Mitchel Musso of the Disney Channel
Originally uploaded by minds-eye

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of this heavy political talk. A historic election! Record voter turnout! I stayed up late watching the Steelers spank the Redskins, and then got up too early to stand outside for two hours to vote. I’m ready to move on to something else.

Whatever, let’s talk about some kid from “Hannah Montana” showing up at Legacy Elementary School in Loudon County to promote… hand-washing.

Repeat after me, kids: “Clean Hands are Cool Hands.” Did you wash your hands after touching those dirty communal touchscreens?

At 8:00am this Election Day, just an hour after opening, the voting line at DC Ward 3’s International Union of Operating Engineers polling center was 500ft long and growing. The atmosphere was positive and voters were leaving with smiles on their faces. So get out there, brave the lines, cast your ballot and leave feeling empowered.

I voted in Arlington
Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge

In addition to the satisfaction of knowing that you have exercised your most fundamental political right, voting can bring you lots of perks.

You’ve probably heard already about the free tall coffee from Starbucks, the star-shaped doughnut from Krispy Kreme, and the free scoop from Ben & Jerry’s. But there are many fine local establishments offering free stuff as well!

Good Stuff Eatery is offering a free cookie or brownie when you show your “I Voted” sticker. California Tortilla will give you a coupon for a free taco if you show the cashier your sticker. DCFoodies informs us that Charlie Palmer’s will be offering free passed canapes and select beverages for $08 between 5 and 7 if you’re looking for a little happy hour action before heading home to watch the returns come in.

And finally, the 930 Club is offering their online-only Election Hangover special: between 10 and 11 AM on November 5th, if you buy one ticket for a 930 show online, you’ll get a second one free.

Any other good local Election Day deals we should know about?

Isolation
Originally uploaded by maxedaperture

Fotoweek starts in two weeks, but today they’ve put out their list of finalists, including our own Max Cook!

Congratulations Max and all the other finalists!

Ted Stevens lolsenator
Originally uploaded by MidnightsJinx

You would think that if you were going to use the excuse, “Oh sorry, a close family member died and I need to be with my family,” you’d either do it to people who wouldn’t check up on you, or have the decency to come up with a death certificate. Marian Hinnant of Northeast decided that she’d pass it off on the Judge.

But no, she’s not just any juror. She’s juror #4 from the Ted Stevens trial. The one who said her father died and she needed to get out of town. Turns out, she was totally lying and that she just wanted to go to the Breeders Cup horse race that weekend. What boggled my mind was that the Judge in this case just let her go. The ADN says she was let go without so much as a slap on the wrist, despite the fact that she lied to the court and left in the middle of deliberations.

So, if you ever have to skip out on jury duty in DC Federal Court, hope for Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, it seems he’s a softy.

 
 photo by rjohnson

Practically everyday last week, I received an email from my HR department about Georgetown’s Halloween Road and Parking closures.  After the 15th email and passing by a plethora of MPD posters taped to every tape friendly object,  I was an expert on traffic situation surrounding the Georgetown vicinity on Halloween.

So to my surprise, while walking home on Wisconsin Avenue at 7pm, I see the above poster taped over every MPD parking advisory notice.  While most of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue were clear of parked vehicles, there were a few vehicles who had bought into the poster’s “Free Parking” scheme.  **Side note: Cons often feed on a person’s greed, and these drivers probably thought they’d hit the parking space jackpot.**  While I didn’t see a traffic cop giving out tickets, I did spy a motorcycle cop taking down false posters.  However for some parked cars I’m sure it was too late.

Did anyone see who was putting these posters up?  Did anyone get a ticket because of the posters?

Color-Your-Own Electoral College Map
Originally uploaded by egp

Planning to let your kids stay up late to watch the election returns as a civics lesson? Get out the red and blue crayons and let them keep track of who is getting which electoral votes- there’s a large version of this map available for download under Creative Commons on Flickr.

Air Force Memorial Dedication Flyover
Originally uploaded by whiteknuckled

According to the AP wire – and confirmed by some noise heard by yours truly out in Vienna this morning – the DC area will be subjected to Falcon Virgo. What’s that, you say? It’s an air exercise that refines NORAD’s interception and identification operations.

And it’ll be noisy from all the jets zooming past. Too bad today will be cloudy; might have been some good sky weather to catch some military jets in action. Oh well.

Cash Paid Out No Sale
Originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk

The DC Government has filed papers for a $105M lawsuit accusing Bank of America of mishandling checks as part of the check-cashing scandal that’s sent several former DC Government employees to jail.

They want $105M in recovery & damages for the involvement of Walter Jones, an assistant manager at a DC-area Bank of America. Of course, BofA only handled about $34M of checks as part of the scandal. The District argues that they’re entitled to three times the total lost funds amount, under law, plus punitive damages for the actions involved.

Well, that’s one way to get your funds back if the conspirators have already spent most of them…

norma jean loves chipotle
Originally uploaded by NCinDC

From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (or to close, in some instances) Chipotle is giving away free burritos. Caveat? You’ve gotta dress like one to get one. So wrap yourself in tin foil and waddle on down to the nearest Chipotle. As DCist would say… burritoacolypse? burritogeddon?

Standing Still by RSchley

Don’t forget, Daylight Savings Time begins (ends? see comments.) this Sunday at 2:00 a.m.! Which means you’ll need to set your clocks back by an hour. Don’t forget your watches, stoves, microwaves, computers and other various timed devices.

Also, the safety experts at the University of Oklahoma urge you to take the opportunity to do things like throw away expired OTC and prescription meds, check the batteries in your fire and carbon monoxide alarms, and more.

If you’re not an overacheiver, just be happy the bars will close one hour later on Saturday night. Stay safe.

Photo courtesy Liz Martin

Happy Halloween, everyone. And because what you need from us is one more photo of a dog in costume, I wanted to share this photo of Arlington resident Liz Martin, her husband Will, and their dog Henry Basenji, collaboratively dressed as… the Orange Line!

I don’t know, Wayan… did the Petworth dog costume contest yield anything this creative and locally-appropriate?

Originally uploaded by erin m

I just got word from my roommate, who is in line up at Court House right now that the line is 2 hours long for voting in Arlington. If you’re planning on voting today, be sure to get there ASAP or else you won’t make it before polls close at 7 p.m.

May the force be with you, and all that. Think of it like this – it’s your one huge civic duty, it’s worth 2 hours of your time.