A short note on Tiger Woods’s web site this afternoon announced that the world’s best golfer accepted an invitation to speak in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, as part of the “We Are One” inaugural concert. His willingness to speak comes as a surprise, considering Woods rarely, if ever, speaks up on politics. Throughout his career, he has preferred to play the Michael Jordan-esque, advertising friendly apolitical game. “I am honored that I…

If you’ve ever been inside Twin Oaks estate, that massive mansion in Cleveland Park on Woodley Avenue NW between Wisconsin and Connecticut avenues, you are in rare company: it’s the largest privately owned estate in D.C. that doesn’t house the president, and it’s only open to the public for special events. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) runs Twin Oaks now, using it to host Taiwanese diplomatic and cultural events. This year, TECRO…

If you’ve ever been inside Twin Oaks estate, that massive mansion in Cleveland Park on Woodley Avenue NW between Wisconsin and Connecticut avenues, you are in rare company: it’s the largest privately owned estate in D.C. that doesn’t house the president, and it’s only open to the public for special events. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) runs Twin Oaks now, using it to host Taiwanese diplomatic and cultural events. This year, TECRO…

When the Newseum opened this summer, some commentators reminded us that museums are places to house the archaic, outdated, and the useless—what a perfect place for print media! Hearing President George W. Bush speak at the dedication of the renovated and renewed Smithsonian National Museum of American History gave us that same feeling; in just a couple of months, he, too, will begin the tenuous fade into history and will eventually be remembered vaguely by…

When the Newseum opened this summer, some commentators reminded us that museums are places to house the archaic, outdated, and the useless—what a perfect place for print media! Hearing President George W. Bush speak at the dedication of the renovated and renewed Smithsonian National Museum of American History gave us that same feeling; in just a couple of months, he, too, will begin the tenuous fade into history and will eventually be remembered vaguely by…

The National Press Club’s book fair is tomorrow afternoon, where for $5 (or free, if you’re a member) you can shmooze with over 80 authors from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The full list of authors includes Sen. Mel Martinez, Kerry Kennedy, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Illustrator Wendell Minor will be there, too, as will celebrity chefs like Barbara Fairchild and José Andrés. If you’re looking to get your significant other’s favorite author to…

Slash Coleman Has Big Matzo Balls is weird. Weird. But that’s because Slashtipher J. Coleman is weird. The one-man play is a representation of the playwright-actor-jazz pianist-author-comedian-painter’s Jewish, eccentric, and quick mind. It is a collection of one-liners and songs, audience participation and balls-to-the-wind gimmicks. Actually, the play is about Slash—he changed his name from Jeffrey after his Bar Mitzvah to include two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the name his grandfather, who survived…

On April 20, 1939, Billie Holiday recorded the song Strange Fruit. Written by a Jewish schoolteacher, Abel Meeropol, it became an instant hit and to this day serves as a poignant protest song against injustice. It is also an example—along with images of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walking arm in arm with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma—of one of the more celebrated characteristics of the peculiar African-American/Jewish-American relationship: that of two groups bonded by…

Anyone going to the Kennedy Center, the Watergate, George Washington University, or any other Foggy Bottom attraction should be sure to take a path down K Street, between 24th and 26th Streets NW. In the inaugural Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, the Foggy Bottom Association has installed twelve sculptures within the gardens and front yards of some of the neighborhood’s colorful homes. They are all contemporary works by D.C. metro area artists, and they contrast…

Sometimes the introduction to an historical event is better done with a smaller issue within the broader, chronological overview most museum exhibitions use. They help us forge a connection between our own familiar experiences and the vast unknowns of events we may not have been around to experience. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s newest special exhibition, The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936, serves as an alternative and compelling introduction into Holocaust studies. By going in-depth into…