Photo by ep_jhu.

Good morning, Washington. I’m pretty sure that we all held this viewpoint informally: that David Simon, the man behind “The Wire,” one of, if not the best television shows of all time, is a pretty smart fella. But now that’s slightly more official — Simon is one of this year’s MacArthur Fellowship recipients, meaning he’ll get $500,000 to keep being the creative force that he is. Simon’s reaction, as documented in the Post, is priceless: when he received the call, he assumed that it’s secretive nature meant that he was being sued or had run over someone’s dog without knowing it. Simon’s reaction proves that the MacArthur Fellows, referred to in so many places as “geniuses,” are usually just regular folks who have a very special talent — for instance, the other locally-related MacArthur winners: Carol Padden, who studies signed languages, and Nicholas Benson, who has hand-carved letters on the World War II Memorial among other Washington buildings.

Takoma Park Council Votes To Alter Alcohol Sales Ban: The Maryland side of Takoma Park has had stringent alcohol laws on the books for over a century, but those laws might soon be changing. The city council voted last night to allow restaurants to sell takeout beer and wine, though they will maintain the ban on selling alcohol at retail locations. TBD’s Elahe Izadi reports that the state of Maryland shouldn’t have any issues with approving the new rules, but our experience with Maryland’s booze-averse legislature has us skeptical.

Wizards Open Practice: Everything you need to know about what Ted Leonsis’ ownership will mean for the Wizards was on display at the team’s Midnight Madness opening practice last night. Major college programs regularly hold their first practices of the season at midnight, but as far as we can tell, this is the first time that a NBA team has done it. Based on the reports we’re reading, it seems like it was a refreshingly cohesive event (the team all shook hands), in which players heartily interacted with the fans — the kind of outreach the Wizards could really stand to do a lot of after the year they had last season.

Crowdsourced Metro Names: Everyone’s a comedian; at least that’s the impression I got from the Metro station name suggestions that TBD solicited on Twitter. There are some pretty good ones, but I’m pretty sure that the person who suggested Clarendon be renamed “The ClizzleDizzle” probably needs his or her Twitter privileges revoked.

Briefly Noted: Two-year-old Maryland boy shoots himself with gun he found under a bed…Why do you want to destroy us, Department of Public Works? We’re just trying to have a good time…The rich never richer, the poor never poorer…’Do texting bans contribute to crashes?‘ Well, I’d guess it probably has more to do with the texting itself, but that’s just me.

This Day in DCist: Last year, the Council was considering legislation to allow property owners to ban smoking on sidewalks.