Monthly Archives: February 2010

Featured Photo
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Feature Photo

Photo courtesy of
‘Bender! On the orange line!’
courtesy of ‘Karon’

There’s a lot of snow out there. Lots and lots of snow. And there’s lots and lots of snow pictures in our pool. No, really, go look. Since everyone and their brother is doing snow, I thought we’d take a look at what wasn’t covered in snow.

Karon rode Metro for the 15 minutes it was running last week and stumbled across everyone’s favorite “alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler” robot: Bender from Futurama!

But what was Bender doing riding our lowly Orange line? Was he here to make sweet love to the Metro fare card machines? Maybe he’s decided he needed a new form of transportation and is studying our advanced 6000-series rail cars?

Turns out, he’s just a costume for the woman that’s toting him around. She made him for Katsucon, which was held over the weekend. Anyone go? What’d you think?

The Daily Feed
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How to Report a Cabbie

Photo courtesy of
‘District Cab No. 270’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

There’s been some discussion in our comments regarding the recent behavior of DC Cabbies, who’ve used the snow situation to jack up their fares in violation of the law. Here’s how to handle the situation. You must write a letter to the Taxicab Commission, and submit it by USPS to:

Taxicab Commission
2041 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE
Room 204
Washington DC 20020

You can also fax your letter to 202.889.3604, or email dctc3 at dc dot gov. Here’s what you must include:

First, you have to give them all the details of the ride, basically your side of the story. Then, you must give them all the details of the driver and cab, including name, vehicle license plate and time and date of the incident. Click through for a sample: Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Warm Up Week

Photo courtesy of
‘Cotton Candy Mojito’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’

Cabin Fever not out of your system yet? I haven’t been able to shake it, even though my entire weekend was insane. Lucky for me, and for you, Jose Andres’ restaurants are stepping up to the task of entertaining us for cheap, as Cafe Atlantico, Jaleo, Zaytinya and Oyamel elongate their happy hours all night this week, for their “Warm Up Week” event. Here are the specials: Continue reading →

Adventures, The Daily Feed
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Key Bridge Snow Removal

Photo courtesy of
‘M Street from Roof’
courtesy of ‘Julie Fraker’

If you’re wondering why there’s a ridiculous amount of traffic along M Street, it’s because the DCPD and DDOT are bulldozing the snow build up on Key Bridge.  When I passed about 10 minutes ago, the removal was only affecting the traffic heading towards Virginia, but I’m assuming they’ll tackle the east bound side later. No westbound traffic was being allowed to cross the bridge and all traffic was being directed towards Canal Road.

If you have an alternative route, I suggest you take it because the traffic looked horrendous.

<a href=’http://www.flickr.com/photos/83269676@N00/3914904786′ title=’M Street from Roof’><img src=’http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2621/3914904786_51bb736102_m.jpg’ alt=’Photo courtesy of ‘Julie Fraker’/></a><br/><small><a href=’http://www.flickr.com/photos/83269676@N00/3914904786′>’M Street from Roof'</a></small><br/><small>courtesy of <a href=’http://www.flickr.com/people/83269676@N00/’>’Julie Fraker'</a></small>
Entertainment, The Features
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What It Takes To Be An American President In NatsTown

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It takes more than the promise of hope and change to become an American President in NatsTown. Over 40 guys and gals reported to Nationals Park Saturday afternoon as “presidential candidates” for the 2010 Racing Presidents. Their goal — prove they’ve got the stamina, strength, and charisma to be an acting Racing President from April to September.

DC isn’t the first or only baseball town to have a mascot run a race in between innings down the warning track. In fact, baseball mascot races are part of what make the teams that have the races even more fun to watch!

Milwaukee beat every other team to it in the 1990’s when they created “The Sausage Race”. And yes – it is what it sounds like – four types of sausage, one prize … the glory of winning an in-between inning novelty racing game from inside a giant physics problem of a costume.

The Sausage Race became an instant fan favorite before the bottom of the sixth inning at every home game for the Brewers at Miller Park. The mascots are now known as “Klement’s Racing Sausages” (Klement’s Sausage Company is located in Milwaukee and provides the Brewers with their products). To top it off, there are five of them: Brett Wurst (a bratwurst), Stosh (a Polish sausage), Guido (an Italian sausage), Frankie Furter (a hot dog), and Cinco (a chorizo). Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Yes, I want a $250 ticket


Parking in the snow route
Originally uploaded by carlweaver

Okay, people. It says “snow route” on the sign and the radio stations are warning people that there’s a snow emergency in the District. Even our very own lovable Tom Bridge warned us that parking here could lead to some heavy fines. Is $250 worth the cost of a parking space? It is Georgetown and parking is pricey, but for $250 I could park for a month here.

The good news is that these cars do not yet have tickets on them. The bad news is that soon they will. Go move you cars if one of them is yours. With all that saved money, you could buy about ten lunches at any Georgetown restaurant, or maybe about 50 of those fancy cupcakes everyone thinks are the cat’s pajamas.

The Daily Feed
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Cheh Wants DC to Be Google’s Guinea Pig

Photo courtesy of
‘snoopy sniffs’
courtesy of ‘Eljay’

Google is planning to try out a new, ultra high speed, fiber-optic broadband internet service in a small number of communities around the US, and is looking for towns and cities to sign up. DC Council Member Mary Cheh (Ward 3) wants faster Internet access for DC residents. It’s a match made in heaven!

It’s probably best to provide feedback directly to Google if you have an opinion about what they should do with their fiber, but if you lack the technical knowledge to answer their questionnaire, you can also sign Council Member Cheh’s online petition (which is hosted on Google Docs! Flattery will get you everywhere!)

Sports Fix, The Features
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Sports Fix: Gearing Up

Photo courtesy of
‘Center Ice’
courtesy of ‘Ghost_Bear’

With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics kicking off Friday night and continuing throughout the weekend, it’s kind of hard to recall the significant happenings that have occurred over the last two weeks in DC sports.

Capitals
Record: 41-13
Last Two Weeks: 4-3
Place:1st in the Eastern Conference

The Caps continued their winning streak with spectacular W’s against both the Penguins and the Rangers, but were stopped at 14 wins on February 10th by the Montreal Canadians in a 5-6 squeaker in OT.

Since their loss to the Canadians, the Caps have lost their last 3 games heading into the two week break for the Olympic games. They still lead the Eastern Conference with 90 points, and their next game will be away versus the Sabres on March 3.

Despite this minor downturn, Mr. Ovechkin is still the NHL’s leading offensive player in both goals (42) and overall points (89). And Alexandar Semin is on a super hot streak, sniping goals left and right, and racking up 5 goals and 4 assists in the last 4 games. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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More Snow Fun – Snowman Protest!

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_3746’
courtesy of ‘christophersmith29’

In my continuing efforts to turn this crazy-making snow (my neighborhood is still only half-plowed!) into something entertaining, I ran across a Flickr set of snowmen protesting across from the White House. Like most protests, the snowmen didn’t all stay on-message, but it’s a far more entertaining protest than we usually see. So view the whole set, or view a few favorites I’ve selected behind the jump.   Continue reading →

Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Two DC Short Film Festivals Collaborate On Humanitarian Film Screening

Photo courtesy of
‘popcorn and movie’
courtesy of ‘ScypaxPictures’

The DC Shorts Film Festival and the Washington Jewish Film Festival have teamed up to present a collection of short films celebrating life and the stories that make it a “human experience”. You can catch this melding of two of the top names in DC film festivals Tuesday, Feb. 23 at the Washington DCJCC and Thursday, Feb. 25 and the U.S. Navy Memorial. Both screenings start at 7 p.m. and last two hours.

The event is free and open to the general public. Please note: Reservations are highly recommended, according to the DC Shorts folks.

You can make reservations for the Tuesday and Thursday screenings online.

The Daily Feed
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“Help Us Dig Out” Say Area Schools

Photo courtesy of
‘Starting to shovel’
courtesy of ‘chickenofeathers’

My Facebook News Feed has been full of parents decrying the continued closure of schools, and evidence is starting to suggest that the whole city has a bit of cabin fever right about now. We’re looking for a bit of normalcy in all this crazy mess. So, if you want to help the schools return to session a bit more quickly, give ’em a hand and help ’em dig out all the sidewalks, parking lots, bus stops and fire hydrants that are currently still snowbound.

If you’re off today, do the community a solid and go help dig one of these out. You’ll feel better for it.

The Daily Feed
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Snow Emergency Tomorrow at 9am

Photo courtesy of
‘Snow Emergency Route’
courtesy of ‘ameschen’

If you live by one of DC’s Snow Emergency routes, you may want to go move your car now. The city has declared a Snow Emergency starting at 9am tomorrow morning, as a storm is inbound that will probably drop between 1-4″ of snow on the already congested city. The fines for parking in a snow emergency route are steep: $250 + towing & impound, don’t be that guy.

(This is not a repeat from two weeks ago, last week, or December. really.)

Entertainment, The Daily Feed
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Exclusive Shots From The 2010 Geico President’s Race Auditions At Nationals Park!

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The Washington Nationals hosted invite-only auditions for the 2010 Geico President’s Race yesterday afternoon at Nationals Park. Over forty hopefuls competed for the chance to become one of four great American Presidents for all home games this season. Check out a few exclusive shots of all those George, Tom and Abe’s (this is the fourth year that the twelve foot Teddy costume was not used during the auditions) running through an untouched, snow covered warning track after the page jump. Continue reading →

Adventures, All Politics is Local, Business and Money, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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No Metro Means Taxis Screw You Over

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

For some reason (I still can’t fathom why) the Metro closed at midnight on Friday and Saturday.  This meant that for the average person out on the town, taxis were the only option for getting home, and apparently cabbies got wind of this.  Instead of turning on their meters and offering their fares the normal rate,  drivers would jack prices up two and three times the normal, knowing that cab scarcity and the freezing cold would leave their patrons with little recourse but to accept the gouged prices.  This is illegal.  But, when the driver says “30 dollars to take you there” and pulls away when you inform him of the law, what can you do?  So, as one of those screwed-over patrons from last night, I offer a hearty “burn in hell” to the cabbies of DC.  Seriously, die in fire.

The Daily Feed
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Thanks, Mollytics, for renewing my faith in DC


Love Heart by Photos8.com
Originally uploaded by Photos8.com

Molly of Mollytics just renewed my faith in DC’s humankind. Yes, even amid rants and warnings about how you are about to die, my heart is warmed by this tweet:

mollytics http://twitpic.com/131ufa – Know who is amazing? @WillBlog4FoodDC b/c he shoveled out my car & let me pay him w/ high fives.

It warms the cockles of my heart, whatever the heck those are.

The Daily Feed
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Snolmec!

snolmecsm

This is what happens when you let stir-crazy museum employees play in the snow. Staff of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History created this Snow-Olmec on the Constitution Avenue side of the building. Thanks to friend-of-We Love DC Elspeth for catching a photo for us, and here’s another with the perpetrators (I assume).

Suddenly all the snowman photos I’ve been seeing look so sad…

The Daily Feed
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Get Your Paws On Nationals Opening Day Tickets While You Can

Photo courtesy of
‘Nationals Park Ticket Window’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

Want in on all the awesome glory that IS baseball’s Opening Day? The party starts on Monday April 5th but you need a ticket to get in.

You can secure your seat in Nationals Park for opening day NOW if you choose to purchase one of the multi-game Grand Slam Flex Plan ticketing packages. Whichever package you choose guarantees tickets to Opening Day against our division rivals — the Philadelphia Phillies. Go get ’em while you still can!

Music, Night Life, The Daily Feed
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DC9 Turns 6!

Photo courtesy of
‘Opal Restaurant in Santa Barbara 102409Sa’
courtesy of ‘vmiramontes’

Local music lovers agree — DC9 is an institution when it comes to intimate venues to hear live acts in this city. And today, DC9 turns six!

Go celebrate with some of DC9’s biggest fans tonight at 9 with the Liberation Dance Party DJs. There will be an open bar from 9-10:30 with rail cocktails only.

The cover is $7 at the door and it’s 21+ to party.

The Daily Feed
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Teachers Union “Very Close” to Contract with DCPS

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Washington Teachers’ Union president George Parker said on the Kojo Nnamdi show today that the union is “very close” to reaching a contract agreement with the DC Public Schools, but wouldn’t give a timeframe as to when a contract could be signed.

So, before the contract is signed, any bets on who will turn out to have sucked it up and compromised more?