Nothing to LoseDear Neighbors: Police Commish Larry Soulsby said in yesterday’s Washington Post that his goal "is to have every District resident on a first-name basis with at least one member of the police department." I just hope that member isn’t an officer arresting you for some petty infraction. ***** I have about 20 more free passes to distribute for a preview screening of NOTHING TO LOSE. It’s playing June 30 at the Cineplex Odeon West End (1101 23rd Street, NW, Washington, DC) at 7:30 PM. To be eligible for a reservation, send me an email message to story@intr.net with "NOTHING TO LOSE" in the subject line. In the body of the text, write your name---last name first (e.g. Itell Jeffrey). I will respond to all requests by email. Please note the passes are good for you and a guest. Free passes are often available on the dc.movie mailing list. Send an email message to story@intr.net with dc.movie in the message to subscribe. Cheers, '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Fron the Desk of Carl Bergman *** When asked about discipline for officers who filed false tax returns, Chief Soulsby said he would wait until the courts acted. They have in about 40 cases. The Chief? Silent. Sends a great message to those who played it straight. *** Watergate: A Tale of Two Carls It was a cold day in January 1969 when Richard Nixon took the presidential oath. No one wanted to be outside, especially Carl Bernstein. His desk had different ideas. Standing in the District building press room you could hear an editor screaming at Carl through the phone. After several lame excuses, Carl tells them, he can’t go outside because he has no gloves. You didn’t need to know the words to understand the reply. Covering the mouthpiece, Bernstein queries the assembled for a pair of gloves. Silence. I’d learned better, in a year on Council staff, than to lend him money or cigarettes. Oh what the hell, I give him my gloves, but tell him he must return them tomorrow or else. Yeah, sure. Tuesday. No Carl. No Gloves. Call the post, Carl tells me he gave them to Irna Moore, the Post’s District Building regular. Irna’s says she never saw Bernstein and the only gloves she has are her own. I try Carl once more. He repeats the Irna story. I give up and buy another pair. Three years later, Watergate is the country’s big story. I run into Carl at Adams Morgan Day. Hey, Carl. Hey Carl. Uh, Carl when are you going to pay me for the gloves? "I told you, I gave them to Irna." He walks off. You can almost admire someone who can remember his alibis so quickly. Almost, but not quite. **** The Future Of Rock Creek Park Anyone interested in the future of Rock Creek Park should check out http://www.nps.gov/rocr/gmpnewsletter3/toc.htm. Four "alternative scenarios" for the future management of the park have been proposed, and you can give feedback to the park service through a form on the web site. There are "open house" meetings at the Nature Center Wednesday the 25th from 6 to 9 pm and Saturday the the 28th from 10 to 3 pm. Some of the plans would dramatically change the way the Park could be used as a commuter route. Although I am a reverse car commuter through the park, I favor making the park more biker-friendly during rush hour. I do not bike to work because I think beach drive is too dangerous during rush hour - the traffic is too heavy and there are no shoulders. One solution would be to make beach drive one way inbound during morning rush hour and outbound during evening rush hour — leaving the other lane clear for bikers. This would not affect car commuters (except a few reverse car commuters like myself) and would make bicycle commuting much easier. **** Demise It is interesting to see the outpouring of sadness concerning the demise of WDCU and the total lack of concern about the demise of UDC (even though the latter precipitated the former). Tells a bit about the priorities of the group here … their own personal music tastes and memories being a tad more important than the potential education of kids here in the inner city. **** Jazz Radio Thang I’m not trying to start any trouble here — really, honestly! — but there _is_ still a _real_ jazz station around here, WPFW 89.3. No Kenny G, no bullshit, no "smooth jazz", but an excellent blues and R&B show on Saturday morning, and a "crucial" reggae program on Sunday evenings (unless they’ve moved it). And as far as somebody’s crack about "leftist talk", I think it’s about time somebody tried to counter all the half-truth and flat-out b.s. being dished out by the likes of Limbaugh and Oliver North (and kicking myself for not taping Pacifica’s interview with Gary Webb). A few hours in the middle of the day is well worth the wait for an evening full of jazz that’s serious as a heart attack. And, with the obvious exception of pledge weeks, not a commercial to be found. **** WDCU Record LibraryTom Berry tom@berrybest.com Stan Wellborn is not alone in his concern for the WDCU record library, particularly the vast collection of records left to the institution by the late Felix Grant. Several friends are similarly upset. One has raised a valid question that prompted me to call WDCU for an answer. He wondered if Mr. Grant bequethed his library to the station or the school. Fear not jazz fans. The Felix Grant Archives are housed in a different building and are not part of the station’s assets. Unfortunately, when the station is sold we will no longer hear any of those tunes on the air. Maybe we’ll have access to the collection if we enroll for a course or two at UDC. Imagine the headlines: "Station Sold...Enrollment Doubles at UDC!" **** Friends From The ‘burbs Tom Berry tom@berrybest.com I have always laid blame for the District’s ills squarely on the shoulders of Congress. All roads lead and fingers point right to the Hill. Last Monday’s (6-23-97) Washington Post Business Section helped reinforce those feelings. Rudolph Pyatt had an excellent column about business and government leaving the District. It was headlined "Now Playing Again in Virginia: Raiders of the Lost Federal Job Base." And Mr. Pyatt didn’t mince words. He took Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the House Government Oversight subcommittee on the District, to task for signing a letter to GSA explaining why Virginia was a better location than Southeast DC for new ATF headquarters. This suggested reading terminated with the following high-powered sentence. "The District’s economy is being strip-mined by Davis, Warner and other political hypocrites who pretend to be friends of the District." Little by little the economic erosion continues. **** Trash Nick Keenan gave us some useful tips for trash pickup and wrote: "They are more likely to take non-conforming stuff on the second pickup of the week." How very nice for those other District residents that even get a second pickup! I have lived in the District for 8+ years and have not lived in an area that has even suggested 2x weekly pickup. How do we unfortunate folks get the second trash pickup by paying the same taxes? Do we have to move to a a more select area? ***** Second* Pickup Of The Week? Where does Nick Keenan live, that they pick up his trash twice a week? **** Bulk Trash Pick Up Bulk trash pick up is done "by appointment only." If you want bulk trash picked up, you need to call and request pick up. The phone number is 727-4600. Yard waste, however, is not considered bulk trash. The official policy on yard waste: Yard waste should be bagged and set out with your regular trash. They will pick up 3-5 bags at a time (don’t ask me how they decide 3, 4, or 5). Also, if the bags are "too heavy" they might not pick them up. **** Regarding Watergate…Dean Costello costello@earthlink.net Since I was a bit young at the time (the ripe age of 7 at the time of the break-in, and 9 at the time of the resignation), that I only have some snippets of memories: ---I remember getting home from school, seeing my father watching the hearings, utterly transfixed, and asking Dad, "Who’s John Dean?" ---I remember, after I broke a lamp, that Dad asked me why I had done that. I replied with something like, "It was already at the edge of the table already, Daddy. It just fell." Dad said, "Don’t give me these excuses." I answered, "But the Watergate guys on TV give excuses." ---I remember my family going on vacation in early August 1974, reading the "New York Times" each morning at breakfast, and the Old People at the hotel (since I was 9 they must have been well into their 30s...) explaining how the resignation process works. ---I remember watching television a couple of days later, and seeing Nixon getting into the helicopter and leaving the White House. To this day, after seeing that, the final evacuation of Vietnam, and the Desert One event in Iran, I mentally associate helicopters with failure. **** Nixon Many of us genX-ers feel the same way about Clinton that you [Jeffrey Itell] do about Nixon - except his hypocrisy, ambition, cowardice, and flatulent rhetoric CONFIRM our impressions of the previous generation, rather than shatter any illusions. **** Oh, No, Not More Watergate Wallering I was fifteen, living in a brand-new little box on the hillside near Dulles Airport — just finishing my freshman year of high school — when this all broke loose. Somebody else here noted seeing a seemingly minor item in the Post when first reported, but when I caught the action for the first time on the ubiquitous 6 o’clock news that evening, it had already started to go big-time. I was already in a kind of a hate-Nixon groove because of Vietnam and Agnew’s bad-mouthing the anti-war dissidents and the administration’s attitude about dissent in general. Nixon resigned the summer before my senior year. Almost every event of an American teenager’s life then was accompanied by sordid, disgusting — sometimes horrifying — revelations about the actions of government officials and the almost Monty Python-esque spin they tried to put on it. It was just a few weeks before the start of my senior year when El Presidente resigned. It was summer vacation and, as there was no school and wasn’t scheduled at my job that day, I did what any sloppy, long-haired, red-blooded American teenager was doing — sleeping until noon. It was so weird; I was so cranked for all this big drama, I knew the big shoes were going to drop soon, but when it actually went down, I almost _slept_ through the damn’ thing. My mother had to stand on the stairs and bang on the door and yell "Mike !MIKE!! Wake up! Turn on the radio!!" So, I rolled over and turned on the radio, just in time to hear the part of the speech where Nixon was talking about how his mother was a saint. He was talking in clipped, sharp phrases, with a sort of choking, croaking, sobbing voice, and as it was just after noon and I had WMAL on the dial, I thought at first that it was Paul Harvey, telling another one of his down-home sob stories — until I started hearing lots of remarks about the Presidency and Gerald Ford, by which time I was finally awake enough to grok what was going on. Cripes, what an undignified way to experience history. **** Fought the Good Fight? I have to say I’m a little amused that "Heading for the hills" feels like they went the long haul in DC after four years. I’ve been here for 20 and it still feels like I’m not familiar with half of the city’s neighborhoods or issues. I’ve lived in several places, in good neighborhoods and bad. If you’re here long enough you get a sense that it’s worth waiting for the come-back (and it’s bound to come—am I idealistic or what?!). The more I’m here, the more I appreciate the native Washingtonians and the long-termers for their passion for this place. Maybe there’s a cut-off point, after which you just have to stay because there’s just too much invested. Anyway, bring on the next challenge! It’s a good place to live. **** Federal Building Security As one that worked in the Pentagon for 5 years, we too were often alarmed at how easy entrance was without an ID. They used to have ID’s without a picture, if you can believe it, so anyone finding one around town or on the metro had access. That is better now, but I still would never see the guards looking at each and every ID; with 30,000 employees, just too much hassle, I guess. **** Left on Red I received a ticket in D. C. for taking a left turn on a red light from one one-way street onto another one-way street (after coming to a complete stop). It is legal everywhere else where a right on red is legal (same principal applies), but I can’t seem to find the specific municipal code which states that this is not legal in D. C. I am contesting the ticket and have a court date in August. It seems that everyone I’ve asked thinks left on red is not permitted but no one has been able to support it with the proper code. The officer just charged me with a running a red light violation. The Virginia code specifically permits it, but Ican’t find a provision in the DC code. Can anyone help me? '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' dc.queries "Do you have a guitar sitting around your house/apartment that you picked up once fifteen years ago and haven’t touched since? If so, would you be willing to part with it for the summer? I left my guitar in a distant place and would like to borrow one for the summer. I’m looking for an acoustic model, and would prefer steel strings. If you have such a thing, please contact me at (202) 546-5212. I promise I’ll take good care of it! Cheryl Donahue cdonahue@intr.net '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' dc.events Ann Krauss Memorial Concert Saturday, June 28th, 6:30 PM. Sacred Vocal Music at St. Thomas Apostle. 2665 Woodley Road (at 27th Street) NW. Free! Good Will offerings will be received. Selections from Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Final Trio from Gounod’s Faust, Spirituals, etc. Call Thomas Cowan 202-483-3693. Hank Wallace, Esq. hwallace@counsel.com **** Free Yoga Classes Free classes in yoga, T’ai Chi, Synergy Dance, and other types of movement are being offered July 7-9 by SpiralFlight, a center for yoga and the arts. The schedule of classes is as follows: On Monday, July 7, T’ai Chi Chih at 5:45 PM and Rune Yoga at 7:00 PM. On Tuesday, July 8, Gentle Yoga I at 6:00 PM, Yoga II/III AT 7:15 PM, and Expressive Dance of Yoga at 8:45 PM. On Wednesday, July 9, Synergy Dance at 9:45 AM, Transformative Dance at 5:45 PM, Brain/Body Balancing at 7:00 PM, and Power Yoga at 8:00 PM. Call SpiralFlight at (202) 965-1645 for more information and to register for classes (space is limited). SpiralFlight is located at 1726 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., in Georgetown. Lorie Leavy lleavy@email.usps.gov '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' dc.market Need A/C Looking for a used but functional a/c window unit, large enough to cool up to 1,000 square feet. Anyone installed central air lately? Andrea Carlson BintaGay@aol.com **** Office/Studio Space Wanted Our home office is outgrowing our home, so we’d like to find a space to set up a one-desk shop. We’re especially interested in places within walking distance of the west arm of Metro’s red line (from Farragut to Bethesda) or in Adams Morgan. A sink would be a big plus. Please e-mail me if you know of a spot. John Keefe jkeefe@online.discovery.com **** House History Can you answer when people ask you about your house or building history? Find out! A professional house history narrative, complete with copies of your building permit, first deed, maps, and sometimes even historic photographs. A terrific and unusual gift. Our prices range from $450 to $600 for the average DC townhouse. Call or contact us with your address for a free estimate, or visit http://www.ustreet.com/pkelsey. Kelsey & Associates 202-462-6251. Paul K. Williams PkelseyW@aol.com **** Computers Buying one shouldn’t be so scary. Setting one up shouldn’t be so scary. Getting on the Internet shouldn’t be so scary. Jeffrey Itell Story@intr.net 202.244.4163 ================= dc.story is a discussion group. 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