Archive for February, 2008

Ah, the DMV. Gotta love it.

There are DMV stories, and then there are DMV Stories. I love this part best:
“The DMV worker got up from her stool, and paused a minute before yelling back at her: “MA’AM! TAKE a look around you. There are only three white folks in this entire building! This is NORTHEAST! It’s not because you’re [...]

Helen Thomas to Speak at Arlington Library on Sunday

from Arlington web site
Long-time journalist Helen Thomas will be speaking at Arlington’s Centeral Library at 1015 North Quincy Street on Sunday at 2:00. From the Arlington Web page:
Often called “The First Lady of the Press,” veteran White House reporter, author and Hearst Newspapers columnist Helen Thomas looks back as an eyewitness to history and delves [...]

Weekend Art

Many of you know that I’m not one to toot my own horn (I’m sure Carl will leave a joke in the comments about that one), but I wanted to let you all know about an incredible photography show going on now at H&F Fine Arts. Curated by J.T. Kirkland, “black and white and…all [...]

The Morning News: Leap Day Edition

Happy Leap Day, that day that comes around once each four years to prolong the suck that is February!
District Property Assessments up 7% in 2007
Congratulations DC! Despite the mortgage lender crises, housing starts on the decline and all manner of other market-depressing factors, your assessed values according to the Revenue office went up [...]

Working Hard for a Parking Spot

Wayan’s DC Photos

I worked damn hard for this parking spot at 10th and F Street tonight.
First, I helped a flustered woman figure out how to open her super fancy car. Then, when we realized her issue was a dead battery, not being blonde, I jumped started her car.
My reward for [...]

Argonautica

image courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company

Today’s the 28th, which means there’s but 6 more performances of Zimmerman’s Argonautika at the Shakespeare Theater Company. Tonight, tomorrow, and two shows each on Saturday and Sunday. If you’re trying to remember whether I recommended the show or not, well, good luck with that – [...]

Are You There Library of Congress? It’s Me, Max

Everyone got excited early last month when The Library of Congress created their very own Flickr account, aimed at sharing some old public domain photos with us. I think we all agree that this was and still is a very cool idea on their part, but come on! Don’t they know what Flickr [...]

Hands-free hijab

image courtesy of Right Eye

I see a fair amount of women wearing the hijab, but last night was an amusing first for me. Coming the other direction down the sidewalk was a woman having a conversation with someone on a cellphone using a hands-free device. Said hands-free device being her snug [...]

The Morning News: Winter’s Last Gasp Edition

Yeah, it’s cold this morning, but this could well be the end of the evil winter cold snaps, as the weather on Monday may reach 60°, more in line with March temperatures. Hold on, winter-haters, the end is near.
Remember Those Firings at the CFS Agency? Yeah, Not Fired.
An administrative officer has recommended those [...]

Receipt, We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Receipt

Now, I’ve been reading about a number of these incidents over the past year, where the compulsory showing of receipts at the door, of well, almost every store, as a way to prove the junk in your shopping bag you just paid for 12 feet away was, um, well paid for. One of my favorite [...]

DC Quarter Rejected

DCist is reporting that the U.S. Mint has rejected the 3 presented designs for the DC “State” Quarter on the grounds that it does not comply with the law that commissioned the 50 State Quarter program. Apparently, at the root of the violating matter is the presence not of Benjamin Banneker, or [...]

Did I say $75M? I meant $96M.

Turns out the $75M estimate that WTOP went with as part of this morning’s news update is really more like $96M… City CFO Natwar Gandhi attributes much of this shortfall to the drop in commercial value from $1.85 per $100 of assessed value down to just under a dollar per $100. Now, $100M out [...]

Lost in The Pizza Triangle

I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust pizza. You know, the one that packs as much cheese as possible into every crevice of the pizza pie? Wait – are there crevices on a pizza? That’s a little disgusting. Anyway, about once a year I find myself [...]

The Morning News: Just Three More Days Edition

Three more days in this quadrennial joke that is Leap Year February. Just three days and we’re through the worst of winter and Spring will be just around the cusp. For those of us who are seasonally-affected, making it through February is like making it through mile 20 of a marathon, or seeing [...]

Want a Wagon?

Wayan’s DC Photos

Now when was the last time you went cross town in a wagon?
I do not mean a little red wagon either, but a full sized, horse-drawn wagon from the wild west days.
From the looks of this carriage wagon just off Florida Avenue, it went cross town somewhat recently. [...]

Caps Rob Columbus, Con Montreal

So the NHL trading deadline came and went today. Think the Caps did anything noteworthy?
Well, they didn’t trade away Kolzig.
Instead, they sorta replaced him. Somehow, McPhee snookered the Canadiens and swiped their best goalie – Cristobal Huet – from them, giving the Habs a very large gamble in net….and in a very tight playoff [...]

My brethren

Just because I’m feeling a little zombielike myself today, though more of the sleep deprivation style than the brain-seeking type. Also because I came across this picture while looking for something else. It’s from October’s zombie lurch and is by James Calder, the same fellow who provided the excellent ‘suspicious package‘ [...]

Justice sort of prevails

Luckily for everyone who inhabits the world, and particularly for people who might have occassion to knock on his door, Keith Washington has been convicted and will be spending some time behind bars. It’s not perfect – the jury couldn’t bring themselves to convict him of second degree murder – but they did agree on [...]

Can Plz Have….Hot Dog?

<img src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1173/1472454240_b52956e493_m.jpg”
alt=”Hot Dog Machine”

photo courtesy of ann-dabney

One of my secret guilty pleasures about DC is the hot dogs – specifically, the vendor carts out on every appreciable corner where tourists walk. It never fails – when out with Mysterious M doing a photo jaunt or museum run, I *have* to stop to [...]

A Tour of the New Ballpark

This weekend, as part of the Super Flush, I got an excellent tour of the new stadium under construction. Nationals Park (which I hope it remains) is truly a wonder to behold. The concrete and glass exterior was the part I was most concerned about when the initial HOK designs were released. [...]