Category Archives: WTF?!

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
By

Orange Line Delays Part II

Photo courtesy of
‘day175 :: year two’
courtesy of ‘erin*carly’

Delays on the Orange line are still kickin’, because we didn’t get enough of it this morning.

WMATA warns “Orange Line riders can expect major delays during afternoon rush hour as trains are single-tracking (taking turns sharing one track) between the East Falls Church and West Falls Church-VT/UVA Metrorail stations due to a piece of equipment that derailed for a second time today.”

Orangies, it might be time to run that errand in the city you’ve been putting off. Or go visit a friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with. Happy hour, anyone?

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
By

Me. ME! MEEEEE!!!!

Photo courtesy of
‘waiting’
courtesy of ‘volcanojw’

Ah, Metro, how we love thee.

After listening for months now from Catoe and Co go on and on about how dire Metro’s situation is, how much money they’re short, and how “woe is ME(tro)” – despite a record-breaking Inauguration ridership day and many other top-10 rider days last year AND a fare hike last year, to give Metro more of our money to play with – they do this.

Seems our near-broke and needy transit system is going after the stimulus monies now. Anything to fill that $154M gap, eh boys? (Oh, wait – the list of projects total about $230M. Well, when reaching deep into our pockets, why not go all the way?) On the list is nearly everything WMATA cried about last year, including the track maintenance warnings, replacing old buses and platforms, increasing SmarTrip services and so on.

I’ll give Catoe and Co credit; it’s a ballsy move to take your ‘needs’ list and try to siphon stimulus money for it by couching it in the “let’s help the economy now” phraseology so popular on the airwaves today. Hey, everyone else is doing it, so why not WMATA?

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

Pin the Name on the Recruit

Photo courtesy of
‘nick was practicing my signature! lol’
courtesy of ‘irina slutsky’

It seems the Nationals are in a bit of trouble with their latest prospects.

Gonzalez’s current agent, Stanley King, said early Wednesday morning he was shocked by the revelations.

“I hope this is a mistake,” King said via telephone. “I was at his house this winter and he answered by his [baseball name]. I will look into this.”

I’m not exactly sure what goes between those brackets that makes any of it look less damning. Looks like that contract’s going to be void, and that the Nats might have to figure out who they really signed…

The District, The Features, WTF?!
By

Baby, It’s Cold Outside. And In.

Photo courtesy of


‘6th St Row in Snow’
courtesy of ‘daveinshaw’

Last week’s Thrifty District story was eerily familiar to me. My good friend Rebecca, over at Inspiration DC, has gone through almost the exact same Pepco disaster that Tiff featured in her post. She’s got a 700-square foot apartment, top floor of a building in eastern market, with two small bedrooms, one bathroom and a kitchen you can barely fit into. And she comes home to a $500 electricity bill.

With Pepco recently foraying into social media (welcome, welcome!) we thought we’d put the system to the test. We tweeted Rebecca’s story and Andre Francis, the Twitter dude (aka the Social Media Lead)  over at Pepco, got on the case.  Read on to hear the story from Rebecca’s point of view, and to hear what @PepcoConnect has done to resolve her case. Maybe you’ll learn some tips on how to deal with your own massivly large Pepco bill…


“When we got our first heating bill from Pepco at our new apartment I thought for sure it was an obvious mistake and would be cleared up quickly.  No one in their right mind would pay $491.70 for a month of electricity and heat in a small 700 sq feet apartment.  Now it has been a month, several angry phone calls later and we apparently owe them almost $900 for two months of heating and electricity.

Make sure that you heating and air conditioning are working correctly, with the help of air conditioning repair Escondido you can do it, this will save you a lot of money every year.

Continue reading →
All Politics is Local, Business and Money, Crime & Punishment, Downtown, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors, WTF?!
By

D.C. Parking Injustice – Tow Me… Blow Me…


Law enforcement scofflaws
Originally uploaded by philliefan99

Did you hear me Mr. Fenty and Ms. Babers? D.C.’s quest to now emulate Chicago with the new administration has reached new lows. As the Democrats and Obama administration have been touting friendliness to green technologies, smart transportation alternatives, and conservation, the city they now hold a majority in,  took a TWELVEFOLD step backwards. I had created the D.C. Motorcycle parking map of the Metro region to help those folks on two wheels track down ever vanishing spots (one set is in center court in the Verizon Center… how convenient), and since most garages do not allow motorcycles in, it’s necessary. Over this past weekend, the D.C. Parking Authority (aka, the D.C. DMV) cranked up the rates without warning for the motorcycle spots to be commensurate with the rates for cars (or even more so), from 12 hour meters which were 25 cents for an hour and 24 minutes, to now 7 minutes per quarter… a loss of 77 minutes 92% of your parking value… WTF?! It shocked most folks parking on the G Street meters (which until the beginning of last year were free) on the west side of the Old Executive Office Building so much, that today, EVERY bike has decided not to pay. Seriously D.C., are you trying to discourage smart commuting?

Continue reading →

Petworth, WTF?!
By

Thirteen (13!) Pounds of Dog Poo in Petworth

Up in Petworth, we do love our pets – its in our name. But it seems that quite a few Petworthians don’t like being responsible with their dogs. Specifically their dog’s poop. Out in Grant Circle, a prime dog walking spot, I noticed that winter brought on irresponsibility towards scooping the poop. More and more dog feces were left in the Circle by dog owners too lazy to bring a plastic bag.

So a month ago, I walked through Grant Circle and picked up 7 pounds of frozen feces. At the time, many were shocked and some even doubted that 7lbs figure. Well on Saturday, I repeated the poop scoop adventure and shocked even myself:

To those who may wonder why I would scoop other’s poop, I was thinking of the weekend’s warm spell, and the smell of all that poop, defrosted. I detest cleaning up after irresponsibility just a bit less than the disgust of a public health hazard in my neighborhood.

News, Special Events, Technology, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

ShmooCon Day 1 – Moose Spotting in D.C.

The Shmoo GroupYes boys and girls, it’s the annual start of the conference season for hackers, geeks, nerds and security people (and those are not mutually exclusive titles). ShmooCon, in it’s fifth year, has grown to 1500 attendees in an effort to spread the gospel about information and physical security and other novel topics that you’d be surprised to see any any con. While last years’ con had interesting neighbors (a CosPlay convention), the sheer size of this years has people scrambling to see how to make a homebrew UAV (members of HacDC), how the Srizbi BotNet was taken down (aka “The Day The Spam Stopped“), how your local Home Depot is selling you insecurity (“How To Defeat the Kwikset SmartKey“) and the keynote speaker, Matt Blaze, more famously known for helping defeat the use of the Clipper Chip and open up the government’s attempt at putting encryption backdoors into almost everything. There are some great talks planned for Saturday, which we’ll cover on “Day Two”, but if you’re in the Woodley Park area and see a lot of black t-shirted individuals crossing the street, trust me, they won’t hurt you…they just want your base. (If you want to view past conferences, the videos are located here – c’mon learn a little bit!)

Life in the Capital, Technology, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

Some Days Call For Quality Profanity

Photo courtesy of
‘brown is the new clever’
courtesy of ‘solidstate.’

Some days just call for quality profanity.

You know, the kind that peels paint from walls, or causes old ladies to blush and then hit you with their handbags. Or maybe the kind that caused your mom to get out the extra large bar of soap to wash out your mouth. But some days, well, some days require elegant profanity. The kind from a previous era.

Or, from, say, the mouth of Barack Obama (warning, NSFW language in audio and text).

That’s the kind of day I’m having.

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
By

The horn on the train goes BEEEEEEEEEEEP…


(This is a video. You can play it. Listen for the horn!)

Piled on top of this morning’s Red Line woes, this train on the Red Line appeared to have its horn stuck in “VERY LOUD ON” mode, constantly blowing without stopping. (Insert clever ‘your mom’ joke here.) I got on at Union Station, got off at Metro Center, and that horn never stopped blaring through the tunnels and stations the whole time. Anyone else get to ride on the Eternal Horn Metro train this morning?

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
By

Red Line Woes Crush City Core

Photo courtesy of
‘Coming and going’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Oh, Red Line. I wish you were better. But I’m hearing from all over that you’re nothing but a Charlie Foxtrot this morning. Between the Escalators at Dupont’s North Entrance freezing up, and the stuck train Union Station, and all manner of stopped up traffic jams, it’s a bad day to be at Metro Center.

It strikes me as hilarious, though, that of all the lines, only the Red Line has a Twitter Account to talk about all the issues.

All Politics is Local, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

Barry Angling for Obama Appointment?

Picture 2.png
Marion Barry by cliff1106

The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto seems to think that Marion Barry’s latest tax woes are really part of a plot to get him into the Obama Administration. Taranto notes that the top slot at the ONDCP is currently open, and might be a good fit for Barry, but I think he’d probably do just as well as maybe the FDA, or perhaps somewhere at Health & Human Services?

Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
By

McPherson Square Metro Closed Temporarily

Photo courtesy of
‘Camera moves more than train’
courtesy of ‘Mllerustad’

The McPherson Square Metro station is currently closed due to a burned out cable that caused significant smoke in the station. The Blue and Orange line are currently severed between McPherson Square and Metro Center, so be aware that this will definitely impact getting around the core of the city on the Metro today. Metro’s operating a shuttle between the two stations, but there’s a 40 minute delay expected on the system right now. Ouch!

Update: Metro has reopened McPherson Square, but trains are single-tracking through the station at this time. Expect delays.

The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors, WTF?!
By

Feckless Rodent Thug Holds Spring Hostage

Photo courtesy of
‘Marmota monax’
courtesy of ‘Gilles Gonthier’

A feckless rodent thug, similar to the one pictured above, going by the name of “Punxatawny Phil” is holding Spring hostage in Central Pennsylvania. He declared his verdict in the middle of the town square, with a henchman dressed as a Victorian Era Dandy working as his interpreter. It’s not clear immediately what “P-Phil” wants, or what his minimum offer for the release of Spring will be, but I’m hoping Jack Bauer will take a break from defiling DC Geography to get on this case, immediately.

Downtown, Entertainment, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

And So Begin the Exemptions

Photo courtesy of
‘Cigar’
courtesy of ‘J$’

It’s gotta be nice to have a councilman in your organization; so that he’ll take on the first exemption to the smoking ban so you can have a cigar on St. Paddy’s Day. That’s right, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (and their circa 1998 website) have convinced Councilman Jack Evans (Ward 2) to put legislation before the council that would exempt the fraternal organization on St. Paddy’s day so they can have celebratory cigars with their celebratory whiskey.

This one seems crappy to me. I know, holiday, but if we do one exemption, it’s going to be a dozen of them. Better would be to write an exemption process and let people petition a committee of the council for it, instead of going the legislative route. It seems that Evans took this on of his own volition, but it seems to be an inefficient way to try to do this on a regular basis, if we want to do that at all.

The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

Obama on Snow: C’mon Now. Really?

Here’s President Obama bashing on DC for the snow day that a lot of folks picked up today. I, for one, couldn’t agree more with our President. The roads were a bit icy this morning, surely, but not even the hills of Fairlington were impassable. Have we really reached a point in our society where we can’t handle a little frosty precip?

The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

This Guy’s a Pro

Photo courtesy of
‘(139/365) :: Say goodbye to 2008’
courtesy of ‘chispita_666’

I went to lunch today at one of my usual spots, and sat down at the bar across the corner from a guy that arrived just before me. He was an older gentleman of indeterminant age, and I watched as Zach poured his drink. It was a pint glass, filled half with ice, and then filled three quarters full or so with rail vodka.

And then I watched the old man drink it in about two to three minutes.

I’m going to repeat that, because it bears repeating. This guy drank about 10oz of vodka. In two to three minutes. Apparently, he’s a regular. Comes in two to three times a day. Always kinda shambles out, looking sober as a judge. Despite having had what amounts to seven shots.

And then I figured: My God. He can’t be alone in this town. Whew. And that’s when I picked up my jaw.

Inaugupocalypse, The Daily Feed, The Hill, WTF?!
By

The Scene at Union Station

With most of Union Station’s Grand Hall reserved for tonight’s inaugural ball, and the Metro station and rail concourse already packed to capacity, the crowd entering Union Station had to be divided into Metro, Amtrak, and MARC/VRE riders. Confusion reigned outside as the Columbus Circle road was closed off, forcing people to circle around sidewalks and fences and clumps of National Guard and MPD personnel.

How was it for you?

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
By

Metro Accident at Gallery Place, Station Closed

Photo courtesy of
‘Shadowy Figures’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

There’s a hole in the middle of the Red Line today, as a Red Line train struck a passenger at the Gallery Place Chinatown metro station this morning. The woman who was struck is alive and was transported to the hospital immediately thereafter. Gallery Place, however, is now closed, meaning trains are turning around at Metro Center and Judiciary Square, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the Red Line. More as this becomes available.

Inaugupocalypse, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

Parking Rates Skyrocket

100_ncd_ft_bk.jpg

As a friend of our twittered this afternoon, he spent $80 on 5 hours worth of parking for a meeting in Northwest DC. While supply & demand are certainly market forces at work in our fair town this week, I can certainly see this being a bad case of usury. Ouch!

Any other sky-high prices out there that you’ve seen? $6 for a Half Smoke at somewhere other than Nationals Park, perhaps? $40 for a sweatshirt at somewhere other than the Smithsonian Museums Gift shops?