'Bout weather, I'm loath to complain
But dammit I hate all this rain
A state of emergency
(Ida's insurgency)
Just was declared by Tim Kaine

And now for my best silver lining:
No need for more weather scheme whining
The WaPo's restoring
Its layout (still pouring)
Good news for all those who were pining

And that's all you need. Period.

For the longest time, the Washington Post understood this basic human need. The design of its local weather page reflected as much. Brilliant in its simple, info-delivering elegance, it gave you just the snapshot you wanted. I can remember mornings when I'd flip to the last page of the Metro section, and I'd glean everything I needed in less than two seconds. Not even the Internet can beat that kind of efficiency. The glorious layout is right here, may God rest its soul:

Somehow, the Post wasn't satisfied with perfection.

So it switched to this approach:

Answer me one question, Post: How, o how, is this an improvement? Why do you send me plunging into a mass of data just to find out what my extended outlook looks like?

Did the Capital Weather Gang force a geeking-out of the weather presentation, focusing on all kinds of climatological arcana, instead of, like, the only data we need?

Not really. According to Post news projects editor Edward Thiede, the new approach to weather was part of the overall print redesign that launches next week. Since this particular part of the project was ready to go a bit early, they let it fly.

As for the reorganization of the page and the disappearance of that marvelous, boxy extended outlook, Thiede has a pretty sound explanation: "We wanted to organize it down the left side of the page," he says. "We thought it would be one area to see all the local weather data together."

On the reading front, looks as if the Post's Style section is making a move to up their local feature count. Today, Dan Zak goes long on a D.C. mural, following on the heels of other feature-box stuff on D.C., including Michael Rosenwald's experiment in listening to sports-talk radio.

Post columnist Colbert I. King goes long and hard about acceptance of violence in the city. Murders, shooting sprees, deaths---no one seems to care, screams King, citing the emergence of a "new normal." And it's not a good normal, either: "That 'new normal' view embraces bike paths and a bicycle center at Union Station, townhouses and parks along the Potomac, couples eating al fresco at neighborhood coffee shops, doggy parks, schools befitting the middle class, and poor people who behave themselves and patiently wait their turn.

The city's chosen means for coping with a crisis shaped by self-destructive forces and a shifting civic landscape? The medical procedure, triage.

Officials won't say it this way, but this is what it means: dividing our social order into three groups -- those who aren't going to make it, those who might and those who will."

District rocks!

A perennial: D.C. cops out to get the prostitutes and johns at 5th and K. And another perennial: D.C. voting rights lobbyists are taking their act on the road, where people---surprise!---don't know that we don't have meaningful congressional representation: "DC Vote is reaching out to people like 62-year-old Henry Perry of Tennessee.

Not until the advocacy group visited Mr. Perry in Mississippi earlier this month did he learn that D.C. residents pay taxes and serve in the military but don't have a vote in Congress.

'I think it's really a disgrace that they're denied that right,' said Mr. Perry, president of the Teamsters Local Union No. 667 in Memphis, which also has members in Mississippi. 'I was kind of shocked.'"

Howie Kurtz discusses how powerless the media is when it's face to face with disinformation (i.e., death panels).

Solid tale by Post's Del Wilber on $3 million, sexual molestation, a duped judge, and a defamation case. Not to mention a stolen barbecue grill!.

Washington's hottest period so far this year is expected to start Sunday, and it could last three or four days, according to forecasts....

"If you thought we might make it through summer without a heat wave, think again," wrote Jason Samenow on The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog.

Heat waves, whether tolerated or deplored, have been recognized through the years as salient facts of Washington's summers.

But so far this year, the longest stretches of temperatures of 90 degrees or more have been a mere two days. Only on July 16 did the mercury at National reach as high as 96, and only twice have there been as many as two consecutive 90-or-above days.

And speaking of the Post, really good story about Metro kinda covering up a breakdown on the tracks that preceded by a few months the fatal June 22 crash. The gist of this story is that Metro's vaunted electronic system that's supposed to keep trains from crashing into one another broke down in early March. Thanks to the alertness of a Metro train operator, a crash was averted.

Not only didn't Metro tell the public about this incident, it didn't tell the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), according to the Post. Debbie Hersman's gonna be pissed!

The Legg Mason tournament ended yesterday. No more needs to be said about it.

But the big news around town continues to be Marion Barry, the embattled Ward 8 councilmember. We reported on Friday night that Barry's office played a key role in setting up and controlling several nonprofit groups that get money directly from D.C. Council appropriations. News Channel 8 is on it, too.

*Post columnist Bob McCartney gives a look at D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's prospects for reelection, 17.5 months out. There's some tepid analysis here, such as this: "Fenty's image as an engaged, energetic official focused on helping constituents, long one of his most valuable assets, is eroding. It has suffered from a series of mini-scandals, including Fenty's allowing a friend to drive his city-issued SUV in violation of the law, the installation of a $75,000 heater at a public pool that he uses to prepare for his triathlons and having a petty battle with the council over temporarily withholding their tickets to Nationals baseball games." McCartney's columns generally had a little coda, often on a second topic. They're generally more lively and interesting than the main piece. This time, it's a nice little riff on the hypocrisy of those who have said that the Barry shenanigans disqualify D.C. residents from ruling themselves. What about Nevada, McCartney asks.

And sorry to belabor the Post, but we've got to say that this week's column by Ombudsman Andy Alexander marks a coming-out for this fellow. Alexander nailed the whole "salons" scandal at the Post, revealing that tons of people could have and should have and had plenty of information at their hands to have blown the whistle weeks ago. Instead of suffering all that embarrassment after the Politico scoop. Here's an important snippet from the guy's reporting:

on June 24, roughly 200 managers were given a quick explanation of the "salons" idea at the end of a two-hour meeting in the cavernous auditorium on the lobby floor of The Post's downtown headquarters. These periodic "extended staff meetings," often including multiple short presentations, are held to brief managers on corporate strategy, and the details are considered confidential....

In an interview, [Executive Editor Marcus] Brauchli said it was his responsibility to vet the concept and that it is "understandable" that no news managers at the meeting raised a caution.

"When the publisher and the editor both appear to have signed off on an idea, I think it is perhaps true that a certain complacency sets in," he said. For that reason, lower-level managers might be less inclined "to stand up and say: 'Whoa, this is a bad idea.' "

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

From the New York Times comes this killer little bit of commentary on the free-agency moves of the Washington Redskins, which snatched up Albert Haynesworth of the Titans and DeAngelo Hall as well---both for bi bucks. Anyhow, let the New York paper take it away:

Guaranteed money: Granted, the Washington Redskins’ defense got a lot better, but giving Albert Haynesworth $41 million guaranteed — hours after guaranteeing DeAngelo Hall $22.5 million — left almost everyone else in the N.F.L. agog.

OK, but I think there's going to be a little reverse mojo going on here. For years, the Skins would acquire free agents, and the moves never got them anywhere, going all the way back to Deion Sanders and Dan "Big Daddy" Wilkinson and Laveranues Coles and the like. Back then, people thought, wow, this team is gonna be something special. As we know, they specialized in mediocrity. But now that everyone is slamming them for these pay-scale busting acquisitions, I guarantee that Dan Snyder is going to look like a genius come this time next year.

Folks: I am sure I missed something here, but why on earth is Adrienne Washington writing about national stuff now (in this case, a tepid analysis of Obama's health care plans)? Wasn't she supposed to be a local kid?

And a note to the WashTimes Webmaster: When you put announcements up on the site, like this one about the hiring of an editorial page editor, make sure you get the dates right. This story, available on the site Sunday evening, said, "The Washington Times on Monday named Richard Miniter as editor of the editorial pages and vice president of opinion, the latest of a series of dramatic moves to boost the newspaper's global impact."

But it wasn't Monday yet. I know times flies, especially when you're boosting your global impact, but this is crazy.

A little self-promotion here.

Looks like Obama's already a Beltway insider: Yesterday he canceled a schedule press conference with British PM Gordon Brown...because of snow.

But the big story of the weekend: Haynesworth? Is this guy worth $100 million? Will he finally be that one free-agent acquisition who actually makes a difference? At the very least, he'll psych up the fans. No matter what fan board you may have visited over the past month or so, NFL fanatics in all franchise cities wanted this guy. He was the answer to everyone's defensive problems. The standard line from Joe Fan: If we can get Haynesworth, plus a couple of second-tier free agents to fill in at [SOME KEY POSITION] and [SOME KEY POSITION], we'll be the team to beat. Not sure whether anyone's saying that about the Skins, though.

Hey, WaPo Ombudsman Andy Alexander made his debut on real issues in the paper on Sunday, writing a fine piece on the dustup over George Will's crazy meanderings on global warming. See, Will, in a recent column, cited some study that showed that the global ice sheet was about the same magnitude that it was in 1978. Global warming activists went crazy on the guy, saying he misportrayed the data. Alexander issued a mild rebuke to Will and his many editors:

Readers would have been better served if Post editors, and the new ombudsman, had more quickly addressed the claims of falsehoods.

A little tame, but the ombo's still getting his sea legs.

General ManagerJim Bowden exits stage left from Nats organization over recruiting issues. Word is that the franchise is going to spare no expense in finding and hiring a replacement. (Joke.)

The InTowner has the scoop on Dupont East's liquor moratorium and the future of bar-neighbor relations. Check it out, provided you don't mind 4,545K pdfs.

On news fronts, it's basically the economic crisis, and many things that don't matter nearly as much. Let's stick to the latter here.

Comments from the heroic pilot of that Hudson River-landing plane.

Can't believe that in the year 2009, they're still playing the Pro Bowl.

Well, there's a multiagency investigation of the cancellation of the Veterans Presidential Inaugural Ball, so how did Dionne Warwick's bash skate free?

What happened to a 36-year-old with paranoid delusions in a city with a patchwork system of care for the mentally ill?

WashTimes has the skinny on the unpresidentialness of "doom" rhetoric.

WaPo on the rise of homelessness among schools population.

The streets are clear, the schools are open. But guess what, all you flinty former Chicagoans and tough-skinned others? D.C.'s still whining about the weather. This time it's about the ice. On the Listservs, on the forums, in the streets, on the phone, folks want to know what's up with clearing it. Spots where the sun doesn't hit are still frozen over in a thick layer or, worse, black ice. Pat Collins' definitive report on Obama dissing D.C. did offer excellent advice (take baby steps, wear proper shoes). But still. D.C. needs someone to blame. How about the Dept. of Public Works?

Nice try, but DPW spokesperson Nancee Lyons reassures me as she has been reassuring several other D.C. residents who've been bitching about uncleared sidewalks that sidewalks are not her department's problem. Homeowners and business owners are responsible for not only shoveling, but deicing sidewalks as well. The Capital Weather Gang addressed this issue in a recent post, recommending calcium chloride over rock salt (sodium chloride). Further: "Calcium chloride costs more, but lasts longer---it can be used in smaller amounts than rock salt. Also, it does not contain cyanide, an anti-caking chemical that can harm aquatic life." There's a helpful pdf on the post, too, for additional breakdowns about what does what as far as killing fish in the Chesapeake Watershed.

All that's well and fine. But what about the gray areas? I'm referring here to the sidewalks not in front of people's homes or businesses on, say, bridges. Bridge walkways are major routes for people hustling to the Metro to get to work or to the store to grab the essentials when D.C. has a whiff of snow: toilet paper and milk. Who's responsible for clearing the walkways of, say, the Ellington, the Taft, and the Klingle Road bridges? Lyons says she's looking into it, but thinks these would come under the purview of the Dept. of Transportaiton. DDOT spokesperson Karyn LeBlanc is looking into it, too, but was not sure when I called. "I think I know the answer, but let me check and call you back," she says.

In the meantime, Lyons has a few words for people complaining to DPW about things DPW isn't required to do and/or asking DPW to write up their lazy neighbors. "Government should limit what they tell people to do," she says. "If we gave out fines for every little thing, we'd get more complaints about that than we do for not giving out fines."

Yes, it's a D.C. regulation of some type that residents are to clear their walkways within eight days of a snow or ice storm, but there's no one out enforcing that. For good reasons.

In Lyons' day (insert uphill-both-ways story here) people shoveled for their neighbors or neighbor kids went around earning a couple of nickles. "People had a better relationship with their neighbors," she says. "Maybe this is a byproduct of living in an urban area....I grew up in the suburbs."

Flickr photo by Ryan Stanton.

Special thanks to Amanda Hess, JD, and IMGoph for finding this lost blogpost, such as it is, for someone who still doesn't get it.

Are we gonna get our first snow?

I was walking around Logan Circle today. I swear I saw at least two flurries. It's cloudy. It's cold. And the clouds look kinda purple. I got a C in basic meteorology. And people are predicting some accumulation.

What do you think we're gonna get? A pathetic dusting or something more serious???