President Barack Obama held up cards with random words and the MacArthur-appointed genius strung them together.

In a time-honored holiday tradition.

On Saturday, the White House threw open its gates to any and all visitors for one of the two garden tours it hosts each year.

FRIDAY: >> We don’t usually hype big studio movies in the Picks, but when faced with a certain kind of reptile on a specific form of transportation — there’s not much you can do but cross your fingers it doesn’t turn out to suck and jump on the hype train (err, plane). More specifically, literally dozens of local D-list Internet celebrities will be attending the 10:10 p.m. screening of Snakes on a Plane at the…

(Editor’s Note: In DCist’s pursuit of trying out new features, we’re going to introduce something we call Weekend Reading — essentially we’re going to point you to what papers are featuring in their Sunday editions, or in case of The Financial Times, their Saturday/Sunday edition. There isn’t necessarily anything local here, but considering reading the Sunday papers can be a recreational activity to some in this city, we think it could be of use. Editors…