Happy Monday everyone, and welcome to 2008's first post-Labor Day version of What's That You Say?. Looks like you managed to somehow survive through a week without a comment roundup, but not to fear - we wouldn't dream of abandoning you for two weeks in a row. So let's get to it.

We're going to admit it: we have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with chef Gordon Ramsey. Those reruns of Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America are fairly engrossing viewing, but we've never eaten at any of his restaurants. We might soon have that chance, though: Ramsey's opening a space in Tysons. But EdTheRed knows that what the DCist commentariat really wants to see is him taking a stab at profiling an infamous D.C.-area outpost:

Voice-Over: I've seen all sorts of "Kitchen Nightmares," but this assignment is my toughest yet. Junkpuncher™, a local coffee-and-sandwich spot, has a BDSM theme, and almost *no* customers...I dropped in to find out why:

Voice-over: It isn't hard to see why Junkpunchers is losing almost two thousand a week.

After the jump, your Sarah Palin...discussions; AND post-hurricane rain!

Photo by maxedaperture.

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Fortunately, we had all of your comments to keep us entertained for the duration of the Hanna rains on Friday night and Saturday. Hey, it sure beat doing something productive.

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So, John McCain had some California middle school as a background during his speech instead of Walter Reed Medical Center. mel21clc explains why it's not really the Senator's fault:

You'd think anyone who had any experience visiting troops there, or who at least gave any sort of a shit about them or their benefits or their care, would manage to notice during his walk-through that the picture was not of the same place.

Oh, wait.

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KrazyKat's idea to raise attendance at Nats games is actually pretty good:

Maybe people would be more interested in going if they had different past presidential races. You could have the Progressive area race. Democrats v. Republicans. Died while in office. Cold war races. War time president races. I think the funniest would be between Reagan (who would just wander aimlessly around the field not knowing where he was), William Henry Harrison (who would be dead before he got a foot off the starting line), Taft (he would have to be rolled since he was big) and Ford (he would trip over his own feet before the race started and couldn't get up).

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Zoning and guns - good thing there wasn't any Sarah Palin sightings or rock-throwing kids in Columbia Heights, otherwise, the city might have exploded.

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Pretty sure that we saw that episode too, timtheviking2. (That said, we'll also miss Happy badly.)

No, no, no, I still can't believe this will actually happen.

It's true. I saw it on tv. End of discussion.

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littleboots notes that we should consider ourselves lucky that people intent on blowing things up lack common sense:

He supposedly stopped to ask police for directions. Darwin award winner right there. Thankfully he's an idiot and got himself caught.

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Oh yeah, and there was that whole Sarah Palin speech thing. We're already looking forward to Friday, October 3rd's comments.

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In his experience, IMGoph finds that streetcar wires would not be so obtrusive, after all:

i have now been in four different cities in the past month and a half where overhead wires power buses or streetcars (tunis, rome, philly, and boston).

i understand not wanting to see cable, powerlines, phone lines, etc. going willy-nilly up in the air. but making an exception for one class of cable doesn't seem like a big deal to me. they tyranny of the NCPC is crazy. how can a group of appointed, unelected pencil pushers have control over an entire city. it isn't fair and shouldn't be...

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Oh, Wizzyliz, you're thinking about it all wrong! According to the statistics, there's just more people just like you:

Woe is me. Gone are the days when I could talk on my cell phone, hold a beer, light a doobie and put on my mascara. And I was never once late for work!

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We noted that most voters in the District wouldn't get to vote in the most interesting upcoming primary race; but Reid said it's indicative of a larger problem with the system:

Now you know what it feels like to be an independent. If only we got rid of primaries and just had a free-for-all general election with ranked voting, nobody would have to feel left out simply because they don't believe citizens should have to join political parties to have an effective participation in the democratic process.

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So, the Feds want us to repave Pennsylvania Avenue, eh? Well, tell them that we've got our own way of getting roads fixed around here. Right, Cranky?

We should petition to get the pope to come back to DC and drive around some of the bad side streets. That's the only way they will ever get paved.

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This week in The Magical World of Monkeyrotica: of course Die Hard can be used as a marker for the level of gentrification in a neighborhood! Duh.

Well, kudos to Columbia Heights. A few years ago, people wouldn't even think of blowing parts of it up. Now this. Before you know it, Alan Rickman will start taking hostages in the top floor bungalows, and Bruce Willis will have to pitch snappy one-liners before blowing it all to hell. That road to gentrification just keeps getting sweeter.

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DCist comment threads: where a legitimate discussion about public land use and the viability of a gas station on H Street eventually leads to cracks about the Ethiopean mafia and khat. Yup, we love you guys.

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Awards for the week that was! Dum-dum-dum!

The Redskins faltered in their Week 1 matchup with the Giants, but commenter zornagain certainly didn't fail to bring the Username goodness - obviously, we had no choice but to award that pun-tastic effort the Username of the Week.

You know, if you baffle us, then you get an award. This week's Avatar Award for Achievement in the Field of Avatars goes to DE, because, honestly, we don't know what that is. Feel free to enlighten us, DE, about the origins of your hand-drawn, green, seven-armed monster.