From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: My report on the inauguration
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:22:05 -0500 (EST)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Tamar Lindsay <dicconf at yahoo.com> wrote:

> That wasn't all of them, either.  There were people all down the
> Mall.  The ones at the Washington Monument couldn't get onto the
> Mall because it was full.

It's true that the authorities blocked 14th Street at 9 am, not
letting anyone east of it, contrary to what they had said they would
do.  But it's not true that the Mall east of there was full.  Large
sections, including bleachers intended for ticket holders, were empty.

They didn't bother to tell anyone that it was closed.  Many people
waited patiently to be allowed past 14th Street, as they had done
successfully to get past 15th.  Others attempted to go around, not
realizing that that half of the Mall was blocked in all directions.
Tens of thousands of ticket-holders, many of whom had spent years of
savings to make the trip, were kept waiting in line for six hours
in a tunnel where they could see and hear nothing, until after the
event was over.

> They were present in the area and listened to it from somebody's
> cell-phone/computer/live-streaming connection.

To be fair, there were numerous JumboTrons (giant TV screens) and
loudspeakers all over the Mall.  I could see two from where I was
standing, just west of 14th Street.

> I watched broadcast tv, the first time I've done so deliberately
> since 1993.

I think I've watched mine more recently than that, but not within the
past year or two.  So I haven't bothered to get a converter box, and
when analog TV is shut down next month I'll probably toss the TV in
the dumpster.  I can use the extra space.  I doubt I'd get good enough
UHF reception for digital in this basement apartment, anyway.  If
digital gives crystal-clear pictures, it's only because it gives no
picture at all if the signal quality isn't excellent, unlike analog,
which degrades gracefully.