I worked from home today. Not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't get to work. Oh, I left the house on time, and walked to the subway without a hitch. There was even a train there when I got to the platform. And I found a seat!

But about four stops later we held. And held. And held. and held. because there was smoke in some tunnel. They weren't sure which one. Or what is from. So we held some more, but were told we really would be moving soon. And that they'd be single tracking between Farragut North and Judiciary Square.

Soon. But first, they had to offload my train. So, everybody off and please wait for the next one. So the packed train cleared, and we waited. And waited. And waited. And then squeezed on to an already full train. And waited in a packed car. For about ten minutes. But we'd be moving soon, because they were single tracking through some smoky tunnels. But no one knew where the smoke was, or what exactly was causing it.

Strange. Just last week I was on a train taken out of service at Farragut North because of, wait for it, smoke in the tunnel. Strange.

Oh, we will be moving soon. But not on this train. Because we're off loading it. So, please exit the train, and board the next one. Which will be here soon.

At that point, I dug through the crap at the bottom of my bag and found the 50 cents I needed to call the office. Explained the situation, and then asked what time it was. Hmmm. 10:10. I'd been trying to get into work for almost 2 hours at this point.

I said I'd keep 'em posted, but might head home if things didn't improve. And then hung up quickly, as a train was entering the station. A packed one. But we squeezed on. And the doors stayed open for another 7 minutes.

Maybe longer. i don't know. Because I got out of that car, crossed the platform, and got on a train headed for home.

When I checked the metro website, there was no mention of this. One of the tv stations had a little blurb, but ended it with the line "metro says the problem was taken care of before 10am.

Right.

The only good thing to come out of the morning was that I read the entire paper before getting down to work. Sally Jenkins (daughter of Dan) wrote a wonderful column on Barbaro.
"In diagnosing the public's unreasoning love for Barbaro, maybe it comes down to the fact that he never lied to us. Human nature seems like a sorry, wastrel thing, compared to that horse. No doubt, we idealized him, but the fact is, we could have used a happy ending for Barbaro, given some of the Gilded Age characters who parade safely through public life into retirement. His survival seemed like one good thing, a balm for foreign wars, domestic deceit, and the bimbo cocktail party circuit, ruthless wealth-swappage, and cross-entouraging that we lately call American culture.

Barbaro was an honest, blameless competitor. Our ridiculously soft feeling for him was based at least partly on that fact. Unlike so many people in the sports pages, he was neither felonious, nor neurotic. He let us place burdens on him, whether a saddle, a bet, or a leg brace, and he carried them willingly, even jauntily."

You can read the whole thing here.

On the other hand, this was the stupidest thing I've read in months. Maybe years! From the wonderful Guardian newspaper's Media Monkey column in the media guardian section. (www.mediaguardian.co.uk)

"Under the weather
Ah, the perils of reporting on bad weather. The driver of a news van belonging to WDJT-TV in Milwaukee got his feet wet at the weekend when his truck fell through the ice on Big Muskeo Lake. And the story the WDJT-TV news crew were working on? The dangers of thin ice."