Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
Obamas At Smith Center For G.W. Basketball Game
Devendra Banhart @ 9:30 Club
Saturday Thanks Don't End At Thanksgiving Photo: November 28, 2009
Good morning, Washington. This morning's news contains a lot of stories about Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker's post-DUI arrest, but we talked about that yesterday. And there are the allegations from the mayor of Sosua that he never got back the cash he paid for the infamous fire truck and ambulance that the District failed to deliver, but we already mentioned that, too. So instead here's a link to a review of the new Brooke Hogan CD over at The Examiner. I know we haven't posted about that.
Jacks' Lawyers Introduced Last-Minute Evidence: The judge presiding over the Banita Jacks murder trial could issue a verdict as early as today, but the case's legal landscape appears to have just gotten more complicated. The Post reports that on Monday Jacks's attorneys presented a previously-unavailable report from a doctor who examined Jacks shortly after her arrest. The report apparently brings into question whether Jacks was mentally competent when she refused an insanity defense. Judge Frederick Weisberg reportedly responded to the report by saying that it will not influence his verdict. The Post article speculates that Jacks's lawyers are using the report to lay the groundwork for an appeal.
Accident Snarls Beltway: Yikes. The Post is reporting that the Inner Loop of the Beltway is shut down and two lanes of the Outer Loop are closed as authorities deal with an overturned cement truck that spilled its fuel and caught fire.
Kate Gosselin Moving to Maryland OMG!: Radar Online is reporting that reality TV star, cumulative octo-mom and recent divorcee Kate Gosselin has purchased a condo in Rockville a short distance from her bodyguard/boyfriend's office. To answer the question that this naturally prompts: no, we're not really sure why this is noteworthy, either. But every grocery store checkout aisle in the country contains overwhelming evidence that it is. Who are you to resist?
Briefly Noted: D.C. pols balk at raising taxes, seemingly due to potential effect on perceptions of the city... Virginia approves crab license buyback program... Tensions run high over potential shutdown of Bethesda produce stand... D.C. teen still being held in Chinese hospital over Swine Flu worries... Maryland cracks down on pawn shops selling stolen goods... Franciscan monks complete trek from Roanoke to D.C... Police shooting leaves man dead in Germantown...
This Day In DCist: One year ago we traced the origins of a confusingly-named Chinatown dish. Two years ago our friends from These United States shared their tour diary with us.
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Good to see Ed Lazere is still around insisting people don't pay enough taxes. In this crazy, mixed-up world of cannibal councilmembers and hooker-strangling mayors, it's kinda comforting to know that Ed Lazere is still after that last bit of cash left in your paycheck.
And I don't see how Evans can talk about cutting spending when DC still has a $23 million shortfall in the summer jobs program. Those kids are counting on that money! It's their loitering money! It's a real goddamn shame that DC can't live within a $5+ billion budget. I only hope they can find it in their hearts to spare the summer jobs program. Not because of the hardship that will occur to these delightful street urchins, but because of the inevitable Depression-era Bonus Marchers-style "protests" that will result. Can you imagine the spectacle of dozens of summer jobs advocates sitting in front of the Wilson Building goofing off, demanding that they be paid to do nothing? Such an awe-inspiring display of indifference hasn't been seen in DC since the Great UDC Tuition Hike Sleep-In of Ought Nine. That's assuming it doesn't get violent like the Mount Pleasant Rebellion of '91, where local drunks demanded the right to urinate in public, come after police officers with knives, and burn down Church's Fried Chicken. Now that was some good chicken. You can keep your KFC and your Pollo Campero. Church's knew how to make it nice and greasy. Roy Rogers wouldn't know a fried chicken if it leapt out of the fryer and pissed hot oil in his face. $h!t, Trigger probably knew how to fry chicken better, but not as good as Pappy Parker. Yup, "Pappy Parker Fried Chicken brings the farm to you!" Unlike, say, Marvin, who gives you two measly pieces and a bill for the month's rent, because Marvin Gaye was all about spending too much for fried chicken. Used to be able to get Pappy Parker's at Hot Shoppes, but then they all went to hell. Nowdays, you can barely get decent mambo sauce anymore and kids expect to be paid to sleep off their classes and summer jobs. This is what happens when you can't get good fried chicken anymore. It's in Nostradamus, people!
Argh! The Mount Pleasant Rebellion. How can we forget.
Ruined the whole neighborhood. Now we have two 24 hour laundramats and a 7-11 filled with confused immigrants.
Not one decent supermarket. Even the CHUD's have given up on that place. Now we hang-out in Columbia Heights.
Good summary.
I always liked Roy's fried chicken (not as good as the bacon cheeseburgers and roast beef sandwiches, with all the free fixin's you want!) And I thought Church's was pretty bland.
Popeye's is still my favorite.
Roys has always been too damn salty. You need to chug a whole supersize soda just to choke the salt down. And they used to do real roast beef, but then they went the way of Arby's with that roast beef style "product" in the gelatin pack that tastes like a cross between stale lunchmeat and Rosie Odonnell's nutsack. Roys really started going downhill when they stopped selling their fries in a holster-shaped fries container. That, and when they stopped making their staff wear cowboy hats and fringed shirts and greet people by saying, "Welcome to Roy Rogers, pardner! May I take your order?"
Popeye's is definitely the best chain chicken around with a consistent product. The red beans and rice are always top notch. Although it's still hard to get their "secret" menu items, like the onion rings which are amazing but which they HATE to make because they have to make them fresh. Still worth asking, even though you run the risk of them spitting on your onion rings.
I hardly ever see any local Roy's. The last time I ate at one that wasn't on a 295 or NJ Turnpike rest stop wasin Frederick, probably about 4 years ago.
You've got to hunt for them. There are several in Alexandria - one is way down Route 1
I don't go to Virginia unless I have to.
Well, as far as chicken goes, you've got several Bojangles in Md. They make some tasty fried chicken, comparable to Popeyes. Unfortunately, the staff treats you worse than Hitler. There's also a few Korean fried chicken places, but since they make the stuff fresh to order, it's usually a 20 minute wait, but well worth it.
As for downtown, you've got any number of bulletproof Chinese wings and mambo sauce carryouts that serve way better chicken than what you'd find at KFC. wings & More Wings on Bening Road probably has the best hard-fried and crispy wings and a tasty mambo sauce that isn't too barbecue-ey or too Karo Syrup-ey. Yum's used to have the best, but after an unfortunate incident at the 14th Street location, I nearly went all Roy Pierce on them and demanded compensation for ruining my pants.
I've been meaning to check out that one Korean place in Beltsville that's supposed to have amazing fried chicken.
Myoung Dong in Beltsville does some tasty Korean fried chicken. Make sure to tell them not to skimp on the dong. I think Bon Chon Chicken on Little River Turnpike is tastier though. Curious thing about Korean fried chicken is that they cut all the pieces in half; breasts halved, thighs halved. Kinda like how the Chinese carryouts always cut your steak sub into three pieces? WTF? I have to tell them, "I want all in one piece, savvy?" They look at me like I'm from Mars and it's not because of my epileptic skull guard helmet with the deely bobbers.
thanks! we appreciate that.
Excellent point.
Yeah, there's a Roys off Fort Hunt road south of Old Town and another near Fort Belvoir. The latter seems to do a booming business with Mt Vernon tour busses and the former has a steady clientele of geriatrics who come for the morning kaffeklatsch and to complain about taxes and half-Kenyan antichrists and the younger people and their "hot jazz" music. They seem to have no problem with the breakfast sandwiches made from Yellow Dye #7 tinted packing insulation and injection-molded Canadian Bacon flavored "meat" product. Although that's probably because their olfactory and taste senses have been ravaged by years of exposure to Ben Gay and Chesterfield cigarettes and their own overpowering B.O.
But their fixins bar is restocked regularly and they have an assortment of Hershey's Brand Icecream.
I could take or leave the chicken (it's good when it's fresh out of the fryer though) but the curly fries are why I loved Roy's. They were so good - crunchy and a little spicy...mmmm...
And Popeye's onion rings! I haven't had those in ages! They are the best thing since sliced bread.
Roys had curly fries? I thought their fries were always straight? At least they were when I went to U of M and pretty much lived in the Roys in the Student Union Building. Are you thinking of Arby's Curly Fries? You used to be able to get them drowned in an amazing cheese sauce that would turn your "poop deck" into a spraypaint can.
All of the Roy's on the NJ Turnpike had curly fries. Maybe it was unique to them, like full service gas stations and jug handles. Those crazy New Jersians.
You're probably right. My memories of the Roy's in college are pretty hazy. All I can remember is Len Bias dying and the Challenger blowing up and going to Iran-Contra protests to pick up girls and getting berated by food co-op employees for eating meat and enjoying life and having to sit through "Punchline" because the movie I wanted to see was sold out and having to argue with my date that that was in fact the Worst Movie Ever Made but then we made up and had sex on the floor.
Two words: Fixin's Bar
Everything else is just gravy.
"Spitting on your onion rings" sounds like something you would read about in Urban Dictionary.
Anyone have trouble with NextBus this morning?
Let me say, I heard the Brookle Hogan song "Rough Me" (or something like that) this morning on the way to work (she was on Howard Stern), and it was actually pretty good. Even Howard liked that one song.
Great photo from Matt Dunn of the owl!!
Kate who??
Is that Dave Chappelle holding the owl?
I work not too far from where Kate Gosselin is buying her condo. I plan on running into her totally by "accident" and becoming her BFF. We'll hang out all the time and it'll be awesome.
Can I be your friend so I am hip to the scene?
Careful about who you become hip with - especially with that reality TV tart - because a certain flaming lips likely doesn't want to share you.
I'd say yes but I don't want Miss Liz coming after me.
So when are the two octomoms going to move in together so they can have a reality show called "Twenty-two is Enough?" They could go out to get manis and pedis together and complain about how difficult it is getting good people to take care of your crotchfruit and the heartache when people in the street point and laugh and call you hateful names like "Crotch Clowncar" and then call eachother an attention whore as well as the other kind.
Kate is a retarded monkey.
Kate is not a retarded monkey. She may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a retarded monkey, but she is not a porn star.
Yet.
I think we've witnessed the birth of a new fetish: Retarded Monkeys I'd Like to F**k.
Now she is hot!
(Sorry Liz)
It's like lookin' in the mirror ... awesome!
I am calling dibs on the new American Apparel girl (Skirts and Tanks).
She can become my "Dream Girl of the Day ® "
I read Skirts and Tanks as Shirts and Skanks. Somehow that seems appropriate.
Close enough.
See, I was thinkin' she had too much clothing on to really be an AA girl.
And when are they going to have some AA boys? Besides the "Legalize Gay" guy with his sad little haircut, I mean.
Check out this clip with the owl handler, Rodney Stotts!
Who?
The report apparently brings into question whether Jacks was mentally competent when she refused an insanity defense.
In other words, she was insane when she refused an insanity plea. But wouldn't a sane person also refuse to plea insanity?
Kirk: "Harry lied to you, Norman. Everything Harry says is a lie. Remember that, Norman. EVERYTHING he says is a lie."
Harry Mudd: "Now I want you to listen to me very carefully, Norman. I am... lying."
Norman: "You say you are lying, but if everything you say is a lie, then you are telling the truth, but you cannot tell the truth because you always lie... illogical! Illogical! Please explain! You are human; only humans can explain! Illogical!"
Kirk: "I'm sorry. I'm not programmed to respond in that area."
But wouldn't a sane person also refuse to plea insanity?
No, just the opposite. Any sane person would want to plead not guilty by reason of insanity so as to not be found guilty of first degree murder. The fact that she refused to plead not guilty by reason of insanity on the facts before the court is perhaps the best proof of her insanity. Luckily for her, however, she has a (presumably) sane lawyer who can argue exactly how insane it would be for a person to say they are Just Fine And Dandy after having killed her kids and sticking them in a freezer for safe keeping, and then just going about her business as usual.
I'm pretty sure Jacks didn't stick her kids in a freezer. She just left them to rot where they lay. It was the woman from Southern Maryland who stuck her kids in the freezer. You should really get your bat$h!t-eating insane infanticide stories straight before you start maligning these fine examples of American motherhood.
Sure, damn those trying to help with population control.
Touche. Yet you make my point for me. Anyone who wouldn't put their kids in a freezer--you know, to make sure the devil doesn't get out and infect them-- is clearly a bonkers.
Domincan Fire Truck is a great name for a band.
So is Dominican Fire Truck.
Wow, I had heard Kate Gosslin was moving to Rockville, but I didn't realize she was moving to MY FREAKING BUILDING. The paparazzi better not make the lines long at Fractured Prune donuts...
Was anyone ever fired over the whole Central American fire truck fiasco?
The next mayor should come in on the first day and fire someone, anyone. Just make up a reason. But send the message that you actually CAN be fired from the DC government.
Um, has anyone ever gotten fired for being responsible for a fiasco in DC? Normally, fiascos are punished by either being put on indefinite paid leave, being promoted to a higher wage bracket, or being elected Ward 8 Councilman.
May we assume Harriette Walters (smokin' hot as she is) didn't retire, as a certain Alexandria Virginia Police Chief did?
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/072809_sosua_mayor_on_dc_fire_truck_donation
The Dominicans (Sosuans) want their 11K back. Fenty said no laws were borken, so . . . no laws were broken. Our attorney general provided the wise counsel that a city with a shortfall like ours should not be giving surplus equipment away (I guess that's especially true where the mileage records don't match the odometer, but don;t worry, no laws were broken).
So don't worry--it was all just a big "misunderstanding"-to the casual observer involving attempted theft, falsified records, proxy donor "Peaceaholics". But rest assured, that is not the case-----no laws were broken.
I think the Cash for Clunkers program would be pertinent here. Maybe!
http://www.cars.gov/
The Dominicans (Sosuans) want their 11K back.
So? What are they going to do about it? Send their albino monks after it? They've got their hands full trying to hide the Holy Grail from Tom Hanks.