”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

If you’ve not yet seen the great 70s comedy The Jerk with Steve Martin, perhaps this snippet should inspire you?  This moment, where Navin Johnson notes that because he’s in the phone book, something good will happen to him now, is the height of irony, even in 1979.  Here it is, thirty years later, and we’re still delivering these beasties to every door.

Less than 11% of people used phone books for their intended purpose in 2008, and though many creative uses exist for these beasts from kindling for the fireplace to bulletproofing your Subaru, wouldn’t it just be better for the environment if these beasts were never printed?  Well, perhaps.  Generally speaking I’m not in love with the idea that Verizon should ever have to stop an obligation, but it seems like this might be a good idea whose time has passed.

What they’re proposing to the Maryland Public Service Commission, though, is an opt-in program where you can ask for a phone book instead of just having them dropped off on your porch (where, in my case, they have remained since they were dropped off).  The PSC has asked for proof that people aren’t using them anymore, and I think that’s a fair request. We’ll see what Verizon can come up with in terms of proof besides the obvious, “Um, have you heard of Google?”

Verizon is also intending to petition the District’s PSC in the not distant future.

‘Reg 220 after the rapture’
courtesy of ‘quinn.anya’

We’re hoping that everyone is having a great post-Christmas pre-New Year’s Monday.  As you may have noticed, we’re running a bit light this week as we all prepare for 2011.  Posting will be fairly light as all our people come back from their holiday breaks, but you can count on at least two features a day and probably a smattering of news and events as it happens.

We’re planning some awesome stuff for the New Year, and we’re gonna get a head start now. We’re around this week, but maybe not quite as much.

Hope you’re having a restful week.

‘DC’s Police Chief Cathy Lanier’
courtesy of ‘intothelens4149’

The announcement came late last night: Mayor Elect Gray will this afternoon introduce “key appointments in the public safety cluster of his administration,” at the Reeves Center at 1:30pm. The reports we’re hearing jibe with something we’d heard discussed by sources inside the Gray Transition team: Police Chief Cathy Lanier will remain in her post.

In addition, TBD is reporting that former DC Deputy Chief Kenneth Ellerbe will be appointed Fire Chief this afternoon, after helming the fire department in Sarasota for the last eighteen months.  Ellerbe had been deputy chief in DC before leaving as part of a “Personnel Exchange Agreement,” which allowed Ellerbe to seek a promotion but not give up his retirement benefits in DC.  There was a significant dust-up in the public sphere late last year surrounding this unconventional exchange, and Ellerbe then resigned from DCFD before he could be eligible to retire from DCFD at 50.

And now, he’s back to serve as Chief. Boy I bet the council’s going to love that confirmation hearing.  Something tells me Phil Mendelson is going to have a field day with this one.

‘National Statuary Hall’
courtesy of ‘MNesterpics’

Tomorrow, the House will debate a bill that would allow DC to display a single statue in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, instead of the two that were proposed in a bill earlier in the legislative year that Congress did not pass.  Norton said in a release this morning, “Its federal taxpaying status entitles the District to two statues, like other jurisdictions that pay the full freight to support our government,” but welcomed the ability to display one of the figures central to the role of the District in Statuary Hall.

The figure will be either Frederick Douglass or Pierre L’Enfant on behalf of the District.  You can see their current statues at One Judiciary Square.

‘My Radio is Tuned to…’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

It’s time for 90-year old coot commentator Fred Fiske to pack up his general sense of misplaced frustration and outrage and head on home for good.  Last night’s commentary rant (available in Real Media and Windows Media Player, since WAMU is so very much “with the times”) featured Fiske railing against those of us who are choosing to opt out of the new nekkid scanners.  Fiske’s primary concern is arriving at his destination safely, and is willing to strip to his skivvies to do so, and encourages us to all suck it up and deal with this new intrusiveness in our lives.

Pardon me, Fred, but screw that.

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