Anyone who has read the menu at the Brickskeller can tell you that Julius Caesar called beer "a high and mighty liquor." But aside from being a favorite of Roman conquerors, it causes people to say funny stuff - stuff that when you overhear it, makes you really want to know how that conclusion was reached. What winding path was taken to get there? Quote of the Week At the DCist flickr meetup Sunday at......

Washington has a ton of good things, but also a lot of problems. One we often hear about is a general lack of customer service in some local businesses — sometimes people are slow, rude, forgetful, or a combination of the three. We've seen it all over, from fancy joints to Mickey D's, but it seems to be worse here than elsewhere on the East Coast. Somebody could make a lot of money by renting......

>> Tickets are still available to see Argentine-Swedish songwriter and solo classical guitar player José González, he of the awesome indie cover songs (and a bunch of originals, too) play the 9:30 Club. Doors 7:30 p.m., $20, with James Blackshaw. >> Washingtonians are, for better or for worse, often defined by their work, so tonight at the Goethe Institut the DC Asian-Pacific-American Film Festival has a collection of shorts related to job issues called......

Firefighters took almost eight hours to put out a four-alarm blaze overnight in Adams Morgan on the 2600 block of Adams Mill Rd., across from Pierce Park. The fire started at about 1:15 a.m., gutting a four-story apartment building and displacing residents of more than 30 units. The length of time it took to battle the blaze is being blamed on low water pressure in Adams Morgan. WTOP explains that the firefighters originally tapped......

Written by Buy Indie's Vince Wadhwani It's easy to justify going to an independent clothing boutique to find a unique outfit. After all, who wants to walk into a bar wearing the same thing as everyone else? But when it comes to our housewares and hardware, the equation often becomes a lot less complicated. Though you may not find a pink toolbelt over at the Home Depot, you also won't find too many people fretting......

We're getting some emails from concerned Cingular/AT&T wireless customers in D.C. and VA, who report they haven't been able to make or receive phone calls since 6 p.m. EST (it's now 10 p.m.). We wondered how that could be, and decided to see if we could find out from Cingular/AT&T (luckily, I have Sprint and am able to make calls). First stop was the company's web site, to see if we could get a customer......

If it's been said once it's been said a hundred times. And that's just counting comments on DCist. The District of Columbia and its suburban neighbors do not do all that well in the snow. While area residents decide that (just in case) it might be best to clean the supermarket out of milk, bread, and batteries, they still can't resist the siren song of the area roads they love to hate so much. The......

Not to alarm you, gentle readers, but the Snowpocalypse is nigh. The National Weather Service has already issued a winter storm watch for the entire area beginning late tonight and lasting through Wednesday morning. Forecasters aren't certain they want to label it an exclusively snow event, or if we can expect a wintry mix, which, by the way, is our second favorite kind of mix, after margarita. CapitalWeather predicts the fluffy stuff will start falling......

Happy Thursday, Washington. Thursdays, as we all well know, are the day of the week when the working weary of D.C. first begin to cast their wistful eyes on the coming weekend, perchance even to plan an evening of alcohol consumption on lo this very night -- because waiting for tomorrow seems so far away, and even if we stumble into work on Friday a little hung over, eh, it's only one day before we......

Today, on the 11th of July, or 7/11, the convenience store by the same name celebrates its birthday. On a day that ranks right up there with free Ben & Jerry’s cone day, Krispy Crème Kreme donut day, and Starbucks Coffee day, hoards of people flock to the ubiquitous corner store to receive a complimentary, yet surprisingly small dose of frozen sugary goodness: the Slurpee. Upon reading a recent press release, we got excited to......

A day late, a buck short. If it had run when it was supposed to, Transit on Thursday would have brought you big praise for Mr. Customer Service, talk of toll lanes on I-95, some trouble on the Wilson Bridge, and an official insult to D.C.'s drivin' skillz. Photo by Burnt Pixel......

So far this week in transit we've posted on some big stories, including the "official" (but not really) groundbreaking for the Inter-County Connector and a possible answer to the age old question, "How many Metro employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Not much else in transit news this week, however, we would be remiss not to include one important item: Metro Chief Dan Tangherlini will be hosting a Live Chat tomorrow,......

On Sundays, DCist publishes opinion pieces about life in D.C. We're keeping it in the family today, as the following column was written by my cousin, Rajiv Shah. If you have an opinion to share, please email us. Metro Board Chairwoman Gladys Mack’s recent apology and pronouncements to improve customer service by the newly inducted WMATA Director Dan Tangherlini, reported in Friday’s Washington Post, will do little to assuage the ire of MetroAccess’s riders. As......

According to the Post, PNC Bank -- the Pittsburgh-based financial corporation that recently bought Washington's own troubled Riggs Bank -- announced yesterday that it plans on hitting the District ground running in early May with extended service hours, no ATM fees, and a series of new branches. This plan comes amidst increasing bank competition in the Washington region and in the wake of last month's purchase of Riggs' 51 local branches for roughly $650 million.......

Anyone who has passed through Dulles Airport recently knows it seems like half construction site and half airport these days. With construction of an airport rail system and other changes well under way, passengers have to pass around temporary walls in the terminal and the moon rovers skirt fenced construction sites scattered across the tarmac. The airport hasn't exactly been wowing passengers recently: In January, Dulles rated near the bottom of a list of......

New WMATA Chairman Wants Rider Input: We can hear applause somewhere. WMATA's new board chairman, Dana Kauffman, says that he wants the system to be accountable to the riders who use it and is proposing many new external relations efforts that will boost the weight of rider's input into upper-level decisions regarding the transit system. The Post reports that these efforts will include a riders' advisory board, public comments at WMATA board meetings, regular town......

Dear DCist: Someone told me that it’s actually good to leave the Express behind on the Metro because you’re passing the news on to somebody else. That’s a good thing, right? Or am I just keeping the train dirty? This is a tough one. The dissemination of the news is very important. Although Express distributors can be vigilant in their passing out of the free-drop commuter publication, not everyone gets to see their tabloid-size......

Good morning, Washington. There may be some rain moving into the area, so don't forget your umbrella. Temperatures will be in the 50s approaching 60 degrees. Owners Delay Expos Vote: In a vote that was to officially seal the deal that would bring the Montreal Expos to Washington, baseball owners in Chicago have delayed their vote, the AP, via WJLA, reports. The Post reports that the deal is not in any danger of faltering considering......

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority held their first-ever annual town hall meeting last night at their downtown D.C. headquarters. Although enduring periodic jeers and spontaneous audience feedback, the meeting was, overall, remarkably civil for an agency who has been in the news for a string of problems in recent months. They announced that answers to all questions submitted would be posted on their website within a week. The discussion, ably moderated by former......

The Post tested the customer service abilities of metrorail station managers between Glenmont and Farragut North. Results were varied, not surprisingly. When a manager at the Silver Spring station was asked about a broken escalator, the same question that led to the altercation this month, he snapped: "What's it look like?" He snapped again when asked what had happened to the escalator. "Ain't nothing happened to it; they're just overhauling it," he said, before giving......