Last month we got a letter from reader Christine, who related the follwing story and asked us to look into it. I recently moved to Fairfax, VA to live with my parents until my marriage next month to a marine who is stationed at 8th and I Marine Barracks in SE. After their Friday evening parade, many of the guys like to grab a beer or two. This Friday, myself, my fiancee, and five others…

There are, of course, many criteria by which one can judge a photograph: form, composition, color, subject matter, context, or the viewer’s emotional response. In viewing Harry Benson: Being There, currently on display at Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery, it is not Benson’s technical ability as a photographer that impresses, but his uncanny ability to be present when historic moments occur and then place himself…

Two years ago, I heard an interesting piece on public radio about a one-woman play that was in the middle of a critically successful run at Manhattan Ensemble Theater. I had missed the introduction of the segment but listened raptly as the author, whose voice sounded very familiar, described how she had come to write a show about the lives of Iraqi women during the American military occupations. My jaw hit the floor at the…

MONDAY >> Monday welcomes the Fictionista Book Tour to Washington, D.C., featuring readings from Josie Brown (True Hollywood Lies), Kayla Perrin (Gimme an O!) and Stephanie Lessing (She’s Got Issues). Good gravy! All that chicklit in one place? Does it get any better? Oh, people. It does. The event is taking place at the Hard Rock Café — and that means Aerosmith-themed quesadillas. 999 E. St NW., 7 p.m. TUESDAY >> In her book, Nickel…