February 11, 2008
Reader, Meet Author
MONDAY:
Manil Suri, who teaches mathematics at the University of Maryland and writes fiction, will be at Politics and Prose to read from The Age of Shiva. 7 p.m.
Laton McCartney will be at the Penn Quarter Olsson's to talk about The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country. For those of you who aren't familiar with American history, this scandal rocked the Harding White House and the U.S. so hard that lobbyists no longer try to buy presidential candidates. Honest. It's the truth. 7 p.m.
TUESDAY:
Go vote. Once you're done, Busboys and Poets is holding a special Tuesday Night Open Mic with an "Election Theme," where you can watch the returns from the D.C, Maryland and Virginia primaries throughout the restaurant. 8 p.m.
James Kugel, winner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award, will be at the Washington DCJCC to discuss his latest work, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now. We can tell you how to not read the Bible — cover-to-cover in one sitting. All that small type is bad for your eyes. 7:30 p.m.
Charles Ferguson — writer, director and producer of the 2007 Academy Award-nominated documentary "No End in Sight" — will to discuss his novelization No End in Sight, which expands upon the issues and facts put forth in the film. The event is co-sponsored by Politics and Prose and Comet Ping Pong just down the street, which is actually where the reading will be held. We have no idea why, but try their pizza. It's great. 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY:
American University’s Department of Literature will be hosting a reading with Mary Gaitskill, author of the novel Veronica: A Novel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named one of the 10 best books of 2005 by the New York Times. The event will be held at American University's Butler Pavilion, Butler Board Room. 8 p.m.
Author William T. Vollmann assumed a hobo identity and rode the rails to put together his latest book, Riding Toward Everywhere, and to explore the American dream of "freedom" and what it means to be free. The result sounds very Mark Twain. Check out Vollmann at Politics and Prose. 7 p.m.
FRIDAY:
Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, the two philosophy majors at Harvard who wrote last year's best-selling Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes, will be at Politics and Prose to discuss their new book Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes. 7 p.m.
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Hey, what the devil happened to the comment function on "About Tonight"? Is someone afraid we might comment on the Toyota Corolla? I actually appreciate suggestions from other readers that show up there from time to time.
Hoodrat, I posted this in another thread, but am addressing it here again:
Gothamist is currently running a sponsored post ad package with Toyota. They directed us to turn the comments off on the About Tonight feature as a courtesy to the sponsor.
It's a new thing and, as with all our ad packages, not something the people who write and edit DCist have anything to do with. Thanks for understanding my and the rest of the staff's position in regards to this. I'd like to encourage everyone to continue to contribute other event ideas in our genre-specific Agendas during this campaign.
Pardon this alum's ire, but Manil Suri teaches at UMBC (that's Baltimore County, or University of MD's Bastard Child) NOT University of Maryland.
He is worth the read, and is generally an interesting speaker.