Mr Bush is sufficiently worried about loss of support within his own party - remember that it was Republican defections, as much as anything else, that cost his father his re-election in 1992 - that he took the unusual step of travelling to Capitol Hill on May 20th to rally his allies. He duly got his standing ovations, but the speech produced a worrying bit of symbolism. He likened the handover to taking the training wheels off a bicycle: "It's time for [the Iraqis] to take the bike and go forward." A few days later Mr Bush fell off his own bike in Texas, badly scraping his face.

• A Muslim woman wearing a pretty huge traditional headdress, working at Harvey's. I've seen people with just the hijab working before, but this thing was more than just covering the head - it had weird lacy things going half-way down her body in a triangular pattern. I'm surprised that such things are allowed by the Harvey's uniform code. But all the power to them, I guess.
• Some rather silly looking white guy, playing really loud rap music in his jeep while stopped at an intersection. The light turns green. Suddenly, (presumably in response to him hitting the gas pedal) his jeep stalls on him and as he turns the key to get it going, the music stops dead. It was a moment to be remembered. I'll never understand people who put more money into souping up their car stereo than they do actually keeping the car in working order.