In the emergency room at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, there is a cabinet with drawers variously labeled "CRICOTHYRODOMY TRAY," "TRACH TUBES," and the like. The bottom drawer carries the sign "OVASSAPIAN AIRWAYS," to which some wag has affixed a label reading, "THE ONLY WAY TO FLY."
An appropriate joke, because hospitals are much like airports: [...]

On Sunday, Mark Opsasnick spoke at Cameron Perks Coffeehouse about his latest book, The Lizard King Was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia, concerning the dead Doorsman's school days at George Washington High School. Three of Jimbo's classmates showed up to testify: Randy Maney, Bill Thomas, and Stan Durkee.
Randy called [...]

These are pictures of my sister on her way to her senior prom. (Go, Richard Montgomery Rockets!) Why she wore her hair that way I don't know. (She's not happy that I found the photo.) It was certainly not her usual style. I don't think it was anybody's style.
Until May of 1977, when Star Wars [...]

Spoiler alert: Anyone who hasn't seen the 1973 film Soylent Green—well, what have you been waiting for?
In the movie's dystopian future—actually the not-that-far-away 2022—the natural world has been utterly destroyed and the population has exploded to the point where the main food supply is, er, other people, packaged as the titular product.
But before you [...]

We were rummaging through the Nuttycombe Archives™ and came upon a copy of Love Letters to the Monkees, the "new wild mad groovy" 1967 nonbook tie-in to the TV show. We found the slim paperback in some area secondhand store years ago and it's inscribed, "Joyce from Chris, Christmas 1967."
But our interest was piqued [...]

A packed house at the Silver Theater Sunday night for the final Silverdocs screening of Helvetica, the feature documentary about a typeface that seemingly brought out every graphic designer in town, some with laptops in tow. Director Gary Hustwit (pictured) was on hand for a Q&A afterward and jokingly challenged the audience to come up [...]

I never warmed to the D.C. statehood argument. Voting rights, yes, absolutely, right now. But the idea of our tiny District as a state seems unwieldy. Admittedly, the main reason I'm against it is that adding another state will totally mess up the flag. Fifty-one is an odd odd number, and I can't envision any [...]

Unlike much of America, D.C. filmmaker Jon Gann watched the Fox reality show On the Lot Tuesday night. As chronicled previously on City Desk, Gann spent a fair amount of time and effort trying to land a spot on the program, which pits hopeful moviemakers against each other for a chance at a million-dollar "development [...]

Behold the Suzuki X-90 4x4. It's got the "X" thing going, so you know it's rad. But what's the "4x4" mean? Total square centimeters of space? The only off-roading you're gonna do in one of these is time spent in the garage. And that spoiler on the back? Puh-leeze!
And, seriously, if you're going to be [...]

The Depression didn't seem so depressing for Washingtonians according to a March 13, 1935, page from the Washington Post. (Once again, sent to us by tireless truth-hunter Jeff Krulik. Should we add Jeff to the masthead?)
In addition to Ed Sullivan's breathless "Broadway" column ("We are living in a fright-wig era, populated by such 'colorful' gentlemen [...]

Was joshing on the e-mail with Tyler Smith, co-founder of the new improv-with-band outfit Claymore Productions. The U-Md. grads are launching their comedy Web site with a party at the Red and the Black next Tuesday, May 22, featuring "in-house band" Little Justice.
During the banter, Tyler quoted Thoreau to the effect of people living lives [...]

Hey, kids, let's catch some live country music in Bethesda!
OK, that sounds absurd. The Land of 1,000 Restaurants is hardly compatible with anything Opry, right? But in living memory, downtown Bethesda was home to an authentic country joint, the Red Fox Inn, as this photograph from the Nuttycombe Archives® attests. (Click image for a larger [...]

Coincident with Mark Jenkins' erudite history of the Town Theater and downtown development, a bit of e-mail arrived in my inbox from indefatigable researcher Jeff Krulik. Jeff enjoys sending around scans of newspaper movie listing pages from days gone by. On the page from the June 2, 1972, Washington Post, there are several ads for [...]

While my colleague Justin Moyer and his Antelope pals traverse America bringing art-rock to the hinterlands, others make different use of music. For instance, Saturday evening at the Hilton (recently the Doubletree) on Rockville Pike, the Bar Association of Montgomery County held its annual "Barrister's Ball." Music was provided by an oldies band consisting mainly [...]

Maybe the Reliable Source gals don't actually look at their page inside the Style section, because they missed an obvious cheap shot in today's paper.
In the column's upper left, Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift's mug. In the lower right–well, isn't that also Eleanor? At least it's another elderly white woman—oh, wait, no...it's actually Phil Spector leaving [...]