This is not okay

True story.  In the early evening; still really light out, I was walking near my apartment a couple nights ago when some creep waggled his penis at me. It was kind of awful and also so absurd. Why would anyone want to do that? I wasn’t very scared for my safety- he seemed content to just stare at me walking by, from about two feet away, while displaying his penis. Here’s how you know I’m a bleeding heart liberal. Amid my shock and disgust and anger, part of me also feels bad for the guy.  My evening kind of...

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Police News of the Weird

This afternoon I stopped by Adams Morgan Day in DC, an annual street festival.  B. and A. and I ate at Amsterdam Falafel, always a treat, and then I was talking to a couple friends while B. and A. walked around checking out the assorted booths. At around 1:15 pm, things got weird. Reports vary, but one thing is for sure: “There was definitely a gun involved,” says B. According to eyewitnesses, two dogs (a poodle and a rottweiler or pug) got into a scuffle.  The poodle and its owner left the scene, while the man with...

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President Obama invokes President Bush, for the better for both of them and us

At today’s press conference, Anne Kornblut asked: Nine years after the September 11th attacks, why do you think it is that we are now seeing such an increase in suspicion and outright resentment of Islam, especially given that it has been one of your priorities to increase — to improve relations with the Muslim world? And the president answers: I think that at a time when the country is anxious generally and going through a tough time, then fears can surface, suspicions, divisions can surface in a society. And so I think that plays a role in...

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Girls who wear Abercrombie & Fitch

…I’m not one of them, and never was.  I never imagined the song could be about me.  Actually, I’ve never been inside an A&F store, on some sort of vague “principle” formulated when I was about 14. That was also the age when I became a teeny bit obsessed with the band LFO. My years of listening to top-40 radio were limited but intensive. In particular, I would often listen to the top 8 at 8 on Q102, and then call in to try to be the 8th caller and win a prize. One night this worked,...

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New York Times Columnist Line of the Day

If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Paul \”The Little Professor\” Krugman, who in his column \”Things Could Be Worse,\” writes:...

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Morning Constitutional – Friday, 10 September 2010

Good morning, everybody. Lou Reed made Susan Boyle cry. Now, your morning constitutional: In San Bruno, California, a natural gas line ruptured, causing a massive fire that has so far killed six and engulfed at least 53 homes and sent fireballs shooting through the air. The fire raging west of Boulder, Colorado, continues to burn, and officials are concerned that high winds may push the fire toward the city. U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips has ruled that the military\’s ban on openly gay service members from serving in the arms forces is unconstitutional. Afghan protests...

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Poem of the Week

Part II of last week’s theme: villanelles. I’ve read and re-read this poem in at least three different English classes, and haven’t yet tired of it– to the contrary, I find more to like each time.    And it seems apropos in the whirlwind of unpacking to post a poem dedicated to the fine art of losing things. One Art by Elizabeth Bishop The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost...

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List

Things that suck about moving: -packing -unpacking -no Internet in apt for days (thank you, Cleveland Park library) things that don’t: – awesome friends; who make moving lots faster and more enjoyable. Yay community!  Also, pizza. -getting furniture finally into the best conceivable arrangement, after first dragging it all over the room in all kinds of ugly ways -windows, finally, after 1 1/2 years in the cave -sitting in my new reading nook, next to the bookshelves I’ve just filled. Books are my favorite part of both packing and unpacking.  Bookshelf organizing strategies, folks?  I went with...

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V+V Endorses: Adrian Fenty for the Mayor of the District of Columbia

“Last December, according to multiple sources, [D.C. Mayor Adrian] Fenty kicked a trash can, slammed a door, and screamed, “I’m the fucking mayor,” after learning that some much-hated New Jersey Avenue NW billboards were being removed without his being present for a photo-op.” Four years ago, then-Councilmember Adrian Fenty swept into the mayor’s office promising to take on the city’s biggest problems: an education system that was failing the city’s most disadvantaged youth; crime that, while lower than its 1990s peak, was still stubbornly high; and a city bureaucracy still weighed down by incompetence and entropy. Big...

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