Photo by geoff.greene.

Happy Columbus Day, Washington. (Unless you happen to be reading us in Hawaii, South Dakota, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands — in which case, good morning; or Canada — happy Canadian Thanksgiving!) A good number of you probably have the day off today, unless you work in this “private sector” thing that people keep talking about. But it’s still a federal holiday, so the usual provisions are in place. D.C.’s trash and recycling isn’t getting picked up today. (Pickup slides to the next day.) Parking meters in the District, street sweepers and MARC and VRE aren’t in service today either. (No free parking in MoCo, though.) Metrorail’s big Blue/Orange Line shutdown is still in effect this morning, however. (Metro says that the work is on schedule — though I’m sure that will be little solace to those of you who have been trying to get around the closures all weekend.) Various Columbus Day celebrations will be going on around town today, and there is a good chance that it will be quite hot out there — so if you do have the day off, enjoy wearing shorts or a sun dress.

Hail To The Goalpost: Alex Barron’s busy hands, Jason Avant’s butterfingers and now, a friendly goalpost at FedEx Field: the three things that have the Redskins at 3-2 and in first place in the division instead of at 0-5. It was a rather fortunate win for the Redskins yesterday, though their comeback was inspired yesterday afternoon — LaRon Landry and Graham Gano were definitely clutch against a beat-up Green Bay side. But it’s hard to get a read on how good this Redskins team actually is — at some point, this luck’s got to run out, right?

Is D.C. Too Quick To Settle Lawsuits?: In a bit of news that will probably encourage those who were considering a lawsuit against the District of Columbia, the Post’s Paul Schwartzman reports that the city doled out over $50 million in settlements between 2007 and 2009. In comparison, Montgomery County, which has nearly 400,000 more residents than D.C., only handed out $8.5 million in settlements during the same span. Schwartzman uncovered settlements for people who slipped outside Metro stations, improper arrests outside the Capitol, cyclists who were hit by trash cans thrown by sanitation workers, among others — the payments are usually much smaller than the plaintiffs claim, but they do add up and are an interesting commentary on the city’s bureaucracy. Aside from the obvious, the most interesting part of the story is the litigiousness of those who have gotten settlements: one man who earned a settlement told Schwartzman that if he called him again to ask about his suit, he’d “consider it harassment.”

Transformers Shooting Hits Arlington Today: The film crew in town to shoot scenes for Transformers 3 will hit up Arlington this afternoon before making its way to the National Mall for a full week of filming and street closures. Portions of Columbia Pike near the Air Force Memorial will be closed between 5 and 9 p.m. tonight. Authorities are suggesting that tonight might not be the best time to start your LaBeouf watch due to beefed-up security, but if you’re curious about when filming will be happening where, you should call 202-540-8039.

Briefly Noted: University of Maryland police plan to install more security cameras around campus…A wonkish account of D.C.’s bike-sharing redistribution…Wachovia unseats BoA as region’s biggest bank…How drugs get from Mexico to the D.C. suburbs…In breaking holiday weekend news: ‘Squirrels refuse medical care‘…Quote of the Year? “[Nudists are] just people who discover that some things are just a lot more fun to do without clothes.”

This Day in DCist: Last year, DCist was your official flu shot information clearinghouse; in 2008, two Cuban national soccer team players went AWOL before a match against the United States at RFK Stadium.