…is the Farmer’s Markets this weekend. With salmonella warnings out there for pretty much every kind of store-bought tomatoes, why not head out the farmers market so you can get some disease-free tomatoes, and meet the people involved in growing them? The Post has a great listing of DC area Farmers’ Markets, and also an interactive Google Maps Mashup with markets separated out by days of the week.

I’ll be at the Courthouse market in the morning tomorrow getting tomatoes for Insalata Caprese with fresh basil. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

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A Pepco substation serving a good portion of DC’s downtown business district failed at 7:30 this morning, leaving 10,000 businesses in the downtown area without power, and Metrorail stations McPherson Square (Orange/Blue), Farragut West (Orange/Blue), Farragut North (Red) and Dupont Circle (Red) without power. In addition to the outages, there’s been a fire reported by WMATA at Metro Center, and another reported by WAMU, WTOP and multiple twitters at Dupont Circle Station this morning as well.

DC Dept. of Transportation says that more than 30 traffic signals in the downtown core are also out, and has requested that people please treat them as four ways stops. I know there were more than a few people on my drive up 15th street who failed to treat them as such. Of course, when traffic’s flowing, it’s hard to treat them that way, I get it, but still.

Be aware, commuting today probably sucked ass, so please be nicer to your coworkers who looked like they slogged through a marsh of fire in order to come to work.

[Update, 9:56] Dupont Circle Metro is now closed due to the power outage. Apparently a lot of people were having trouble exiting the station on the long escalator climb to the surface.

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Now that my commute to work is shortened to a quick stroll from the kitchen to my home office, I’m not so in touch with the morning rush. But that doesn’t mean I forgot the pain involved with a message like this from Alert DC:

Metro is reporting delays of over an hour on the Red Line. A small fire on the tracks in the Metro Center area has been put out, but major delays continue. Additionally, at least Dupont Circle, Shaw-Howard U, Farragut North, Farragut West and McPherson Square Metrorail stations have no power due to an unrelated power outage. Non-Red Line service is operating normally in those stations, but with low (emergency) lighting.

While I think the view in the stations would be pretty cool for some station photography – masses of people waiting in low lighting, an almost Orwellian feel if you find the right depressed look – I think it best to follow the last direction from Alert DC:

Avoid Metrorail entirely if you were planning to use the Red Line.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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Just when I think DC Cabbies have cornered the market on assholatry, I meet somebody like this Friendly cab. Coming home from an install tonight, I watched as this guy leaned on his horn when the car in front of me took the merge on to the on-ramp of I-66 at a speed that was not to his satisfaction, only to swerve across a lane of traffic to build up speed to cut him off (passing both of us in the meanwhile) and giving us the finger.

Wow. I guess Arlington “Friendly” Cabs aren’t quite as friendly as we’d all like to think.

"Friendly" my ass. — Originally uploaded by tbridge

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If you’ve been shopping this week you might have noticed a big hole where the tomatoes should be, or perhaps any eatery you’ve been in has had signs up stating they’re only serving cherry tomatoes and citing the FDA warning. While they work on figuring out exactly where the problem originated so they can tell you what is safe to eat from your local supermarket, you might want to try your farmer’s market.

Your farmer’s market tomatoes were never included in this interdiction because they’re not part of the same ‘system’ as what the grocery stocks, and therefor there’s no way they came from the same currently unknown source that has shipped out salmonella-laced tomatoes. Whether or not they’re immune to the problem in general is a matter for some debate, and you might read this posting here at the excellently written and disquietingly-named BarfBlog. Professor Powell takes the scientific view that there’s no evidence that sustainable and local is any safer, but observes that at least with the farmer’s market you may have the opportunity to ask directly about production methods.

He’s welcome to his opinion, but I personally will always feel more confident overall in produce and meat that comes out of a family-style farm using traditional practices than what comes from ‘industrial’ food.

On a side note about the tomato outbreak, this recent crop (sorry) of tomato safety issues comes as no surprise at all, and the eastern shore of Virgina has been implicated before.

Picture courtesy of AHMED.

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I was walking to the supermarket near my office when I encountered this obstacle. Of course, instead of safely crossing the street, everyone, including me, was walking single-file on the curb on Old Georgetown Road. yeah, it’s not exactly smart, but at least it adds a little drama to my otherwise dull day in a windowless office.

What’s curious is that the sidewalk was closed for no apparent reason. Construction is done in this building, so there were no obvious dangers.

Thanks, all you mysterious people who get paid to block sidewalks. Often you do a good job but this time I fail to see why it’s closed. The bricks have already been walked on, so please fear that no more.

Photo: Closed for what? Originally uploaded by carlweaver

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For our anniversary last night, I managed to get us a table at Ray’s The Steaks in Courthouse. If you’ve ever been to the shopping center on Wilson where Ray’s is hidden, you know that there are three other restaurants in the same little area, and that parking for that little shopping center is about 20 cars for what amounts to 80 to 90 tables. It creates a situation wherein parking to go to dinner is a combat sport, best undertaken with a healthy dose of bloodlust, and the luck of the Irish.

Between Guajillo, Ray’s, the Bistro and Pho 75, these are some popular little restaurants, the wait for which is usually a deterrent to actually going (well, except for Pho, where it’s crowded, but there’s always a spot at one of the cafeteria tables) and the parking situation made it equally bad. We managed to get a spot on Wilson about half a block from Ray’s, and considered it a moral victory, if not an actual one. As we were waiting for a lull in the traffic, we saw this guy in an Infiniti skulk through the parking lot looking for a departing customer, only to park his car in the no parking zone immediately outside the parking lot.

I applauded his ingenuity, treating the prohibition against parking as an invitation to leave his insanely expensive vehicle in a tow-away zone as some sort of gourmet treat for the rabid tow-truck drivers of Arlington to scoop up in their giant metal maw. I watched him head straight for the liquor store, which I thought was wise, given that his car may or may not be there when he got back. I mean, at least it gave him real options, in case he did get towed, right? Get a little Kahlua, maybe some Coca Cola, and you can get a nice little buzz on walking up to the Clarendon tow yard where they put your car when it’s snapped up by the towing company.

Sadly, we didn’t get to see how this story ended up, as we were to busy enjoying some sherried crab bisque and a giant NY Strip, and then heading off to the movies. But I’d like to think the jerk got his car towed.

Parking Fail — Originally uploaded by tbridge

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When you’re next gassing up your car for over $4, my fellow Virginians, you can take a moment to say a silent prayer of gratitude* to Senator John Warner, who earlier today rejected a bill that would have continued tax credits for investment in non-oil energy sources like wind, solar, biomass and even some alternative methods for using coal. Presumably this was because the House version of the bill endeavored to pay for this by “closing a tax loophole that allows individuals that work for certain offshore corporations, such as hedge fund managers, to defer tax on their compensation.” But hey, why should people who earn 30M a year pay taxes like the rest of us?

Maryland’s Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski supported the bill, as did Jim Webb.

Solar Panels All Done!, courtesy of clownfish

Update: * unfortunately the sarcasm-drip doesn’t come through well in print, but that’s “gratitude” as in “oh THANK YOU Senator Warner, I LOVE paying as much for energy as I possibly can,” in case you were unclear.

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The all-staff email went out last week: “We recently learned that the DC Government is now enforcing its recycling regulations. Inspectors are making unannounced inspections and issuing warnings for failure to recycle. Second violations are subject to fines. As we know, the DC government is in need of funds so we can expect enforcement to be serious…”

Since I work on our website and just don’t generate much paper waste, I made mental note of what common items in my cube would go into which containers (soda cans mostly, like any self-respecting geek), assumed that the promised at-desk recycling boxes would once again not make it to me, and didn’t think about it again.

Until yesterday, that is. Our Vice President of Facilities and Property came to my cube around 4:30 yesterday, and said, “Hi Tiffany, how’s your trash?”

“Um, empty, mostly…” I pulled my trash can out, displaying the two items inside: a used sub shop napkin and a square of paper.

“What’s THAT?” she said, indicating the non-napkin item.

“Oh, it’s a page from this calendar here,” I indicated my Page-A-Day calendar. Coated paper, questionably recyclable.

“Okay, great.” She walked away.

And then I noticed the email she had sent shortly before- a DC Recycling Inspector was going to be visiting our building the next day and would be issuing fines for any violations.

Let me clarify- an employee of the DC government, paid by tax dollars, would be entering our office for the purpose of poking at our trash cans. And let’s not pretend this is about the environment: the inspector could fine us for throwing away recyclable material, but at the end of the complex list of what is and is not appropriate in recycle bins, DC admonishes us “WHEN IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT OUT.”

But that’s how it came to pass that this very morning, before the arrival of the inspector, the Senior Director of my division came around to each individual member of our department, and delivered a perfunctory speech about how our organization takes recycling very seriously both for environmental and fine-avoidance reasons, and that complying with company procedures is the responsibility of every employee.

I’m so delighted that commitment to efficient stewardship of our resources extends to how DC businesses must spend the time of their well-compensated executives.

If you were wondering, we passed our recycling inspection perfectly. In fact, only one tenant in th building was fined for recycling violations- an office of the DC Government.

The Goddess of Recycling

Originally uploaded by His and Hers Parigi

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Check out this Mini-Steamroller spotted in Clarendon. But what’s really awesome about it? There’s no one driving it. It’s entirely remote controlled. Folks, the revolution is coming, and this is the start. Soon, a whole army of these mini-steamrollers will come for us all. Wait, why’s this man with the white coat coming for me with a butterfly net and a tinfoil hat…

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When my friend Holly told me that Lewis Black was doing a signing in DC, I was surprised. He’d just gotten done playing the Warner a few weeks back, but he was back in DC again! Sure, why not. Politics & Prose was hosting the signing at the 6th & I Historic Synagogue just north of Chinatown. The crowd outside the Synagogue at 6:45 was impressive, wrapping around the corner. By the time all of us were there and ticketed, the only seats that were left were in the balcony with a poor sightline down to the center stage speaker’s platform, which was frustrating.

It was pretty impressive, though, to see the place fill up in as quickly as it did. Mr. Black did a short talk on his creative process and what it was like to write the book, and then the floor was open to questions. There were some good questions (What would you ask the candidates if you were moderating the debate?), and some bad ones (I’m looking at you, rambling lady in the neon green top who just would not shut up.) but the crowd was pretty affable over all. The tour is for his new book Me of Little Faith.

I do admit to chuckling to myself that as Lew was dissecting Catholicsm, Judaism and a number of other faiths, it was right in the heart of the major league thunderstorms that blew through town last night. Thanks much to P&P for coordinating the event, and 6th and I for hosting in their beautiful sanctuary.

Lewis Black at 6th & I – Closeup — Originally uploaded by tbridge

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Hopefully you haven’t all washed away in the heavy weather. I saw Tom twitter that he could hear hail but I didn’t hear anything other than a hard rain at my house. It came and went here even quicker than the sudden downpour that showed up Saturday night mere moments before we walked out of the stadium. I’m happy to say we managed to stay under cover both times, though I did brave last night’s initial sprinkles in order to do some grilling.

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Well, okay, that would be the story in a just universe. Instead it’s about Scott Hoover, a Washington and Lee professor who filed his intention to sue the State of Virginia over their policies and procedures in handling scratch-off lottery tickets. Here’s the money quote from the Washington Post article:

Hoover, who teaches business courses, including statistics, alleges that he had no chance of winning the grand prize with his ticket.

The reason it’s the money quote is because what Hoover means isn’t what all of us who have taken statistics know about the lottery: that you have effectively no chance of winning. No, he’s torqued that the State supposedly didn’t effectively recall scratch-off tickets once the big prizes had been won. Apparently Virginia has a stated policy of recalling the scratch-offs once all the grand prizes have been awarded, which Hoover says they did not do.

In a just universe W&L would can him for failing to understand his own lessons and the jury would award him the 26.5 million he’s asking… if he successfully rolls 1,000,000 dice and gets a 6 on every one.

Picture courtesy of Jeffrey Beall

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I was at the Safeway on Old Dominion Drive in McLean on Sunday and saw this bugger there. Not only was it rotten and split – yes, way past rotten and soft – but there were ants all over it, which are too small to be visible in this picture, unfortunately.

Safeway employees and managers – every time I am ready to give your store another chance, I see something like this. It doesn’t take much to keep the place looking decent. Is this how you save money? Do you try to reduce shrinkage by waiting until the ants carry everything off to their intricate system of nests somewhere in the building?

Do any of our readers work for Safeway and want to comment? All I can think is that if there is one ant-infested part of the building, there are likely to be others.

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Washington Post Express has the details on an afternoon derailment between Rosslyn and Courthouse, that’s likely going to flummox your attempt to head out of the District. Trains are single-tracking between Foggy Bottom and Clarendon as it stands right now.

There’s no word on the number or type of injuries aboard the train, but it was a passenger-carrying train that derailed between Rosslyn and Courthouse.

Check out DCist’s pictures from the derailed train!

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Is it seriously summer already? Hold on, let me Google that. Oh hey! It’s not.

Could have fooled me though. This is August weather. In June. What kind of cruel joke is Mother Nature trying to play on us?

This reminds me of the weather we had in ‘Nam during the war. I remember it like it was yesterday. The swift boat dropped John Kerry and I off on the banks of the Poo Nahnee river and we had to cut our way through the humidity with our machetes. We had to tie rolls of Bounty to our heads to mop up the constant stream of sweat. We got heat stroke so many times that our reality was more like a dreamworld than our dreamworld was. Hah – one time when we were crossing the Moo Goo Gai Pan river under sniper fire, John tried to windsurf across on a crocodile. Silly ivy leaguer. I came to his rescue and beat the bajeezus out of that croc with the butt of my gun, but lost it along with three fingers and a buttock in the process. I had to retrofit a potato gun I’d bought at Wall Drug on a family vacation into a tofu gun. Now you know why I’ll never be a vegan.

I’ve had enough already! I want my dry, 75 degree days back. I want to be able to open my windows at night. I don’t want to have to take three showers every day. I don’t want to have to run my air conditioner around the clock. I don’t want my jeans to stick to me when I go out at night.

Go away, Summer.

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I saw this motorcycle parked behind the National Gallery of Art on Sunday. Does anyone know whose it is? Without evidence to the contrary, I would have to guess that George Clinton picked up a job there.

Who would do such a thing to a motorcycle? Even though I think it was ass ugly, I have to admit that it had a certain flair and filled me with admiration for the person who apparently thinks it looks good. It was certainly good handiwork if nothing else.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Otherwise, not so impressive a game.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Most of the Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) efforts in the area started their disbursements of crops this weeks, and we headed out to Bluemont, VA to Great Country Farms to pick strawberries and get our farm share. The drive out to Bluemont is not for the totally-city-mouse, as once you get past Leesburg and out past the last of the exurbs, you’re into deep farm country, with narrow roads and large farm vehicles looming over the cars. Don’t let that discourage you, though, as what’s at the end of the hour’s drive is the farm, and fresh produce.

We were not deterred by the intense heat advisory that all the news channels have been on about since the weather advisory hit the wires on Friday. We got to the farm around 12:30 or so, and checked in with the office in the main building of the farm. Thankfully, their AC was working well, and they hooked us up with the “You Pick” implements so that we could go out into the fields and pick our strawberries.

Our full share gave us the opportunity to ride out into the fields and pick 6 more pints of strawberries. Farmer Ray was running the tractor shuttle, a hefty tractor hooked up to three large carts, each able to hold a dozen or more people. We climbed up into the cart, and headed off to the fields. The ride it self was 5 or 6 bumpy minutes along a farm road back into the fields of strawberries. Great Country had set up a water station at the drop-off, which was much appreciated in the heat. Farmer Ray gave us a few tips to finding the best strawberries, and we headed out into the fields to grab our share.

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