Puttin’ on the Ritz, from Young Frankenstein, click to embiggen.

Being raised in a home where Mel Brooks is regarded as a National Treasure, one of my earliest media memories is of watching Young Frankenstein, particularly the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” scene. So I’m pretty excited that Young Frankenstein has been made into a stage musical, and will be coming to the Kennedy Center starting December 15th and running all the way to January 10th.

But I’m even MORE excited that we’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away. But it won’t be through blog comments this time… this is a Twitter contest.

Here’s the deal: Between now and December 28th, you need to follow both @welovedc and @YFTour, and tweet about the musical, mentioning both @welovedc, @YFTour, and the hashtag #ItsALIVE. The mentions and the hashtag make sure all the DC tweets get entered in the DC contest, and following both twitter accounts means we’ll be able to notify the winner by Twitter direct message, so all those steps are important. So for example:

I want @YFTour & @welovedc to send me to see ‘Young Frankenstein’ at the Kennedy Center! #ItsALIVE http://bit.ly/7zyfqN

Continue reading →

‘Suffrage Hay wagon (LOC)’
courtesy of ‘The Library of Congress’

Remember Karl’s post about DC’s “culture of single-ism?” Well, some things never change it seems. Nikolas Schiller, man of many talents, posted up a scan and transcription of a 1908 Washington Times article about unmarried women in the District.  It’s fantastic reading, both for its content and as a window into another time.

The overgrown country village by the Potomac lays claim to a possession of a higher percentage of women of marriageable age with a lower per cent of opportunity than any community over which floats the Stars and Stripes, not excepting the man-deserted sitting rooms of the high-browed and austere dame of the hub of the universe nor rural Virginia where the coy and clinging lass of the Southland has been left in solitude while her possible mate sought elsewhere realms of greater activity. To substantiate which claim, though she likes them not, the burg of the broad avenue and the bouqueted beauty quotes the figures.

A recently completed police census reveals the fact that there are 17,000 more women in the city than men, which is rather startling majority out of a total of less than 330,000. It signifies that for each 100 men there are 111 women in the running. These discouraging figures, however, are but a shadow of the real plight in which a woman in Washington finds herself, for the social conditions that surround men in the Government service who largely make up the lists of possible matrimonial candidates are such as to discourage marriage and where there is a tendency shown to fly in the face of this restraint the victim is picked so soon that the rank and file have little chance at him.

As an aside, the 1908 Times is not, in fact, the same times of Today – Rev Moon may have revived the name when he started the Times in the early 80s, but they have not been in continuous operation since that time the way the Washington Post has been.

‘connected’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

Like Ben (and many of you, judging by your comments), Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is also experiencing Metro relationship dysfunction. And she’s going so far as to badmouth Metro to her coworkers.

Sen. Mikulski testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs today in a hearing on the federal government’s role in overseeing public transportation systems. Mikulski, who is herself on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and a securer of federal funds for Metro, basically hung Metro, and Metro General Manager John Catoe, out to dry. And you know, all I have to say about it is… it’s about damn time. Continue reading →

‘Rocket Bar Wine’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

So yesterday, I asked you what you preferred, red or white wine, for a chance to win a bottle of each, with personalized wine labels, from Carafe Wines in Old Town, Alexandria.

Out of 52 entrants, 34 of you voted for red and 17 voted for white. And if you count that up, we’re missing one, because one of you (ahem) actually didn’t choose one or the other! Don’t worry, you still got a shot at winning…

Well, congratulations to our very, very lucky winner: Sara! I know there were several Sara’s who entered, and this is specifically entry number 20, who commented:

It’s cold outside–time for red!

Well, Sara. You are right. Red was the winning category. AND, you won two free bottles of wine! But from what it seems, you probably won’t be sequestering the white wine until spring :). Phew. Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who commented/voted! And thanks to Carafe Wines for offering up the contest goods!