As I drove in this morning, I saw an odd site as I approached K and 19th Street. It was early this morning, but there was a back-up just before K, which is unusual. As I approached I realized there had been a pretty hefty fender bender nearly right at the intersection and polic had not yet arrived.

Unfortunately that’s not all that odd, but as I got closer I realized that [what appeared to be on first look] a homeless man was directing us drivers to get over to the right lane so that none of us hit, or got stuck behind, the two stopped and smooshed cars. He was doing a great job and frankly without his direction it could have been a messy situation b/c the flashers on the cars weren’t on – and you know how that is when you inadvertently get stuck behind a stopped car and can’t make it back out in to moving traffic. And then make that an entire lane of traffic, and you can image the back-ups for blocks.

So thanks to that guy. That was a cool move – I wonder if he just wanted to jump in to help out, or if one of the drivers asked him to as he was passing by. Hmm.

I see many shots of DC that are just that – shots of DC. The monuments, museums, and protests are all great things, and after all it’s easy to shoot what’s in your neighborhood. However I’m really impressed when I see a photo taken in our city that is timeless and that could have been taken anywhere, like this shot from chip py the photo guy. The photo’s title, “Man on Escalator”, tells you everything you need to know. It doesn’t matter what year, which city, which escalator, or even which man, it’s just a superbly exposed black and white photo of a guy living his life and going about his business.

Wayan’s Wine Nights

Are you headed to 8th Street SE today? Want the best happy hour deal around? Then check out Finn macCool’s Irish Publick House.

As the sign says, they have half-price bottles of wine at their Wednesday happy hour. And not just house wine, but any wine on their whole menu. Best off all, there’s no need to rush – the happy hour wine special is from 4-10pm.

The Betrothed Butterbean and I took advantage of this great special last Wednesday with a decent and cheap Pinot Grigio. It was no Chateau Kefraya, but it did go well with the Sheppard’s Pie.

Better hurry to Barracks Row soon, ya’ hear. With the temperature dropping in DC’s mico-fall, winter could be here before you can enjoy the patio drinking.

Wayan’s DC Photos

Can I get a date check? Is it not September 19th? Four days and counting after the ANSWER anti-war protest march.

Isn’t it about time that these obnoxious yellow fliers are removed by the earnst protesters who blanketed our city with them?

I’ll even pay the postage to send every single old poster back to the ANSWER HQ, by COD of course.

The ingrate on the right is Senator Max Baucus, the lone Democrat to vote no on the bill. Personally that doesn’t mean much to me, but what does stick in my craw is that when he’s here in DC – according to Mark Plotkin – he resides in Georgetown. It burns my ass that he spends his nights in our city and then goes home or gets himself an absentee ballot for Montana and casts his votes for congressional representation.

I’m happy to say that Jim Webb did the right thing and voted yes, and saddened to say that John Warner did not. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland voted yes, as did both Senators in Delaware and Pennsylvania – good neighbors.

Kudos to Robert Bennett, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, Orrin Hatch, Richard Lugar, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter and George Voinovich who voted across the party line to support the right of DC residents to have a say in their own governance.

Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, doing his best Scrooge impression, ended this term’s hope for a legislator for the District of Columbia, as today’s procedural vote for cloture failed 57-42. 60 votes in the affirmative were required to end debate on the floor and get the bill passed through the Senate and sent to committee for resolution before being sent to President Bush, who had promised a veto for the Bill. Looks like DC will have to wait for a change of administration in order to get their right to vote.

It’s a tough thing to see this come so close, only to be ripped out by a mere procedural vote’s failure. This is one of those times where I sit back and can’t decide whether to laugh or to start drinking. DC’s got more people than Wyoming, yet Wyoming gets a vote in the House and two in the Senate, while we get just a delegate with no right to vote. It’s so frustrating to see such a well-spoken and intelligent woman not get the vote in the House that she rightfully deserves, and to see DC deprived of proper representation, all because it might be a firm Democratic stronghold seat.

Look. We’re Americans here in DC. We are, I promise. If you get born at GW Hospital, you’re an American the same as if you’re born in Fairfield, California or Ely, Minnesota. We pay our taxes, but we don’t get a legislator to lobby for our funding. We don’t get a vote on major issues, we don’t get a spot in committee, we’re pretty much boned.

And today, when it looked like we had it set, we were shut down. Damn Congress, you always leave me walking away muttering under my breath, wondering what possible subset of jackasses and morons brought you here to our town.

When I was shopping for condos in late 2003, I had two options. Either buy a brand new place that required no work but more money up front, or buy a cheaper place that needed some remodeling done. Unfortunately I chose the latter option, but in hindsight I should have gone with the first option. Remodeling is NOT fun.
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That’s what I need, passport photos. As I am standing here in the passport line crowd control of M Street NW, waiting to renew my US passport.

But where can I get passport photographs in Washington DC? Who knows the passport agency rules on how to shoot and crop photographs? Who uses the right paper stock for the prints?

I wish there was a store around here that took quality passport photos. If only there was a sign…

(I had to get “Foggy Bottom” into one more post…)

I’m heading back home after two weeks of work and fun here in our Nation’s Capital. I got to see the things I wanted to see most of all: The National Air and Space Museum (both parts!) as well as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.

Have you read the constitution lately? It’s not long. Read it. Pay particular attention to Article I, Section 9: “The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Just getting some soapbox time in before I go.

Ciao, Cheers and Aloha DC!

Well, were you car free on your morning commute? Did you pass Tommy Wells (Ward 6) Car Free Challenge? I know I did, I ran into work at my new job.

As I ran, I wondered how they came about naming today “CarFree DC Day”. Might they have read my “Good Idea: Car-free DC” post, itself a copy of a Craigslist ad?

Probably not, since they have a whole usage model around car + free that is way more complicated that I could ever be:

• Carfree (adj.): Refers to “World Carfree Day”
• CarFree (n.): Refers to “CarFree DC”
• Car-free (adj.): Describing a car free way of being
• Car free (n. + adj.): To be free of cars

Sheesh, they make it so complex I just wanna drive away.