Today, while working at the Hirshhorn Museum’s library, I came across a stainless steel shovel — it happened to be the one used by Lyndon Johnson at the museum’s groundbreaking ceremony on 6 Jan 1969! So now I’ve touched a shovel that was briefly used by LBJ.

Me: Hello?

PH: Hi, this is Purple Heart. Is the lady of the house present?

Me: There’s no lady here.

PH: Okay; then I’ll catch you later.

Is it just me or was this Purple Heart employee a bit sexist? I mean, does she think that men are incapable of donating clothes? HA! I have ten large bags of clothes (not to mention four other huge piles and a dozen or so shirts on hangers) in my living room as I write this. Purple Heart just lost out on the mother lode. Serves them right for being sexist ninnies. I’ll just donate it all to Goodwill in spite of them. The nerve to assume that only bored housewives with nothing to do in the early afternoon are the only people capable of putting bags of clothing or unwanted toys out for the Purple Heart truck! Then again, it takes prodding to get the average man to even take out the garbage, so I guess I’m beginning to understand. But still…

On the way to work in the summer of 2001, I was stopped at a red light, playing “Good Vibrations” on an old dubbed tape. A man pulled up next to me with his windows down. He leaned over and said “that’s a great song” as if he connected with the song more than just superficially. I smiled and told him I agreed.