How is this for an amazing extreme in our northern neighbours: If you live in Montgomery County, you’ll live 12.7 years longer than if you live in Baltimore City.

That’s according to the life expectancy numbers for the DC area from today’s WashPost article Wide Gaps Found In Mortality Rates Among U.S. Groups:

Montgomery County is tied for first (81.3 years), with Fairfax County not far behind at 80.9. Baltimore City is next to last (68.6). The District, at 72 years, is also among the 50 jurisdictions with the shortest life expectancies.

They say they don’t know the reasons why, only that there is a difference.

I say the difference is simple: Potomac Hermaphroditic Bass. See the folks in Montgomery County, after years of exposure to estrogen-laden river waters, are way more caring, expressive, and stylish.

Baltimore – way too macho to live past 68.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

It’s the day of truth. The final judgment’s in the works, the populace is having their say. If you’re not sure where to vote, check out this precinct locator which will tell you your polling place of record. If you’re still wondering who to vote for, then I can certainly respect that, it’s a tough choice, and the future of DC rests in your hands. If you can’t stomach voting for any of the candidates today, then be sure to check out DCeiver’s endorsement for mayor, as it may give you a pretty good idea.

Polls are open tonight until 8pm. Got a good voting story? We want to hear it. I understand that several polling places in DC were affected by issues getting the polls open, so if you’d like to sound off, this is a great place to do it.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

We sat in the bar after pubquiz with the Redskins game on. A whole cluster of Skins fans in jerseys and, by the looks of it, a few sheets to the wind. The score was 19-16 Vikings, and the few brave Vikings fans were getting louder and louder in their denials of the Redskins abilities. Suddenly, there’s John Hall on the field. All I can think about are the articles in the Post before the season began. Joe Gibbs was promising that he’d stand by him, despite all those missed field goals in the pre-season. Sorry Joe, but I just don’t think Hall’s got it in him to be here. If he can’t make a field goal in a Monday night game, I’m not sure he really belongs on the squad.

We left the bar before the drunken Skins fans made short work of the Vikings backers. The looks on the faces of the faithful was not at all pretty, and I figure right about now someone is scraping up a Vikes fan out of the alley behind the Courts.

Sorry guys, next week.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Say you are crashing mid-workout, your energy levels dropping faster than your weights.

You need a burst of sugar but know better than to hit the snack machine.

The YMCA now has a healthy option for you: fresh fruit. Its perfect for a exercise pick me up.

Careful with the wallet though, at a buck a banana, these good for you treats ain’t cheap.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I know it’s been all over the media, and maybe if you’re lucky you even talked about it with friends or coworkers today, but it’s worth presenting a photo such as this one by mlancaster3361 to reflect and think about what happened on that sunny morning five years ago. Where has the time gone, and more importantly, where has the patriotism and feeling of togetherness that was immediately created gone? We’re back to the same old antics of bickering, party politics, and each person for themselves.

I think we’ve learned that our homeland isn’t quite as safe and isolated as it once seemed, but I still have an overall belief that we live in the greatest country on earth. Let’s do everything we can to keep it that way.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

seen at Eastern Market this weekend.

Damn that’s one UGLY baby.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Bizarre Ornament

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Is it just me, or does this bridge ornament (found on the Ohio St Bridge near the tidal basin) look an awful lot like Tricky Dick?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’m hoping this use of the word “make” as a verb is different than the bathroom code our parents used with us as children, if for no other reason than I think it would cut into my personal time to pee forever…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I need a good manicure and pedicure. It’s been a while, three months at least, ever since I smashed my finger in a Manila hotel deck chair and had to perform poolside surgery with a kabob stick.

Since then, I lost the smashed finger nail and a new one grew back. A nail that is now long enough to shape and love. Coupled with the other nine that need a little TLC, I’m ready for the full mani-pedi experience again.

I have only one problem: where to go? My last manicurist moved out of DC in the spring and closed her shop. Now I need a new nail technician, one with a real foot bath for my feet and clean instruments for them and my hands.

And now I need you to tell me your favorite downtown mani-pedi wonder worker in the comments below. Bonus points if it includes a foot and/or shoulder massage too.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Pentagon 9-10-06 03

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Tonight we entertained our friends in from Kansas City with a lovely dinner at 2 Amys up north of the Cathedral. We wined and dined, desserted and even Limoncello’d in the cozy space, enjoying each others company. Tiff and I bid them farewell and drove back home, over the Key Bridge and onto 110 toward 395.

As we came up on the Pentagon, we caught a view of spotlights heading into the night sky, and as we turned onto 395 South, and right by the Pentagon, there was the northwest wall, coated in blue light, but for one brilliant white spotlight, which highlights an American Flag.

We slowed to a crawl on the ramp, as did all those behind and around us, to marvel at the lights in the sky, and the light on the wall.

Sometimes, memorials are just perfectly fitting.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Name: Samson
Cab Number: 28
Least Favorite Fares: Old White Politicians with Black Prostitutes
Line: My Cab Ain’t No Motel.
Home Base: DC Cab Company, Chinatown

Ah, DC Cab. What a movie. Made in 1983 in Murder-Capital-Of-The-World days, it captures a DC that is long gone past. Well, except for the crazy cabbies, those, we still have. DC Cab features Paul Rodriguez as Xavier (the Gigolo), Gary Busey as the racist Dell, and lovable Mr. T as Samson, an anti-drug, pink wrist-band wearing cabbie who’s looking out for his niece.

Out of that crowd, Samson is the most outstanding. He’s always looking out for his hood, always looking our for the kids of his neighborhood. He even manages to unseat the pimps for the sweetest car in town. And, except the whole carjacking thing, he seems to be an upright individual. He gives an amazing speech on the foot of the Lincoln Memorial that gives me chills.

Besides, you know you want to rent it, just for the Peabo Bryson theme. Everyone loves Peabo, right?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

With all this talk about coffee and donuts going on, I’d like to announce the physical manifestation of all our ramblings:

A Dunkin Donuts on 17th Street NW, between P & Q.

Is this a quick result of the DD expansion plans or just a freak coincidence? Its DC, let’s go with the conspiracy theory. And let us mourn Pop Stop.

Situated right next door, Pop Stop (or cyber whatever its called now) ain’t gonna last long in its current incarnation with this kinda competition.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Name: Clarice Starling
Occupation: Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigations

Born and raised in West Virginia, Clarice was orphaned at a young age when her security guard father was shot and killed by robbers. No doubt this early experience helped push her towards law enforcement, though there are other indications she possesses a strong urge to help those that cannot help themselves. Aside from a brief stint with a foster family, she was raised in a Lutheran orphanage. She first came to our area as a student at University of Virginia and stayed on to go through the FBI academy at Quantico. Post-graduation she settled in Arlington.

Agent Starling would have her “fifteen minutes” before she’d even fully graduated from the academy, working as a provisional agent on the Buffalo Bill case. The most important aspects of that work happen in Baltimore, talking to Hannibal Lecter where he’s imprisoned in a mental institution. Of course the big achievement was catching Buffalo Bill and his lotion all by herself.

Supposedly Agent Starling did a bunch of other stuff seven or eight years father along in her career, however the description of it is so absurd I can’t relate it in good conscience.

First appearance: The Silence of the Lambs (book)
Also seen in The Silence of the Lambs (movie)
Some person with her name but completely inconsistent behavior also appear in Hannibal (book) and Hanibal (movie) but it’s clearly not her.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you’re like me, you used to read or at least look at the photos in National Geographic when you were a kid. There was no internet, there was no PS2, and your family vacation was usually to a boring city somewhere in the Midwest. But your folks, or maybe your crazy aunt Cindy, at least someone you knew had a subscription to National Geographic. Every month, that bold yellow cover had some sort of amazing photo on it that made you think, “Wow. Why can’t we go there on vacation?”

I digress.

My point is, if you don’t have a few grand laying around to go on safari in Africa, why not take the Metro up to our wonderful National Zoo and shoot take photos of the exotic animals there instead? Granted, many times they are asleep, hiding in a cave, or looking a little rough around the edges, but you never know…you might just get a shot like MeepFly did.

One of my favorite things about nature is the unexpected patterns that you can find if you just stop to take a look. What makes this photo great, aside from the color, lighting, and composition, is the pattern that these flamingos make. These are live animals that have somehow lined themselves up like a chorus line just to take a nap.

The weather should be nearly perfect this weekend. Get your camera off of the shelf, go up to the zoo, and see what kind of critters are waiting for you and your lens.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

If you are in need of used hotel furnishings, say because you want to recreate business travel boredom in your own home, then head to the St. Regis Hotel.

Today and this weekend they are selling off truck loads of hotel stuff. If you want the good stuff, be prepared to pay.

If you are like me and would rather not be reminded of nights lost in odd places, do yourself a favor: go Craigslist and go unique.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Post this morning announced that Michael A. Brown has left the mayoral race with just scant days before the election (Quitting on Friday before a Tuesday election?! Good God.) and has thrown all six of his supporters behind Linda Cropp. Brown is apparently pouty that Adrian Fenty was doing better in the polls, despite less experience and hair. It’s unknown at this point whether or not this is really just an excuse for him not to feel disappointed in his vote totals on Tuesday, or whether he really believes that Linda Cropp would be better than him.

Brown said yesterday, “It’s time to step back and move up somebody else. That’s what ego is all about, and that’s what caring for the city is all about.” So, um, Michael, why are you only stepping down four days before the election, instead of when it might’ve done some good months ago?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So there I was, walking bleary-eyed down L Street this morning, when I stopped to get some breakfast- a bagel and a Diet Mt. Dew. (Shut up, it’s what I drink instead of coffee.)

I got my bagel without a problem at the shop I frequent for this morning ritual, but when I reached for my liquid refreshment… Denied! Not a single Diet Mt. Dew in the case.

I paid for my bagel and headed for the CVS next door- they usually have what I need. But no love there, either. Crap. It is at this point that my uncaffeinated brain started plotting to explore every shop in a four block radius until I found the electric yellow-green crack I needed. But I was already running late for work, so I headed to the office instead.

Once I had finished my bagel, I felt fortified and resumed by search. Off to SoHo, my back-pocket option. Surely they would have what I craved. But no, thwarted again! The reptilian part of my brain started to panic at the prospect of a Diet Mt. Dew shortage in DC. What would I do?

As a last resort, I headed to the Au Bon Pain I pass every morning on my way to the office from the garage. I knew I’d overpay for my sweet elixir there, but it no longer mattered. And yes, they did have it.

But it was warm. Dammit.

As I trudged back to the office to put my hard-won soda in the freezer, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the Chocolate Chocolate window. I had a realization.

Not only am I apparently a junkie, the reason I was jonesing so hard today for Diet Mountain Dew is that I stayed up late last night to play World of Warcraft.

Oh god, I have become a cliche.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

See these two smiling hotties, the ones behind that stack of Krispe Kreme donuts? They got all kinds of loving from me this morning.

Hung-over and hungry, too late to even think about breakfast before heading to work, they brought sugary sweetness into my life like no other.

Sweetness that I shared with my officemates, to everyone’s sweet tooth delight.

Thank you Whitman Walker fundraisers, thank you from the sugar coma I now enjoy.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

“This train is out of service,” says the Metro train operator to a chorus of groans, “please exit the train.”

On to the next train we cram a few minutes later, that train already full and now holding double the usual volume of fear.

Fear that this train too might experience door closing problems and another WMATA nightmare will ensue.

So far, fear unfounded.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs