Results tagged “holidays>”

President Barack Obama pardoned his first White House turkey, Courage, a little while ago. The White House has since released video of the ceremony (see below), during which Obama called Courage "a good looking bird." The president was in a joking mood, noting that "there are days when I'm reminded why I ran for this office ... and then there are days like this, when you pardon a turkey and send it Disneyland."

Google announced today that it will provide free wireless internet access at 47 U.S. airports and on all Virgin America flights for the holiday season. Starting now through January 15, anyone should be able to log on to free Google WiFi at BWI, which is the only local airport included in the program. You can find the complete list of participating airports here. Naturally, Google says it plans to use the free service as a means to advertise its products, like iGoogle and Google Chrome, to potential new customers. Still, paying that extra $9.99 for a day pass for internet access at most local airports is a huge drag, so until every airport starts offering it for free, all the time, we'll take what we can get.

So President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama opened up the White House to trick-or-treaters on Saturday, which is pretty cool. Kids from 11 D.C. area schools were invited to come by and meet the first couple as they handed out this administration's version of a Halloween treat: White House M&Ms, a sugar cookie, and ... you guessed it, dried fruit. Talk about boo.

     

A Peeps store at National Harbor sounded pretty absurd on its face. What does a Peeps store do once Easter is over and the Post's uploaded its last Peeps Show image?

If you're looking for ways to celebrate Emancipation Day today, the D.C. government has a list of options. Many of the bigger events, like the Sweet Honey in the Rock concert last weekend, already happened, but there will be a small parade and rally this morning to honor Emancipation Day and promote statehood. The parade is hosted by the African American Holiday Association, The American Friends Service Committee, DC Black History Celebration Committee, Free the Slaves, Friends of DC Emancipation Day, and the Stand Up! for Democracy in DC Coalition. Meet at Franklin Square at 11 a.m.

Photo by Darren and Brad

For those of you staying in the city all through the holidays, here's how it's going to work on Metro, via today's press release from WMATA:

Washingtonians certainly have enough options to take in a performance of Tchaikovsky's evergreen Christmas ballet The Nutcracker this month. Given the choice this weekend, the more traditional extravaganza version offered by the Joffrey Ballet at the Kennedy Center lost out to the Washington Ballet's revival of Septime Webre's re-imagining of The Nutcracker at the Warner Theater.

Remember the Christmas-themed White House Hannukah party invitations the Bushes sent out? Well the New York Post followed up today with news that the hubbub over the mistake forced the first family to send out a new round of invites yesterday, this time with a menorah on them and a note saying, "Please accept our apologies as the invitation you previously received had the incorrect artwork on it." Hopefully however many Jewish leaders there are who actually want to celebrate Hanukkah with the Bush family feel a little better now.

Just how checked out are President and Mrs. Bush? The New York Post reports that they sent out invitations to Jewish leaders for a Hanukkah reception at the White House with a big Christmas tree pictured on the front.

The message reads that the couple "requests the pleasure of your company at a Hanukkah reception," written beneath an image of a Clydesdale horse hauling a Christmas fir along the snow-dappled drive to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Everyone's freaking out about this video of Sarah Palin being interviewed in front of a live turkey slaughter immediately after pardoning a turkey for Thanksgiving. Should her aides have moved her away from the killing machine before she started talking to reporters? Of course. Has Palin just further confirmed that she's a ridiculous person? Uh huh. Does it make the fact that "pardoning" a turkey for Thanksgiving is a meaningless, treacly tradition meant to make us feel a little less guilty about the largesse of America's fattest holiday somehow less real? Nope.

          

We thought we'd take a minute to share some of the DCist staff's best and/or most ridiculous costumes from this past weekend. If you've got Halloween costume photos you'd like to share, tag them on Flickr with "dcist" and "halloween."

Halloween-themed events and activities abound for the rest of the week. Here's just a few of the spooky upcoming goings on we've heard about that sound like they might actually be fun for adults. Add your suggestions in the comments.

There was a parade this morning at Franklin Square to celebrate Emancipation Day -- not that anyone much noticed, what with Pope Benedict XVI's visit taking up all the attention. But indeed today is an important District-wide holiday, as it was on this day in 1862 that President Abraham Lincoln freed over 3,000 slaves in the District with the declaration of the Compensated Emancipation Act, which came eight months before slaves were freed throughout the nation. Here's what the act said:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons held to service or labor within the District of Columbia by reason of African descent are hereby discharged and freed of and from all claim to such service or labor; and from and after the passage of this act neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District.

Happy Almost Holidays, Washington. With both Monday and Tuesday counting as a holiday for the federal government this year, most of D.C. is staring down a nice, long holiday break today. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, federal holidays are great for a lot of other reasons besides a day off - you don't have to feed parking meters, for instance. But The Examiner reports that that fact isn't stopping people from shoveling coins into meters on holidays anyway, especially those fancy new multispace meters: last Veterans Day, the city collected nearly $1,500 from multispace meters. DDOT says it is going to put stickers on the new meters along K Street to remind people that they don't have to pay on holidays.

>> Congress has taken away D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi's pay raise in the wake of the Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement scandal. Happy Holidays, Mr. Gandhi! [WaPo]

I love holiday photos like this, warm with just a hint of sparkle, rather than the garish no-holds-barred plastic Santa light display preferred by those with the festive spirit in overdrive. DC Jeff took this postcard perfect image somewhere on the Georgetown campus. Happy holidays indeed. Have you submitted your application for DCist Exposed 2008 yet? No time like the present! The 2007 winners are all over the place: mark your calendars for 6...

Living in the Nation's Capital, with so many free events going on year-round, it might seem silly to spend a princely sum of money for the privilege of becoming a Member of a local arts organization. But there are a number of good reasons to think about becoming a member -- maybe you're interested in a particular subject that's only shown at a pay-for museum, maybe you're an artist looking to grab a foothold in...

Is everyone already leaving town for the holidays? Our calendar here at Reader, Meet Author is looking a little lonely right now. If you have any tips or complaints that we're not posting all the awesome poetry readings, feel free to email us. MONDAY: Caroline Kennedy will be at Politics and Prose to share the Christmas prose most dear to her. It's all in her latest book, A Family Christmas, which includes tributes to Irving...

The winter holidays are a big time of year for family. You take photos, somebody always wears a dumb sweater with a reindeer on it, you eat together, shop together, and so on. It's also a big time for couples — do you go to one person's parents' house? Spend time together on the big days? Or purposefully avoid spending it together? And sometimes, even the smallest details take on a lot of symbolism.

It is truly the most wonderful time of year — for caterers, that is. D.C. knows how to feast. Between all the holiday/non-denominational/winter solstice parties for every single nonprofit/government/lobby/press room in town and our own personal holiday events, the humble art of bringing a homemade dish to any event has fallen by the wayside. Personally, I’ll be bringing a dozen Krispy Kreme jelly doughnuts to a Hanukkah party this weekend. On the other hand, there...

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and...

Seeing A Tuna Christmas is like going home for the holidays. Not because my family clan is anything like the wacky clan of characters who make up Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas. But because the sense of humor, silly and pun-tastic, is exactly like my Dad's. And while I can't say it isn't amusing, it's kind of nice that I only really have to deal with it for extended periods of time when...

Good morning, Washington. It's Columbus Day, the least observed of all the federal holidays -- or is that Veterans' Day? Unless you work directly for the government or your job is absolutely dependent on it being open for business, odds are about even you're sitting at your desk at the usual time this morning, as a trade-off for getting to take the Friday after Thanksgiving off. It's also, of course, a controversial day, and is...

Written by DCist contributor Angela Olson. Ballet Folklórico de México finishes an engagement at George Mason University Center for the Arts Concert Hall today. The Mexico City based dance company has long been a must see for travelers attracted by their colorful and energetic performances. The dancing exemplifies the spirit of Mexico, and the company puts on a great show for all ages. With six foot tall headdresses, carnival costumes and a live Mariachi band,...

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom...

We've come a long way, baby. The archetype of the dysfunctional family may go back farther than anyone can remember. But for the longest time, people just had to cope with passive aggressive animosity. At best, you could have lots of alcohol available to make the proceedings easier. The pharmaceutical companies, however, are always looking out for the best interests of you and yours. Their first success? Numbing emotional response to the point where no...

>> Today is Ice Cream Soda Day. We're just going to start making up our own holidays at this point. Tomorrow is National Pedicure Day, and the day after that is Give A Stranger a Teddy Bear Day, OK? [Freakonomics Blog] >> A man who tried to force a co-worker into a sex act with a knife was only arrested because he's such a good employee. [City Desk] >> More on whether those beer...

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried...

In a city of monuments to great Americans, it's easy to think that the more recent monumistas began the trend of honoring foreign heroes. But for nearly a century, a statue of Polish freedom fighter Casimir Pulaski has made its home at 13th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., in what is now known as D.C.'s Freedom Plaza. The plaza, designed in 1980, is mainly a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement,...