Photo by LaTur.

Every Sunday afternoon, I usually end up with a bunch of links that either didn’t have the juice or specifics to run on their own, or simply didn’t merit a ton of commentary outside of the facts presented. Often times, these stories melt together into a blur of little factoids that I barely remember come Monday morning. I find this annoying. Here’s an attempt to rectify the situation.

This weekend: let’s connect parking meters to questions of historical facade reconstruction, in six easy steps!

1. NBCWashington.com drops a man on the street segment about how the District is now back to ticketing drivers who don’t feed meters. Can you believe that no one really liked having to pay for parking again? I know, right?
2. More news for drivers, this geared toward those who use the Woodrow Wilson Bridge: You can now drive…fifty-fiiiiiiiiive. All the time, even.
3. But some people have definitely understood Sammy Hagar’s pain in recent times: The Frederick News-Post got a hold of some snowpocalypse-induced 911 calls about drivers. I’m sure the gentleman whose sister called in to tell emergency services that the “the last time anyone talked to him was seven hours ago, and he was almost out of gas” was excited to hear such enthusiasm for his safety.
4. Speaking of public safety, the Post profiles Tom Palmer, the Cato Institute fellow who was a plaintiff in the case that reversed the D.C. ban on handguns. (He drives a Smart car, so consider all my predispositions totally blown.) Palmer has now filed another suit against the city for the right to carry handguns in public. Palmer relays that a frightening confrontation in 1982 in which he drew a gun on a set of “thugs” convinced him that carrying a handgun was necessary for self-protection. Plus he is all about taking the Second Amendment as literally as humanly possible. I bet the Secret Service is absolutely thrilled about this. But really, I guess you can’t blame a guy for wanting the right tote around his first edition, laser-engraved commemorative “D.C. v. Heller” Smith and Wesson around.
5. You know who else has a gun? Stephen Strasburg. The pitcher on whose arm the entire future of the Nationals depends — but, hey, no pressure or anything dude — got in his first bullpen session at Nationals spring training today. Strasburg threw 37 pitches in eight minutes and, by all accounts, looked good.
6. Would this building look good with a link to the past? An interesting little post by Park View, D.C. about the destruction — and possible rebirth — of a historic facade on Georgia Avenue asks the question.