MONDAY: Jerome Groopman — a New Yorker staff writer, best-selling author and professor at Harvard Medical School — will be at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue to discuss his latest collection of essays, How Doctors Think. If they’re like our favorite television doctor, it’s probably “What’s the best way to humiliate my employees today?” 7 p.m. $6 TUESDAY: Min Jin Lee will be at the Johns Hopkins University-SAIS Bernstein-Offit Building to read from her…

Good Morning, Washington. Birds may finally be heading south for the winter now that overnight temperatures are dipping down towards freezing, but if you can believe it or not it’s actually looking like Wednesday is going to be warm again, with temperatures predicted to be back up in the 70s. Well, at least if it’s going to be tough to find a cab tomorrow, it’ll be pleasant enough to walk or bike. CapitalWeather.com points out…

It’s that time of the year again, when every choral group in the city has a Lenten concert, an Easter concert, or a Holy Week concert. We start this week with some of the best ones for the upcoming week. PREACHING FROM THE CHOIR: >> When the first concert on the list requires a trip to Baltimore, you know that it is going to be good. The Tallis Scholars, one of the best choral groups…

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg has been president of the George Washington University for 19 years, raising the school’s profile tremendously and turning into it the city’s largest private employer. The city even named December 4th “Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Day.” Holidays aside, SJT’s tenure has not come without some controversy, generally stemming from Foggy Bottom residents, who complain that the university is too large and unresponsive. But come August 1, Trachtenberg won’t be president anymore. Trachtenberg announced…

MONDAY: >> We’ve been hearing an awful lot about certain journalists who’ve spent superfluous time in jail for ideals they supposedly believe in — but, before you make any contributions to that gravy train, why not hear from Marie-Helene Carleton, who’ll be in town discussing the travails of her filmmaker partner Micah Garen, who was taken hostage in Iraq in 2003. Even if you’re an avid news junkie, there’s still a lot you don’t know…

Over the next couple weeks, classical music fans, the last few concert series and performing groups will begin their regular seasons. When there is an abundance of things to hear, we try to select the best of them for this weekly post. As always, you can find a complete concert listing, each week in the Classical Music in Washington feature at Ionarts. Looking ahead, our complete listing for the month of October is full of…

Classical Music Agenda by DCist contributor Charles T. Downey of Ionarts If you have not done your civic duty and Taken a Friend to the Orchestra yet this month, Washington is not the place to try to make that happen in late May. We don’t have much to suggest for your classical listening pleasure this week, but you can keep yourself informed by following our Classical Week in Washington column at Ionarts. FREE CONCERTS: >>…

(Classical music agenda by DCist contributor Charles T. Downey of Ionarts) Having done this agenda a couple times as a bimonthly column, we feel like we don’t talk to you people regularly enough. Some readers have wondered why DCist is covering classical music, but we also know that other readers have gone to concerts suggested here and rediscovered a latent interest in things classical. Therefore, we resolve to give you a look at the concerts…

Today will be mostly sunny blustery and cold with highs around 30. This photo of Lafayette Park was taken by Thomas Michael Corcoran. D.C. Government: Rolling in Dough: D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi announced yesterday that the D.C. government had a surplus of $318 million in 2004 and has amassed $1.2 billion in savings. After withholding most to accommodate for expected increases in healthcare for city employees and other expenses, Gandhi is…

A 21-year-old Johns Hopkins University senior was found dead in her Baltimore apartment last Sunday, apparently murdered by an intruder. Linda Trinh was from Silver Spring and graduated from Springbrook High School in Montgomery County. The university has posted a letter on their website to students, faculty, and staff on her death, describing Trinh as … well-known, widely admired, liked and respected. She was a biomedical engineering major, former president of her sorority and a…