While the Federal Government is currently shuttered over the two-year-old Affordable Care Act (known by its pejorative, Obamacare), the new DC Healthlink insurance exchange is now open and accepting applications for insurance beginning on January 1st. Individuals and Families living or working in the District of Columbia are eligible to apply. To know what rate you might be paying under the DC Healthlink exchange, you can use their calculator to estimate costs, or browse through plans from 30 different insurance providers in the exchange.

The plans are separate into four categories: bronze, silver, gold and platinum, running from lowest cost to highest cost, and each level carries a different structure of benefits. In addition, the program offers help finding advice concerning which plan will be best for you, through their find-an-expert option.

Plans vary in cost by benefit-level, insurer, and deductible, but if you either don’t have insurance at all (and you’ll need to, under the new law, have some come January), or your insurance is expensive through work, it might behoove you to go look at the rates that are on offer. From my own personal experience, my insurance cost was quoted at approximately half what we’re currently paying for me to be on my wife’s plan at work, for service that is roughly equivalent to what we’re getting from the exact same insurer.

Might as well go look at what’s out there, it could save you a bundle.

This the hardest season for those of us who love this city. We watch as the strife on the Hill begins to tear old friendships, hurt local residents who can’t fight back at the ballot box, and put a $200M crippling choke hold on the region.  We watch as our federal workforce goes into the office today, told only to shutdown what they must and go home, there to stay until a compromise can be reached.

It’s hard to imagine this situation abating quickly, given how entrenched both sides are. Democrats are unwilling to stop the implementation of the President’s signature achievement from his first term, especially since it has only just come into effect; a faction of influential Republicans are dead-set against the expansion of government into the healthcare marketplace. There’s no endgame here that comes into existence quickly.

There’s still a lot going on in Shutdownville, DC, with wide arrays of targeted promotions, and all of the museums that aren’t free (read: The Spy Museum, the Crime & Punishment Museum, the Newseum etc) are definitely still open and running amid the government shutdown.  What’s closed is all the National Parks and the National Zoo, as well as Capitol tours and White House tours.

As you go about your day, shut those Facebook windows, and ignore Twitter for a bit, as the country rages against the strife. The blame for this will be sorted at the ballot box. Best we can do as a city is to keep the doors open, keep the trash taken out, keep working if we’re allowed, and keeping our hands busy if we’re not. If you’re looking for something to keep your hands busy while they sort it out, you can always check out Serve DC.

I didn’t always take spelling for granted.  There was a time when I craved consonant clusters and reveled in vowel blends.  But somehow, over the years, I’ve become completely reliant on spell check to correct my spelling errors and leave me with blemish free writing, for which I’d shamelessly take credit.

In an attempt to rekindle my affection for the English alphabet, I signed up to compete in “So U Think U Can Spell?” — the second annual adult spelling bee hosted by Politics and Prose Bookstore and the SPACIOUS Community.  Two nights before the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee, members and non-members of the spell check generation came together at Politics and Prose Bookstore for what will surely go down in the annals of lexicography as an epic battle for the ages.

The ever-humorous Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak, and renowned lexicographer and editor and Merriam-Webster, Peter Sokolowski, emceed the evening.  I took the very first seat in the first row of contestants and tried to remind myself that this was merely a simple bee filled with run-of-the-mill vocabulary words intended for the common man.  As long as I could spell under pressure, this evening was going to be a piece of cake.  Comforted by my naïve confidence, I took a deep breath, repeated “I before E except after C” in my head, and stepped up to the microphone to face my inevitable doom.

“Your word is Rapport.”

The next minute of my life was a blur.  Continue reading →