Washington, DC, USA

May Day! May Day! The Time has finally come. Please give us our government back. Please give us our lives back. Impeach! Impeach! We knew it was going to be bad. We didn't know it was going to be this bad. [2018]

Brawley, California, USA

Sea levels are rising about 1 inch every eight years. Why? Global warming. Everyone knows about melting glaciers and ice sheets. Fewer people know about the expanding volume of ocean water as it gets warmer. The sea-level line on this silo near the Salton Sea is already a part of the historical geography of planet Earth. [1988]

Jamestown, Rhode Island, USA

Maryland is to Chesapeake Bay as Rhode Island is to what? Narragansett Bay, of course. Let's say thank you to the continent's original inhabitants for adding some bling to the English language. [2019]

Key West, Florida, USA

"Something is going to change!" Whenever you see the surveyors plying their craft, you know they are drawing the line between yesterday and tomorrow. Yesterday: Memorial Day. Tomorrow: Labor Day, a day to honor workers like this. In between: three months of summer, a season when "something is going to change!" [2018]

Ravenswood, West Virginia, USA

After World War I, today came to be known as Decoration Day. The main ritual was taking flowers to the cemetery to decorate the graves of loved ones who had lost their lives in war. In practice, flowers were put on all family graves. After World War II, Memorial Day came to be the replacement moniker for Decoration Day. [2017]

Karpata, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

It's Memorial Day week-end: time to hit the water. While you are having fun, though, remember all the military men and women who have died while serving their country: Your Country. [2017]

Rock Sound, Eleuthera, The Bahamas

There is astronomical summer and there is meteorological summer. Today is neither. But, it is the real first day of summer: the beginning of the Memorial Day week-end! It's the tomorrow you have been waiting for, and it will last until Labor Day. All you have to do is step across the threshold. [2014]

Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Singaporeans never stop. They just don't have the time. Even though they would love to sit and relax, there is always too much to do. So, these are their avatars: They sit and relax for them. [2011]

Delhi, India

In India, around temples devoted to Hanuman, you will find (1) monkeys, because Hanuman is the monkey god and commander of the monkey army, and (2) Hindu holy men dressed in orange robes, because Hanuman covered himself with sindoor (orange) to please Lord Rama. [2011]

Rome, Italy

Italy has given so much to the United States. Why shouldn't the United States give back? Does the globalization of "bad boy" culture count, though? Perhaps it did two decades ago, but today Italy may be a different country. [2002]

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

In pink, they reign, just like monarchs, along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Their performance (just finished) commanded the stage, and the audience loved it. Now, they mingle with the appreciative and bask in the accolades: a good memory made, a memory for life! [2017]

Brussels, Belgium

Bonom is the Belgian equivalent of Banksy in the U.K. Both are mysterious muralists who usually work under cover of night. Some consider their murals to be art; others consider them vandalism. Let's hope this isn't a self-portrait. [2015]

Angangueo, Michoacán, Mexico

The pots shouldn't be prettier than the plants! But, because they are, these crocks may be on their way to  a porch or patio near you: from potter to porter to pickup to border and on to a corner to be sold by a foreigner to an American gardener. [2008]

Meridian, Mississippi, USA

So faux: That's not a real locomotive, but it's probably inspired by one. The U.S. Postal Service does everything it can to standardize mailboxes across the country, then people show them how creative they can be anyway. [2005]

Destin, Florida, USA

So faux: That's not a real light house. It's part of Destin's HarborWalk Village. If you are building along the coast and want to make money, you better build an ersatz lighthouse: not to guide ships into the harbor, but to guide tourists into the nearby money pits. [2018]

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

So faux: That applies not only to this ersatz Eiffel Tower (a half-scale model), but to the entire city of Las Vegas. The only thing Las Vegans can do is borrow greatness from other places, ranging from Paris to ancient Egypt. That's the way they bring Paradise to the desert! ("Paris" is located in a section of the city called Paradise.) [2019]

Ranger, Texas, USA

Abandonment came to many Main Streets in the 1980s, and many small towns never recovered. In Ranger the old brick edifices are still crumbling, but at least the signage on vacated storefronts has changed. Thank goodness, because the condition of this establishment was not doing the social science brand much good. [1987]

Mystic, Connecticut, USA

Any day in May is a time for celebration. And, if you don't want to celebrate along Mystic's Main Street, there is also Mystic Seaport right up the river. Perhaps you will find the May Queen there. [2006]

Narragansett, Rhode Island, USA

Galilee is the largest fishing port in Rhode Island. The boats bring their fresh catch to the docks, where pierside workers start the process that will take all flavor of seafood to restaurants and groceries around the state and country. Yes, a lot goes to China, too! [2019]

Burrillville, Rhode Island, USA

Even a gloomy day can't mute the forsythias, and they provide twice as much inspiration when they are duplicated in the still water of a Rhode Island reservoir. [2019]

Jamestown, Rhode Island, USA

The Newport Bridge provides one of the "great rides" in all of New England. It connects two islands in the Narragansett Bay: Conanicut Island and Aquidneck Island. Yes, even the place names make the ride an unforgettable experience. Aquidneck, home of Newport, was the original Rhode Island. [2019]

Topsham, Maine, USA

The Androscoggin Swinging Bridge bounces you across the river, forcing you to use your 'sea legs.' It's been pedestrian-only for a century and a quarter, designed to allow workers access to the Cabot cotton mill in Brunswick. Today, the bridge provides a visual reminder of the mill era. In fact, you can see the old mill from the walkway. [2019]

Ogunquit, Maine, USA

Today's the day for the recall vote in the Town of Ogunquit. The intensity of the battle over whether to remove three Selectmen is evident here. They apparently supported the town manager in the firing of the Fire Chief. Stay tuned for an update. Results: All three board members survived the recall vote. VOTE NO prevailed. [2019]

Hallowell, Maine, USA

Why the pinwheels? Because they have become a symbol of safe and great childhoods for all children. Let your local public library help achieve that goal in your community. By the way, the building was never a church, but it was designed to look like one. [2019]

Nzala, Morocco

These storks had a busy time yesterday. They delivered a little boy to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, far to the north of their home in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. You see where storks like to build their nests. In this case it's a minaret, but in Europe it's often the tops of chimneys. How convenient for baby delivery!  [2017]

Tbilisi, Georgia

Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Tbilisi the lord of Georgian Christianity, the country's nation-building religion. That's the message conveyed by the Georgian Orthodox Cathedral on the hill. [2018]

Punda, Willemstad, Curaçao

Here's a market vendor posing with low-hanging fruit. Yes, to the photographer, this is low-hanging fruit: Fresh markets and their vendors are among the easiest landscapes to photograph because they always promise good pictures! No photographic skills required; no challenges posed. [2017]

Siem Reap, Cambodia

His species invaded the forest and built a temple. Later, the forest invaded the temple. Now, as a World Heritage Site, the Ta Prohm Temple and the forest co-exist in a natural embrace. You can find ruins under every tree root and a waif in every crevice. [2016]

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Artists at work qualify as performance artists. It is usually true that watching a muralist make the mural is much more mesmerizing than the final masterpiece. [2011]

London, England, UK

So much visual art draws its inspiration from literature. Here's Shakespeare's "seven ages of man" in a courtyard not far from The Globe:
   And one man in his time plays many parts,
   His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
   Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
   And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
   And shining morning face, creeping like snail
   Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
   Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
   Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
   Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
   Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
   Seeking the bubble reputation
   Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
   In fair round belly with good capon lined,
   With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
   Full of wise saws and modern instances;
   And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
   Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
   With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
   His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
   For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
   Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
   And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
   That ends this strange eventful history,
   Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
   Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
[1988]

Bucharest, Romania

What is May 1? (a) May Day, (b) National Chocolate Parfait Day, (c) International Workers's Day, (d) Save the Rhino Day, (e) all of the above. The answer from most Americans would be a; the answer from the bus driver here would be c, but the answer from Geographically Yours would be e. [2014]