On a poster advertising Comtrex ("Take at the first sign of a cold"), someone wrote in marker, "Just take Vitamin C + E." Later, apparently, the vandal edited his blunt graffito to strike a more gentle tone: "Just take I suggest taking Vitamin C + E."

With spring breaks, the tourist season began, and there's been a definite increase in families and high-school tour groups at the Woodley Park/Zoo - Adams Morgan stop. Yesterday at evening rush hour, the station was mobbed beyond all reason. The lines at the farecard machine would have been 20 people deep, if there were any orderliness to the crowd. Dozens and dozens more people streamed down the escalator, and police in dayglo vests enhanced the sense that the chaos was barely contained. Indeed, I stepped on the upward-bound escalator just in time to be lifted away from a struggle that broke out.