Washington City Paper: Contents for Jan. 9

Better Off Deb
Learn the cha-cha! Wear a fabulous gown! And don't worry about the chaperones. Thirteen things you'll need for a successful debut.

Cover Story

1. A Love of Ritual

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, a man in tails and a woman in a flapper-style sequined dress arrive with their daughter in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel. They are here to celebrate the debutante class of 2003, which came out the night before at the National Debutante Cotillion and Thanksgiving Ball.

For the past several minutes, their little girl, a tiny golden-haired beauty who looks to be about 3 years old, has been acting up. She has refused go to the ball until her mother relinquishes part of her outfit—a pink feather boa.

"Do you want to come back next year?" the father says.

The child ignores him and keeps reaching for the boa.

"Mom, I'm freezing!" the little girl pleads.

The mother tries to hand her daughter a child-sized fur coat. The girl isn't interested. The father is at wit's end. He looks down at his daughter and unleashes the ultimate threat: "You're not going to be in the class of 2015 if you don't watch it!"

His words apparently do the trick. Minutes later, the child is in the ballroom.

To read the newspapers, you would think that a girl so young shouldn't necessarily expect to attend a debutante ball when she turns 18. Every few years or so, the same story appears, announcing the near-extinction and uncertain resurrection of the deb. In 1979, the Chicago Sun-Times asked: "The Return of the Deb: Is Coming Out Coming Back?" In 1984, the New York Times Magazine did it again: "Reviving the Rituals of the Debutante." ... Continued

Issue of Jan. 9 - 15, 2004

News and Features

Better Off Deb
Learn the cha-cha! Wear a fabulous gown! And don't worry about the chaperones. Thirteen things you'll need for a successful debut.
Cover Story By Annys Shin
Pop-O-Meter
The City By Tom Scocca
Diminishing Returns
D.C.'s biggest tax delinquent proves hard to collect from.
The City By David Morton
Wring in the New
The first mayhem of 2004
The City
Running Gag
A campaign veteran comes to the D.C. primary.
The City By Garance Franke-Ruta
Consumer Deception
The Mail By Sharon J. Chambers
You Say You Want a Revolution?
The Mail By Luis R. Viteri
Correction
Correction

Columns

Last Swishes
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Cap'n Crunch
Loose Lips By Elissa Silverman
Train in Vain
Dept. of Media By Erik Wemple
Fingering Paints
City Desk By Annys Shin
Prolonged Exposure
City Desk By David Morton

Eats

The Week That Wasn't
Young & Hungry By Todd Kliman

Movies

Hooker With a Heart of Stone
Film Review By Tricia Olszewski
Lost in Sensation
Film Review By Mark Jenkins

Music

“You Shook Me All Night Long”
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Glenn Dixon
“Seasons in the Sun”
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Chris Hagan
Ditching Wu
Music Review By William Jelani Cobb
M.A.D.E.
Music Review By Sarah Godfrey
Australasia
Music Review By Brent Burton
Take Me to Your Leader
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Joe Warminsky
Music From the Motion Picture Mona Lisa Smile
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Dave Nuttycombe
Music From the Miramax Motion Picture City of God
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Christopher Porter
Michigan
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Jason Cherkis

Theater

Arts and Events

Downtown Digs
Show & Tell By Robert Lalasz
Stamp and Deliver
Compulsive draftsman Trevor Young can't stop pushing the envelope of mail art.
Arts By John Metcalfe
Odds Sense of Humor
Artifacts By Dave Jamieson
There and Back Again
Artifacts By Anne Marson