The Adams Morgan Bogeyman: It didn't look like an easy road for the redevelopment of the old post office building at 14th and T streets NW to be turned into a restaurant—with a proposed outdoor patio, no less. But the over-the-top rhetoric about neighborhood destruction has begun sooner rather than later. A flyer on the structure proclaims, "URGENT! A New York investor plans to turn the Old Post Office building on T Street into a destination, special events venue under the guise of a "restaurant"! DO NOT BE FOOLED!" 14th & You wryly notes, "That's right! The four block stretch along 18th Street notorious for its late night bars, nightclubs and restaurants has packed up shop and relocated south, to a commercial space near the corner of 14th and T streets. Adams-Morgan will henceforth be known as the Post Office Bistro, and will be reborn as a casual restaurant serving an extensive weekend brunch with a patio and summer garden. The neighborhood/restaurant will also be owned by someone with ties to New York, which unfortunately does not coincide with the arrival of a decent bagel shop"; also noteworthy is that the flyer "was put together by Elwyn Ferris, partner of ANC2B commissioner Ramon Estrada, and another neighborhood resident." The extreme language inspired a lengthy comment thread on Prince of Petworth, and it's likely that the flyer's appearance on the Internet turned out significantly more supporters for the proposed restaurant at last night's ANC 2B meeting.

One-Stop Shopping for Prescriptions and Vermin: Brookland Avenue confirms a Twitter report that the CVS on 12th Street NE has been shut down due to health concerns; the D.C. Department of Health apparently found it to be operating "with gross unsanitary occurrence or condition" including "heavy infestation of vermin" and failing "to minimize the presence of insects, rodents, and other pests." Commenters, appropriately, find this disgusting. Writes one, "I find this CVS horrible in the customer service realm, and the manager is consistently rude to both his staff and customers, so I’m not surprised at all. My household fills its pharmacy needs at the stores near our work. The best thing possible for this CVS is for a Walgreens to open up at the RI Ave development."

Out of Our Pond, And Take Your Burgers With You: In a People's District interview, celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn made the mistake of uttering the following: "With time, I have really come to love this city. New York is over saturated with too many concepts. You may be popular for two weeks, and then there is a new trend. Here, I opened one restaurant, Good Stuff, that developed my entire career. It is nice to be in a second-tier city where you can be a big fish in a small pond." The Hill is Home, based in Capitol Hill near the aforementioned Good Stuff Eatery, took substantial offense to the "big fish" business, writing in a post titled "Get Over Yourself, Mr. Mendelsohn" that "Your burgers aren’t that good and your fries are but nubbins. They’re fine, but Michael Landrum’s Hellburger blows your “Good” stuff out of the water. The same goes for Frank Ruta’s burger at Palena. Ditto, BGR and even Five Guys and they’re (gasp!) CHAINS! The biggest issue I have with Good Stuff burgers is that they’re not cooked to order. I don’t enjoy well-done or even medium burgers, and if you’re going to consider yourself a big fish – more on that in a moment – you should be cooking your burgers to order like the actual big (burger) fish in town." Commenters have gone on to discuss whether or not they prefer Spike's burgers, in much less heated rhetoric.

Cleveland Park, ISO: "I'm getting ready to sell my house and find myself overwhelmed with all the stuff I have collected. I would like to hire someone who helps people organize/pack up their homes. Would be grateful for any recommendations," writes one member of the Cleveland Park email list. They're not alone in their plight; another member writes, "I have just become the keeper of generations of family photos, albums, letters, greeting cards, autograph albums, scrapbooks, school yearbooks, cookbooks, diaries, postcards and other miscellaneous printed and hand-written materials dating back as far as 1888. There are 17 cartons and it's overwhelming. I am desperately searching for someone to help me with this process, figuring out what to keep, what to throw out and what to digitally archive."

Along with barbeques, displays of patriotism, and droves of tourists descending upon D.C., Fourth of July means fireworks galore. WaPo explores local pyros. Apparently more people are injured each year in bike, motorcycle, and car accidents than in fireworks-related incidents. Put that one in the Duh Column.

Will the soon-to-be-open CVS cause light pollution in Park View/Petworth? As a resident of the neighborhood–and one that could easily be affected by the light, too–I don't care, I just want a drug store already.

Chinatown Coffee Company will be adding beer, wine, and absinthe to their menu. Hmm, bet they had an easier time getting their liquor license than some other coffee shops around town.

Oh, Robert Byrd, why'd you have to go and die right around Independence Day? The flag at the Capitol has been flying half-staff since his death, and is supposed to stay there until his funeral next week. But Federal code dictates the flag fly at full staff July 4.

Katie Smith scored 9 points in the final seconds of the game to help the Mystics beat the Phoenix Mercury 107-104 last night. I've seen that woman up close, and she has got some impressive guns–metaphorically speaking, of course; it's not like she's the female Gilbert Arenas.

Photo: onetravel.com

Update: Cops say an Explosive Ordinance Disposal crew is on the scene because of a report of a suspicious package. There are "no results yet."

Update, 12:51 p.m.: Building staffers, who had gathered in front of a nearby CVS during the incident, have returned to work as the bomb squad has cleared the scene. Security personnel were grumbling about this being the location's second evacuation in the past four months.

D.C. police yesterday also arrested a guy who they believe was involved in a string of recent armed robberies. Two men allegedly held up a Yes! Organic Market in the 3800 block of 12th Street NE, a CVS in the 3600 block of 12th Street NE,  and a Burger King in the 300 block of Florida Avenue NE, as well a Starbucks. Police didn't give the address of the Starbucks but say it's located in the Third District. The stick-up man was in the area of the 1200 block of Newton Street NE when, at about 3:30 p.m.,  an officer spotted him. The officer called for backup, then stopped the suspect. Police say they recovered the weapon used to commit the robberies as well as the get away vehicle.  The man will face four counts of  robbery while armed.

A seasoned consumer of news had every reason to furrow a brow at the XX Files column in last week's Washington Post Magazine. The first-person essay touts the author's one-woman campaign against kiddie thieves in a local pharmacy.

Here's a sampling: "As the child scurries past me with his pilfered beverage, I reach out for the hood of his coat. I pull him in and press my hand on his back. 'Put it back,' I say. Though he's the one in trouble, my own heart races. A whimper seeps from his mouth; a gurgle of stuttered syllables follows. 'I'm s-s-orry. I'm s-sorry,' he repeats."

It's a powerful, well-told episode, but how do we know it ever happened?

First of all, the neighborhood isn't identified by name—only as a "well-to-do neighborhood of popular restaurants that serve not food but 'cuisine' and shrimp that is never spicy fried but 'Crispy Dangerous.'" The police officer hanging out at the store isn't identified by name—only as a cop whose "stern countenance is surpassed only by a severe haircut and biceps so chiseled that any squirming thief could be brought to his knees with one arm twist." The beverage being heisted by the kid isn't identified by brand—only as "orange soda."

Fanta? Sunkist?

One more: Not even the store is mentioned by name—only as a "chain pharmacy." And the Post didn't even attach one of those anonymity explainers here, which could easily have been worded as follows: "The chain pharmacy requested anonymity over fears that publicizing its troubles with teen pilfering could depress sales of Diet Coke."

And lurking behind all this anonymity and uncheckable data is columnist Wanda E. Fleming, author of one of the most embarrassing episodes in the mag's history. In January, Fleming wrote a column in the same space titled "Suspended Disbelief," about the travails of a friend's husband who'd been accused of child molestation by a girl. The man accepts a plea, spends some time in jail, and comes home to find out how it feels to be treated like a monster.

Except it didn't happen that way. The man hadn't accepted a plea agreement but, rather, was convicted in a trial. Another critical point: He didn't have just one accuser; he had "more than one" accuser, according to a black-eye-inflicting editor's note by the magazine's editor at the time, Tom Shroder. "The inescapable conclusion is that the man’s guilt was not as ambiguous as presented. No names were used, but the families of the victims only too readily recognized the circumstances and were understandably upset by the implication of the story," wrote Shroder.

Not exactly your garden-variety, Page A2 correction.

Weeks later, Fleming wrote a blog post about the problem with her piece: "In a 750 word 'personal essay,' much is omitted."

Despite all that, Fleming managed to regain favor at the magazine in time for her piece on petty theft from a pharmacy. One commenter wondered how she'd pulled it off so quickly:

This story asks us to believe an unverifiable anecdote; normally, that's okay, but this writer does not deserve that trust. In her last contribution to the XX Files just a few months ago, this writer totally misrepresented the facts about a child molestation case, resulting in a correction and an abject apology from the magazine editor in his column. What gives? Why are we supposed to believe this?

I put the "What gives?" question to Debra Leithauser, the current editor of the magazine. I asked whether Fleming was put through any extra paces, whether staff had checked out the pharmacy, whether the security people were interviewed, and so on.

This is the answer that came back: "As editor, I am responsible for what appears in the magazine. Right now, I am focused on the future, and we have an incredible new magazine launching next week."

As media critic, I am responsible for critiquing what has appeared in the magazine. Unfortunately, I cannot critique stuff that will appear in the magazine in the future, unless I am given access to galleys.

In rebuffing questions about Fleming, Leithauser is in good company. Questions in hand, I contacted Managing Editor Raju Narisetti (who oversees the magazine), Managing Editor Liz Spayd (who doesn't oversee the magazine), and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli. The questions remain unanswered.

It's unclear whether the silence is the first step in the Post's implementation of the Brauchli Doctrine (i.e., newspapers spend too much time explaining themselves) or whether the Fleming issue is just too sensitive to touch.

Perhaps it's all just a resource question. The Post, after all, has suffered through four buyouts this decade, and maybe they don't have the people to fact-check any freelance columns, even one filled with anonymous characters and penned by someone who prompted an editor's note.

So I took it upon myself to track down this nameless pharmacy and figure out whether Wanda Fleming had ever nailed some fresh-faced kid trying to steal a generic orange soda. Fleming herself is listed as living near the Tenleytown commercial strip, and the "Crispy Dangerous" shrimp she refers to appears to come off the menu of a Thai restaurant in Tenleytown.

Next stop, Tenleytown CVS. I show the Washington Post Magazine story to a clerk at the store. He skims through, as customers pile up behind him. "That's what it sounds like," he says, acknowledging the problem identified in Fleming's column. He requests anonymity, like everyone else in this whole damn affair. When I ask him about the incident in which Fleming busts some kid, he says he doesn't remember it.

That means nothing, of course. No clerk can possibly monitor everything that goes down in a store. There are only two people who know whether that incident happened—Fleming and the unnamed alleged thief.

I head over to Fleming's house, hoping to have a long sit-down to discuss the incident and perhaps track down the boy and the cop—anyone else who can corroborate this story.

Fleming opens the door. I identify myself as a reporter for Washington City Paper and note that I've tried to contact her via e-mail and phone. Fleming closes the door, saying, "I'm not speaking to anyone."

Adams Morgan's divey Chinese takeout may be a tricked-out out sushi bar now, but Columbia Road still has that certain something, namely its empty stores. But fear not all you lovers of long receipts because exciting development is on its way. Yes, it's true, a CVS is going in—eventually—next to the second-rate Safeway, taking over the storefronts known as Beauty Island, Citibank, Foot Locker, and Mattress Discounters, all of which have closed or are closing, says Lisa Duperier, president of Adams Morgan Main Street.

Sure, sure. There's already a CVS practically across the street from the second-rate Safeway and it already practically took over the historic Ontario Theater, but this is how CVS rolls—downhill. Duperier says developers haven't revealed if the old CVS at 1702 Columbia Road NW will stay open. They have revealed that previous plans to build additional office space and third-floor residences have been scrapped. "That was dropped awhile back... which is a shame because we're always looking for extra density and office space to help out our daytime businesses," says Duperier by phone. She says she's been made privy over the years as to the plans but did not feel privy to give out the name and number of the developer[s] for confirmation.

As to the Ontario, which opened in 1951, closed shortly after The Color Purple, and became a cheap-goods department store before going dark again, don't expect some sort of Tivoli-esque revival if CVS pulls out. Nothing's really left but the facade, says Duperier. "It's not a theater now and it's not going to be a theater," she says.

Flickr photo by Daquella manera