It’s absolutely pouring out there right now, coming down in buckets and buckets, sounds like drumsticks on my windowpanes. For the first time since Hurricane Isabel in 2003, my satellite service went out. Of course, it wasn’t out for long, but just a cursory 2 minutes outside making sure the dish was aligned properly left me feeling like I’d gone into the shower with all my clothes on. Oy. This is the next to last day in November?

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Certain dear readers will be happy to know that signs are supposedly showing of a slowdown in DC’s overheated (some say overvalued) housing market. Though real estate experts (not to mention ol’ Greenspan) have been warning of a bubble in the area for months, October marks a noticeable rise in the inventory level of existing homes in the area according to the Post. This means houses are staying on the market longer than before, and the mad days of a place being sold on its first open house may be coming to a close. Also becoming apparent is that the preponderance of new so-called “luxury condos” (I’m really begininng to hate the devaluation of the word ‘luxury’) will cause a glut that may drive prices in that market down.

Now, I’m no expert in real estate at all, but I did have a market assessment done of my house a few weeks ago, and the very intelligent agent, instead of dazzling us with an outrageous selling price, stated honestly that the market is “normalizing” to more of an equal footing between seller and buyer, good news for those who want to join the world of homeownership. He said sellers need to start adjusting their expectations of extremely high asking prices (oh, perhaps like the guy down my block who asked for 900k?) and sudden turnaround to a more traditional real estate market.

I certainly don’t want the market to take a total dive, but I do want it to normalize. Speculation makes me nervous; I can’t help thinking of the 1920’s crash or, closer to heart, the 1990’s internet bust. And I have many friends who want to buy right now and just can’t justify or afford it. So let’s hope we can find a more secure and reasonable footing in the DC housing market.

(Though of course the Post also is reporting that sales of new homes hit a high last month, so who knows what the hell is really happening!)

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Like in the Wizard of Oz, cuz DC Alerts says: National weather issued a Tornado Watch for the District Of Columbia and surrounding jurisdictions until 1AM. The strongest storms will be capable of producing an inch of rain in an hour along with damaging winds up to 60 MPH.

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The endless flow of commuters traveling in and out of DC from neighboring Virginia – where a vanity plate only costs an extra $10 – provides for a pretty good amount of reading material on the roads. Sometimes, however, seven little letters just won’t suffice. That’s when you need foot-high letters that communicate your message. I doubt any of us understand what that message is, but we all saw it – possibly even from orbit.

Even though I can’t quite figure out the meaning here, this glittering abomination is still better than the plate I saw several years ago, which I’ll place below the fold for our more delicate readers.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

This morning, our dear butterstick met the press in his enclosure in the Zoo. Even though they insist his name is Tai Shan, we all know better. His public debut, for which no sexual favors are required, is next Thursday. But if you haven’t gotten a chance to lay eyes on the cute and fuzzy panda bear, the video above is worth a look.

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View from Capitol Westfront 1977 1

Originally uploaded by smata2.

Flickr user smata2 has uploaded a bunch of scans of images of Washington almost 30 years younger than the one we live in now. I love seeing old Washington, when you could climb the Capitol steps. What a timeless city!

Be sure to catch the other shots in the series.

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I’m sitting at work feeling the beginnings of a cold. Or is it a virus? Or the dreaded flu? Who knows, it’s just annoying. Swollen sore throat, sniffles, starting to feel flushed. Not good no matter what you call it.

Then I begin to notice I’m not the only one. Two co-workers complain of the same symptoms. Another is roaming the halls hacking out her lungs. So of course the debate inside my head begins, “Should I go home? Try to sleep it off? Or should I wait it out, perhaps feeling worse and staying home tomorrow? Can I stay home tomorrow?” Argh.

In the years I’ve worked in DC, it has seemed to me that people here tend to work sick. A lot. Even in this day of crackberries and easy work email access at home. A few are suffering from lack of sleep due to some sleep disorders or day sleepiness that affects immune systems drastically. This can be countered with smart drugs you can get on https://buy-modafinil-online.org that helps increase wakefulness and concentration. Is this really just a DC phenom, or it is more widespread, more of a national problem? I hear people who, let’s be honest, are just not that essential (myself definitely included) moan and agonize about taking sick days. Why?

A co-worker once proudly boasted to me that he’d never taken a sick day. Not never gotten sick, mind you, just never stayed home. That man is the Typhoid Mary of the DC office world. I’m mystified.

What about you?

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Dear XM Satellite Radio,

Thanks so much for adding five holiday music channels to your dial for the holiday season! Though, yes, you did displace Wayan’s favorite channel, I’m rather fond of Christmas music, from the twang of Nashville on 105 to the Novelty stuff on 107 and the Classics on 104. I know Wayan needs to get his groove on, but I really love hearing more seasonal music this year.

So thanks for making with the carols, XM! And better yet, thanks for making most of your music streams available online for subscribers, I have to say, what a kickass feature this is!

Tom Bridge,
Listener and Subscriber since July

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Dear XM Satellite Radio,

What are you all thinking? What are you doing? And what is going on in your NY Avenue headquarters that makes you change your play list like this?

I miss my Ngoma Channal 104, I really do. See when I wanna get my groove on, really set the mood, its all Ngoma all the time. Better than dance, more classy that Sade and less cheesy than Vandross, Ngoma was the deep African beat that made the ladies swoon. Now its gone to XM Online only, and banished from my love shack – like I want the hum of a laptop to break up my groove.

And speaking of breaking a groove, at work it

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Bill Simmons, known to all men as the funniest sports columnist in the world, is coming back to DC for a second signing of his new book Now I Can Die In Peace. He’ll be back at the ESPN Zone on December 6th at 5pm. If you weren’t there the first time, be sure to come early, because the Sports Guy is one seriously popular dude. He ended up having to take a list of people’s names last time and send their autographed books back to the Barnes & Noble next door. Seriously, if you have a penis, you need to be there.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Armed robbers forced their way into a home in Fair Oaks that was hosting a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament.

The robbers evidently had access to the invitation to the game, and made off with several thousand dollars.

Judging by the Virginians I know who carry their sidearm while hosting poker tournaments in their home, it seems not very bright to attempt such a robbery in Fairfax instead of the District…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

After downing all those Belgian beers at Busboys and drowning in Gen X irony, I headed over to meet my husband for the next course in DC nightlife Thanksgiving Eve. The snow had just started to fall and he was standing in front of Stetson?s, peering in forlornly. ?It?s closed,? he sighed, but luckily just for renovations. We could see a fresh coat of paint and what looked like a new, ornate wooden bar, perhaps? The last time I was there a fight broke out and the bartender launched himself over the bar to stop it. Stetson?s is a classic.

We decided to walk up to Adams Morgan for dinner, and picked upstairs at The Reef. With the saltwater fish tanks glowing blue and the tall windows providing a perfect view of snow-swept 18th street, we lingered over bison burgers and yet more Belgian ale.

Then it was on to Asylum, where they were having Pumpkin Pie Wrestling. This was moderately intriguing (as voyeurs only, though I was getting nicely tipsy, who knows?) until we discovered it was a $15 cover. So it was downstairs for a crowded nightcap instead. As we were leaving, a guy was lurching around outside in the cold with no jacket. He had that look of drunkenness and wounded pride mixed with a little indignation. ?These people are crazy here,? he kept saying, wobbling in the doorway as a friend tried to hold him up. At first we thought he was covered in vomit. But it was just pumpkin puree.

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I wasn?t sure what to expect from Busboys and Poets, the new bookstore/coffeeshop/bar/performance space at 14th and V Streets. I?d heard varied reports labeling it either a symbol of gentrification or a symbol of defiance, either a buppie/yuppie hangout or IMF protesters ground zero. This hearsay incongruity struck me as rather intriguing, so a friend and I headed over Wednesday for happy hour to check it out.

I?m happy to say Busboys and Poets can?t be locked down into any slot. Its aim is to be inclusive. Buy a book, hang out with some coffee, drinks with friends, dinner, hear some poetry ? it?s aim is to be your Third Space, not the Next Hot Space. And the name? Apparently Langston Hughes once worked as a busboy in DC at the Wardman Park Hotel?

The layout, on the ground floor of one of the new condominiums, is large and open ? ambitiously able to hold about 300 people, with a performance space/private room in the back where they hold special events like monthly poetry open mics. The front room is eclectically furnished with tables, chairs, and very comfortable couches, rather like a more upscale Chi-Cha Lounge. There?s an expansive bar that looked very inviting if by chance the room is full. I didn?t get a chance to check out the political bookstore integrated in the front, but it was always humming with patrons browsing through books, a good sign. The lights were bright when we entered, highlighting the airiness of the space, but dimmed to create a cosier feel later on. The crowd also slowly changed from coffee sipping with laptops to Belgian beer drinking ? even with the very high ceilings the sound level stayed at a gentle buzz. I wondered how it would get later on in the night. We noticed right away that it was truly multicultural scene ? a rare thing in DC where nightlife can still be so segregated. There was a strong effort to keep the mood very low-key – our server would sit down on the couch opposite us and chat about the different merits of different ales. Somehow it felt genuine, not forced. I could see returning some rainy afternoon to check out their chai tea ? ?not a fake powdered chai latte like some places,? he winked, ?real chai.?

It all made for a congenial yet apropos atmosphere to discuss Anne Hull?s recent two-article series on the ?boom times? changing our neighborhood. For two hours or so we hung out, listening to chill nu-jazz, curled on a red velvet couch nursing our Deleriums, chatting about property values and housing bubbles and the absurd probability of a sushi bar on 14th in 2006.

And then, as we are Gen X, discussing the ridiculous irony of what we were talking about, our hysterical hipster backlash against yuppification compared with our complicity, the poignant lunacy of being thirtysomethings and having no idea how we went from poor students to responsible adults in the blink of an eye. I can’t help laughing at myself for even writing this…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Roughly 25% of all purchases by the District government this year were unauthorized or part of no-bid contracts. $425M out of $2.5B. This is my favorite part of the article:

“We screwed up,” said Anthony F. Pompa, head of accounting for Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, when he was shown hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized checks.

Yeah. Screwed up. $425M. Screwed up. People ought to lose their jobs over this sort of thing. Will they? Not unless we hold their feet to the fire.

Now, while some of that is for services for which the District does not have contracts (why doesn’t it have contracts? Not really all that clear, is it? Sure am glad I might be forced to pay taxes to these guys.), and Natwar Gandhi’s quote makes it look awfully rosy:

“I will be damned if a child is without textbooks or an AIDS patient is without medicine just because some bureaucrat did not file the paperwork right.”

What’s really frustrating to me is the no-bid contracts situation. Apparently, so long as you publish your schedule of fees, bidding is not required. Never mind that this sort of thing increases costs, on average 39% for the nation. The big trick here is the “direct voucher”, which works like a signed blank check. Take that puppy to the bank and cash it, and the money’s yours, with little or no city accountability or oversight. DC’s apparently one of the few cities in the country that does it this way, where most others gave it up a while back due to the sort of problems that this can lead to.

The article is lengthy, but worth a read. While the District may be running a nice surplus this year, wouldn’t you rather have that money back so you can use it better?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Please also welcome Dubai and Miami to the Metblogs family! Miami’s having an amazing art show this week, one of the biggest in the world, and Dubai’s Farrukh and Destitute Rebel are all over the 6.1 Earthquake that happened just today. Broaden your horizons, subscribe to another Metblog today!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you live in DC, chances are that you’ve seen Borf’s work.

Chances are, though, that you’re a helluva lot smarter than him.

See, if you had a court date, where you were, say, accused of stabbing someone, would you show up covered in blood?

No. You would not.

Borf, however, felt it necessary to show up in court in a coat and pants covered in paint:

Four months after his arrest, the accused graffiti outlaw known as Borf showed up for a court hearing in an unfortunate choice of attire: His coat, pants and shoes were all stained with paint. His black coat so resembled the one he wore in a newspaper feature about his exploits that the judge declared it evidence and ordered him to hand it over to the prosecution.

Seriously, if you’re his lawyer, do you quit right there?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I feel so lucky. I’m staying home in DC for Thanksgiving. No traveling for me (Phew! How did I manage that?).

Judging from the amount of people I just saw at the P Street Whole Foods, I’m not the only one. Though not the grand chaos that it will be later on today, it was starting to get packed when I arrived at 12pm, having skipped out of my tumbleweed-strewn office to pick up the necessary ingredients for the side dish I’ve been charged to make – Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes.

Like me and the harried locals at Whole Foods, you may also be a serious procrastinator and just now panicking over what to make and how to get out of the store with the least amount of pain. So here’s my Thanksgiving gift to you, a guide to sweet potato saviourdom:

Enter the P Street Whole Foods. Grab a basket. Dead ahead are the bins of yams – don’t waste time arguing with yourself or the old lady next to you about whether yams are really sweet potatoes or vice versa – you’re on a mission!. Grab about five nicely sized ones. Dash two aisles over to “Latin Cuisine” and pick up two cans of Chipotle Peppers in Adobe Sauce – pay no attention to the man who just slammed into you with his oversized cart, there’s no time for sharp-tongued revenge! Now, do you have unsalted butter at home? Do you?? Can’t answer fast enough, hit the dairy shelf for a box. Now, restrain the almost overwhelming urge to pick up any of the special cheese or wine they have littering the aisles around the dairy (it’s hard, I know, so hard) and make a beeline for the checkout. Take the path of least resistance – usually this means the cosmetics aisle. Having successfully made it to checkout, wait as patiently as possible while other idiots in line waste your time. Relax, deep breaths. You did it, you’re almost out. Pay, depart, and congratulate yourself. All in all, five mintues and under $15.

Oh yeah, the recipe! Tomorrow – wash, peel, cube, steam, and mash the sweet potatoes. Dice chipotle peppers and add with adobe sauce to taste (wimpy to flamethrower – whatever you want). Mix. Serve and be proclaimed “The Sweet Potato Saviour.”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Though they may be a lot further off from us than Vancouver is, please also welcome our 35th city, Islamabad in Pakistan! Part of the reason I love writing here, and working for the network, is that we’re all over the world. From LA to London, from Vancouver to Vienna, from Hawaii to Houston and from Melbourne to Minneapolis to Manila.

Welcome Islamabad!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

For those hoping for a quick exit from DC today, good luck. A tanker truck caught on fire on I-95 between DC and Baltimore already this morning. AP reported that:

Traffic was snarled around the nation’s capital early Wednesday after a tanker truck carrying 8,700 gallons of gasoline exploded on Interstate 95 on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
The truck driver was able to escape unharmed after he noticed one of his rear wheels burning as he headed south from Baltimore around 5 a.m. EST.

The driver escaped unharmed, eh? Yeah, only because he ran into the bushes and hid till the cops came. I’d think if he had that fire at 5pm, he’d be tossed into the flames by those stuck behind him.

Also noted in the article is the newest name for Friendship Airport. I still think the folks responsible for the tongue-twisting “Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport” should be tossed into the flames of the next truck fire. At least they didn’t desecrate it like our other two airports – naming it after CIA Directors or Alzheimers Presidents.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I love the Washington Post, it’s a fantastic newspaper. It’s definitive on so many issues that make it an awful lot of fun to read, simply because you don’t just learn “the news” but also what’s going on behind the news. Take a look, now, at The Post Remix (or mashingtonpost.com as they call it), which is a blog on what people are doing with Post content, as well as to talk about Post APIs that are on their way toward public consumption. I love that some papers are opening up their content to be used with APIs. The first entry has a couple of cool pieces that use WaPo API content:

Ripped from the Headlines, a news quiz built each day from the Post’s online edition, and a geographic representation of stories, split by continent.

It would be awesome to see a Google or Yahoo Maps mashup with WaPo stories…who’s up for a challenge?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs