photo courtesy of Mamchenkov

Another school year, another story singing the praises of some kid who made it his entire academic career without ever staying home a day. This year’s wannabe Typhoid Mary is Justin from Brentsville, near Mansassas.

Do we really need to run these stories every year promoting this irresponsible behavior? These guys grow up into those tools who show up for a meeting looking like death warmed over, sneezing into their hands and then touching things in the workplace. On behalf of all the rest of us who did take sick days, many times because we caught something from you when you wouldn’t stay the frak home when you were almost dead and mightily contagious, I say THANKS FOR NOTHING.

The streak was in serious jeopardy in elementary school when Forman’s third-grade teacher nearly sent him home sick.

“My teacher came up to me and said, ‘Justin, you are turning green, you need to go home.’ And I was like, ‘No, just let me stay for a little longer.”

Someone find me that teacher so I can kick him/her in the shin. From the CDC:

Stay home when you are sick.
If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Are you in international development? Did you squeeze into the DevEx happy hour at 18th Street Lounge today to see and be seen?

I went in early, said “hi” to a few peeps and then split as the crowd got thick. “How thick?” you might ask if you’re not in the field.

Outside, this line snaked down the block, and even when I left, the Lounge was at fire code violation levels of “let’s talk about work” meet & greet overload.

Great if your looking for a new job or a hottie date, horrible if you refuse to wait 20 minutes for a $6 vodka tonic for summer

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The AFI Silverdocs schedule is so big is probably won’t fit in your browser window – it’s certainly too wide for my wee little laptop screen. They’ve coded up a web page that requires a window over 1400 pixels wide to show all the things going on, including a free outdoor screening of Stop Making Sense tomorrow at 9p outside the theater. You may ask yourself, why a big suit free screening? How do I get there? It’s right over here, dude.

I categorically deny that this posting started out as a whine about web design.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Look what I found emerging from 13th Street just on the south side of U Street NW: trolley tracks.

Yes, DC’s history shows itself in asphalt. The past, coming back to pop a tire one day soon. If you look in the north side of U Street, 13th shows trolley tracks too, but not so much.

I knew of the trolley that ended in Mt Pleasant and the tracks in Georgetown. Where else are tracks visible in the street?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The DC Voting Rights Act has survived its trip through the Senate Committee by a 9-1 vote, with only Senator John Warner (R-VA) dissenting. Three more Republican Senators dissented from the party line and voted with the Democratic majority on the committee, possibly signifying a more broad support for the DC Vote in the rest of the Senate than initially expected. Will it be 60 votes?

Heck if I know, but I’d at least like to see a filibuster attempted instead of just dropped like so many hot rocks.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I first became aware of Mika the same way I’ve been finding all my musical obsessions lately- listening to Ethel on XM. I was driving to my soul-destroying then-job one morning in early February, trying not to let the dread impose on my commute, when a bouncy song called “Grace Kelly” floated through my speakers. I nearly drove off the road, so involved was I in getting my rock on. If you can imagine Freddie Mercury reincarnated as an early-20s British/Lebanese kid with crazy curly hair (okay, not a stretch) with some vintage Elton John, George Michael, and ALL of the Scissor Sisters mixed in, you can probably imagine what the rest of the album is like.

I finally got to see him live last night at a sold-out show at the 9:30. I couldn’t tell you about the opening act because, well, I skipped it. But Mika himself did not disappoint.

One of my favorite things about Mika is that even as he’s engaging with reckless abandon in pop theatricality, he does it without a trace of irony, while both acknowledging it and inviting the listener to abandon their hipster pretense and just enjoy the music for what it is.You can’t help but accept the invitation. (edited to add: Via Marc in the comments, here’s a post by the “Big Girl” dancer. I thought that was Mika’s family sitting near us…)

(photo courtesy Mikasounds.com)

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Hump Day isn’t just for humping anymore. If you are in Bethesda on Wednesdays, you can catch some free midday concert culture from 12-2 at Bethesda Place Plaza at 7700 Wisconsin Ave.

And to match, the day after Hump Day is no longer just the day after you humped. To celebrate the boot knocking from the day before, take your special sweetie out for an after-work concert from 6-8 on Thursdays at Veterans Park at the intersection of Norfolk Ave. and Woodmont Ave.

Both series of concerts run through the end of August, so there’s plenty of opportunity left to get down there, hear some good free music and enjoy the heart of summertime Bethesda. Be sure to bring your dancing shoes and a sports bottle filled with margaritas or your other favorite drink. Just be sure not to let on what you’re drinking or else you might be spending longer in Montgomery County than you had anticipated.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I went to the Borders near my home the other day and right outside the door is this poor, poor trash can. Apparently legions of folks with their exciting new purchases in hand have stopped here to pry open that jewel case and peel off that annoying sticker once they were ten feet outside the store.

I was tempted to peer closer and read the labels to determine what people couldn’t wait till home or their cars to listen to but the smell and social stigma associated with lingering around a trash can were just too much for me.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Maybe I have a license plate fetish, but you can’t help but wonder if local cops can read the syllabary, let alone pronounce Tsalagi on this Cherokee Nation license plate. I still think it’s cool, even if it wasn’t on a classic motorcycle to boot.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Summer is fast upon us, and for many people that means only one thing: Grilling Season.

Now I know everyone has their own pet philosophy about what makes a good grill, usually yapping on about fuel and barbeque coals. Forget about it. Hit the P Street Whole Foods this Thursday and prepare to be converted to wood-burning grilling.

Summer weekends for many years of my time in Washington have been spent watching my friend and DC entrepreneur Ben Eisendrath work his magic on The Grillery, an elegantly simple, stainless steel grill that allows you to cook over a wood-burning fire. The crowd favorite has always been butterflied salmon on a bed of dill, rendering a fish so moist and succulent it embodies the “tastes like butter” cliche. But it’s equally impressive with meat – steak, lamb, venison, caribou sausage – even bananas!

Watch Ben grill and sample the rewards at the P Street Whole Foods beginning at 4pm this Thursday. He’ll demonstrate The Grillery’s mastery with dry rubbed flank steaks over natural wood. Prepare to taste, be converted and covet one for yourself…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Are you aware that there is a free comedy show every Thursday at Hotel Topaz off Dupont Circle? No? Well, now you are. Are you aware that it’s free because it’s an open-mic night? Probably.

But I bet you didn’t know that I’ll be doing 10 minutes there, this very Thursday night, June 14th. 8PM. Come on out.

The fine folks at DCStandup.com do an excellent job of keeping track of all the open mics in town. If you like free comedy and don’t mind some, um, variance in the professionalism and quality of the performers, DCStandup can keep you occupied pretty much every night of the week.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of WTOP.com

I went over to WTOP.com to read the updates on the Million Dollar Pants lawsuit and decided I’d add one of their news feeds to my RSS reader. WTOP has a number of distinct news feeds and the last of the bunch is “Monkey News” which they – wisely – recognize may confuse someone, so underneath they assure you they’re serious not misspeaking.

Well of course I added it.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Those of you who have been here for a long time likely already knew this but I just discovered, via Google Maps, that there is a sizable pool in the back yard of the White House. Check it out in the picture to the right. It’s that aquamarine rectangle in the lower left.

I can just imagine some cool times there, chilling by the pool, Laura Bush with a pitcher of margaritas and George grilling up some franks and burgers on the barbecue. Yeah, Dubya, I’ll take a foot-long and a patty. No, not too well done. I like mine rare enough that a good vet might could bring it back. Boy, those would be good times.

Then in the evening, when the old folks retire to the salon to play Pictionary, watch reruns of Matlock and fight over the clicker, the Bush twins and their friends come out to play. Wild times ensue, kegs are emptied, someone gets sick and someone cries, and the party is broken up only when the neighbors complain about the noise level and the DC cops come by.

All this makes me think that maybe we should have access to the White House pool so we can all beat the heat and manage this muggy summer. Sure, it could be reserved for laps first thing in the morning and then in the mid-afternoon, just so long as the twins come out for some rollicking fun as the sun sets.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Wandering through Washington DC have you noticed anything new about our fire hydrants? Like maybe a few sporting “Out of Service” collars?

It seems that the Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) is finally conducting its fire hydrant “blitz” inspections and finding quite a few dead hydrants.

Now the question is not are there 10% or 25% broken hydrants in the city. The question is: When will the hydrants be fixed?

Because it doesn’t matter if there are 1% or 100% broken hydrants. What matters is if you got water or not.

And right now, as I stare across my street at the hydrant that would serve my house, I wonder if it works, and if it doesn’t, when it would.

Don’t you?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Cliff Janey will be looking for a new job right about now. Actually, he’s probably known this was coming for a little while. Replacing him will be Michelle Rhee, current CEO and Founder of The New Teacher Project, an organization built around “increasing the number of outstanding individuals who become public school teachers and to creating environments for all educators that maximize their impact on student achievement.”

While Rhee has taught in public schools (including some of Baltimore’s lowest performing), she has never headed up even a single school. Choosing Rhee to run DC’s poorly performing school district is a bold choice for the new mayor, and though he had been seen courting Miami’s Rudy Crew, a veteran of several large districts, Rhee’s choice seems to come from left field.

All I know is, when the median percentage of students that can pass the math standards test is 22%, something drastic is necessary. If you look at the Post’s Dynamic Scorecard for DC Schools, which shows you 6 different metrics that schools can be measured on, things are pretty dire. When it takes a year for the average urgent maintenance ticket to be addressed, and when each school has an average of 8 or so urgent tickets, clearly facilities need to be dealt with. This isn’t Rhee’s forte, judging from her record. While she might be able to help address the mere 62% of accredited faculty, it’s not likely that she has much experience with the on-average 29 crimes per school site.

Good luck, Michelle Rhee, you have your work cut out for you. DC needs a change, here’s hoping you’re the right one.

Or, here’s hoping you get a good five to ten years to actually fix the system.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Very Best Banana Pudding, Ever.

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I recognize that cellphone cams are certainly no way to produce quality food images, but I was so moved by the Banana Pudding at Carlyle Grand tonight that I just had to snap a photo. The pudding in the middle was almost a mousse, thick and tasty, redolent of banana. The bananas surrounding the pudding itself were covered in caramel and roasted vanilla wafers, turning the whole thing into one big plate of delicious diabetic coma.

I haven’t been this full, or this sated, in quite some time.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo by Carl Weaver

I saw plastic sheets covering the dairy and cold cut sections of the Harrison Road Harris Teeter in Arlington. I just wanted to pick up something for dinner tonight. I never expected to be met with such a barrier to buying.

At the same time, there was an employee by the egg case, handing out cartons of eggs to people. Just for the moment I passed by, maybe? Perhaps. I didn’t stick around to see. Stingy with the dairy and prepackaged meats but generous with the eggs. Curious.

The cooler cases all seemed to be pumping out cold air, so it probably was not a mechanical difficulty. So why were these sections covered? Quarantine? Infestation? Outbreak of disease? Was it a makeshift oxygen tent?

Do you work there? Do you know what was going on?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Herby_fr

… then this is its holy grail.

Seen on Craigslist today: “80108, a start-up mobile company, is looking for an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Clinton to write SMS text messages about her campaign.”

Yep, reporting in 160 characters or less. Now that’s a challenge! Is this Web 0.002? “Please reply with your resume or short bio. Include 4 timely text message writing samples related to the Hillary Clinton campaign (limit to 160 characters, approx 10-15 words).”

I suspect “Hillary did something to make Rush angry” and variations thereof will not pass muster, however accurate it might be. How DOES one write worthwhile news updates – about anything! – in 10-15 words or less?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Continuing today’s Google Maps Mash-up theme, here is a new WashPost site that I find interesting: LocalExplorer

While it has local retail, home sales, and schools listed on a Google Map, my favorite tab is local crime. You can map your favorite spots and check out recent crimes by location and type. Clicking on each bubble, you get a pop-up of the crime description & date.

For the most fun, throw in your & your friends addresses to see who lives in the hood and who just fronts like they do. Case in point 20005 vs. 20011.

You would think Logan would be all nice and Petworth soaked with Georgia Avenue crime reports, but you would be wrong. Both have their trouble spots but by red dots, Petworth seems an oasis of safety.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I found this old-ass refrigerator on the side of the road in my Arlington neighborhood yesterday. It’s an old-skool kid-killer model with the airtight seal and latching door. Someone with good sense had taken the door off so no kids would get in and die from suffocation, baking in the heat or worse.

It reminds me of the refrigerator my grandfather kept in his basement. It was always filled with pesky foodstuffs and was too cold for me to crawl into while playing hide and seek. Thank goodness for that!

Ah, the old refrigerators… They lasted forever and old guys not knowing what to say while sipping beers in the basement would comment, “Yep. They don’t make them like that anymore. Yep.”

Since we live in the museum capitol of the world, shouldn’t there be a museum for ways in which we almost died as children? I would put in the refrigerator, my neighbor’s evil dog who was more interested in crapping in the yard than attacking us but only slightly so, that bobby pin I used to short out an electrical outlet and somehow only blew the fuse and Jarts.

What would you include?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs