What's That You Say?
If there was one thing on everybody's mind last week, it was voting - specifically last Tuesday's primary elections. Who can blame you? There certainly was a lot to talk about. Whether it was the tales of the tape, the kinda sorta results, the revelation that there was some sort of error in the count, or the fallout from that realization - there was plenty to be chatting about in local politics this week.
But perhaps it's just as safe to assume that a whole bunch of you just didn't really care that much. Our Comment of the Week from Disco Stu reminds us that while the primary might be important in the grand scheme, there were a lot of people that just didn't bring their umbrellas to work last Tuesday.
Well, it's also raining. You know, civic responsiblity melts in water.
But hey, for those of you who did get out there and vote: have a cupcake on us. You deserve it.
After the jump: buses aren't on time, guns are controversial, and Roy Pearson's got a ridiculous lawsuit! Nothing ever changes.
Photo by erin m.
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So Metro's buses have a dismal record of being on time. Of course, you had your ideas about what to do about it.
flamingcissy has a logical answer:
The answer might not be getting drivers to drive faster. It might be revising bus schedules so they reflect reality.
Meanwhile, erahk0 thinks the best idea is to just admit defeat and pray for the best:
but seriously, i've generally thought for the past few years that wmata just got tired of dealing with the hassle of continually revising their schedules to meet reality or continue to encourage drivers to keep to the schedule. I think they tried sweeping this one under the rug.
I've learned to just hang at the stop and have faith that a bus will show up when i need.
Or, as IMGoph (and countless others) point out... Metro could just go ahead and roll out NextBus already:
i totally agree with everyone (starting with reid) who says that they just need to f'in roll out next bus.
catoe should just say "you know what, there's no way we can stick to schedules. traffic in this town is a bitch, and we're just going to do the best we can. but, we will allow you to know exactly where the buses are at all times."
transparency.
just make the GPS feed free and available to all of us. someone in this town will be geeky enough to create an application that maps the buses for free. it will be like wmata outsourcing their work for free. what the hell else can you ask for?
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Well, we probably should have known he'd be back. julia's got the question on everyone's mind:
So he sued for $54 million for a pair of missing pants, but only $1 million for wrongful termination? At least he has his priorities straight.
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Plenty of talk about guns this week, in advance of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's markup of Phil Mendelson and Elanor Holmes Norton's two pieces of legislation.
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I don't know, TheCounter, the gargoyles are probably a better investment at this point:
Well now that DCist is offering free ad space for all sorts of crap, let me take a shot at it...
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OK, for the record - Enology is in Cathedral Heights. Not Cleveland Park, not Glover Park - Cathedral Heights. Everybody happy now?
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I mean, we admire the effort Bethesdaist, but it kind of loses something in the translation:
"There is a large wasp called the Giant Cicada Killer that preys on cicadas. The wasp stings the cicada, not to kill it, but paralyze it. The wasp then flies off with the cicada to its underground burrow. The wasp then lays its eggs and the hatched larvae feed on the paralyzed cicada."
Giant Cicada Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est, fah fah fah fah fah fah fah fah fah fah, better, run run run run, run run run away - oh, oh oh oh, AI YI YI YI YI!
I'll stop now.
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This week, in the Magical World of Monkeyrotica: Monkey on Marion Barry. There's really nothing else to say:
Good to see the bloodthirsty cannibal necrophile of Ward 8 won by a landslide. To understand why he's is still on the Council, you really have to go all the way back to 1965. The Beatles were playing Shea Stadium (named after Cuban revolutionary, Shea Stadium). The Velvet Undeground were playing its first gigs. And a young firebrand with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee named Marion Barry was leading a civil rights march when he encountered three witches who told him that he would be Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, Ward 8 councilman, and Mayor of DC. Flash forward to 1977, when members of the Hanafi muslim sect storm City Hall in protest of the film "Muhammed Messenger of God" and wound Barry in a shootout. Shortly thereafter, Barry deposes Mayor Walter "Duncan" Washington in a palace coup. The bloody reign of Macbarry would witness the streets run red with the gore of the crack epidemic. But as the legend fortold, "none of woman born shall harm Macbarry." Enter c-section-born Sharon Pratt Macduff Kelly, whose reign was brief, leaving the final prophecy to be fulfulled: "never vanquish'd be Macbarry until Great Birnam Crackpipe to High Vista Hotel shall come to set that bitch up." And as any crackhead worth his rock will tell you, never say his name when you're in the crackhouse. It's bad luck.
You always refer to him as "the District tragedy."
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Oooh, a new Safeway? You know what that means - new alliterative name suggestions!
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There's been a ton of suspicious packages of late - this week there were a couple which caused delays and evacuations at Gallaudet University and on Metro's Orange and Blue lines.
14thandYou finds the overreactions just part and parcel of living in the nation's capital:
Wow, what a typical DC over-response to a non-issue. Surprised they didn't shut down the NY Ave. Metro stop just to be safe, and perhaps close down the entire northeast quadrant to traffic.
Hell, I'm surprised they let anyone actually *live* here.
Meanwhile, HCE is probably just a little bit tired at the ineffectiveness of those PA reminders about stray bags:
And Rosslyn was evacuated shortly after 9am. I hope they list the reason in their service disruptions tomorrow.
If I ever see someone leave their bag, I think I am going to start pummeling them. Because either they are 1) a terrorist or 2) stupid. In either case they deserve it.
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Opinions seemed torn about the Pentagon Memorial. But who needs that when we can inject semantics into incorrect statistics? Right, Reid?
Monkey I think he meant 6.000 Thousand (which is an odd way of writing 6,000) people die "inside" from street violence. For instance, I died inside twice this morning due to street violence. Once when I saw a homeless guy beat up by teens, and the second time when those same teens shot me twenty-two times in the chest. So for accuracy's sake, that two deaths "inside" and one death in "reality". Now that I'm a ghost, whose up for some pottery and Righteous Brothers?
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ClevelandRocks, asking the important ethical questions of the day:
Is it unethical to report your friends' conversations as "overheard" because some of my friends say some remarkably, possibly astoundingly, stupid things.
But since I am alleged to be involved in the conversation, I'm not sure if that's really "overheard."
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We also thought it was obvious that truly cool moms actually give their kids Jolly Ranchers and Zimas, not vodka.
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"And this is our commenter, DrLRonHoover. Now who's ready for lunch?"
Those turkey legs taste like shit.
Wouldn't it be more authentic if they served maggoty bread with haunches of brucellosis-infested beef? Or sausage made from loosely chopped hog anus and badger scrotum? Wash that down with a warm tankard of beer made from weevil-infested barley....now that's good eatin'!
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Ooh, a double threat for awards comes along so rarely. This week's winner of both the Username of the Week and the Avatar Award for Achievement in the Field of Avatars is none other than Caribou Barbie. Your fractured take on current events in the medium of avatars and usernames is truly inspiring, CarBarb; you are certainly the Bo Jackson of the commentariat at the moment. Just don't go blowing out your hip.