While others are watching movies, or playing poker, the rest of us are reading. Read much and reading well apparently. For the second year in a row, Washington DC is in top five of the America

Well, it looks like we’re going to get some snow here tomorrow, anywhere from 1 to 8 inches depending upon on who you believe, but that’s a good chunk snow for this region. Of course, the Post is already freaking out, but when they lead like this:

As forecasters predicted the season’s first snow storm would arrive early Monday morning and potentially annoy evening rush-hour commuters, the truly precautious weren’t taking chances.

Precautious?! That’s so not a word. But yeah, start the crazy hoarding, it’s blizzard time!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Frank Warren of Germantown has a little website you might have heard of: Postsecret. Postsecret has become a phenomenon, spawning a regular feature in the City Paper, a book, and finally, a traveling art exhibition.

That art exhibition will be in Georgetown on December 15 at the old Staples store. Don’t miss it- it’s only there until January 8.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Major congratulations to the DC Council for sitting down with Major League Baseball and getting them to blink a bit on their requirements for the team. MLB ponied up another $20M, and have agreed tentatively to a letter of credit that would satisfy Wall St. of the city’s honorability in terms of the bonds. The deal’s not all the way done, but it’s nice to see the two sides speaking not just amicably, but seriously about what they’ll do to make the stadium a reality.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The former longtime secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Charles Atherton, 73, was hit Thursday night while crossing rain-slicked Connecticut Avenue NW. He was hit so hard that Atherton flew out of his shoes and was left crumpled on the road, bleeding from his head and nose after his head smashed into the windshield.

To quote the WashPost article:

Michael Baker, a communications consultant who was a few yards away when the accident occurred, was among the first to reach Atherton. “At one point, we were trying to get him to respond, and it was unclear if he was trying to respond or maybe drowning in blood,” he said. “I think he was having a difficult time breathing. He never said anything. He couldn’t speak, and he wouldn’t respond when we pinched his hand.”

So this elderly statesman of DC is lying in the road, slowly bleeding, maybe to death, and what does the driver think about, what is she concerned with? His health, his survival, his life? Ha! No, she’s worried about liability. She cares more if he will sue her than if he lives. To quote the WashPost again:

Baker said he overheard a police officer “reassuring” the driver involved in the accident that she was not at fault. She had been headed south on Connecticut. On the face of it, Baker said, it may seem “offensive” that Atherton was ticketed, but he believed that the officers were seeking to establish liability. “It seemed primarily to assuage her,” he said of the driver. “She was just distraught. She was wailing for 45 minutes.”

Awww

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For a month now, Zucchabar’s 80’s Rock N’ Roll Night was advertising a Kill the Keg- free beer from 9-10pm on Saturdays. While I am all about free beer and no cover, I wonder what this is doing to their bottom line.

Anyone make it to one of these nights and seen the crowd? I’m thinking if its Adams-Morgan on a Saturday night, it’ll be a wall-to-wall sausage party. An 80’s sausage party to boot. At least you can get a glow bracelets & other 80’s stuff.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I can just see the smile on Tom’s face as he reads this, both the flax tax angle and the taxation without representation angle, and I know he’s gonna be commenting. So with a wiry smile I note that the New York Sun reports:

Senator Brownback, a Republican of Kansas, is looking to introduce legislation that would make Washington a “laboratory” for testing a flat tax’s merits, and will hold hearings early next year to explore the issue.”

I’m excited about it,” Mr. Brownback told The New York Sun in a phone interview earlier this week. Mr. Brownback said that making D.C. a test case would, with limited potential for negative impact, provide valuable data about the effects of a flat tax that would prove helpful in determining whether it should be applied nationwide

Here we go again, some crazy-ass Congressman is thinking DC is his personal sandbox. If he wants to mess with the tax structure, I say go with no Federal taxes. Not only would that be right – no taxation without representation – it would spur growth, investment, and a massive influx of Republicans like nuttin else would.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Match.com just delivered an interesting “match” to my inbox with its fun auto-matching logarithm. Seemingly less perfect than DC Domme, it thinks that Lisa_2004fun is the right one for me.

Hmm

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Nothing says the holiday season to me more than the ballet “The Nutcracker.” Tonight WETA is showing the 1977 American Ballet Theater version with Mikhail Baryshnikov – though it’s part of their pledge drive so I’m taking a break from childhood nostalgia to check out the local Nutcracker options. As a baby ballerina I was obsessed with the ABT version and tried to mimic Clara’s every move. But almost all ballet companies have their own take on the classic libretto, backed by Tchaikovsky’s memorable score. It’s about a girl who is given a special nutcracker as a Christmas present, and ends up on a magical journey towards womanhood. Corny? Sure, but also part of many a cherished girlhood dream.

Here in Washington, two top-notch companies will be performing their special spins on this tale – the venerable American Ballet Theater itself, and our own local Washington Ballet. ABT will be performing at the Kennedy Center from December 7 -11, and this will be the version familiar to most. The always creative Washington Ballet will be performing Artistic Director Septime Weber’s version (which debuted last year) with a distinctly Washingtonian flair at the Warner Theater all month, from tonight through December 24. I think this last is the one I want to see this year. They even promise Anacostian Indians!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A good friend of mine just sent me this interesting Craigslist DC personals ad, asking me Did you post this???? Now why would she be thinking that?

Because I “prefer to meet up for coffee or a beer, as opposed to lengthy email exchanges” or even dinner? Or that I’m “a bit older, but looks younger and relates to all ages”? Or just “attractive, active, fit, fun and open minded”?

Alas, while I could stand in for the writer, it’s not I. No, I learned my cradle-robbing lesson long ago with this great “hands off, lecherous geezer” email from a friend’s much younger sister:

I am deeply flattered but I just cant face the ridicule, jokes, and other horrible comments that will come with me going out with one of my brother’s friends. If that isn’t reason enough, just think that when you were a freshmen in college and chasing sorority girls in skirts, I was in the fourth grade, learning about the reproductive system for the very first time.

Nice, eh? So good luck to the SWM, may he be luckier than I. May we all.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Jimmy Wales founder of Wikipedia spoke at the Institute for International Economics today on the topic of “Wikipedia and Global Development.” It was a packed room- all I could see was the top half of the projection screen over the heads of the taller people in front of me.

It was an interesting presentation- there was a good chunk of introductory material towards the beginning, an overview of what Wikipedia it is and how popular it is for the non-geeks in the room (probably 1/3 of the attendees said they have edited Wikipedia articles). But then he got into a particularly interesting topic to me- the regulation of content and community. Not being a Wikipedia editor myself, I hadn’t realized that the vote-for-deletion and discussion pages are things that had grown out of the community and aren’t software-driven at all.

I’m a recruiter- how did I get into such an interesting event? For free, even? Like anything else in DC, it’s about who you know. Or in this case, which professional associations’ listservs you join. I think I count three DC Metrobloggers on the 501techclub list these days… Alas, my partner and I had to get back to work, so we didn’t get to hang out for the Q&A session afterwards, but it was a pretty worthy way to spend an hour out of the office.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’m reading an email from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield today, and just before I delete it, I notice Route 123 in the fine print. Route 123. That seemed odd so I stopped and read all the fine print, and what do you know, Route 123 is place checked in a national distributed email.

In Virginia: Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, Inc. Independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Serving residents and businesses in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia (excluding the city of Fairfax, the town of Vienna and the area east of State Route 123).

I wonder why Route 123? Too many people die playing Fairfax Frogger? Or maybe its Unusual Candor capping too many home invaders? My bet, they’re scared of poker night holdup casualties.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

left view of lucky strike

Originally uploaded by sbma44.

Lucky Strike had their grand opening at their Gallery Place location, according to these awesome pictures from flickr user sbma44 who went out to the Grand Opening. I had an awesome time at the Hollywood location, which had great food and even better bowling. Have you been out to the new Lucky Strike? Let us know what you think!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Sweet. Excuse me while I laugh myself fucking silly. George King, of Frank’s Towing, got his own ass towed to court this morning for about 20 counts, ranging from failing to register and report business income, and not withholding taxes from employee pay. Hat tip to DCist for pointing this one out, but man, how can you not love it when towing companies get hauled into court?

Especially when they’re particularly good at entrapment. I wonder if Advanced Towing adequately documents the two minors that they pay to sit in parking lots? Or, well, are they paid off the books by the counter girls?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you’re not game to get your craft on yourself you can always go buy something someone else has made in on of DC’s many outdoor markets. The new upstart in the bunch is the Downtown DC Holiday Market on the site of the old convention center at NW 11th and H St. The first day is tomorrow, December 1st and will continue on every Thursday through Sunday, from 11am to 7pm till December 21st.

Formerly the whippersnapper of the bunch is Western Market in Adams Morgan at Marie Reed School Plaza. They’re a Saturday-only 10am to 5pm market that will end their second season on December 17th.

The old warhorse of the bunch is Eastern Market which has run a Saturday market since 1978. The Sunday market‘s not quite as old, hailing back to 1983 on the same location but under different direction and with somewhat different vendors.

You car-free DC ZipCar members will want to buy your Christmas Holiday trees at the downtown market – members get free use of the ZipCars parked on the 11th street corridor to get it home.

photo courtesy of TBoneMcCool

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Apparently the ubiquitous Blackberry handheld email device may be coming nearer and nearer to a drop dead date:

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (CA:RIM) (RIMM) on Wednesday was pushed closer to a possible shutdown of its U.S. mobile e-mail service after a judge refused to delay a patent infringement case and rejected a disputed settlement with patent holder NTP Inc.

Still pending before Spencer is a request by NTP to move forward with an injunction that would halt U.S. sales of the BlackBerry and shut its service.

Can you imagine if all those horrid little blue boxes just stopped working? Oh God, what a paradise! No more jerks at poker games throwing them across the table. No more execs emailing me at 10pm to tell me their power is out and why oh why doesn’t their computer work. No more assholes on the Metro paying attention to their Blackberry and not the little girl they’re elbowing.

Can we vote in favor of shutting it down anyway?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, we’re about 30 days away from a big day in DC Baseball: Major League Baseball’s deadlines for having a lease on the ballpark and having the site under city control, pursuant to Article VII of the stadium agreement between DC and MLB. We also appear to be nowhere near an agreement about what to do about cost overruns, or a guarantee of the lease should the new stadium fall prey to whatever foul odor besmirched the Library of Congress this morning.

This deal keeps getting shadier and shadier, and with Bud Selig crippling the Nats ability to go after free agents like Esteban Loaiza (since signed with the A’s), there may be no reason to build a new stadium if the club can’t sign some talent and compete. The Hapless Mets have already begun to retool their benches and could well smoke the Nats like the unruly beehive that they are.

Anyhow, as always, Chris Needham of Capitol Punishment has some great insight into these stadium politics that are worth reading. Be sure to check it out.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I got the call a few minutes ago from one of my field agents that the Library of Congress had been evacuated due to an “irritating odor”, but by the time I got a free second to check it out, they’re letting workers back into the building. Damn this day job! Damn it to hell!

Anyhow, some workers were sheltering in place, some had been forced out of the Jefferson Building. I’m just thankful it wasn’t pouring like last night!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

What says love more than chocolate? And what says fun more than M&M’s? And what says DC more than politics? And what could be better than mixing the three?

Not much in my book, so get your candy on!

You can now make custom M&M’s and ship a four pack to your friends and family just in time for Xmas. I’m sending my bag o’ message to every DC Council member. I might even send one to Tom. I know how much he loves my political views.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs