Patrick Mara (left) and Bryan Weaver. Photo by Robert Hernandez, courtesy squidpants.

Talk about crossing the aisle. This photograph, captured last August during the Columbia Heights Day festival at Harriet Tubman Elementary School, features recently announced At-Large Council candidates Patrick Mara, a Republican, and Bryan Weaver, a Democrat, posing after competing in the event’s cupcake eating contest. Your editor was in attendance for the contest (emceed by Adrian Fenty, who looked downright disgusted at the whole spectacle — and can attest that both men were relentless in their pursuit of glory.

Perhaps instead of simply suggesting toning down the rhetoric or sitting next to each other during the State of the Union, Congress could follow our politicians’ lead and engaging in some mandatory dessert-eating to build civility.