Supreme Court Facade: Crumbled
Okay, not the whole thing.
A tip of the metaphorical hat to Howard at How Appealing for the link to the news story:
Part of Supreme Court Facade Collapses. That AP brief states in full,
I pictured something more catastrophic - something more like this picture from a news story about 9/11.
I thought back to the near-bonking of Justice O'Connor at the ceremonial opening of Philadelphia's National Constitution Center.
I wondered, how are we going to go on Doing Justice with the beautiful face of One First Street, N.E. in ruins? That majestic work by Cass Gilbert cast down in pieces?
Then I realized: it was just a metaphor.
Probably all that happened is the Federalism Revolution was shown to be a joke - "just kidding!" winked the genial Justices, as they went about scrubbing that amusing but unsightly and ultimately nonserious error from the face of contemporary jurisprudence.
Then I read it, and realized it was just an overblown minor news story.
update: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog is, like, ALL over this story:
The Court is NOT falling down
The post is notable for containing a) actual facts about the incident (9:30 a.m.), b) context (before the Court had taken the bench), and c) architectural information (the piece came from the dentil molding on the West Pediment, which represents Liberty Enthroned).
Nice. And the post manages to clear up and dismiss those baseless allegations that the Supreme Court had collapsed into a pile of rubble. Assuming you'd seen any.
further update: Howard covers the non-story quite nicely.
See also: a Washington Post article describing some of the snarky symbolic interpretations. Things like, "It came from the right side!" "It damaged 'Authority'!" And one naughty person took a piece home. Read the whole thing.
A tip of the metaphorical hat to Howard at How Appealing for the link to the news story:
Part of Supreme Court Facade Collapses. That AP brief states in full,
Part of the marble facade on the front of the Supreme Court collapsed Monday morning, falling onto the steps leading into the venerable building. No injuries were reported.Nevertheless, despite the minor nature of the event, I felt this cried out - yea, demanded - some blogtime.
I pictured something more catastrophic - something more like this picture from a news story about 9/11.
I thought back to the near-bonking of Justice O'Connor at the ceremonial opening of Philadelphia's National Constitution Center.
I wondered, how are we going to go on Doing Justice with the beautiful face of One First Street, N.E. in ruins? That majestic work by Cass Gilbert cast down in pieces?
Then I realized: it was just a metaphor.
Probably all that happened is the Federalism Revolution was shown to be a joke - "just kidding!" winked the genial Justices, as they went about scrubbing that amusing but unsightly and ultimately nonserious error from the face of contemporary jurisprudence.
Then I read it, and realized it was just an overblown minor news story.
update: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog is, like, ALL over this story:
The Court is NOT falling down
The post is notable for containing a) actual facts about the incident (9:30 a.m.), b) context (before the Court had taken the bench), and c) architectural information (the piece came from the dentil molding on the West Pediment, which represents Liberty Enthroned).
Nice. And the post manages to clear up and dismiss those baseless allegations that the Supreme Court had collapsed into a pile of rubble. Assuming you'd seen any.
further update: Howard covers the non-story quite nicely.
See also: a Washington Post article describing some of the snarky symbolic interpretations. Things like, "It came from the right side!" "It damaged 'Authority'!" And one naughty person took a piece home. Read the whole thing.
Posted by Eh Nonymous on
Monday November 28, 2005 at 12:09pm
*Not all comments welcome. Flippant, facetious, fierce, or fatuous, fine. Fraudulent, felonious, fabricated, facially insufficient, and farkin' futile, fuggeddaboutit.