The above snow plow met its end at the intersection of 5th and Kennedy Streets NW, where the snow doesn't take kindly to being pushed around by ANYONE. From the looks of it, the poor thing caught on fire and its drivers fled, possibly on foot. The neighbors love this stuff--someone said that salt gets rid of ice, or something, which I can't confirm because I am from Florida--and they broke out trash bags, paint buckets, and garbage cans, got in line, and committed to salting their streets by hand.

Read More "In Petworth, Snow Plows You" »

Christmas eve is tomorrow (again), and thanks to my family's spectacular celestial fragmentation, the phone calls have started (again). My sister wants me to know that she wishes I could come to Arkansas to see her, as well as my niece and nephew--5 and 3 years old respectively--whose pictures hold a sacred space in my wallet, but who I've never met. Another sibling, another unknown niece, will call soon from Kansas City to say the same. My mom's way out in Austin (I'll call her). My stepsister's in New York (I don't think either of us has the other's number). My cousin's in Harlem (he'll call me Christmas night, wasted, at 4 a.m.; probably on his boyfriend's phone).

All of them would like to see everyone with whom they share a last name (or custody) this holiday season, and this will lead to much fretting over logistics. A few years ago, I realized that the easiest way to tell someone No, I am so sorry, but we cannot fix this broken mess of a family by flying around for two-hour visits, was to make myself unavailable.

Read More "Merry Christmas and Farewell" »

What happens when you get 140 characters from the D.C. area in a room together? Help us find out!

Our @wcp twitter account is about to hit 2,500 followers. To celebrate this little milestone, we're organizing a D.C. tweetup next week on Thursday, Dec. 10th, 2009. Come out and hang with us and your fellow D.C. tweeps at Buffalo Billiards The Big Hunt in Dupont Circle.

@TheSexist, @MikeRiggs, @wamitchell, @nikkididit, and a bunch of our staff will be there. The date coincides with one night of the "12 Bars of Christmas" promotion from our illustrious sales team, and that means $6 Clipper City Heavy Seas. The event starts at 6 p.m. at The Big Hunt, 1345 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Spread the word! Let @wcp know if you can make it! (Or leave a comment below with your @username in the name field.)

Special Double Bonus: We have free stuff to give away! The first 20 people to give @MikeRiggs a hug at the tweetup will be given 2 free passes to Landmark Theaters. Bonanza!

Somber morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to what will probably be my last Freedom Friday. Henceforth, I'll be doing the morning roundups on the Arts Desk. In genuinely somber news, Major Nidal M. Hasan, prime suspect in yesterday's shootings at Ft. Hood, was home-grown. WaPo's reporting reveals a rather mundane yet devout religious man who didn't want to see his theological brethren slain in a pointless war, but whose ultimate expression of that anxiety was not only pointless, but grotesque and heartbreaking. In other words: Sick shit begets sick shit.

Prepare yourselves for all kinds of anti-Islam vitriol in the coming days and weeks; stuff that will likely dwarf anti-teabagger sentiments and provide some sort of twisted justification for prolonging our military's stay in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: ‘Hasan Was an Avid Redskins Fan’" »

Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to Freedom Friday! Today's topic: Chuck Lane, former editor of the The New Republic and promoter of the conventional wisdom on the editorial pages of the Washington Post. For those of you who missed last week's FF, I said some not nice things to Chuck. Why did I say those things? Because Chuck Lane was acting like a dick.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Chuck Lane Strikes Back" »

This morning, The Week's twitter account retweeted an item from twitter user  Brandee C., who had retweeted a link from Random House, promoting a list by Tracy Kidder of his favorite books. Only problem? The link The Week retweeted wasn't actually for Kidder's piece (which you should read). Instead, the link that The Week sent out to its 5,547 followers, courtesy of Brandee C., took them to a Japanese porn site (this link will take you to Brandee's tweet, but clicking the hyperlink you see there probably won't be safe for work.)

Twitter users frequently retweet something--essentially pass it along--without checking the content of the link. My guess is that the magazine assumed Brandee C.'s retweet, since it arrived via Random House, was legit. Brandee C., however, obviously likes to read about books while surfing Japanese porn, and in her/his excitement, confused the links.

I responded to the magazine via twitter, and The Week has since fixed the link, and deleted the original retweet.

Let this be a lesson to us all: Check those links before you retweet.

Good morning City Desk readers, and welcome to the dawn of a new era of freedom (Friday!). This week, the Justice Department announced that medical marijuana--and the people who sell it through dispensaries and the people who smoke it with a scrip--is no longer one of its concerns.

Do I want to be elated? You betcha. But then I had a total downer moment this morning, courtesy of the Washington Post's Charles Lane. In a post titled "'Medical Marijuana' Is a Trojan Horse," Lane argues that weed has very few medicinal properties and that we're all just using it for recreation, and that that's wrong because it's not honest.

Then he compares the medical case for marijuana to the scientific case for creationism.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Marijuana Is so Going to Be Legal One of These Days Despite Hacks Like Charles Lane Edition" »

Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to a cold, wet Freedom Friday. If I didn't know better, I'd say god has blackened the cursed sun! OMG, y'all, I totally called that whole thing with Balloon Boy. Darrow can tell you. That flying popcorn bag landed on the television, and the cops cut it open with an axe, and Falcon was not in there, and I said, "I bet he untethered that puppy by accident, freaked out that his dad was going to beat his ass, and hid somewhere around the house." Darrow called the garage. We were half right.

More half-rightness after the jump.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Rush Just Needs Somebody to Love" »

It's not Freedom Friday yet, dear City Desk readers--YET!--but I couldn't resist sharing this ridiculous bit of fashion goodness (and no, FTC, J. Crew is not paying me to blog about this).

Introducing: The Belstaff® Che Guevara replica jacket:

Read More "Dressing Like Che Will Cost You Your Paycheck" »

What the hell, City Desk readers? President Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize! Even though he's done nothing for peace! Brief thoughts on this: Norwegians are much, much more sentimental, European, and borderline-retarded than anyone realizes. Also, Obama won, basically, for not being George W. Bush. How else to explain the fact that he had been in office for a little over a week when he was nominated for the prize, and had yet to officially do nothing to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Incidentally, the Taliban are also disappointed in the Norwegians:

"We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP....

"When Obama was elected president, we were hopeful he would keep his promise to bring change. But he brought no change, he has continued the same old strategy as (President George W.) Bush.

I don't mean to further offend the sycophants on the prize committee, but I have to say, the Taliban kinda sorta have a stake in this. Granted, they are shitty and stupid and regressive. But they're also getting bombed and shot by USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Prez Obama Further Alters the Nature of Reality" »

Good morning, dear City Desk readers, and welcome to an especially incensed edition of Freedom Friday!

You know what's got my goat this morning? Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander's horrendous crusade against single cigar sales. The kids use them to smoke the marijuana, sure. But the kids will smoke out of anything! The cigarette foil, the hollowed-out apples, the dented cans, the Sobe bottles, the garden hoses, the seasonal squash, the hollowed-out hot dogs, the pens, and even the ground! And you know what? A 14-year-old who can score weed and a single cigar knows how to make things happen. Smoking out of the ground will be a cakewalk for these kids!

And the worst thing about Alexander's crusade--the worst!--isn't her nanny instincts, but this horrible, off-the-cuff lie:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Yvette Alexander Knows Almost Nothing About Gas Station Profit Margins Edition" »

Good morning City Desk readers, and welcome to the first Fall Freedom Friday! Or something! So: Ted Loza. Smart cat. Why? Well, because if his boss' claims are true, Loza got money for nothing. Per the excellent reporting of one Mike DeBonis, Mr. Jim Graham has claimed Loza had nothing to do with cab regulations that are being put into place: "Going one step further, I had never had any conversation with Teddy Loza where he came to me and he said, ‘Will you do this or will you do that?", Graham said.

Does this mean that Loza promised someone taxi cab regulation in exchange for money after he knew the regulation was going to be approved regardless of his influence? If so, that's brilliant and appalling. Then again, Graham could be lying his head off. Note to bribe-easy pols, we need more cabs with fewer regulations. Why? Because people need jobs and I NEED RIDES AND NOT THE KIND AT THE CARNIVAL.
Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Taxi Cab Confessions" »

Good morning, y'all! I'd say, "welcome to a blah blah Freedom Friday," but I'm not really feeling it today. You see, our annual Fall Arts Guide hit the streets yesterday, and that's got me happier than a pig in shit, what with all the blood, sweat, and open weeping I put into it. That also means we're avoiding politics on Freedom Friday today, and instead celebrating fun things that we can all enjoy!

After the jump: IS CHEESE DIP DEEP SOUTHERN? DOES THE DUDE ABIDE?

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: This Dude Abides" »

Fans of independent film and foreign affairs should see tonight's screening of Haile Gerima's Teza, hosted by WPFW and the European Commission.

Gerima's film follows Anberber, a displaced Ethopian who studied medicine in Germany with hopes of bringing his skills back home, only return to a country  ravaged by the Marxist dictator Haile Mariam Mengistu.

An interview with Gerima, and venue details, after the jump.
Read More "Tonight: Teza at Avalon" »

Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to a slightly soggy Freedom Friday!

"All Hands on Deck," Chief Cathy L. Lanier's unconstitutional excuse for setting up roadblocks and checkpoints, is done--but not because it violated the Fourth Amendment. No, AHOD is dead because "police union officials have long decried the AHODs as essentially a publicity stunt that generate goodwill for politicians at the expense of rank-and-file officers."

Christ almighty: "We'll stop this thing we're doing that's illegal, but only because the people we've asked to do it ARE TIRED OF DOING IT SO MUCH. " If you're disappointed that AHOD is kaput--and at least one of you is--then you obviously never had anything to hide and are probably an incredibly boring person.  The rest of us will be celebrating the return of our right to no unreasonable searches and seizures at an undisclosed location. ORWELLIAN SAPS ARE NOT INVITED.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: RIP, AHOD; You Won’t Be Missed" »