DC Events (Part Deux): DC Events ARE Lunch

To piggyback off of the last WAIP blog post, I want to follow with my theme of food-based ramblings and confess that instead of packing lunch, I have adopted a habit to head to work empty-handed, open up the weekly LinkTank list, and choose where I want to go for "nourishment" -- both in policy knowledge, and sometimes more importantly, for food.

Looking back on the few weeks we have been here, I regret not creating a list earlier of think tanks and their noontime-discussion menus for future WAIPers to consult when choosing where to go for a free lunch.  Not only do these meals cost the guest a simple electronic RSVP; they are often of substantially  higher quality than anything I would pack to the office.  One can only take so many frozen LeanCuisine meals before boredom (and malnutrition) sinks in.

Last Thursday, a decent sized group of interns from CAP decided to go to a discussion at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars entitled "An Assessment of Iran’s Upcoming Parliamentary Elections."  Not realizing that Iran held Parliamentary elections, nor that they even had a Parliament, I figured this was a perfect talk to attend.

Unfortunately, a large part of the DC population must have caught onto my piqued interest -- after wandering around the Reagan Center with our CAP group for 15 minutes looking for the auditorium, we were unpleasantly surprised to find not an empty seat in the center or the overflow room.  But disappointed, we were not; what the group discovered was better than learning about the "Islamic Consultative Assembly" (Parliament) which was created by the Iranian Constitution of 1906 (see wiki article).  What we found was an empty lobby with an entire buffet of gourmet sandwiches, salads, cookies, and drinks -- nearly untouched, waiting for us to devour (which we did, within reason).  So while the intern group's knowledge of Iranian politics may not have grown, at least our waistlines did.

ZR