‘Bang!’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Another year, another bunch of badly written stories and even worse headlines about Virginia legislators monkeying with the concealed weapons law. There’s some valid issues here to discuss but you’d never know it from the reporting that happens every time this is revisited.

Case in point:  Washington Post’s Virginia Politics blog headlines a story “Va. Senate votes to allow guns in restaurants” and opens with “The Democratically-controlled Virginia Senate has voted to allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry guns in restaurants that serve alcohol, as long as the person carrying the weapon does not drink.”

Problem is, guns are already allowed in restaurants and concealed weapons permit holders can already carry them in… openly.

Continue reading →

‘Saluting the Hardest Working Men in DC’
courtesy of ‘Wayan Vota’

The alleys behind the houses in many DC neighborhoods are too narrow for snowplows to get through, which means trash collectors haven’t been able to get in to pick up residents’ trash for a week and a half now. Most households follow a once-a-week trash collection schedule. Use our Trash and Recycling Collection Day App  to find your collection day(s) when rubbish collection dublin will go by.

Please Note: If a resident living in a building with more than 3 residential units enters their address, clicking the button will return a trash day, but that does not supercede the City policy for residential trash collection. Those living in apartment buildings with more than 3 units do not receive trash collection services from the City.

Most households use the 96-gallon plastic rolling cart, or Supercan, for their trash. Homes in neighborhoods with narrow streets and alleys receive twice-weekly trash collection and use the smaller 32-gallon plastic rolling carts (mini-Supercan), or Clean City trash cans.

But DPW still wants to come get your trash! So they’re recommending that you put your trash in dark trashbags (instead of say, white ones that blend in with the snow) and then place them on the curb instead of in the usual receptacles back in the alley.

Also note that since Monday was a holiday, the trash pickup schedule is the regular holiday schedule (so as not to cause even further confusion by creating a Snowpocalypse/Holiday hybrid).

So get your dark trash bags and haul your garbage to the curb. Look on the bright side: at least it’s too cold for it to have smelled all that much.

image from the wikimedia commons

One of our twitter followers, @DrNorthwest, asked about where one might find Pączki for this Fat Tuesday. While it’s not on our must-eat list (we’re more beignet lovers here) we do thankfully have a little information on the matter, thanks in no small part to Ask Metafilter. This time last year someone else asked looking for a source and the upshot was this:

• Giant stores was advertising in their circulars they would have them last year. No sign of them in the 2/12 circular for my area, however.
• Woodmoor Pastry Shop in Silver Spring was listed as a source.
• So was the Kielbasa Factory in Rockville.

Spotted any anywhere else? Sing out in the comments.

Update @ 10:30 – thanks Sean & Nanther who both report spottings in Giant (Van Ness and West Falls Church). Sounds like you’ve got a good chance of getting them at your local Giant if all else fails.

‘Snow pile’
courtesy of ‘vpickering’

Chances are, anywhere you went in DC today, you saw some of these. Large, awful piles of gritty brown/black ice litter the streets in DC, making many traffic lanes (including a full lane of Constitution Ave this morning, Mr. Mayor… so much for curb-to-curb clearing?) impassable and traffic-inducing. DDOT will likely be hauling away snow well into March, I would imagine, but for now, it would be good to get a better picture as to DDOT’s priorities. We’re seeing all kinds of reports of streets that haven’t yet been plowed, or trees that shed limbs blocking some parts of the road.

If you haven’t been plowed yet, or there’s still a tree down in your neighborhood in DC, call up 311 and give the DDOT an earful. This is starting to get ridiculous. I understand that this is an historic storm, in an historic winter, but things are out of control. DDOT Director Klein, and Mayor Fenty, you guys have a week to get things right before your continued employment will be a lot less likely. I don’t care if no one else has declared, we’ll draft someone if you can’t get things under control this week.

‘Monumental Traffic Jam’
courtesy of ‘hohandy (Everywhere I Go Every Smile I See)’

Last night on the news, they were saying to plan for an epic commute, one for the ages and one to be avoided if at all possible. Even with the Feds on a 2-hour delay this morning, it was dicey out there at 8am, taking about 50 minutes to go from South Arlington to Chinatown by way of the Mall. Not too awful, certainly not legendary, but I know there are reports out there of ridiculous times to go from US 50 to Wilson Boulevard in Arlington.

How’d you fare this morning?

‘District Cab No. 270’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

There’s been some discussion in our comments regarding the recent behavior of DC Cabbies, who’ve used the snow situation to jack up their fares in violation of the law. Here’s how to handle the situation. You must write a letter to the Taxicab Commission, and submit it by USPS to:

Taxicab Commission
2041 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE
Room 204
Washington DC 20020

You can also fax your letter to 202.889.3604, or email dctc3 at dc dot gov. Here’s what you must include:

First, you have to give them all the details of the ride, basically your side of the story. Then, you must give them all the details of the driver and cab, including name, vehicle license plate and time and date of the incident. Click through for a sample: Continue reading →

‘snoopy sniffs’
courtesy of ‘Eljay’

Google is planning to try out a new, ultra high speed, fiber-optic broadband internet service in a small number of communities around the US, and is looking for towns and cities to sign up. DC Council Member Mary Cheh (Ward 3) wants faster Internet access for DC residents. It’s a match made in heaven!

It’s probably best to provide feedback directly to Google if you have an opinion about what they should do with their fiber, but if you lack the technical knowledge to answer their questionnaire, you can also sign Council Member Cheh’s online petition (which is hosted on Google Docs! Flattery will get you everywhere!)

‘IMG_3746’
courtesy of ‘christophersmith29’

In my continuing efforts to turn this crazy-making snow (my neighborhood is still only half-plowed!) into something entertaining, I ran across a Flickr set of snowmen protesting across from the White House. Like most protests, the snowmen didn’t all stay on-message, but it’s a far more entertaining protest than we usually see. So view the whole set, or view a few favorites I’ve selected behind the jump.   Continue reading →