The Virginia Legislature has adjourned without extending the authorization of red light cameras, and as a result, their use cannot continue past July 1st, 2005. Sorry Arlington and Fairfax, no more easy fundraising for you! Besides, there’s a VDOT study that shows they’re causing more accidents anyhow.

Want to stop red light abuse? Make it an expensive ticket with serious points and consequences, not a letter and a $50 fine.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

For those of you who enjoy a mean or friendly game of cards, Poker Legend Phil Gordon is giving a Poker seminar at Fado on Tuesday night at 7:30. The tournament he’s hosting that night is already full. I offered my first born, Nationals Tickets and some really blurry pictures of Marion Barry in flagrante delicto to the tournament director, but it was of no use. Get there early, and we’ll see if we can’t sneak you in the side door.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This morning, while riding to work, an odd question came to my mind. We drove up 395 through mostly sparse traffic (hooray for Friday!) and over the 14th St. Bridge, past the Tidal Basin all pink with cherries and took the 12th St. Exit.

Passing under the streets of DC, I noticed something odd about the lights of the tunnel. At the southern end of the tunnel, the lights are constant, one after another, for about a third of the length of the tunnel. Then, it goes down to groups of three. Then two. Then one.

lightlightlight lightlightlight lightlightlight

lightlight lightlight lightlight

light light light.

Why is that? Did they run out of lamp fixtures? Decide it was too bright at the North end of the tunnel? Not have enough amperage to run the whole string?

Odd. What are your commuting oddities, dear readers?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Come one, come all to the sporadically-scheduled-but-always-on-a-Thursday Blogorama at Kalorama, organized by the incomparable Julian Sanchez. It’s at the Rendezvous Lounge at 18th and Kalorama tonight at 7. Come on out and meet the people behind some of the DC blogosphere’s most famous faces pseudonyms.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Nats have picked up their first win in franchise history, beating the Phillies 7-3. Better still, Brad Wilkerson, “The Kentucky Masher”, hit for the cycle, garnering a single, a double, a triple and a home run against the Phils tonight. Eischen picks up his first win in relief, taking over for Zach Day, who went five and two-thirds, recordings 3 Ks along the way. Guillen and Wilkerson both had home runs.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A coworker and I had dinner this evening with someone we placed in a permanent job a while back. He took us to Penang in Bethesda.

I’m not going to write a detailed review, seeing as how I don’t remember the name of anything I ate, and I stopped asking what was in it after the incident I am about to relate- neither my coworker nor I had Malaysian food before, and so we allowed our Burmese dinner companion to order some dishes for the table. This didn’t concern me at all- I’m pretty adventurous about ethnic food and will try anything once.

The food was great- the lamb dish we had was my particular favorite- but I did have an Indiana Jones moment early on (remember the banquet scene in Temple of Doom with the monkey brains?) when the appetizers were brought to the table.

Most of the food on the platter looked tasty, but there were these brownish-black, translucent, wobbly crescents with cloudy black goo dribbled over the concave part- not at all appetizing. There were two of them and three of us, so I figured that discretion was the better part of valor and would let the boys eat them.

But my friend spooned one up and put it on my plate. “You have to try this,” he said, grinning. I wondered if he was having a laugh at my expense.

“What is it?”

“It’s an egg!” I had always assumed that thousand-year-old eggs were myths that ignorant white people came up with about Asian cuisine. Apparently I was wrong.

I blinked at the wobbly, gooey thing on my plate and pondered the limits of my adventurous spirit. My friend chuckled at me. Okay Tiff, other people eat this stuff all the time and do just fine, they even like it, so don’t be a wuss. I screwed up my courage, put the egg on my fork, and ate it.

It wasn’t completely revolting. But I wouldn’t call it tasty, either. Mostly I tried not to think too hard about what it looked like while I was chewing it. It felt like an episode of Fear Factor.

But I swallowed it. My initiation complete, the meal continued. Great food, great conversation. And then our friend insisted that we get a dessert he called “the ABC’s.” The description in the menu seemed harmless enough- shaved ice, sweet syrup, jelly, corn. Sort of a Malaysian snow cone.

And it actually was pretty good- it was in layers, so as you ate it, you’d find new layers of something else- all things I couldn’t identify and didn’t ask about, having learned my lesson.

But then I got to the bottom. On my spoon was this translucent, dark-colored, wobbly chunk. Surely not another egg? It sort of looked like Jell-O, maybe it was the jelly mentioned on the menu?

I took a bite and chewed, but I couldn’t purge the thought of that egg from my mind, so I gagged. Hoping my friend hadn’t heard me, I protested that I was full and that although the ABC’s were very good, I couldn’t finish. I tried not to stare as he ate his slowly melting dessert, with all those multi-colored bits of… whatever it was floating in it.

Overall? Great food, try the lamb, but avoid the eggs. *shudder*
(crossposted to Quibbling.net.)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

To continue our occasional series in which we bitch about the outlandish cost of living in DC…

The cost of housing is now so ridiculous in and around DC, so completely out of the realm of sanity, that people are now living in RV parks rather than trying to buy or rent traditional housing here.

Do I even have to say it? Is it not shocking that renting space in a campground for $1400/month is a more attractive option and trying to rent an apartment or buy a house?

And yet civil engineers wonder why people insist on living farther and farther from their places of work, clogging transportation systems with their daily commute.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Orioles begin their season at Camden Yards this afternoon against the Oakland A’s. For those who want to see opening day baseball but don’t want to spend $350 for a pair of seats, there are plenty of tickets available for today’s contest against the Oakland A’s.

Didn’t Angelos say there were no true baseball fans in DC? Then why is the Nats home opener sold out, but you can still get really great seats (section 46, row YY at press time) in Baltimore?

The Nats start their season in Philadelphia this afternoon, sending Livan Hernandez to the mound against Jon Lieber. The Phillies are also debuting new manager Charlie Manuel, and Frank Robinson is heading up our Nationals.

I love Opening Day. I’m convinced it ought to be a National Holiday where we glorify the history of the game, and wrap ourselves in the memories of heroes gone by. Where we connect ourselves to the past and for a day and watch the game our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers watched in the afternoons in palaces built for the game in the midst of metropolises across the land.

But for now, I shall just be happy to have a team in DC and some games to go to! Go Nationals!

Update: Top of the Fourth in Baltimore, O’s 3, A’s 0. Bottom of the Fourth in Philly, Nats 1, Phillies 3

Update 2 Leaving for home now, Nats down 7-4, O’s up 4-0.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This morning’s New York Post (alright, yes, I know) has an interesting piece on the trash cans at Grand Central Station in NYC. Apparently, they’re not so bomb-proof after all:

Bomb-smothering trash cans in New York rail hubs don’t work and could even make a terror blast more deadly by shredding you with shrapnel, say two whistleblowers who worked with the maker of the cans.

Wait, didn’t DC just order a bunch of those trash cans for $800,000 or so?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Two weeks hence, at Filmfest DC 2005, Iraqi Blogger Salam Pax will be unveiling his collection of 9 shorts shot in Iraq. Shows will be at the E Street Cinema (15 April, 9:30p) and at the Avalon Theatre (16 April 6:30p). Tickets are available through the website.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs