Headed down to DC yesterday to meet Cliff Etheredge, the rattlesnake-hunting, poetry-writing, one-armed Texas wind magnate whom I am privileged to be assisting on a memoir he is writing. Over a very fine lunch of lalibera rib and yesom wot at the Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant on 14th Street (first time with that cuisine for either of us), we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours talking about wind and writing. Cliff is a pretty amazing guy, smart and witty, who has made this rather incredible late career move into wind energy. He was in Washington because Carbon Nation, a documentary in which he is featured, was being shown as the closing feature in the 18th annual Environmental Film Festival in Washington, and after lunch, we went to a reception where I met the director Peter Byck and his wife Christa, and producers Peggy and Henry Sharp, Craig Sieben, Karen Weigert, Artemis Joukowsky and his lovely wife Annie, and Cliff’s fellow doc star, Dan Nolan, and expert in bringing energy efficiency to the military. Being among this group of intelligent, committed, well-heeled activists made one feel like one was among a group of Abolitionists. We then went over to the beautiful Carnegie Institution for Science, where I got to see about half of the very interesting documentary before I had to zip over to Union Station to grab the last Acela back to New York. (See a preview of the film here.)
