Category Archives: The Daily Feed

The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Last Snow Standing Goes To Filthy Pile At BWI

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington D.C., snow – one week after the big blizzard of Feb 2010 – snow in city center parking lot’
courtesy of ‘DominusVobiscum’

We’re well into May now but the remnants of the 2010 Snowpocalypse are still haunting the area.

Washington Post staff reports that there’s still a pile of snow (albeit very black and dirty snow at that) at BWI. Crazy? Yes. Slightly awesome? Pardon me for stating the obvious here, but I believe a “duh” is in order.

You can check out a picture (taken on May 3rd) of this last-snow-standing pile here.

The Daily Feed
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Great Brookland Yard Sale This Saturday

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘dno1967’

Growing up, I remember when the big church yard sales would hit in the Springtime. Local charitable organizations would partner with a church, and the big yard sale weekend would hit, and everyone would be a junk trader for a couple of hours, decluttering their houses and recluttering them with new fun junk. This weekend, a whole neighborhood in DC is going to emulate that by firing up the Great Brookland Yard Sale on Saturday from 10am to 2pm. Houses all over Brookland (look at the map below) will be participating in the grand mission to get rid of their awesome junk.


View Great Brookland Yard Sale 2010 in a larger map

The Brookland Blog has a great guide to navigating the big sale. Check it out! In case of rain, it’ll happen Sunday, same time.

The Daily Feed
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Solar Decathlon 2011

Photo courtesy of
‘Solar Decathlon winner’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

If you need something interesting to do this weekend, why not head over to the National Building Museum to check out the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 Finalists: A Special Presentation.  The exhibition will present the schematic designs for solar-powered houses from the 20 finalists competing in the 2011 Solar Decathlon.

Cheer on your favorite collegiate team as they try to secure a spot on the Mall!

Admission to the National Building Museum is free.

News, The Daily Feed
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Services Taxes to Expand to Include Gyms, Spas and Instruction?

Photo courtesy of
‘$196,876,282.12’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’

Thanks much to tipster Jennifer who reminded us that today’s the day: the City Council is taking up expanding the service tax to raise revenue.  Included in what you might start paying new taxes on are personal instruction, massage services, magazines, house cleaning, gym membership fees, carpet cleaning and cultural event ticket costs.  Chances are, if you do business with someone in a one-on-one sort of way, the city wants a cut of the transaction, and that extends from personal trainers, to maid service, to pet grooming.

I know times are tough in the budget arena, but the answer during a recession, or the early rebound from one, is not to increase the load on area small businesses.  While the list of services at the Post’s blog doesn’t include my own area of IT Consulting, it’s a short leap from the current list to an expanded list.  If you operate a personal services business, or side gig, this might affect what you do, if you’re a dogwalker, or masseuse, or work at a gym, chances are you’re going to be responsible for tax collection and disbursement, adding a whole other line item to your administrative routine and complicating what it takes to do business.

If you don’t want your gym bill to go up, or any of the other personal services you purchase to go up, email your city council rep.  Don’t know who that is? Find out with your address.  Over 2,000 people had emailed Mary Cheh as of yesterday, and more than that had hit Jim Graham.

There’s really no “good” way to raise taxes, but focusing on small local businesses after you’ve driven the big ones to the burbs? That’s just insult to injury, DC Council.

Fun & Games, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Barnes Dance in Chinatown

Photo courtesy of
‘in the crosswalk’
courtesy of ‘Jonathan Thorpe’

DDOT’s taking dancing in the street to a whole new level starting next Wednesday when they debut a new pilot program at the intersection of 7th and H streets in NW DC near the Verizon Center.

A “barnes dance” style intersection is being set up by DDOT in an attempt to reduce the number of conflicts between pedestrians and cars, DDOT spokes person John Lisle told WTOP.

While the details are still a little fuzzy, the intersection will work as such:

Traffic continues to cycle through the intersection as usual, but when all vehicular traffic is halted pedestrians will then be able to cross the street in any direction they want.

Up, down, left, right, sideways, longways, diagonally – they’re all options for your next crosswalk adventure – get creative.

WTOP reports that the ‘pedestrians-only’ cycle will be 29 seconds long with 26 seconds to cross and a solid three second don’t walk for stragglers to clear the intersection.

The question to ask here is: How creative will people get and how soon will we be able to watch it on YouTube?

Get those cameras. The antics start Wednesday.

Adventures, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed
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Glover Park-Burleith Farmers Market Debuts Tomorrow

Photo courtesy of
‘_MG_0683’
courtesy of ‘logan.brown’

Even though I won’t be around to witness its opening weekend, I’m super pumped that the Glover Park-Burleith Farmers’ Market debuts this Saturday from 9am-1pm.

This producer-only farmers market features local fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese, bread, eggs, plants, cut flowers, handmade soap, pasta, gelato and more. A different bluegrass band will be there every week to provide live music to the dog-friendly market. In 2010, the market hopes to offer additional features, such as bike clinics, live-chef demonstrations and garden/composting workshops.

The market is located in the parking lot of the Hardy Middle School, just across the street from the newly opened Social Safeway.  The market will run every Saturday, rain or shine, until October 30th.

The Daily Feed
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Olsen Throws A Gem, Nats Win With A Walk-Off Hit

2010-05-06-pudge-consoles-olsen Photo By Ian Koski
courtesy of Ian Koski, Nationals Daily News

Six weeks ago, the Nationals didn’t think they’d be holding on to Scott Olsen. The prospect of saving the ball club $750,000 by not having to pay the left-hander his full contract after last summer’s shoulder surgery was a thought that crossed general manager Mike Rizzo’s mind more than once.

Gee, isn’t Rizzo smiling now?

Olsen pitched a gem of a game despite losing the decision in the 8th inning. The youngster who sprung out of Triple-A Syracuse weeks ago proved to NatsTown that his early promotion was no mistake. He struck out 8 over 8 innings with a potential no-no on the line before the Braves broke that up with a David Ross line-drive single to left during the 8th.

Olsen also notched a personal victory on the night, crushing his previous record of seven consecutive scoreless innings pitched by carrying that streak to 20 which is the longest such streak set by a Nationals pitcher this season.

The 3-2 victory on the night was highlighted by talent hailing from a clubhouse with two consecutive 100+ loss seasons. One thing is for certain – these are not the Nationals of yester-year. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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You live in BEAR COUNTRY!

YouTube Preview Image

I love that headline from the Virginia Department of Game. They get slightly more precise near the end of the release: Remember, if you live in Virginia, you live in bear country. Sounds a little hyperbolic, no? Check out this map on the VDGIF website

Click to expand or go look at the original page, but in a nutshell the aqua color indicates “occupied” and yellow indicates where there are occasional sightings. They’re nice enough to provide an item on the key for “rare/unoccupied” but there’s not an inch of it on the map.

Before you put on your coonskin cap and grab your musket, however, consider how poorly “occasional” is defined. The Virginia Black Bear Management Plan[pdf] makes the prospect of bear home invasion seem a lot less likely. The habitat picture is a lot more restrained:

That’s not to say folks in Loudoun and Fairfax should be too shocked if they come across a bear; The management plan says a male bear’s range can encompass 300 square miles. It’s about 50 miles as the crow flies out to Berryville, which sits firmly inside bear habitat. If it’s going to happen, this is the most likely time: the bears are pigging out as they try to regain weight they lost while hibernating.

If you’re one of our Virginia readers and you see one, stay the hell away. Even small bears can be dangerous and tiny ones often have larger ones nearby. The VDGIF webpage on living with bears (sounds like a San Francisco sitcom) offers more details and the video linked above.

The Daily Feed
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National Book Festival Gets $5M from Rubenstein

Photo courtesy of
‘National Book Festival 2009’
courtesy of ‘R2DC’

The Library of Congress has just announced that it has received a $5 million donation from David M. Rubenstein, cofounder of the Carlyle Group. The donation, spread over the next 5 years, makes the festival’s future more certain, as it was founded by Laura Bush in her first year as First Lady and was relying on the interest of subsequent First Ladies to continue.

News, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Metro Reports Incident Involving Emergency Brake

Photo courtesy of
‘8099 mushroom’
courtesy of ‘crabchick’

Last summer’s horrific crash near Fort Totten revealed a colloquial term for the emergency brake aboard all trains: the Mushroom. Named for its shape, the Mushroom engages the emergency brakes and brings the train to an immediate halt. Yesterday, Metro reported an incident involving the emergency brakes being engaged on a Red Line train at Forest Glen as it approached the Station. No one was injured, but it’s concerning to hear that so long after last summer’s crash, that perhaps the system’s train indication still isn’t working.

This was one of our questions for interim GM Sarles at the blogger roundtable that was supposed to happen late yesterday. We were told that GM Sarles had a meeting late in the day with Congress and that was why our meeting was delayed, but the timing here could be considered suspect. The questions remain: What state are the train detection circuits in on the Red Line? It certainly is not promising to hear that the emergency brake was deployed here in light of what we’ve been promised.

We’re hoping that the roundtable will be rescheduled for early next week, and we can find out ourselves.

News, The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Metro Fires Driver Who Struck Pedestrian

Photo courtesy of
‘Penguin crossing’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

Late yesterday, WMATA fired a Metrobus driver who was involved in an accident in Southeast for failure to follow standard procedure. The April 13th incident involved a W2 at Irving & Alabama SE striking a pedestrian whose condition is currently unknown. Metro has taken months in the past to handle this sort of discipline, so it’s relieving to see that they’re taking this more seriously in the wake of last summer’s safety crackdown.

The Daily Feed
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Free Shoe Shines @ Union Station


What Do You See? by clownish

To promote the relaunch of their magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek is offering free shoe shines at Union Station.  That’s right, on Monday May 10th and May 17th from 7 to 11am, you can get your shoes shined for free – a $9 value!  While your wingtips are being waxed, read the magazine’s launch issue which “includes expanded content, new sections, and a completely retooled and enhanced navigation”.

Don’t worry, there won’t be any clowns there.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3547/3361920161_8be7bd5a7d_m.jpg includes expanded content, new sections, and a completely retooled and enhanced navigation.
The Daily Feed
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Nationals’ Second Coming? The Bryce Harper Watch

Photo originally appeared at DC Sports Bog
Photo originally appeared at DC Sports Bog

While the feeling lasts, talking about the currently relevant Nationals is a lot of fun. In that spirit, I had to share this great submission from one of Dan Steinberg’s readers. DC sports junkies probably are already avid followers of Steinberg’s excellent DC Sports Bog at the WashingtonPost.com, and you have to love when he gets photos like the one above: the spotting of a #34 “Harper” jersey at Nationals Park during yesterday’s game.

Since things are starting off hopeful for Nats fans this season, and getting better since last year’s #1 draft pick, Stephen Strasburg, is on his way up the system, you may have forgotten already that the Nationals retain the number one pick in this year’s draft, too. And all signs point to a stud of a catcher out of Las Vegas by the name of Bryce Harper. It’s not that hard to dig for the hype on this prospect, so hopefully this fan-made Nationals shirt will be joined by many, many more. Dan’s description from his post is pretty uplifting to think about: “wunderkind catcher Bryce Harper, the guy who figures to catch Strasburg’s first playoff pitch. (And I don’t think that’s even a joke at this point.)”

The Daily Feed, We Green DC
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Yum Yum Yoga

Photo courtesy of
‘one (final version) (#117)’
courtesy of ‘j / f / photos’

Tomorrow night, you’ve an option to get very relaxed and happy, when a Yoga for Foodies event comes to Zola.

David Romanelli, who co-founded Yoga + Chocolate, will lead a one-hour flowing yoga class, to stretch your consciousness and your tummy for the three-course dinner that will follow. The menu is chock full of fresh, local, seasonal food, such as an oyster salad, dandelion greens, and strawberry and rhubarb gratin.

His plan is to make you aware of what you’re eating, where it comes from, and how it makes you feel. Which likely will be mmm, mmm good.

News, Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed
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McDonnell Orders Magical Cameras

Photo courtesy of
‘Surveillance’
courtesy of ‘ep_jhu’

Get off 66 at the DTR, and you have two choices: go directly to the Airport and pay nothing, or take the road with exits, and pay as you go. Apparently, though, there are enough people who are driving out to the airport and thence hitting the private roads. Gov. McDonnell has signed a bill to act to prevent this, which is great, the main airport road is for airport business, and I get this. The problem, though, is that they want to automate this process.

Yes, they want to put a camera out there to do photosurveillance and detection of who is and who is not on Airport business. I’m not exactly sure how that would work, and none of the initial reports seem to indicate how this machine would hand out its $600 tickets to the masses. How the heck would this work?

The Daily Feed
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Nats Fall To Braves In Extras, Braves Win 7-6

Photo courtesy of
‘9TH’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

Rookie Luis Atilano, who was a former Braves first round pick, had the first shaky start of his major league career Wednesday night against the Atlanta Braves (12-15). The start ended up costing the Nationals (14-13) to fall behind early in the run count during the night’s contest.

The true contest of the rookies was never realized due to Braves Outfielder Jason Heyward, who is now listed as day-to-day, leaving the game after the top of the 2nd inning with an injured groin.

What we did see was a Nats team with some bite to them. There were four ties and five lead changes over the course of this extra-inning game, giving the Nats plenty of time to swing their bats.

Nyjer Morgan recorded his 11th multi-hit game of the season finishing the night going 3-for-5 with 2 doubles and a run scored. Ian Desmond (.310 avg) continues to shine from not only a defensive standpoint but from the batter’s box having homered for the 2nd time in as many nights. Continue reading →

Business and Money, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed
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I Declare the Grocery Store Games Officially Open!

SupermarketGladiators

At 8:05am this morning, literally minutes after the new Social Safeway opened its doors to public, and the competition between the super giant and the Whole Foods up the street had already begun.

As I walked down Wisconsin Avenue, the former Pizza Hut, located directly across the street from Whole Foods entrance and parking garage was being decorated with a big bright banner/decal that read “Hungry Georgetown? Safeway: We are just down the block.” How neighborly and friendly of the Safeway to let Whole Foods know they’re there for them. I mean WF might indeed be hungry and in need of a good sandwich.

In all seriousness, I’m all about some good competition.  WF has had it made  since the Social Safeway closed last year for renovations leaving Glover Park, Burleith and Georgetown residents sans a non-organic, “non-gourmet,” whole paycheck devouring grocery store. Advertising the new Safeway directly across the street from WF is a genius marketing maneuver by Safeway. Well done sirs. Well done.

Shop Around The Corner

The Daily Feed
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Orange Line Double Whammy

No Passengers

The Orange Line is abuzz with delays. A train has been offloaded for mechanical difficulties at East Falls Church, and another train at Ballston appears to have begun emitting smoke. This would happen right at the peak of rush hour just when hordes of hungover Washingtonians need to be at work for Seis de Mayo. Naturally there is no notification of delays whatsoever on the website.

Update: Since there has been no further buzz or WMATA update I can only assume that the delays are cleared by now.