By Tom Bridge
Be still my beatin’ tweetin’ heart. It seems that the folks at FamousDC.com have released a different set of March Madness brackets focused instead on the local region’s Twitterers. While we’re a little hurt that none of us are included, I’m not exactly sure any of us wanted to go head to head with @anamariecox, either, but we wish the best of luck to @seanhackbarth.
By AcaciaO
‘Day 93 – Reading, For Once’
courtesy of ‘gotplaid?’
If you happen to be around one of a handful of popular metro spots in town tomorrow beginning at 7 a.m., you may see some of the lovely individuals of Solas Nua, the only organization dedicated to contemporary Irish arts, handing out books. For free! For the 4th year running, Solas Nua will pass out contemporary Irish tomes to passers-by in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s sort of a first-come first-serve, in that, when the books run out, that’s all folks. So keep an eye out if you happen to be around Metro Center, Tenleytown, the U St. Corridor, Dupont (north exit), Chinatown (7th street) or Archives/Navy Memorial. Volunteers will be taking a wee break (see what I did there?) around 10 a.m., if you don’t see anyone out around that time.
Books and St. Paddy’s day – what could be better?? Well… maybe some Irish whisky…
By Tom Bridge
‘McGruff!’
courtesy of ‘Mick Ã�’
Metro will be revisiting their criteria for hiring bus operators before they hire more drivers this Spring. Here’s hoping they add, “Would never punch McGriff the Crime Dog in the Face” to the criteria.
Or, I’d accept, at least, “has never been arrested for possession of PCP.”
By jasmine
‘Budapest parking tickets’
courtesy of ‘bartvanpoll’
Just when you thought there was no way you could possibly get more parking tickets in DC, along comes the “sweeper cam.” It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like: street sweepers now have cameras mounted on them that take a picture of every car that is in the way during scheduled street cleanings.
You have some time to get your act together, though: street sweeping rules go back in effect March 23, with a one week warning period. Then come the $30 tickets, starting March 30.
By Ben H. Rome
Cadillac Weather Vane, courtesy of Kevin H.
Well hello March, glad to see you. Thanks for dumping cold and rain on us like always! But you couldn’t stop our readers and residents from taking pictures, so take that!
And for those of you just plain tired of this dragging winter, take heart – the blossoms are coming…
By Katie
So… I read chick lit. It’s true, the sparkly pink kind, with high heels and cocktails on the front. The kinds of books my mother would call a brain snack, and I’m not afraid to admit it. As I’ve been devouring popular chick lit books lately, I’ve run across more and more set in DC – I just picked up Mindy Klasky’s Sorcery and the Single Girl and opened up the first page to find the story being set in a bakery in Georgetown.
I gobbled up both of Kristin Gore’s Sammy series books, Sammy’s Hill and Sammy’s House. Since Kristin Gore is Al Gore’s daughter, I bought her realistic viewpoint of both DC and Capitol Hill. Rebecca Flower’s Nice To Come Home To was a fun read since I was able to imagine exactly what her shop would look like set on upper Connecticut Ave. I’ve heard interesting things about Washingtonienne, and am looking for others – thoughts, dear readers?
What book set in DC has recently tickled your fancy? When you read them, do you find them mostly accurate or is it more a loosly-based 24 In DC translation of our city?
By Tom Bridge
‘Crash the net’
courtesy of ‘brianmka’
Capitals
Record: 43-21-6
Last Two Weeks: 3-3
Place: 1st in the Southeast, 3rd in the East
The first half of March wasn’t very kind to the Caps. Four straight losses (to Florida, Carolina, Toronto and Pittsburgh) put the hurt on the Caps record pretty fierce. But, the Caps rallied on their short road trip, beating Nashville and the Flyers, and followed it up with a shoot-out win over the Hurricanes.
There are just 12 games left for the Caps, and they’re about to start a 5-game road trip. Joining them from Hershey will by Brian Pothier and Simeon Varlamov. Pothier is returning to the Caps after a 14-month absence after a severe concussion last January, which left him with blurry vision. He just completed a four-game tune-up with the Hershey Bears.
By Donna C.
‘Broken ice sheet’, courtesy of ‘another sergio’
This Wednesday, while the Environmental Film Festival has DC thinking green, the French Embassy will hold a talk on Polar Deserts and their Secrets.
They’ll discuss research being done in Antarctica on climate change, biodiversity, and human adaptation. In fine French form, they’ll follow the 6 p.m. lecture with cocktails. (RSVP to deputy-cnrs@ambafrance-us.org)
That’s the spirit! Let’s hear more bad news about the planet, then steady our nerves with a drink.
By Tom Bridge
I pulled a post here this evening, the first ever on We Love DC for content reasons. You might have seen it, it talked about the AIDS rate in the District of Columbia, news and media coverage of that rate, and it made some comments that I considered deeply harmful, ill-advised, and unacceptable to the level of quality that we try to hold ourselves to here at We Love DC.
If you were offended, either by the original piece, or by its disappearance, I apologize. If you want to talk about it, either here in the comments, or via email, I am absolutely glad to discuss it. My email is tom at we love dc dot com.
We’re serious about the AIDS epidemic, both here and abroad, and we’re serious about media criticism in a way that helps media grow and be held accountable for their writings. This post was serious about neither, and frankly represented some poor choices. That’s why I pulled it.
By Katie
‘A silver train on the blue line’
courtesy of ‘karthikkito’
NBC Washington reports that a second man has been struck and killed by a Metro train this week, this time early Sunday morning.
NBC Washington: “The accident happened on the Orange Line at 1:54 a.m. The train was going to New Carrollton; Metro was single tracking from Vienna to East Falls Church at the time.”
The death earlier this week occurred at McPherson Square.
By Katie
‘Giant Anteater @ London Zoo 2’
courtesy of ‘afcone’
ZOOMG. I’m a tad late to the party, but the National Zoo announced a new baby giant anteater. (Note as I’m typing that… Baby giant? isn’t that a bit oxymoronic?) Perusing the National Zoo’s pictures, I’m currently dying of cuteness, and fully expect FU Penguin to come to my rescue asap. (That FU Penguin link? SO NSFW, be warned.)
The National Zoo reports, “Anteaters also have sticky tongues that can extend up to two feet long and help collect insects—they can eat up to 30,000 ants a day!” And also, thanks to typing anteater a bunch of times in this post, I’ve got Nelly Furtado’s Man Eater in my head.
Sigh, I’m so happy it’s Saturday morning…
By Katie
‘Sweetgreen Georgetown’
courtesy of ‘shawnblog’
I just got word that come April, DC will have a second sweetgreen location, which will open April 1. The new digs are at 1512 Connecticut Avenue, NW in Dupont.
The new location will focus on organic cuisine and sustainable practices, from non-processed ingredients on the menu to ‘green’ interior design elements and earth-friendly food containers – including ‘to go’ menus that are embedded with wildflowers for planting in the garden. Isn’t that just fancy?
And you know me, and how much I like free/cheap things (especially food!) so I’m happy to share that in celebration of the opening, sweetgreen be offering $1 food on Wednesday, April 1st from noon to 4 PM. You’ll get your choice of a featured salad, wrap or Sweetflow yogurt at a discounted price of just $1 each. HOLLER. Between the new Java Green and the new sweetgreen, Dupont’s going organic faster than uh… I have no end to that metaphor, but you get my point.
By Jonathan
McPherson Square Station, by arvidbr (Creative Commons)
Update: Metro reports that the blue and orange lines are back to normal. Just in time for the best part of rush hour. Perhaps today isn’t so unlucky after all!
Dr. Gridlock, from the Washington Post, reported a few minutes ago that McPherson Square Metro Station is closed. It is reported that a Blue Line train hit someone on the tracks at that station.
This means that all Blue and Orange line trains are turning around at this station. There is “bus service” between Farragut West and Federal Triangle, but it might just be faster to walk. No word yet on when the station will be reopened.
By Ben H. Rome
‘Templeton Drive-in Theatre – Movie’, courtesy of ‘ciao-chow’
When someone mentions “drive-in” to you, do you think of fast food, or gargantuan screens in front of rows of parked cars, playing B-grade horror or sci-fi flicks?
The relics of a bygone era, the drive-in theater still exists, just not in abundance anymore. Any drive down backwater rural roads these days may reveal the abandoned hulks of these once-great date destinations, their towering screens ripped and dark, the listening posts a mute testimony to the heyday of ‘courting’ and hanging out. (And if you don’t get what I mean, just watch Happy Days on TVLand and you’ll get it.)
The drive-ins that survive today do so out of a mix of nostalgia and determination. And the fact that these days, ‘retro’ is the new style. But even so, drive-in theaters are disappearing. Continue reading
By Donna C.
‘Cool water’, courtesy of ‘mawel’
Haven’t you always wanted to show up on TV as part of a giant human water glass?
Well, tomorrow morning at RFK Stadium you can do just that. UNICEF and Tap DC are shooting a commercial for DC’s Tap Project, which works to bring clean water to children worldwide, and World Water Week.
The ad will hit the airwaves within 48 hours of filming. Here’s your chance to be a star!
By Wayan
Time to run on the grass
Running along Colorado Avenue NW recently, I came across this scene: a sidewalk missing, so no place to run that’s not in the street. Now the usual response to this is to run on the pavement, but why? Isn’t the flat grassy area all public property? If you look in the distance, you can see a utility pole in that same flat grassy area, so its city property, not private property.
So I ran on the grass.
My knees were happy, as grass is softer than pavement, and Taxi Dog was happy, her paws like grass much more than pavement. But I wonder if the homeowners are going to be happy? Would you be? Especially if you were excited because your home didn’t have a sidewalk just to keep pedestrians away.
By Wayan
Now I am not sure what the kids think of the term "ho" these days, but back when I was a young lad, it meant a prostitute. So why would a Virgina driver use such a term on their custom plates? Is a ho no longer a sex worker? And what ever happened to "Roxanne" or am I showing my age?
By Katie
‘SNC11054’
courtesy of ‘bradleypjohnson’
I’ve been out of school for a few years now, and have honestly enjoyed the freedom of having no homework. It is glorious, and although work sometimes turns into homework (especially when I have to go in on weekends), at least I’m getting paid (in theory). I don’t miss the homework, but what I do miss are the classes. I had wonderful classes in college. (Sometimes I daydream about sneaking into a GW or Georgetown lecture and reliving my glory days.)
So when Arlington put out the current class offerings for Spring, I poured through the catalog like a kid in a candy store. The classes are affordable, fun, and actually relevant to my life (unlike some classes I took at UNC). The one I chose to take this go-round was Knife Skills. My mother always said she wished she had taken a knife skills class, if only to know the easiest and quickest way to chop something, so I decided to learn from her longings and actually take one.
So last week, I packed up my best knife, and headed over to the Clarendon education center for a class on how to chop. Continue reading
By Wayan
Tonight I was out at Looking Glass Lounge with a hot little date – Hanalei Stockard Vota – and I’m wondering how many other parents party with minors.
I asked the server if I was the first Dad in Looking Glass and she just laughed. I seem to be one of many. Yet when I was single I didn’t remember seeing too many boozing minors. I even made fun of changing tables in bars.
In the city, I expect us that juggle bottles and babies in bars to be rare. What’s the toddler tipplers take in the suburbs? Are sippy cups as common as shot glasses? And does it bother you if there are?
By Max
photo by philip-odegard
I’m fascinated by all things related to the presidency. I’m no history buff by any means and I can’t spout off useless presidential facts (you don’t want me on your Trivial Pursuit team), but the office of the POTUS is probably the most unique position anyone could ever be in. Heck, if I was married, had kids, was religious, had powerful connections, and was a millionaire, I’d even think about running for president one day. Now there’s a scary thought.
