I saw this graffiti in my neighborhood and was shocked. Well, I wasn’t so surprised that there was graffiti. There are a million kids in the neighborhood with nothing to do but go grabassing up and down the streets all day because school is out. I was mostly disturbed by the fact that what is supposed to be a “u” looks more like an “o.” What are the youth of today learning in school? It is a properly formed sentence, if you forgive either the penmanship or else the misspelling of the verb but you can really only forgive one of these two errors.

If the word is spelled correctly and someone just went a little crazy with the Sharpie, that’s fine, sentiments aside. If the penmanship is correct and that’s an “o” then these kids don’t know how to spell “fuck.” That’s a tragedy.

Arlington County, being the fine place it is, cleaned up the ART Bus sign in short order, so now I can read the bus timetable without getting flustered and embarrassed. I wish I could catch those little bastards in the act of vandalism, though, so I could give them a grammar lesson, or at least teach them how to spell.

The real messages I should be delivering here, specifically, “Don’t be hating,” or, “Don’t be vandalizing, you little turd,” would be completely lost on today’s youth, I am afraid. I think I will leave that to the families. Usually kids learn the really important lessons about these values at home, right? I thought so. If that’s true, maybe I should go preach to my neighbors a little about what they are teaching their kids.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of The Kennedy Center

I didn’t make it out for the Week o Accordion at the Kennedy Center, but a friend of mine went one evening. The subject line of this post covers the exchange we had about it. She suggested examining the feed footage on their website, which I am doing now. I think I concur with her review, though it’s about 60% painful for me.

Not they they’re not technically accomplished, and it’s impressive some of the pieces the orchestras full of accordions are capable of doing renditions of. However it brings to mind for me a quote that I was told was an old Russian proverb: “It’s not impressive how well the bear dances, but that it dances at all.” For my money the best bit I’ve heard so far is what sounds like a German beer hall tune (at the 48 minute mark), not the Bach or modern pieces. I’m a victim of my own prejudice here, I am sure. Go listen and decide for yourself.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Doug Clifton said it well. This place is a rip-off for many things but I knew that when I went in the door to get some stuff I didn’t want to drive all the way to My Organic Market for.

I was in the bakery section and saw this. $5.03. For what, you might wonder? What could possibly be so good and delicious and wrapped in that plastic wrap, adorned with that sticker? Caviar, maybe? No. Nova Scotia lox? Uh-uh. Try again. Well, it must be something really valuable to be in so small a package and cost so much, right? Wrong.

It was five slices of bread. For $5. One dollar per slice. I am not making this up. I actually had a little outburst and embarrassed my lovely wife when I saw this. Whole Foods – what the hell are you thinking?

What prices have you been outraged by at Whole Foods? If you have been there at all, I am sure you have seen something crazy like this.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Summer vacation is coming to an end, which means a probable decrease in tourist conversations on the Metro like this one:

Tourist 1: So where do we get off?
Tourist 2: “Metro Central,” I think. It’s after Gallery Place. Is this it?
Tourist 1: I don’t think so. This is Gallery P.I.
Tourist 2: What’s “P.I.” stand for?
Tourist 1: No idea.
Me: *facepalm*

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Sadly, no. When I saw the WTOP headline Treated Sewage to Operate Power Plant I thought perhaps we’d be seeing some new system similar to burning buffalo chips. Not the case, though. This is a pretty straight-forward use of what we’d have called “gray water” in South Florida. In a nutshell it means using the water from waste sources that’s been treated well enough to water your grass but not up to drinking standards.

People sometimes get a little worked up about it but it’s perfectly safe. My alma mater used to use it to water the lawns.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Giant line to get in…

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

how do you sell out RFK when the Nationals are terrible? Give oh Bobblehead dolls. This was the line to get into the stadium tonight as the team is giving away Abe Lincoln bobblehead dolls. The Nats have a rough row to hoe, with a sub .500 record and yet another starter sent down to the minors.

Well, here’s hoping we can pull off a curly w tonight!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Were you at the Cheltenham parking garage in Bethesda recently? Is this your sweet ride? I have to say – this really tickled me and brightened my day significantly. Thanks for adding to the factory paint job and keeping the DC area a fun, lighthearted place.

Has anyone else seen this vehicle? I love it!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

The ANSWER protest sign drama continues as the anti-war group hides behind the First Amendment in its defacement of Washington DC public property.

Yesterday the Department of Public Works fined the ANSWER coalition $10,000 for posting hundreds of signs to promote a peace march September 15 that were illegally affixed to utility boxes, using glue that was too sticky, exceeded the number of signs allowed per block, and not registering copies with the DPW.

Today ANSWER responded that it would counter-sue, claiming that the DC government fined them in a “politically motivated” bid to silence their efforts against the war in Iraq.

Let me be one of the many to call “bullshit” on ANSWER coalition position. Slapping up ugly-ass posters on every inanimate object in the city, violating very clear anti-graffiti rules that every other protest organization follows, is not Free Speech. Nor would the content be what pisses off the citizens of Washington.

ANSWER forgets that DC is majority Democrat and in general does not condone the idiot in the White House, and is very much against the war in Iraq. More importantly, they forget that they are guests in DC, and defacing our city isn’t the way to treat guests hosts.

So I’d like to send ANSWER a message. I’d like you to join me in removing ANSWER signs and sending the detritus to ANSWER’s HQ at 1247 E St. SE, Washington, DC 20003. Better yet, give them an earful while you do it on (202) 544-3389.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of LarryKang

Max told us about DC corrections officials putting a woman in with the male inmates. Perhaps they simply were jealous that the female corrections officers are getting all the play, what with two female officers now being arrested for boffing people under their supervision.

Well, less people than person, given that they were both ….. ‘laying with’ the same man, each without knowing about the other, apparently. Some house arrest – I can leave my house and I don’t get that kind of delivery service.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

On the drive from Columbia, I had that feeling creep up on me. It starts in my lower back, and works its way up my spine. I just need to put the pedal to the floor and feel the roar of the engine, to move through traffic like water down an incline, finding the surest path to the bottom.

Turning off the Beltway onto the GW Parkway, the radio obliged my need for speed, pumping up the bass line and ripping into “Going the Distance.” I wove like a shuttle through a loom. I knew I was risking a ridiculous fine and federal charges, but it was worth it. Traffic slowed as we reached the city again, but the feeling had passed.

I’d love to find more spots like the GW in the DC area to indulge myself automotively, where can you drop the hammer a bit?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Get Your War On

Demonstrating the same kind of attack-the-supply thinking that has helped us be so successful in fighting the War on Some Drugs, the Herndon council has decided to start requiring the day labor center run out of the old police station to check the immigration status of workers who show up. Since the current organization running the center, Project Hope and Harmony, know they don’t work for INS they’ve refused to do so and will be replaced.

I look forward to the imminent return of rule of law, since once this is done we can expect that all the illegal workers will just leave the country and those jobs will instead go to all the people on welfare. Because “people wouldn’t be sitting around collecting welfare checks if illegal immigrants weren’t taking the jobs they are perfectly happy to do.”

I think this is gonna cure cancer too. And insomnia.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Someone commented to me over the weekend that I hadn’t put up a vanity plate photo lately, then on the drive to work today I saw this. Fate, I tell you.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Actually, no she’s not.

In what appears to be yet another major screw up by our fine DC police department, the Washington Post is reporting that a woman was mistakenly booked as a man for “suspicion of prostitution”. Despite her insisting that she was very much a woman, Ms. Virginia Grace Soto was held in a male detention area and allowed to shower with male inmates…”even after she was strip-searched”. It wasn’t until later that a doctor examined her and determined that yes, she was in fact a woman.

Now I’m sure that there are many ways that an androgynous person could be mixed up with the other sex, but when nine jail employees fail to realized that this he is really a she, there is something definitely wrong with the system. The good news I suppose is that three of those employees have been let go.

I’ve lived in DC for a few years now, and I feel comfortable in saying that our police force, while competent in many ways, has way too many incidents that lead us to believe otherwise. Is there any way to solve this? Can’t we hire someone to do a complete overhaul of our police force? Clean out the officers that aren’t performing? Find a way to recruit better officers? I guess I should just shrug my shoulders and say, “That’s life in the big city.”

Photo by DC Police

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

What gives, people? There I am, enjoying a nice walk through Donaldson Run Park and I find a poor, lifeless rubber chicken right next to the path. Sliced up the middle from crotch to sternum, completely gutted, only the skin remaining.

Just as curious as why someone would bother to slit a rubber chicken like that are the questions of why someone would bring it to and leave it in the woods and why rubber chickens have held such an important place in our lexicon of humor when really they are only funny when you find them gutted in the park like this. Not all mysteries are meant to be solved, I guess.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Have you been wanting to take your sweetie out for a nice dinner but can’t scrape together the cash? Or have you been eyeing a pair of running shoes but can only afford one shoe? Maybe your Metro SmartTrip card is running low and you don’t get paid until the end of the month.

Well here’s your solution: get rid of your unwanted car! You know, that thing that you’ve got up on bricks in your front yard? The one that has been taken over by a squirrel family? The one the police found a dead body in? The one that has had a permanent odor ever since you had it valeted at Lauriol Plaza?

Just call the number above and all of your prayers will be answered.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As anyone who has ever gotten a new TiVo knows, the process of teaching your TiVo about your preferences to make the Suggestions feature work well can take a little time. Yesterday, based purely on our expressed enjoyment of a particular Food Network show, TiVo started recording a bunch of arts-and-crafts type programs.

As Tom raised the remote to start deleting them, I noticed that the first program on the list was “The Joy of Painting.” “Stop!” I yelled. “Is that Bob Ross?”

It so totally was. And since I had a crap day at work yesterday, Tom humored me and we watched a full half-hour of happy little trees, each with a friend, and listened to Bob tell us, “It’s your world, so you can have whatever you want.”

Bob Ross died in 1995, but the company that bears his name is based in Sterling, VA, continuing to sell Bob’s paints and promote his “wet-on-wet” painting technique. The early episodes of the series were produced in Falls Church– which surprised me; I always imagined him living on a farm somewhere in California.

There has actually been a concept developed for a Bob Ross “Joy of Painting” video game for the Nintendo Wii, which will take advantage of the motion sensors in the Wii controller. The original developers walked away from the project, but Bob Ross Inc. is looking for a new company to pick it up. So Wii-owners, watch for that.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

In late June, 4 young women died in a horrific beltway crash. Then, I prematurely blamed alcohol for the crash and the resulting fatalities. Many corrected me that there was no evidence of drinking, only alcohol in the car. Today, the toxicology report was released, with a .02 rating for the driver, as well as positive for marijuana. It does strike me that there was careless action, either by the person who sold her the alcohol and couldn’t recognize her fake ID, or by the driver herself who’d had at least one drink before getting behind the wheel.

The Post uses the phrase “a sad coda” to the story, and I think they’re spot on. I’d even titled this entry with that, before reaching that phrase halfway down. Right before that phrase is used, the families of the deceased passengers raged against youthful irresponsibility and the failure of the system to protect their children from underage drinking. Might as well rage against the wind for blowing or the rain for its wetness. Tragedy? Surely. Avoidable? Possibly. Enough to make one hug their friends? Definitely.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs