As Night Falls on the Most Uptight City in the World, The Mystery of the Leg Lamp Unfolds

Making my way home as darkness descended Friday, heading down 15th toward K, I turned my collar up and grimmaced against the cold. Then, for no particular reason, I glanced up and saw it: The Leg Lamp. A warm glow emanated from the gam perched in an office window on the second floor of 1101 15th Street--a building that in all other ways is indistinguishable from those that comprise the downtown streetscape. It was the kind of light fixture that would make a grown man weep and make a blogger like me giggle and snap a camera phone pic. I went on my way, but for the rest of the weekend that oddly out-of-place-inside-the-Beltway lamp would crop up in my mind. Whose office is that? How did someone bold enough to make such a decorating decision/homage to A Christmas Story slip into our hardened city below the radar?

So today when I went out to grab my lunch, I went into 1101 15th Street, crossed the marble lobby and approached the guard desk.

Me: Hi. I'm wondering if there's just one company on the second floor of this building, or are there multiple offices?
Guard: Why?
Me: Well, I'm just curious because as I walking by the other night I noticed that in the window there's this—
Guard: The leg lamp.
Me: Yeah, the leg lamp.
Guard: I couldn't say whose office that is exactly.

It appeared from the directory that it likely resided in a law firm occupying much of the second floor. So while munching on my PB&J, I called them.

Me: Hi. I was curious if you all are the ones with the leg lamp in the window.
Secretary: Yes we are.
Me: Um...(I was taken aback, because I hadn't expected this candor) so what's the deal with it?
Secretary (chuckling): Let me let you talk to [Name Redacted].
A lawyer at the firm comes on the line and confirms that yes, it is indeed his lamp.

Leg Lamp Guy: It was a gift from my children. It arrived Monday.
Me: In a box marked fragile? (I of course pronounced it "frah-gee-lay")
Leg Lamp Guy: Well, actually it had two cards with it. One said that I was getting a very important prize. The other said that my prize was inside. When I opened it I just knew it had to go in the window.
Me: That. Is. Awesome.

So ends the mystery of The Leg Lamp. Some cool kids bought it for a cool dude, who is clearly working at a pretty damn cool law firm. Just one of a million stories in this city that hates to get naked with the lights on...