With military recruitment numbers continuing to spiral downward, this week’s quote of the week got us thinking. All the military really needs is better marketing. You can’t really envy their task in trying to get people to sign up for an unpopular war. Maybe they need to play down the grim realities. Play up the softer side of the military. Use things like the volleyball montage from Top Gun to show that doing your duty…

Let’s admit it- springtime brings out the fuzzy side of D.C., DCist and our DCist Flickr pool — amidst the number of blooming flowers and cute animals photographs, Andertho’s photo of ducklings in the Reflecting Pool caught our eye. Perhaps it’s that two of the little fellas seem to be looking right at us and quizzicly (and identically) asking: “watcha doin’ out there? come on in…” We’d join ya, but we happen to know…

This morning DCist Ryan found a story in the New York Times about the lack of public restrooms in Gotham City. DCist Michael said he’d recently observed a tourist relieving himself in Washington Circle, and theorized that this might also be a problem in our nation’s capital. I then asked if I could come forward and tell a story I had never told anyone. Way back in the twentieth century, as a high school kid…

As we mentioned yesterday, next Monday, April 16 is the long-awaited Voting Rights March. Activists, residents and supporters will take an afternoon to demand that Congress finally do something to remedy the 200-year-old disenfranchisement of the District’s residents. We’d like to see as many people out there as possible, but we recognize that it’s hard to take an entire afternoon off, regardless of how good the cause is. Fear not, though — you may only…

All too often, for the sake of diplomacy, people don’t say what they really mean. Some institutions (i.e. Congress) have turned this into an art form, couching the most egregious of insults in flowery language. Fun to parse, but not very straightforward. Now imagine a world in which everyone comes right out and says what they mean. We here at Overheard would love that because it would give us a lot more material with which…

With the warmer weather comes the time for the National Mall to be jam-packed with people seeking to soak in all that our nation’s capital has to offer. While the museums and monuments beckon to all, it has been argued for some time now that the Mall, which is run by the National Park Service, needs a little revamping….

For those out there who hate Thievery Corporation and Ted Leo but love freedom, the Pentagon is offering an alternative to Operation Ceasefire. None other than country music legend Clint Black will headline a concert in support of the military and Sept. 11 victims on the four-year anniversary of the attacks. The concert, named “America Supports You,” will follow up the Department of Defense’s two-mile Freedom Walk from the Pentagon to Arlington National Cemetery to…

FRIDAY: >> The Sixpoints Music Festival, which highlights good local music played at good local venues, continues this weekend. Make sure to check out the schedule here and support your local music scene. >> Ross Douthat, blogger extraordinaire and reporter at The Atlantic Monthly, managed to pull a pretty nifty trick: he attended Harvard, reaped the rewards of the degree, and then got a hefty advance to write “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the…

Since this DCist grew up in lake effect snow country, we always get a chuckle out of local reaction to an incoming snow storm. And this one, where snowfall predictions seemed to haved increased to panic levels, petered out at a modest four inches or so. (See Capital Weather for a detailed analysis of different forecasts, and check out what our friends are dealing with up in New York.) So to all those people…

We realize that some of you may have taken an extended four-day weekend for the Veterans Day holiday, so here’s some of what you may have missed since your last visit. (DCist photo of Reflecting Pool at dusk Sunday by Mike Grass) >> Center for Science in the Public Interest classifies Cheesecake Factory no-carb cheesecake as “food porn.” >> The NTSB scolded WMATA back in 1996 about the possibility of train cars falling apart…