Arlington, The Daily Feed

Against the Wind

If you didn’t feel like a combination between a mime and Bob Seger then I don’t suppose you went outside today. Between the weird wintry weather and the harsh wind, I have been convinced to stay indoors until everything thaws and starts to warm up, like until April. Until then I will be hunkered down here in Arlington in the Weaver Estate’s underground bunker with some champagne sparkling wine and my lovely wife. Call me when it’s all over, okay?

The Daily Feed

Didn’t 2008 Just Fly By?

gravelly point

2008 may have just been the fastest year of my life. Seriously, where did the time go? My roommate and I were driving somewhere today and I looked down at my car inspection sticker and it’s been almost a year since I got my car! It honestly feels like it was just yesterday.

All kinds of crazy things happened to me in 2008 – I was laid off from my job, got a new one, had someone hit me in a hit and run accident, Obama won, I landed a super hot boyfriend (yay!), joined the WLDC staff and generally had a raucous good time.

So how about you? Was 2008 gone in a flash? Did it speed by for you like it did for me? In a day filled with retrospection, what’s yours?

Entertainment, The Features, WMATA, WTF?!

2008 Retrospective: What You Loved This Year

Babys First Christmas, by wfyurasko

Baby's First Christmas, by wfyurasko

Thanks for a great year, everyone. This has been OUR baby’s first Christmas, and by way of celebration, I thought I’d take a look back at some of our most popular posts this year, in case you missed ’em the first time.

By far, the most popular post this year in terms of both pageviews AND comments has been Welcome to Murky. You Don’t Get It Your Way. Who could forget this tempest in a coffeepot? It had everything: An outraged customer, a small-business-owning coffee artist, downtrodden hourly employees caught between the customer and the boss’ policy, not to mention threats of arson and physical violence…  This is the kind of drama the Internets are made for, people.  Don’t forget to read through the comments for links to other accounts of the incident. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Thundersnow!!

Thundersnow
thundersnow
Originally uploaded by butterfingers laura

Okay, I know this photo’s from Minnesota, but you try finding a thundersnow photo of DC! I was sitting in my living room working on some documents when it got late-August-thunderstorm-dark, and then incredibly windy, and then it was blizzard-strength snow, moving horizontally across the window with gale force. So this is what a Snowpocalypse looks like!

It’s called a Thundersnow.

Amazing!

The Daily Feed

Inauguration: Rental Woes

by NCinDC

by NCinDC

For the last three weeks my roommates and I have been trying to rent our 3 bedroom apartment for inauguration week.  Our marketing plan has employed two tactics: 1) emailing friends from all over about the rental opportunity and asking them to advertise it (via an attached poster) to anyone who might be interested.  And 2) posting to DC’s craigslist.

We’ve had a 0% return on investment.  Not one lead, bite or even nibble.

Yesterday, I checked craigslist and found that the entire sublet section was over run with inauguration rental opportunities.  If anyone is looking for a non-inauguration subletting opportunity, good luck, because you’re going to have to sort through a list of every DC, MD and VA residence.

Are there success stories out there?  If so, how did you do it?  Or are these $30,000 stories, the stuff of urban legends?

The Daily Feed

Dance Your Way into 2009

Photo courtesy of Sexy Fitsum
untitled, courtesy of Sexy Fitsum

What better way to start 2009 than a dance party…or four? Dance the recession blues away starting Friday, January 2 with Rock and Roll Hotel‘s Disco City (free), then boogie into Black Cat on Saturday the 3rd for Homo/Sonic, an alternative co-ed dance party for queer folks and their friends ($10).

The next weekend Black Cat bombards you with BLACK CATatonia, featuring DJ DK kickin’ it old skool with two turntables (and probably a microphone) on Friday, January 9 ($5) and Mousetrap, a fun-filled Britpop night, on Saturday the 10th ($10).

Featured Photo

Featured Photo

Fluidity by primplan

With so many awesome photos in our pool lately, it was hard to decide on just one to write about (in fact it always is).  In the end, the creative use of a two second exposure to capture the movement of this belly dancer at Marrakesh won me over.  Sometimes it’s difficult to “think outside of the bun” when you’re shooting, and other times you can be pleasantly surprised by a mistake.  While this would have been a cool shot had the dancer’s movements been frozen, she’s given a whole other dimension by the blur of her upper extremities.

Not to beat a dead horse here people, but time is running out for our Holiday Photo Contest!  Tag your photos with “WLDC holiday 2008″ and drop it into our Flickr pool by January 1st.  It’s 100% free to enter and you could be the lucky winner of some great prizes!

Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed

Inauguration Bits

Presidential Inaguaration Site, courtesy chip py the photo guy

Presidential Inaguaration Site, courtesy chip py the photo guy

Tom and I keep getting asked by our out of town friends and relatives what it’s like to live in the middle of history as DC prepares for Inauguration 2009. I always explain it this way- DC went through the motions to get ready for Christmas, with the National Tree Lighting and whatnot, but the economy is in the tank so no one wants to talk about Christmas anyway. The any visions of sugarplums dancing in heads in DC have been  for the Inauguration.  With that in mind, a few Inauguration-related items from across the Internets:
Continue reading

Weekend Flashback

Supersized Weekend Flashback: 12/25 – 12/28

Photo courtesy of Sam Ruaat
National Christmas Tree and Chanukah Menorah, courtesy of Sam Ruaat

Welcome back, everyone! Hope your holiday weekend was fantastic and you weren’t sick (like I was). I had a hard time selecting photos from our recent four-day extended weekend, so I’m sure you won’t mind a larger portion of Flashback today.

A quick reminder that there’s only a few days left in our Holiday Photo Contest, which ends Jan 1, 2009 – you know, after the parties and hangovers have passed but before you have to drag yourselves back to work. Please don’t miss out on this, as we’ve got some seriously cool prizes to hand out. Our panel of judges – i.e. all of us bloggers here at WLDC – will start combing through photos on Friday, so make sure you upload yours ASAP.

After the jump, a pleasantly big mix of photos from locals and visitors to our fair area over the last four days. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

NYE Planning Guide

Xmas Tree by primplan

Xmas Tree by primplan

So now that the giving holidays are mostly over, it’s time to think about the next big event – New Year’s Eve! I’m sure WLDC will do a much more comprehensive round-up of possibilities, but if you’re type A like me then you’re already chomping at the bit to get started planning.  Ben rounded up some key NYE food possibilities for you already, but it’s time to think about the main event. Here are some tools for you to use. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Admiral’s Cube

Photo courtesy of Me

Admiral’s Cubical Club
courtesy of Me

If you’re a frequent American Airlines flyer heading out of one of the B concourse gates at Dulles you can enjoy all the comforts of work in their snazzy Admiral’s Cubical Club! I’m not a member so I can’t tell you if there’s a lumpy chair, flickering fluorescents, and blank TPS report forms inside.

I guess if you’re a member looking for the services they provide it’s better than nothing, but it certainly doesn’t scream luxury and comfort.

Monumental, The Features

Monumental: Daniel Webster

Diorama Close-up 8

The statue of Daniel Webster that stands next to the Embassy of the Philippines on Massachusetts Avenue is largely ordinary. It’s a 12-foot bronze in the classical revival style, a stern and somber great man with his cape over his shoulder. The Gaetano Trentanove bronze was presented to the United States by Mr. Stilson Hutchins, then founding publisher of the Washington Post. The Congress in 1898 would approve a $4,000 expense for the creation of a pedestal for the statue, and that’s what I found most interesting about the Webster Memorial.

Two bas-relief dioramas (okay, how many of you just flashed on the shoebox dioramas you made as kids? All of you? Rock on!) mark the east and west sides of the pedestal and are exquisite bronze representations of two seminal events in the career of Daniel Webster. Who’s Daniel Webster, you ask? It’s okay, I didn’t remember him either. He was Secretary of State for Presidents Harrison, Tyler and Fillmore, serving two separate stints at the head of Foggy Bottom, from 1841-1843 and again from 1850-1852. He was also a Senator from Massachusetts on two occasions, and a member of the House of Representatives from New Hampshire. He was a member of the Whig Party for much of his career, having followed Henry Clay and others in its creation in opposition to President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Some Holiday Spirit

Photo courtesy of shareski

The Costanza Wallet
courtesy of shareski

One of my favorite memories is – apropos of my age, I suppose – of something I watched on television.

Probably about 15 years ago I saw a Dateline episode where they did an experiment that involved leaving a wallet on the street and seeing what happened to it. The initial tests involved a wallet with a $20 bill, a completed contact card, and a note that said something along the lines of “Dear X, Here’s $20 to get you started with your new wallet, Love Grandma.” Later trials omitted the $20 to see if people were more or less likely to return the empty wallet.

One of the empty wallets came back with a twenty in it. The finder, a short-order cook who made about $7 an hour and who was a former convict, put his own $20 into make up for what had apparently been taken from a child. I was touched then and it still makes me a bit misty to think about it.

I’m similarly touched by an item in today’s WaPo letters to the editor from Kristina Murfin who lost her wallet on the metro and who was reunited with it the following day. Her story had a similar twist.

When I picked up my wallet, I asked who had turned it in. The officer didn’t think the man had given a legitimate name or address. Apparently, the gentleman had just been released from prison and was afraid of being accused of theft if anything had been missing.

I appreciate the goodness in both men, and my thanks to Ms Murfin for sharing a story that’s perfect for Christmas Eve. There’s a lot of good out there and some of it where we least expect it. Thanks for helping us remember that.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

The Daily Feed

From me, to you, blogosphere

US Capitol Christmas by Marc.Benton

So either you’re waiting for your boss to let you go early, or you’re here in DC for the holidays. If you’re here for good, I’d head over to the Sculpture Garden Ice Rink, it should be lovely the next few days. Or, snub Christmas by heading to the Matzo Ball tonight. Kwanzaa your thing? Head on over to the Gaylord National for Kwanzaa brunch.

As I sign off here in a few and fly away into the night sky to my waiting parents (aww, love them) I just wanted to say cheers, DC. As Jenn said in an email to the WLDC staff, “happy holidays, merry christmas, happy hannukah, super saturnalia, cool yule, whatever y’all celebrate, let it be fun and bright.”

(Oh, and don’t forget to enter our Holiday Photo Contest!)

Talkin' Transit, WMATA, WTF?!

Talkin’ Transit: Metro Memories

Photo courtesy of OberonInDC
PC290059.JPG, courtesy of OberonInDC

Ahhh, memories. Metro has given us some great ones over the last year; in the spirit of the holidays I thought I’d share the twelve most memorable, in no great particular semblance of order. It’s been a year of ups and downs for WMATA, so why don’t we look back and smirk, scowl, smile and shrug at some of Metro’s best – and worst – escapades of 2008, to the (heavily butchered) tune of that great holiday carol, the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed, WTF?!

Teixeira to the Yankees

Well, so much for landing a local superstar to anchor the Nationals this year. Mark Teixeira, and his feckless thug of an agent Scott Boras, extracted $180M from the Yankees for an 8-year deal with the [expletive deleted] New York [expletive deleted] Yankees, who apparently also included [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] piles of money. And the Nats continue their inability to sign anyone who’s worth half a damn for more than half a season.

So, in tribute, I bring you this video:
YouTube Preview Image

[expletive deleted] you, New York, and [expletive deleted] your precious [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] panda-raping [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] grandmother-shoving [expletive deleted] Blagojevich-fondling [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]-gargling [expletive deleted]-punching Yankees. Oh, and Steinbrenner? Cancer. CANCER, I say!

The Daily Feed

Major Water Main Break on River Road

A five-and-a-half-foot water main ruptured this morning in Montgomery County. A stretch of the aptly-named River Road from Bradley Blvd to Seven Locks Road is under four feet of water. That’s about a mile long stretch, there. Rescues of stranded drivers have been made from helicopters over the road.

The nearest valve to the break is under water, but they’re working on getting to the next one up the road.

The Daily Feed

So you’re still in town?

planes and sun flare

Plane and sun flare by flickr user Needlessspaces

So you’re still with us, DC? You haven’t flown away yet? Well you’re in luck, cause believe it or not, DC is still kicking with activity. So while the Metro might be more deserted (hello, empty seat on the Orange line during rush hour, where have you been all my life?) there’s still plenty of last-minute holiday fun to be had. Continue reading