Brewery is gone”. True, it has been replaced by similar brewpub Solace Outpost, but the thought brought with it the whole COVID weight of not being able to use my daily photo find as an excuse to just stop by a pub for a pint.

Sticking with “fOX” as my target for the day, I found a park in Vienna with a Fox name and thought about going there, and I also considered visiting my friend Fox, whose 15 minutes of fame was being in seminal 1980’s DC punk band United Mutation, but instead I settled on this other nearby fOX-named business.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23973[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

@Kbikeva 207538 wrote:

Oh Nadine, you make me laugh. Mogen David is a sweet wine of questionable quality. Magen David is the Star of David (Shield of David).

And I’m not of the six pointed star persuasion, but I might have done a bit of googling plus memories of cheap college wine.

“Mogan” and “Magen” are transliterations of the same word, מָגֵן. They’re both approximations of a word written in a different alphabet. It’s not that “mogen” means “cheap wine” while “magen” translates to “star”.

[accordioneur]

2/10/21 – 5 or 6 point Star (but not on American flag)

“Now we’re playing on my turf,” I thought as I read today’s photo challenge. After all, I’m of the six pointed star variety of people. But it turns out that in Northern Virginia they’re hard to find in the wild. My synagogue doesn’t have any on its exterior, and from what I could tell from Google, neither do any of the (few) other nearby ones in Northern Virginia. I thought about heading to Sixth & I, which has a lovely stained glass example, but decided to instead settle for a five-pointed star, which are abundant. DC United and NE Patriots bumper stickers on cars. Decorative stars on houses. Air Force logos. Five pointed stars are everywhere. I grabbed some five pointer photos, but kept my eyes open while I continued my ride.

Finally, I stumbled upon a six-pointed star on, of all things, a sign advertising dog grooming. Success! Further along in my ride I spotted one of those “Coexist” bumper stickers that has the symbols of all the major religions. That would have provided a more legit mogen david, but I decided to stick with my doggie daycare sign.

Oh, and as I arrived home I noticed a five pointer just around the corner from my house – a Turkish flag sticker on a car. Good thing I didn’t see that on my way out, or I might not have gotten much of a ride in at all.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23908[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

2/9/21 – Pizza! (but not Pizza Hut or Domino’s)

I grew up in Brooklyn, where every day was pizza day! I was fortunate that one of our neighborhood pizza places was DiFara’s, which these days is a fixture on “Best Pizza” lists. Dom DiMarco opened the place in 1965. Dom is now well into his 80’s and no longer has the energy to run the place full time, but you can still sometimes find him behind the counter making pizza. His daughter runs the place now.

Locally, here’s another photo from the Westover shopping area in Arlington, which is turning out to be a photo hunt gold mine. The Italian Store makes a pretty decent New York style slice. The owners are from Philadelphia, which is close enough that they have some idea how to do NY pizza right. My other local favorite is Pupatella – excellent Neopolitan style.

I’m feeling a little under the weather today, so my ride was just out to get the photo and back. Given my upset stomach, I probably won’t even eat pizza today

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23855[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

2/8/21 – the word “Japanese” on a sign

First place that came to mind – I used to work right across the street from this shop.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23824[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

@Nadine 207292 wrote:

Except the sign isn’t legible here…. It is in my Strava pic though, which I think is the same pic. (Is it possible pix show up blurrier here than on Strava?)

Nadine, I posted a picture of the same owl, including a link to a video about it, in case anyone wants to know more about it.

[accordioneur]

2/7 Superb Owl Sunday

I have to admit I didn’t ride today – I have a little trouble getting motivated to ride on damp days when I have no reason to leave the house. But I think I deserve at least 1/4 point for my prescience in having photographed a superb owl on yesterday’s ride. This is one of several works in Arlington by local chainsaw artist Andrew Mallon.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23796[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

2/6/21 – Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt

Just a few stores down at Westover from yesterday’s clock tower is Toby’s Ice Cream. Years ago this location was a bakery, then it became an ice cream shop called “Scoops Beauregard” (as some FS participants well know), then eventually it became Toby’s.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23750[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

2/5/21 – Stationary Clock or Other Time Telling Device

Another one close to home – the clock on the Post Office at Westover (22205 in Arlington). Note the “No skateboards, bicycle riding or roller skating” sign. I have a grammatical nit to pick with the writer of the sign. Why doesn’t it read “No skateboarding …” rather than “No skateboards”?

BTW, the picture was taken at 2:07 PM – the fact that the clock reads 4:35 makes a statement about the Post Office’s loose relationship with time these days.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23697[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

2/4/2021 – Rose or Rosa

My first thought today was to bike into DC and take a picture of one or another of the Politics and pROSE shops, but time got away from me and I wound up having time just for a local ride. Fortunately, this place is right near home – basically across the street from the skate park I photographed the other day.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23678[/ATTACH]

[accordioneur]

2/3/21 – “Ritchie Valens” subanagram

I stopped by my nearby CLEANERS which offers laundry SERVICE to get two sub-anagrams in one sub-anagram photo. This shop is on Washington Boulevard, named for Founding Father who was an ENSLAVER. It also made me realize that at this point I haven’t had to bring anything in for dry cleaning in almost a year.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23633[/ATTACH]

[Author]

Posts