Ah, the ol' interstate rest area--the great American equalizer, where everyone of every class and status gets the same bad fast food and the same slimy restrooms.As the Curmudgeon and family trekked northward yesterday, over hill, through the woods and into the $#%@! traffic jam on the Jersey turnpike on the way to grandfather's house in Peekskill, NY, we of course availed ourselves of Maryland's finest: the Chesapeake House on I-95 just after crossing the Susquehanna River.
As the Curmudgeon sat down with his Quizno's sandwich, who should he spot four tables away, but Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and his family, enjoying a similar repast along America's highway. (The CJ was also consuming a Quizno's repast.)
Roberts must enjoy the relative anonymity accorded the nation's highest ranking judicial officer, as he sat, looking much like everyman at the rest stop (it helps not to wear those robes when you're traveling), eating without--as far as we could tell--being recognized by anyone else. It being a nice, unseasonably warm pre-Thanksgiving day, the CJ was able to blend in with a sporty polo shirt and wide wale corduroys.
It was surprisingly smooth sailing driving northward yesterday--not even the perennially backed-up Delaware toll plaza was too bad. We wonder: did Roberts manage to enjoin the traffic havoc that so many predict on the day before Thanksgiving? (If so, the injunction ran out where the Pennsylvania Turnpike meets the NJ Turnpike, for there our luck changed for the worse.)
We wonder what was on Roberts' mind, apart from that delicious Quizno's sandwich. Was he thinking, even fleetingly, about the D.C. gun control case the Supreme Court has just taken up? As he sat in a Maryland rest area, did his mind make a leap about how the D.C. snipers--John Allen Muhamad and John Lee Malvo--were finally apprehended at a Maryland rest area on I-70 to the west, and what the import would be of eviscerating various gun control laws under the Second Amendment?
Probably not. More likely, his concern was to wrap up the meal and get the family moving again. Surely, the nation's judicial business can take a break until next week.
4 comments:
Cool. And you were able to restrain yourself from rushing over with your family to get an autograph? Admirable restraint!
What kind of sandwich was Roberts eating?
We were tempted to ask for his autograph while saying we really admired his hockey career.
Didn't catch the type of sandwich--darn, our journalistic skills are getting downright sloppy!
Just out of curiosity, I do not see the point in commenting that "Judicial Business" can wait until next week. The entire Federal Government is shut down, are you advocating having the government NOT take Thanksgiving off?
Do you complain that Congress works about 1/2 the year and gets paid $150,000?
Thanks though, glad you spotted the Chief Justice...because when I am out and about, I have seen Associate Justice Scalia, Secretary Chao and former Treasury Secretary, O'Neil. Senators Byrd and many more.
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