DIPLOMACY: 'Tastes Like Burning'

If you happen to be in the vicinity of the Russian Embassy on Mount Alto this afternoon, don't be surprised if you taste and smell what could be carcinogenic substances. Workers are replacing the massive retractable driveway security bollard in front of its main gates on Wisconsin Avenue. It appears that the most secure embassy in the capital is getting some revamped protection to keep joy-riding Hoya undergrads, pesky Chechen rebels or Mikhail Khodorkovsky supporters at bay. Welders this afternoon were generating a bunch of irritating smoke as I walked by. I can't imagine what is being lodged in their lung tissue.