To return The Library of Congress to its 19th century glory, Congress appropriated funds to restore and renovate the Thomas Jefferson Building starting in 1985. The LoC has remained open in varying levels of capacity since then and has been closed completely since April 3 of this year to install new exhibitions. Tomorrow these new exhibitions, as well as the "New Library of Congress Experience", will launch. After seeing the new exhibits and visitor “Experience,”......

If you’ve been down to the Tidal Basin to see the Cherry Blossoms, then you’ve probably already revisited the Jefferson Memorial. When we went down there the other day, we found the Memorial abuzz with a mix of tourists, regular locals, and locals who were hosting tourists. The weather was wet and gray, and the kids in a school group were shifting around to relieve their sore feet. Parents were flush, grandparents rested on the......

A happy Friday to you, Washington. Hopefully you all made it in to work on time despite Metro having reduced the speed of their rail cars in several areas this morning. Speed restrictions were in place until 8:10 a.m. along portions of the Orange line in Maryland and Virginia, the Red line from Union Station to Silver Spring and from Shady Grove to Grosvenor, and the Green line from Branch Avenue to Congress Heights......

When the City Museum closed its door in late 2004 after a mere 18 months in existence, the one place to go for a comprehensive history of Washington, D.C. disappeared. But for those of you interested in the city's history, the next few days should be quite satisfying -- it's time for the annual Washington Studies Conference. The conference, now in its 34th year, kicks off tomorrow at The Carnegie Library building (801 K Street,......

Written by DCist contributor Morgan Hargrave It is entirely possible that the only people who visit the National Building Museum are intrepid tourists who have strayed from the Mall, or perhaps those only there to count the ridiculous number of columns in the Great Hall. It would be a shame if this were actually true, since the NBM has plenty to offer. Of particular note for tourists and locals alike is an exhibit, Washington: Symbol......

Virginia’s love for wine is no secret. It dates back centuries with Thomas Jefferson’s personal endorsement of wine as a suitable beverage. However, when you mention “Virginia Wines” to anyone, you are met with one of two reactions: an overwhelming expression of excitement and testament to how fabulous they are or an exasperated eye roll that says it all. Whichever one you fall under is fine with us, but as avid wine drinkers we feel......

In just a few months, fans will finally get a glimpse of the new $611 million baseball stadium rising in Southeast. No longer will they simply be looking at an artists rendering -- they'll get to see the new concourse, the stands, the suites and the field for themselves. And today the Post's Marc Fisher poses an interesting question -- beyond the bricks and mortar, what should the team's owners offer inside the stadium? After......

Was Ben Franklin a playa, and Thomas Jefferson a great lover? Was the route to independence from Britain wrought with as much inner political wrangling as any of today’s Congressional machinations? Should our national bird really have been the turkey? 1776, Keegan Theater's take on one of America’s most clever and underrated musicals, attempts to answer these questions through vividly imagined depictions of our founding fathers, and smart, lyrical songs; you have to love a......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

What would D.C. look like if Congress took away the restrictions on building height? We’ve pondered this question before, and so have a lot of others. It’s one of the favorite parlor games of D.C.’s professional (and amateur) urban planners. The subject arose again in yesterday’s Post, when business columnist Dana Hedgpeth noted the recent comments of a land use expert questioning the wisdom and necessity of D.C.'s height limit. The expert cautioned that the......

>> Do college students like having fun? Well, DO THEY!? Sounds like a job for Laura Sessions Stepp! Pull-quote highlight: "[Professor Frederic D.] Homer and graduate assistant Rodney Wambeam wanted to know what students meant when they said they were in college to have fun. They wanted to know why students rarely included classwork in that definition. What they heard surprised them." That means if Stepp, herself, was surprised, it could potentially bring the total......

Taking someone you love to a Holiday Concert is a great December tradition, but how do you know what you will like? Are there really that many choices? We dealt with Messiah performances earlier this week, but here are the season's best and not so best, all around Washington. Use the comments section if we've missed something. INTERESTING: >> The Folger Consort gives the best Christmas concert in Washington, with excellent performances of unusual repertory.......

Presidential abuses of power. We're so used to them by now that we feel a little cheated if the Commander-in-Chief doesn't have his way with us every now and then. There was Thomas Jefferson's dogged insistence that someday we would need states in the middle of the country. William Henry Harrison's relentless desire to assume the presidency despite being too frail to endure just a few hours outdoors in D.C.'s balmy March climate. William Howard......

It looks like the larger than life Presidents are a hit with the fans at the "new and improved" RFK. Is anyone keeping a tally of the race results? DC Charles doubts Thomas Jefferson's chances. This shot was taken by Flickr user randomduck on a Canon PowerShot S1 IS. The EXIF data can be found here. We'd also like to take the time to remind everyone that we only want your best work in......

The recently flooded National Archives is closed but still active, hosting some neat events on this, our nation's birthday. Earlier this morning, a crowd of sweaty people gathered at the Archives to hear historical figures (or at least their reenactors) read the Declaration of Independence. Announced by a town crier, the historical impersonators of the documents' framers, Thomas Jefferson (suitably fire-haired), Ben Franklin, and John Adams, as well as two injured Iraq war soldiers and......

Courtesy of the Post's Metro columnist Marc Fisher, today we discover that there are any number of myths about the District that seem to be communicated from generation to generation without anyone interjecting to speak truth to them. Along with the myth that Georgetown residents stopped a Metro station from being built in the neighborhood in order to keep the poor and dirty masses out, Fisher points to these interesting D.C. myths: - Built on......

Now that the Mozart celebrations have really begun, our classical music listening opportunities are going to multiply out of control. Hang on tight, dear readers, because February is going to be busy. We will be here every Sunday to offer some guidance. As always, if you want the whole story, head over to our Classical Week in Washington feature at Ionarts. FREE CONCERTS: >> All of the regular free concert series in Washington are now......

All this month, the Kennedy Center is hosting the Festival of China, with a full schedule of concerts, exhibits, and other events. Although many do not really fall under the rubric of our Classical Music Agenda, we are leading off our suggestions for you with Chinese concerts. FESTIVAL OF CHINA: >> There are some interesting dance companies performing at the Kennedy Center this week, beginning with the National Ballet of China, in the Kennedy Center's......

You may know, and as DCist has reported, that those Hollywood types are just crawling around the District, making movies and reminding us just how cool a backdrop this city can make. Kiefer Sutherland was in Lafayette Park yesterday, stalked and captured at right by Dupont Knitter. DCist learned on double super secret background that the man himself will be shooting in Georgetown today, Thomas Jefferson Street to be exact. Seeing that the dog days......

Well, this weekend looks like it’s going to be absolutely gorgeous, so we’re hard pressed to recommend doing anything besides rolling around in the grass outside. With a beer. Or seven. That’s our plan, at least. But if you’d like more options, our suggestions follow. And don’t forget to plan ahead: DCist’s Unbuckled concert, featuring Cartel and Bicycle Thieves, is a little less than two weeks away! FRIDAY: >> The third annual AFI and Discovery......

Good morning D.C. Today looks to be the second in a series of cool May days, partly cloudy with temperatures in the low 60s. At least it isn't as cool as parts of the midwest, where freeze advisories were in effect last night. It Might be Renamed the Verizon Center: Verizon Communications Inc. finally won its pursuit of buying out Ashburn-based MCI. According to the Post, this merger could result in significant job losses for......

In October 1992, several dozen people gathered at the base of a statue outside the Labor Department building at 3rd and D Streets NW. Together they unfurled large white sheets, and with some effort, draped them over the tall statue. The costume was not part of a Halloween prank. The uninvited decorators were followers of fringe political figure Lyndon LaRouche, the sheets were stitched together to appear as Ku Klux Klan robes, and the statue......

Here's the next installment in our weekly series of the undervisited musuems and historical sites in the D.C. area, from contributor Susan Breitkopf. For Part 1, click here. Itching to get away from the daily grind? Think folks who lived in previous eras had it easier? Find out the answers at one of these historic museums located just a stone's throw from the D.C. border. Even if you don't care about history, you can look......

(Classical music agenda contributed by Charles T. Downey of Ionarts) Want to hear something classical to impress your family and friends? At DCist, we have some quick picks for you, and can you say free concerts? That's right, Washington has more excellent classical music to be heard for free than probably anywhere else, and we're here to tell you about it. For more information, see our Concert Schedule at Ionarts. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: >> Free......

Editor's Note: As DCist continues to grow, we're looking to revamp and expand our Arts coverage to better cover the varied local geography of the D.C. area's artistic community. If you are interested in contributing to our Arts section -- visual, fine, performing, et al -- please e-mail Mike or swing by our happy hour this Friday. In the meantime, here is this week's Arts Agenda, compiled by F. Lennox Campello of the Fraser Gallery......

Today the whole world counts lines of longitude away from Greenwich, England. But the globally accepted prime meridian running through the Royal Greenwich Observatory is a relatively new development. At one time, most every important city had its own line: Rome, Jerusalem and St. Petersburg, among others. Of course, for a meridian line to be taken seriously by navigators and mapmakers, one had to publish an ephemeris, viz. an almanac of points on the ground......

Since this DCist grew up in lake effect snow country, we always get a chuckle out of local reaction to an incoming snow storm. And this one, where snowfall predictions seemed to haved increased to panic levels, petered out at a modest four inches or so. (See Capital Weather for a detailed analysis of different forecasts, and check out what our friends are dealing with up in New York.) So to all those people......

If you've grown up in the D.C. metro area, you've probably heard of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (better known simply as TJ). The school, located in Alexandria, is a Fairfax County public school that was turned into a magnet school for technology in the early 90s. Over the weekend, the Post published an article about four young alumni of TJ (math and computer geniuses, naturally) who designed a multiplayer online game......

On our way home from work, DCist took a quick stroll across the newly reopened Pennsylvania Avenue pedestrian precinct in front of the White House. While How Now, Brown Pau was underwhelmed with the results, we're still digesting the revamped streetscaping. From How Now, Brown Pau: I had expected that the whole stretch of Penn Ave from 15th to 17th NW would be paved over with colored granite slabs, turning the street fronting the White......

- With the Election Day a week away and fears of voting machines failing, channel your “Pre-Election Anxiety Disorder” by visiting some election-inspired exhibits at the National Museum of American History. "Vote! The Machinery of Democracy" examines the evolution of voting techniques and includes the ill-fated butterfly ballot from the 2000 Florida presidential election. Stop by their permanent exhibit "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden" to pay homage to our fearless leaders of the executive......