A friend from my other blogging life, the Recruiting Animal, passes along this tip for DC pizza-lovers.

Well, if you ever find yourself down this way, I strongly suggest you come to my neighborhood of Mount Pleasant and check out Radius Pizza. While I would not call it 100 percent New York-style pizza, it is awesome and has been rated the best pizza in D.C. by a congresswoman from Manhattan, albeit the Upper East Side. ;-)

In my opinion, Radius is the best pizza that Washington, D.C., has to offer.

Radius may be old news to some of y’all, but I know there are people reading this who have never been there, so check it out. Slice also sends a shout-out to 2Amys, a personal favorite of mine.

My portion of this 5th Gift to the World is a tribute to the coolest musical Washingtonian ever – Edward Kennedy Ellington, the Duke.

Many people may associate Duke Ellington with New York (thanks in part to the classic “Take the ‘A’ Train”) but his roots were firmly planted in DC, and especially in the U Street neighborhood where he grew up and had his musical start, from his birth here in 1899 to his departure for Harlem in 1923. PBS did a brilliant documentary on “Duke Ellington’s Washington” a while back, and its website also gives an overview of Black Broadway and Shaw. The Howard Theater, the Whitelaw Hotel, True Reformers’ Hall, all are landmarks still visible today that featured prominently in his life. DC’s great Ellington School for the Arts bears his name and the spirit of his legacy proudly, and we now even have a jazz festival in his honor.

Thanks to my jazz-loving father, I was exposed to Ellington’s music as a small child (though as Duke once said naughtily, “By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.”). I find his brilliance undimmed – jazz with the backbone of classical training, complexity of rhythm, and essence of cool unmatched. I especially love his piano improvisations, but I really can’t pick any favorites. I just know that when I walk down U Street and look up at the mural bearing his image, I think of him decked out in that seriously spiffy tuxedo, smiling at the audience, and saying farewell with, “we love you, madly.” Genius.

Tags: Metblogs7Gifts 7Gifts Metroblogging7Gifts

The music of John Philip Sousa (1854 – 1932) is part of our fifth gift to the world. Sousa was born in Washington, D.C. and began his musical studies with the violin at age 6. He had perfect pitch – the ability to identify and produce any musical note by name. At age 13, his father enlisted him as an apprentice in the United States Marine Corps band, where he himself was a trombonist. Sousa completed his apprenticeship over the course of seven years. During this time he is said to have learned to play all the wind instruments and further master the skills of a violinist. After a brief time serving as a conductor for a theatrical orchestra, Sousa returned to the U.S. Marine Band as its head in 1880, and remained as its conductor until 1892. In his spare time, he also led the marching band of Gonzaga College High School.

Known as the "march king," Sousa ranks among the most famous American composers and conductors. After leaving the Marine Band, he formed his own band, whose members were considered the best in the world on their instruments. The band toured Europe several times before becoming the first American musical organization to make a tour around the world.

Sousa also credited with inventing a tuba specifically for marching bands – the aptly named sousaphone. He composed well over a hundred marches in all – plus various other musical works outside the marching genre. In fact, one march The Stars and Stripes Forever, is the official march of the United States of America.

Perhaps that’s why they used to joke "You can’t spell Sousa without USA…"

Tags: Metblogs7Gifts 7Gifts Metroblogging7Gifts

Boing Boing has linked a post talking about an article by Laurie David about a recent rejection by the NTSA of 50,000 free copies of the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” for schools. Both the Boing Boing and the Conscious Earth postings are up-front about the fact that the author is a producer of the movie, though Conscious Earth does somewhat misleadingly say The news was buried deep in the Washington Post website and reported by Laurie David.

Misleading because in fact it’s not news, at least not in the sense that it was reported by a journalist in a researched article. The problem is, you wouldn’t necessarily know that if you follow the link as it was provided by the Conscious Earth posting. The extent of the clue to where that article appeared is one line: “Sunday, November 26, 2006; B01″ If you happen to know that section B is the Opinion pages on a Sunday, vs the rest of the week when it’s the Metro pages. The page in normal context is marginally better, but still not great: in a font smaller than the column text itself you can see the “breadcrumb” that indicates this is under Opinion: washingtonpost.com > Opinions > Outlook

Compare that to the New York Times print view of an op-ed by a contributing writer (annoying registration or BugMeNot.com required) which clearly states “Op-ed” at the top. Their standard view also has another up on the Post: since they’re not forcing the reader to click a second time to get the second half of the article there’s no possibility someone will read to the bottom of the page and still not see the paragraph indicating the author’s identity. Since WaPo wants you to click again (for more advertising pageviews) you might give up halfway and not see the author’s affiliations that reveal his or her allegiances.

For the record, I don’t think Conscious Earth is being deliberate in this – the fault here is very clearly with WaPo, who hasn’t put enough effort into differentiating their online articles. I’m sympathetic to the challenge, but this is one they need to rise to toot-sweet. Having partisan articles – no matter how much I might be inclined to agree with the conclusions therein – that look just like reportage is something that diminishes their credibility.

Apparently, that’s how one makes a bomb these days, but only if you know what anthrax is, no, not the 80s metal band.

The Post reports that the Lincoln Memorial was closed for a few hours this afternoon due to

a mysterious liquid, a threatening letter and a suspicious package

Were people that bored today that they decided to play games with several governmental braches? Were the crazies out in full? Or is there another reason that someone wanted governmental agencies all over the Memorial today?

Whatever the reason, apparently it was just another day in the Capital after a long, holiday weekend.

In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world throughout the week of Nov, 26th through Dec, 2nd. This is Washington, DC’s 6th Gift to the World – Ben’s Chili Bowl.

Flickr Photostream of Ben’s

Open through both the 1968 riots and the Green Line expansion through U Street, Ben’s anchored the U Street neighbourhood and is favorite of both daytime construction workers and night-time bar crawlers.

But that’s not why it’s a gift to the world. Ben’s Chili Bowl gave us two amazing gifts. First Bill Cosby took his wife-to-be on dates at Ben’s and without her support, how else could we remember a dentist visit with humor or have amazingly positive black role models on TV?

Next we got half-smokes. Before you get into the whole “what’s a half-smoke?” debate, as they are neither half of anything or smoked, just savory the memory of your first one. Mine was late, way too late, with work looming in the morning. I needed food, I needed sobriety, I needed the bright lights and limitless grease of a Ben’s half-smoke chili dog.

And we all need the calming influence, good food, and great friends found at Ben’s Chili Bowl. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m hungry and Ben’s is short bus ride away.

Photo by flickr user littlerottenrobin under creative commons licence.

After dressing like they were still in training camp for the last season and a half, the Redskins ditched their white on white combination and wore their traditional burgundy pants again yesterday. The result: a 17-13 victory (The Post) of Carolina. QB Jason Campbell hit TE Chris Cooley for a 66 yard score late in the fourth quarter. Adding to the drama was Campbell actually getting to call the winning play — his helmet speaker went dead. The Skins raise their record to 4-7, while the Panthers fall to 6-5.

After posting my original frustrated missive about how there did not seem to be any homebrew shops in the area (see Is the DC Area Anti-Home Brew?), I got lots of suggestions on where to go. One store appeared to be only a few miles from my home. How could I have missed it, I wondered.

myLHBS is tucked away in the offices of a language school in the building next to Sears on Route 7, at the intersection with Patrick Henry Drive. When I entered the building I quickly found Languages Incorporated on the directory and went to their office, past the doctors and dentists and icky medical specimen containers. Those things always freak me out a little.

Owner Derek Terrell greeted me and had the few things I was looking for and much more. For being in the back of someone else’s office, myLHBS sure does have quite a selection of inventory packed into a relatively small room. What’s more is that it doesn’t appear cluttered at all. He may not have twenty of anything but he has anything you might want or need, including some nice items on sale.

This is more than beer making supplies. The store also has a good selection of wine kits, honey to make mead and even a hard cider kit. In my day we made hard cider in a glass jug with bread yeast and an improvised prophylactic-based air lock. I am sure it was much cruder than the kit at the store and I might just go back and get that kit to try it out.

More than a simple store clerk, Derek is a seasoned brewer and has run a shop like this before. He knows the equipment and processes and can make expert suggestions without sounding highfaluting.

myLHBS certainly has my business for the future. Any home brewers in the area should definitely go check this place out.

In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world throughout the week of Nov, 26th through Dec, 2nd. This is Washington, DC’s 7th Gift to the World—
The Metro.

In the United States, there are four major cities that have subway systems that most of us are at least familiar with, if not ones we have actually ridden on. Prior to WW II, we had the famous “L” in Chicago and the New York Subway. After the war, San Francisco’s BART was built. Europe is home to the famous London Underground and the Paris Metro.

And of course here in Washington, DC we have our own Metro.

Very early plans for a mass transit system began during WW II, but it wasn’t until after President Kennedy’s assassination that serious planning, engineering and design aspects were on the drawing board. In a 1966 letter to the NCTA, President Lyndon Johnson called for “architecturally significant stations.” An early proposal suggested that each one have its own distinctive style, but later it was agreed that every station should be uniform in design.

Groundbreaking took place in 1969, and construction was carried out in phases over the next decade. Extensions and improvements have continued to the present day. The system is laid out like the spokes of a wheel, with Metro Center at the hub. Each route is color coded and include the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green and Blue lines. Although initially not part of the WMATA, a 6th line, the light rail “Purple” line is in design phase and is meant to act as a sort of rim to the wheel—circling the district and connecting many of the endpoints. More on that in a future post.

Although there are occasional problems, overall the Metro is clean, efficient, and inexpensive. I don’t own a car, so I rely on it to get to where I need to go. My one complaint are the stations, I think they need brighter lighting and better signage with more contrast.

The next time you plan to visit our nation’s capitol, remember you can ditch the car and use the Metro to get to all those wonderful museums and other attractions.

Happy holidays!

Ah, the end of Thanksgiving weekend. The frigid cold is gone, the windows open to a spring-like breeze. Slowly, cars are returning to our block as neighbors drive back from grandma’s house in the ‘burbs or airport hell. We’re relaxing in front of football, slurping down Thanksgiving Soup Surprise (this year’s version: turkey and curry vegetables – just the thing for holiday hangovers). Soon we’ll drive my brother to the airport, the last of the guests to be on their way home.

The past few days went by in a whirl, as we hosted relatives and friends in an attempt to start a new tradition – namely, that DC is “home” and once in a while, family should come to us instead. It worked so well that I may become quite spoiled and never travel on the holidays again. Right, that has a high likelihood of happening! Oh well.

A few outsider observations about our fair city were made that I thought I’d share. One was that the female population appears more petite than other states. Is this true? I’m not sure, but the minute the comment was made, I saw a dozen petite girls meandering through the always entertaining Cue Bar and thought, “hmm… there might be something to this theory.”

Another was that hanging at Stetson’s was far more fun than at Bar Pilar, an opinion I completely share after standing for two seconds in Pilar’s crowded sauna of a hallway. Not only that, the nearby Saint-Ex continued its demise in my mind by having an actual velvet rope situation outside – it better have been for a private party, because I can’t imagine a place that started out wanting to be a cool neighborhood bar warranting that kind of attitude. Anyway, Stetson’s lived up to its undying rep as casual unpretentious sanctuary, where we lounged with friends, nursed by Mother Beer, patting our turkey bellies with glee.

Ah yes, Happy Thanksgiving DC! Now, back to work… sigh.