Lum and Abner
Dear Radio Listeners and Moviegoers:
It’s finally time for me to give the eagerly anticipated second
entry in my continuing reports on “Radio Series Characters Who Travel
to Washington, DC, in Motion Picture Features.” As everyone will
undoubtedly remember, my first report was a mere eight years ago
(January 19, 2000). It was on Fibber McGee and Molly’s 1944 visit to
DC in “Heavenly Days.” Lum and Abner toured our city the previous
year, 1943, in “So This Is Washington.” As everyone also undoubtedly
knows, Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody were the lovable proprietors of the
Jot ‘Em Down General Store in Pine Ridge, Arkansas, “the biggest
small town in the world.” Their decades-long radio series specialized
in low-key, rural, homespun (when’s the last time you read the word
“homespun”?) humor, and the movies they made were no different.
In “So This Is Washington,” Abner accidentally invents a
synthetic rubber while trying to make licorice, and the partners come to
DC to offer it to the government for the war effort. In the process,
they get caught up in DC’s wartime housing and hotel room shortage;
offer good advice to the Senators and Congressmen they meet on a park
bench; and express unashamed, unapologetic, non-cynical, patriotic
admiration and awe when looking at the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial,
and the Washington Monument. In other words, it’s not at all suited
for our cynical, unpatriotic times. But the Lum and Abner movie has the
same message as the Fibber McGee movie: the wisdom of the common man,
the average American. Lum and Abner were often treated as simpletons,
when in fact they were just simple — in the sense of uncomplicated
rather than stupid. They were not Chauncey Gardner (or Chance the
Gardener, Peter Sellers’ dimwitted character mistaken for a sage in
Being There). This movie could have been the inspiration for Jerzy
Kosinski’s novel and screenplay, but while Kosinski portrayed
Washingtonians as foolish for thinking Chance’s enigmatic mutterings
are aphorisms, Lum and Abner actually possessed commonsense wisdom, and
they were lucky enough to exist at a time when the commonsense wisdom of
average citizens was valued rather than scorned, even in Washington.
Must reads: Adrienne Washington’s column, “Parents Chase Runaway
Bus on School Reform,” http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080304/METRO/857719859;
Steve Miller’s exposition of the rationale behind DC’s school
privatization movement, http://www.portside.org/?q=showpost&i=3866,
recommended by Sam Smith in his latest City Desk newsletter; and the
latest Supreme Court filings in the DC Second Amendment rights case,
both from the petitioner (the DC government) and the respondents, both
linked from http://dcguncase.com/blog/case-filings/.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Required Reading Redux
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
Today, the District filed its final brief in the District of
Columbia vs. Heller gun control case that will be argued before the
US Supreme Court on March 18. A Wikipedia article gives a good general
overview of the case with links to the numerous pleadings that have been
filed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller).
Another web site, http://www.DCGunCase.com,
is maintained by Gura and Possessky, the law firm representing Heller.
It also provides useful links to pleadings and filings by all parties,
press articles, and commentary.
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Planning for March 30, But Not for the Youth
of DC
Cherita Whiting, cherita_whiting@yahoo.com
March 30 will be opening day for the multimillion dollar stadium that
my tax dollars paid for, but no one asked if it was OK with me that my
tax dollars were going towards a stadium that we didn’t need! I am
sure the mayor, chancellor, and councilmembers will be there with their
family, friends, and financial supporters, while on March 31 the
students of DCPS will walk into buildings that will be falling down as
the walk into them.
Last I heard, 650 million dollars had been spent for this overpriced
stadium. Does the Nationals baseball team even have players who deserve
to play in a stadium that costs that much? Hell no! Do the students of
DCPS deserve to be in classrooms with air conditioning this spring and
summer? Yes!
If Washington DC had over 650 million dollars with nothing to do with
it, there is no way you can say that the schools or social services
should not have gotten that money before a “bat and a ball”! We
already know that fifty million dollars was not being used in the Tax
Office.
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I need to communicate with anyone who knows about the approval
process (and checks and balances) of the local school budgets. I just
resigned from a southeast junior high school as a SEC and I have major
concerns about how the budget is implemented after approval. Anyone
interested in sharing insights, please E-mail me at shellynichols@att.net.
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Very Unsafe
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Right at the bus stop on the southeast corner of Massachusetts Avenue
and 48th Street, NW, the city replaced an old fire hydrant with a brand
new one. Unfortunately the crew that installed the new hydrant left a
gaping hole about two feet wide, a foot across, and eighteen inches
deep. The hole is adjacent to the curb right at the bus stop. Should
anyone step into that hole they will find themselves pitched right into
northbound traffic in Mass. Ave. This was reported to the District’s
hot line more than three weeks ago. The outfit that installed the new
hydrant came by to view the hole a week ago. The hole was filled this
morning, more than three weeks after the call was made to the DC hot
line.
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Multimedia Letters-to-the-Editor
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
I’ve been wondering which newspaper in the country will be the
first to embrace multimedia letters-to-the-editor, where community
members can share their point of view using rich media online. Whichever
newspaper takes this plunge could probably do so with little effort or
expense, simply asking its readers to submit links to rich media (of a
civic nature) that they have placed online. I’ve posted some related
blogging on this topic on PCWorld.com at http://tinyurl.com/2jeq64
— including links to some rich media I’ve uploaded to the web.
At the end of the above blog post is an icon for Digg.com. In case
you might not have heard of Digg, it’s a web site where community
members choose what news appears on the front page of the site. Yes, on
Digg community members have control of what is news or not. They do so
by clicking on the word Digg underneath a news story they like.
Surprisingly, this works quite well. A few months ago Digg.com exceeded
the New York Times in the number of web site visitors it receives
each day. Since Digg was originally started a tech news web site, it
maintains that original feeling today. But Digg-like systems may crop in
many other contexts outside of Digg, and we’ll all be the richer for
the increased participation. Can you dig it?
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Ironcutter Media Celebrates Small Press Month
Alivia Tagliaferri, alivia@ironcuttermedia.com
March is National Small Press Month. Learn what one small press in
the Washington, DC, metro area is doing to celebrate the one-year
anniversary of its first title, Still the Monkey, What Happens to
Warriors after War. Ironcutter Media, a woman-owned small press
based in the Metro DC area, has announced free shipping of personalized
copies ordered directly through its web site this month, (http://www.ironcuttermedia.com),
with the goal of making a contribution to veteran and active-duty troop
charities, such as the USO and DAV (Disabled American Veterans) from a
portion of the books’ proceeds in celebration of National Small Press
Month.
Still the Monkey, What Happens to Warriors after War was recently
designated by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) as “one
of the year’s best books (2007). The book’s subject matter raises
awareness and educates on veteran post-combat issues such as
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and has been well-received in the
veteran and mental health communities. The novel, written by Alivia C.
Tagliaferri, is a reality-based work of historical fiction that portrays
the mentorship of a warrior of old and a warrior of today, historically
accurate depictions of battles in Vietnam and Iraq, the journey through
the minds of warriors post-combat, and the rigors of rehabilitation for
loss of limb, innocence and emotion. (First Edition, ISBN:
978-0-9788417-3-7)
Author Alivia C. Tagliaferri presents literary discussions on
post-traumatic stress disorder, workshops for high school students ‘How
to Market Ideas and Creativity,’ and has written follow-up articles on
PTSD based on her research with experts in the field of post traumatic
study. She was recently interviewed by high school students at West
Potomac Academy in Alexandria, VA ,for a film and TV production class
assignment. The end clip features a song composed while writing the
novel to help deal with the difficult subject matter: http://www.youtube.com/Ironcuttermedia.
She is founder of Ironcutter Media, a publishing and production company
that blends socially-conscious themes with traditional and new media
technologies to create ‘media that matters,’ specializing in
historical fiction, children’s book and reference genres. To support
this small press and other independent publishers this month, visit the
Small Press Month web site, http://www.smallpressmonth.org/default.asp.
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Ed Lazere claims [themail, March 2] that DC residents pay the lowest
property taxes in the region. Ed, can you provide more details on how
you arrived at this conclusion? Did you compare the actual tax rolls
from each of the neighboring jurisdictions to examine the tax bills of
properties assessed at $500,000? Or did you calculate the taxes by
assuming a hypothetical $500,000 house and then applying the nominal tax
rates? Your report claims to compare the taxes “paid” in DC versus
the other jurisdictions, implying that you used actual data, but your
web site does not indicate the source of your data or the methodology
used. For example, how does the owner of a $500,000 house in Arlington
pay $4,200 in taxes, as you claim, when the rate is only .818, which
should produce taxes of only $4,090? Also, you failed to note that PG
County has an assessment cap of only 3 percent, which means that anyone
who has owned a home for a few years will be taxed on a much smaller
amount than in DC, making it unlikely that the resulting tax bill will
be higher in PG County (or that the taxes in PG County would be higher
than Montgomery County, which has a 10 percent cap).
Meanwhile, the fact (if true) that half of DC homeowners are paying
less in tax than in prior years is simply not relevant. What is relevant
is whether sufficient relief was provided to those who needed it, i.e.,
the class of homeowners whose assessments had skyrocketed, outpacing
income. To give an analogy, if crime had dramatically risen in one part
of the city, would it be OK for the city to reduce the police force
because the crime rate had decreased citywide? The council’s misguided
reduction of taxes across the board, through homestead increases and
rate reductions, provided a windfall reduction in taxes for homeowners
who had not seen much increase in their assessments and therefore did
not need relief, while providing comparatively little relief for those
who had. Meanwhile, the greatest assessment increases are now occurring
in the poorest neighborhoods: Barry Farms, 19.58 percent; Brentwood,
38.71 percent; Lily Ponds, 25.86 percent; Marshall Heights, 17.91
percent, etc. It’s time to reduce the cap from 10 percent to 5
percent.
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I would like to take exception to Ed Lazere’s posting that DC
homeowners have the lowest property taxes in the region. For individual
homeowners, the real issue is what the actual dollar amount of the tax
is, not just the tax rate to be applied to the assessed valuation. The
long-standing problem in the District is that the assessment process is
broken, that assessed values of property are often arbitrary and
capricious and increased way above the true market value of the property
being assessed. Until the assessment process is fixed, District
taxpayers will continue to pay outrageous amounts in property taxes. So
far the mayor and council have resisted fixing the real problem as that
would cut off the unmerited cash cow that rapidly rising assessed values
have created for the city. As a result, they have ferociously fought
Peter Craig’s class action lawsuit to correct the assessment process.
If the mayor and council were really serving the public interest and the
interest of the voters who elected them, they would make sure that the
assessment process follows DC law and accurately determines the true
fair market value of each property individually. Without that, taxpayers
will continue to lose faith in the fairness of our tax system.
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An Opusculum for This Forum
Charlie Wellander, W.Charlie@gmail.com
[Re introduction to themail, March 2] As we said in the Sixties:
different decora for different fora. Whether you are forum or againstum,
until you can see through the rules, you can only see through the rules.
Love that Latin language and -a plurals of, -um, words. Speakers at
the podia of several auditoria in the Mall musea have told of floral
exhibits of many chrysanthema, nasturtia, and gerania (but they’ll
have just one azaleum this spring). But before throwing one of my famous
tantra, I consulted with several of my cha. They agreed that only hoodla
or cockalora would hyperbolize this agendum. So I won’t be one of
those ba.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Historic Silver Spring on PBS, March 9
Jerry A. McCoy, sshistory@yahoo.com
Grab your bowl of popcorn, family and friends for the television
broadcast on PBS WETA-26 this Sunday, March 9, when two documentaries on
historic Silver Spring will be broadcast. Silver Spring: Story of an
American Suburb, at 6:00 p.m., and Next Stop: Silver Spring, at 8:00
p.m. WETA-26 reprises the co-production Silver Spring: Story of an
American Suburb, created in partnership with local filmmaker Walter
Gottlieb’s Final Cut Productions and the Silver Spring Historical
Society. The 2002 film presents a 160-year survey of the Washington
suburb’s history, exploring the community’s rise, decline and
ultimate rebirth — and how Silver Spring was shaped by historical
forces.
Premiering on WETA is Next Stop: Silver Spring, also by Gottlieb and
Silver Spring Media Arts, Inc., in partnership with Montgomery
Preservation, Inc. The film chronicles the history and restoration of
Silver Spring’s Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station. From this
station, countless local residents went off to war, went to visit loved
ones, took trips West, or set out to start a new life. The program
intertwines the history of the station itself with the story of the
renovation and painstaking restoration of the present 1945 Colonial
Revival structure, now listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. To read an article about Walter in the March 5, 2007, Gazette
newspaper, click on http://www.gazette.net/stories/030508/silvnew203841_32355.shtml.
After you learn all about the B&O Railroad Station, come see the
station in person when the Silver Spring Historical Society sponsors a
free open house on Saturday, March 15 from noon to 4:00 p.m. The station
is located at 8100 Georgia Avenue (at Sligo Avenue) in downtown Silver
Spring, MD. Limited free parking is available in front of the station
(please do not park next door at the fire station) with ample street
parking and a parking garage available nearby. The railroad station is
also an easy four block walk from the Silver Spring Metro station on the
Red Line. Signed copies of the award-winning book Historic Silver
Spring will be available for purchase ($20, cash or check only)
along with a variety of Silver Spring-themed postcards and stationary
items.
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National Building Museum Events, March 9-11
Jazmine Zick, jzick@nbm.org
Sunday, March 9, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. A Day of Flying in the Great
Hall. Model Airplane Workshop (9:00-11:00 a.m.). Construct your own
rubber band-propelled model airplane with the DC Maxecuters, then try a
test flight in the Great Hall. Cost per plane: $7 members; $13 public;
$15 Cub Scouts (includes special patch and snack). Ages 8 and up and
Webelos Cub Scouts. Prepaid registration required. Flying in the Great
Hall (11:00 a.m..-4:00 p.m.) Watch as the DC Maxecuters fly their model
airplanes in and across the Great Hall! Free. Drop-in demonstration
program. All ages.
Monday, March 10, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Women of Architecture: Challenging
the Paradigm: A Conversation with Three Women Deans of Architecture.
Women’s leadership — does it make a difference in architecture?
Deans from the University of Virginia, Illinois Institute of Technology,
and University of Oregon explore the future of architecture education
and the challenges and opportunities facing women in the profession. $12
members; $12 students; $20 public. Prepaid registration required.
Walk-in registration based on availability.
Tuesday, March 11, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Spotlight on Design: Emerging
Voices. Presented in partnership with the Architectural League of New
York, Emerging Voices turns the spotlight on architecture firms just
beginning to achieve prominence in the profession. This program will be
held at The Catholic University of America. Free. Registration required.
All events at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary
Square stop, Metro Red Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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