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Good morning, Washington. Have a good Halloween? We have to admit, this year's midweek scheduling kind of put a damper on the holiday's opportunities for costumed revelry. It didn't stop us from eating a ridiculous amount of candy, though. Naturally, we feel that the children are to blame: if more kids had stopped by we wouldn't be stuck with this glut of chocolate and dearth of willpower. Perhaps this is why our childhood neighbors stocked up on honey chews, boxes of raisins and Jesus-themes yoyos instead of quality candy.
Halloween Shootings Abound: Yesterday we mentioned that MPD Chief Lanier has called another "All Hands On Deck" weekend in the wake of a spate of murders. This morning it seems like an even better idea: WJLA reports that four people were injured by a drive-by shooting last night in front of an apartment building on the 2900 block of 14th St., about three blocks south of the Columbia Heights Metro station. The story details three other District shootings, too, one of which was fatal. In addition to this, the Post brings word of the MPD chasing down and fatally shooting a carjacker whose spree began in the Adams Morgan and ended in P.G. County. The trouble extended beyond the District, too: a Safeway employee was shot in a Rockville store, and two men were shot and killed near Ft. Belvoir.
Cab Strike Aftermath: Via WTOP, it seems that the AP has written up yesterday's cab strike. The piece states that lines for cabs were long, and quotes a couple of companies saying that they only had a quarter of their fleets available. But this doesn't line up with our admittedly-anecdotal experience: cabs seemed about as plentiful as usual, and were certainly numerous and empty enough to engage in the irritating D.C. custom of honking at people who aren't currently in a cab, and therefore might appreciate being reminded that they could be in a cab right now if only they'd stop and realize that such an amazing opportunity is available to them. Let us know what your Halloween taxi experience was like in comments.
Briefly Noted: Hagerstown teen charged with arson... Archaeologists working to excavate ICC's future path... St. Mary's County teen charged with hiring hitman to kill his mother... School official accused of stealing from chess club...
This Day In DCist: One year ago we asked local bands where they like to eat after a show and discussed the legend of the Goatman. Two years ago we declared Tony Williams' blog to be officially dead.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user The Skipping Hippy
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"Jesus-themed yoyos"!?!?!? Great gobbling smacktoes, where the salivating HELL can I find myself one of those?!!?? ANSWER ME!
Wait a year, head to Arlington and hope that my ancient neighbors didn't die long ago. But I should warn you: the tin yo-yos in question really, really sucked. I guess that Jesus' infinite love was supposed to make up for the device's total failure to function as a yo-yo.
I would expect a Jesus-themed Yo-Yo to do "Walking the Dog" on water.
Pretty weak haul kid.
Feh, I had to leave Adams Morgan after work (10:30 pm) and getting a cab took awhile. Nice to see though that the gauntlet of "let's overcharge and see who bites" was passed to non-cabbies who tried to take advantage of the strike: one car stopped, and it looked like some normal car not a gypsy cab or anything-and he claimed a trip from AdMor to the Hill is $15. I told him "uh no it's not" and "see ya". Laaaamme.
Bring on the meters!
I actually cabbed more yesterday than I do normally - 17/U to 9/U, then 9/U to 17/Riggs, with about 2 minutes of waiting each.
It's not the candy that's got me hungover... ugh.
I was walking towards the Columbia Heights Metro last when I hard a lot "pops" behind me. At first I thought it was firecrackers, but then I saw a grey dodge/chrysler caravan speeding away from the scene and running red lights. It was kinda scary...
That AP article talks about the line for cabs at Union Station being "several dozen people long," which probably really means 25 or 26. Anyone who commutes through there, or even just has arrived in DC on an Amtrak train, knows that taxi line is almost always at least ten or twelve people long during any relatively high traffic part of the day. It can easily get up to 20 or more people just after a train arrives, or during the high points of rush hour, and whenever it gets long like that the line attendants encourage and assist cab sharing. The basic message I'm getting from these articles is really, "Taxi Strike No More Than A Minor Inconvenience."
Jesus yoyo? Man, why you gotta be disrespectin Satan's little brother? What he ever done to you? All the Son of Man wants is that you eat His flesh and drink His blood so that you can be reborn into new worlds where His flesh is your key, and the brother gets his ass nailed to a tree. Now, I know this all sounds apropos of Halloween, but I'd hate to think that dcist is adding anti-semitism to it's well-documented anti-commuter, anti-bike, and anti-pedestrian stance.
I found it hilarious that cabbies were using the "strike" to justify overcharging customers. One guy wanted to charge me $25 to go from Georgetown to Tenleytown. "Oh, there's less cabs, you're going to pay this with all of them tonight." Sooo, you're trying to draw attention to the fact that you don't want meters while at the same time giving customers more of a reason to welcome the shift? Nice protest. Friggin' idiots.
Agreed, Nate. I would say on Sunday nights the line is even longer than that...I've definitely waited 30+ minutes for a cab there (I'm a chump I guess).
On another note I did not get a single trick or treater last night. I'm pretty bummed out as I was basically pinning all my excitement for the night on them, and I got stood up.
I love this picture, mostly because it's nice to see that there are still kids who are as OCD about their Halloween candy as I was....it's no fun unless you sort by type and brand to see what you have, and then you can make your plan as to what order you eat it all in....
I really may need therapy, lol.
i like how there is an eyeball something in the pile
Corky: The trick with Union Station is to ditch the cab line and wait about half a block down on Mass Ave. After a couple of minutes one of the cabbies on their way to Union Station will decide they don't want to deal with the line either and will pick you up.
To further mellbell's tip, I also suggest walking down Mass and take a left on New Jersey. There are a ton of cabbies by the two hotels and especially by the liquor store/deli (I think it is called Kogood). I work right next to Union Station and sometimes waiting for cab on Mass can be a bit frustrating when all you see for 5 minutes are cabs filled with passengers either on their way to or leaving Union Station.
WAMU had a report on the cab strike today and the cabbie "union" dude interviewed claimed meters would lower cab salaries 50% to 60%.
So, all this bs about zones being "fairer" is complete garbage. It's obvious the cabbies are only worried about losing their ability to both dodge taxes and rip off tourists.
Since their strike basically accomplished nothing but pissing off their customers, I hope Fenty doesn't even think of backing down. In fact, he shouldn't even bother to respond publically to the strikes and simply ignore these losers.
I like the unwrapped and discarded tootsie roll next to the kid's right elbow...
dc4life, I live right near there. Pretty scary stuff.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1007/468736.html
intangible-
google oriental trading company. they have a whole slew of cheapie jesusy goods.
my fave is the "i leap for the lord" burlap sacks for sack racing.
i am not kidding.
I dunno. when I got to Union Station at 8:30 yesterday morning, there were absolutely no cabs and the crowds waiting to board the Metro were huge and the people in were older males, abnormally well-dressed -- crisp suits, Italian shoes, beautiful haircuts, etc. It seemed to me the lobbyists and businesspeople who usually wait for cabs decided to Metro it.
Then again, on the way home, things seemed pretty normal.
But a line of 25 to 30 waiting for a cab is nothing. I've seen much longer lines. I wish the damn station would put in crowd pleasers to control the cab lines, in fact.
the real reason to separate your candy is so you know exactly how many almond joys you have to barter. sometimes, it's worth it to take the hit of giving away TWO almond joys for ONE kit kat bar.
Huh. Sorting. That's odd. We did have to dump our candies on the kitchen table so that mom and dad could look through it for anything that would appear to have been tampered with (hey it was the 80s) or anything that was not wrapped at all -- apples, popcorn balls, etc. got tossed.
Then all the candy went into a box (one box for each kid) and placed on the top shelf of the pantry. We were then allowed to have one candy "treat" per night seemingly forever. (Overtime there was a lot of Necco wafers and other undesirables that would accumulate at the bottom.)
Can we get a Transit on Thursday today that focuses on what the hell is going on with the Red Line, lately? There have been morning and/or afternoon delays every day for nearly two weeks now . . .
Wait, so you're saying there were LESS cars on the road for LESS traffic and more people using the metro? Sounds like a sucessful Car-Free Day to me!
Alienated taxi customers, more people on metro supporting the city's infrastructure, fewer car/pedestrian/bike accidents, less noise and air pollution...strike on!
Obviously not as severe as the shootings, but several people and cars we targets of "mob egging" where 30+ kids roamed the streets around RFK/Capitol Hill and attacked every "white" person they saw. One guy was hit with about 8 eggs, thrown very hard, from mere feet away, while walking along the sidewalk.
F-ing ridiculous.
I had no trouble getting a cab last night from Adams Morgan and from Georgetown. Down with zones!
Nate - Some of the delays, I believe, are/were due to some recently discovered track flaws that required the trains to slow down, at least at the Shady Grove end of the line. Metro put out an advisory on their web site. Looks like they took it down within the past couple of days.
i was on M street and couldn't get a cab to save my life. i ended up having to walk to a friend's house in NW and sleep on her sofa til it was time for the buses to start running.
PSA: avoid M street on halloween like the plague. i probably shouldn't have had to learn that the hard way, but such is the foolish optimism of youth.
That kid has my dream haul - Kit Kat? Good. Nestle Crunch? Good. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Good. 100 Grand? Gooood. He can keeps the Mounds but I'll take the Krackel and Tootsie Rolls too.