But people love a deal, and more than anything, it's a way for the company to snatch up new subscribers. Just like the Amazon and Whole Foods deals before (both of which sold out at 1,000,000), this one is likely to appeal to a wide swath of people—and give Living Social access to several thousand new email inboxes. All the better to fund their new offices on 7th Street and New York Avenue NW.

The McRib is back and Chris Shott just ate one for you:

My initial impression: Is it really so difficult for McDonald's to make these frickin' things? The meat looks oddly similar to the McNugget, only flatter and more rectangular shaped. The toppings, including some slices of onion and a few tart pickles, don't seem that different from those on any other McDonald's sandwich. And that signature "tangy barbecue sauce" the thing is smothered in—undoubtedly the best part of this otherwise unremarkable lunch—tastes the same as the stuff you dip your nuggets in.

On the whole, the flavor reminds me of some semi-decent airline food that I had on British airways back in the mid-'90s. (And I'm not entirely sure what kind of mystery meat that was, either.)

Read the rest at Y&H.

Photo by Odochi Ibe

Election Redux: Anyone who could read a poll (i.e., everyone but Adrian Fenty) had known for some time he was likely to lose to Vincent Gray last night. And lo and behold, he did! To find more surprising results, you had to look a little harder—for example, 1,319 D.C. Republicans wrote in a choice for mayor in the little-watched GOP primary between "write in" and, well, no one. (The main question now is whether Fenty or Michelle Rhee won the nomination, though chances are neither would accept it.) Even more startling: perennial candidate/bugle blower Faith could lose the D.C. Statehood Green Party nomination, as her 179 votes were trumped by 264 write-ins. Faith can always console herself, though, with the knowledge that even her measly 179 votes were six more than the 173 Sulaimon Brown got from D.C. Democrats. +4

That's the Mall, Folks: Warner Bros. Entertainment donates $5 million to the National Museum of American History to overhaul the Smithsonian museum's Carmichael Auditorium, outfitting it with digital 3D projection and, presumably, cushy chairs. This is bad news for devotees of Leonard Carmichael, the one-time secretary of the Smithsonian whose name is splashed on the theater now; Warner's gift comes with a name attached. When the theater reopens next year, it'll be the Warner Bros. Theater. And, we hope, it won't just play Final Destination in an endless loop. +3

Billions for Metro to Dulles: Mating two of the Washington area's least-beloved institutions—the Orange Line and Dulles Airport—was always a dicey proposition; it could either turn out as genius, like a deep-fried Oreo, or madness, like some genetic hybrid run amok. We won't really know the outcome for sure until the Silver Line extension from East Falls Church to the airport is finished, but we do know one thing: it'll be expensive. The second phase of the project will cost $3.83 billion, authorities say, on top of $2.76 billion for the first phase. Yes, yes, having public transit to the airport is, of course, invaluable. But would it have killed regional planners back in the 1950s to think of all this before they put the airport halfway to Ohio? -3

Golden Arches, Meet Golden Aortas: The District will be the first test market for a new TV commercial blaming heart disease and other evils of the world (like Happy Meals) on McDonald's. Alarming news we learned only when the campaign launched: D.C. has more McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Burger King restaurants per square mile than other similar-sized cities. Alarming news we already knew: That shit will kill you. +2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 54 Today's score: +6 Today's Needle rating: 60

Bottom line: Cheap Seats Daily's hype of Dim WitsGate™ is validated!

From all the hate going Henson's way on Sunday's postgame shows on local sportstalk stations, I was certain this was going to develop into the biggest Redskins controversy ever generated by an inactive linebacker using new media. Or at least one of the biggest Redskins controversies ever generated by an inactive linebacker using new media.

And now it's on the front page!

Also, it's always nice to see former longtime DC resident the Great Dan Steinberg, the Woodward & Bernstein of Dim WitsGate™, on A1.

(Full disclosure: I still have my 35-year-old "Nixon Resigns" issue of the Washington Post in my paperboy bag in the basement. I'll get 'em out for Halloween. Hence the "-Gate" fetish...)

***

There they go again. Dan Snyder is using his web site to go to war with the Washington Post.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Is Henson being used to take heat off the real Redskins villains? Pravda's Ashburn bureau strikes again? How would you copy-edit multiple Twitters? Leonard Shapiro now using out-of-town newspapers to blast Dan Snyder? The NFL's blackout policy is as big a sham as the Skins waiting list?)

"Robert Henson did not get on the field on Sunday," read the faux news article written by Skins PR man Gary Fitzgerald and posted yesterday on Redskins.com, "but somehow he’s the talk of the town and strangely enough he’s a big headline in The Washington Post...Henson’s apologies on Twitter and in his Monday media session–as well as Zorn's comments on the young linebacker–were not fully included in a Tuesday story in The Washington Post. The article focused more on the mistake and not the contrition."

I pity the tool who had to put a byline on that.

If the organization hadn't already proven it can't do anything right PR-wise, I'd be wondering if this whole Post-bashing exercise wasn't a ploy to deflect the media's attention away from Jim Zorn, Dan Snyder, Jason Campbell, Vinny Cerrato, and the parking and tailgating fiasco at FedExField.

They'd all be getting more play, and taking a bigger beating, if Henson wasn't all thumbs.

***

For those not obsessed with the Redskins off-field soap opera, Steinberg's A1 story had an interesting copy-editing situation, if that ain't oxymoronical. Here's how some of Robert Henson's Twitter ramblings appeared in the Post:

"No I didn't play but I still made more than you in a year and you'd [gladly] switch spots with me in a second," Henson wrote during a string of responses. "I was talking to the fans [who] said the crazy stuff, I'm use [to heckling] but I've never been booed in my own stadium. Again that was for the half hearted but if everyone wants to jump in come on. The question is who are you to say you know what's best for the team and you work 9 to 5 at Mcdonalds [sic]. You don't wanna follow me anymore then fine but we play for you and win lose or draw we represent you!! My guy on the Rams said they never got booed even when they didn't win a game."

That paragraph was made up of more than one of Henson's Twitters, yet was treated as a single quote.

I've never come across this situation before, and I'm guessing AP Style hasn't yet weighed in on how to treat multiple Twitters. So this is a time for Post copy editors to leave a lasting mark on their craft. I'm going to have to stare at my WWABD bracelet ("What Would Andrew Beaujon Do?") before I decide if this is correct copyediting or not.

***

Leonard Shapiro had to go to Miami to run this story blasting Dan Snyder as the worst owner in the NFL. I can't find it locally. Why didn't the Washington Post run it?

***

Now that everybody but the crazies accepts that Dan Snyder's season tickets waiting list is bogus and has been bogus for years, I wish somebody would expose the NFL's blackout policy as a similar fraud.

All you need to know: The Skins home games ain't sold out — the team was selling general admission tickets for the Rams game through email blasts all week — yet the games are on TV.

Case closed. Shut up.

Obviously, the NFL owners have as much motivation to enforce the blackout rule as they do to enforce the steroids prohibition.

Oh, right: Only baseball players and cyclists are dopers!

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

Robert Henson is in a bad place right now. The Skins sub-benchwarmer used Twitter to go after home fans for booing at the game, and cast the disgruntled masses in the stands as "dim wits" and folks who "work 9 to 5 at mcdonalds."

Henson, who wasn't even on the active roster for the game, went from unknown to reviled in a matter of keystrokes.

When I first heard of Henson's comments during the postgame shows – WJFK gave a running account of the naive blasts –  I was sure somebody hijacked his twitter account. Unfortunately for him, it looks like nobody did. Henson's twittering later claimed he went after the fans only because he had things thrown at him.

Nobody's buying it.

From the sound of things, this could be a deal breaker between the rookie and the fans, at least those that really are dim wits or really do work 9 to 5 at mcdonalds.

In any case, Jim Zorn and Jason Campbell should buy Henson a meal before he leaves town. Henson is going to take a whole lot of heat that woulda gone their way today.

Some writers also expressed befuddlement over the crowd's behavior. Like Henson, writers don't pay to get into the games.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Snyder's the root of all booing? Jim Zorn: Read My Lips? Sonny Jurgensen vs. Jim Zorn, Round II? Juwan Howard is still in the NBA? How much would you pay for Juwan Howard's pants? The Nats are on the entrance ramp for the Road to 100 Losses?)

***

The discord in the grandstands trickled down all over the place. Some posters on the Dan Snyder-owned message board, extremeskins.com, and callers to the postgame show on the non-Dan Snyder owned WJFK, explained that the noise was at its core about dissatisfaction with management.

I agree, especially after hearing one angry lady call WJFK to rail against Snyder, telling host Chad Dukes about showing up at FedExField with her family and having her son's water bottle confiscated at the gate.

"We paid $500 for the tickets!" she huffed at the beginning of a long tirade.

It is amazing that so many people still pay that sort of money to be treated as Snyder treats them. And we haven't even talked about how the new parking rules worked out, Lexus lanes and all...

***

After the Rams game, I will no longer wonder why coaches hold pieces of paper in front of their faces while calling plays. When the Redskins had second and goal in the third quarter, the Fox-TV cameras showed Zorn on the sidelines and I clearly read his lips: "20 draw," he said, then a couple more sentences with "draw" in 'em.

The Skins then ran a draw play that everybody else sniffed out, too. It went nowhere.

I was typing when Fox went right back to the same shot of Zorn on the sidelines, so I couldn't read his lips while he was making the call that will come up in his exit meeting with Dan Snyder: an option pass from Portis on third and goal. Boooooooooo!

If I ran a team, I might hire a smart kid from Gallaudet and give him a pair of binoculars on game day and see what happens. Bill Belichick's probably already done it.

***

For the second week in a row, the postgame interview between Sonny Jurgensen and Jim Zorn was way more entertaining, and had harder hitting, than the game.

Sonny started off telling Zorn if he were quarterback he'd have called a timeout rather than run that option pass to Portis, because coaches only call that play in that situation if  they have no faith in their quarterback.

"Then I take you out of the game," Zorn snipped to the Skins legend.

If I had to bet, I'd say, as the great Keith Jackson used to say during every big game he broadcast, "These two just plain don't like each other."

Sonny also got into Chris Cooley's craw on the air about the offense's non-production. Smart money says this has gotta be Sonny's last year in the booth, and he's going out on fire.

***

Juwan Howard lives to cash another paycheck: The former Bullet has just signed a one-year deal with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Howard was the oddest case of the many underachievers who took Abe Pollin's money in the 1990s. He was beloved when he came here from Michigan, before a holdout and some DUI arrests and getting in trouble hanging out with Chris Webber.

Portland is his seventh team. Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard said Howard brings in said the forward will bring a "wealth of experience." A wealth of wealth, too: The guy's gonna put in 16 years in the NBA! Around here, Howard is regarded as a bust, but, again: 16 years!

I passed up a chance to buy a pair of Juwan Howard's Bullets used warmup pants for $12 at some charity auction years and years ago because they wouldn't fit. They still wouldn't fit, but I'd pay $12 for 'em today.

***
The Nationals are cruising on the Road to 100 Losses: The Mets take another at federally funded Citi Field, leaving our boys just 2 defeats away from triple-digits.

The latest loss brought a milestone: It guaranteed the Nats last place in the Eastern Division...again. We'll have to wait a week or so before the team also locks up National League and Major League worst honors.

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

If any of your kids want to go as a food product, veto that idea with extreme prejudice. Help them make their own costume instead—maybe go as gestation crate pig. At least they'll be making a bigger statement than that they support a faceless multi-national corporation.