Ignoring Facts
Dear Safe Drivers:
It’s late to the story, but when the Washington Post covers
a subject, it can put impressive resources into it, and the DC
government can no longer ignore it. “DC Red-Light Cameras Fail to
Reduce Accidents,” the paper concluded in its story’s headline on
Monday: “The District’s red-light cameras have generated more than
500,000 violations and $32 million in fines over the past six years.
City officials credit them with making busy roads safer. But a Washington
Post analysis of crash statistics shows that the number of accidents
has gone up at intersections with the cameras. The increase is the same
or worse than at traffic signals without the devices” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html).
What’s priceless is Chief Charles Ramsey’s reaction: “Ramsey
said the number of accidents would be even higher without the cameras,
adding that he would like to install them at every traffic light in the
city.” Does the Chief bring that same quality of intellectual
astuteness and honesty to analyzing the facts in criminal cases and, if
so, does the MPD keep him far away from investigations?
Fair warning: themail will take a three-week break for the last three
weeks of October. There is one more issue before then, on Sunday, and we’ll
resume publishing on Wednesday, November 2.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
Phyllis Jones is leaving her position as Secretary of the Council to
manage Linda Cropp’s mayoral campaign. Ira Stohlman, the former
Assistant Council Secretary under Council Chair Dave Clark, will replace
Jones. Jeff Smith, District School Board Representative for District
One, and Marshall Brown will join Cropp’s campaign as paid staffers.
Brown, while heading field operations for the Cropp campaign, will also
continue as the chief strategist for two other campaigns, those of David
Bowers for an at-large council seat and of Keith Perry for the Ward 6
council seat.
At today’s weekly press conference, Mayor Williams acknowledged
that after only five months as Chief Executive Officer of the Anacostia
Waterfromt Initiative, Andrew Altman is resigning to take an undisclosed
position in the private sector in New York. Altman had previously headed
the Office of Planning. One candidate to replace him as the Anacostia
CEO is Neil Albert, formerly the Deputy Mayor for Children, Youth,
Families, and Elders, who had been rumored to become the Chief Operating
Officer of AWI. Two other Williams administration officials who are also
rumored to find safe havens and high salaries in jobs at the AWI are
Steve Green and Michael Jasso, development officials currently working
in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
###############
The Mayor Should Add an Eleventh Priority
Richard Layman, rlaymandc@yahoo.com
Last week, the mayor introduced a list of ten legislative priorities
that were mentioned in themail [http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/050928b.htm].
I suggest adding an additional priority that isn’t legislative, but
executive.
On Sunday, September 25, a ten-month-old child died in an apartment
fire, which likely started from a candle used to light the baby’s room
— the electricity had been turned off for nonpayment, but a request
had been filed for emergency assistance. According to articles in the Post,
the paperwork had been approved, but not forwarded to Pepco, because the
person who was responsible for transmitting the request took the Friday
off. The fire occurred early Sunday morning. This wouldn’t have been a
problem if the process had been automated using a set of procedures and
a workflow software application that could have immediately transmitted
the order to PEPCO once it was approved by the DC Energy Office.
In the mid-1990s, “business process redesign” and the
“re-engineering” of business processes was all the rage in the
private sector and even “reinventing government” called for similar
activity in the public sector. Workflow software applications are the
way to implement this. Big companies use really complicated software
programs, but workflow applications don’t have to be that complicated.
Creating online forms, automated transmission to the parties that have
to approve, and forwarding the response to the next link in the decision
chain isn’t that hard. Here, the lack of such a process in the DC
Energy Office likely contributed to the death of a ten-month-old child.
My sense, from talking to various current and former DC Government
employees, that many such procedures that could and should be automated
in such a fashion aren’t. Even if such organizational sloth doesn’t
usually contribute to killing someone, it does make getting things done
a lot harder for citizens and for government employees. It is not enough
to automate an office; business processes also need to be analyzed and
contemplated to remove extraneous steps or optimize them. Many workflow
systems enable a workflow map to be drawn and modified online.
###############
So this week I received a city council mailer from Councilmember
Vincent Orange, addressed to DC Voter telling me about all the great
things going on in Ward 5. This is the first time since I have lived in
my house in four years that I have ever gotten anything from him. Oh, I
live in the old part of Ward 3, now Ward 4, off Utah and Nebraska. Guess
I am now part of three Wards. Gee, Maybe it has to do with the fact that
he is running for Mayor. I suppose since I am a taxpayer I am glad I got
a piece of mail paid for by myself. Wonder when I will get the Linda
Cropp newsletter. I already get Fenty’s since I am actually in his
district.
###############
Columbus Day Trash and Recycling Collection
Schedule
Mary Myers, mary.myers@dc.gov
In observance of Columbus Day, most Department of Public Works
services will be suspended on Monday, October 10. There will be no city
trash or recycling collection, no street or alley cleaning, graffiti
removal or nuisance abatement. There will also be no parking
enforcement, including meters, residential and rush hour lane
restrictions, and no booting, towing or abandoned vehicle removal on
Monday. The Fort Totten Trash Transfer Station will be closed. All
services resume on Tuesday, October 11.
Once-weekly (Supercan) trash and recyclables collection will
“slide” one day for the remainder of the week, beginning Tuesday,
October 11. In the twice-a-week trash collection areas, Monday and
Tuesday trash and recyclables collection service will slide one day.
Thursday and Friday trash and recycling collections will be made on the
regular day.
###############
Cast Your Vote for Kids Today
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org
Have you cast your vote for kids? If not, please do so today. The
survey takes only a moment and the impact is huge. If you have voted, we
thank you. DC Action for Children will share the results of this budget
priority identification project with elected and appointed officials so
they can be informed by your priorities for children and youth in the
city. They are developing the FY 2007 budget now and so your vote today
is important.
Here is a link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=98592705E14927.
###############
Post
Is
Number 1 in the Nation; Tom Curley of AP Seems to Be Getting It
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
Jay Rosen, a respected press critic, rates the Washington Post
as the number one newspaper in the country — surpassing the New
York Times and the Wall Street Journal for quality of
journalism (see http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2005/10/04/tms_pst.html).
I can’t say I disagree with him. Some of the reporters at the Post
are the best in the land. Would I rate the editors and managers of this
newspaper in the same way? No. I would say many editors and managers at
the Washington Post lack courage and vision, stuck in a
previous-century mode of thinking. The sailors on this ship are brave
and bold. The captain of this ship, timid.
Tom Curley, CEO of the Associated Press, has some interesting things
to say in this 26-second QuickTime video clip from Wednesday, October 5,
http://www.andycarvin.com/video/curley.mov.
This clip ends mid-sentence with the adverb “sorely.” You fill in
the rest of the sentence. What is mainstream traditional media sorely
not doing now?
It’s helpful to note that QuickTime video clips are most easily
viewed using the Firefox, Netscape, or Safari web browsers. The above
video clip is 2.4 megabytes in file size. Dial-up users can access it
after waiting for about twelve to fifteen minutes. Broadband Internet
users can access it in just a few seconds.
###############
Road Closures
Peter McGee, Mt. Pleasant, mcgeep@dsmo.com
The folks who are still wrangling over whether or not to restore
Klingle Road seem to have lost sight of two key facts: 1) Klingle Road
has never been closed; and 2) those fighting in front of the DC council
to close Klingle Road lost.
The city government has a fundamental duty to keep all of our
transportation inventory in good repair. Despite appearances to the
contrary, Klingle Road is still “open”; it was never “closed.”
Road closures by law require that certain legal acts take place. The
mayor, the city council, and the public are all involved. The reasons
for closing a road need to be compelling enough to convince the mayor
and the council to take the necessary statutory steps.
So far, Sierra Club, et al. have not presented plausible and
sufficient reasons for closing Klingle Road. Common concerns about
runoff and pollution do not compel the closure of Klingle Road or any
other road. If runoff and pollution become sufficient reasons to close
roads, say goodbye to every valley parkway from Beach Drive and Broad
Branch to Canal Road and the GW Parkway. Klingle Road remains part of DC’s
transportation infrastructure. As such, there is no question that the
road should be restored. Unless and until it is closed by acts of the
mayor and the council, Klingle Road must be restored.
###############
Facts and Conclusions on Klingle Road
Gabe Fineman, gfineman@advsol.com
People choose facts to support their conclusions, but some are better
at it than others. We see it again in the discourse about Klingle Road
in themail where Laurie Collins of RepairKlingleRoad.org and David Culp
of Sierra/Klinglevalley.org both buttress their arguments using facts of
their own choosing. Laurie used the fact that when Klingle Road was open
to traffic, Klingle Creek (that abuts the Road) was the most pristine of
the creeks running into Rock Creek, and now that the road has been
closed, it has become one of the worst. Her conclusion is that road use
lead to maintenance and vitality and the closing to traffic lead to
neglect and decay. Plausible, but not conclusive. David uses the fact
that Rock Creek as a whole has been impacted by the increasingly
impervious nature of the development of the drainage basin. He draws the
conclusion that there should be no roads (impervious surfaces) near Rock
Creek and thus no Klingle Road. It is much more difficult to see the
logic in his case. Under that reasoning we should first close Rock Creek
Parkway that abuts Rock Creek, have no surfaced bike paths and should
undo the construction east of Wisconsin Avenue, including the major work
at the National Cathedral that changed the drainage in Klingle Creek and
the doubling in size of the Kennedy-Warren apartment complex overlooking
the creek that dwarfs the square footage of the narrow Klingle Road.
The facts as I see them are that there is no money to fix the
drainage of Klingle Creek except as a byproduct of the federal financing
of fixing Klingle Road. Abandoning the road would prevent WASA from
getting equipment in to repair the sewer line beneath the road that
carries one half million gallons of raw sewage a day. If the Sierra Club
wants to improve the environment in this one tiny spot, it should
concentrate on fixing the drainage (even if it means fixing the Road)
and then work on the zoning rules that allow major development in the
drainage basin (about 180 acres).
###############
As a native Washingtonian, I have been very upset for years that DC
city councils and mayors have been pandering to DC ministers on all
kinds of important issues for DC taxpayers, without any proof on any
level of how many of these ministers’ flocks live in DC.
When I grew up here, 95 percent of church members walked to church
because they lived in the same neighborhood. Now no church will provide
us with statistics on the number of their members who live in DC. I
wonder why not.
###############
You should be in my neck of the woods on Sundays to see the problems
caused by parking by church members — not only illegal parking, but
parking in such numbers that we are unable to leave our parking space
because there is always someone waiting for us to leave it for them. In
addition, there is rampant illegal parking for the soccer games played
on Cardozo’s football field. These games draw attendees from Maryland
and Virginia in such large numbers that it makes me wonder whatever
happened to the available fields in those states where they used to hold
these games. Cardozo’s football field just last year was completely
redone by the Washington Redskins just last year, and now is being
chewed up by outsiders using the field for their soccer games. The
police are not of much help to stem the illegal parking, and neither is
our representative on the council.
###############
Parking Disposition
Malcolm Wiseman, mal@wiseman.ws
[Re, “Nonresident Churchgoers Who Park Illegally,” Paul Michael
Brown, themail, October 2]: I know Lea Adams well enough to bet that her
sics are usually not sick. If she wrote “disposed,” then that’s
what she meant; i.e., they were gotten rid of. I happen to agree
that churches and such shouldn’t be granted any special parking rights
except perhaps for funerals.
###############
John Lennon sings “Life is what happens when you’re busy making
other plans” in the cut “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” on the
Double Fantasy album, released in 1980. The jacket says he wrote the
lyrics. When you listen to it, you hear at the end that he is singing it
to his son Sean. I have sung it to my son and daughters many times.
###############
Neatly Weighs up Mawkish Philosophy about
Unforseen Reality
Charlie Wellander, Charlie.Wellander.1228 (at) Gmail.com
Imagine! My headline turns out to be an exact anagram of, “Life is
what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” (I know,
“unforeseen” is misspelled — I was short one “e,” and couldn’t
change the lyric to “e-Life is what happens. . . .” Anyway, over a
million pages on Yahoo!Search misspell it “unforseen.”) The
“life” line is from John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” (1980), but
he probably came across it earlier, as it appeared in print several
times before 1980.
My favorite citation is from William Gaddis’s novel JR
(National Book Award winner in 1975): “Whole goddammed point is, Bast,
is that life is what happens to us while we’re busy making other
plans, read that in a dentist’s waiting room once. . .” Other
writers besides Gaddis who have been credited with originating this
aphorism include Thomas La Mance, “outspoken Senate ex-wife” Betty
Talmadge, comic-strip writer Allen Saunders (Mary Worth, Steve Roper),
and Lily Tomlin. For the complete Lennon lyrics, more about La Mance
(even his phone number), and Betty Talmadge’s “. . . remaining 77
$100 bills from the stash,” see my page at http://www.geocities.com/charliewellander/LifeHappens.htm.
Personally, I incline to the “dentist’s waiting room” or “wise
bumper sticker” theories, and would just call it an “old folk
saying.”
[The quotation was also very quickly identified by Erica Bersin, Dan
Nathan, and Ed Delaney. Faith Williams, faithmw@yahoo.com,
wrote that she has also seen it attributed to Pearl Buck. — Gary
Imhoff]
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Brookland Festival, October 8
Richard Layman, rlaymandc@yahoo.com
[Forwarded from Mary Farrell, brooklandcdc@aol.com]
The Ninth Annual Brookland Festival will be celebrated on Saturday,
October 8, from 11:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. This Festival captures and
highlights the special "small-town-in-town" flavor of
Brookland, one of the City of Washington’s earliest trolley car
suburbs, and home to well-known institutions such as the Catholic
University of America, the Franciscan Monastery; and the Basilica of the
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The Festival will kick off
with the ever-popular community parade along 12th Street, NE. The parade
features the John Carroll High School Marching Band and the Festival’s
traditional spoof brigades, such as the canine and lawnmower brigades.
The parade starts at Franklin Street, NE, and ends at Michigan Avenue,
NE.
The festival is hosted and organized by the Brookland Community
Development Corporation and its Historic Brookland Main Street program,
a partnership of residents, business owners and other community
stakeholders that is working to strengthen and extend Greater Brookland’s
vibrant character through such efforts as promoting arts and cultural
development activities and diversifying the business base. Festival
sponsors include the DC Lottery, Verizon, and The Washington Post.
Between 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m., performances, and exhibits including
nonprofit organizations, businesses, and artists and crafts makers will
be featured in pavilions along Brookland’s Main Street commercial
district, on 12th Street, NE, between Monroe and Otis Streets, NE.
The Festival will include a Performing Arts Pavilion featuring the
jazz and blues of notable local groups such as the Archie Edwards Blues
Heritage Foundation and the Barrelhouse Brawl. Children and adult
students of Dance Place and Northeast Tae Kwon Do, two well-known
Brookland institutions, will also perform. A History Pavilion will
include an exhibition that tells the story of Brookland’s beginnings
and growth, and the many notable African-Americans who have lived and
worked in the community, people such as Ralph Bunche and Pearl Bailey.
New this year will be an Arts Pavilion featuring a Clothesline Sale of
Art Works On Paper, including prints, drawings, and photographs by local
artists. Children’s activities, including storytelling, games, and
creative activities, will be centered near the corner of 12th and Newton
Streets, NE. Neighborhood stores, service providers, restaurants,
carry-outs, and pubs will offer eating and shopping specials. Booths are
still available to nonprofit organizations, business, and arts and
crafts exhibitors, as are corporate sponsorship opportunities on several
levels. Opportunities to volunteer are also available. Individuals,
corporations, organizations, and government agencies wishing to
participate should contact Festival Coordinator, Brookland CDC, at
529-8400 or by E-mail at BrooklandCDC@aol.com.
###############
Emergency Preparedness Workshop in Cleveland
Park, October 10
Bill Adler, billonline@adlerbooks.com
Cleveland Park Community disaster preparedness workshop, Monday,
October 10, 7:00 p.m., at the 2nd District Police Station, 3320 Idaho
Avenue, NW. Cookies and chips provided, vending machines available for
drinks. This workshop will provide information on topics including the
following: the types of disasters most likely to happen, Cleveland Park
and DC metro area warning signals, what they sound like, what you should
do when you hear them, animal care after a disaster (animals are not
allowed in emergency shelters because of health regulations, how to help
elderly or disabled persons, disaster plans at the workplace and your
children’s school, creating a disaster plan, choosing places to meet
family during or after emergency, establishing a "family
contact," identifying items in the home that can cause injury
during an emergency, securing your home during an emergency, critical
emergency numbers, what to teach your children about emergencies,
insurance coverage options, what emergency supplies to assemble in
advance, escape routes, how to practice your family disaster plan, how
to store water and food for an emergency, and how neighbors can help
each other during an emergency.
If you have relevant expertise or knowledge, please contact Donna
Lewis, dlewis@eeolawlink.com,
to volunteer your services for this workshop and/or community follow-up
activities.
###############
Every month, Washington Storytellers Theater presents a Speakeasy.
Part open mic, part curated performance, the Speakeasy usually features
a wealth of local talent, from actors to storytellers to writers to
none-of-the-above. On October 11, in a program called “Busted: Stories
about Being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time,” WST presents
Antonio Sacre, a special guest from beyond the Beltway. Sacre is a solo
theater artist and storyteller who has performed at festivals, schools,
and theaters nationwide and abroad. His numerous honors and awards
include an Excellence in Acting award at the New York International
Fringe Theater Festival and a National Endowment for the Arts
artist-in-residence sponsorship. Backstage calls him
“observant, unafraid of his audience” and says: “He is not a
character actor nor a comedian but someone with a perpetual story and an
extraordinary talent for engaging an audience. Therefore, he is frankly
funny, uncompromisingly believable and, above all, kind.”
Tuesday, October 11, 8:00 p.m., at HR-57 Center for the Preservation
of Jazz and Blues, 1610 14th Street, NW (between Corcoran and O Streets,
NW). Ticket Price: $5. Metro Red Line (Dupont) or Green Line (U Street/Cardozo).
On the first of each month, WST will begin taking sign-ups for that
month’s Open Mic. Call the office to reserve a space — 545-6840.
###############
DC Vote’s Champions of Democracy Reception,
October 20
Kevin Kiger, kkiger@dcvote.org
Please join us on Thursday, October 20, 6:30 p.m., at the Madison
Hotel as DC Vote honors our 2005 Champions of Democracy for Building
American Democracy in DC.’
Visit DC Vote’s 2005 Champions of Democracy Awards Reception web
site, http://www.dcvote.org/events/cod2005.cfm. On the Web site, you can
purchase tickets to the event, become an event sponsor, donate to our
silent auction, and get more information about our honorees and the
event. Feel free to direct your family, friends, colleagues and
neighbors to our Web site so they, too, can join us. Let’s bring the
entire community together as we celebrate our achievements in 2005 and
look forward to even greater ones in 2006!
###############
National Building Museum Events, October 11-22
Brie Hensold, bhenhold@nbm.org
All events except Construction Watch Tour at the National Building
Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line.
Tuesday, October 11, 6:30-8:00 p.m. From the mid-1860s until 1890,
the German-born architect Adolf Cluss significantly helped shape the
city of Washington. As engineer, city planner and architect, Cluss was a
dominant presence in what was then a city largely of red brick. Notable
extant buildings by Cluss include the Smithsonian Arts and Industries
Building and the Franklin and Sumner schools. Dr. Cynthia R. Field,
chair of the Smithsonian’s Office of Architectural History, will
discuss his work and impact on Washington. After the lecture, she will
sign copies of the book Adolf Cluss, Architect: From Germany to
America (Berghahn Books) to which she contributed an essay. $10
Museum members and students; $15 nonmembers. Registration required.
Sunday, October 16, 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. For kids and families,
Sharing Memories: Photo Frame Workshop. After exploring Jewish
Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community, families create building
shaped photo frames inspired by common architecture features to take
home. $5 for Museum members; $7 for nonmembers. All ages. Drop-in
program.
Monday, October 17, 6:30-8:00 p.m. DC Builds Ballparks, Eminent
Domain, and the Need for a DC Planning Commission. This symposium,
cosponsored with the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, will examine
other cities’ experiences with a planning commission and suggest how
such a government agency could help coordinate DC to align the
expenditure of public funds with planning visions and economic
development objectives. Symposium moderator Gary Hack, dean of the
Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, will discuss
the utility of planning commissions, with a focus on Philadelphia where
he chaired such a group. Christopher Ronayne, chief of staff to the
Mayor of Cleveland and former planning director in that city, will
analyze the Cleveland experience. Leading DC government officials have
been invited to join the discussion. $10 members of the Museum and
Committee of 100, and students; $15 nonmembers. Registration required.
Saturday, October 22, 9:00-11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Construction Watch Tour: Swiss Ambassador’s Residence. A new Swiss
Ambassador’s residence is currently under construction in Washington,
DC Designed by New York architect Steven Holl and Swiss architect Justin
Ruessli, the building’s cruciform shape is reminiscent of the cross in
the Swiss flag and will provide spectacular views of the Washington
Monument. Olaf Schmidt with Steven Holl Architects and Peter Ege and
Mark Muchmore, both with James G. Davis Construction, will lead a tour
of this nearly 14,000-square-foot project, scheduled for completion in
March 2006. Open only to Museum members, $18. Space is limited. Prepaid
registration required. To register, call the Museum or visit http://www.nbm.org
beginning September 19. Note the choice of two times for this tour.
Saturday, October 22, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Halloween Haunted House
Workshop. Create a spooky haunted house to place in your window at home
for Halloween! Families use wood and cardboard to construct a house or
barn and then adorn it with miniature ghosts, monsters, and jack-o’-lanterns.
$11 per house for Museum members; $16 nonmembers. All ages. Prepaid
registration required. To register call 272-2448 or E-mail family@nbm.org.
###############
DC Public Library Events, October 11-19
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov
Tuesday, October 11 and 25, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood
Library, 1101 24th Street, NW. Bring your lunch and enjoy a film. Public
contact: 724-8707.
Wednesday, October 12, 1:00 p.m., Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park
Neighborhood Library, 7420 Georgia Avenue, NW. Shepherd Park Wednesday
Afternoon Book Club. The book club will discuss Echoes by
Danielle Steel. Public contact: 541-6100.
Wednesday, October 12, 4:00 p.m., Juanita E. Thornton/ Shepherd Park
Neighborhood Library, 7420 Georgia Avenue, NW. The Air Force Band at
your library, a special concert that exposes young people to music and
allows them to meet some of the nation’s most talented musicians.
School ages. Public contact: 541-6100.
Wednesday, October 12, 6:30 p.m., Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library,
5625 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Author Janine Di Giovanni, author of Madness
Visible: A Memoir of War, will discuss her book about the breakup of
Yugoslavia that she covered as a foreign correspondent for The Times
of London. Public contact: 282-0021.
Friday, October 14, 11:00 a.m., Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library,
5625 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Author Anne Snowden Crosman will discuss
her book, Young at Heart: 61 Extraordinary Americans Tell How to Defy
Age with Zest, Work and Healthy Lifestyles. Crosman interviewed
hundreds of elderly people who continue to live vibrant lives, including
Steve Allen, Gordon Parks, Benjamin Spock, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and
others. This book of inspirational stories won a Benjamin Franklin Award
in 2004. Public contact: 282-0021.
Saturday, October 15, 10:00 a.m., Capitol View Neighborhood Library,
5001 Central Avenue, SE. October Book Fest and Yard Sale. The SE/NE
Friends of the Capitol View Library invites you to a day of fun, food,
games and books. Public contact: 645-0755.
Monday-Friday, October 17-21, 10:00 a.m., Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-5. Teens from District
schools have been invited to listen to, question, and meet young adult
authors during Teen Read Week, October 16 – 22. They will explore one
of five genres: science fiction, historical fiction, biography, poetry
and nonfiction. The Young Adult Services Division of the DC Public
Library and the District of Columbia Public Library Foundation present
the programs. Teens will receive a copy of the featured book from the
session they attend. The following authors will be featured during Teen
Read Week: October 17, Ned Vizzini will discuss Be More Chill,
his national best selling science fiction novel about being cool;
October 18, C.R. Gibbs will give a lecture on African Americans in the
Civil War (copies of With Every Drop of Blood by James Lincoln
Collier and Christopher Collier will be given to participants); October
19, NeAnni Ife will discuss her book, Blue Popsicles, based on
her experiences of living in an orphan home; October 20, Debra
Harris-Johnson will discuss her book, The African American Teenagers
Guide to Personal Growth, Health, Safety, Sex and Survival; October
21, DC WritersCorps student performers will present a poetry performance
that includes free copies of the book, Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems
from WritersCorps. Public contact: 727-5535.
Monday, October 17, 7:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101
24th Street, NW. Dr. Barbara Barski-Carrow will conduct a monthly
seminar on dealing with and helping others to cope with traumatic issues
in the workplace. She was a Senior Consultant and an Equal Employment
Opportunity Specialist in the federal government’s Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS). Now retired, she has held management,
administrative and technical positions in the public and private sectors
and has created and conducted training programs, workshops and seminars
for organizations, associations and government agencies on various
personnel and management issues. Public contact: 724-8707.
Tuesday, October 18, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101
24th Street, NW. West End Book Club discussion group. Public contact:
724-8707.
Tuesday, October 18, 6:00 p.m., Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood
Library, 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE, Tuesday, DC Public Library Board of
Library Trustees monthly meeting. The public is invited to attend.
Public contact: 645-4297.
Tuesday, October 18, 6:30 p.m., Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403
7th Street, SE. Capitol Hill Book Club monthly book discussion. Public
contact: 698-3377.
Tuesday, October 18, 6:30 p.m. Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403
7th Street, SE. Author Judith Woodson will read from her book, Poetic
Soul: African-American Poems to Take to the Heart. Public contact:
698-3377.
Wednesday, October 19, 4:00 p.m., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood
Library, 3160 16th Street, NW. The Air Force Band at your library, a
special concert that exposes young people to music and allows them to
meet some of the nation’s most talented musicians. School ages. Public
contact: 671-0200.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — SERVICES
eBay Training Offered
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
Would you like to learn the ropes of selling things on eBay? I offer
a 1.5 hour training in people’s homes to help people get up to speed
quickly. The fee for this training is $20. As you might have heard eBay
lowers the barrier to entry for people to engage in small scale or large
scale commerce. At any given time there are more than fifty million
items for sale on eBay. There are more than one hundred fifty million
registered eBay users in the world.
###############
themail@dcwatch is an E-mail discussion forum that is published every
Wednesday and Sunday. To subscribe, to change E-mail addresses, or to
switch between HTML and plain text versions of themail, use the
subscription form at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/subscribe.htm.
To unsubscribe, send an E-mail message to themail@dcwatch.com
with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Archives of past messages
are available at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail.
All postings should also be submitted to themail@dcwatch.com,
and should be about life, government, or politics in the District of
Columbia in one way or another. All postings must be signed in order to
be printed, and messages should be reasonably short — one or two brief
paragraphs would be ideal — so that as many messages as possible can
be put into each mailing.
