Good morning, Washington, and welcome to Friday. There’s nothing like a nationally televised address about troop levels to put you in a mood for a sound night’s sleep heading into the weekend, isn’t there? Certainly we would never have tossed and turned contemplating the “sinister ingenuity” that allows President Bush to escalate a war and then de-escalate it a year later without ever having a plan to successfully end it, and yet be able…

If the new super-posh retail (think Jimmy Choo’s, Tiffany’s, etc.) and condo construction going on in Upper Northwest have deterred you from venturing further up the western side of the Red Line, it’s time to buck up and take a trip to the D.C./Maryland line to Indique Heights — the new bigger and better outpost of Cleveland Park’s Indique. The highly praised work of chef and co-owner K.N. Vinod is worth braving the urine-tinged smell…

It’s official — winter is over. Today is the Vernal Equinox, the day that daytime and nighttime are of equal length. But Mother Nature isn’t one to make things easy on us. Our friends at Capital Weather are reporting that tomorrow might be particularly winter-like — the temperature won’t break 40, and we may even get some snow. So, enjoy today’s mild weather as long as you can. Man Killed at Shaw Metro Station:…

Whether it’s pizza, slurpees, or wifi, getting something for nothing is a thrill that few can resist. There’s just something about the allure of the freebie that somehow multiplies the value of the object a hundredfold. Every time free cone day rolls around, we all stand in line for more time than it would take to make the ice cream ourselves (including the necessary cow milking). But who are we kidding? We love free stuff,…

Yesterday’s discussion in the comments served as an interesting reminder of how, despite gentrification, the District remains largely divided. How many residents of Upper Northwest have had a drink at Georgena’s Restaurant & Bar (once known as Player’s Lounge)? Similarly, how many Fort Dupont residents frequent Bourbon? Though certainly due in part to geography, the plain fact of the matter is that divisions in D.C. remain, and can be the cause of much strife. Just…

We picked up this little tidbit via Laura Rozen’s blog, War and Piece. It seems that folks in a diplomat-heavy neighborhood in Upper Northwest are less than pleased that one of the chief architects — one Paul Wolfowitz — of the Iraq war is staging a very different sort of “invasion and occupation” in their neck o’ the woods, as the Post mentioned this past week. The reason? A not-so-secret romance with Arab feminist and…

Yesterday’s Animal Watch in the Post had an interesting item about an orange corn snake being found in a hallway at an apartment building in the 4200 block of Cathedral Avenue. If we’re guessing correctly, we think that the apartment building in question is The Towers, that cocoon-like building in Wesley Heights that is stuck in an era circa 1966. If you don’t know much about this magical place, we encourage you to read part…

Amid the media attention focusing on last week’s Inauguration, the Congressionally chartered home mortgage loan giant Fannie Mae announced it pulled out of its plans to move some of its staff to Southwest D.C. Hailed as one of the key pieces to spur redevelopment in the vicinity of the Waterside Mall on M Sreeet SW, a Fannie spokesman says “[t]he decision is one of several actions Fannie Mae has taken to reduce future costs in…

Upper Northwest Residents May Be Sickened by WWI-era Chemicals: A survey by the Northwest Current of 345 households in the Spring Valley area found 131 current or former cases of “chronic” diseases. Some residents think the illnesses are caused by chemicals contaminating the soil in the area from the World War I American University Experiment Station, where hundreds of scientists developed chemical weapons in a 600-acre area, including chlorine, chloride, cyanide, Lewisite, mustard gas and…

While the race for the White House will dominate the Election Night coverage, the future of the Senate hangs in the balance tomorrow as voters in a handful of states will determine who will control the chamber. But the Republicans seem that they will likely hold on to their majority, though it will be very slim. South Dakota: After the Bush-Kerry matchup, all eyes will be on the Mount Rushmore State. There, former Rep. John…