Flags were passed out to fans on Saturday as part of Military Appreciation Day.

Nationals Park in D.C. opened in 2008;  this was my first visit, Saturday, 4/27/13. Nats beat the Reds 6-3 on a gorgeous day. The park seats 41,546 for baseball. Paid attendance this day was 38,903. It falls well short of Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for atmosphere, though it has its strengths.  There wasn’t nearly as much big-video-screen in-your-face hoopla as at CBP, the result being that the game of baseball was usually the focus of attention. On the concourse near our Section 303 there seemed to be dozens of vending stations for food and beer, which translated into virtually no waiting. A few food booths were extensions of local restaurants, but most of the offerings were generic.  One puzzle: run-of-the-mill domestic draft beer was $10 at some stands, while elsewhere upper-tier beers could be had for $9.  On the field there were instances of sloppy play from both teams — but also some stellar performances and enough hits to keep it interesting if not suspenseful.   Thanks to Vanessa & Mark.

The outfield, framed in blue.

The popular race of the presidents. George won.

A little surprised to see this protocol in the high seats.

U.S. Capitol rises in the distance.

Those decorative orbs are, on closer inspection, silver baseballs attached to a parking garage outside Nationals Park.

Metro platform packed with departing fans after the Nats 6-3 win over the Reds.

Here’s an evocative dog photo from friend and former Daily News colleague Harry Stone of Audubon, N.J. Says Harry: Our dog Oscar (he’s the black Chihuahua-Pug mix) and his best girl Coco (she’s a Maltese-Miniature Poodle mix). Coco and her family are moving away soon. I think the lovers sense it. It’s gonna be cryin’ time around the old backyard. — with Oscar the Chug and Coco the Malty.

Drummer Phil Jones

Pegi Young and The Survivors performing on David Letterman 3/26/13

Here’s a video of Neil performing “Unknown Legend.”

I wanted to believe it was real but wasn’t sure.  Judging by the time showing on the clock, the shadows were consistent with where the sun would have been. Two bright, conspicuous points of sparkle were feasible.  The shadow on one of the clock’s faces had splash of reflected light, which also distinguished it from most Big Ben photos that showed up in my search.

Is that the real sky? It’s London, after all.

A few skeptical viewers of my friend’s photo voted in favor of Photoshopped.

I suspected it was the unretouched work of a skilled photographer, but I also knew that ad agencies often have no qualms about making an image look as good as possible.

So I did a little detective work, running the picture through Google images and discovering many instances of the same photo being used in media and online worldwide.  I thought I might spot some variation that would point to a tampered shot, but all were uniform.

With a few clicks I determined the image originated with VisitBritain, formerly known as the British Tourist Authority. One of the VisitBritain pages provided background info on the photographer who’d shot it.

I Googled his name and immediately found his website with portfolio, including the picture in question. The photo was the work of one Sheradon Dublin, a British photographer, and the website included an e-mail address for him.  I posed my question in a brief e-mail and fired it into cyberspace.

Less than 20 minutes later I received a reply that set the record straight:

Hello Don,

Yes, it was really that blue. I shot that image sometime in the late 90′s, early 2000′s on Velvia or one of those high-saturation films to make it pop.

Plus it was a bitterly cold day in October, so no clouds. Just clear sky. I can honestly say the sky hasn’t been messed with as the lens flare is still there.

June is a funny time of year, if its hot you’ll get air pollution and great sunsets. Thats why the best blue skies are in Feb/March or Oct/Nov when its freezing

Where did you find that image btw, it looks like it hasn’t been edited at all

Sheradon

That was good enough for me. Indeed, the small lens flare at the right center of the photo is — as they say in the ornithology game — diagnostic. It clinches it, because no one who was going to the trouble to make make a perfectly blue background would let that detail stay in the photo.

I was happy to hear it was the real thing.  But it also raises the point that we’ve become so accustomed to images being tampered with that it’s sometimes hard for us to believe our eyes.  It’s reassuring to know that sometimes nature can produce a blue so deep that it could be Photoshop.  Thanks to Sheradon for his excellent skills — and for setting the record straight.

A workman feeds cable to his whack-a-mole colleague protruding from a manhole on 9th Street in the heart of the Italian Market.