By Don
image courtesy the Gay Games & Betty Lark Ross
Cheer team for the 7th Gay Games
WKYC-tv is reporting that their city of Cleveland has won the bid to host the 2014 Gay Games and the Washington Blade confirms. So despite the best efforts of local officials back in August, Washington will not be hosting. We join Boston in being rejected.
By Don
Durian, courtesy of Perantau Sepi Lodge
The Smithsonian blog has an entry today about durian and its potential interaction with alcohol. They report that Japanese researchers believe they’ve found evidence that durian inhibits the liver’s ability to metabolize the toxins resulting from the consumption of alcohol.
Put down the stinky fruit, frat boy: that’s the toxins resulting from metabolizing the alcohol, not the alcohol itself. So your Delta Tau Chi fantasies of a $4 drunk aren’t going to pan out: you’re just going to make your hangover longer or worse, or maybe die. So when you decide to tackle the Omni 100: Durian, leave the beer in the fridge.
This is (at least until Oprah’s people have it pulled down) a video of local Bollywood dance troupe Dhoonya Dance performing on yesterday’s Oprah Winfrey Show. Only, what Oprah didn’t tell them was that Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the two most famous Bollywood stars currently living, were also appearing on the show that day. So when the choreography has the dancers turn to face the rear of the stage… OH HI, NICE TO SEE YOU.
I applaud Dhoonya founder Kajal Mehta and her team for being total professionals and not immediately forgetting every step they ever learned. Which is totally what I would have done, in case you are wondering.
A clip demonstrating exactly why Abhi-and-Aish are so famous is behind the jump. Also, I am very glad to have an excuse to post my favorite Bollywood song ever. Continue reading
By Ben H. Rome
‘Day 218: Andrea’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’
Okay area photogs, another contest for you to consider. Caffé at the Renaissance M Street Hotel is holding a photography contest in celebration of the upcoming FotoWeek. The contest calls for creative snapshots of where people have been with their cup of illy coffee, called “Where Does Your illy Take You.” Photographers are encouraged to explore and discover something new while savoring the unique flavors of illy.
The contest runs from October 1st thru the 22nd. The grand prize is pretty sweet: a weekend stay at the Renaissance M Street Hotel, including $200 in food/beverage credit, a full year of illy coffee at Caffé, two tickets to the FotoWeek DC gala, and a private car with picnic to visit various FotoWeek events. The winning photo and honorable mentions will also be framed and displayed at Caffé.
To enter, submit photos through the contest’s website, which goes live on Thursday. Winners announced on October 26th.
By Tom Bridge
‘loudmouth matthews’
courtesy of ‘silas216’
Yeah, I know, all the fame and fortune goes to amateur singers and dancers on TV, and you just can’t stand it. I mean, these are just slaves to the auto-tune, after they win, right? Enter the Washington Post for a really DC contest: America’s Next Great Pundit.
So, if you’ve got an inner orator with the skill to make us all feel riled up, guilty, or perhaps even righteous, get the entry ready and submitted.
By Donna C.
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courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’
Tomorrow afternoon, more than 100 bicyclists will be arriving in our fair city, fresh off a 300-mile journey that began on Saturday in New York City. They make up the Brita Climate Ride, which supports climate and bicycling advocacy projects.
Slip out of work early tomorrow (you know, when it will be sunny and 67 degrees), and you can join them for their final three miles and the D.C. Climate Ride Rally on the West Lawn of the Capitol to call for action on climate change and renewable energy.
Show up at Thompson Boat Center parking lot at 3:15 sharp to ride, or greet the riders at the rally itself at 3:45. Tell your boss you’ll be right back at that report, just as soon as you save the planet.
By Karl Johnson
Awesome photo courtesy of Karl Johnson
I don’t know if these signs have made it into the District, but they are EVERYWHERE around the Ballston area in Arlington. At least before the monsoon hit on Saturday and potentially washed some of them away into the Chesapeake Bay, there were literally 4 on every pole at every intersection. But I’m not here to rant about littering or violating sign regulations (although someone should), I’m here to ask this simple question: WHO HAS AN UNWANTED BUS AT HOME? And better yet, is it really, really only worth $100 to you? And where the hell do you park your bus around here? Most people can barely park their compact cars. I have so many valid and pressing questions. Please contact me for an interview if you live here and just happen to have a bus you were considering trading for a $100. Thanks. (I’ll give you $105)
By Kirk
‘Cheesetique’
courtesy of ‘angela n.’
In my humble opinion, cheese shops are too few and far between. Americans settle for the lactic crap that comes in baggies at super markets and fail to enjoy the finer aspects of one of God’s greatest creations. Sure, cheddar melted over tortilla chips has its place, but there’s so much that goes unrealized in the world of cheese. Fortunately, there’s a place in Del Ray called Cheesetique: it purveys the wonders of excellent fromage to the greater DC area.
Cheestique is, perhaps, the brightest star in the glimmering neighborhood of Del Ray, Alexandria. Over the past few years, this quaint area has been a haven for simple, unpretentious restaurants that serve excellent food to the many young families that occupy the neighborhood. None is as well conceptualized or executed as the Cheesetique. By day it serves as a specialized grocery with dozens of excellent cheeses and decent bottles of wine. By night, it’s a wine and cheese bar that is the first stop for a date night, or as the romantic destination itself. The former iteration was my first exposure to it.
By Tom Bridge
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courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’
Councilman Phil Mendelssohn has proposed an extension to the DC Smoking Ban which would allow retailers and/or landlords to ban smoking within 25 feet of their front door, further pushing smokers out into the cold at the discretion of the owner. The language for this ban is much more business-choice friendly than the previous all-must-ban-smoking-inside bill from a few years ago, but one can definitely wonder if there will be a place left in DC that people can still smoke.
By Don
‘Sidewalk Closed’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’
Metro has put out a schedule listing the maintenance they’ll be doing on four out of the five next weekends. If you intend to take the metro at all in that time – which includes Friday evenings – you should make sure to check it out. Columbus Day Weekend and full station closures is the worst of it but there’s a lot of single-tracking listed in there.
By Cathy
Arlington is planning to make some major changes to its parking policies in November to better match parking availability and demand in the county.
Among the changes, they plan to discourage employers and residential buildings from subsidizing parking and from using monthly or yearly plans.
Arlington plans to extend parking meter hours (not so fun). But they also hope to implement “a web-based information network to locate on-street & off-street parking spaces in real-time.” (That sounds handy…)
While you may already be thinking you’re not going to walk out to the street at 9:00 p.m. to add money to your meter, Arlington has plans to assuage this concern by implementing newer technologies, including cell phone payment options.
By shannon
‘Bethesda at night’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’
BeyondDC has a great post up today about the best suburban transit-oriented development (TOD) in the area. The Washington region has some of the best examples of TOD, and places like Arlington and Bethesda have become national examples of how to create walkable, mixed-use districts in the suburbs. BeyondDC thinks that Bethesda deserves the number one spot, with its great mix of uses and walkability. King Street takes the number two spot, and Clarendon is third.
I’d argue that Clarendon deserves the title of the best TOD in the region– not only does it have a great variety of restaurants, offices, retail, and housing, but since it’s in the middle of the Rosslyn-Ballston Metro corridor the whole area is transit-oriented. From Clarendon, you could easily continue walking to Courthouse or Virginia Square, but you can’t walk to any other Metro station from Bethesda, which makes it seem more isolated and car-dependent than Arlington.
What do you think? What’s your favorite suburban Metro stop? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
By jasmine
‘(269/365)’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’
Last Saturday, book lovers of all ages braved the rain for the Library of Congress National Book Festival on the National Mall. The Book Fest is always a great way to see a bunch of the biggest authors around, but this year they encouraged people to tweet from the festival and tag their pictures on Flickr with “NBF.”
The best part of the festival was all the moments that make even adults squeal like little kids. There were authors whose books I grew up reading, like Judy Blume and Lois Lowry, and authors so big they’re practically celebrities (even though you might not recognize them), like John Grisham, Nicholas Sparks, and James Patterson. Other exciting names were Jodi Picoult (My Sister’s Keeper), John Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany), and Ken Burns (of the Ken Burns effect, as seen on every slide show I’ve ever made). Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
‘Jim Graham Sign’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’
Just when you thought the Ted Loza thing was weird enough, now it appears that Jim Graham may be a part of the investigation as well. Apparently the FBI has both Graham and Loza on tape with an FBI informant during the investigation. WUSA9 is quoting “sources close to the FBI investigation,” which may or may not be accurate, and we certainly hope that Councilman Graham is as clean and clear as he says he is. Related, in the story, the FBI source is said to have related that an $150,000 bribe was offered to the taxi commission as part of this situation, but was turned down and turned over to the police for investigation.
By Tom Bridge
It was delightful to get the note this morning that WEAVE managed to raise $85,000 last week to keep the organization alive. They’ll be continuing to raise operating funds, so if you haven’t had a chance to donate to the cause, you can still help them maintain their dedication to stopping the brutal effects of domestic violence. Thanks to all the readers who donated!
By Rebecca
‘New Social Safeway Coming Soon to Burleith’
courtesy of ‘TreyDanger’
The Social Safeway has gone all social media on us, and got themselves a website. Yes, we’re still only about half way through the nine month long renovation, but now we can track progress and developments.
The site offers a real time WEBCAM with time lapse, split screen and overlay functions, schematics of the supermarket and commercial area, and photos detailing the new and improved department offerings.
As a regular user of the former Social Safeway, I am pumped for the new grocery store and the additional offerings it will bring to an already vibrant and awesome DC neighborhood.
By Tom Bridge
‘Skins vs. Rams – 09-20-2009’
courtesy of ‘carldunniii’
Redskins
Record: 1-2
Last Two Weeks: 1-1
Place: Last in the NFC East
Hooboy. What can you possibly say after the Redskins gave Detroit their first victory in 20 games? In 18 months? What can you possibly say about the squad?
Well, for one, you could say to Jim Zorn, “You’re Fired.”
Perhaps that’s what Dan Snyder will do, as he has about as much patience as your average mobster waiting for a loan to be repaid. I’m not about to make excuses for Zorn, whose playcalling has been about as atrocious as it could be, but let’s give the guy a chance to right the ship before sending him packing. Of course, a lot of the discussions overnight have been about the quote from John Riggins that ESPN 980 retweeted: “There are team specific issues 4 sure & some individual issues 4 sure but the owner ultimately is a loser and you can’t fix that”
So, where’d we go wrong this week? 100 yards in Penalties are a good place to start. Detroit very nearly had three interceptions, but as their defense has all the hands of a teenage klutz, they only managed 1, despite an opportunity for a pick-six. The lack of Red Zone determination was maddening, especially the 4th-and-1-at-the-1 where Portis just couldn’t break through.
The Skins take on Tampa next weekend, and if the Giants’ 24-0 thumping of the Bucs, this should be an easy 2nd win for the Skins. I would’ve thought that about this week, though, as well.
Continue reading
By Kirk
‘Jim Zorn’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’
Let’s face it: the 09 Redskins are abysmal. The play calling is bad, the team is vapid, and theoretically good players aren’t living up to their potential. Last year’s mediocre performance and the mess that this season is shaping up to be are leading many to call for the head of coach Jim Zorn. Many NFL analysts saw yesterdays game as being the deciding factor in Zorn’s fate. If he could stop the Lions and pull his team to 2-1, he might be able to salvage his career and hold out for at least another year. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. The Lions managed to snap their 19 game skid and beat the Skins 19-14. So what happens to Zorn, now? According to ESPN, nothing for the moment. In order to maintain continuity and the integrity of the play-calling, Zorn will likely keeping his job for at least the rest of the season. What his eventual fate is has yet to be seen. Personally, I’m shocked that the Skin’s leadership has decided to retain him. I can’t imagine he’ll be around next year. What are your thoughts?
By Tom Bridge
‘www.Army.mil’
courtesy of ‘The U.S. Army’
Looks like we need to get the cage ready for the WMATA Communications Staff and the Post’s WMATA beat journalists. The Post’s latest piece from the weekend on the 1000-series cars drew a line-by-line “fisking” from WMATA on Sunday.
As Don said over the weekend, separately, it feels odd to be on Metro’s side on this one, but if you couldn’t see this was a PR move and not an engineering one? I don’t even think I want to know you, Jed.
‘Removing the Field Tarp’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC
Slate‘s Human Guinea Pig column tackled what it’s like to be on the grounds crew of a baseball stadium recently. Writer Emily Yoffe got to spend a day with the grounds crew at Nationals Park combing the dirt, scrubbing the bases, mowing stripes into the lawn, and- bonus!- rolling the tarp on and off the field during a rain storm.
If you’re as fascinated as I am by what it takes to keep a baseball diamond looking better than the team that plays on it, you should give it a read.
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