In the past year, authorities in Maryland and Virginia have taken an increasing number of calls related to bath salts, the chemical concoction that has been blamed in a number of freakish crimes around the country in recent months.

First it was cupcakes. And then food trucks. Now it’s fancy burger joints. We seem to have a thing for lining up to wait for food trends; the more widespread the trend, the longer the lines seem to get, ironically enough. A DCist tipster snapped a picture of the line today outside Bobby Flay’s new K Street burger joint, mere months after locals similarly lined up outside Dupont Circle’s Shake Shack. And just like…

If you’ve yet to read this hilarious trend story from the Awl about a phenomenon called “Icing Your Bro” — a thing at least a handful of people across the country are doing that involves forcing a friend to get down on one knee and down a Smirnoff Ice as fast as they can — do take a look.The rules are simple: hand a Smirnoff Ice (the warmer/more disgusting the flavor, the better) to a…

Photo by Mr. T in DC The Wall Street Journal has one of their career trends by ordinal list pieces today on where young people in the United States are deciding to move during the recession, and once again Washington, D.C. is at the top of the list. We’ve heard almost all of this before, but here’s why the newspaper says the D.C. area is the best option for young job seekers:Government hiring is…

Photo by yonas1 New trends and fads follow a predictable path in the Washington area. First there are pioneers, next come early adopters, then the general public and eventually, some time after that, the Washington Post. Once the Post gets around to publishing an article on the new trend or fad, you can bet that it’s only a matter of months before it’s completely over. So it has gone for the fixed-gear bicycle. Today…

Local favorites Le Loup came to the Black Cat Monday night as part of their short road trip with last night’s openers, Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos. At first glance, both bands seem to subscribe to the same basic trends in rock: the two bands feature a total of fifteen members between them, complete with non-traditional instrumentation. However, the comparisons ended there as the guys and gals from the District showed just how…

Mid-December has arrived, and with that comes the inevitable flood of best-of lists. The Washington Area Film Critics’ Association has, for the previous five years of its existence, been in the habit of trying to get their own list out ahead of most of the other critics’ societies. We can’t really blame them. Considering the fact that none of the critics from the city’s biggest newspaper are members, not to mention the fact that the…

Welcome back to work, Washington. Perhaps you’re struggling to focus this morning, having only barely recovered from the weekend’s Halloween festivities. Perhaps you just had a difficult time extricating yourself from your bed on this first cold morning of the year. Whatever the case may be, DCist recommends a strong cup of coffee with a dash of Rumbler to get your motor running today. The Rumbler is described as a “high-tech blaster” being used in…

Former editor-in-chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Here’s an interesting question to consider: is the District of Columbia becoming less diverse? With whites once again moving into the city, the question of the sustainability of the District’s multicultural heritage has been raised, but what do recent demographic shifts actually suggest about the future of a diverse D.C.? Over the past decade, the city as a whole has become less…

England’s “Britpop” movement in the mid-1990s has proven to be one of the most enduring music trends of recent memory. Checking the local club listings will reveal all sorts of dance nights aligning themselves with “Cool Britannia,” Creation Records and the like. Not many of the bands from that time are still together and making music though. The two stewards of the movement, Blur and Oasis, continue to release records now and then, although…