Category Archives: The Daily Feed

People, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Terps Tearful on Exit

Photo courtesy of
‘toliver’
courtesy of ‘caciadoodl’

As the other Maryland players lined up to shake hands with Louisville, senior star duo Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman sat on the bench, overcome by tears. Their college careers and quest for a second NCAA title in their tenure had just come to an end at the hands of the Cardinals, 77-60 defeat. 

Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry, who calls Baltimore home, posted 21 points and 13 boards in the contest and claimed the outstanding player award for the region. For their efforts, Louisville receives the dubious award of being matched up (most likely, game is tonight at 7 p.m.) with far-and-away-favorite UConn in Final Four play on April 5. Good luck with that one…

The Daily Feed
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I Think God Loves DC, Too


Dude, Phelps Is SO Gay
Originally uploaded by M.V. Jantzen

You probably heard, even if you weren’t unfortunate enough to see them, that the Westboro Baptist Church was in town yesterday to protest… well, pretty much whatever they could think of. High schools whose mascots are the “Rebels,” because God hates rebels, or something. And of course, their favorite object of hatred, gay people.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to blog it, because on one hand, it’s newsworthy, but on the other hand, the WBC are so much a band of screaming toddlers who throw tantrums because it gets them the attention they crave, and why do I want to feed into that? Also, being part of a Christian tradition that emphasizes love and inclusiveness, I’m pretty much personally heartbroken by WBC (but that’s beyond the scope of this blog).

So I was pleased to see this photo of a counterprotest show up in our Flickr pool. Smiling people, messages of love, and an amusing little poke at Fred Phelps, leader of the WBC.

Thanks for meeting hate with grace, DC.

The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Oops… DC Scout FAIL.

DC Scout Fail

My friend Rebecca and I had a good laugh this morning when we both got our DC Scout monthly e-mail. Click the above picture to enlarge and you’ll see that the subject line of the email says “DC Scout Test Subject Line – CHANGE BEFORE ACTUAL MAILING” – oops. I’ve totally been there before.

I hope your day gets better, WaPo, cause we all know what it’s like to stick your foot in your virtual mouth. If you were my co-worker I’d say “at least it’s Friday soon” but uh, it’s not. At least there’s happy hour in like, oh, 8 hours? …Right?

The Daily Feed
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Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay

Photo courtesy of
‘opening up’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

NPR’s Joe Palca is moderating a panel at the National Building Museum tomorrow night called “Water Knows No Boundaries,” about the 40-year effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay. He’ll be sitting down with the president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a landscape architect from Catholic University, and DC Councilmember Tommy Wells to talk about the challenges in cleaning up watersheds that cross multiple municipalities.

The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!
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Can I get your number?

Photo courtesy of
‘ow’
courtesy of ‘Ryan Forsythe’

I spent some extra time on the Metro this morning (left my computer at home, only to realize it once I got to my desk. ugh.) and for once, I read both the Express AND the Examiner. What caught my eye this morning was the lead story in The Examiner – staff members from some of DC’s restaurants have been committing identity fraud by taking credit card information from customers.

Timely, since I’ve recently started paying close attention to my reciepts. I’ve started regularly checking for my credit card number to be printed on the copies of my reciepts along with the expiration date, and making sure to scribble it out. I’ve noticed it in tons of places – Guajillo, Summer’s Sports Bar, to name my most recent two – but not just at restaurants – Tschiffely Pharmacy in Union Station does it too. I take the time to scratch out my numbers and expiration date, but I imagine I’m the exception.

Where have you noticed this? Do you scratch out your numbers?

The Daily Feed
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Fireball over the Mid-Atlantic Coast

Above: news report from WAVY TV 10.

Update, Tue 3/30/2009 9:50 AM: There’s been some word from Geoff Chester at the USNO that the fireball might have been a reentering Soyuz booster from Russia, but the latest info from the Joint Space Ops Center at VAFB is that they have been tracking Russian rocket fragments among other space junk and the east coast fireball was not a manmade object:

The JSpOC tracks over 19,000 manmade objects in space. The “bright light” that was reported on the East Coast on Sunday, 29 March at 9:45 p.m. EST was not a result of any trackable manmade object on reentry. Natural phenomena are not tracked by JSpOC professionals.

So at the moment the likely explanation is a small meteor. Continue reading →

24 in DC, The Daily Feed
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24 in DC Extra: WaPo finally catches on


This officer tired of our shenanigans.
Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge

Apparently the Post has JUST NOW NOTICED that 24 screws up DC geography.

Even though the writers have a big ol’ map of DC on the wall, apparently they don’t consult it that often. Or watch the news, ever. (edited to add:) Oh, and apparently only people with “too much time on their hands” care about this stuff. Well, okay, I probably do have too much time on my hands. But people LIVE in DC. This is our HOME, and we care about having it portrayed accurately. 

Shameless plug: We’ll be back at our 24-snarking tonight as usual. Oh yes, we’re committed to you, our readers, to slog through every episode this season. Come watch with us in the chat room, and we’ll have a recap up afterwards.

All Politics is Local, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Kite Festival In Pictures

Photo courtesy of
‘Flying a Kite’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

It may have been a gray and drizzly Saturday, but that didn’t stop Inspiration DC‘s Rebecca and I from heading out to take pictures of the Smithsonian Kite Festival on the Mall.

Packed with kids of all ages, flying kites of every variety, the turn out was more than I expected. Even with the grey sky, the kites dotting the air made the mall festive and full of life. To live vicariously through us (and the WLDC flickerattzi), click on through. Continue reading →

Fun & Games, News, The Daily Feed
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I dub thee…

kibibi1

Photo credit: Mehgan Murphy/Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Well, the voting public has spoken (all 10,000 of you, apparently) and the National Zoo has dubbed the two-month old baby female gorilla Kibibi (kee-BEE-bee).

The public was invited to vote on three names for the gorilla, including Kipenzi (kee-PEHN-zee) “loved one” and Keyah (KAY-yah) “good health,” over the course of several weeks. Kibibi was born at the Zoo Jan. 10 to 26-year-old female Mandara and 16-year-old Baraka.

According to the National Zoo, “Kibibi already has four teeth, has been riding increasingly on Mandara’s back and shows an interest in her environment, especially in food given to Mandara. In the coming weeks, she is expected to begin exploring her surroundings and manipulating objects.” I went to the zoo last weekend to check her out while my parents were in town visiting, and she’s pretty cute. She was basically doing what she’s doing in the above picture, just chillin’ with her Mom. Ahh, the good life.

Special Events, The Daily Feed
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We the People Project

white-house-1

If you’re looking for something a little different this weekend than the Cherry Blossom Festival (which kicks off tomorrow), then maybe you should check out the We the People project this Sunday. This exhibition and performance event is from 2-5 pm at the Gallery W-16 of the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA. And it’s free.

The We the People project honors Women’s History Month and SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now) by highlighting a unique vision of America through the eyes of immigrant and American-born artists.  Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, Business and Money, Life in the Capital, People, The Daily Feed
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Econopocalypse – WaPo’s Help for the Employment Forlorn

Photo courtesy of
‘Fannie Mae Stole My Job!’
courtesy of ‘sinksanctity’

The Washington Post’s employment website just launched a new feature to help those recently displaced from gainful employment with a feature “How to Survive a Layoff“. I’ve personally been reading this feature due to my recent separation from my employer. It’s a handy To-Do style list of things folks should take into account once they’ve found themselves missing the daily enriching (in both definitions of the term) routine of going to work. The chief one, and one that I had to use every day due to my job as an computer incident response professional was “Don’t Panic!”. But the other useful proverb is also “use your network”. Continue reading →

News, The Daily Feed
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Passenger Buses, Train Collide in Riverdale

Photo courtesy of
‘EMD AEM-7 MARC #4902’
courtesy of ‘cliff1066’

The rainy day commute just got a lot worse if you’re on public rail. According to BNO News, a MARC train struck a passenger bus on the tracks in Hyattsville, and 40 people are being tended to after the incident. NBC 4 is on the scene, and reports it’s a pair of buses that collided, not a train and a bus.

Update 1: The accident took place at Queensbury Road and Rhode Island Ave in Riverdale Park:

picture-1

Update 2: WTOP is reporting it was a train and two passenger buses that collided, with six injuries requiring a trip to the hospital. Thankfully, no one was killed.

DC Victory Gardens, The Daily Feed, Thrifty District, We Green DC
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DIY: Garden Planters!

Photo courtesy of
‘Our Garbage Cans’
courtesy of ‘auntjojo’

I’m an unabashed free thing scavenger. If its on the curbside and in good condition, I will go out of my way to look at it. One of the best finds of late on this front, was a sizable terra cotta flower pot (thank you, 8th St. neighbor!). You know why this was super exciting? Because flower pots are expensive! And if you’re gardening with limited space/sunlight, container potting is one of the smarter ways to go. 

So, what to do? (Besides scavenge, that is.) Make your own! This is something my grandmother, a master gardener, advised me to do early on: make flower pots out of old coffee cans (either tin or plastic, doesn’t matter). Then, I saw this article in The Guardian.

All it takes is a quick pass through the recycling bin (your own, or.. if you’re adventurous, that of others) to find some really sweet-looking tin cans. Puncture holes in the bottoms and you’re ready to go. You just saved precious dollars that can be spent on more seeds!