DC Filter: What's the story of the lady at 17th & K NW in the mornings?

May 19, 2009 10:03 AM

DC Filter: There is a lady who stands on the corner of 17th and K st NW every weekday morning holding up a sign of Frank Sinatra and talking. I can never understand what she's saying, but I know hundreds of people a day walk past her. Does anyone know her story?
posted by picapica to Human Relations (16 answers total)

Is it different than the guy who was there with the sign saying Obama was the anti-christ for the entirety of 2008? I walk by 17th and K every day and I am sure I have never seen the Frank Sinatra Lady. does she stand across from Farragut North?
posted by parmanparman at 10:13 AM on May 19, 2009

I walk by 17th and K every day and I am sure I have never seen the Frank Sinatra Lady. does she stand across from Farragut North?

As part of DC's commitment to confusing me whenever I try to navigate it, 17th St is really two streets on either side of Farragut Square at that point. As I recall, Sinatra lady is on the right hand side of the right hand 17th street, if you're heading towards the Mall.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 10:22 AM on May 19, 2009

That corner seems to be kook with an agenda central. A guy once told me to "get off my cell phone and live!" there (I had no cell phone at the time much less was I on one). Another time I was told that I was "fucking ugly" by a ranting, fragrant man slumped on the ground that looked like a shirtless, grease-smeared, drunken Santa.

The Scientologists and PETA also set up a tent there from time to time.

One website, Groundskipper, calls Farragut Square the "high school cafeteria" of the DC homeless community.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:27 AM on May 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is completely anectdotal but a social worker from Green Door in DC told me at a homelessness conference that the city has an inordinately high rate of seriously mentally ill people on the streets because many come to DC as a part of a psychosis related delusion where they think they will be granted an audience with the President. Then, once they're in DC and don't get their chance to talk to some high ranking government official about their plans, agendas, grievances, they have no way to leave. Again, that's just what this one dude was saying based on what he hears at his work, but Green Door does get a lot of traffic like this.
posted by The Straightener at 11:13 AM on May 19, 2009 [12 favorites]

As long as we're asking, anyone know if the very thin, older black man that used to hang out here is still around?

He used to stand at the side of the road shaking various green objects at traffic. Sometimes it was a dollar, sometimes a leafy branch, once in a while a green t-shirt. I haven't seen him the last time I've been to DC.
posted by electroboy at 11:47 AM on May 19, 2009

As long as we're asking, anyone know if the very thin, older black man that used to hang out here is still around?

I think that link didn't work. Do you have a corner?
posted by Pollomacho at 11:53 AM on May 19, 2009

Oops, my mistake. Here. He typically hung out on the north side of New York Ave in the triangular area between the overpass and the exit ramp.
posted by electroboy at 11:58 AM on May 19, 2009

OK, that's better. Strangely, the first link missed my house by about a block and I was wondering why I hadn't seen this interesting character in my neighborhood!

As to the man, I believe he is the same man who spins and dances extaticly there some times. I've seen him a couple of times recently at the Brentwood Giant sporting a green tee-shirt.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:04 PM on May 19, 2009

Also, I didn't see the Compliment Guy for a good while before I left. Adams Morgan, usually 18th just below Columbia.
posted by Pax at 12:12 PM on May 19, 2009

Huh. You know, I've been wondering for a long time the same thing as I walk by her every morning. Had no idea it was a picture of Frank Sinatra until I saw it on a dcist comment this morning. For awhile, she had two photos (both with shiny/sparkly borders). I had assumed they were saints or something.

Either way, I'm glad you asked, because I would never have thought to (and, again, have been wondering). Hopefully somebody has an idea.

(It's this corner with the Chevy Chase Bank; I've never seen anybody else ever posted up here.)
posted by General Malaise at 12:16 PM on May 19, 2009

Response by poster: Action Item! Can everyone who is walking by there try to hear something she says tomorrow morning? Maybe we can piece it together and figure it out.
posted by picapica at 1:01 PM on May 19, 2009

Is she only there in the mornings?
posted by inigo2 at 1:18 PM on May 19, 2009

This makes me miss Concepcion.
posted by grateful at 1:19 PM on May 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

I walk by there most mornings. I don't think she's speaking English; Spanish, perhaps? Next time I go to work that way I'll definitely listen more closely.
posted by charmcityblues at 7:27 PM on May 19, 2009

Why I don't miss living in DC...
posted by dfriedman at 5:46 PM on May 21, 2009

electroboy, I know I read an article about that guy several years ago, but I've searched the Washington Post and CityPaper archives and can't find it. His actions had something to do with giving marijuana to DC workers, not literally, but figuratively, as some sort of blessing.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:16 AM on June 18, 2009