I went through my huge tax planner this past week, delinquent as I always am about getting these things done on time. There’s a page toward the end with about a million different causes that I could choose to support with extra money on top of my taxes. Usually, I give during the year, not at tax time, so I just run my pen down the No column. However, if you live in the District, think about giving a buck or two to the DC Vote folks who got their name on the tax forms in DC this year:

Especially when Heroes star (and Save the Whales spokeswoman) Hayden Panettiere’s part of the pitch…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

His Pointy-hattedness is coming to town in a couple weeks, and Metro, seeking to repeat the godawfulness that was that insipid peeps video telling people to Metro to Nationals Park, decided to promote Metro for the Mass day. They did it with a Bobblehead version of the Pontiff, but the Archdiocese of Washington asked that they pull it down.

Because the Pope’s cape was the wrong color.

And because the Pope’s hat was wrong.

Now, it sounds like that they did this one right, complete with Car & Pontiff Magazine, and with good Latin chanting, but they got coerced by the protocol nazis.

Oh well.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So they did it – with some help from a faltering Carolina team – and here the Caps are, at the brink of what looks to be a very exciting NHL playoff season in the run to Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The Caps haven’t faced the Flyers in the playoffs since 1989, and have split this season with them: Caps went 2-2-0, with 14 goals scored; the Flyers pulled a 2-1-1 record while scoring 15 goals. So does either team have an edge going into Friday’s Game One here at the Verizon Center?

Possibly.

Don’t look to the special teams to win it, though. The bruising Flyers have the second-highest power play success rate – but you have to counter that with wunderkind Ovechkin’s whopping 22 PP goals. And both penalty-killing lines enter the dance on a roll.

So what about offense?

Even. The Flyers bring to the ice a balanced but gritty line of experienced players that, at times, can be an oppressive force, wearing down opponents in the corners. The Caps’ offense is largely inexperienced in playoff hockey, but they’ve got some dynamic players in Ovechkin, Semin, and Koslov. More importantly, however, the Caps can score goals when needed during crunch time – provided Biron’s not standing tall in net for the Flyers.

Defense is also a push. Both sides of the blue line have some big bodies to bruise with, but the Flyer’s experience can be negated with solid two-way play from Mike Green.

Goaltending? About equal. Biron’s inexperience in the playoffs is balanced by his current hot streak – he pulled out two amazing shutouts in a row and seems to have hit his stride just in time to keep the Flyers from sinking. Huet’s posted solid numbers for the Caps and has a GAA under two in his last thirteen.

Coaching? John Stevens and Bruce Boudreau are both NHL playoff rookies that have done astonishing things with their teams this year.

Emotional quotient? Definitely in the Capital’s favor. They’ve pulled out a stunning drive after the trade deadline, stealing the Southeast Division title from the Hurricanes and riding some stellar play from Ovechikin, Laich and Huet. The Flyers all but managed to keep their free-fall from kicking them out of the playoffs, so the edge really goes to the high-flying Caps. Add in Ovechkin’s first run in the playoffs, and you’re looking at one supercharged emotional team right now.

The question really comes down to this: can the rest of the Capital’s bench step up and score when Ovechkin’s buried under orange and black sweaters? Because the key to a Flyer’s victory here is going to be stifling the Cap’s superstar every way they can.

If the rest of the team can step it up and crack Biron’s wall (and avoid multiple Flyer bruises), look for the Caps to take it in six.

FlyersCapsPr2 102, FlyersCapsPr2 060 courtesy of Cruel Britannia

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Don may be nigh on relentless with his critique of the Washington Post, but they certainly do get things right from time to time, and today they take home six Pulitzer awards for National Reporting (to Jo Becker and Barton Gellman for their exploration of Vice President Cheney), International Reporting (to Steve Fainaru for his coverage of private security firms in Iraq), Feature Writing (to Gene Weingarten for his piece on Joshua Bell busking in the Metro), Commentary (to Steven Pearlstein for his columns on economic ills in the US), Public Service (Dana Priest, Anne Hull and Michel du Cille for their coverage of Walter Reed) and Breaking News Reporting (for reporting on Virginia Tech)

Wow. When you look at those six awards, it’s hard to see how anyone else could have come home with the award. The Cheney piece, the Walter Reed piece and the Gene Weingarten piece on Joshua Bell were all heavily featured and reprinted throughout the rest of the US, and the Post’s unique work on the VT shootings was pretty much incredible.

Congrats, Post, for your excellent work in 2007. You guys are giving the winners all big raises, right? Right?

The last time one paper swept up so many of the awards in one year was 2002, when the New York Times picked up 7 awards, most of them for coverage of 9-11 and the aftermath. I’m sure their news department will find appropriate other parallels in the history of the award, but going back twenty years, I can find no other paper with as distinguished a record in a single year as the Post has in the 2008 awards.

[Update] The Post has put all the award-winning articles together for easy reading.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Here they are.

That’s the inside of what our friends call our “Chester the child molester van,” but what we simply call “big red.” Receding into the distance is the Hyattsville Pepsi bottling plant, where these 4 food-grade barrels came from. Two are 55 gallons, two are 30 gallons. All are intended to go around the edge of my house to be used as rain barrels, though we may end up not making use of them all.

Pepsi charges a nominal $5 per barrel fee to sell them to you, which is a steal compared to what you’d pay a commercial outfit. In fairness, I’m going to have to put on the necessary attachments myself before they can be used, to say nothing about washing out some leftover syrup sludge. Unless you can tell me for sure that tomato plants and daffodils are fans of lemon-lime, that is.

If you’re not quite as cheap & handy as I am (in that order) you can pick up barrels from the Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center. $60 is more than the $5 plus parts and time I’ll spend, but you won’t have to show up in Hyattsville at 6:30am to be assured of getting one either.

If you like to walk the path less traveled sensible as I do, instructions for making a barrel are provided here by the Maryland Environmental Design Program or you can use the contact link and ask the Fairfax Country Conservation District program to contact you the next time they run a rain barrel construction workshop.

If you’re thinking this sounds a little too hippie-dippy for you, I had some initial qualms about that as well. However I pretty much made up my mind to do it because of two things. One of them is probably unique to me: the previous tenants in our house left behind a number of soaker hoses, so we’d like to make use of them. The other factor I am sure applies to you as well: water is expensive. Since Arlington – and many regions -  base our sewer bill on our water consumption, we don’t just pay the $3.34 for each 1,000 gallons we pour out onto our lawn and garden – we also pay an additional $5.86 to cover the cost of spiriting it away down the drain and off to the stinky water  treatment plant… even though there’s no drain in our vegetable garden.

So if I put all 4 of my barrels to use, that’ll be a combined 170 gallons of water on hand to use rather than the $1.56 worth that comes out of the tap. Not a money saver right out the door, but combined with the lazyness factor of letting the soaker hoses do the work without any accompanying worry about them rupturing and costing me money, I think it’ll be worth it.

Besides, it’s yet another do it yourself project I can add to my overstocked pile. What more could I ask for?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Because white people like to recycle, and I am white, I think this is totally awesome. Launched nearly a month ago without telling me, the “Mail Back” program allows people to mail small appliances and inkjet cartridges to be recycled rather than thrown in the dump. For free! The USPS has partnered with Clover Technologies Group to provide this service, “empowering consumers to go green”. Just stop by your local post office, pick up one of their Mail Back envelopes, stick any small electronic devices in there that you no longer need, and plop it in the nearest mailbox.

So if you have any old inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods or MP3 players, don’t put them in a blender just for fun, don’t throw them off your roof deck to see what happens, and don’t give them as gifts to your friends and say, “What? It doesn’t work? Damn, and I already threw the receipt away.” Instead, send them in. According to their press release, “If the electronic item or cartridges cannot be refurbished and resold, its component parts are reused to refurbish other items, or the parts are broken down further and the materials are recycled.”

Can I get a “Whooooaaaaah green!?”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve heard the Star-Spangled Banner so many ways that it takes something really quite unique to surprise me. I’ve heard six part male harmony, I’ve heard it performed by a tuba quartet. I’ve heard it sung by little kids, I’ve heard it played on an expensive and rare violin. I’ve heard renditions so good that the hairs on the back of my neck prickled with emotion, and I’ve heard renditions so bad that they offended me personally.

To say that I’m a bit of a connoisseur of the National Anthem is a bit of an understatement. But, Tom, you say, can you really complain until you’ve tried out yourself?

No. Despite my music degree, despite my years of choral and solo voice, I’ve never performed it for a live audience, save those within the sound of my voice when I sing along at baseball games and other sporting events. It’s a nerve-wracking experience standing down on the field and singing into the giant expanse of a stadium, I’m sure. But I decided it was time to buck up and give the audition a try.

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I haven’t written about a photo in quite some time, and while I could try to explain to you my lack of photography related posts, in the end you probably just don’t care. But as I was perusing through Flickr yesterday my eyes stopped on gattoraffa’s black and white shot of the Lincoln Memorial. The lighting on this shot is amazing and it almost looks to me as if the crowd is being sucked into a spaceship’s tractor beam for a good old fashioned alien abduction. Having spent a lot of time lately with studio lights, it’s refreshing to see photos like this that use the tried and true, ultimate source of light, Mr. Sun. One other thing to note about this shot is that you don’t need a big fancy SLR to capture an amazing photograph – this was taken with a Canon PowerShot SD1000. Great job!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Poor D.C. United. After weeks of seemingly endless coverage of the Nationals’ first day and the opening of the new stadium, they’ve gotten barely any coverage for their opener today.

Yes, their opener is today. In the much-maligned RFK stadium. The most prominent thing I have seen about it is in today’s post in Capital Weather, which had a weather watch block for the opener. What a difference a week makes – unlike the Nationals opening day attendees, United fans will have a temp that doesn’t drop below 55 by game’s end.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Every week I get together with a couple of friends for dinner to try out new restaurants, talk about our personal lives, drink alcohol. You know, it’s your basic bonding night. We even try to throw in “an activity” every now and then to try to experience new things in the city and broaden our horizons a bit. Sometimes we’ll go to a gallery to view some art, listen to panel discussions, and once we decided to check out Camelot since none of us had been there before. Meh. I’ve seen better.

Well last night we decided to go in for a tour of the Church of Scientology in Dupont. We all live in the neighborhood and walk by it nearly every day, but none of us really knew what it was all about. Sure, we’d heard about the protests, how people think Tom Cruise is crazy for jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch, and how an alien is supposed to show up one day and save them all, but that’s a pretty naive way of evaluating a “religion” if you ask me, so we decided to hear all about it from the horse’s mouth.

As soon as we walked through the front door we were greeted by a friendly looking fellow who said, “Hi, would you like a tour?” Why yes, as a matter of fact we would. Coincidently enough, his name was Tom, and he was probably the nicest person I’ve met in a long time. Never at any time did he try to sit us down or sign us up for anything. He repeatedly said, “If you have any questions about anything, anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Our 30 minute tour began inside their main lobby where numerous pictures of their founder, L. Ron Hubbard, are hanging. Tom explained to us that Hubbard was an engineer and was therefore very logical and thorough in his thinking. He was a pilot, was in World War II, and had even written some movie scripts. This didn’t sound like the founder of a religion to me. One interesting fact that Tom brought up was the meaning of the word “Scientology”. He said that most people see the word and think “science”, but rather (and I quote from their website) “it comes from the Latin word ‘scio’ meaning ‘knowing in the fullest sense of the word’ and the Greek word ‘logos’ meaning ‘study of'”, in other words, “the study of truth”.

Our tour continued as we walked down into the basement. “Oh sweet,” we were thinking. “Now we get to see where they keep the alien.” Not quite. This is where they have a “cleansing room” where members of the church can go to rid their body of drugs and alcohol by sweating it out. Evidently Hubbard figured out that when one takes drugs, the toxins get trapped in the our fatty tissue, so by going into a room and exercising you can sweat out the toxins and life is good again. That sounds too simple to be true, but Tom didn’t go into much detail as to what really goes on behind that closed door. Also in the basement was what appeared to be their welcome center. This is where you can go for your “free stress test” (which we didn’t partake in) and involves using an E-meter. This device is used to measure the electrical resistance in your body and is what they use when they do something called “auditing”, a way to clear your mind of something that is blocking you from reaching your full potential. Or something. Also in this room was a table stacked high with copies of Dianetics, the bible of Scientology written by Hubbard himself. Tom recommended that we read it to understand what Scientology was all about, much like you would read the bible to understand what Christianity had to offer. Or something. He gave us all free informational DVD’s to watch and then we headed back up to the main floor.

Next up was a tour of an air conditioned room that was basically a replica of Hubbard’s office back in the day. They keep the room at a lower temperature (and what felt like a high humidity) to preserve the shrink wrapped books that are on the shelves, books that actually belonged to L. Ron Hubbard. I know this is bad, but I thought to myself, “I wonder how much one of these would fetch on eBay?” It’d probably fetch me the rest of my life in the cleansing room in the basement. No thanks. The office has a signed original copy of Battlefield Earth, a science fiction book written by Hubbard (and terribly acted out by John Travolta). It also had one of the sweetest globes I’ve ever seen and a framed photo of the Jefferson Memorial surrounded by cherry blossoms. How apropos. Tom pointed out another book which is about a quarter of the size of Dianetics and is more like a Scientology primer or Scientology for Dummies. He recommended that we buy a copy online or even go check it out at our local library. Little did he know that I only like to read photography magazines and James Patterson novels. I asked him why they didn’t just put their books online for everyone to read, but he inferred that they had to make money somehow, just as other religions pass a collection plate or hold bake sales.

At this point, my friend decided to step it up a notch by asking Tom some tougher questions involving celebrities and aliens. Tom just sort of smiled and said that a few bad apples had decided to spread rumors about the church and that none of it was true. Oh and again – read the book because it explains everything in there.

So that was it. No pressure to join, no pressure to give them money, no pressure to stay and talk, no pressure to leave, although I couldn’t help but notice that everyone inside the church kept looking at us with a cautious eye as if to say, “Why are you people in here?” or “How long do you plan to stay?” Clearly we didn’t look like we belonged there. Could it have had something to do with the fact that I was wearing a baseball cap and drinking a Red Bull? Maybe. It could have also been that they thought we were snooping around and trying to uncover the secrets of their church.

I have to say that it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in a church, although I still left with a funny feeling in the back of my mind as if maybe Tom was trained to say certain things and hold back on others. Either way, I don’t see what all of the Hubb-ub is about. Do you?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Apparently around two dozen people who’d spent time at the new Convention Facility at the National Harbor development in Prince George’s County fell ill yesterday, complaining of serious nausea. All of those who complained had attented a medical conference at the new facility operated my the Gaylord Hotel Group Convention Center at the National Harbor. There doesn’t seem to be another connecting thread between those who complained, but the health departments in Prince George’s County, and Arlington County (the illnesses were all discovered at National Airport) will be following up with all those affected.

Very peculiar!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Not cool.

Theft in and of itself isn’t cool at all, obviously. It just sucks moreso when it happens to organizations like ALIVE who are out to help the less fortunate.

Hopefully they’ll be able to replace everything they lost, and then some. If you’re interested in donating, you can go here for more information.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Beating up on the Washington Post has come to be kind of a hobby for me of late, but I wanted to take a minute to give credit where credit is due. One of the highlights of my week has come to be reading the Post’s Wednesday food section. The paper is my lunchtime ritual and it goes into the recycling bin when I’m done… except for Wednesdays, where more often than not I find myself bringing home a recipe page from the Food section.

This week’s inspiration for me to bring home the section was the concoction from the picture seen here: a Strawberry, Mozzarella, and Arugula salad. Mmmmm. Not only yummy sounding but a great variation on the usual mozzarella and tomato, which my darling (but in this matter, brain damaged) girlfriend won’t eat, as someone who isn’t a fan of the tomato. I’m angling to see this on our table within the week.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Tonight, by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Caps have picked up win 2 out of the 3 they need to have a reasonable shot to make it into the playoffs. If you read NHL.com with a naive eye you’d think we’re golden – the site shows us at #8. Unfortunately it’s because we’ve played 81 games vs a number of other teams who have only played 80… the Flyers included, who we have pushed (momentarily?) down to #9. With all due love to our readers with Philly heritage, I’m hoping they fail tomorrow in their game against the Devils and keep that spot, but this is scary ground to be on.  If it makes you feel any better, Flyers fans, now I have to spend out last game of the regular season cheering for the Caps to beat my home-town team, the Panthers.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

FreshFarm Markets open this week, inaugurating the farmers market season. I’ve been anticipating this for a while, as last year I became addicted to my weekly pitstop at Penn Quarter on the way home to the Metro.

Open from 3pm to 7pm every Thursday starting today (until December 18) on 8th between D & E Streets NW, the Penn Quarter market features all sorts of goodies – fruits and veg, dairy, handmade soaps, flowers – and there are more locations across town.

Now, does shopping at a farmers market qualify under my new-found parsimony? Yes. Local farms + seasonal produce + high quality = worth every penny. The salad I get at Whole Paycheck or Ghetto Giant is dead on arrival. The living head of lettuce I get at the farmers market lasts a week, fresh and crisp. No contest.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This afternoon, the DC Advocates for the Arts are putting on a flash mob as part of their 2008 advocacy day.From the DCAA:

From 12:40 to 12:45 pm we will gather as many people as we can on Freedom Plaza. Freedom Plaza is a broad plaza that stretches between E st. and Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th and 14th St.’s Northwest – two blocks from the Metro Center metro stop. 

We ask that participants wear something white or red (the district flag colors) but all are invited to participate. There will be a brief orientation at 12:30 outside the Metro Center metro stop on the corner of 12th and G st.’s NW. At 12:40 we will proceed onto the plaza.

One team member will be carrying a red bandana over their head. When the bandana drops, we are all to freeze, looking out from the middle of the plaza. You are asked to look out to represent arts work as a viewer of society. The Plaza is a large rectangle. You will have to decide for yourself which edge of the plaza you are closest to. We ask you to turn and face out toward that edge of the plaza so that can get the effect of the freeze looking out.

In addition to passersby, there are many buildings overlooking the plaza. The effect should be powerful.We will freeze (in whatever position) looking out – for five minutes. The person with the bandana will be frozen in a position where they can see their watch. After five minutes, they will move, and we ask that you visually take note of other participants, and slide into motion as you see the rest of the participants begin to move.

 

 Honestly, it seems a bit goofy and dated to me at this point. I mean, how Dean 04, right? But, if you are going to be out on your lunch hour, you might want to check it out. Certainly raising the profile of the role of arts in the community is always valuable. Snap a few pictures for us, how about? (via Hoogirl)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I got a speeding ticket in February in Arlington. It sucked, but I was definitely going what he said I was going, but there’s no way that George Mason near Columbia Pike is a 30mph zone. 4 lanes, divided, it’s just not meant for that speed. But anyhow, I got caught in a speed trap. DC’s full of speed traps, some of them electronic-and-camera, some of them flesh-blood-and-lidar.

Good thing that Trapster’s here to show us where they are. You can add traps, look for traps, even have traps sent to your cellphone via Text Message. Bad. Ass.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Councilman David Catania (I – At Large) has proposed a bill to the council to require health insurance, and offer inexpensive coverage on a sliding scale to DC residents. Failure to be insured, under Catania’s plan, would result in a $250 fine. I’m not quite sure what the enforcement mechanism would be, given that you can’t just ask the insurance companies who’s covered and who’s not, as that’d violate all kinds of various HIPAA privacy regulations.

The bill would be paid for by a $2/pack sin tax on cigarettes, and would raise around $50 Million for the cost of the program. Premiums, monthly, under this new plan would range from $20 to $100 per month on a sliding scale of subsidy based on annual income. This would be in addition to the District’s safety net program, as well as Medicaid.

Is fining poor people who choose food over health insurance really a good idea? I’m not so sure, Councilman, that a $250 fine is the best idea in this case.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well that’ll teach me to be productive at work. I have only now come across this posting on Charlie Stross’ webjournal, which states simply:

I’m going to be in Washington DC tomorrow, with jet-lag, not to mention my wife (also jet-lagged). In an attempt to stave off the jet-lag by staying awake until local time 10:30pm, we’ll be drinking in The Brickskeller at 1523 22nd St NW from about 7pm onwards. If you’re in Washington DC and good beer and extremely jet-lagged authors interest you, that’s the place to be on Tuesday 1st.

If you haven’t been fortunate enough to read any of Stross’ work, you’ve missed some far-future science fiction as well as some delightful stories set in the present time, albeit a present where the ancient other-worldly horrors from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu are real and there’s a supernatural cold war going on. Think occult James Bond – with a lot of humor – and you have the picture. His most current book, Halting State, is in the running for a Hugo and is waiting patiently on my nightstand for me to start it. (Thanks, Arlington library!)

So, if you had the good fortune to hoist a beer with Mr Stross last night while I was shouting myself hoarse at the Verizon Center, I hope you gave him a positive impression about our fair city. Maybe you saw him and didn’t realize it – a comment in his announcement post stated “I will be using a large green plush Cthulhu as an identification tag” so if you saw a plush and friendly gibbering horror, you sat near a famous writer.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Recession, economic crisis, gotterdammerung, whatever you want to call it, when things start to get increasingly expensive, I start to expect more. And as I’m a reasonable, tolerant, terribly sweet-natured person, when I go off on a rant, please indulge me.

Working downtown for many years, I’ve been noticing the price creep of basic lunches. Yesterday it really hit me when I went to Cosi for a salad and saw with a shock that everything there is now $7+. Yikes. My morning coffee breaks have also been creeping up. Now, my love affair with caffeine, the one substance I’ve ever been directly told by a doctor to lay off, is not the same as those coffee drones who really don’t have a freaking clue what the difference is between froth and crema. In other words, I’m a snob. Well, actually, no, I’m a purist. I want things to be right. If I am going to risk painful palpitations for it, at $3.08 my cappuccino better be a cappuccino, and not a latte..

Like the slide of suburban property values, I’ve been noticing the slide of the proper cappuccino in this city for some time, but nowhere is it more prevalent than the Caribou Coffee near my office at 13th & G. This morning is yet another time that I ask (nicely, politely, I’m not a jerk about it!) the barista to remake what they hand me. Filled to the brim with barely an 1/8 of froth is NOT a cappuccino. When I explained (nicely, politely) this time the response was “so you want it dry”.

(This is all Starbucks’ fault of course – wet, dry, skinny, tall, yadda yadda yadda. No wonder they all took off recently to relearn the basics.)

So – sigh – no, no, no. I don’t want a dry cappuccino. I want a cappuccino. And in this current economic clime, everything I have to shell out for had better be made/done right.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs