Washingtonpost.com teaser headline from last night:

“Bush Remarks Seen as Swipe“*

So who’s the asSwipe?

*the adults have regained control over at dot.com: According to the updated headlines, Bush’s Hitler routine is now being seen “as Jab” at Obama. Much more mature…Tho, now that I think about it, there’s a good chance I also called somebody an “assjab” in junior high.                         

Colbert I. King, longtime Washington Post editorial board member and columnist, was given a well-deserved lifetime achievement award last night by the D.C. Appleseed policy nonproft, a distinction he shared with schools expert Mary Levy and former Ward 4 Councilmember and Southeastern University President Charlene Drew Jarvis.

In his remarks accepting the award, King shared heartfelt and stirring words about his work as a journalist, chronicling “people in this city who hurt in ways we can’t even imagine.” He also, of course, paid tribute to the organization that bestowed the award upon him, saying something to the effect that no one else around does more for the city than Appleseed.

Then things took an unexpected turn: “Dorothy Brizill is a close second,” he said, referring to the DCWatch doyenne, civic activist, and involuntary home-improver.

“No,” he then added, “you gotta catch up to Dorothy,” he said to the assembled Appleseed board and staff members and hundreds of others gathered at their annual gala at the National Press Club. Brizill herself was sitting at a corner table.

King concluded his personal tribute with the following: “Dorothy, don’t die!”

This week, we one-up Elmore James, with the most fearsome Fuego/Frio to date. Pay close attention as Wemple discusses apocalyptic prophesies in the Atlantic, superb investigative reporting from the Post, and a circulation scandal at the Express.

Don’t touch that remote!

Jonetta Goes Down the Memory Hole: A minute in to the Politics Hour on WAMU-FM, host Kojo Nnamdi makes no mention whatsoever of the firing of his former co-host, Jonetta Rose Barras. Filling in for her is NewsChannel 8 host Bruce DePuyt, who is currently talking about…team tennis. —Mike DeBonis

“Presidents come and go on the Washington Post’s front page. All political columnists—even David Broder—will retire in time.”

Back in January, I wrote those words as part of a lede for a story about Macy’s advertisements in the Post. I’m truly not in the habit of quoting myself, but I couldn’t help but recall the line after reading some astonishing news yesterday.

David Broder, Post writer since 1966, is taking the newspaper’s buyout offer.

This is not retirement because he’ll still be a contributor. But, it feels momentous. I grew up with stacks of the Post lying all over my house. It took my family a long time to commit to tossing a newspaper. So, I saw the Broder byline for years. However, I didn’t quite grasp the man’s history with the Post until relatively recently.

Then, around 2003 or 2004, I read “Boys on the Bus”—doesn’t every reporter?—Timothy Crouse’s book about journalists covering the 1972 presidential campaign. The book was great. But there was one truly, truly remarkable thing about it: Close to 30 years after the book’s publication, most of the main characters—R.W. “Johnny” Apple, Robert Novak, Haynes Johnson, David Broder, Hunter S. Thompson and Jules Witcover—still did, for the most part, the same jobs for the same publications.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fishbowldc this morning takes a cue from the chattering classes at the Washington Post, with this item on rumors that there’s going to be a big announcement at the paper on Thursday. And just what could this huge announcement be about? The speculation, says Fishbowl, is that “it has something to do with Len Downie finally announcing that he’s leaving.”

Executive Editor Downie has declined to knock down rumors that his departure from the newspaper is in the planning stages. And so a fair amount of shop talk is to be expected.

Last night, Washington City Paper called Downie to ask about this big, huge, major announcement on Thursday. His response: “There’s no announcement coming on Thursday.”

Maybe Friday?

Has anyone else noticed smirk-inspiring ads for the new drug AcipHex? On the commercials, the name is pronounced, “Ass Effex.” Do the drug companies make up homophonic names for new pills on purpose? AcipHex will certainly stick with me more than Reglan or Nexium.

Deborah Heard, top editor of WaPo’s Style section, has decided to accept the paper’s early-retirement package. Here is a note she sent to her staff on Monday:

Good morning. I finally made a decision; yes, I’m taking the buyout. The money was just too tempting. So was the idea of a new adventure. (One of the first things I did during my vacation was renewing my passport!) I’ll be here until the end of the year so I’ll make the magical “rule of 80″ and can also help with a transition for the next person fortunate enough to have this amazing job.

The “rule of 80″ references one of the great aspects of the Post buyout plan. Here’s how it was explained in a Post Co. memo: “an employee whose age plus service totals 80 (after adding five years) can retire with 100% of his/her normal retirement benefit without having it reduced by early retirement factors.”

Absolutely no word yet on who might replace Heard.

In yesterday’s editorial praising the work of the Survivors Fund, a group built around the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, the paper let slip that the charity has been on the job “for more than seven years.”

More than seven years? Hmmm…So, “Loose Change” had it nailed all along?*

*Yes, this would fit better alongside the ravings of other nitpicky bored loonies in the Free for All column of Saturday’s Post…

There’s a nice piece in Express‘ Fit section today about Phoenix Bike Shop in Arlington, which I picked as Best Bike Shop a few weeks ago. That wasn’t an easy choice—I frequent a few bike shops and am deliriously happy with most of them. City Bikes, right near our office, is a classic local bike shop, with great stock, friendly clerks, and perhaps the greatest wrenches in the city. Spokes Etc. in Alexandria is also a fine shop, and I hear great things about the Bike Rack and pretty much every other LBS in the area.

What makes Phoenix great isn’t the fact that you can get a fully rehabbed bike with a nice ’70s lugged frame for less than $100, it’s that kids in south Arlington, which comprises some of the poorest areas of the county, can earn a sharp ride just by helping out around the shop. The shop’s director, Colin Dixon, and chief mechanic, John Harpold, take kids out on rides every week. “I just have always seen bikes and used bikes not as a lifestyle but as the best part of how to get things done,” Dixon told me. And that’s why I think his shop is the best, even with such stiff competition.

*Here’s an unsurprising yet outrage-provoking story: WaPo goes deep on the health care received by detained immigrants. The story exhaustively documents subpar care given to these folks, and as I started reading through the examples cited by the story–that of one Yusif Osman, that of one Francisco Castaneda–I had an inkling of the sort of outrage this investigation would produce.

And there it is, in the first entry in the comment space:

Well if these people wouldn’t sneak across their borders this wouldn’t happen to them. I really can’t feel sorry for any of them. The problem is that we do not deport them fast enough — lawyers drag their cases on and on in hopes of finding an excuse to let their clients stay. We need to deport ALL of these people within 48-96 hours of detention instead of letting them stay for days, months and years as a result of lawyers contiually suing and demanding reconsideration of their cases. These lawyers do more harm than good.

This is just another WAPO story about “poor” illegal immigrants — part of a move for asylum for these illegals. I am sorry I am not moved — except to anger that we can’t deport them faster.

Asshole.

*Washington Times goes social with this piece, including video, on the marriage of First daughter Jenna Bush and young establishmentarian Henry Hager down in Texas.

*Fishbowl has a sweet letter from Jim Lehrer.

*Politico captures this boast from Rush Limbaugh.

With Erik Wemple mysteriously absent this week, staff writer Amanda Hess stands in as FF covers an array of hot-button media issues. This week: gnomes in Frederick County, the New York Times on sex, politics, and fetid water, and the Post on criminal psychology.

Let the wall-banging commence!

With Wemple out on vacation, the proletariat takes over his office to discuss the changes they’d make as editor. Watch out, Wemple! Heed the voice of the people!

[Elsewhere at the City Paper, anarchy abounds as Amanda Hess fills in for Wemple in an upcoming episode of Fuego/Frio. Stay tuned!]

Dear Marx Cafe:

Last night, I was stuck. I was hungry and I desperately wanted to watch the election returns. I picked your establishment because a) you were relatively empty and b) you had CNN on two out of three TVs. And I live near you.

I hate to say this but I regret this decision. Why you decided to pipe in bland adult contemporary alternative [think a Dawson’s Creek episode where Pacey drops some bad E] instead of the shout-y mantones of Wolf Blitzer is beyond me. Didn’t you hear that last night was the last real primary night loaded with delegate-rich states? Didn’t you hear that last night could have been—and probably was—a real game changer? Didn’t you hear that Indiana had been changed from a too-early-to call status to a too-close-to-call status?

Even if you don’t scan TPM every five minutes, you should at least have been able to give me the closed-caption option after I requested it. There are nerds out there. They can be your audience too. I am one of them.

Live up to your name. Why call yourselves Marx Cafe if you’re gonna make patrons watch the Celtics game? Why call yourselves Marx Cafe if Indiana is still Very Much In Play and you decide to flick off CNN for “Dancing with the Stars?”

What the hell was that?

You didn’t even ask me what I thought of your selection. If you had asked, I would have suggested that MSNBC’s political team would have been the better choice. I would have told you that its anchor had just been featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, that the channel is almost hip. I would have told you also that even Morning Joe holds up as web-only reruns.

Instead, you made me think about watching “stars” try to “dance.”

I will end this now. I don’t think I need to mention the food since you appear to treat it as an afterthought. I’m sure whatever voluntary agreement you have does not include having to make a decent veggie burger.

Anyway, please keep in mind that there are still some primaries left. I hear Oregon is going to be the next game changer.

Sincerely,

J.C.

So it was indeed an earthquake that I lived through yesterday afternoon. According to the Washington Post, Annandale, the epicenter, “yawned” through the quake.

I can only speak for one block of Falls Church, where I was when the boom-shaka-laka hit. There was “Twilight Zone”-like weirdness when I went outside and saw other folks standing in their yards with “What do we do now?” looks, and dogs barked all over. I wasn’t yawning. Nobody was yawning.

‘Course, my neighborhood has produced a lotta sissies. But, tell the truth, fellow survivors: Did anybody yawn?