What do smoking a cigarette outside the 9:30 Club and the recent “Access Hollywood” interview with Barack Obama’s family have in common? Read former City Paper editor David Carr’s column in today’s New York Times to find out–a good-humored look at what he calls “presidential blowback” (with a CP shout-out to boot).

If you haven’t heard by now Top Chef contestant Spike has finally opened up his Good Stuff Eatery at 3rd and Penn Ave on Cap. Hill. Last night, I went and checked it out. First impression: Holy Crap! There’s a line!

The line is probably a temporary phenomena. Spike’s self-promotion skills were always as great as his cooking skills (maybe better). The hype for this restaurant was pretty steady leading up to the opening. Even the buns [”buttery soft,” “freshly baked Pennsylvania Dutch”) were hyped and you could find them at Safeway. If you stood in line, you were there for more than just a burger.

Spike’s Dad tried to make things go down easier. As we reached the front of the line, he greeted us and fellow Top Chef nerds with menus and some happy patter. But as he wound up to give his rap explaining the menu, a woman, middle-aged with short dark hair, interrupted him. She told him she didn’t want to hear his menu hype, she didn’t need it. He waved her off muttering something about everyone being too serious, that he had enough of serious in his life. Right on!

But the woman wasn’t having it. She looked at Spike’s Dad all serious and called him an “asshole.”

Exciting!

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During your first week at a new job, it’s expected to make mistakes while learning new tasks and ways of doing stuff, right? Well, I royally messed up, and in the publishing business, that sometimes means that everyone and their literate dog has access to that mistake.

The crossword fiends among us maybe have already noticed the error, but let me get it right out there in the open. On page 107 of this week’s City Paper, I mistakenly posted the answers to this week’s crossword where last week’s answers were supposed to be. Talk about flubbing up. I apologize for ruining your fun, crossword fans, and I’ve come up with a solution to not let it happen again, so have no fear.

The Post reports on the funeral of Ronnie White, a Prince George’s County inmate who was killed in his jail cell after being charged in the murder of an officer. The Post’s previous story on that officer’s funeral made no mention of White’s death, actually, not even his name.

More crime cameras on the way, this time in Metro stations.

New Columbia Heights has an update on the Brizill/Imhoff mansion: it’s being repaired, maybe.

I’m hoping the street-ripping and car-tossing in Hellboy is a little more fun than it was in Hulk.

Megan McArdle has camped out at the Clarendon Apple Store. She says: “I imagine this is what it feels like to be a refugee–you sleep outside, and then smiling people in uniform hand you supplies whether you ask for them or not.”

Should we do something like this?

I know. I’m like two years or something too late. But what the hell is with hipsters wearing boat shoes? Is Vampire Weekend to blame? I spotted the above pair outside the Rock and Roll Hotel on Tuesday for the No Age show. They weren’t the only boat shoes in attendance. Is it ironic? Is it just stoopid? Looks like I’m not the only one questioning this footwear choice.

Along with Carr on today’s Kojo Nnamdi Show:

12:06—When Media IS the story

The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild yesterday released a survey of salaries in the newsroom of the Washington Post. Most of the document is a snooze: A lot of editorial aides are earning salaries in the $30,000 range and a lot of reporters hover in high five-figure, low six-figure territory.

There is, however, one fun detail: Three employees in the category of “Reporter, Bureau Chief or Columnist” are pulling down between $230,000 and $239,000. As this this publication made clear last month, that salary is higher than the base pay of the paper’s tier of assistant managing editors.

So who are these three well-paid Posties? I’m guessing that two of them are Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, the ESPNers who have a leg up in just about any set of negotiations over compensation. Kornheiser, of course, took this year’s buyout offer.

The third?

* Via the New York Times: The Senate OK’s wiretapping, fears the wrath of City Paper Web Programmer Will Mitchell.

* All Our Noise proclaims Lil’ Wayne is America. Burn on Lil’ Wayne!

* Mr. T in D.C.: When trying to sell an old coffeemaker on Craigslist goes “Terribly, Terribly Wrong.” With damages up to $1! Hasn’t Mr. T been through enough?

* Prince of Petworth posts some “Odd Graffiti” of an alien figure uttering the word “Soma.” “What is ’soma,’” asks the Prince. Prince of Petworth skipped 10th grade … and 2001.

* Via Wonkette: Befriend Larry Craig on the Internet, get heebie-jeebies.

* Free, cute, and totally fucking weird: Brightest Young Things directs you to adopt one of the Flaming Lips‘ 7 homeless puppies.

Photo by Marion Doss.

Photograph by Darrow Montgomery

The “ghost bike” memorial for 22-year-old Alice Swanson was installed anonymously where she died yesterday at 20th and R streets in Dupont Circle.

The tragedy is one that hits home for many: for Alice’s coworkers and former coworkers, for her housemates in Mount Pleasant, for her friends in D.C. and from college at Amherst, and from home in Northborough, Mass. It hits the many cyclists in this town and anyone who witnessed the accident or its aftermath. It’s probably her father, though, who expresses the loss best (from the Boston Globe):

She is so energetic and enthusiastic. She always wants to explore or travel. She’s got a room full of maps here, world maps and things like that. She wanted to travel.

I just feel that she had so many things that she wanted to do—to help people. Now it’s not going to happen.

Condolences to all who knew and loved Alice.

UPDATE: WABA (Washington Area Bicyclist Association) to hold a memorial service and press conference tonight at 6:30 near the intersection. Cyclists and others who attend are encouraged to bring bike lights and flowers.

Departing why.i.hate.dc blogger Rusty poses with two of his least favorite D.C. institutions—Smith Point and City Paper—in an interview with washingtonian.com. When asked what one thing he’d improve about Washington, a city he’s been hating on so much that he considers moving to Columbus, Ohio, a step up, “Eliminating the Washington City Paper once and for all.”

Really, all he’d ever have to do to fulfill that fantasy is to join a team that plays us at softball. As detailed on this blog, our softball team was overmatched in every contest we played this year. We forfeited our final game, not for a staff meeting—we tend to hold those on weekdays—but because most of the team had to volunteer at Crafty Bastards Silver Spring.

Never did quitting feel so good. I blogged a while back about the difficulty of getting up and driving for 45 minutes to get your bahookie thumped by some team with “video” in its name.

Thing is, I like playing softball. We all do. But serving as cannon fodder for the fine folks at the Gazette papers isn’t really all that fulfilling. So here’s what I’m thinking. Around town, there have to be publications staffed by people as hopeless as we are. Sculpture, I’m looking at you! Hey Preservation, preserve this!

I am proposing a league of wusses. DCist! We must at least stand a chance against you! National Geographic! Actually, I’ll bet those sturdy explorers at National Geographic could wallop us. But National Geographic Kids! Ranger Rick! Callin’ you out, too! Metro Connection! Current Newspapers!

Will Mitchell: Washington City Paper Web Programmer by day, Internet superstar by night.

Mitchell, forever immortalized on the Express softball “Opening Day” online photo album (shown here absorbing the weight of the Express’s Chip Porter), has again become fodder for Internet gossips/tween scrapbooks. Yesterday, the Huffington Post (ever heard of it?) went big on Mitchell with this report of his trip to hand-deliver a letter to Barack Obama protesting his position on the FISA bill. Watch your back, Barack:

Note to HuffPo: Mitchell delivered the letter to Obama’s D.C. offices, not his Chicago headquarters. He is but one man.

Print out your pocket-sized collector’s editions after the jump.

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As I mentioned before, I’m brand new to the District. In fact, this is day 8 of my new life on the East Coast. With this new transition comes adjustments to weather (How ridiculous is this weather, people? I’ll tell you. It’s ridiculous!) and discoveries of fun things to do and great places to spend money on delicious eats. Which brings me to cupcakes.

I casually mentioned to one of my co-workers yesterday that I wished there was a great cupcake place nearby. To my surprise, she told me there were actually a couple bakeries devoted to cupcakes in the city; the closest shop to the office is a mere 15-minute hop over to U Street. After a lengthy discussion about our preferences regarding the tasty treats, I decided I’d try the first bakery this morning.

Enter CakeLove.

The less-than-humble “The CakeLove Story” section of Warren Brown’s “About CakeLove” shrine to himself and the play-by-play of his creative “brilliance” was more than enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth, let alone the misspellings, punctuation errors and typos that littered his site. (Note to Mr. Brown: I would be thrilled to tidy up your site. I am a copy editor, after all.) I’m getting dizzy just trying to figure out whether the name of his creation is Cakelove, CakeLove or cakelove. Let’s just pick a way to write it and stick with it, OK?

CakeLove seems to just be a glorified Safeway bakery. For one, I couldn’t believe my eyes when the person behind the counter wrapped the first cupcake, a raspberry frosting on vanilla concoction, in wax paper. What happened to the idea of using tongs to delicately place a frosted treat into a cardboard box, preferably in little cupcake stands? The folks at this shop definitely have the right idea when it comes to the cute cardboard boxes, but Brown needs to hit up a couple other cupcakeries — yes, I’m making that word up — and see how the treats should be presented. Heck, he should use his Food Network show to pay for the trip!

First stop on the tour: Magnolia Bakery in New York City, made famous on an episode of Sex and the City. It was my first true cupcake experience, and boy was it glorious. I bought enough to take a couple home with me to Seattle, but they didn’t even make it off the plane.

Trophy Cupcakes, in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle, has great presentation, in addition to amazing frosting, though the cupcakes themselves are a bit hard to stomach. I don’t know about you, but my ideal cupcake shouldn’t make me feel like I just ate a brick. Those were some dense little cakes.

More recently, I visited Cupcake Royale, in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Known for its “Legalize frostitution” bumper stickers and shirts, Cupcake Royale comes in a close second in quality to Magnolia Bakery. Its recipe of just-the-right-amount-of-fluff and frosting to (almost) swoon for makes it a top dessert stop on my 2008 Sweets Tour.

CakeLove, though? I’d say skip it. The frosting looks gross (especially at room temperature), the cake is a tad too dense for my palate, and just looking at the chocolate on chocolate treat on my desk makes me want to have a burger and a milkshake to wash down the nasty, cheap Safeway/Costco-like buttercream frosting taste lingering on my tongue.

I hope the next cupcake shop suggestion is far better than this.

*Is this really so shocking? A local resident says she prefers D.C. to her native California. Also, she had her car stolen three times…in California. Slate.com has the video

*Chocolate Chip Cookies! So few ingredients, yet so many ways to mess up. “Like the omelet, which many believe to be the true test of a chef, the humble chocolate chip cookie is the baker’s crucible.” If you’re hungry, open this web link at your own risk.

*Note to Metro Transit Police: you have to report your own incidents, just like you’d report others.

*And in other food news, former Top Chefer Spike Mendelsohn is set to open his burger joint this week and host his famous pals–you know, “Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, and a bunch of Mendelsohn’s New York buds”–next week, according to Seriouseats.com.

*What to do when your rowhouse doesn’t provide enough lawn space to meet your gardening needs: see photo here.