>> Bobby Boswell sounds off with a strongly worded criticism against ESPN's refusal to acknowlege a fantastic game of soccer in favor of nonstop coverage from the "Beckham Cam." [D.C. Sports Bog] >> Fare thee well, Rock Creek Rambler. >> Late Wednesday afternoon, a portion of the ceiling on the underside of the outdoor overhang in the “lower plaza” area of the State Department's Columbia Plaza complex fell down, damaging several cars parked underneath.......

After a devastating run of going directly to jail and not getting Boardwalk or Park Place, local music mainstay Monopoli are calling it quits. All punning aside, we were saddened to see this announcement on the band's MySpace page: Monopoli is over and out! Please join us in celebrating our run at our last four shows every Thursday in March at DC9. A residency at DC9 is no shabby way to send off a band,......

>> It's not tough to earn the ire of Rock Creek Rambler, but when you make it this easy, we have to wonder whether or not you're doing it on purpose. Though we have to hand it to you, the line, "Let me just say, it was to hard to organize resistance to you!" will go down in history as the one that made the entire DCist staff snort Diet Dr. Pepper through their......

We’re mourning the latest casualty of the war on jukeboxes, as news comes to us via Rock Creek Rambler that earlier this month Fox and Hounds took the plunge and replaced their jukebox with a new-fangled super computer known as the Touchtunes digital music player. While the old jukebox was beloved by many for its rustic charms and eclectic CD collection, the Touchtunes cares not for the trifling whims of mortals. The ersatz jukebox is......

>> New Police Chief Cathy Lanier on being a woman in the Metropolitan Police Dept.: "Lanier says she wants to tell her story so it will help other women who face similar challenges. She describes how she faced a constant barrage of sexual harassment when she first came on the force in 1990. 'I've had police officers expose themselves to me riding around in a patrol car. {I was} assigned with a training officer who......

>> The Yellow Line is back in full service after an accident killed Leslie A. Cherry, a veteran Metro employee from Maryland, while he was conducting a routine track inspection. Another Metro employee is currently in critical condition at an area hospital. Our thoughts are with the families of both employees, as well as the train operator involved in the accident. >> Don't forget to head to down to Ireland's Four Fields Pub in Cleveland......

>> Okay, not technically voting news, but we're convinced that Britney Spears is filing for divorce today in order to sway the elections in some manner. Perhaps going on a campaign of "Don't Marry Total Effing Idiots"? [TMZ] >> Robocalling — the new hotness? Over on his personal blog, DCist Tom explains just how it's done — and just how easy it is to do. Please don't try this at home. Seriously. [Manifest Density]......

Via the always delightfully surly Rock Creek Rambler, we learn that the proud Navy town of Norfolk, Va. has lifted its 56-year ban on tattoo parlors within city limits. Sixty years ago, Norfolk's East Main Street was world famous for its tattoo parlors, taverns and burlesque palaces. In 1945, there were about a dozen parlors to choose from. That ended in 1950 when the City Council approved a citywide ban on tattoo parlors. Tattoos were......

Last night we received an email from a reader complaining -- surprise! -- about District police. He wrote: Around 7pm at 17th and R St NW, a police officer spent valuable taxpayer money and time ticketing people for crossing the street without waiting for the walk signal. As dangerous a threat jaywalking is to the citizens of DC (and I am sure this is better than the cops illegally parallel parking to get to Chipotle......

We warned everyone a few weeks back — wear your seatbelt, or else. Friend and fellow blogger Rock Creek Rambler opted for the "or else," and he's not happy with the results. He writes today: So apparently DC has instituted seat belt traps. I found this out yesterday when I pulled onto Park from 14th, and was commanded to pull over by an officer in the middle of the street. I joined the other 5......

FRIDAY: Thanks to Rock Creek Rambler for pointing out the monster truck rally options for this weekend. That's right, Monster Jam Monster Truck Racing is coming to the MCI Center, in all its vehicle-crushing glory. Will King Krunch stand up to Grave Digger? Will the dudes with the Bigfoot tattoos be there? Will someone explain to me why this thing wasn't scheduled on Sunday, Sun-day, SUNDAY!? Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m.......

What is it about the joke-tee that is so potentially alluring? Could it be the irresistible opportunity to shock and offend? Is it tied to the indie-culture affinity for semi-obscure references? The combination of the two? Is it the same hope for wit by association that drives people to quote Will Ferrell movies or put MR. PIBB + RED VINES = CRAZY DELICIOUS in their away messages (or on their t-shirts)? Whatever the case may......

We never believed the myth that bloggers were asocial. Sure, we spend hours and hours hunkered behind our keyboards pouring out our thoughts to our little obscure niches of cyberspace, but we've been known to go to bars occasionally, where a few people have even been known to join us. We've observed that D.C.'s blogosphere is fairly fragmented, and contains little niches of activity here and there. We were excited to see two D.C. blogs......

From Rock Creek Rambler, we are reminded that Jessica Cutler, aka(fka?) Washingtonienne (the fallen Capitol Hill intern/entrepreneur-turned-blogstar-turned-author from the last year's intern season) is still around. And her book -- "The Washingtonienne: A Novel" (Hyperion Books) -- is on Amazon! Rock Creek Rambler says that those who have already purchased Ms. Cutler's book fall in the same demographic that have purchased books like "XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits" by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders; "I Am Charlotte Simmons" by......

On its front page today, the Post writes about the increase of iPod thefts from apartments and cars and how it can be a real bummer for one's playlist to be instantly gone. We can surely understand this trauma. But nowhere in the article was there word of what happens when an iPod is forcibly taken from one's person. Unless we're missing something (Update, we did miss something, see comments), the Post seemed to......

Thanks to Rock Creek Rambler, we learn that Pizza Mart, home of 18th Street's original jumbo pizza slice (or something like that depending on what pizza entrepreneur you talk to) was shut down recently for health code violations including, according to the Post's culling of municipal reports, "debris, no certified food supervisor and unclean food contact surfaces and equipment." If we read the report correctly, the restaurant was closed two Fridays back and reopened that......

This DCist is home sick today with a splitting headache, bad cough and congested sinuses. We would try to rest more, but we can't get much sleep because of low-flying helicopters over our apartment. Despite being bed-ridden, we're very thankful for laptop computers. So we thought we'd take care of some minor housekeeping and update some of our links to D.C.-area blogs we've been looking at as of late. -- The Upstate Life ... We......