‘no mires 2 / don’t look 2’
courtesy of ‘tutescin’

Think being alone in your house means you can let it all hang out with impunity? Think again, at least in Fairfax. Springfield resident Eric Williamson was arrested and charged with indecent exposure… in his kitchen. The WTOP article quotes an attorney about what he thinks the prosecutors will have to prove to make their case. From a look at the relevant VA code it looks even harder than he makes it sound.

Every person who intentionally makes an obscene display or exposure of his person, or the private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where others are present, or procures another to so expose himself, shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Aside from the challenge of proving that it was intentional, the definition of obscene in the code is as follows:

The word “obscene” where it appears in this article shall mean that which, considered as a whole, has as its dominant theme or purpose an appeal to the prurient interest in sex, that is, a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, excretory functions or products thereof or sadomasochistic abuse, and which goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in description or representation of such matters and which, taken as a whole, does not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

That seems like a challenge to apply to someone making coffee in the buff.

Courtesy of The Travel Channel

DC’s “extreme food” scene gets a national audience tonight at 10:00 p.m. The host of the Travel Channel’s show Man v. Food, Adam Richman, recently came to DC on his adventure around the country to find and eat large quanities of good food.

Adam will be starting at Ben’s Chili Bowl. ‘Nuf said. Adam’s trip to Ben’s is complete with a Bill Cosby impression and a seat in the same chair President Obama sat in when he visited.

His next stop is Horace & Dickies Seafood-Chicken Carry Out in NE. Adam dines on a fried fish sandwich with 8 slices of bread,  4 or 6 fried fish fillets, hot sauce, tartar sauce, and coleslaw – which has been made the same way since 1990.

Adam’s main challenge is in Annapolis and is so monstrous, only 2 people out of hundreds have completed it. Continue reading →

‘DC and US Flags’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

House Democrats are attaching the DC Voting Rights Act, which would grant a full House seat to the District and an additional seat to Utah (to keep things nice and even) to a defense appropriations bill, under the theory that Republicans won’t want to vote to hold up appropriations for the troops.

House Minority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) opposes this move “because it would be showing a propensity to use our men and women in uniform to carry controversial legislation.” Which entertains me, because I’m pretty sure that using our men and women and uniform as a political football is one of America’s most time-honored traditions.

Tamara Miller, a rabbi at George Washington University hospital, has been fired for speaking and writing about comforting the family of the security guard who died in the Holocaust Museum shooting.

Miller wrote for the Washington Post’s column On Faith about the experience in June, and the hospital fired her five weeks later for supposedly sharing personal information about the patient. I read the article, and there is absolutely nothing shocking or even particularly revealing about what she says: Johns died in the arms of medical personnel from a shotgun wound. Is there something else going on here? Or is this as egregious of an infringement on free speech as it looks?

‘Chanchoche’
courtesy of ‘jpcolasso’

Alexandria will be offering H1N1 flu vaccinations starting next Saturday (the 31st) at George Washington Middle School. The vaccinations are open to the public and offered as doses are available.

The vaccinations are free and will be offered first to those at highest risk, including pregnant women, nannies, kids 24 mos to 6 years, health care workers, and adults 24 – 65 with chronic health conditions. Kids in Alexandria City Public Schools can get vaccinated starting today (based on vaccine availability), though only the injectable form will be available.

‘Metro SmarTrip Card’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Hey Metro, if your budgets are so strained, maybe you could keep your credit/debit machines working so that people like me who don’t carry cash can refill our SmarTrip cards.

Did anyone get stuck due to this morning’s credit/debit outage in Metro stations?  Or are the rest of you better planners than I am and never let your SmarTrip card get that low?

app screenshot from cultureous.com

Just saw someone mention an app called Cultureous on twitter so I looked it up. I’m not sure it’s of much interest to us locals, but it’s a nifty little app for you to suggest to your visiting friends. In-app maps, attractions, links to items of interest, and trivia for less than the price of a curbside half-smoke. I can’t vouch for it personally but I admire the linking of podcasts and youtube clips to each attraction – it’s a clever little way to add something and make more than an online version of a printed guidebook.

‘Nuff said!’
courtesy of ‘jimbotfuzz’

Prince George’s County Sheriff Michael Jackson is running to become chief executive of PG County. I don’t live in PG County and thus don’t want to presume to tell the fine citizens of PG what to do with their vote, but I will point out this Reason article that points out the botched raids carried out in the wrong houses, the commonplace shootings of family pets during such raids, and other such examples of how the Sheriff’s department has been terrorizing innocent PG County citizens during Jackson’s tenure.  No, Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo’s case was not a fluke.

I hope Prince George’s County citizens consider carefully whether they want to reward this kind of contempt for their rights, safety, liberty, and property.