Archive for June, 2006

Study: 25,000 in District may have HIV

Twenty Five Thousand. 1 in 25 District residents. That’s how bad the DC HIV/AIDS Epidemic has become, according to today’s Post. That’s an explosion of known cases over a 2004 report that suggested that there were only 16,000 reported cases in DC between 1981 and 2004, and cited only 9,000 still living [...]

Washington-Dulles on security lockdown

I don’t know why WaPo isn’t reporting on it yet, but my XM weather & traffic radio says that Dulles is on security lockdown and no planes are leaving due to a security failure. Presumably arriving planes are progressing as normal.
Update (1:59p): Well, WaPo still doesn’t seem to think that a complete airport shutdown is [...]

How the Mighty Fall: Jessica Cutler Edition

Famous only for writing about fucking staffers and administration members, Jessica Cutler has found out just how far you can fall after a brief bout with popularity. Many thanks to Wonkette for pointing out that Cutler is now unable to pay her legal bills after being sued by one of her former beaus:

“The judge [...]

Is this your new best friend?

Tree Removal

With all the talk of flooding during this time of biblical rains, I haven’t heard the usual suburban moaning about downed trees taking out power lines.
Is it that this is just rain, and not the high winds that usually create tree limb mayhem? Is it that with walls of [...]

Nice Suit, Is that New?

Major congrats to DC Blogs on their swank new redesign. I really love the new colors, they set off your eyes!

For the uninitiated, DC Blogs is both aggregator and local revue of blogs. Check out some of their highlight pieces, as well as the live feed which has pretty much every blog in [...]

Thrifty – with their hours too

You wanna rent a car? Want to get a deal? Then rent at Thrifty Rental Cars at the MCI Verizon Center.
Now if you want to know their office hours, good luck. You’ll not find that on a website. If you call, they’ll tell you when they close [...]

Check that traffic

Before you head home into the highly questionable traffic, what with our glorious weather and all, you might want to check out a few of the traffic tools we’ve blogged about here on DC Metblogs.
Yahoo Maps has traffic advisory data (from “Yahoo to your traffic rescue“)
There’s the DC Traffic Camera Map google map mashup [...]

Ever called your Senator before?

Stewing in political central like we do, there’s never any shortage of shop talk. But have you ever called your Senator’s office? I’d bet even in this town you could ask 100 people and 99 never have.
The reality is that it’s pretty easy and you don’t need to be an expert on the issue you’re [...]

A Sign of Impending Apocalypse

On the front door of the Starbucks at 15th and I:
Blame the Weatherman, Not Us
Starbucks is closed due to inclement weather
I think its time to head for the hills, damn the umbrellas and galoshes.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
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Making it hard for drivers to find an answer

I took a long drive to Philly on Monday night in order to exhibit at the Manayunk Arts Fest this weekend and on the way there my darling girlfriend and I had a driving question – what’s the difference between a solid white line marking and a double solid line marking? Checking the Virginia driver’s [...]

Federal Triangle Reopens

From the Metro Chat with Dan Tangherlini:

Dan Tangherlini: Our problem was NOT a lack of pumps or pumping equipment – our problem was where to put the water!
NEWSFLASH: Federal Triangle is OPEN. (as of 12:15)

Major props to Tangherlini for taking the chat on a day when I’ve heard of 3 hour metro commutes that resembled [...]

Weeping Plaster

“Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.”
Lying in bed, tossing and turning from the rain and the thunder and the lightning. Through the cacophony of sounds you make out the most insidious of them all.
“Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.”
Yes indeed, your 110-year-old house has begun to leak, water oozing through plaster cracks, in the kitchen, in the dining room, [...]

“Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night…”

Much like mail carriers, recruiters don’t get much of a break when the weather is crappy and has screwed up transportation around town. We’re expected to report as normal. After all, someone has to be at the office to make phone calls like these:
“Hi, this is Tiffany from [major international staffing firm]. We’ve [...]

Storm Chaos

In the last six years living in DC, I’ve seen some epic storms, but none was like last night. Not even Hurricane Isabel was so bad as the storm last night. We finally lost power around 10pm. Several attempts were made by Dominion to get it back within a few minutes, but [...]

O’s Take Second Series, Announcers Take IQ Points

Well, it’s all over, the second “Battle of the Beltway” series is finished and the Nats narrowly avoided a sweep with their victory today. Friday, it was a battle of the wills that we lost. Saturday, late inning heroics by the Orioles and what could only be called a complete bullpen collapse by [...]

Carnival!!

Miss Mardi Gras? Who cares? We have our very own Carnival right here in DC – the DC Caribbean Carnival, that is!
Starting with a raucous parade this Saturday, with some 20 bands, crazy costumes, and a huge crowd of partyers, this weekend is billed as “2 Big Days of Bacchanal” and should be a [...]

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

As WFY so cannily noted, the Nats and O’s face off in a weekend series, this time up in Baltimore at Camden Yards. And while no fan of Peter Angelos, I think you should go up to Charm City this weekend and catch a game. Here’s why.

This post appeared in its original form [...]

Lightning and Thunder

DC Lightning

Originally uploaded by Grundlepuck.

The news was on when it started. It was one of those storms that you heard roll in, like something out of the Midwest, heard before seen, the rumbling sussurus permeating the heavy damp air. When the storm arrived, the drops [...]

Helping Childrens’ Hopsitals

I’m reminded every once in awhile that humanity really can be good at its core when I read things like Steven Frank’s deeds yesterday. See, he and all his friends bought brand new Nintendo DS Lites this past week when they hit the market. Why? Because they’re cool. But, that left [...]

Heinous Acts of Incredible Stupidity

After watching some idiot plow into another idiot this morning at an intersection, I just have to ask…
You guys do know that when a traffic light is out (say, because of the storms we’re getting), you have to treat it like a four way stop?
I stopped at the light this morning and the [...]