‘Souvenir Baseball’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Opening Day at Nationals Park and around the country is three weeks away. Get in the mood by joining authors Steve Goldman and Clay Davenport tomorrow night at Politics and Prose for a live discussion about their book Prospectus: The Essential Guide to the 2010 Baseball Season.

Goldman and Davenport delve into the academic and statistical aspects of  the game, providing a deeper analytical view than that of the standard daily sports column.

The event starts 7.

‘Thumbs up!’
courtesy of ‘lululemon athletica’

This weekend, we did some tinkering under the hood to do some back-of-the-house upgrades, as well as install a few new plug-ins. The first that you’re seeing already is the new Thumbs Up button at the end of each entry. Chances are, you cottoned onto it pretty quick, because you’re no stranger to the social networks, but in case you’re not sure what to do with it: if you like a post, but don’t feel like commenting, just hit the thumbs up to let us know we’re doing a good job here. That will help us track which posts y’all are liking best, so we can steer ourselves toward those kind of voices and content.

‘Oscars Night’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

If you missed the Oscars last night, well, I can’t say I blame you. The telecast was about as well put together as a Marion Barry bill. However, it did net an Oscar win for Arlington’s own Sandra Bullock for her role in The Blind Side. Her speech thanked many of her co-nominees, as well as her late mother. Congrats to the Washington & Lee grad.

‘Old McDonald’s sign’
courtesy of ‘wfyurasko’

Several people I know are a bit aghast that McDonald’s has been the beneficiary of the city’s money, citing concern for local businesses and for the general health and well-being of the drivers. It’s not quite that simple.

Continue reading →

‘Dr. Demo’
courtesy of ‘Mrs. Gemstone’

Looks like the location owner Andrew Stewart had selected in Clarendon for the new Dr. Dremo’s fell through due to costs associated with construction and bringing the building up to code. There’s a new location in discussion and Mr. Stewart is negotiating a lease, but this means that it will be even longer before we can sample the 30+ beers in a rock and roll garage setting whilst playing beer pong, shuffle board and pool simultaneously. (That is not snark. I spent every Thursday night of about 4 years at the old Dr. Dremo’s. I miss it dearly.)

”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

The Pentagon Metro station has reopened following last night’s shooting and is usable. Be aware, however, that it’s just the northern entrance that’s open- the southern entrance and the upper level of the Transit Center are both closed. So your Metrobus will be picking you up and dropping you off on the lower level until the FBI completes their investigation in the area. The rules for regional buses are a little different and you should check their website for details.

‘schoolyard 1’
courtesy of ‘Pappa91’

One of President Barack Obama’s more interesting programs this year has been his Race to the Top program, designed to spur innovation in state school systems, to get better results out of new programs.  The District applied last month to be one of the grant winners, and today it was announced that they were selected as a finalist

Now the District must defend their proposal in mid-March, touting the reforms listed and demonstrating their plan for success among the other 16 finalists. The number of winners is flexible, and they will split $4B in education funding among what they term to be a few winners for Phase 1. If the District’s plan is not successful in Phase 1, they may reapply in Phase 2, along with Virginia and Maryland. Maryland chose not to apply in Phase 1, and to wait and see how the process worked, and Virginia was not selected as a finalist.