After downloading old photos from the Library of Congress Web site, it became apparent that the men who led this nation in the past centuries were a particularly unattractive bunch. And that’s not even including Lincoln! So I put this together. Maybe we can all learn something. I know I have.

Mr. Julius Marx turns a spry 118 on Thursday, Oct. 2. Perhaps less spry since his passing in 1977. I tried to get tickets to his 1972 Carnegie Hall concert, to no avail. (I’d asked my mom to ask my aunt, who lived in Nutley, N.J., if she could buy the tickets. We got word that the show was sold out. It was, but I’m not entirely sure how hard my aunt tried. And, looking back from about the same age as she was then, I’m not sure I blame her…)

Mr. Marx was awarded one of those “special” Oscars in 1974. The same one they’ll probably give to Bill Murray before he croaks. Bah.

I already miss the Grog and Tankard, even though I haven’t been there for a long time. Here’s the City Paper cover story I did, still the definitive piece on the place. Well, I haven’t seen much else written. (That quote in today’s Post from Vertical Horizon singer and guitarist Matt Scannell was pulled from my story.)

Above is a photo I took last week of one the last remaining Little Tavern buildings. Like most of the rest of the chain, it had been turned into something else, in this case a Chinese carryout, Golden House. (I have placed orders there on more than one occasion. Not bad.) My plan was to snap pictures of what few remaining LTs existed so that I could post them on the article I wrote about the fabled D.C. diners.

Below is a picture I took today. I have no explanation, other than the new X-Files movie just opened.

UPDATE: Discovered the explanation, courtesy of the Silver Spring Penquin blog. The site will become the new Silver Spring library. Now the question is: what’s a Silver Spring Penquin?