The Capitol and the Copter

I'm setting aside other post ideas today to write about one of the zanier things that's happened lately in the nation's capital. I speak, of course, of the 61-year-old mailman who landed his gyrocopter on the west Capitol lawn to draw attention to the need for campaign finance reform.

The Secret Service didn't intercept him, nor did NORAD. People in the area (if only I had been on one of my Wednesday walks!) told the Washington Post that the craft looked official with its Postal Service logo. Only when officers surrounded the craft did one bystander realize that "it was someone doing something crazy."

When I lived in New York, people were always doing crazy things. Now that I live in buttoned-down D.C., the crazy things happen less often but are more notable. A farmer driving a tractor to the Mall and threatening to blow it up. A number of White House intruders, one of whom made it all the way to Obama's quarters before being noticed. An intelligence agency employee who accidentally crashed a drone on White House grounds.

I'm tempted to say "only in D.C." ... but I won't!

(The lawn in the foreground = copter's landing pad.)