cherry blossom alert

I do not know about the Mall, but it is peak cherry blossom time in Mt. Pleasant. Trees like this one are a riot of color in my hood. Better yet, I am wearing a T-shirt sans coat this morning.

Whoo hoo! Spring is here!

Tomorrow morning, at a station that WMATA has not disclosed, transit police and a special K9 team will surveil the Metro platform during morning rush. There may be as many as 20 officers on the platform at any given time during the 90 minute rush hour that begins at 7:30am tomorrow. No word on whether or not Metro is under any specific terror threat or the reasons behind the random station policing.

If you happen to travel through this station tomorrow, let us know what you saw. Also, if you’ve got an opinion about Metro’s security, which has seen more crime lately than ever before, tell us in the comments.

due to popular demand the national gallery of art has extended performances of le ballet mecanique through may 14th. i highly recommend getting down to see/hear it before then.
(more…)

That’s right, Dr. Sam Beckett himself is doing an online chat at the Washington Post tomorrow at 1pm, with the subject being his performance in the musical Shenandoah which is at Ford’s Theatre through April 30th.

Me, I’m dying to know about his Quantum Leap experiences, but I’ve got a feeling he won’t be too amenable to taking too many questions about his old school television days, though, the chat description says he will. Got a good question for Scott?

The story of the 2005 Washington Nationals is now available in Barry Svrluga’s new book, National Pastime, which debuts today. Svrluga, the Nats beat writer for The Post is beloved amongst Nats bloggers for his insightful writing and sardonic wit. Here is what his publisher has to say about the book:

For a moment in the spring of 2005, the political in-fighting, lobbying, and frenetic bustle in the corridors of world power came to a halt. The buzz of baseball excitement took over Washington DC, as for the first time in 36 long years; the national pastime was being played in the nation’s capital. The Washington Nationals began their highly anticipated season, and the magic of baseball was back. Even more exciting, the Nationals were actually good. They began the season on a tear, and by the midway point this group of relatively unknown players (former Montreal Expos, the previous incarnation of the Nationals) had jumped out to a commanding lead in the National League. Although they finished the season out of the playoff race, the Nationals attracted major media attention and developed a tremendous underdog following. Washington Post beat reporter Barry Svrluga has full access to the team, and he’ll spend this season following the ins-and-outs of the Nationals’ first year in Major League Baseball. Svrluga will also chronicle the behind-the-scenes wrangling that took place to bring the Nationals to DC, the intense politics that undermined the existence of a DC team for many years, the bitter resistance by the neighboring Baltimore Orioles, and, most important, the all-out adoration and joy of baseball fans in the region.

Svrluga is expected to have booksignings in the near future, details as they become available.

WTOP News is reporting on their radio broadcast that the District may be adding a few taxes to real estate closings in the coming months that would add up to $2000 to the closing costs of any real estate deal in DC. I know that people are talking about a real estate bubble, and a decline in the prices, but I have to wonder whether or not the Mayor is trying to make things worse.

Anyone out there have more details on this? I googled around, and looked for the original piece on WTOP and on the Washington Business Journal site, but nothing’s coming up. Closing costs are one of those godawful crazy moments where you’ll pay pretty much anything to be done with the process, and adding $2000 to the cost seems to be some sort of extortionist measure to me.

Where are the hotdogs?!

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Every once in a while I get this craving.

You know the one I’m talking about. You stare out the window on a gorgeous day, and dream of grabbing a half-smoke from the hotdog vendor on the corner, with extra onions and mustard.

Sitting on a park bench, enjoying the creature comfort of smoked sausage and tangy brown mustard with the bite of the onion.

Sadly, I’m at home waiting on the Wells Fargo Wagon’s modern descendent to deliver my replacement TiVo and some new business cards, so popping into the city is a no-go. Going to Safeway, though, for a package of Hebrew Nationals, though, that I can handle.

Except there weren’t any. I could have had a ton of different sausage types, but not one hotdog. How the hell does this happen? Dammit, now I really want a half-smoke.

Rob DeFeo, chief horticulturalist for the National Park Service has guaranteed that the blossoms will now be at peak on Thursday, instead of yesterday, when Tom Mills clearly showed them far from at their best.

No word yet on what DeFeo will be forced to do, should the blossoms peak on Saturday or next Tuesday, but I imagine there are at least a few bedroll lawyers amongst our readership with some ideas.

Meanwhile, in Fairlington, the cherry trees are just blooming, with about a week to go until peak bloom hits just in time for the amazing weather on tap this weekend. o-hanami anyone?

not clean

So Verizon’s graffiti is washable chalk, not spray paint, as I originally thought. But its not easily washable chalk – it took me a good 5 minutes of scrubbing just to take off a “F” and it’s the actual act, more than the paint, that should piss us off.

Here is Verizon, a multimillion dollar company, defacing public property for its own marketing purposes. Defacing public property as it will take DC’s Graffiti removal team (and my taxpayer dollars) a good power-washing to remove their blatant ad from what should be a ad-free public space.

Where does this differ from bOrf or even Cool Disco Dan?

graffiti

While we can debate if bOrf was an artist or a vandal, there can be no mistaking the stencils I noticed on my walk to work today.

Those spray-painted ads for Verizon’s Yellow Pages along the K Street sidewalk – that would be graffiti, straight up and ugly.

Now I wanna know – how did that get on the sidewalk? And why isn’t the District suing Verizon to clean up it’s defacing of District property?