You know it’s too late for your civil liberties when they’ve gone and put the Statue of Freedom in a cage. And you thought all those people worried about the PATRIOT Act were alarmists. If you haven’t glanced at the top of the Capitol lately, take a gander. Over the past week, workers have constructed scaffolding around the Statue of Freedom—the 19 ½ foot bronze sculpture atop the Capitol Dome—not in preparation for her trip…

Just how do you recruit a 19-year-old woman to live in a studio apartment atop a big chair in Southeast Washington? This was the incredible feat achieved by Charles Wendell Curtis, who the Post profiles in an obituary today. Curtis was the man who built Anacostia’s 19 1/2 foot tall Big Chair in 1959 to promote his family’s furniture store. The original chair — when built touted as the World’s Largest Chair — was replaced…

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don’t even front like they don’t. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don’t have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the…