Find a Metro DC

Not that kind of touching you perv. The most adorable, or sweet, or heart-warming.

Just like yesterday, we’re going to give away a code for a free copy of JRBApps’ Find a Metro DC [iTunes] app. It’ll let you see the times projected for when the next train comes in as well as check NextBus and plan trips. In 24 hours we’ll close the contest and pick one winner at random. Friday we’ll give away three more codes – one more random selection as well as the two winning story entries.

Also like yesterday you can just post a comment saying something like “gimmie” so long as you enter a valid email address for us to contact you if you win. That puts your name in the hat for the day’s random drawing as well as Friday’s random pick.

If you want a shot at the “bonus round” then just tell us your touching mass transit story.

Have at it, and remember: not that kind of touching. I’d say Katie’s story yesterday took care of that…

UPDATE: Well Norm, guess your life is going to get easier then – you’re the winner. Random.org, asked to choose a number between 1 and 14, spat out number three. We’ll email you the code and thr rest of you can check back tomorrow afternoon to see who our remaining winners are.

‘Jeff Foxworthy Original Beef Jerky’
courtesy of ‘TreyDanger’

The classic quote from Otto von Bismack is “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” CSPAN disagrees, but this bit from a recent D.C. Register certainly lends some support to the idea that making law is messy: When you change who can marry from a man and a woman to any two consenting adults, you find that words like “wife” can be problematic.

A few days after the council passed the marriage equality bill they amended the D.C. code to fix some word choices. They had to change sections of the code talking about filing tax returns by “striking the phrase “husband and wife” and inserting the phrase “a married couple” in its place.”

There’s also an addition indicating that married same-sex couples will be able to file a joint return or separate returns on a combined form, similar to how domestic partnerships are specified on the existing tax forms. The city’s tax website suggests that if you entered into a same-sex partnership in another state you should keep checking back for the appropriate forms, which are not yet listed there.

‘4/365: Egg Rolls & Vermicelli 1/4/10’
courtesy of ‘heylovedc’

So I do a lot of telling you where to eat. I know, I’m sooooooo bossy, gah! But it seems like now is the proper time for feedback, seeing as it’s our reader survey time, and all. (Skrrrrttt. Wait. You haven’t taken it yet? Shame on you. Go do that, I’ll still be here when you get back.) Now, I may have eaten at 84 places in the last 6 months, but DC is still full of a redonkulous amount of restaurants that I haven’t tried, that I haven’t even HEARD of.

So that’s where you come in. What’s a hidden gem that you’d like to see written up for We Love Food? It could be a hole-in-the-wall ethnic place, or a pizza joint way out in Maryland that pwns all other pizza places ever. It could be a tiny little nook in Cleveland Park, or a Mexican restaurant out in Ballston – whatever it is, it’s wonderful, you love it, and think the world needs to know about it. Tell it to me in the comments, and I’ll do my best to go visit this year. (dining at under-the-radar places WAS one of my resolutions.).

Bring it. I’ve got my fork out, let’s do this.

‘MCCALL MAGAZINE COVER, GIRL IN RAIN’
courtesy of ‘George Eastman House’

Approximately 23,746 of you have forwarded me some variation of the 3-rubbers-and-you’re-arrested-in-DC meme currently making its way around the interwebbies, with varying degrees of outrage and hysteria. Meanwhile, the article that originally mentioned the 3 condoms standard doesn’t actually provide anything more substantial than the phrase “anecdotal evidence suggests” as a source for this information, and even then only mentioned it in the context of a much larger point about the downsides of using condoms as evidence for obtaining prostitution convictions.

So let’s take a moment to filter out the outrage:

– The theoretical 3 condom standard is not DC law. DC law is silent on the topic of condoms as evidence against prostitutes.  Therefore, DC police officers are not specifically encouraged to use or forbidden from using condoms as evidence in making an arrest.

– An officer still has to have probable cause to search a person in order to discover that he or she is carrying condoms, which means the number of condoms carried would be fairly useless as a solo piece of evidence. You will not be arrested for buying a 12-pack at CVS and toting it home.   Continue reading →

‘Chinatown Arch #2’
courtesy of ‘Frank Hale’

While you were all waiting for the marriage equality vote, the council was giving final approval to an Office of Planning project to address the “growing concerns of area residents and business owners that Chinatown is threatened by the continual loss of Chinese businesses and residents as well as cultural and historical features.”

I’d have loved to have seen Chinatown’s character preserved, but didn’t that ship sail over a decade ago? The area I’ve been calling “Chinatown in name only” for a lot of years is already pretty well diminished. The Office of Planning’s Chinatown Cultural Development Strategy summarizes it pretty well: “Today, only 30 Chinese owned businesses and less than 300 Chinese residents remain in Chinatown.”

In fairness to the Verizon center and other business growth there, the number of residents took a nose-dive from 3,000 to about 900 in the 70s and never recovered. But the business presence and appearance of Chinatown is vastly different from the first time I saw it in the late 80s. What’s really left at this point for this project to preserve?