Heather Ryan has a great essay in Salon this week about taking her kids to a soup kitchen. Ryan is a writer with a master's degree and three children. She's also broke and divorced. She doesn't ask for pity, or wallow in purple descriptions of her shame and desperation. She just explains how it sucks [...]
The most promising release in the recent flood of comics-turned-movies may be on hold, thanks to a lawsuit. The Watchmen, which I haven't finished yet (I got distracted by Wanted, which is awesome, unlike the movie. Angelina Jolie total blew our chances to watch an awesome (and black) female superhero named Fox) is basically supposed [...]
Damien Ober, an aspiring Libertarian candidate for DC's shadow senator seat, has a new video up that hints at a potential scheme to infiltrate the Libertarian mainstream (obvs., that's sort of a contradictory idea). Like his other videos, which I wrote about this week, this one is intentionally mysterious. So I won't make any conclusions. [...]
Everyone misses the Cold War.
Interesting murder trial in the Va. 'burbs: Fawn Scott stabs and kills her boyfriend, says it's self defense, but gets charged with murder nonetheless. Scott isn't a very sympathetic defendant, but it's still hard to believe she didn't act to save her life.
Banned in Beijing. No hustling! Also, math is hard.
Screw [...]
Just Asking: Which prolific local blogger is also an accomplished break-dancer? Spotted doing a perfect worm on the floor of a bar that would give it all away if I said the name.
An observant reader sends this snapshot from yesterday of Bolt Bus and Megabus taking over two lanes at 11th and G streets during rush hour. Come on, dudes! Share! (On a side note, I still haven't been able to get wi-fi on Bolt Bus.)
Photo: SaraH
Terribly late to the news here. Lifetime is picking up the LNS reality show. Patrick Gavin has all the details here. Like everyone else, I'm a little grossed out and a little excited. I've yet to find mention of the show's name. If anyone would like to riff, please have at it. "Welcome to Poundtown" [...]
A smart friend has been soliciting thoughts on this piece in Adbusters on the cultural vapidity of the hipster genus. Well, I'm about to head to the hipster Mecca of Portland, Ore., so I really don't want to spoil the fun by reading the whole thing. But a quick skim convinces me that the writer [...]
I am not a big consumer of porn, but I have always been interested in the aesthetics and politics of the business. Especially the in-between stuff that tries to be art or politics as well as smut. I used to like New York Girls, then got all uppity about Richard Kern. Suicide Girls turned me [...]
My boyfriend and I went to Revolution Cycles in Arlington yesterday to get his fixed-gear track bike converted into something more friendly for spinning up the hill from our apartment to the Galaxy Hut. We walked up to the shop in the back of the store. A plump, mustachioed mechanic asked what we needed. My [...]
For this week's cover story, I decided to check out the personal homes of a few of the city's so-called slumlords. Some of them were typical fat cats: dudes with mansions in Potomac who made their fortunes renting run-down apartments in the city.
One guy turned out not to be a slumlord at all—he has [...]
Spontaneous combustion destroys a mansion in Potomac. Pretty mysterious, but not as fun as dark matter.
The LA Times has the scoop on the apparent suicide death in Maryland of the scientist at the center of the FBI's anthrax investigation.
BREAKING! Federal officials raided former MPD captain Melvin Gresham's home. Jason has written a lot about this [...]
Radar on the etymology of douchebag as a slang insult: might have started with Henry Miller, but also, it's really fun to say. And like S.O.B., it's a insult for men that "gets its sting" by referring to women.
I am about 10 years late here, but I think I'm not alone. In July, the BBC released a DVD collection of a genius show called Spaced, which started in 1999, and concerns the weirdo adventures of two mid-twenties friends on the dole in London. The show stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot [...]
