The More the Merrier
Dear Merry-Makers:
Tonight’s opening to themail writes itself, because as I’m
writing Turner Classic Movies is showing The More the Merrier, a great
romantic comedy starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn.
The premise is described on the Internet Movie Database site, imdb.com,
this way: “During the WW2 housing shortage in Washington, two men and
a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the
other two.” Here’s the narrator’s introduction to the movie: “Our
vagabond camera takes us to beautiful Washington, DC, the national
capital of our United States, situated on the broad banks of the Potomac
River. Living is pleasant and leisurely . . . for it is a city of
formality and custom. Manners and courtesy are responsible for the
well-ordered conduct of its daily affairs. The many fine restaurants of
Washington are the delight of the epicurean and the gourmet, where one
may enjoy to the full the rare dishes of the old south. Washington’s
beautiful homes have the quiet dignity of another day. Our trip would be
incomplete if we neglected to visit the quiet, staid, and dignified
residential section. It is with pride that we view hospitable
Washington, friendly Washington, welcoming us to her doorstep eagerly
throwing wide her doors.”
Well, with that tongue-in-cheek introduction, you can imagine what
happens next. It’s a must-see Washington movie. If you missed it
tonight, it’s available on DVD from several stores — check http://dvdpricesearch.com.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Washington Highlands and Francis A. Gregory
Interim Libraries Closing
George Williams, George.Williams2@dc.gov
The Washington Highlands Interim Library closes Saturday, May 19. The
new library at 115 Atlantic Street, SW, opens Wednesday, June 13.
Additionally, the Francis A. Gregory Interim Library closes Saturday,
May 26. The new library at 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE, opens Tuesday, June
19.
Each new library is 22,000 square feet and features more than forty
thousand books, DVD’s, and other items, with space to hold up to
eighty thousand; separate reading areas for adults, teens, and children;
public access computers, free Wi-Fi Internet access, and mobile laptop
carts; comfortable seating for two hundred customers; a large program
room for up to one hundred people and two twelve-person conference
rooms; and quiet study rooms for up to two people.
During the move, library customers can return books to any DC Public
Library and pick up holds at Parklands-Turner Library, 1547 Alabama
Avenue, SE, for the Washington Highlands Interim Library and Anacostia
Library, 1800 Good Hope Road, SE, for the Francis Gregory Interim
Library.
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Am I the only one who thinks that convicted felons should not serve
on the DC council? It is absurd to make the law breakers the law makers.
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Skylines, Symbolism, and Success
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@verizon.net
So far themail’s discussion of DC’s future growth, be it in
building height, rezoning, secession, or whatever, has been
discouragingly parochial. The fundamental issue for DC’s residents (I
am no longer one), and their elected officials (should they be?) is
whether or not DC’s privileged body politic recognizes its obligation
to become more than a below-average American inner city within its
way-above-average American metro area. If it ignores its unique
additional roles and responsibilities to develop and showcase a national
capital city worthy of the world’s still-greatest and most admired
country, then something must change, possibly even “home rule.” We
Americans (I am still one) don’t send our third-rate athletes,
artists, scientists, and scholars to represent us at global fora, and we
Americans, wherever we live, shouldn’t be willing to settle for a
capital city that is a serious embarrassment to our national standards.
DC is surrounded by lively, healthy, growing, honest, wealthy, involved
democratic suburbs that are the envy of the world. And our Congress
retains the authority (if not the obligation) to bring enormous federal
resources to bear to resolve DC residents’ various national disgraces
— from health, education, unemployment, and crime, to shady has-been
politicians and increasingly anachronistic public transportation.
NARPAC spent ten years trying to point out, quite bluntly, where most
of DC’s squalor ferments, and suggested a dozen different ways to
bring total renovation to those very same areas, while more firmly
linking the suburbs to each other as well as their essential hub. There
are thousands of poorly used, federally wasted, “No-Metro Access”
acres on the far side of the Anacostia — and along its five-mile river
front. That area is big enough for another Tysons’ Corner, National
Harbor, and yes, even another Rosslyn, all wrapped into one. Over there,
tall buildings and economic growth would not cast a shadow on, spoil a
vista for, or even covet a visit from, DC’s northwest provinces.
Accept your urban development responsibilities, DC, and encourage the
Feds to underwrite much of the needed revitalization — they do it
elsewhere, here in America, for our country’s future success.
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Photo Enforcement - For Public Safety, or
for Revenue Enhancement?
Jack McKay, jack.mckay@verizon.net
I’m glad to see themail back so soon, and sorry about that
hard-disk crash, that’s a nightmare to repair. But I wish Gary would
refrain from “improving” the text of readers’ submissions. I wrote
this: “But the MPD, in its wisdom, sets it at 30 mph, and say hello to
revenue enhancement.” That “say hello” is the imperative case, an
interjection with the sense of “reader, look at the outcome.” Gary
“corrected” my text to this: “But the MPD, in its wisdom, sets it
at 30 mph, and says hello to revenue enhancement.” Whoa, Gary changed
my imperative, “say hello,” to the simple present tense, “says
hello.” That makes the subject of the verb “the MPD,” instead of
“you, reader.” This implies that the outcome, the speed camera
married to an unrealistically low speed limit, was not inadvertent, but
was by conscious intent on the part of the Metropolitan Police.
No doubt this is a speed trap, an unreasonably low speed limit for an
exceptional bit of road in the District. But was this by intent, or
simple bureaucratic non-thinking? I think the latter, and that was
supposed to be the sense of my posting. Gary’s editing of my text
makes this speed trap appear to be by intent, an MPD speed trap set up
with the explicit purpose of issuing lots of revenue-enhancing speeding
tickets. That’s not what I wrote, that’s not what I meant, and the
next time I see Chief Lanier, I’ll have to offer her an apology
[Sorry, Jack, but I’m going to continue to edit submissions to
themail for what I see as inadvertent typographical and grammatical
errors. I read the sentence in dispute as having a single subject, “the
MPD,” with two verbs that should be in agreement, “sets” and “says.”
For the meaning that you intended, I would have written it as two
sentences: “But the MPD, in its wisdom, sets it at 30 mph. Say hello
to revenue enhancement.” But even written that way, I think it still
implies, along with the title of the message, that a lot of the MPD’s
“public safety” measures are designed, in the placement and use of
speed cameras and red-light cameras, primarily to maximize monetary
returns. — Gary Imhoff]
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DPW’s Monthly HHW/E-Cycling/Personal
Document Shredding, May 5
Kevin B. Twine, Kevin.Twine@dc.gov
The Department of Public Works will hold its monthly Household
Hazardous Waste/E-Cycling/Personal Document Shredding drop-off on
Saturday, May 5, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at the Ft. Totten
Transfer Station, located at 4900 John McCormack Road, NE. District
residents may bring toxic items such as pesticides, batteries, and
cleaning fluids to Ft. Totten, along with computers, televisions, and
other unwanted electronic equipment. Personal document shredding also is
available and residents may bring up to five boxes of materials to be
shredded. No business or commercial material will be accepted.
To accommodate residents whose religious beliefs prohibit them from
using the Saturday drop-off, DPW will accept household hazardous waste
and e-cyclables only on the Thursday before the first Saturday of the
month (May 3, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.) at Ft. Totten. While DPW
normally offers personal document shredding on the first Saturday, they
cannot accept items for shredding on Thursdays because these documents
cannot be protected until the shredding contractor arrives the first
Saturday. For a list of all household hazardous waste and e-cyclables
accepted by DPW, please click on the HHW link at http://www.dpw.dc.gov.
Directions to Ft. Totten: travel east on Irving Street, NW, turn left on
Michigan Avenue, turn left on John F. McCormack Road, NE, and continue
to the end of the street.
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Word Freak
at
Tenley Library, May 9
Sue Hemberger, Friends of the Tenley Library, smithhemb@aol.com
Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak, will speak at the Tenley-Friendship
Library on Wednesday, May 9, at 7:00 p.m. As part of the Friends of the
Tenley-Friendship Library Author Series, please join us at the library
for an evening with Stefan Fatsis. Fresh off of leading fourteen DC
students at the National School Scrabble Championship and the first-ever
citywide DC Public School Scrabble Championship, Stefan will be speaking
about the history and culture of Scrabble.
Stefan Fatsis is an author, journalist, and DC public schools parent.
His New York Times bestseller Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph,
Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
was recently published in a tenth-anniversary edition. He is also the
author A Few Seconds of Panic: A Sportswriter Plays in the NFL,
about his summer as a place-kicker with the Denver Broncos. Stefan talks
about sports on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and on the Slate
podcast “Hang Up and Listen.” A former reporter for the Wall
Street Journal, he has written for the New York Times, Sports
Illustrated, Slate, the Washington Post, and many other
publications. You can visit him at http://www.stefanfatsis.com
or follow him on Twitter @stefanfatsis.
The Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library is located at the corner
of Wisconsin Avenue and Albemarle Street, NW, just across the street
from the Tenleytown Metrorail station. This talk will be held in the
large meeting room upstairs.
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Woman’s National Democratic Club Meetings,
May 10, 15
Patricia Bitondo, pbitondo@aol.com
The Woman’s National Democratic Club will hold a luncheon on May 10
featuring Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America,
speaking on Labor and the Democratic Party. Passion is the word that
comes to mind when you think about President Cohen. His passion is
exhibited in all the things he does to try and improve the condition of
working men and women throughout the United States and the world. He is
a leading advocate for focusing attention on collective bargaining and
the crisis it is experiencing in the United States and the need for real
reform. Mr. Cohen has chaired the AFL-CIO Organizing Committee since
2005. His accomplishments range over a wide area. Throughout his career,
Cohen has led contract negotiations in both the private and public
sectors. He was one of the first to recognize changes in
telecommunications through the convergence of video, voice, and data
technologies and the need to unify unionized workers in these sectors.
The union now represents workers in information technology and
communications: print and broadcast media and publishing; health care,
education and public workers; manufacturing and the airline industry.
He has expanded alliances with unions in Latin America, Europe, and
Asia, and was president of the 2.5 million-member Union Network
International Telecom Sector. He is also a founder of American Rights at
Work and a member of the Democratic National Committee. Finally, based
on his long held belief that unions must unite with like-minded groups
to further goals of economic justice, Cohen founded Jobs with Justice.
You won’t want to miss his insight into how the Democrats and labor
can work to further our mutual goals. At the Woman’s National
Democratic Club, 1526 New Hampshire Avenue, NW. Bar opens at 11:30 a.m.;
lunch 12:15 p.m.; lecture, presentation, Q&A: 1:00-2:00 p.m. Members
$25, nonmembers $30; lecture only $10. Register at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5880/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=35760.
The WMDC May 15 luncheon’s speaker will be Robert K. Musil, Senior
Fellow, Adjunct Professor, The Center for Congressional and Presidential
Studies, School of Public Affairs American University, and author of Before
and After Rachel Carson: Women Who Protected the Environment. Dr.
Robert K. Musil will provide a sneak preview of his forthcoming book on
Rachel Carson and other politically engaged women writers and leaders of
the environmental movement. As Executive Director of Physicians for
Social Responsibility, Dr. Musil launched their environmental program in
the early 1990’s and led campaigns for safe and affordable drinking
water, clean air, elimination of toxic pollutants, and global climate
change. Dr. Musil specializes in contemporary global security,
sustainability, and health issues, as well as environmental and Cold War
history, culture, and policy. His current book is Hope for a Heated
Planet: How Americans Are Fighting Global Warming and Building a Better
Future (Rutgers, 2009). He also is the narrator for WNDC member
Alice Day’s prize-winning documentary, Scarred Lands and Wounded
Lives.
Dr. Musil is currently an Adjunct Professor at American University
and president of the Herbert R. Scoville Peace Fellowship and treasurer
of Population Connections. He serves on the boards of the Council for a
Livable World and Peace PAC and the advisory board of the Environment
and Energy Studies Institute. At the Woman’s National Democratic Club,
1526 New Hampshire Avenue, NW. Bar opens at 11:30 a.m.; lunch 12:15
p.m.; lecture, presentation, Q&A: 1:00-2:00 p.m. Members $25,
nonmembers $30; lecture only $10. Register at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5880/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=35805.
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