Reverse apropos: update
Turns out it’s convenient to walk between the Dept. of Justice and the IRS buildings on my way to the natural history museum. Apart from being very large (and reminding me of the giant government buildings surrounding Tiananmen Square), these buildings aren’t hugely remarkable, for their neoclassicism. I mean they’re fancy and tall and a full city block in size, with lots of columns and relief sculptures and whatnot.
What suprised me was the use and non-use of signs and words between the two. The DoJ has its name spelled out in giant letters on a smooth strip of stones running the length of the building on at least two sides, near the top floors. Every side of the building has some big sign or engraving proclaiming it’s the DoJ, often flanked by "United States of America", or "Office of the Attorney General", and American flags are in no short supply. On all sides there are quotes pertaining to justice carved into the side of the building, sometimes near a statue, things like (and I’m botching them here, from memory) "Render to each man what he earns", "Absent the rule of law, tyranny rules", etc. They are the DoJ, they’re proud of it (at least when the building was built), and they want everyone to know it.
Compare it with it’s near-sibling building, the IRS. It too has a line of smooth stones near the top which says … nothing. There are no quotes, no statues, not even a "United States of America" sign anywhere on the four sides of the building. Most doors are totally unmarked. No flags fly, as I recall. Only the two main entrances - on a building that extends over a city block - have signs reading "Internal Revenue Service," with 18"x18" panels at knee-height, on either side of the door. And that is it. Not even "United States Internal Revenue Service."
Somehow it reminds me of any of countless movies where the mobster says, "Bring the money - unmarked bills only. We don’t want nobody tracing the dough. Got it?"
But it also kind of reminds me of a cartoon elephant trying to hind behind a lightpole in a crowded square.
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