‘At A Loss: Repeat and Rinse’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Some time a few months ago the Washington Post switched my Sunday-only delivery to 7 days a week without asking my approval. Although I’d dropped daily delivery about a year ago for a variety of reasons, I didn’t make a stink about it – they did this under their offer to deliver the paper through the end of the year at the $1.85 a week Sunday-only price so it wasn’t costing me any money.

But constantly throwing it unread in my recycle bin was making me feel guilty, so today I called them up to ask them to go back to only delivering it on Sunday. Besides, they’d just included an insert in my bill offering to keep doing the seven days a week delivery for only $0.15 more a week. I figured the chance they’d just keep this up forever seemed too likely and I needed to take positive action.

Let this be a lesson to you – caring about the environment can be a money-saver.

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‘Yes We Can – DC Statehood’
courtesy of ‘Wayan Vota’

Not having statehood – or voting rights or, well, really any sort of semblance of border-drawing respect – finally has a benefit! As GQ counts down the 50 worst states, the District’s lack of inclusion in that “state” category saved it from the ever-so-darling satire of Gentlemen Quarterly’s writing staff. I mean, check out these zingers for those crazy Marylanders:

25. Maryland
Maryland’s a McDLT of misery: You’ve got Wire-style urban blight on the eastern shore, and Deliverance-style Appalachian poverty in the west, partitioned by styrofoam suburbia. All of this, plus some of the highest AIDS and homicide rates in the country? No, no, Maryland, you’re too generous! On the other hand, there’s this bitchin’ rest stop, just outside of Delaware. Hell of a Roy Rogers they got in there. Check it out. Then keep driving.

What’s that, Virginia, did you think you had missed that clever critic’s pen:

23. Virginia
Virginia’s making history… up! This former capital of the Confederacy recently distributed elementary school textbooks claiming that thousands of black soldiers fought for Johnny Reb. (Most historians, ahem, disagree.) But there’s good news: Virginia’s Confederate History Month—soon to be renamed “Civil War in Virginia Month”—is now for everyone!

Since you’re dying to know, Arizona finished atop (bottom?) the list of the 50 worst.

This makes everything better with that whole “vote doesn’t really count” thing.

‘useless degree?’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
Lots of options out there today. Grab a scarf and a hat and some thermal undies and check them out.

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‘Downtown Holiday Market Beads’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

The Downtown Holiday Market returns this year, featuring a variety of local shop owners, crafters, and other businesses in an outdoor market format centered at 8th & F NW. The market is open daily from noon until 8, and will also have a pretty eclectic range of entertainment, with artists as diverse as the Shakespeare Theater Company’s Candide cast and a Klezmer band as well as a “Jewish a capella” group. It’s worth strolling through on a few different occasions- several booths do change weekly since the market goes on for so long. The market is a fine way to support local businesses and crafters while checking out some vendors that you may not run into at Eastern Market or your other usual haunts.

Edited to add: WLDC author Erin McCann would like to make sure you know that the Market has what she believes to be the best donuts ever.

‘US World Cup Bid Announcement Newseum’
courtesy of ‘levypuck’

It took until about the 11th hour for the news to finally come in from Zurich, Switzerland, where FIFA officials had gathered to select and announce the host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The announcement at 11 o’clock yesterday morning was broadcast to a gather of several hundred DC soccer fans at the Newseum, and a wash of disappointment struck the crowd as FIFA president Sepp Blatter presented the 2022 event to the nation of Qatar.

The United States had put together a very impressive bid package to host the event, set aside from other bidding nations most notably because it had infrastructure in place to both host and transport millions of soccer fans. DC was positioned to be one of the 18 cities that would have hosted several games in 2022, and the Washington, D.C. Bid Committee optimistically invited local soccer fans at the Newseum to be ready to celebrate. Continue reading →

‘His and Hers?’
courtesy of ‘Mylar Bono’

To celebrate their February arrival date on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, DC coffee shop Pound Coffee will be setup in front of their new address and will be handing out free Kickapoo coffee to all comers between 8am and 12pm.  Pound will have some tough nearby competition at Peregrine Espresso, but I suspect it will be friendly.  So yes, come out on Saturday morning, get yourself a free cup of their micro-roaster coffee and enjoy the weekend.

Prominent security figure Bruce Schneier has a suggestion for how to best deal with terrorism fears and the Washington Monument: Close it to visitors entirely.

The concrete fence around the building protects it from attacking vehicles, but there’s no visually appealing way to house the airport-level security mechanisms the National Park Service has decided are a must for visitors. It is considering several options, but I think we should close the monument entirely. Let it stand, empty and inaccessible, as a monument to our fears.

Obviously this is a suggestion on par with Jonathan Swift’s 18th century suggestion that the Irish deal with their economic problems by selling their children as food – not serious, but rather a swipe at screwed-up cultural priorities. In Schneier’s case he’s attacking what he sees as a refusal of our security apparatus to accept reasonable trade-offs and recognize the side-effects and new vulnerabilities our choices create.

Schneier doesn’t mention it in this essay – though I’ve seen it in others he has written – but one of the things that always concerns me about our security choices here is how often they take a wide-open area like the Archive steps and instead funnel people into a tight cluster of lines… which present even better targets for attackers. The Washington Monument is probably an exception here, given how snug it is inside, but exactly what difference does it make if we have an attack on a few dozen people inside rather than a hundred clustered in a waiting area?

By the way, Schneier acknowledges that he’s riffing on a suggestion made with less hyperbole by the Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott.

‘Lunch from Korean Food Truck’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Baby, it’s cold outside. But not too cold to go out and get some lunch.

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‘DC Meetups – 09-03-22 – Your Move’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

Tonight at Wonderland Ballroom, at 7PM, relive your misspent youth with “Show & Tell: An Evening of Nostalgery from the 80’s and 90’s.” Hosted by Hillary Buckholtz, the event will feature TV theme singalongs, an 80’s/90’s dance party, trivia, toys, and snacks. And Buckholtz has procured some bodacious retro goodies for your enjoyment. Seriously, guys: Shark Bites. Dunkaroos. What’s not to love about this?

Also performing will be SM Shrake, Ken Reid, Seaton Smith, and Natasha Rothwell, with music by Lex Paulson. Don’t miss your chance to sing the “Charles in Charge” theme while pawing through a pile of Garbage Pail Kids.