There is something uniquely depressing about the fact that the National Portrait Gallery's version of the Barack Obama 'Hope' poster previously belonged to a pair of lobbyists. Depressing because Mr. Obama's Washington was not supposed to be the lobbyists' Washington the place we learned to despise during the last administration.
One day when I was like 9 I heard the Beatles on the radio and I asked my dad who they were. He told me they were the best band in the world and I became obsessed. He started giving me their albums in sequential order and I listened to them - and only them - until I was probably in high school.