Washington City Paper: Contents for Jan. 21

Grass ’N’ Go
Turn off engine. Lift nozzle. Come inside and see our blunts, pipes, and papers.

Cover Story

The Fort Dupont BP Amoco pumps out Skittles, Utz Red Hot potato chips, and Grandma’s cookies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers often fill their grumbling stomachs with the sugar and fat before they even make it off the lot.

This BP Amoco’s inventory pretty much begins and ends with junk food. Patrons looking to take the edge off of anything more than their hunger are out of luck.

It doesn’t carry the array of items that junkies and weedheads can find at many neighboring stations. Any tobacco product that can be split down its spine, and eviscerated, and have its entrails replaced with chronic will never see the light emanating from the station’s canopy of fluorescent bulbs.

The unpleasant task of turning away drug-paraphernalia seekers falls to Fort Dupont BP Amoco cashier Ann Stanfield.

“Anything you can think of, they’ve called me,” says Stanfield of patrons seeking paraphernalia. “They spit at the window. They say, ‘Is this a religious gas station?’ They say, ‘Are y’all stupid, are you ignorant? Do you know how much money you could be making?’”

Because Stanfield doesn’t have the selection of goodies they expect, weedheads cuss her out, call her out of her name, and even accuse her of holding out on them.

“You tell ’em no, and they look around like you’re lying—just looking,” says Stanfield, imitating the folks who push their faces to the plexiglass and scan the booth’s interior for hidden smoking materials.... Continued

Issue of Jan. 21 - 27, 2005

News and Features

Grass ’N’ Go
Turn off engine. Lift nozzle. Come inside and see our blunts, pipes, and papers.
Cover Story By Sarah Godfrey
Radio Days
Mourning the long-lost beat at WHFS
Feature By Mark Jenkins
Let Freedom Bling
Local limo outfits are helping inaugural bigwigs travel in style— sometimes, more style than they want.
The City By Mike DeBonis
Hall Monitor
Selected readings from D.C. Public Schools incident reports*
The City By Mike Kanin and Katherine Marsh
Street Smarts
The City By Josh Levin
Snow Job
Mark Nickels and friends rail against the establishment.
The City By Michael Martinez
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
The Mail By Eleanor Dore
Ignominies of Scale
The Mail By Michael Hendler
Circling Back
The Mail By Joe Casey
Ms. January
The Mail By Lizz Robbins
Wrong Island
The Mail By Alan C. Page

Columns

The Dead Balls Era
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Ham and Eggs
City Desk By Mike Kanin
Inside Job
City Desk By Dave Jamieson

Eats

Bargain at Half the Price
Young & Hungry By Todd Kliman

Movies

Cop Shoot Cop
Film Review By Tricia Olszewski
Death Trip of a Salesman
Film Review By Mark Jenkins

Music

Cities of Lost Soul
Music Review By Jason Cherkis

Theater

Will and Grace
Theater Review By Trey Graham
Words to the Wise
Theater Review By Bob Mondello

Arts and Events

The Daily Feed
Artifacts By Anne Marson
Fly Girls
Artifacts By Heather Morgan Shott
EL SWAPO
Show & Tell By Chris Shott
The Tell-Tale Art
Novelist Nani Power doesn’t write about being a normal, boring mother of two— at least not literally.
Arts By Huan Hsu

City Lights

This week's best in Arts and Entertainment.

Hoover
City Lights By Jason Cherkis
R. Lee Ermey
City Lights By Andrew Earles
Sam Lipsyte
City Lights By Dave Nuttycombe
Theme and Variation
City Lights By Jeffry Cudlin
Cloud 9
City Lights By Mike DeBonis
Selections From the International Festival of Films on Art
City Lights By Mark Jenkins
Everyman
City Lights By Janet Hopf
Ruth Price
City Lights By Mike Kanin
Turing Machine
City Lights By Andrew Earles
Carolee Schneemann
City Lights By Michael Little
Electronic Music Extravaganza
City Lights By Mark Jenkins
Ernest B. Furgurson
City Lights By Paul Morton