By Tom Bridge
Pumpkin in the cedar.
Originally uploaded by tbridge
What started as sidewalk squash has now turned into a squash infestation of the cedar tree along the front walk. This 8-10lb beauty hangs about six feet off the ground inside the central core of the cedar. I figure it’ll make a kickin’ jack-o-lantern come October.
By Don
Paulo’s video of the elevator debacle yesterday reminded me of a Car Talk puzzler from a few years ago that made me think about WMATA and their seemingly endless escalator problems. Sadly my thoughts haven’t changed much since I heard this in 2004…
The puzzler, which Tom and Ray credit to Irving Biggio, goes like this: “In our fair city of London, England– not far from the real Cambridge—many of the Underground, or subway, stations have three escalators.
It’s always the case that two of them are up escalators, and one is a down escalator. It doesn’t matter which way the rush hour crowds are moving, or if more people are arriving or leaving, or the time of day: There are always two that go up, and one that goes down. The same is true for underground stations out in the suburbs.
Why?”
some tips and a link to the answer after the jump. Continue reading
By Don
A legal challenge has been officially filed today that challenges the District’s ban on self-loading pistols and requirement that weapons be stored unloaded or trigger locked. The petitioners are Mr Heller himself as well as two others. WaPo quotes AG Nickels as saying “This is going to be a long fight.” Sadly he lacks the integrity to admit “and that’s highly deliberate on our part.”
Next time you hear about the city having trouble coming up with the money for something, you can think of this malarkey.
happiness is a warm gun, courtesy of badjonni
Use your bike
Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge
I haven’t been able to track down any information about who organized this demonstration, but I was chatting with a coworker today when we heard the sound of music and chanting passing by our window.
From the fourth floor, we couldn’t quite make out who was organizing this demonstration, but the signs were largely split into the practical, “Bikes don’t run on gas!” vs. the whimsical, “Cars don’t dance!”
Pro-bike rallies are neato and all, but when I pointed out the series of slow-moving petroleum-powered cars guarding the left flank of the march from passing motorists, my coworker said, “That’s what’s known as ‘irony.'”
Anyone know who these marchers are?
By Don
There’s a 50% off deal going on at online vendor Fathead’s website where you can get the Nationals logo in a 4-foot by 3 foot removable wall-sticker when you buy some other full-priced Fathead thing. (Okay, you can get any MLB logo but why would you want any of the others?) Their website has kind of a cool feature where you can see what the Nats logo your selected MLB logo will look like in a bedroom, office, game room or den. It’s just a little auto-compositing where they overlay it on a stock image, but it’s still nifty.
Well, the tech is nifty. The selection of images for sample bedrooms is a little less than brilliant, however, since the kid sitting in the room and looking up at the logo is wearing an A’s sweatshirt. I can only imagine he’s looking up there and thinking “Wait, who? I’ve never seen any of those games on tv…”
Poor stock photo choices, screen captured from Fathead
By brownpau
A line of thunderstorms swept over the Metro area around 1PM this afternoon; we got home from church just as the darkening sky let loose its first drops of rain. While it stormed, I ran wget on the ABC 7/News Channel 8 webcam and got this time lapse video. Watch for the two bolts of lightning.
The storms caused a few injuries today, and capsized boats at the Aquapalooza festival on the Potomac.
By Wayan
This would be the backdoor moat at the famous Florida Avenue Grill.
Now I’m not sure why there’s a five foot deep moat – dine and dash catcher? rat deterrent? summer swimming hole? – but its there, and I bet after today’s rain, waist deep with water too.
Good luck digging that out on Monday!
As Tom and I left Proof the other night after a We Love DC writers meetup, we were approached by a young man who introduced himself thus:
“Young man, young lady, I’m Black Rain Man. Name a country. Name any country on God’s earth. Young lady, name a country.”
Amused, I responded, “Djibouti.”
By Don
Well, not really. Tom’s second in our ongoing feature on the monuments in our city goes live at 2p today (see the first – about Farragut Square – here), but today’s Washington Post Weekend section contains a story called 10 memorable memorials. They’re some interesting picks, and worth suffering through the bad interface on the website to look at… though only barely. 4 lines at a time, really? More curious than the painful web layout is that the print edition uses different photos for the Kermit and Victims of Communism monuments.
On the other hand, reading it online can allow you to compare some of WaPo’s shots with what’s available on Flickr. Most notable is how different an impression you get from the Post’s close-up shot of the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism than this wide shot by user kimberlyfaye. I also like Aaron Webb’s shot of George Mason chatting with this fellow, apparently in town for a lumberjack blogger convention. (I kid, Mike – love the tuque! But no matter what, don’t miss andertho’s shot of the Titanic memorial, which puts WaPo’s to shame.
Other quick searches here, here, here, here, and here, plus shots of multiple versions from around the world of the Spitir of Haida Gwaii here.
By Wayan
Rolling with the WashPost article on the area’s tomato crop, I went and checked on my backyard garden this morning.
The verdict: I got great gobs of green tomatoes popping out, but not a ripe one in sight.
I do have crazy big basil from all the rain, but no ripe love apples to go with it.
What’s your tomato situation?
By bstanfield
Gigabit
Originally uploaded by Ben Stanfield
Today’s the day to do a little something nice for that nerd in the dark office staring at the computer screen all day. It’s System Administrator Appreciation Day, and to show a token of your appreciation for the guys and gals who keep your computer running, your blackberry going, your voicemail operating, and take care of all the other electronic things you don’t know how to use, you can head out to the Brickskeller and buy a round for the geeks gathered there for System Administrator Day.
As part of their Grand Opening Week Festivities, HacDC is organizing the Friday night event, from 8:30PM until 2 AM.
By bstanfield
War Games, the quintessential geek movie of the 80s, is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary tonight with showings on the big screen. For those of you looking to relive the good old days of 300 baud phone-coupled analog modems and a military industrial complex unconcerned with security breaches that could wreak a nuclear holocaust kind of havoc with a simple game of tic-tac-toe, tonight’s your night. (Also, you’ll get to see a young Ally Sheedy and Matthew Broderick.)
I’ll be heading to the Tyson’s Corner location with a group from HacDC, but you can look up the closest theatre to you on Fathom Events website. (Unfortunately, it seems only theatres in VA are participating. I couldn’t find any in DC or the MD suburbs.) Tickets for most showings are still available online.
By brownpau
Via DC Metrocentric, we find that the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has a Flickr stream, to which they have posted a a time lapse video of construction progress on their upcoming Ocean Hall:
The Ocean Hall opens in September 2008. Being an avid scuba diver and admirer of all forms of marine life (in beauty and taste), I look forward to this eagerly.
By Wayan
How hot is the Dark Knight? How many movie goers want to see it on a random Wednesday?
So many that this is not the line for tickets. Fandango killed those a while ago. This is the line just for overpriced popcorn, drinks, and snacks.
Note its two lanes wide and hits the front doors and circles back on itself. If only the Uptown would open the upstairs snack bar too…
By bstanfield
If you’re looking for something entertaining this evening, check out Monochrom: Law and Second Order tonight, hosted by HacDC, at 8:30 PM at St. Stephen’s Church in Columbia Heights (16th & Newton NW). It’s sure to be a wild and absolutely crazy show. The rumour is they spent yesterday in Pennsylvania Amish Country shooting an Amish porn video after a weekend performing at The Last Hope, a hacker conference in NYC.
monochrom is a worldwide operating collective dealing with technology, art, context hacking and philosophy and was founded in 1993. So to sum up, monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science and political activism. Their mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom released a leftist retro-gaming project, established a 1 baud semaphore line through the streets of San Francisco, started an illegal space race through Los Angeles, buried people alive in Vancouver, and cracked the hierarchies of the art system with The Thomann Project.
By brownpau
So I was running a bit late for work this morning and took a cab. As we passed through downtown, WTOP on the radio warned of traffic around 18th and K Streets NW, as a pedestrian had been hit by a car around that intersection. As luck would have it, the taxi had just arrived there, and sure enough there was a backup of about half a block — nothing too bad, and I got to work just fine.
Well, guess who hit the pedestrian: Robert Novak, in his black Corvette. He says he didn’t even know he’d hit anyone till a passing biker told him. Police detained Novak on the scene for about an hour and gave him a citation (no arrest); the pedestrian, as yet unnamed, was brought to GWU with arm pain. WJLA has posted a raw video interview with Novak immediately following his emergence from an MPD cruiser.
Update: Additional info, commentary, and schadenfreude from Washington Post, DCist, Politico, TMZ (where he blames NPR for distracting him), Think Progress, Wonkette, and The Carpetbagger Report.
By Tom Bridge
Unlike the first DC-related iPhone app, this one seems to be a real winner. It’s a mobile version of the Washington Post’s City Guide for your iPhone. It’ll give you the basics of the Post’s resources, as well as buttons to call ahead to your favorite places, as well as store a group of favorite restaurants and bars and clubs and get directions from anywhere.
Oh. And it’s FREE. Thanks much to Couch on Twitter for bringing it to our attention.
By Tom Bridge
Congrats on Being Late, Fox 5
Originally uploaded by tbridge
As I was walking out of Murky yesterday, I caught a Fox 5 reporter and her cameraman going in. Damn if I wish I couldn’t have stuck around. According to the baristas I talked with this morning, the reporter hadn’t done her research, and was being a general nuisance. They finally asked her to leave.
Fox 5, the real story was at Murky 9 days ago, not today. Showing up without having done your research, and being jerks to the staff at Murky…well, I suppose it’s par for the course for a station that follows the “If it bleeds, it leads” story model.
By Wayan
Miles Harrison
As he’s being charged manslaughter, I’m wondering if Miles Harrison has suffered enough already. There’s no way I can see any court-imposed punishment coming close to the beating he gives himself every waking moment.
To bring everyone up to speed, let’s review his case with a little help from the WashPost article:
By Tom Bridge
Big Time Tackle
Originally uploaded by acaben
DC United was to face the Houston Dynamo tonight at 7:30 at RFK, but according to a text message I just got from the United, a power outage at RFK has pushed the contest ’til tomorrow night. Pepco’s outage map shows a small pocket of out-of-power in Northeast DC, but no real explanation for what’s going on.
By 
