Another One Bites the Dust: Does Washingtonian have a retention problem? Kyle Gustafson (disclosure: a former colleague) has announced that he's leaving his post as the magazine's online editor. "It wasn't working out for either party," he tells TBD. His departure comes just five months after he started; the website's previous editor, Sommer Mathis (also a [...]
You are nothing. In fact, 99.9999999999999 percent of everything is made up of nothing. But despite that empty feeling you have, there is something—atoms, sure; the Higgs boson particle, likely—and the sum of those things coalesces into our beautiful universe. How everything became as it is—built up from zilch—is the basis of theoretical physicist Lawrence [...]
Jon Lovett, who recently left his gig as a White House speechwriter, recently landed a pilot deal with NBC for 1600 Penn, a sitcom about a president and his or her dysfunctional family as they bumble their way through the business of the nation. The following is a spec script adapted from Lovett's pitch [...]
Helen Zughaib offers me baklava soon after I enter her Foggy Bottom studio. “It’s not the real thing,” she apologizes. “It’s Greek, so it’s made with honey instead of simple syrup. We Arabs are sticklers about stuff like that,” she laughs.
Zughaib’s Arab heritage (her father is Lebanese, her mother American) informs not only her taste [...]
When it comes to rating writers, Maya Angelou is a national treasure. Over the course of more than 50 years as an author and poet, she has produced some of the most poignant, insightful, and inspirational commentary about her own life and the evolution of America. Her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird [...]
Good morning! Arena Stage has named President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama honorary chairs of its inaugural season at the $125 million Mead Center for American Theater on the Southwest waterfront, which it moved into Monday. The New York Times' writes that it's unclear whether the honor means the Obamas will attend Arena's [...]
I cheated on Washington City Paper this week. Last night Sir Paul McCartney performed in the East Room of the White House and collected the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and I filed this report for Rolling Stone.
Based on the lineup—McCartney performed, as did Stevie Wonder, the Jonas Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Jack [...]
Morning, readers.
*Don't tell Beaujon! The Times previews forthcoming Obama bio by New Yorker editor David Remnick, makes goofy little gaffe. To wit, the correx:
An earlier version of this post misquoted Mr. Remnick on his comparison between the book and a New Yorker article he had previously written. He said the book would not be a [...]
Comedy troupe Second City's production of Barack Stars: The Wrath of Rahm (running through February 21 at Woolly Mammoth) plays with the ever-popular stories of the president and his crew. Much of the best work centers around Rahm Emanuel's ill-advised four-letter-word choices and inadvisable use of the "r"-word. Even though we've heard some of the [...]
In which the author makes snide remarks about HBO's For the People: The Election of Barack Obama
Wow, Barack Obama—what an inspiring figure. Do you remember how, against all odds, he got elected President way back in 2008? And then, despite an about-face in conventional wisdom re: the viability of Obamacare, how he jammed health-care reform [...]
