Just revealed on the D.C. Politics Hour With Kojo and Jonetta: Carol Schwartz has resigned from the D.C. Republican State Committee. The at-large councilmember has belonged to the GOP for her entire political career, though she's always gotten plenty of support from Democratic voters.

This seems to be not quite as clean a break as fellow at-large member David Catania made with the Republicans. Catania became an independent soon after George W. Bush expressed support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

UPDATE: Schwartz Chief of Staff John Abbot calls in to clarify that Schwartz is only rotating off the committee's slate. Schwartz, he assures, is still very much a Republican.

Chefs have been slow to roll out their fall menus this year for one obvious reason---until recently, it's been too fucking warm for squashes and heavy meats. If it weren’t such an environmental no-no, I’d argue for restaurants to start cranking up the AC in late September so that we can start slurping down soups.

Still, as I noted recently, some chefs are adamantly following the calendar, if not the weather, and have already introduced some fall dishes. Tomorrow on WAMU’s Metro Connection, host David Furst and I discuss some of the better options for autumn eating.

You can listen in at 1 p.m. at 88.5 FM on your digital tuner.

Morale seems to be pretty high among Redskins fans after the blowout of Detroit. Quite a difference from last week.

Last Friday on WTEM-AM, for example, callers to the Sports Reporters in drive-time overwhelmingly predicted the visiting and underdog Lions would crush the home team. Hosts Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban said they were shocked by what they called the "Spurrier-like mockery" the audience was displaying toward the once-saintly Joe Gibbs after the collapse against the Giants.

More evidence of the unprecedented discontent came Saturday at Brad Paisley's show at Nissan Pavilion. As the country singer was introducing his band, the jumbo screens in the jampacked amphitheatre showed his keyboard player wearing a #26 Redskins jersey.

The crowd booed.

The reaction stunned both Paisley and the keyboardist, who turned his back to the camera to make sure that fans realized it was a Clinton Portis jersey. Perhaps he thought they were saying "COOOOOOO-LEY."

Nope. More boos.

What the hell?

Praise the Lord! WGTS and its one dozen listeners are not going anywhere. The station at 91.9 FM, owned since '46 by Seventh Day Adventists over at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, has been up for sale for some time. The only serious bidder was American Public Media Group, the other public radio conglomerate, which basically owns all the public radio programs that NPR doesn't. And that's a lot, people, despite what you've heard.

Anyway, APM wanted to turn the D.C. area's little Christian station into something that was not, well, Christian. Thus SAVE GTS was born. Prayers were answered, the station was yanked off the market, and the college's endowment will remain paltry. APM has instead offered to slap down $20 mill for a different Christian station down in Miami, which is set to die on Sunday, only to rise again as a classical station.

Well, we'll always have WETA. But unfortunately commercial-free bluegrass is only for the privileged few.

Last Thursday, I headed down to the free MC Hammer concert outside the Ronald Reagan Building. Along with a healthy dose of parachute pants, repping of Oakland, Calif., and that crazy sideways dance that Hammer does, I got a crash course in how to piss off a plaza full of Hammer fans.

The lesson came courtesy of a man called Shack n’D Pack. Shack n’D Pack is a radio personality on WPGC. His name seems a riff on a Burger King Value Meal prize. He’s also the purveyor of some of the most bizarre concert stalling tactics I have ever experienced.

Shack n’D Pack began by announcing, “we about to turn this motha OUT, Ronald Reagan Building & International Traaaaaaaade!”

It quickly became clear, however, that no mothers were to be turned out anytime soon.

Here’s a rough breakdown of how Shack n’D Pack attempted to fill Hammer’s hour-long absence:

• Traipses around the audience in a blind attempt to shake every person’s hand. Insists, “Everyone knows Shack n’D Pack!”
• Demands that an audience member provide him with a dollar bill for use in a magic trick; claims that the dollar provided is the “wrong type of dollar.”
• Demands that a second audience member provide him with a dollar bill for use in a magic trick; claims that the dollar bill has “Washington’s wonky eyes.”
• Fails to complete magic trick.
• Asks an audience member where she hails from. When she answers, “Northern Virginia,” exclaims, “Northern Virginia! That means she got some money!”
• Calls a photographer onstage; insists that he dance for the audience. Photographer refuses.
• Announces that MC Hammer is ready; walks backstage.
• Hidden from view, adopts a strange Darth Vader impression. Announces, “This is MC Hammer.”
• Is not MC Hammer.
• Launches into a grossly inaccurate overview of Hammer’s career that begins, “The year…is 1976. After 200,000 years of entertainment…one man…comes to America. His name…is MC Hammer.”
• Returns to stage without MC Hammer. Insists several times that “Everybody turn around! Everybody turn around!”
• Sees that audience realizes MC Hammer is not behind them and is becoming irate. Tries Vader voice again. “Siiiiiiileeeeence!” he commands, unsucessfully, approximately a dozen times.
• Rushes backstage again. Yells, “Hammer! Take the mic! Take the mic, Hammer!”

Halfway through Shack n’D Pack’s performance, I felt like I'd been transported into an existentialist nightmare---a “Waiting for Hammer,” if you will, wherein Shack n’D Pack represents humanity’s absurd and heartbreaking attempt to find purpose in a world where Hammer may or may not show up. More than once, I worried seriously whether MC Hammer might actually be dead.

He wasn’t. But when he did finally step out, in trademark boxy suit, low-cut T-shirt, and parachute pants, I couldn’t help but wonder: is that MC Hammer? Or just fucking Shack n’D Pack in an MC Hammer costume?

Local media site DCRTV is out ahead of the pack in reporting on the rumored demise of WTWP. Just yesterday, it posted an item that took for granted the experiment's imminent undoing: "Now we wonder: What will Post veteran Tony Kornheiser do after 'Monday Night Football' without a Post-branded radio outlet to come back to? Some sources tell us that Kornheiser will return to the station early next year, doing the 10 AM to noon slot."

Rumors, of course, are easy to spit onto the page. Getting on-the-record confirmation, at least on this piece, is a bit tougher. Here are responses from the key players in the partnership between WaPo and Bonneville, the operator of WTOP, WTWP, and some other local station. In each case, City Desk is asking for confirmation that the two sides are in talks to collapse the venture:

Len Downie, WaPo Executive Editor: "I can't discuss it."

City Desk: Can't discuss what?

Downie: "Anything....People were on the radio this morning, and people will be on the radio tomorrow." (That's a classic)

***

Tina Gulland, WaPo Radio-TV Mogul: "We're in discussions with Bonneville about everything all the time."

City Desk: Yeah, but what about the rumored discussions about shutting down the joint venture:

Gulland: "I cannot and won't characterize anything in particular."

***

Christopher Ma, WaPo Biz Guy: No comment

***

Steve Hills, Big-Time WaPo Biz Guy: Did not return two calls for comment. Will keep working on him.

***

Jim Farley, Bonneville Higher-Up: No comment on rumors. Did say this: "Having Tony on the air was the turning point. It made us realize that what people want is personality, attitude, controversy, and opinion, and not simply debriefing print reporters about what they wrote in the paper this morning. That’s no knock at print reporters. What Tony brings is this added element."

***

Joel Oxley, Even Higher Higher-Up With Bonneville: "Things right now are very status quo. I don't have anything exciting [to report]. We're continuing to try to improve the radio station."

When asked pointedly whether there'd been any discussions on folding the operation, Oxley said, "We do not have anything going on about that---no."

He later called back to clarify: "Of course we have talked to the Post about all kinds of possibilities....We've explored all kinds of different things with them." But: "We've thought about a lot of different things about how to try to make this work. At this point, that's still what we're trying to do."

In his take in the latest Atlantic, Michael Hirschorn puts the screws, ever so gently, to This American Life and its arbiter of rehashed quirk, Ira Glass. I approve. And what's more, the mag's columnist puts the CP's beloved and reviled neighborhood in a list, quirky in its own rite, of "engaged, aware" disparate places. Right in there with Red Hook and Cambridge, if you can believe:

It’s easy to fall in with TAL. The rhythms are lulling, and everyone involved appears to be—is—smart, idiosyncratic, charmingly self-effacing, well-meaning, much as most of us would like to be seen. Glass tells stories, and who does that anymore? The radio show has birthed and nurtured a slew of alt-culture stars (John Hodgman, Sarah Vowell, David Sedaris), and it thrives as the voice of a generation too young to buy into the broader public-radio mission (“This is the sound of Guatemalan basket weavers; their way of life is threatened …”) and too smart or old for the braying of commercial radio. It’s the sound of Austin, Boulder, Berkeley, Red Hook, Madison, Cambridge, Adams Morgan—of people who tend to think of themselves as engaged, aware.

The aforementioned gentle screws on TAL come later. But they're there, my friends, they're there. So how ’bout it kids. Are we thinking of ourselves as "engaged, aware" or just really into a jumbo slice?

The switch several months ago from an NPR and news-talk format to all classical music at WETA 90.9 FM was swift and abrupt. In other words, not at all like public radio, which tends to agonize big changes over (donated!) catered lunches with community focus groups and several in-house committees.

If ratings are an indication, and it’s safe to say they are, WETA’s return to the classics was a great move for the station. In the first ratings book from Arbitron following the switch, WETA more than doubled its listenership, snagging 4.9 percent of the metro D.C. audience (commercial stations are in that mix, as well). That was up from 2.1 percent in the previous ratings book when WETA was news and talk. Now the new numbers are out and they show WETA’s still in solid shape at a 4.4 percent market share, about neck-and-neck with its former competitor, WAMU, which is at 4.7.

City Desk decided to check in with WETA FM’s V.P. and General Manager Dan DeVany, a 20-year vet of the station, now that the dust has settled.

Read More "WETA: Going Classical Continues to Rock" »

For loyal Young & Hungry readers, my appearance on WAMU-FM's Metro Connection tomorrow might be the talk-show equivalent of eating leftovers. But, hey, a story worth telling is one worth repeating, particularly the story about the demise of Wingmaster's Grill.

Host David Furst and I will be reviewing a few of the subjects that first appeared here: the sudden booting of Wingmaster's in the Union Station's food court and what it could mean for other operators there; how Las Canteras owner and chef Eddy Ancasi is contributing to the rise of Peruvian cuisine in the area; and who among the new pizza joints might give 2 Amys and Pizzeria Paradiso a run for their money.

Metro Connection airs at 1 p.m. on Fridays at 88.5 FM.

A lot of folks were wondering what would come out of the Nationals play-by-play announcers' mouths when Barry Bonds finally hit the biggest blast of baseball's Dead Balls Era.

Charlie Slowes, the Nats' fabulous radio guy, blurts "Bang! Zoom!'" when the homeboys go yard, but doesn't normally shift into gah-gah gear for opponents' dingers. Here, however, as 756 landed in the grandstand, Slowes went with a suitably giddy and apparently, as promised, off-the-cuff "That's the one!"

Much like the most famous baseball call of all time---"The Giants win the pennant!"---Slowes' work sounds better than it looks.

This afternoon on All Things Considered, WAMU listeners, you're in for some rare good stuff: the latest in the Radio Diaries series led by superstar (well, at least in the land of pubradio nerds) Joe Richman. Diaries, a nonprofit radio production outfit, is taking a break from its amazing Africa stories to dig into audio histories.

Today's piece tells the little-known story behind the story of West Side Story, which wasn't actually about the whitey Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks and being all pretty and gay. Originally it was called "East Side Story" and starred the conflict between Catholics and Jews; the plot was changed to reflect new ethnic tensions brewing in NYC.

Pretty prophetic. Fifty years ago today---a month before the musical opened on Broadway---Michael Farmer, a white teenager was killed in predominantly Hispanic Washington Heights, marking a "turning point" in the city, according to Richman. You may have to wade through a bunch of typically boring NPR stories to get to it, but if past Radio Diaries are an indication, it'll be worth it. And tomorrow it'll be online. Fancy.

You don't need a calendar to know it's summer outside---just smell your co-worker after he walks back to the office from lunch. Yep, summer in the city: a time for ripe tomatoes and ripe underarms.

But even if your nose can detect the season, perhaps your taste buds could use a little help locating summer eats. If so, then tune your ears to WAMU-FM at 1 p.m. today when Metro Connection host David Furst chats me up about some of the best places to beat the heat. I offer up a number of my current favorites for classic summer eating, from blue crabs to barbecue to burgers.

WAMU is at 88.5 on the FM dial.

It's no secret National Public Radio is shopping around for new digs. What with all that Kroc money for new staff and expansion of online operations, alone (seriously, they are always hiring), it's no wonder old 635 Mass Ave., NPR's home since 1994, just can't cut it.

A new HQ within the nation's capital probably won't either. "We are not tied to looking for a space in the District," NPR spokeswoman Emily Lenzner told Washington Business Journal. "We are looking for a space that would accommodate us in the most economical way."

Silver Springer has the scoop from "sources in discussion with NPR": The MoCo spot is in the top tier of possibilities along with Crystal City and "another unknown location in Va." A petition is online to bring NPR to Silver Spring and at least 49 people have signed it.

That's flattering and all, but when City Desk reached out to NPR, Vice President of Communications Andi Sporkin wrote in an e-mail:

Anyone, including bloggers, who claims some inside knowledge must be relying on tarot cards or tea leaves--these people are just guessing and off-base. There is no list of finalist or even semi-finalist locations and we don't expect to make a decision for several months, probably in the Fall.

Specifically regarding Silver Spring, while we appreciate the community interest in us, we have our own important criteria that will determine our location selection and a petition has no influence in our decision-making. I can share with you that I personally wrote to one of the SS blogs to make them aware of this, but my comments were neither posted on the site, nor have I received a response.

That's not really a way to make friends in high places, Silver Springer, now is it?

With the Opening Day for D.C. pools fast approaching, the big questions are starting to be raised for Mayor Adrian Fenty: The queries don't have to do with whether residents will be charged admission to swim or if the Department of Parks and Recreation will have enough money for summer programs.

The pressing issue involves a cannonball. The cannonball dive, that is.

One of the biggest media days of the year for Fenty's predecessor, Mayor Anthony A. Williams, was his annual cannonball dive (pictured) that marked the official opening of the city pool season. The former mayor violated one of the golden rules of politics every time he took the plunge: never take off your shirt with the cameras running. Williams didn't shy away from displaying his physique. Over his eight years in office he took it off to reveal his various states of physical fitness each year.

Just before his last dive at the Turkey Run Recreation Center in 2006, Williams said he would like his successor to continue the tradition. And with a super-fit Fenty in the executive suite, supporters of the cannonball tradition figured they'd all get to see some kind of a Fenty beefcake routine.

But the mayor has yet to shy away from dumping tradition. New and different has been his catchphrase since the day he mounted a run for the city's top office. The cannonball---that was a Williams' thing---and he has no plan to repeat the former mayor's stunt.

That doesn't mean Fenty isn't planning a pool party. The official opening is scheduled for June 25. And he isn't ruling out a cannonball for the kick off---so long as the diver is a member of the media. "I was going to [dive]," Fenty told the radio audience of WAMU-FM's The D.C. Politics Hour With Kojo and Jonetta on May 25. "but [WRC-TV reporter] Tom Sherwood actually says he's going to do it."

Not so fast, Sherwood shoots back. "I would do it, but someone would have to offer up some cash," he says. "For $5,000, I'll do it."

Sherwood isn't contemplating a lucrative new career in professional athletics. But he does want his dive to produce something more than a good laugh. "I will ask the person to donate the money to a charity of my choosing," he says. "Everything has a price."

Radio, by its very impromptu nature, tends to play loose with the facts, and Tony Kornheiser, for one, has carved out a hugely successful career by walking that thin line between brilliant commentary and utter bullshit. But this morning on his talk show on Washington Post Radio, he ventured into a subject for which his ignorance was both bottomless and breathless: the Pulitzer Prize for criticism handed to LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold, the first food critic to walk away with the award.

Not having a transcript handy, I will do my own Kornheiser riff and attempt to give him a good smackdown with only a smattering of details that I half-remember from the broadcast while driving to work.

Kornheiser (more or less): I can understand someone winning it for architecture or drama or art but restaurants? From a weekly newspaper? I mean, that's like someone wining it from the City Paper!

Eventually, one of Kornheiser's on-air sidekicks (who sounded like Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., but I never heard an ID) says something like, "Hey, but Tom Sietsema is good."

Kornheiser (more or less): Yeah, but he writes for a daily!

Well, let's review one significant standard by which food critics are measured: the annual James Beard Foundation Awards. By my count, Gold has been nominated seven times. He has won four Beard awards, including three as food critic for the weekly alternative paper in Los Angeles.

Gold's competition in 2005, when he won for best newspaper restaurant review or critique, were two food critics from weekly papers. No dailies, Tony, even though they're figured into the mix. Gold's competition in 2006, another winning year for him in the newspaper restaurant review category, included one weekly writer and a critic from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 1999, Gold beat out another weekly critic and one from the Boston Herald for the best newspaper restaurant review prize. In fact, weekly critics have won this particular category five out of 10 times since 1997.

Incidentally, Sietsema has been nominated three times. He has never won.