We’re going to front the retrocast in this edition. What happened between 6 pm on Saturday and 7 am Sunday? Something big, ’cause when I went out to check for our newspapers, I felt as if I was in another macroclimate altogether. Talk about a dry front moving in! Was the difference between walking through roof cement and a Newport breeze. We’re looking at a mid-80s day on Monday then back to the low 90s. Those 90s—they’re not going to stay away all summer!

Read More “Weekend in Review” »

DCist is reporting that the Real World DC cast may be arriving right friggin now. Has anybody been this excited by the arrival of more d-bags into D.C.? DCist writes:

“A tipster just texted that the D.C. Real World cast appears to be arriving as we speak — she reports seeing a blonde girl with a suitcase walking through Dupont Circle, looking clueless and being trailed by a camera crew.”

Of course, we’ve been doing our own serious blogging on the subject over at Housing Complex. The Anti-Real World DC blog has pictures (see above) capturing the apparent awkward move in.

“Hi. I’m Ethan. I will be playing the drunken frat boy in cargo shorts.”

“Hi. I’m Zoe. I will be playing the drunken ditz who hooks up with you in the second episode.”

There’s more after the jump!

Read More “Real World D.C. Cast Arriving Now! Really?” »

No need for those “Save Screen on the Green!” T-shirts–HBO has found that crucial co-sponsor. DCist reports that SOTG has indeed been saved: “Comcast and the Trust for the National Mall have come on board along with HBO to sponsor the event.”

DCist also reports that films will screen Mondays through August 10, starting with Close Encounters of the Third Kind on July 20.

Stop me if you already read this at DCist, but Reality Blurred’s Andy Dehnart reports that

Bravo is spinning off yet another series from its Real Housewives franchise: The Real Housewives of D.C., which will be the fifth in the series….

The series will be produced by [D.C.'s] Half Yard Productions, which produced Discovery’s American Loggers. Different production companies produce the different spin-offs, perhaps to keep them fresh.

This is absolutely fantastic. Would it be too much of a stretch for Half Yard to recruit Maureen Dowd?

Washington City Paper’s twitter account (@WCP) is leading the hunt on this one. Twitter your guesses as to which neighborhoods are most likely to produce Half Yard’s “real housewives” and tag your tweets #realhousewivesdc. Guess correctly and there may be some swag in it for you.

Thanks to the folks at DCist for putting the heat on Republican Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Az.), for saying the following in Senate proceedings on the D.C. voting rights issue:

“The District does not lack for representation in Congress. It actually already has representatives in Congress, 100 Senators and 435 House members, all of whom, under the Constitution itself, have the jurisdiction and indeed the obligation to provide for the general welfare of the residents of the District of Columbia.”

And how thoroughly that setup has enfranchised us D.C. residents!

To hold Kyl to his word, DCist posted the senator’s contact information, urging everyone to pummel him with constituent-service requests, and one citizen even got a response. The Kyl people referred this person to D.C. congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. Yeah, delegate, as in no voting power.

Every time I click over to DCist there’s a fresh post quoting the D.C. Police Department’s most outspoken official: Third District Police Inspector Edward Delgado. The guy is a huge presence on the listservs and is always around for some kind of quote. Today, he’s warning about home invasions in Columbia Heights. Yesterday, he was breaking down the recent violence on Girard Street.

A search on DCist came up with an error. A google search shows that he’s popped up 475 times. But that is way too high and should be completely discounted. I just bet he’s quoted at least once a week or every other week. Why is he so ubiquitous? He’s on the listservs, so few cops talk on the record, and he works in the Third District where probably the majority of bloggers and blog readers live.

Hey Sommer, why not let Delgado post directly?

This past week, two prominent web-first web-only outfits vented over the pervasive poop smell invading major power corridors of our city. The poop smell comes from ginkgo trees. Wonkette was the first to bitch. DCist questioned its army of readers about it. Readers described the smell as “vomit,” and referred to the trees as “jizz trees.” Awesome.

Cap Hill and Dupont Circle have been overrun with the jizz. The obsession was more than justified. And this morning, the Post has a great reported expose on Ginkgogate. Apparently, arborists have made the problem worse. In an attempt to mask the smell, they injected 1,000 ginkgo trees with a chemical to prevent them from producing the smelly fruit. They failed.

In fact, the arborists made the smell worse:

“The chemical didn’t work, for reasons that scientists still don’t understand. Now, instead of less ginkgo stink, Washington has its worst case in years — a bumper crop of nastiness that is studding sidewalks and sliming dress shoes from Capitol Hill to Kalorama.”

* It’s not just for Republicans anymore! Michelle Obama wears fabulous, egregiously expensive jewelry, too. [via Wonkette].

* DCist Sommer Mathis cries foul on $9.95 plus shipping for a newspaper (don’t even get her started on the special election issue sweatshirt). Commemorative hand towels of DCist’s official declaration of election newsprint hype blog post coming soon.

* Prince of Petworth is two years old. Join him and other crown princes of the local blogosphere tonight at Wonderland to celebrate the milestone—and toast to 730 more doors of the day.

* New Columbia Heights deems the new neighborhood Panda Express . . . decent!

* Catch up with the Good Guys strip club arson case as it happens with trial updates over at the Sexist.

* And in this newspaper: The Education Issue!

- Marina Koestler Ruben on D.C.’s English-Chinese bilingual charter.

- Dave McKenna on the end of a local football dynasty.

- Mike DeBonis on Michelle Rhee’s rising star.

- Ruth Samuelson schools Obama hangers-on on where to reside in the District.

Photo by Army.mil

* Seven years later, a Pentagon memorial is unveiled. [Via Washington Post]

* The Examiner asks if we’re safer than we were in 2001.

* Via Politico: Republican foreign policy experts don’t have much to say on Palin; Obama and McCain call a 9/11 “truce”

* In alterna-9/11 news, Busboys and Poets kicks off the “9/11 Truth Film Festival” this evening at 6 p.m.

* In case you missed it: Check out Brightest Young Things‘ comprehensive Large-Hadron-Collider-Will Kill-Us-All Doomsday coverage from yesterday, complete with stellar crying baby photo accompaniment. And via DCist: How to tell if the Hadron Collider has destroyed the Earth yet.

* And in this newspaper:

- Arthur Delaney on winning and losing rec centers

- Jule Banville on the long, slow investigation of an Adams Morgan hate crime

- Mike DeBonis on why Kwame Brown loves Love (and the Park at 14th)

- Dave McKenna on the Redskins’ struggle to quit smoking

- And our arts & entertainment column, Show & Tell, meets its makers.

* Find your sex & gender roundup over at The Sexist.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery