Ovechkin Celebrates by clydeorama

Capitals
Record: 26-11-3
Last Two Weeks: 6-0
Place: First in the Southeast

The Caps roared through the holidays, racking up a six-game win streak and handily beating down the Rangers on Saturday in a defensive slugfest. The 2-1 victory saw the return of Alexander Semin as well as Semin’s first (slap)fight of his NHL career. With the injury bug now behind them, the Caps are in prime position to pull away from the ‘Canes (10 points behind) and cement their playoff position for April.

Ovechkin and company have the best 40-game start in franchise history, another feather in Coach Boudreau’s cap. However, Ovechkin was snubbed on Saturday when the NHL All-Star teams were announced; due to Montreal fan chicanery, Ovie finished sixth in the overall voting and won’t be on the starting lineup. Boudreau’s quote on ESPN: “It’s dumb. It’s not right the best player in the game is not a starter.”

All of us here at WLDC totally agree (even Ben!). Ovie should be joining Crosby and Malkin on the top line, not on-again-off-again Kovalev, oft-injured Koivu or flash-in-the-pan Tanguay. But alas, Habs fans are rabid and were out to fix the voting, hence Ovie receiving less than 500,000 votes (compared to the 1.2 million each Habs player received). We’ll see who the real All-Star is come January 25th.

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IMG_4071, courtesy of trentroche

Happy 2009!

Yes, I’m a few days late. I hope your celebrations weren’t too disruptive to your weekend frolicking. From what I’ve seen on Flickr, it seems that everyone was out and about in the area, despite the chilly air.

We’ll be announcing our Holiday Photo Contest winner and runner-up later this week, so stay peeled to We LoveDC! In the meantime, we’ve got museums, metro, cupcakes and Caps for this Monday’s flashback. Please visit these photographers’ flickr streams; some have some great info on their photos. Also let them know you saw their shot right here on Weekend Flashback.

On with the show! Read the rest of this entry »

fortune cookie: look within by coolmel

Happy 2009, everyone! While I usually don’t get down with the Resolutions for every new year, 2008 was such a spectacular disaster in many ways, I’m glad to try to right the boat from the very beginning. Resolutions work best if you have people to help keep you honest, so we decided as a group to post some of ours here, below the cut. Got a good resolution? Post it in the comments! Read the rest of this entry »

Taxi by flickr user cupcakepanda

New Year’s Eve, my friends and I headed to a house party on Capitol Hill. Since we were all going to be enjoying our fair share of champagne, we decided to rely on taxis as our main transportation. Taxis were the best option, especially since the house we were going to was not accessible by Metro (not to mention ridiculous gusting winds and freezing temps). We were able to miraculously snag a Red Top Cab on our way to our house party, and decided to call Washington Regional Alcohol Program’s SoberRide to catch a safe (and free!) ride home.

For those of you unfamiliar with SoberRide, the program is aimed to reduce drunk driving in the DC area. SoberRide provides free taxi rides (up to a $50 fare) to people 21 and over. This is a truly fantastic idea. Plus, from what I understand, they have the ability to act as a switchboard, and can direct you to a taxi company with availability. Read the rest of this entry »

"Commonwealth" by Jenn Larsen, on Flickr

It isn’t Commonwealth’s fault that it has the single-most worst view of any bar in the city. Entirely fronted in high glass walls, it overlooks the ghastly architectural blight of DC USA, the single-most worst looking development in the city. Billed as a “gastropub,” that British trend of sexing up the old-school pub with better food than the usual slop, it splits the gastro to one side and the pub to the other, making for a bar area that seems an afterthought. However, even with those three design strikes against it, so far I quite like Commonwealth. 

As far as the pub section goes, once you get over the view it’s quite cosy, with small tables and a long leather-bound banquette. It’s been an accommodating space for both large groups and small duets. The beer list has selections from the U.S. commonwealths of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Massachusetts in addition to United Kingdom brews. This makes for seemingly strange bedfellows for the eleven drafts, like Michelob and Bellhaven Twisted Thistle, but I suppose it does make it easier for groups of friends with disparate tastes. There are also beer flights and nightly specials, and you can get a U.S. or a U.K. pint (one dollar more). The bottled selection offers about twenty U.K. and fourteen U.S., and so far friendly servers have been knowledgeable and helpful in navigating the choices. As I’ve said before, I know nothing about beer, so this is a plus for me. To date I’ve tried Samuel Smith’s Lager, Black Sheep Yorkshire Ale, and the reliable Smithwick’s Irish Ale to good success.

If you’re looking to nosh, the pub grub is interesting as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Baby's First Christmas, by wfyurasko

Thanks for a great year, everyone. This has been OUR baby’s first Christmas, and by way of celebration, I thought I’d take a look back at some of our most popular posts this year, in case you missed ‘em the first time.

By far, the most popular post this year in terms of both pageviews AND comments has been Welcome to Murky. You Don’t Get It Your Way. Who could forget this tempest in a coffeepot? It had everything: An outraged customer, a small-business-owning coffee artist, downtrodden hourly employees caught between the customer and the boss’ policy, not to mention threats of arson and physical violence…  This is the kind of drama the Internets are made for, people.  Don’t forget to read through the comments for links to other accounts of the incident. Read the rest of this entry »

Fluidity by primplan

With so many awesome photos in our pool lately, it was hard to decide on just one to write about (in fact it always is).  In the end, the creative use of a two second exposure to capture the movement of this belly dancer at Marrakesh won me over.  Sometimes it’s difficult to “think outside of the bun” when you’re shooting, and other times you can be pleasantly surprised by a mistake.  While this would have been a cool shot had the dancer’s movements been frozen, she’s given a whole other dimension by the blur of her upper extremities.

Not to beat a dead horse here people, but time is running out for our Holiday Photo Contest!  Tag your photos with “WLDC holiday 2008″ and drop it into our Flickr pool by January 1st.  It’s 100% free to enter and you could be the lucky winner of some great prizes!

National Christmas Tree and Chanukah Menorah, courtesy of Sam Ruaat

Welcome back, everyone! Hope your holiday weekend was fantastic and you weren’t sick (like I was). I had a hard time selecting photos from our recent four-day extended weekend, so I’m sure you won’t mind a larger portion of Flashback today.

A quick reminder that there’s only a few days left in our Holiday Photo Contest, which ends Jan 1, 2009 - you know, after the parties and hangovers have passed but before you have to drag yourselves back to work. Please don’t miss out on this, as we’ve got some seriously cool prizes to hand out. Our panel of judges - i.e. all of us bloggers here at WLDC - will start combing through photos on Friday, so make sure you upload yours ASAP.

After the jump, a pleasantly big mix of photos from locals and visitors to our fair area over the last four days. Read the rest of this entry »

The statue of Daniel Webster that stands next to the Embassy of the Philippines on Massachusetts Avenue is largely ordinary. It’s a 12-foot bronze in the classical revival style, a stern and somber great man with his cape over his shoulder. The Gaetano Trentanove bronze was presented to the United States by Mr. Stilson Hutchins, then founding publisher of the Washington Post. The Congress in 1898 would approve a $4,000 expense for the creation of a pedestal for the statue, and that’s what I found most interesting about the Webster Memorial.

Two bas-relief dioramas (okay, how many of you just flashed on the shoebox dioramas you made as kids? All of you? Rock on!) mark the east and west sides of the pedestal and are exquisite bronze representations of two seminal events in the career of Daniel Webster. Who’s Daniel Webster, you ask? It’s okay, I didn’t remember him either. He was Secretary of State for Presidents Harrison, Tyler and Fillmore, serving two separate stints at the head of Foggy Bottom, from 1841-1843 and again from 1850-1852. He was also a Senator from Massachusetts on two occasions, and a member of the House of Representatives from New Hampshire. He was a member of the Whig Party for much of his career, having followed Henry Clay and others in its creation in opposition to President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »

Capitol Holiday, courtesy of ARKNTINA

Happy Holidays from all of us here at WeLoveDC. We present to you some photos of holidays past, courtesy of the Library of Congress. May your holiday be warm and bright, filled with memories happy and light.

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