Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 6

Almost Heaven
In the hermetic confines of Leisure World, you'll find duckpin bowling, a swell 18-hole golf course, and plenty of sprightly retirees. Everybody seems happy here. Everybody but you.

Cover Story

This is where you stand the first time the dueling stenches of death and hair spray commingle in your nostrils and spike your otherwise easygoin' brain: the produce section of a grocery store in a seemingly normal Silver Spring strip mall. There you are, fondling a plump little clementine with your healthy young hands, when the Darkness gooses you with his rusty scythe and lets you know your reservations are in order.

The reality of the situation is nasty enough—hell, there might as well be a vulture squawking atop the cantaloupes—but the timing is the real killer: We all gotta go sometime—you admit that—but did you really need to be reminded of your flimsy mortality now?

All thoughts of escape are useless: In the fruits-and-vegetables section of a clean, well-lighted Giant, the Darkness, ol' Mr. Bones himself, has bumped into you like an errant shopping cart and hissed in your ear: You are going to die, my friend, and the way that realization cha-chas its way down your spine, you might just keel over this instant, face-first into the Granny Smiths.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 6 - 12, 1998

News and Features

Almost Heaven
In the hermetic confines of Leisure World, you'll find duckpin bowling, a swell 18-hole golf course, and plenty of sprightly retirees. Everybody seems happy here. Everybody but you.
Cover Story By Sean Daly
Raiders of the Last Ark
What happens when the Internet goes up for grabs?
Feature By Monte Paulsen
Stop and Go-Go
Lamond Riggs residents say the ghosts of the Ibex club are visiting their neighborhood bar.
The City By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Meir Barry Goes to Israel
A guide for Hizzoner on the Holiest of Holies
The City By Jake Tapper
Lawn Job
Third District cops are turning their station into a tractor pull.
The City By Jamal E. Watson
The Needle
The City By Erik Wemple
Inside Job
Drug-test shenanigans a decade ago raise questions about how much of an "outsider" interim police chief Sonya Proctor really is.
The City By Jake Tapper
Abandon Statue!
Washington's least-known monument drifts with the tide.
The City By Michael Schaffer
If the Boot Fits
The Mail By Gary C. Grassl
Closet Case
The Mail By Nancee Lyons
Frankly, My Dear, Americans Don't Give a Damn
The Mail By David E. Moon
Tea'd Off
The Mail By Cressida Lennox
Raul's Gold
The Mail By Miguel Santos

Columns

The Puck Stops Here
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Ghost Town
City Desk By Laura Lang, Amanda Ripley and Elissa Silverman
Standing Down To Norton
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins
The Post's Credit Policy
Paper Trail By David Carr

Eats

Movies

A Day in the Lives
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
California Split
Film Review By Arion Berger

Music

Forever Young
Music Review By Christopher Porter
Van Dyke Parks
Music Review By Joel E. Siegel
Bill Monroe & the Monroe Brothers
Music Review By Matt Watson
Dianne Reeves
Music Review By Joel E. Siegel
To Rococo Rot
Music Review By Christopher Porter

Theater

Clifford Gets a Job
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
Tanner '98
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

A Developing Career
Artifacts By Holly Bass
The Tales of Two Cities
Artifacts By Sean Daly
The Last Race Man
Books By William Jelani Cobb
Good Fellows
The Ruby Dare tells tales from the dark side without ever going there.
Arts By Christopher Porter