INAUGURATION (STILL)

This gigapan shot of the Inauguration by David Bergman is the best way to waste a morning on the Internet that we've seen of late. If you were there, you may be able to zoom in on yourself or you can just enjoy closeups of people like Clarence Thomas (below), described as taking "a religious moment to silently pray during President Barack Obama's swearing in ceremony. Witnesses say Thomas was so moved he prayed for nearly 20 continuous minutes, head occasionally falling over onto Judge Scalia's shoulder."

Bergman writes, "After a cab ride, three security checkpoints, and a lot of walking, I was finally in my photo position. I was in the very back row of the platform, standing on a chair behind an AOC photographer. She was nice enough to allow me to attach the Gigapan to the railing next her. The unit takes a series of overlapping images one at a time. In this case, I set it to shoot a grid that was 20 photos wide by 11 photos down. It took about 15 minutes to complete."

Under the grand shot, you'll find over 1200 closeups you can zoom in on. Have a nice day and we'll see you tomorrow. Main Page Bergman's Blog

Eavesdrop DC - On the Mall near 7th street and Constitution during the inauguration: Woman #1: (pushing through the crowd) Coming through, coming through. (Then stops moving). . . Woman #2: Excuse me you can't just stop here in front of me. . . Woman #1: Well, where am I supposed to go?. . . Woman #2: Where were you before? . . . Woman #1: North Carolina.

On the mall at 5:30 am, inauguration day: "I feel really stupid.. I thought this was an actual mall. Like we were going to be watching this in front of Claire's."

A homeless guy: "You all voted for change...NOW GIVE ME SOME CHANGE!"

Charles L. Edson, Letter to Washington Post - I accepted the invitation from the unnamed local official quoted in your Metro article on Inauguration Day problems to "do the math" on the Purple Tunnel of Doom. The results were astounding. Accepting that the 24 magnetometers could each process 400 people an hour (an unbelievable seven per minute), this totals 9,600 admissions an hour. The gates opened four hours before the noon swearing-in, allowing a total of 38,400 ticket holders to make it through. But 52,000 purple tickets were issued. What on earth were the planners thinking? For Inauguration Day in 2013, planning should be left to a class of third-graders who have mastered the art of multiplication.