It’s a slow day around here and most everywhere, what with so many offices closed. If you’re sitting in the office, bored out of your mind because we’re all out goofing off with our families…. sorry. Have a nice dinner? Did you see that movie, goat?

How about a little music to salve the bordedom? Jeremy of Daddy’s Lion dropped us a note to let us know their new album is out and available for a free download. They’re a local band, which is enough reason to flog them as far as I’m concerned. Add in the fact that they list influences as varied as Husker Du, Joy Division, and Leonard Cohen… well, my little 80s heart is lost.

Go listen while you try to digest that pumpkin pie. If you’re another local band, let us know in the comments where we can get a feel for your stuff.

This is a brilliant speech. And yes, the President did donate the two dressed birds to Martha’s Table on 14th street to help out with those less fortunate, in addition to sending Courage and Carolina to Disneyland (no, really.).

‘I’m no one’s Thanksgiving dinner!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

It’s almost here, our four day weekend of Thanks, and I’m sure that by now your office is winding down (or perhaps even closed already), and thoughts of turkeys and stuffing and cranberries and pie are running through your head. We wish you the most wonderful Thanksgiving, and we are thankful for each and every one of you. So, for those still stuck at work, click the break, and put it on your second monitor, for Hulu has saw fit to bestow upon us all, a great American tradition: The WKRP in Cincinnati Christmas Episode. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

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‘Film! – Canon A-1 – Headlines – 11-5-08’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

I saw it on a twitter mention by ABC’s Rick Klein, but FishbowlDC has the full memo: The Washington Post is closing their domestic bureaus in New York, Chicago, and LA. It’s not a big surprise – newspapers all over are steadily moving towards using more and more wire services for day to day coverage outside their home area.

‘It’s been awhile’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

Washington Wizards owner and former owner of both the Capitals and Mystics Abe Pollin has passed away at age 85.

Pollin owned Washington Sports & Entertainment, the company that owns both the Wizards and the Verizon Center, making him in large part responsible for the revitalization of Chinatown. He was the longest-tenured owner in the NBA, and brought NHL to DC.

He graduated from George Washington University in 1945, started his own construction business in 1957 with his wife Irene.  His presence in the DC community will be missed but his contributions to DC sports remain.

No, not lame-duck congresscritters. Actual zombies. Well, simulated zombies anyway.

This little game demo is making the twitter rounds at the moment. It’s a little sim that runs in your web browser and shows a theoretical zombie outbreak in DC, just south of Ft Totten park. Here’s a google maps overhead of the region, but it’s way more fun in the sim with the shambling and shooting.

At the moment all you can do is alter some settings like number of armed civilians and which direction the zombies come from but presumably this is on its way to an actual game. It will let you set the percentage of armed civilians down to the pre-2008 level 0% when there were, of course, no guns in the district.

‘cheat’
courtesy of ‘cdrummbks’

The DC Wire blog reports that 12 DCPS schools have been ordered to open investigations into their 2009 test scores. This is some weak sauce, given that this concern is nothing new. Initially Superintendent of Education Kerri Briggs declined to pursue that issue further because the review came back “inconclusive,” but when you have a statistical suspicion of wrong-doing and an inconclusive result… well personally I think that warrants continuing analysis till you get exculpatory or conclusive results, but hey – it’s just our children’s educations and our money, right?

So now the suspect schools are asked to conduct their own analysis, which I’m unclear on the appropriateness of. Does this mean the superintendent thinks that this could have happened without the involvement of the higher-ups at these schools? Or is this a cross-the-t measure to make sure that if they’re cheaters they have to at least learn to be cheaters who can cover their own tracks better?

The superintendent’s office refuses to reveal which 12 schools were asked to conduct investigations.

‘R.P. Hobson & wife on ice skates (LOC)’
courtesy of ‘The Library of Congress’

If you were looking forward to doing some ice skating this fall you’re going to have to find somewhere other than the sculpture garden to to it. The NGA website has the following notice:

Due to technical difficulties with the ice-making equipment, we are unable to open the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden ice-skating rink until further notice.

You can take the metro out to Pentagon City for the moment if you’re determined to do some skating; Pentagon Row’s outdoor rink is open for business already. Anyone got any other favorite ice rinks, indoors or out?

3 Chord Comedy, the monthly comedy showcase at the Velvet Lounge has been going on for a while now, and with some success (because they get to keep doing it.)  On December 4th, 3 Chord is going upmarket with their comedy because Rob Cantrell, from Last Comic Standing and Comedy Central, will be headlining.

Accordingly, the ticket for 3 Chord Comedy has doubled in price. To $4. $4 to see a comic you would ordinarily spend 5 times as much to see. Just go, already.