Monthly Archives: August 2008

Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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iMetro: The Three C’s

“Couth, courtesy, and common sense” — iMetro’s three personal values whose deficiency makes Metro that much more unpleasant to ride. (Strictly speaking, though, “couth” is more adjective than noun, generally used as ironic foil to “uncouth.”) He follows up with a few photos demonstrating said unpleasantness. I’m especially WTF-ing at the jacket on the other side of the tracks and the rocks on the glass canopy. And next time I see someone doing chin-ups on the overhead bars I might just pull down his pants. Or at least tut-tut sternly.

More fun Metro ranting at WTFMetro.

Talkin' Transit
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Talkin’ Transit: HOT! HOT! HOT!

Photo courtesy of magandafille

In Traffic, courtesy of magandafille

And so it begins.

The like-it-or-not High-Occupancy Toll lanes are now a step closer to reality – at least in Northern Virginia.

So what are these HOT lanes, exactly?

These are specialized lanes that will reside on the ‘inside’ of the Beltway (specifically, a stretch of I-495 in NoVA) where carpools can use them for free and individual drivers looking to ditch the rest of us pokies will have to cough up some money. But there’s no actual ‘tollbooth’ to deal with. Continue reading →

Media
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DC Print Media: Alive and Well

Newspaper boxes stretching from Dupont Circle to the Balitmore Sun

Newspaper boxes stretching from Dupont Circle to the Balitmore Sun

I’m sitting here in Dupont Circle looking at the newspaper stand and I’m amazed at the plethora of print available to the interested reader. Just on this side of the block alone, we have 15 different periodicals to choose from. Everything from the Wall Street Journal, to the Falls Church News-Press, to The Creek (a fiercely independent newspaper), to Bash Magazine (a monthly comic alternative).

All these paper-media options tells me that while we at WeLoveDC embrace the Internets, there’s still much offline reading going on.

It also indicates that there is strong competition to the Washington City Paper’s dominance of local alternative news. With Politico, The Examiner, and the Express, WCP no longer rules the free weekly roost like it did in the 90’s.

But it does make me wonder: what’s your free newspaper paper choice?

The Daily Feed
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Power and Water Failures

DCist and other news sources are reporting that there’s a power outage and water main break in Columbia Heights. The power outage is at 13th and Harvard NW; the water main at 13th and Florida NW. Keep in mind 13th is currently closed between Belmont and Florida.

There’s also been another power failure near Navy Yard, at 9th and Virginia SE. Not a lot of details I’ve seen on it (post anything new in comments!); all I can say is, with this humidity and another 90 degree day, try to stay cool somehow.

The Daily Feed
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Dorkbike Arrival in DC

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

Clear Channel’s SmartBike program has officially started, but before you cheer, realize its not for you.

With dork bikes not even a tween would touch, and no provisions for helmets or locks, this is not a system designed for success.

This is a opening day photo op followed one lone frequent user: Pee Wee Herman.

Media, The Daily Feed, Travel
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Your personal information is cleared for takeoff

Photo courtesy of [phil h]

Commenter Mary pointed out a link to the Slashdot story on the CLEAR data breach over here, and I’d been pondering whether to mention it or not. It’s not really DC related, but we did just write about the program and its express lines at DCA and IAD.

As it turns out, however, there is a DC related angle I wanted to point out. Namely the WaPo coverage about this loss of the personal data of 33,000 customers of Verified Identity Pass… headlined as “Missing Laptop Keeps Firm From Registering New Fliers.” Run on the very last page of the business section.

It’s a wire story from Bloomberg, so WaPo can’t be faulted for the ho-hum reporting of VIP losing the data of over 15% of their customers, but who felt this was such a non-story that they’d bury it on the back page and give it such a misleading headline?

It’s funny – just last night over dinner I caught some flack for beating up on the Post and I said I really do like WaPo, it’s just that I expect better from them. This is a perfect example.

lost, courtesy of [phil h]

Downtown, Food and Drink, Night Life, Penn Quarter
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We Love Food: Proof Positive

proof.glass

A couple weeks back, myself and a few of the authors you see sneaking around this site had a casual dinner over at Proof in Penn Quarter. It’s a newer restaurant – actually, more like a very upscale “wine bar” – and it was suggested as an alternative to the usual pub meetings we normally have.

Their website proclaims the restaurant is “a Penn Quarter dining destination that exudes both contemporary chic and rustic warmth.” I’ll say this – they completely lived up to that billing.

While there’s some seriously good (and expensive) food on the menu, by far the most popular choices of patrons is their various charcuterie and cheese boards. Oh, and the bazillion bottles of wine scattered around. Just in case you weren’t sure what exactly they excelled in.

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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Starbucks Offering Discount

$2 after 2 p.m. by brownpau

You either love Starbucks or you hate it (or you’re somewhere in between like I am). Regardless, if you get your morning coffee there like I do, hold onto your receipt! According to an AP report, if you show the receipt from your morning caffeine fix, you can get any iced grande beverage for only $2 after 2 p.m. With savings like that, you may actually be able to fill up your car’s gas tank from time to time.

I haven’t given this a try yet but I see an iced grande vanilla latte with my name on it in the very near future.

The Daily Feed
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Rumbling at GWU’s Big Dig

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

Did you feel the earth shake at 2:15 pm today? That would be GW University expanding its real estate empire on Washington Circle.

The new mixed use building to replace the old hospital is in progress – this summer is excavation. They are headed down an additional 40 feet where they are now, and blasting through bedrock to get there.

Real ground-breaking progress.

News, The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors, WTF?!
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It’s Not a Cougar

Savannah

Via DCist we have a Washington Post report that last week’s UMD “cougar” may actually have been a large Savannah (serval/domestic feline hybrid). So I guess all you people who couldn’t resist making cougar jokes last week all feel pretty silly now. Me, I’ll settle for saying the title of this post with an Arnold Schwarzenegger accent.

(Flickr photo of a yawning Savannah Cat courtesy drlisa)

Music, The Daily Feed, The District
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Demand the Vote Song

There’s a sweet new go-go song floatin’ out of over DC today, and that’s the new song from DCVote.org. They commissioned Joe L. Da Vessel to write a new piece for the organization to promote the Voting Rights effort. Check it out (MP3 link) and tell us what you think in the comments.

I think it’s pretty catchy, myself. I like the tribute to the various DC Symbols, including the flag and the city’s motto. And the keyboards are effin’ sweet.

Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: Redskins Start Strong, Nationals Sweep

skinsatcanton.jpg
Skins Fans Lovin’ It by search-evangelist

Congratulations to brand-new-Hall-of-Famers Darrell Green and Art Monk. I know several of my friends who believe that the Hall’s snub of Monk for so long is one of the great injustices of the world to date, and it’s nice to see it finally resolved. Of course, Kissing Suzy Kolber had the best version of Monk’s acceptance speech, which actually made me choke on my coffee with laughter.

Of course, what made the rest of the weekend so sweet was Jim Zorn’s first pre-season victory, a 30-16 effort over the Indianapolis Colts. Rookie Colt Brennan looked good in the second half with a pair of TDs behind center. Of course, it’s still the pre-season, but any win is a good win over the Colts, even if they were short 7 of their starters. But, of all the words in the press this weekend, Wise’s are wisest: “Until they win like [the 80s/90s Redskins] again, the compare-and-contrast game will never end.” So, here’s to the Skins, may they again rise in glory. But what of the Nationals?

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Millions of peaches…


Peaches for me!
Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge

Tom and I headed back out to Great Country Farm yesterday for this week’s farm share pickup and fruit-picking. (By the way, hello to We Love DC readers Jonathan and Katrina, who we met on the hayride back from the orchard.)

We knew we were getting some peaches in our produce box, but in previous weeks it has only been about 4 at a time and we had to ration them carefully so we could enjoy them all week. We expected to split the 4 pound bag of pick-your-own peaches with our friend we split the share with, and additional peaches were only $2/pound, so we picked some extra.

Hah. There must have been 2-3 pounds of peaches in the box. Then our friend wasn’t feeling well and didn’t participate in the picking, and didn’t take her half of the 4 pound bag. And we had picked probably another 4 pounds. (In addition to the couple of pints of blackberries.)

People, there are now at least TEN POUNDS OF PEACHES in my dining room. What the hell am I going to do with all this? I’d better start baking now… Post your peach recipes/ideas in the comments, please!

Petworth, The Daily Feed
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How I Want to be Remembered

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

Walking through Rock Creek Church Cemetery, I spotted this debris cluttered headstone. David Roy Moncrieffe II, may he rest in peace.

And may all of us be so lucky to be remembered by our friends like his remember him, four years on. That debris, it was signs of a night spent remembering the good times and great days that David enjoyed before he died.

Cheers David for his love of life and his friends for their love of David.

Entertainment, Music
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A Night of Firsts at the Symphony

Photo shamelessly cropped from NPR’s story on Dead Symphony no. 6

A friend and I went to see the Baltimore Symphony perform “A Symphonic Tribute to the Grateful Dead” at  Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore this evening, what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 66th birthday. While I’m not the biggest deadhead in the world, I can certainly appreciate the musicality of Mr. Garcia and his gang. I figured that spending the night listening to a symphonic version of their ditties wouldn’t be so bad. And one of my favorite orchestral works of all time, Berstein’s Overture to Candide was on the program.

It seems that when you combine the refinement and class of the traditional symphony-going audience with the summer of free love embracing hippies that constitute a large majority of grateful dead fans, you end up with a unique audience for a symphony orchestra. I’d like to present you with a “List of Firsts” I witnessed this evening:

  1. First time I’ve ever seen people were tye dye to the symphony. Some “dressed up” their tye dye t-shirts a bit by wearing a suit jacket on top of them. That was a nice touch with the jeans. (Disclaimer: I wore jeans, but no tye dye.)
  2. First time I’ve seen people (lots of them) wear baseball caps to the symphony. There were probably 100 people in baseball caps, cowboy hats, and other non-traditional head coverings.
  3. First time I’ve seen security guards at a symphony. They were checking bags as people entered, and also stationed around the concert hall.
  4. First time I’ve seen security guards attempt to throw a person out WHILE the orchestra played. The guard did it in hushed voices and hand gestures, but it was still wildly distracting. The man he was trying to throw out was in the middle of one of the center orchestra rows and refused to leave. After several minutes of stern looks and angry gestures, the guard gave up.
  5. First time I’ve seen the guy in the row directly in front of me light up a joint and start smoking it WHILE the orchestra played. This was not the guy the security guard was attempting to kick out. And I’ve got pictures of him sneaking a drag. Continue reading →
The Daily Feed, Travel
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Clear-ed in 60 seconds…


In a previous post I talked about signing up for the Clear lanes at Dulles airport. After much waiting, my card came today – just in time for my flight to our annual conference. Being a total gear head, I wanted to try it immediately.

It’s hard not to love this service. Even after the sticker shock (yes, it is $128.00 per year), I now know it is worth it. On Friday during rush hour it took me – wait for it – all of 300 seconds to clear security. 5 minutes.  That’s right. Including biometrics, taking out the laptop, doing the X-Ray machine, everything. I was in a line of exactly two people. And then I was through. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Agent No. 72

To you and me, Turtle No. 72 looks like an ordinary Eastern box turtle. To the National Park Service, she’s one of 135 turtles counted by researchers, and one of three with transmitters that wander a fifty-acre area near the DC / Maryland border.

To suspected marijuana grower Isiah Johnson, she’s a snitch.

Next time you’re out and about, contemplating illegal activities in the variety of green parks and patches across our area – you’d better watch out. The turtles are out there.

And they’re waiting.

Essential DC, History, Petworth
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Fort Slocum: Hidden DC Treasure

Fort Slocum in Washington DC - managed by the National Park Service

Fort Slocum in Washington DC - managed by the National Park Service

Here’s an oasis of green you don’t see often in the middle of a city: Fort Slocum Park, where a cool urban forest abuts the row houses of Northwest DC.

Nestled in northern Petworth, you’ll first notice Fort Slocum by the green hill you see on Kansas Avenue NW, the only remnant of the Civil War earthworks that defended Washington DC from Confederate General Jubal A. Early’s attack in June 1864.

While the National Park Service description is brief, the Historic Marker Database tells the full story:

When the Confederates demonstrated against Fort Stevens, to the west, Fort Slocum had the honor of opening the engagement by firing its long range guns. During the battle, some 1,500 employees of the Army Quartermaster office, led by General Montgomery Meigs, assisted the fort’s garrison. 

Juxtaposed to that history is a modern escape for all manner of Washingtonians, as I found on a recent exploration of its central woods..

Continue reading →