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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/26/AR2006052601773.html
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Former Aide To Jefferson Gets 8 Years
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A federal judge sentenced Brett Pfeffer, a former aide to Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), to eight years in prison and a $24,000 fine yesterday for bribing the lawmaker, saying, "It would be difficult to overstate the seriousness of this offense."
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria told Pfeffer that his cooperation with authorities in the investigation could result in a significant reduction in his sentence. Supporters in the courtroom included Pfeffer's father and Washington Redskins quarterback Mark Brunell.
Pfeffer, 38, of Herndon, was a legislative aide to Jefferson from 1995 to 1998. He pleaded guilty Jan. 11 to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and aiding and abetting the bribery of a public official in 2004 and 2005. It involved bribing Jefferson to promote high-tech business ventures in Africa.
Jefferson, 59, the subject of a 14-month federal bribery investigation, has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing. But court documents allege he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his congressional influence to promote high-tech business ventures in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.
In 2004, Pfeffer asked Jefferson to suggest investments for his boss, Lori Mody. Jefferson introduced Pfeffer to an official of iGate Inc., a Louisville-based company that planned to market technology for cable television and the Internet in Africa.
Mody agreed to invest $3.5 million. Jefferson, in exchange for using his congressional influence to promote the venture, demanded a 5 to 7 percent stake, Pfeffer told the judge in January. He said Jefferson also demanded that relatives be put on the payroll.
In March 2005, Mody became suspicious and agreed to cooperate with the FBI and wear a recording device.
In addition to Pfeffer, iGate owner Vernon L. Jackson, 53, has pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson. He has not been sentenced.
Yesterday, Pfeffer told Ellis that he has wondered endlessly why he did not have the sense to look Jefferson "in the eye and say 'no' " and "why I allowed myself to take his demands to my boss."
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Get Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland and national news. Get the latest/breaking news, featuring national security, science and courts. Read news headlines from the nation and from The Washington Post. Visit www.washingtonpost.com/nation today.
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In Haditha, Memories of a Massacre
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BAGHDAD, May 26 -- Witnesses to the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha say the Americans shot men, women and children at close range in retaliation for the death of a Marine lance corporal in a roadside bombing.
Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, recalled hearing his neighbor across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for his life and the lives of his family members. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " Fahmi said. "But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."
The 24 Iraqi civilians killed on Nov. 19 included children and the women who were trying to shield them, witnesses told a Washington Post special correspondent in Haditha this week and U.S. investigators said in Washington. The girls killed inside Khafif's house were ages 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1, according to death certificates.
Two U.S. military boards are investigating the incident as potentially the gravest violation of the law of war by U.S. forces in the three-year-old conflict in Iraq. The U.S. military ordered the probes after Time magazine presented military officials in Baghdad this year with the findings of its own investigation, based on accounts of survivors and on a videotape shot by an Iraqi journalism student at Haditha's hospital and inside victims' houses.
An investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service into the killings and a separate military probe into an alleged coverup are slated to end in the next few weeks. Marines have briefed members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and other officials on the findings; some of the officials briefed say the evidence is damaging. Charges of murder, dereliction of duty and making a false statement are likely, people familiar with the case said Friday.
"Marines overreacted . . . and killed innocent civilians in cold blood," said one of those briefed, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a former Marine who maintains close ties with senior Marine officers despite his opposition to the war.
Haditha is one of a chain of farm towns on the Euphrates River where U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled foreign and local insurgents without resolution for much of the war. The first account of the killings there was a false or erroneous statement issued the next day, Nov. 20, by a U.S. Marine spokesman from a Marine base in Ramadi: "A U.S. Marine and 15 civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb in Haditha. Immediately following the bombing, gunmen attacked the convoy with small arms fire. Iraqi army soldiers and Marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another.''
The incident was touched off when a roadside bomb struck a Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment supply convoy. The explosion killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, who was on his second tour of duty in Iraq. Following in the footsteps of two Marine uncles and a Marine grandfather, Terrazas had planned to go to college when it was all done, his family said.
Insurgents planted the bomb on a side road off one of Haditha's main streets, placing it between two vacant lots to try to avoid killing -- and further alienating -- Haditha's civilians, residents said. It went off at 7:15 a.m. Terrazas was driving the Humvee, and he died instantly. Two other Marines in the convoy were wounded.
"Everybody agrees that this was the triggering event. The question is: What happened afterward?" said Paul Hackett, an attorney for a Marine officer with a slight connection to the case.
The descriptions of events provided to The Post by witnesses in Haditha could not be independently verified, although their accounts of the number of casualties and their identities were corroborated by death certificates.
In the first minutes after the shock of the blast, residents said, silence reigned on the street of walled courtyards, brick homes and tiny palm groves. Marines appeared stunned, or purposeful, as they moved around the burning Humvee, witnesses said.
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Iraqi townspeople describe the slaying of 24 civilians by Marines in Nov. 19 incident.
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British War Critic Says Killing Blair 'Justifiable'
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LONDON, May 26 -- George Galloway, a member of Parliament and fierce critic of the U.S. and British role in the Iraq war, said Friday that he understood how someone angry about the war could find it "morally justifiable" to kill Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"From the point of view of someone who has seen their country invaded and their family blown apart, it's possible, of course, for them to construct a moral justification," Galloway said in a statement published on the Web site of his Respect party. "But I've made my position clear. I would not support anyone seeking to assassinate the prime minister."
A Blair spokesman, traveling with the prime minister in Washington, said Blair had no comment. "We may think a lot about it, but we're not going to say anything about it," the spokesman said, speaking on the condition of anonymity as is standard practice here.
Galloway has emerged as one of the most controversial politicians in Britain since being thrown out of Blair's Labor Party in 2003 for urging British troops to refuse to fight in Iraq.
Galloway is perhaps best known in Washington for his appearance in May 2005 before a U.S. Senate committee investigating allegations that he profited in the United Nations oil-for-food program, in which Iraq was allowed to sell oil under U.N. supervision. Galloway used the appearance to make a theatrical and fiery denunciation of the U.S. justification for the Iraq war as a "pack of lies."
Galloway is seen as an eccentric radical by many members of the British political establishment but commands respect in the largely Muslim constituency in London he represents in Parliament.
His reputation among critics reached new lows this year when he appeared on "Celebrity Big Brother," a reality television show, and crawled on all fours pretending to be a cat and licking imaginary milk out of the cupped hands of another cast member.
Galloway's comments Friday, when he was reportedly traveling in Cuba, came in response to questions over an upcoming interview in GQ magazine, in which he is quoted as saying an assassination attempt on Blair "would be entirely logical and explicable -- and morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq as Blair did."
"I respect the guy for speaking up for the oppressed," said Asghar Bukhari of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, which advocates Muslim involvement in the democratic process. "But I don't think this particular thing does much for the cause."
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World news headlines from the Washington Post, including international news and opinion from Africa, North/South America, Asia, Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather, news in Spanish, interactive maps, daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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Iraq Backs Iran On Nuclear Goal
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BAGHDAD, May 26 -- Iraq's foreign minister said Friday that Iran had the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses but that he hoped for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has strained Iran's relations with the United States.
"We think there is a principle, which is that the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries have the right to possess nuclear technology if it is for peaceful purposes," Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said at a televised news conference in Baghdad with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.
At the same news conference, Mottaki said Iran had changed its stance on holding direct talks with the United States on the Iraq situation. "The American side tried to use this decision as propaganda, and they raised some other issues," he said. "They tried to create a negative atmosphere, and that's why the decision which was taken is suspended for the time being."
While trying to assuage fears that the United States and Iran are headed for war, Mottaki renewed Iranian vows that force would be met with force.
"The risk of a confrontation is minimal," Mottaki said, "but in the event that Americans attack Iran from anywhere, Iran will respond by attacking them in the place that we were attacked from."
A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad declined to comment on the foreign ministers' statements.
The government of Iran, a Shiite Muslim theocracy on Iraq's eastern border, has said it is developing nuclear power for electricity. The U.S. government opposes the move on the grounds that Iran's hard-line leaders could use the technology to develop atomic weapons.
Zebari's statement was a surprising show of independence from the United States, the main backer of the newly formed Iraqi government. The United States has roughly 133,000 troops in Iraq and has poured more than $20 billion into reconstruction of the country's decrepit infrastructure.
Nevertheless, the Iraqi government, dominated by a Shiite majority, also has close ties to Iran despite fighting a war with that country from 1980 to 1988 that left an estimated 1 million people dead. Many of Iraq's Shiite leaders spent time in exile in Iran during President Saddam Hussein's reign, returning to Iraq only after a U.S.-led coalition toppled Hussein's government in 2003.
There are, however, fissures in Iraq's support for Iran. Secular Iraqis fear the creation of an Iranian-style theocracy, and Iraqi nationalists bitterly cite the ancient rivalry and the more recent war with their Persian neighbor. The Sunni Arab minority is particularly fearful of Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs and blames Iran for supporting attacks on Sunnis.
Such fighting between Shiites and Sunnis erupts almost daily in Iraq. At least 25 people were killed across the country in bombings and shootings Friday, including a car bombing that killed at least 10 people in eastern Baghdad.
The bomb, which exploded in a public market in the Nahdha district of the capital where furniture and household goods are sold, also wounded at least 30 people, police Capt. Nameer Hanoon of the Baghdad police command said.
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BAGHDAD, May 26 -- Iraq's foreign minister said Friday that Iran had the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses but that he hoped for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has strained Iran's relations with the United States.
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Hayden Confirmed as CIA Chief
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Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, a career intelligence officer who has overseen some of the government's most secret and controversial surveillance programs, was confirmed by the Senate yesterday to head the CIA as it tries to regain some of its lost luster.
Senators voted 78 to 15 to confirm Hayden to succeed Porter J. Goss, who steps down today after 18 stormy months.
The Senate endorsed President Bush's view that Hayden is the right person to take the helm of an agency still rocked by intelligence failures that preceded the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Bush first chose Goss, then a GOP House member from Florida, for the task. But the president lost confidence after Goss and his openly partisan aides clashed with veteran officials in the CIA and other agencies.
Hayden's nomination drew fire from some Democrats and civil liberties groups because he headed the National Security Agency when it began conducting warrantless wiretaps of Americans' international phone calls in a bid to find possible terrorists. Hayden and Bush, who acknowledged the program only after press reports outlined it, have said the effort is narrowly targeted at terrorism suspects.
But thousands of phone calls reportedly have been monitored without producing promising leads, and many lawmakers say Hayden and other officials have yet to explain adequately why they should not have to obtain court warrants for the wiretaps.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (Pa.), the only Republican to vote against confirmation, said he did so to protest "the administration's policy of not informing the Congress . . . in a way which enables the Congress and the Judiciary Committee to do our constitutional job on oversight." He called Hayden "a man with an outstanding record."
Specter joined 14 Democrats in opposing confirmation. Supporting it were 52 Republicans, 25 Democrats and one independent. The senators from Maryland and Virginia voted to confirm Hayden.
Bush praised the vote for Hayden in a statement, saying: "Winning the war on terror requires that America have the best intelligence possible, and his strong leadership will ensure that we do. General Hayden is a patriot and a dedicated public servant whose broad experience, dedication, and expertise make him the right person to lead the CIA at this critical time."
When Bush nominated Hayden on May 8, several House Republicans and a few senators said they feared that his military background was inappropriate for a CIA director at a time when the Pentagon is aggressively trying to expand its role in intelligence matters. But Hayden, an engaging man who excels at briefing lawmakers, said in private meetings and open hearings that he has stood up to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld when he disagreed with the secretary's policies and is willing to do so again.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who raised questions about Hayden's active military status, said yesterday that the general "has convinced me that he can make the transition from the military side to the civilian side of the intelligence community while continuing to move the CIA in a positive direction of change and transition."
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) voted against confirmation. She said in a statement that the CIA director should "show respect for the rule of law and recognition of the oversight role of Congress." She added: "General Michael Hayden has had a distinguished career serving our nation . . . However, I believe there are unanswered questions about whether he will exercise the independence and judgment necessary to be an effective CIA director in an administration that has rejected contrary views."
Senate Democrats signaled from the start that they would not make a concerted effort to block the nomination. Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) voted for confirmation and said, "I am hopeful General Hayden will provide the CIA the kind of nonpartisan leadership it has sorely lacked for the past several years."
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Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, a career intelligence officer who has overseen some of the government's most secret and controversial surveillance programs, was confirmed by the Senate yesterday to head the CIA as it tries to regain some of its lost luster.
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Report Of Gunfire Causes Hill Lockdown
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A report of possible gunshots in the parking garage of the Rayburn House Office Building yesterday prompted a massive response by law enforcement authorities, who locked down the 2.4 million-square-foot building next to the Capitol and conducted an extensive search that turned up nothing suspicious, officials said.
U.S. Capitol Police said late yesterday that they believe construction work inside the building caused noise that was mistaken for gunfire by a member of Congress and reported to police about 10:30 a.m. The report touched off about five hours of disruption in a building in which 168 House members have offices.
The concerns prompted the District to lock down public schools not just on Capitol Hill but throughout the city, said schools spokeswoman Leonie Campbell. Because school officials were unsure of the seriousness of the emergency, Campbell said, "we decided to err on the side of caution."
Throughout the day, authorities said they were not certain who reported the gunfire. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.) later revealed that he was the one who heard the sounds.
He said he heard what he "thought sounded like a 9mm handgun" when he stepped out of an elevator in the parking garage of the Rayburn building yesterday morning. "I dove back into the elevator, waited for the doors to close, pushed the button to go back to my floor" and returned to his office, where, he said, "I told my chief of staff to call the Capitol Police and tell them what I heard."
Describing himself as someone who "grew up with firearms" and has served 18 years on the Armed Services Committee, Saxton said, "I am very familiar with weapons."
He said in an interview last night from New Jersey that he later learned that the sounds "came from a pneumatic hammer."
Authorities reacted swiftly. In e-mail alerts, police ordered people to "shelter in place" or "quickly move into the nearest interior office space or interior hallway and away from windows." Scores of officers, many heavily armed, searched hundreds of rooms on the building's six floors, as well as three garage levels. Ambulances and firetrucks, including one labeled "mass casualty unit," were positioned on the street. At 3:18 p.m., an "all-clear" message was sent.
By then, the tension level among those locked inside had diminished considerably, replaced by hunger and a desire to get moving. At midday, in a third-story window of the Rayburn building, at Independence Avenue and First Street SW, a sign appeared: "HELP. SEND PIZZA NOW."
A woman who works for Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) was in the Rayburn building's gym when the lockdown began. She was taken to a hospital by ambulance, said Kingston's spokesman, David All, who described her as "just a little shaken up under the circumstances. . . . We have talked with our colleague, and she's doing well."
Capitol Police officers told D.C. police commanders within 30 minutes of the report that they thought construction workers probably made the noise, according to a D.C. police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because his department was not in charge of the search. Despite their doubts about a gunman in the building, Capitol Police felt they needed to search thoroughly out of an abundance of caution, he said.
"In doing their routine duties, [construction workers] made some sort of noise that sounded like shots fired," said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman, who described the report from Saxton's office as "a valid call."
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A report of possible gunshots in the parking garage of the Rayburn House Office Building yesterday prompted a massive response by law enforcement authorities, who locked down the 2.4 million-square-foot building next to the Capitol and conducted an extensive search that turned up nothing...
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Halle Storm
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Celebrities -- they're the real mutants, right? Earning those superhuman salaries. All those henchmen and T-Mobile Sidekicks. No reservations necessary, ever. Perfect little bodies. Neato vehicles. Transfixing us with their eyes and sparkly handbags and then distracting us with their divorces, while slipping 10 bucks out of our pockets every blockbusting weekend for another bad movie. Citizens, something must be done! We must rise up and take a stand!
"You know, that's interesting," Halle Berry says, thinking it over, the celebrity species as a metaphor for those perpetually powerful yet ultimately flawed other kind of humans. "It's a little bit like that, yes."
We are 50 floors above Central Park on a recent afternoon, and wouldn't it be great if this serene, impossibly gorgeous actress jumped up, kicked out the window, leapt out into the sky and landed like a lightning bolt in Columbus Circle? She's dressed for it: dark curls spilling down her shoulders, over a black, very low-cut hand-knit sweater, with tight indigo jeans and shiny, silver stiletto boots. Sorta like Ororo Munroe (code name: Storm), the mutant she plays yet again in "X-Men: The Last Stand," which opened yesterday. Or like Catwoman. (We are allowed to say the word "Catwoman" in this interview, right? Without, like, a $1,200 manicure suddenly raked across our cheek?)
An assistant knocks on the door: "Excuse me, Halle, did you want hair and makeup to come check you out right now?"
"Nmmh-mnnh," Berry, 39, gently answers in the negative, but the implication hangs in the room: What foolish mortal is this who wants to know if Halle Berry needs more makeup?
Yet for all their skills, mutant celebs have weaknesses, too.
That's the ongoing "X-Men" subtext in Marvel Comics and the movie versions -- what seems like a good superpower to wield nevertheless brings a measure of personal misery. What better way to describe being a star? "You do feel somewhat mutantlike, I think," she says, "because you've chosen this profession, you're not allowed a basic sense of privacy . . . of personal space."
You could easily defeat Halle Berry: Simply have her ride the elevator down and turn her loose, all alone, with no phone, no cash. Almost immediately, Berry guesses, she would be surrounded. People would want pictures or autographs. Gawker Stalker would post her GPS coordinates online. She wouldn't make it two blocks.
She laughs. "Now, if I had a hat and sunglasses and a pair of old jeans, I might get to SoHo. If I walked out looking like this, I wouldn't. But I would love nothing more than to have it out in the world. I love people. But that's the bad that comes with good, it's true. Sometimes you wish that didn't come with it."
For example, Berry thinks nobody spotted her the previous week on St. Marks Place in the East Village, inspecting a new restaurant/nightclub about to be opened by her current boyfriend -- hottie model Gabriel Aubry, 30 -- and other investors. Her eyes bug out when we bring it up. (Which reminds us, if you see Halle Berry on a street, anywhere or anytime, feel free to quote that cracked-out Whitney Houston skit from "Mad TV" years ago: " I see you, Halle Berry!!")
Red carpets both enthrall and unnerve her, depending on her mood. She says she has no movie star friends, although she "lights up like a tree" whenever she bumps into Renee Zellweger on a red carpet. "Or like Denzel Washington. Jamie Foxx. There's just certain people. Oprah. I love seeing them in this fake world that we exist in."
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NEW YORK Celebrities -- they're the real mutants, right? Earning those superhuman salaries. All those henchmen and T-Mobile Sidekicks. No reservations necessary, ever. Perfect little bodies. Neato vehicles. Transfixing us with their eyes and sparkly handbags and then distracting us with their...
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Maestro Stepping Down On a Melancholy Note
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BALTIMORE -- Yuri Temirkanov sank deeply into a chair in his dressing room at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. "Jet lag," he whispered, with a sense of resigned despair familiar to any insomniac.
Temirkanov, 67, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's music director since 2000, had arrived from his home in Russia on Monday. Early the next morning, he met with his ensemble for the first time since October to prepare this weekend's program, the opening installment of his three final series of concerts as the BSO's music director.
The orchestra greeted the conductor with scattered cheers and foot stomps when he took the stage to rehearse Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1. It was a polite greeting but hardly the sort of ovation that once might have been expected for the return of a long-absent conductor who led the BSO in some of its most inspired concerts. For his part, Temirkanov said nothing but a brisk "good morning" and immediately set to work.
Temirkanov has been gone a long time -- he canceled four weeks of performances in March after the death of a close friend -- and his absence took place during a time when the BSO was virtually rudderless. Since January, the top three members of the orchestra's management team -- President and CEO James Glicker, board Chairman Philip D. English and Vice President and General Manager Karen Swanson -- have either resigned or announced their intent to do so.
In the meantime, the BSO took $27.5 million of its $90 million endowment to pay off $16 million in accumulated debt and to put the next season on a steadier financial footing. (The orchestra's annual operating budget is about $30 million.) Contract negotiations with the musicians are coming up this summer -- the current agreement expires in September -- and they portend to be acrimonious. Management has refused to rule out either downsizing the orchestra or reducing its status as a full-time, 52-weeks-a-year organization.
In short, this is an orchestra in trouble. And yet it plays so beautifully, with such unity and sweetness and collective intelligence, that it calls to mind a gigantic chamber ensemble. Other groups may be able to make bigger and more brilliant sounds, but the tenderness and sense of pure musical feeling that the Baltimore players bring to their best performances are deeply affecting; indeed, enough to make you remember why you loved music in the first place.
"It is an illusion that you can get an orchestra to play this way with part-time musicians," Temirkanov said, puffing on one of his omnipresent Marlboros. "If you bring in musicians only occasionally, that would not be an orchestra. What we do is only possible because we have been working together for a long time. If everything falls apart" -- he pauses -- "it will be a shame."
In Baltimore, Temirkanov is considered a grand, expansive maestro in the old Russian tradition, and he is particularly esteemed for his renditions of the symphonies of Tchaikovsky, which he has recorded (most of his discs were made in the Soviet Union). The BSO musicians were proud to work for him, feeling that he inspired them to their best efforts, although his shyness and his lack of English kept him from becoming personally close to many in the city. Those who knew him well tended to like him enormously, but he was not easy to know. Temirkanov is of delicate build, gracious and soft-spoken, and clearly concerned about the future of the BSO. He listens in English and replies in Russian, with succinct and carefully prepared answers that are then translated by his friend and interpreter, Marina Stokes.
"I am leaving Baltimore only because I want to work more at home," he said, referring to his long-standing music directorship of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. "In the last few years, I did not give them enough time, and it was not very moral of me. I don't even want to do much touring, just stay in St. Petersburg."
In 1999, when Temirkanov came to Baltimore for a guest appearance shortly before taking over as music director, he had declared himself deeply pessimistic about the future of Russia. "Things are better now," he said Tuesday. "The city of St. Petersburg is more beautiful than ever -- a great deal of work has been done. But to suggest that everything is wonderful and that I am very, very happy . . ." He opened his palms and shook his head.
Certainly, St. Petersburg has seen worse times. Temirkanov was born near what was then called Leningrad in 1938, at the peak of the Stalinist terror, in which millions of Russians disappeared. He won the Soviet All-Union Conductors' Competition -- a title now so anachronistic that it is almost charming -- in 1968 and became the music director of the Leningrad Symphony, the city's second-best orchestra, the following year. In 1988, he would succeed the legendary Yevgeny Mravinsky as the principal conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic.
During his youth, he came to know Shostakovich well. "Testimony," a volume of the composer's supposed memoirs -- recounting a miserable and haunted life and suggesting that many of his works were in fact ironic commentary on the Soviet regime -- has been a subject of controversy ever since it was smuggled out of the Soviet Union and published in 1979; as recently as 2004, an entire scholarly volume was published, attacking its veracity.
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BALTIMORE -- Yuri Temirkanov sank deeply into a chair in his dressing room at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. "Jet lag," he whispered, with a sense of resigned despair familiar to any insomniac.
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Remember the Titans
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What Made the Founders Different
Penguin Press. 321 pp. $25.95
Benjamin Franklin -- the subject of one of the essays in this stimulating new collection -- once said that "Historians relate, not so much what is done, as what they would have believed." Most historians would agree with that gently cynical proposition, though they would wish to add a proviso that interpretations of the past should always rest on evidence -- on what was "done," as Franklin said. Among historians in universities these days, essays often tilt toward sheer interpretation, leaving the substance of the past scanted. Gordon S. Wood's book bucks that trend, offering a good deal of empirical evidence -- what was "done" -- in these absorbing essays from one of our leading scholars of the American Revolution.
Eight of the 10 chapters of Revolutionary Characters are biographical, featuring Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine and Aaron Burr. The founders are often considered as a group, as indeed they are here, and widely admired as being "different" (the key word in Wood's subtitle) from our current leaders in their commitment to enlightened principles. Looking at the founders together, it is hard not to conclude that though they deserve our admiration, they may not have constituted the group we have imagined. Certainly, they acted at times as if they had nothing in common.
Washington was a mystery to most of his colleagues. His reserve kept them at arms' length and denied them access to what he really thought. Still, they all respected, even revered, him -- most of the time, that is.
Almost none felt reverence, or even respect, for the others of their number. Adams despised Franklin, branding him with such epithets as the "old deceiver" and the "old conjuror." Franklin once dismissed Adams as one who "means well for his Country, is always an honest Man, often a Wise One, but sometimes and in some things, absolutely out of his senses." Adams also went through a period, lasting some 11 years, of such dislike of Jefferson that he broke off all relations with him. For his part, Jefferson could not abide Hamilton when the two served together in Washington's administration, considering America's first treasury secretary a monarchist awaiting the opportunity to undermine the republic. Confronted by opposition to his fiscal policies by Jefferson and Madison, Hamilton came to believe that they were innocent of knowledge of how an economy worked and attributed to Jefferson an unhealthy absorption in the fanaticism of the French Revolution. As for Thomas Paine, who initially earned the regard of several of the founders (excluding John Adams, who thought him a crank), he squandered that goodwill by untoward attacks, including one on Washington. And then there is Burr, who, after drawing the ill favor of such colleagues as Jefferson and Adams, killed Hamilton in a duel in 1804.
Wood, a Brown University historian who won a Pulitzer Prize for his The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992), does not dwell on these animosities, but he does not ignore them, either. His major emphasis in almost all of the essays is on what these men thought and did. He establishes their intellectual agreement in the first essay, "The Founders and the Enlightenment." Though the founders differed in how they understood enlightened values, they agreed on the essentials, especially as they concerned republicanism and virtue. Virtue and honor, they all believed, required serving the nation first, even if doing so sacrificed their own interests. Almost all of the founders defined social distinction in terms of merit -- intellectual ability, a sense of responsibility and honorable behavior. This was a clear break from an older sense that what counted in forming an aristocratic elite was birth, family, education and wealth. All the founders retained a regard for the older conceptions of these standards, which had been instilled in them by their own experiences and by tradition. But on serious reflection, they came to follow different, more modern guides to enlightened leadership in a republic. Washington himself was not so given to the new thought; he valued classical virtue, with its injunctions to maintain one's honor above all else while serving the public interest. But Washington, too, altered his beliefs -- though not his standards -- about the meaning of liberty over the years, a shift most apparent in his determination to see his slaves freed after his death.
All of the essays in this volume are of a high intellectual order. The most interesting may be "Is There a 'James Madison Problem'?" -- in which the question is whether Madison transformed himself from a nationalist in the 1780s, eager to create an active, energetic government with broad powers, into a "strict constructionist" in the 1790s. (Strict construction of the Constitution held that Hamilton's proposal for chartering a national bank exceeded the congressional powers that Federalists found in Article I, Section 8.) In this alteration, Madison thought he faced a Hamilton bent on creating something close to a constitutional monarchy. Wood's persuasive conclusion, after an intricate analysis of Madison's conduct and thought, is that no such transformation took place. Madison, so important in shaping the Constitution, held to his principles throughout his long career.
At several points in this volume, most notably the essays on Washington and the epilogue, Wood argues that the founders contributed unwittingly to a democratic and egalitarian society that they never wanted. This is another point in favor of the history Wood provides in this splendid collection: He relates what he would have us believe, explains much of what was done and leaves us with an ironical appreciation of the founders' achievement. ·
Robert Middlekauff is Preston Hotchkis Professor of History emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of "The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789."
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REVOLUTIONARY CHARACTERS What Made the Founders Different
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Patrick's Wheel of Fortune
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INDIANAPOLIS, May 26 -- The first lap of Danicamania was powered by the twin engines of hype and speed.
As an Indianapolis 500 rookie last year, Danica Patrick was a promotional dream: accessible, witty and, not least, attractive. As a driver, helped by superior Honda motors, she was faster than most of the field in practice sessions, led 19 laps and finished fourth, the best showing by a woman in the race's history.
Patrick's second trip through the month of May has taken a slightly different line. The 24-year-old remains the biggest celebrity in the field: Already this month she's made appearances on "Good Morning America," "Live With Regis and Kelly," "The Today Show," "The Early Show" and "The Late Show," while her image anchors national advertising campaigns, newspaper front pages and billboards on Santa Monica Boulevard and in Times Square.
As a driver, though, last year's Indianapolis superiority has tapered. The top four drivers in the series standings -- Helio Castroneves, Dan Wheldon, Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott Dixon -- drive for either Team Penske or Chip Ganassi Racing, heavyweight teams that have switched from Toyota to Honda engines and passed the rest of the field.
Those drivers will occupy the first four spots in Sunday's starting grid; Patrick qualified 10th. Patrick hasn't finished in the top five since last year's Indy 500, and in recent weeks she has been asked to defend her performance.
"I think she's done a great job under a huge amount of pressure that is being put on her by people who have unrealistic expectations as to how simple it may be to win," team co-owner Bobby Rahal said on Friday. "She's done more to elevate open-wheel racing than anybody's done in decades. You know, some people don't like to admit to that, but that's reality."
Patrick has handled the questions with typical aplomb. When asked about her winless drought, she said she's "flattered that people would talk about it, ask about it, write about it." When asked whether she's worried, she cited open-wheel stars with longer winless streaks: Vitor Meira, for example, has not won in 48 starts. When asked about Anna Kournikova, another female athlete with crossover appeal but limited titles, Patrick rattled off Kournikova's impressive world rankings while dismissing the comparisons as irrelevant.
"Other than that she's really pretty, and I hope that's a similarity," Patrick said of Kournikova. "She did what she loved, and whether that was doing an extra couple of photo shoots, who cares, you know?"
When asked about the latest flap -- Richard Petty's disapproving remarks this week about women driving racecars -- Patrick smiled and said her response should have been, "Who?"
"I would hope that last year I showed that I have speed and I showed that I could race, and so for the most part I'd have to wonder why he said it, but you have to respect a veteran to a certain degree," she said.
And when asked about her chances this weekend, Patrick shook a splash of realism into her enormous ambitions.
"I mean, you can take a great driver and put him in a bad car and they're not going to do well, that's just the way it goes," she said. "I just hope that I have a good car to start with, and then I'm going to be looking to do better than I did last year."
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Danica Patrick remains the biggest celebrity in the field at the Indianapolis 500 even though she has not won a race and she has not finished in the top five since last year's Indy 500.
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For the Americans, A Crisp Turnaround
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CLEVELAND, May 26 -- The week began with another maddening injury to the team captain and, perhaps of greater concern, a dreary performance against an unimposing opponent in the squad's first pre-World Cup test. The trouble continued two days later when another defender was dropped from the roster with a knee ailment.
So when the U.S. national team arrived at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Friday night to face Venezuela, it carried with it three pressing needs: a lively effort, 90 injury-free minutes and a victory.
Bolstered by goals from Brian Ching and Clint Dempsey, the Americans showed vast overall improvement and enjoyed a painless evening to register a 2-0 victory before 29,745 spectators in their penultimate tuneup before heading to Germany next week.
"There was certainly an urgency to get a result, and more importantly, just to play well, play with some energy, play with some passion," veteran forward Josh Wolff said.
The only blemish was defender Carlos Bocanegra's late red card after he collected his second yellow -- the 10th of the match.
"Tonight from the start, we were very aggressive in trying to create chances," Coach Bruce Arena said. "That was a real positive."
Only two players who started in Tuesday's troubling 1-0 loss to Morocco were in the lineup Friday, although that was by design, not a reaction to the previous match, because the team has to turn around and play Sunday night against Latvia in East Hartford, Conn.
It was an opportunity for Tim Howard to get a start ahead of No. 1 goalkeeper Kasey Keller and role players such as Jimmy Conrad, Chris Albright and D.C. United's Ben Olsen to gain much-needed international fine-tuning. It was a chance for Dempsey, Eddie Johnson and Bobby Convey to make another bid for a starting job in the World Cup.
And it was an occasion for Ching, MLS's leading scorer, to prove his worth after claiming one of the final roster slots early this month.
"It felt good to get a goal and it definitely felt good to have a good team performance, especially after our loss on Tuesday," Ching said. "Hopefully this will put us on a roll and we'll come out and show well against Latvia."
Unlike Tuesday, the Americans were quick with the ball and, just as important, quick with their decision-making. Convey was menacing on the left wing and Ching and Johnson were an imposing presence on the front line.
After several dangerous flurries, Convey and Ching got together to break the scoreless tie. Ching had just squandered an open opportunity at the top of the box when Convey set him up in the 36th minute with a bending cross. Ching met the ball with a leaping, right-footed volley from five yards for his fourth goal in 19 international appearances.
Ching nearly struck again nine minutes into the second half, again with a volley from close range at the near post off Albright's cross.
"He worked for 90 minutes, did a good job holding the ball, drew some fouls -- things that our forwards haven't been doing on a consistent basis," Arena said of Ching. "Once he scored the goal, he had a great game."
After Howard denied Venezuela's equalizing bid with a spectacular leaping save on Juan Arango's free kick, the Americans extended the lead in the 69th minute on an elegant sequence that ended with Landon Donovan, in a reserve role, leading Johnson deep into the box for a one-time cross that Dempsey finished with a six-yard diving header.
On the injury front, there were a couple scares, most notably Johnson receiving a blow to the back of the head challenging for a high ball in the first half. However, there no serious setbacks like in the Morocco game, when captain Claudio Reyna departed with a strained hamstring and, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, defender Cory Gibbs suffered a knee injury that ended his World Cup hopes.
U.S. Notes: Defender Gregg Berhalter, called up Thursday to replace Gibbs, joined the team early Friday but was not included on the game-day roster. He might play Sunday. . . . Michael Bradley, a Netherlands-based midfielder who has been practicing informally with the U.S. squad, got his first international appearance when he entered for Olsen.
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Bolstered by goals from Brian Ching and Clint Dempsey, the Americans show vast overall improvement and enjoy a painless evening to register a 2-0 victory over Venezuela.
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In Goals, Cavaliers Make Their Passes Count
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CHARLOTTESVILLE -- There are a few errant passes in the unique drill the Virginia men's lacrosse offensive players do in the early stages of practice. In the drill, players stand in a triangle 25 yards apart and pass the ball to each other as fast and hard as they can.
There isn't much margin for error. When a pass ticks off the top of a stick, or misses it entirely, managers, trainers, coaches and anyone on the sideline instantly goes into a crouch, with their hands covering their head, as the ball whizzes past. At a recent practice, a wayward pass nailed a player standing yards away flush in the back of the calf.
Usually, though, the passes find their mark -- just as they do during games. Virginia (15-0) is the top seed in the NCAA tournament entering its semifinal against No. 5 Syracuse (10-4) today at 2 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The first game pits No. 2 Maryland (12-4) against unseeded Massachusetts (12-4) at 11:30 a.m.
Organizers are expecting a crowd of more than 50,000.
The sport's showcase event this year includes one of the best passing offenses in recent memory. Virginia averages 15.8 goals. Seventy percent of those goals have been assisted, the highest percentage for the program since at least 1993, Coach Dom Starsia's first season.
Some within the game worried that passing had become a lost art after sticks with deep pockets become popular in recent years. The deep pocket made it harder for defensemen to check the ball from an offensive player; the downside, though, is that the pocket made passing and shooting far less accurate.
Virginia's players mostly use tight stick pockets. That helps their offense, which is predicated on passes so fast and sharp that one opposing coach said they look like shots.
The Cavaliers particularly use "skip passes," so-called because the pass skips the adjacent players and instead goes to a player farther away.
"I don't know a lot of other teams that really emphasize passing the ball hard," said Virginia assistant Marc Van Arsdale, who works with the offense, "though it's not just something anyone can do. Catching these balls is tough; [senior midfielder] Kyle Dixon zings some rockets. With [senior attackman] Matt Ward, you almost need a goalie's stick to catch some of his passes."
It also helps that Virginia has such an experienced starting midfield. Dixon (17 goals, 19 assists), classmate Matt Poskay (team-high 34 goals) and junior Drew Thompson (16 goals, 18 assists) have been the starters for three years.
"It's gotten to the point that I could close my eyes on the field," Thompson said, "and I know where Kyle and Matt are going to be."
It wasn't always that way. Their first year as starters was 2004. Thompson played with what was later diagnosed as a torn knee ligament; Dixon struggled while being defended by the opposing team's longstick midfielder; and Poskay made 11 of 52 shots (21 percent). They combined for 22 goals and 18 assists. The Cavaliers finished 5-8.
This year, Thompson or Dixon usually initiates the play from the top of the offensive box. Their job is to run toward the goal and see how the defense reacts. If the defense tries to double-team them, then begins the passing wheel.
For example, if Dixon initiates and defenders slide toward him, he can pass across the field to a player who has snuck in behind the defense; he can pass to a player behind the goal; or he can stop, turn and pass back to Thompson and let the offense attack the other side.
If the ball goes behind, Poskay cuts hard toward the goal; Dixon or Thompson set up for a 10-yard shot in the middle of the field; and one of the attackmen sets up on the wing for an open shot or pass.
The Cavaliers use fast, crisp passes to try to get extra time -- even a split-second -- for their shooters. They also want the goalie to be moving when they shoot, since goalies generally have a harder time making a save when they are in motion because their mechanics are not as sound.
"Sometimes the person who makes the first dodge is the one who gets the shot five passes later," Poskay said.
Poskay does not dodge much. Instead, he plays the role that most teams reserve for a crease attackman: He gets the ball near the goal and either shoots or passes within a second or two.
"He has great hands," Van Arsdale said. "He catches everything. I think it helps that usually teams defend him with a shortstick, that gives him a little extra to catch and shoot. . . . We generally don't have crease attackmen. We use midfielders in that role."
Ostensibly, the mastermind is Van Arsdale, a magna cum laude graduate of Hobart College. He said, however, that he is not always the one drawing up the plays.
"Sometimes the [starting] midfield will come off after a shift and will start diagramming a play, like it's sandlot football and they're drawing something up in the dirt," he said. "They'll ask if they can use that play next time they're on the field. We have complete confidence in them, so we usually say yes."
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Top-ranked and undefeated Virginia looks to showcase the nation's best passing offense this weekend as they vie for the national title.
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Stern Gets Rights to Tapes In Settlement With CBS
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CBS Corp. and former employee Howard Stern have settled a lawsuit brought by the network claiming breach of contract when the shock jock left for Sirius Satellite Radio at the end of last year.
In the settlement, Sirius agreed to pay CBS $2 million. In exchange, Stern gets control of the master tapes of the past 20 years of his shows on CBS, meaning the company cannot broadcast archived Stern shows without paying him.
"As part of the settlement, CBS Radio will receive payments relating to the conveyance of its rights in recordings of the Howard Stern show," CBS said in a statement yesterday. "Sirius, for its part, will make a total payment of $2 million related to this conveyance."
The statement said the remaining terms are confidential.
However, CBS will receive more than $2 million, said a source with knowledge of the settlement who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements.
The company's statement noted that CBS will receive "payments" -- plural -- in addition to the Sirius sum. Because Sirius is a public company, the $2 million payment will be reported on required Securities and Exchange Commission documents. But Stern is not a public company; therefore, he could make an additional payment to CBS without having to report it, thereby keeping it secret and maintaining his on-air bragging rights over the network.
In February, CBS sued Stern for at least $200 million -- the network did not pinpoint the total damages it sought -- claiming he improperly used CBS radio airtime in the last few months of his employment there to promote his new employer. The sum was nearly equivalent to the worth of Sirius stock shares Stern would receive if the service reached a certain number of subscribers.
Sirius announced earlier this spring that it had added 1.3 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of last year, just before Stern debuted. In the first three months of this year, Sirius added about 535,000 new subscribers, illustrating the Stern effect on the service.
CBS also said that Stern negotiated with Sirius without informing his current employer, also a breach of contract. Don Buchwald, Stern's high-powered agent, was also named in the suit.
Stern fought back by assailing CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves on-air and on CBS's "The Late Show with David Letterman."
For jumping to the satellite company, Stern received a five-year contract worth $500 million. He is by far the biggest name to leave over-the-air radio for satellite. The ratings impact on stations that carried Stern has been enormous. Local station WJFK, where Stern helmed the morning-drive slot for years, lost half of its audience in the first three months after he left, according to Arbitron ratings released in April.
Stern received more than $23 million in compensation in his last year at CBS, according to the February suit.
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CBS Corp. and former employee Howard Stern have settled a lawsuit brought by the network claiming breach of contract when the shock jock left for Sirius Satellite Radio at the end of last year.
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VA Knew Early About Data Theft
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Senior officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs knew that sensitive personal information about veterans had been stolen from a VA employee's home within hours of the crime but did not tell Secretary Jim Nicholson until 13 days later, according to a VA briefing document.
Michael H. McLendon, VA deputy assistant secretary for policy, learned of the May 3 burglary less than an hour after the worker reported it to his supervisors and to Montgomery County police, according to the briefing document, given to congressional committees this week and obtained yesterday by The Washington Post. McLendon met with two high-ranking VA information security specialists the next day.
Among items stolen from the Aspen Hill home was an external computer hard drive that VA officials say contained the unencrypted names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of 19.6 million to 26.5 million veterans.
The 12-page timeline provides the first detailed accounting of how VA officials reacted to one of the nation's largest information security breaches, an institutional failure that ignited anxiety and anger among millions of veterans concerned about identity theft.
It also reveals new details about the 60-year-old man at the heart of the scandal. He is a senior-level career employee working as an information technology specialist in the Office of Policy. As a GS-14 level employee, he earns between $91,407 and $118,828 a year.
In a meeting with McLendon two days after the theft, the employee "assumed full responsibility, acknowledging he knew he should not have taken the data out of the office," the summary says. James J. O'Neill, VA deputy assistant inspector general for investigations, said in an interview yesterday that the employee is cooperating fully in the investigation. "He reported it [the theft] immediately, and he certainly could have kept it quiet," O'Neill said.
According to the document, Dennis M. Duffy, acting assistant secretary for policy, planning and preparedness, was told of the theft May 5. Duffy asked VA computer security specialists to determine the extent of the data lost and three days later asked them to draft a memo. McLendon convened a meeting of the Office of Policy staff May 9 to stress the importance of data security and had the data analyst discuss his experience.
It was not until that day, May 9, that Duffy informed VA Chief of Staff Thomas Bowman about the theft, suggesting that senior management should discuss the department's obligations to notify veterans whose data may have been compromised. Bowman told Deputy Secretary Gordon Mansfield, the department's No. 2 official, the next afternoon, but neither man informed Nicholson until May 16, the document shows.
Nicholson told the White House that day but did not inform Congress or the public until six days later, on May 22.
"What the timeline shows is that, once he was informed, the secretary acted quickly, decisively and in the best interest of veterans," said Matt Burns, a VA spokesman.
Burns also said that Mansfield, who predates Nicholson at the department and is a former executive director of Paralyzed Veterans of America, was told May 10 only that "thousands" of veterans' records may have been compromised. He directed the staff to get more information, Burns said.
"Deputy Secretary Mansfield was not made aware of the full scope and extent of what those records included until the same day the secretary found out," Burns said.
Members of Congress criticized the department's security practices and sluggish response. Some lawmakers and veterans groups have demanded that VA leaders resign or be fired.
"Secretary Nicholson's lack of knowledge about the handling of personal data within his own agency is shameful," said Rep. John T. Salazar (D-Colo.), who has introduced a bill that would provide veterans one year of free credit monitoring. "And the agency's two-week coverup of the data theft has been completely irresponsible. . . . The people in charge, like Secretary Nicholson, need to be held accountable."
Jim Mueller, head of Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, said in a statement yesterday that the entire episode "reflects a serious lack of leadership, management and accountability" in the department.
"To not inform your boss of what can only be described as the worst crisis in the VA's history is unconscionable, inexcusable and does tremendous injury to America's veterans," Mueller said. "These individuals cannot be trusted to fix what they allowed to happen."
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Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs knew that personal information about veterans had been stolen from an employee's home within hours of the crime but did not tell Secretary Nicholson until 13 days later, according to a VA
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An Old Tradition Clicks With Students
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Lunchtime at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. Cup of french fries? Check. Mini-carton of chocolate milk? Check. Small plastic tiles embossed with dragons and flowers?
For one group of Arlington sixth-graders, the game of mah-jongg is so cool that they'll give up their lunch period to play it. They are about half a century younger than typical players of the ancient Chinese game, which sort of resembles gin rummy but is a lot more complex. But they are as enthusiastic as if they had invented it themselves.
"Who's going to be with who?" they asked as they chose teammates and grabbed seats around a table in the classroom of Sandy Tevelin, who introduced them to the game (pronounced MAH-zhahn) early in the school year.
"I'll be with Maddy," said Lauren Montana, 11, one of seven students playing Wednesday.
Then the game began, and their sentences started to contain such words as "Bam" and "Dot" and "Crack" -- incomprehensible to those not fluent in mah-jongg-ese.
Tevelin looked on, smiling. For a dozen years, she has been offering her sixth-graders the chance to learn the game that in the United States is more commonly associated with Chinese or Jewish women of a certain age. Some years, none takes her up on it; some years, it's more important for them to spend the 35-minute lunch block in the cafeteria with their friends. But every few years there will be a group of sixth-graders for whom the game clicks.
And sticks. Tevelin has former students, now juniors in college, who come back to play with her. And, as she reminds her students, it is an activity they can do for the rest of their lives.
"I ask them, 'When you're 40, are you going to want to play UNO? Are you going to want to play Connect Four?' And they say, 'Ooh, no.' But they're going to want to play mah-jongg, because it's . . . a grown-up game.
The game, in which the students try to build a winning hand using 13 tiles they are dealt or trade for others, involves a lot of skill and strategy and memorization of rules. Tevelin introduced the rules incrementally, adding a new one every few days until the students absorbed them all.
After the french fries were consumed, the game heated up. Tiles clacked on the table as the students answered a reporter's questions about why they decided to learn to play.
"Well, she told us the story about the original people who play mah-jongg," said Gino Rodriguez, 11, referring to Tevelin's earlier cohorts.
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Lunchtime at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. Cup of french fries? Check. Mini-carton of chocolate milk? Check. Small plastic tiles embossed with dragons and flowers?
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Black Churches Renew Focus On AIDS Fight
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The meeting's participants were black ministers, and its subject was sex -- specifically how avoiding the topic has contributed to the AIDS crisis.
"You've got to talk about sex!" boomed the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, a renowned Harlem pastor who came to the District on Thursday to rouse dozens of local black ministers from across the denominational gamut on the subject of HIV and AIDS -- the largest such D.C. gathering that participants could remember. Washington has the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the nation, and the vast majority of them are black.
Ministers banged their fists on tables, and the windowless ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel felt like a Sunday morning in the pews, filled with "mm-hmms" and "well-wells." Butts cited the Gospel of Mark and Jesus's resurrection to urge District ministers to stop focusing on placing blame -- for gay sex, for intravenous drug use, for promiscuity -- and do what the Bible teaches: Save lives.
"Mommas won't visit their sons, fathers won't hug their daughters, preachers won't preach. You know it, and I know it," said Butts, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and chairman of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. "You can look at anything else that seems to be standing in your way, but love has got to be the motive, the only motive."
Organizers said Thursday's Clergy Leadership Summit on HIV-AIDS, with some 75 ministers from predominantly black District churches, marks a return of attention within the country's black churches to AIDS, a quarter-century after the epidemic became known. This return has been coming for several years nationally, with new organizations and conferences devoted to helping set aside doctrinal differences over subjects such as homosexuality and abstinence.
Locally, "the District has been far behind" but has woken up because of new data showing it has 12 times the national rate of new AIDS cases, many among women and children, said the Rev. Canon John T.W. Harmon of Trinity Episcopal Church, which convened the summit.
"The black church is more willing than it's ever been to deal with this," the Rev. Christine Y. Wiley of Covenant Baptist Church said in an interview. Her church sits in Ward 8, which Wiley said has the city's highest AIDS rates.
Although her church offers HIV testing every week and distributes condoms, Wiley noted that other ministers need to decide for themselves what they can do to educate and support people without compromising their doctrine.
"The way many churches have dealt with it is not helpful and not working. If you bash people from the pulpit and focus on sin, you aren't doing it like Jesus did," she said. "Jesus said, 'Just go and sin no more,' but he healed them first. This issue has been out here so long, and now people are realizing the church hasn't had a significant impact -- and it could."
The summit included ministers from a broader range than past AIDS-related clergy gatherings, said Sterling Tucker, the city's first elected D.C. Council chairman and lead organizer of the summit.
"The churches have never fully been on board," he said before the summit began. "But now you have Pentecostal ministers and other conservative ministers who wouldn't have been here before."
Although many of the District's black churches already have some sort of AIDS ministry -- Tucker estimated that "it's not a large number," but Wiley said she thought most do -- the summit's goal was to heighten the issue's profile, to get churches to devote more than just a volunteer layperson to the issue and to get pastors preaching about the need for testing and acceptance.
At the summit, Marsha Martin, director of AIDS-HIV programs for the D.C. Department of Health, announced that the city is about to launch an effort to get every resident ages 14 to 84 tested by the end of the year.
D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who chairs the council's Committee on Health, told the summit that the city is to blame for leaving its HIV-AIDS office "in a state of collapse." A year ago, he said, the office could not even pay its bills. Under Martin, he said, that problem has been resolved.
Butts triggered a round of loud laughs and mm-hmms when he talked about the very natural reason for discussing AIDS and sex from the pulpit: It's all God-made, he said. "There has to be sex in Heaven -- it wouldn't be Heaven without it!"
He then warned about judging other people's behavior differently from one's own. Referring to calls for abstinence, he said, "I'm saying to do what I did not do myself when I was a young man."
It seemed clear, however, that even with some new consensus, the road ahead will not be without controversy as issues such as gay sex and drug use continue to flare. Butts drew loud applause when he said no one will dictate to black church leaders what they should do in resisting "the devil's plan."
"The church must never compromise its reasons why" it fights HIV-AIDS, he said. "The reality is, as much as we might pray to have that table moved to the other side of the room, it's going to stay right there unless we do something about it."
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The meeting's participants were black ministers, and its subject was sex -- specifically how avoiding the topic has contributed to the AIDS crisis.
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Ask Tom
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In a city loaded with diverse restaurants, from New American chic and upscale Italian to sandwich shops and burritos on the run, finding the best places to eat can be a real puzzle. Where's the best restaurant for a first date or an anniversary? Father's Day? What's the best burger joint? Who has the best service?
Ask Tom. Tom Sietsema , The Washington Post's food critic, is on hand Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, listen to your suggestions and even entertain your complaints about Washington dining. Sietsema, a veteran food writer, has sampled the wares and worked as a critic in Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Milwaukee, and can talk restaurants with the best of 'em. You can access his Postcards from Tom to read his recommendations for other cities, read his dining column and the Weekly Dish or read transcripts of previous "Ask Tom" chats . Tom's Sunday magazine reviews, as well as his "Ask Tom" column, are available early on the Web.
Tom Sietsema: THIS AND THAT: A recent dinner at Cafe Mozu in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel reminds me to remind YOU to double-check your bill when you eat out. (Hardly a week goes by when I don't find a mistake on a bill, sometimes in my favor but more often not.) At Mozu, I got another guest's bill, which was substantially higher than my own. No problem, that happens. But my waiter then returned with a bill that was mine but mysteriously higher than it should have been, by about $15. He blamed it on a computer glitch. By the way, the sushi in the glam restaurant is quite good. Everything else was -- well, not worth the journey, as they say. But the real sore point was the clumsy service, which didn't live up to the $100 a head tab.
A reader contacted me to praise a general manager's quick response to a recent problem at Ardeo, which I'm reviewing in the Post Magazine this Sunday. It seems a busboy spilled olive juice on the guy's jacket, shirt and slacks. He writes: "The manager, Jarett Goldberg, was there in a flash and, in addition to making our desserts complimentary, rapidly arranged to pick the stained garments up at my office the next day, have them laundered and returned. He was as good as his word." Bravo, Ardeo.
Remember the late Nectar in Foggy Bottom? Jarad Slipp, the destination restaurant's ace host and sommelier, called to let me know he's planning to open a new place with another local restaurant personality. "It could be two months or it could be eight months," he says. The two business partners (I'm not yet allowed to name the other participant) have most of the financing they need, but they're currently looking for a suitable location. The "fine-dining" concept is novel, at least for Washington: Just 24 seats and a 5-course tasting menu priced at $89. This time around, Slipp will be at the stove rather than in the dining room, and he's only hiring people who have worked successfully with him in the past. "If you want something done right, do it yourself," he says of the project, which he expects to "rival Citronelle." Wishful thinking? Remember, the guy used to work at the esteemed Gordon Ramsay in London.
Why don't more waiters ask why diners leave so much food on their plates? I checked out Cafe Salsa in Old Town recently, hoping to find it more delicious than my first experience. Alas, the restaurant has gotten worse. A salmon entree I ordered used fish that tasted like last month's catch, run over by a Hummer and left to bake in the sun. I barely touched it, yet the waiter asked only if I wanted another glass of wine. Yes, I did -- anything to erase the awful taste in my mouth. Needless to say, I went elsewhere: Indigo Landing, the bar of which takes in a view of the water. Ahhhhh.
Vienna, Va.: At the risk of letting the cat out of the bag, I want to report an interesting happening from this past weekend. My wife & I walked into Coastal Flats in Fairfax about 6:30 on Saturday. We were told that the waiting time was about 2-2.5 hours, but that it would have been shorter had we used their call-ahead service. We had never been there, but, being of the opinion that no restaurant is worth more than a 20-30 minute wait, we left, but mentioned that we couldn't call because we had just finished a movie a few doors down the street. The young woman followed us out the door, apologizing that had we mentioned the movie first, we would have been accorded call-ahead status. She promised a table within 10-15 minutes. I think we were seated within 8 or 9 minutes.
Tom Sietsema: I see potential for abuse, don't you? Now EVERYONE will say "I'm going to a movie." But, good to know when visiting Coastal Flats, which continues to be as busy as the day it opened.
New York, NY: When you are eating out, do you ask your companions what they think of the food? Or do you not discuss the meal at all? I was wondering because I've read other reviewers who seem to constantly mention what their dining companions thought or said, but I've never seen you do that.
Tom Sietsema: EVERY once in awhile, if someone says something clever or funny or illuminating, I might incorporate it into a critique. But the Post pays me -- not the people I ate with -- for opinions.
I tend to shy away from eating with serious foodies, by the way; I'd much rather talk about books, politics, the price of gas, Britney Spears -- ANYTHING other than what I'm chewing on at the moment.
Annapolis, Md.: Hi Tom, love the chats. Can you recommend a good raw bar in or near Annapolis? My fiance has never had oysters before, although we're both huge seafood lovers in general. We'll also be celebrating my new job, so we're willing to go some place on the pricey side.
Also, we're planning to spend a weekend on the Eastern Shore some time this summer and we'd love to go to the Inn at Easton for dinner. Is it hard to get reservations there? We'd like to know how far ahead we should be planning. Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: For oysters on the half shell in Annapolis, I'd probably try Rockfish, which has Charlie Bauer, late of the very good O'Learys, at its helm.
DO book well in advance for the Inn at Easton. Chef Andrew Evans just today informed me that he's tweaking his concept there. Look for a do-it-yourself tasting menu and prices running from $35 for two courses to $65 for four courses. Among the dishes he says he's most excited about: seared scallops with a sauce of peanut brittle, garlic, chili and lime; grilled octopus with green apples, toasted cashews, orange and celery; and braised pork belly cured with salt, sugar and star anise.
(Man, am I getting hungry!)
Washington, D.C. : Thank you for the chats and reviews.
We will be hosting guests for the next couple of days. They've requested an Indian meal -- we're limited to places that either deliver or do carry-out because of a small child.
Tom Sietsema: My first choice: Heritage India in Glover Park.
Arlington Va.: For my 50th birthday, two friends invited me to pick a restaurant to celebrate. I chose Tallula in Arlington, and my friend made a reservation on-line. Unbeknownst to me, she mentioned in the reservation, that this was a birthday celebration and that she had felt rushed a previous time she had been there. She asked that it not happen this time.
When we got to Tallula, a few problems developed. The restaurant was nearly empty, but the waiter hovered after telling us the specials, and wanted us to order while we were still getting our greetings to each other in order. He finally left after we specifically told him to come back in a few minutes. He then forgot to bring the bread, and when our meals arrived, some of the pieces of meat in my order were much too rare for me. The waiter never came back to ask if everything was ok. I ate what I could and then flagged down another wait person and asked her to get the remaining pieces cooked to medium. At that point, our waiter came back with the meat (not yet cooked) and asked me why I had given it to the other waitperson. I indicated that it was rare and I had asked for medium. He left with the meat.
Then a young woman came over and introduced herself as the manager and asked us if there was a problem. We told her what had happened and suggested to her that perhaps the waiter was having a bad day. Instead of trying to help, she insisted that he was one of the best waiters they had and this was a case of subjectivity on our part. Perhaps he was a good waiter, but not that night. When I pointed out that missing rolls were an objective fact, she offered to get them for us.
But the most interesting thing was that she then made some reference about my friend having included the email note about not being rushed. Up till then, I had not even known about this. There was no real reason for the manager to bring it up and she didn't bring it up in the context of wanting to know if we were feeling not rushed. I would have thought if a restaurant is asking for comments in their on-line reservation system, it would be in order to make the dining experience as positive as possible. In this case, we all got the sense that this manager was offended and was not going to let us get away.
And the biggest surprise of all, was that at the end of the conversation, she handed us her business card and told us that the next time we came in, she hoped we'd have a better experience.
To top off the evening, we were never offered a dessert menu and although we did order coffee, we never got a refill just the bill left on the table. Needless to say, it made for a very uncelebratory celebration. It was clear that they just wanted us to leave. I felt awful because I had chosen the restaurant, my friends felt bad because it was supposed to be a celebration.
My question(s) are...what do restaurants want us to write in the on-line reservation if not something like this, and does anyone think that giving out a business card in this situation is ever an appropriate response.
Tom Sietsema: Sounds like a communications breakdown (or two or three).
If I'm getting the whole story here, the server needs to learn to "read" his tables better and the manager should not have "corrected" you at the table.
However, I think it's GOOD that she noticed the online comments. Typically, I get more complaints from folks who say a birthday or special need was forgotten or overlooked rather than remembered. And you can't really fault her for giving you her business card, can you? I'm thinking she WANTS you to have a good experience.
Washington, D.C.: I made your mother's chicken recipe (I used chopped walnuts instead of breadcrumbs since that is all I had in the pantry)for my mother and she loved it. Not only do you give good restaurant advice, but you have great recipes as well! Thanks.
I had my first taste of soft shell crab at the Joshua Wilton House in Harrisonburg VA this weekend. Where can I get the best soft shell crab sandwich a little closer to home?
Tom Sietsema: I'm SO pleased to hear you enjoyed a piece of my childhood. Thanks for the feedback.
As I mentioned on an earlier chat, Poste in the Monaco Hotel offers a first-class soft shell crab sandwich (or did, just a few weeks ago).
Taking clients to DC Coast for an upcoming lunch, any hints on what to try or, more importantly, what to skip?
Tom Sietsema: Honestly, I haven't visited the popular seafood restaurant since the chef from the nearby Palette took over the kitchen there. Does anyone else have recent experience?
Chantilly, Va.: Please recommend a restaurant in Chantilly. Thank you.
Tom Sietsema: Just any restaurant? My vote goes to Thai Basil, where I'm drawn to the chef-owner's fish cakes, chicken-coconut soup and green curry with pork, chicken or beef.
washingtonpost.com: Review of Thai Basil in Chantilly .
Have you reviewed, or have you considered reviewing, Cafe Ettore, in the Palisades neighborhood? It is located on MacArthur Blvd, just south of Arizona Avenue.
It has wonderful atmosphere, extremely gracious hosts, and outstanding food. It's a wonderful neighborhood restaurant.
Tom Sietsema: I've had good meals and mediocre meals at Cafe Ettore, which I last ate at about a year ago. I hear the neighbors love the place, however. My best moments there involved mushroom-filled ravioli, ham-swaddled monkfish, veal chops and zabaglione.
Re: spilled drinks and torn garments: Tom, there was a bar/restaurant in my college town that we frequented on a weekly basis. The food was decent, but the drinks were stiff and cheap (I was in college--priorities!). Anyway, one night I arrived with a large group of people and we went to a booth in the back. As I slip into the booth, there was a nail sticking out and I got a pretty long gash on my calf from it. I informed our waitress (who happened to be a fellow classmate) and about five minutes later, the manager/bartender arrived with a free drink and hammer to fix both problems (empty glass and bleeding leg). Here's the crazy part: Instead of asking me to get up so that she could fix it, she moved the table out and then shimmied in between me and the table, squatted down and started hammering away right in front of my crotch. People on the other side of the restaurant who didn't have the best view were rather curious as to what was going on, to say the least.
Tom Sietsema: Why do I think this is a joke?
Anyway, you made me laugh out loud.
Silver Spring, Md.: Have you heard anything about Trapeze, a new place near Burtonsville? There menu looks enticing and they have live music.
Tom Sietsema: What a name! I can only imagine what a punster could say about the place, regardless of the quality of the food.
No, I know nothing about the newcomer.
I had a great meal at Heritage India last week, but discovered
that I was charged twice on my credit card. The manager/
owner blamed the credit card company, never offered an
apology, and told me on the phone that "I am busy and
losing my patience" when I called to discuss the charge. He
later called to say the restaurant made a mistake, and still
never offered an apology. I enjoy the food so much. I just
wish the service would match its quality. Do you go back to
restaurants if you enjoy the food, but not the service?
Tom Sietsema: Sometimes. Proof: I keep returning to Heritage India for the fall dining guide. Invariably, I leave thinking "what a wonderful meal" AND "what pitiful service." It's a shame the staff can't get its act together.
Arlington, Va.: Please settle a debate. How, precisely, do you pronounce "Les Halles"?
Tom Sietsema: You say: Lay-AHL (there's no "s" sound on the end)
Morton's -- What's the big deal?: Hola Tom,
I went to Morton's in Georgetown to celebrate my friend's upcoming marriage. I had never been there and had high expectations given some of the articles I had read in the past. Are they out of date? The service was okay. The bartender was sullen, the waiter was nice but it took him forever to come around our table, the meat was fine but not great, the mashed potatoes--please, I could do better--and the mushrooms had not taste. So what is the big deal about Morton's other than the price?
Tom Sietsema: You didn't read any rave from me -- unless it was in reference to the Conn. Ave. location's amazing, lunch-only hamburger. I'm not a fan of the beige interiors and the talking menus myself.
Alexandria, Va.: Was going to try out TemptAsian but the chef that won raves left. Do you ever go back to a restaurant that has lost its star chef to see if it has maintained its good rating?
Tom Sietsema: Indeed I do. Earlier this year, I began returning to previously reviewed places to see how they were performing. So far, I've re-reviewed Matchbox, Vidalia, Obelisk, Cafe de Paris, Evening Star Cafe and Fahrenheit. Look for another trio of updates next month.
NW Washington, D.C.: Hi Tom Love your chats! I have 2 questions if you have time. I was wondering when do you start doing the leg work for your Fall Dining Guide? Second question do you ever go to a restaurant just to dine or are you always working?
2) I feel like every meal is a chance to work. Maybe once or twice a year, I'll go someplace just for the fun of it, but even then, I'm taking mental notes.
I noticed in your May 10 online discussion you mentioned that the Old Homestead Steakhouse had grilled its last steak in Bethesda. I wish I would have read your discussion before this week. My work colleagues and I had reservations for 10 people on Tuesday, May 22, but no one from the restaurant bothered to let us know they closed up shop. Only when we called for parking information did we realize something was not right because the phone number had been disconnected. Is there a protocol for a restaurant that has closed to notify customers with existing reservations? Luckily Morton's across the street was able to take our reservation. Love your column.
Tom Sietsema: I spoke with Carol Chaldaris from the home office in New York, who was under the impression that the manager at the steakhouse in Bethesda contacted diners who had put down money for future group events. Obviously, not every diner who reserved a table got a courtesy call from the local Old Homestead.
If you want to let the company know how you feel, call co-owner Gregory Sherry in New York: 212-242-9040.
Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.: Tom, Quick Scouting Report -- I had lunch last Friday at Nage on Scott Circle (connected to the Courtyard Marriott). Cool space, good service, and an interesting menu. I had braised veal cheek served over a risotto that was full of bacon and asparagus. It was the best thing I had eaten in ages. Kudos to this new place, I can't wait to go back.
Tom Sietsema: And you must be in the publicity department there?
The manager didn't fix any problems and the not getting refills on coffee and no dessert menus is the best way to rush people out of your restaurant.
Also, she defended the waiter when she should have apologized, fixed the problems and then shut up about it. Instead she tells the patron how wrong she is or that it is a subjective issue. Basically, she tried to argue her way out of a problem rather than actually solving it. And the business card? Why bother if you aren't going to fix anything? There are too many restaurants out there to tell customers their complaints are subjective (duh - they are still legitimate) and take offense at well-intended comments (which seemed to be blown off even though they were read).
Tom Sietsema: Okay, maybe I answered that question/problem a little too hastily. Yes, customers should have received dessert menus. No, manager should not have challenged the guests. (I think I typed such.) The problem is, some of these complaints are hard for me to address without being a witness. I'd love to hear what the restaurant has to say about the unfortunate incident.
Les Halles: Wrong, wrong. It's lay-zahl. H counts as a vowel, so you slur the s into the H. Also, this is how Tony Bourdain pronounces it in the audio version of his book (he reads it himself).
Tom Sietsema: Uh oh! I should know better than to trust the person who answers the phone - at Les Halles! I don't trust my college French.
Washington, D.C. : Actually, some regions would pronounce Les Halles "lay zahl". I have been corrected several times - it seems I never select the correct dialect for the person I'm with.
Re: Les Halles: Uhh, Tom...it's LAYS-Ahl. Since you have a vowel sound begriming the second word you pronounce the s in "Les"
Tom Sietsema: Then there's this!
Les Halles: If anyone is questioning Tom's pronunciation, he is indeed correct. My grandmother was a university-level French professor, and one morning, after hearing us call it "Lez Ahl" (with the liaison between the two words) she erupted with the fact that it is, indeed "LAY AHL." If I recall, the lack of liaison has something to do with the name of the Paris neighborhood, which has its origins in Latin.
Tom Sietsema: Who knew that there was no right answer?
Washington, D.C.: Tom, I was absolutely flabbergasted by the Ask Tom from this weekends Post magazine. I think it is absurd that this couple believes that their special occasion was "ruined" by the presence of people next to them. It is ludicrous to assume that you should get privacy and intimacy in a public place, if you want that then get a hotel room and order room service or book a private room/table in a restaurant (you didn't mention whether or not they had told Tosca prior to that evening that it was a special occasion). The diner doesn't control where other diners are seated. There are a myriad of reasons for a couple to be seated next to you, one of which could be the fair sharing of tables so that all servers have a even shake at making money that night (it is a business after all). This is just like the complaint of diners that someone else's attire (i.e. the age old jeans argument) would "ruin" their meal this is just ridiculous. I understand if the other diners were loud, obnoxious, cursing or on cell phones. This is a reason to ask to be moved or have them moved. But in most cases the only person that can ruin your meal is you. Enjoy the company you are with, enjoy the delicious meal given to you and VOILA special occasion enjoyed by all.
Tom Sietsema: In the tight space that I had there, I tried to explain why diners were seated right next to the celebrants when there appeared to be free tables elsewhere in the restaurant. But I hear you: restaurants are public spaces, right?
Washington, DC Coast: Tom, my apologies but this is going to be a long one. It had been quite some time since I ate at DC Coast (in my memory a very good meal and my first introduction to Turley zin - yum!) and went again this week to meet a friend of mine for a drink. As an ex-agm here in DC, I was somewhat disturbed by the bar staff. When asked immediately upon approaching the bar "What can I get you?"
I replied that I would need a moment to decide. The bartender was apparently offended by this and proceeded to ignore me for the next 10 minutes. When I asked if they had any signature drinks, I was handed, without a word, a dirty, wet drink menu which was matched by the bartender's dirty vest. When I did order a drink, I watched the bartender pick the martini glass out of the cooler by the rim - from where I would be drinking - and then wind the piece of lemon peel around and through his fingers for so long trying to get it to curl that
I actually asked him to stop. After my friend joined me we were not offered pretzels (though we were not that upset as we watched the bartenders fill the bowls by using their hands), though everyone else at the bar had them, nor could we get water, though we requested it. When our glasses emptied I watched both bartenders walk back and forth by us for another 10 minutes without offering another drink. Further, when we ordered apps, the bartender placed the silverware in front of us by handling the working end of the utensils. None of these things in and of themselves were that offensive, but put together it was a very unappetizing evening. Yes, I violated the cardinal rule and did not say anything, having gotten very involved in conversation with my companion, and I will not avoid the place, but I would hope that they work with their bar staff on some hygiene issues.
Tom Sietsema: Mr. Tunks, are you listening?
Les Halles: Ok, now that we know how to say it; is it worth eating at?
Tom Sietsema: It can be! I go for the house-made pate, the steak tartare (can you tell I'm not a vegetarian?), the salmon with red wine sauce and pleasant pastries.
A linguist in LAY AHL: LAY AHL! No liaison.
It depends on the origin of the noun on question. Since you probably won't be researching the origins of all the French words you'll be using, you just have to memorize which nouns get liaison and which don't. For instance, you say le hockey, not l'hockey.
Tom Sietsema: Am I redeemed or what?
Washington, D.C.: I moved to DC a couple years ago and have never found a truly great place for sushi. So far Sushi Taro is the best I've found. In your opinion, what's the best sushi place around? The atmosphere doesn't matter to me. I'd be happy with a hole in the wall or a trendy place as long as they serve some great sushi!
Tom Sietsema: Serene and pristine: Sushi-Ko.
Small, pristine and cheap: Kotobuki
This is a lesson in heeding the advice of others who post reviews in the City Guide. Last Friday night a couple of friends and I went out to dinner at Sorriso in Cleveland Park. Both of the friends had studied abroad in Italy and we are always on the lookout for different Italian places to try. The food was good, but the service was beyond terrible (as others had mentioned in the reviews). First the waiter, then the owner, and then the hostess came to our table as we were finishing our coffee to tell us that they really needed our table and could we please go. As we were leaving, my friend, in a very quiet voice, said to the hostess, we were offended to be asked to leave and that we would not be returning. Then the owner (hostess' husband) came charging up behind us, telling us we were being "very rude to his wife" and calling us "inexperienced." He then proceeded to follow us OUT of the restaurant onto the sidewalk and continue to loudly call us rude (in front of other customers) and tell us that we had no idea how to run a restaurant.
Though it's pretty clear he still hasn't got a clue either.
Tom Sietsema: Too bad you landed at Sorriso when Dino and Palena were just across the street! I'm really surprised the joint has lasted as long as it has.
Arlington, Va.: Tallula has had problems since it opened. A year ago (two?) you posted a rant of mine where I was just trying to ask them what time the bar opened by knocking on the door and waving at those inside. Not a single employee would acknowledge my presence. And it was 15 before they opened, but there was no sign. They are snotty and awful, and I tend not to go to ANY of their restaurants.
Tom Sietsema: Well, let's be fair. I've been there at least ten times and I haven't encountered any rude behavior. I'm not doubting you, but every business has its good moments and its lesser ones, right?
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!: Hi Tom,
Just wanted to say thanks for recommending Oleanna in Boston - my husband and I had a wonderful experience this past weekend! Knowing I'm a big fan of your, hubby looked up your Boston recommendations for a surprise dinner and we were thrilled with the result. Amazing service, beautiful setting, innovative and delicious food - I love both that we had to ask about half the ingredients and terms on the menu and that the staff was able to explain them so well!! Our only regret was that it was too chilly to dine on the patio.
Thanks for helping my husband plan a fabulous surprise!!
washingtonpost.com: Postcard from Tom: Boston
Washington, D.C.: What is your opinion of "no-substitutions" policies at restaurants? I've recently been told by waiters at Peacock Cafe and Boulevard Woodgrill that no substitutions could be made to the dishes on their menus. I was surprised, especially since my particular requests were pretty minor. At Peacock, I asked if they could make a vegetarian salad that was listed on their on-line menu, but apparently is no longer on their actual menu. The waiter said no, and also said the restaurant would make no substitutions to the salads on their menu (by the way, I submitted an online comment to Peacock about my experience there, and received no response). At Boulevard Woodgrill, a waiter informed me at brunch that they would not substitute egg whites for eggs in any egg dish. Are policies like this common? In your opinion, are they reasonable?
Tom Sietsema: Gosh, I think it all depends on what the kitchen has on hand and what time it is and a bunch of things. But a reasonable request should be met by the restaurant, which is, after all, in the hospitality business.
Sushi: What about Kaz Sushi Bistro? It's definitely my favorite and I love the service and ambience too.
Tom Sietsema: I like the restaurant a lot. But the chef doesn't seem to be as innovative these days, or not as innovative as his competitors at Sushi-Ko.
Industry Professional: Tom, love your insight into the booming scene that DC has become. However, I am sometimes disheartened by the fact that these chats tend more and more towards gripes about service. Working in the industry, I know it is important to point out shortcomings so we can better ourselves, but there has got to be a realistic expectation from the customers. Here is a recent story of my Saturday I wanted to relate:
I went to the (insert cell phone company here) store to get a new phone, after signing the wait list I had to sit for TWO HOURS to get my issue resolved and the manager didn't offer an apology or free earpiece to make up for it.
I then went to (insert clothing store here) and they were out of my size in the shirt I wanted, the sales clerk tried waaaay to hard to up-sell me and get me to apply for a charge card. I was offered no free pair of pants, and the manager did not even apologize for not having my shirt even though it was advertised.
Lastly I went to (insert local cinema) to catch a movie and the showing I wanted to see was sold out, so I bought tickets to a different film. I did not enjoy the film at all, the movie theater was too cold, and the prices were astronomical. Again, no compensation was offered for their obvious blunders. I think I'll stay at home forever now.
Customers feel too entitled sometimes, service will never be perfect and you have to take that with a grain of salt. Why does everyone expect handouts in this industry when I get none of the same perks from any other industry, no free phone, no free clothes, no free movies. There is a time and a place for comped meals, and managers should absolutely be made aware of service problems, but please don't complain when you don't get a free meal because your water wasn't filled properly. Just my two cents.
Tom Sietsema: Something tells me you are very good at what you do. Thanks for taking the time to write. Your point is well taken here.
I am hoping you can help with this. A guest in our restaurant this past Saturday told us of his plans to propose to his girlfriend. During our conversation, he indicated that he wanted it to be a total surprise. Of course we happily went along with this and were quite flattered by the prospect. However part of his rouse was that the reservations were to be for four people and under their friend's name - a friend who had to suddenly cancel leaving the two to dine alone.
So I have no way to contact this gentleman and his - hopefully - bride to be. He indicated that he learned of our restaurant through your chat. Hoping you will post this and ask him to call the restaurant and let us know what happened. Either way I would like to get the couple a gift (first proposal tied to the restaurant) or buy the gentleman a drink if it did not go as planned.
Tom Sietsema: Chatter-hoping-to-propose, are you out there?
Alexandria, Va.: We had dinner at 100 King in Alexandria last night. We really enjoyed the food, but could hardly talk to one another because of the noise level - it was horrific! Won't go back there again. What are restaurants like that thinking when they invest so much time in designing a restaurant?
Tom Sietsema: As I've noted before, no one likes walking into a mausoleum, but rock concert decibels aren't very inviting, either. There has to be a balance.
Part of the problem has to do with current design trends. A lot of the new crop of restaurants are big and open and feature bare floors and high ceilings.
The other problem is restaurateurs who don't try to experience their dining rooms BEFORE they get an audience. Often, not until owners sit in their chairs and see things from the vantage point of a customer are they able to identify potential problems -- like uncomfortable chairs and loud dining rooms.
D.C. summer associate: Tom, I always trust your advice. I'm in the lucky situation of being a summer associate at a law firm this summer and every week I'm taken out to several fancy lunches. What are your recommendations for places not too miss that are downtown and near K street?
Tom Sietsema: Fancy -- fancy and good? I'd suggest you get your law firm to take you to Gerard's Place, Cafe 15, Taberna del Alabardero (if only to luxuriate in that sumptuous dining room), Vidalia and the Prime Rib, one of the grand daddies of business dining downtown, right on K St. NW.
I know you get mostly complaints, so I wanted to report the exceptional dinner we had Friday night at Charleston. Much to my surprise, it was the service, even more than the food, that made the evening. I had mentioned in passing that it was our anniversary when I made the reservation; they apparently made a note of that, because they seated us at an excellent table by the window overlooking the water, and asked which anniversary it was.
The sommelier was fantastic, too -- we're not big wine folks, and are usually intimidated by the difficulty of finding something we like. But she was friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable; she pushed us in the direction of a wine we never would have thought to try, and insisted several times that they would take it back if we didn't like it. Then, when it was served not as chilled as it should have been, the waiter immediately whisked it away and returned with two complimentary glasses of champagne (I would have happily just waited a few more minutes, so that gesture was an unexpected treat).
Overall, the service was prompt yet unobtrusive, friendly while remaining elegant, formal without being showy (I hate that "look at what excellent service we provide" approach that I've seen at some high-class establishments -- I appreciate their picking up the napkin, but I hate the feeling that someone is constantly watching me, waiting to pounce the minute I get up to go to the bathroom). Everything didn't go perfectly, but little issues are inevitable, and the way they handled them only increased my admiration for the service. In short, they made us feel special on a special night.
The food was, of course, excellent as well. The bittersweet chocolate tart was absolutely out of this world (truly bittersweet, with an intense chocolate flavor, not oversweetened like most) -- I would give my right arm for that recipe (or at least the name of their chocolate supplier)! But frankly, there are a lot of places that serve great food, but very, very few that have provided this same level of service (and it's the only place to which I've ever written a thank-you note!).
Tom Sietsema: I hope owners Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman get a chance to read your high praise. Wolf was one of five chefs from the Mid-Atlantic to be nominated for a regional cooking award by the James Beard Foundation this year. Your comments underscore the couple's dedication to all aspects of the dining experience.
Washington, D.C.: Hi Tom. I've got the critical 3rd date coming up. I'm looking for something in the District - something nice with good ambiance without being too expensive (under $100 for both of us would be ideal). Also, since this date will take place on Saturday night, I need a place where I can make reservations for two. Can you help? Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: You don't say where Dates No. 1 and 2 transpired, but I think a meal at the BAR at Vidalia or the dining rooms at Zengo in Penn Quarter or Spices in Cleveland Park would suit your needs.
Gaithersburg, Md.: Tom I love your column and often chime in on your chatter blogs. I can't attend this week's chatter but, will check later on line. I have a question I hope you can answer, I have noticed at Persian restaurants they serve a side of a reddish brown seasoning to put on top of the meals. What is this flavorful concoction? It definitely perks the food up. Hope you can help. Thanks
Tom Sietsema: I like sumac, too. The red berry is ground into a powder and used to season grilled meats, salads and other dishes. For those who haven't tried it, sumac has a subtle lemony-tangy flavor.
Washington, D.C.: I know I'm posting late but I hope you can get to me. I have to go to Bethesda tonight and am looking for a good, relatively cheap place to eat, maybe with outside seating. Tried Raku recently, so somewhere else would be great. Thanks so much. Love the reviews!
Tom Sietsema: I seem to recall Mon Ami Gabi has al fresco seating. And the nearby Jaleo is always festive.
Falls Church, Va.: I second your opinion of Heritage India in Glover Park. My funniest restaurant experience was there just after they opened. After some truly fantastic food with way overly solicitous service, they delivered a wonderful looking rice pudding desert to the table. We hadn't ordered it, but thought it was just their way of saying "welcome to our new restaurant". They served it to us from a main dish and we were just picking up our spoons when the maitre'd rushed over, scooped up the plates and said that the dish belonged to a table across the restaurant..... They made no attempt to address our salivating mouths. Fantastic food, terrible service.
Tom Sietsema: That sounds like the Heritage I know -- but only sometimes love!
Washington, D.C.: Tom - Hi!
I know you have been asked to recommend places before a performance at the Kennedy Center, but what about afterwards. We will finish with the Opera at 10:20 and want to have a bite. I would say Bistro Francais, but don't want the Gtown on a friday night parking hassle. I really can't stand Old Ebbitt except for their oysters. I don't want somewhere that will squeeze us in late and then behave as if they are just waiting for us to leave so they can split. Any ideas? Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: Is Notti Bianche open at 10:30? Even a seat at the tiny bar would be a treat.
Lincoln Park: Tom--Went to NYC this past weekend and had dinner at
Mario Batali's pizza restaurant, Otto. I have to admit, it
was a mixed experience. The good was the nice, cheap
wine, fantastic salads (the freshest arugula with the
sweetest cherry tomatoes I've ever tasted), and delicious
gelato (including a lovely olive oil version). The downside?
The pizzas themselves were a little limp--in fact, the
mushroom with tallegio cheese was almost unpleasantly
earthy/bitter. And the noise was awful--the room was
already acoustically challenged, and they were playing
rather inappropriate rock music at unpleasant levels. The
bottom line is that it made me appreciate how great 2
Amys here really is. Peter Pastan beats Mario Batali by an
Italian country mile! Who woulda thunk it?
Tom Sietsema: Otto: Loud and uninspired -- my sentiments exactly.
Two Amys: One reason I love writing about restaurants in Washington.
Since soft-shell crabs came up in this and previous discussions, I thought I'd pass along that El Manantial in Restaurant has continually had them on the menu the last month and they have been fabulous.
Tom Sietsema: In Reston, not Restaurant.
Thanks for sharing the sighting.
Washington, D.C.: I just googled "Les Halles pronunciation" and the top 5 hits agreed with you -- for some reason in this instance you don't pronounce the "z" sound.
Tom Sietsema: This is getting murkier and murkier....
No right answer....: How very French !
And on that note, I'm going to dig into some delicious leftovers from last night. Shredded chicken in peanut sauce and a sparkling ceviche. Guess where I got 'em?
See you next week, kids. Dine well and try not to feel TOO entitled, ok?
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema answers your questions, listens to your suggestions and even entertains your complaints about Washington dining.
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Warren Brown talks about all your automobile issues! He has been covering the automobile industry for The Washington Post since 1982. Brown, who joined the newspaper in 1976, has what many people think is a particularly cool job: He gets to test drive all manner of cars, from top-of-the-line Mercedes sedans and the newest sports cars to Volkswagen Beetles and SUVs. His auto reviews are lively, detailed accounts of a car's good and bad points, addressing everything from a car's highway performance to its "head-turning" factor and sound system.
Brown comes online Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions on every aspect of the automotive industry -- from buying your dream car to the future of the internal combustion engine.
Bowie, Md.: Toyota seems to be a sensible company that makes great cars that exceed owner's expectations with quality and reliability in the forefront. Given that, what would posses them to put 267 horses in a RAV4?
Toyota is no more "sensible" than GM, Ford, or Chrysler. They are all going after every conceivable segment of the market.
There is a market for high-horsepower. So, Toyota beefs up its offerings in that segment.
GM has been kicking tail with the Hummer H3. So, "sensible" Toyota launches -- actually, relaunches -- the Toyota FJ Cruiser SUV.
America starts gagging on gasoline prices. So, Toyota dusts off its Echo, reshapes it into a "Yaris," and releases it in the U.S. as a smart new small car.
They continue to labor under the misconception that they can't do anything right. For example, GM's Chevrolet Cobalt actually is as fuel-efficient as the Toyota Corolla. It looks better and is a lot more fun to drive. But for some odd reason, GM sits on its marketing tail and does not really tell us any of that -- until after everyone thinks that "sensible" Toyota walks and drives on water.
Alfa Male in Alexandria: I've read a couple 'future vehicle' posts online that have Alfa Romeo execs saying (like - ok, this time we really mean it) they are going to return to the US and bring the Brera coupe here. Nothing in autodom would make me happier as I still lament my departed GTV6. What does your crystal ball tell you?
Warren Brown: The Italians will re-enter the U.S. market with the Brera coupe -- but also with a sampling of teeny-weeny city runners. By fall 2007.
Yesterday I test drove a Ford Freestyle and was quite impressed with the amount of space and layout of the car. But the engine is very noisy and underpowered. What is your view of this car? Is Ford planning a bigger engine in the future?
The Ford Freestyle is what I'm going to start calling a "city wagon," as opposed to a "crossover SUV," a term which makes no sense to me.
The Freestyle essentially is based on the Ford Five Hundred sedan, one of my favorite family cars, which probably is why I like the Freestyle as well. The 3-liter, 203-hp V6 is the sole engine for this one linked to a continuously variable automatic transmission (no fixed gear ratios in this one). I don't recall the Freestyle's engine being noisy. But I'll take your word on that. No word at this writing that Ford will boost horsepower. Competes with Chrysler Pacifica, Nissan Murano, Honda Pilot and Mazda CX-7, the latter of which is the most rambunctious of the lot.
Girl On A Budget: Hi, Warren. I love the chat. My question is on car repairs. I have a Mazda 3,and as you know care repairs are expensive. It is better to go the dealer or not? Before owning this new car I frequented a Goodyear chain and was pleased with the service. Your thoughts? Many Thanks.
Warren Brown: Repair shops are a lot like guys. If you find one you trust, one who always does his best to please you, who puts your interests first, although he might sometimes mess up, but still cares enough to apologize and try to do the right thing, stay with him.
Walla Walla, Wash.: Have you reviewed the Toyota FJ Cruiser? Good, bad? What other vehicles should I consider in this category?
Warren Brown: Hello, Walla Walla. The Toyota FJ Cruiser -- $21,71 to a bit above $23 for base prices -- is good, very good, especially if you plan to go off road. Available rear-wheel-drive (for poseurs) or four-wheel-drive (for the truly rugged). Compare with the Hummer H3, Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Liberty.
Washington, D.C.: Will E-85 really take off as a realistic fuel alternative, or is this just temporary hype due to high gas prices?
Warren Brown: It will take off as a realistic alternative, a development that could be hastened if Congress gets some common sense and removes tariffs from the importation of Brazilian ethanol.
Doing so would not harm U.S. farmers at all inasmuch as Brazil already is having a hard time meeting Latin American demand for that fuel. But I think it would send the right signals to other ethanol producers that we are serious in the U.S. about reducing our reliance on oil.
Also, Congress needs to mandate that our oh-so-rich oil companies make a certain percentage of their fuel stock ethanol, primarily available at urban stations nationwide. This would remove some of the risk from GM and other companies that have been building ethanol-ready vehicles in the absence of pumps to fuel them.
Also, congratulations to GM that, because of its earlier experience in Brazil, now realizes that flexible-fuel vehicles make more sense than ethanol-only vehicles or gasoline-only vehicles. Flex-fuel can use both, which means owners of flex-fuel vehicles have a better chance of playing the fuel market at fill-up. This will happen. Members of Congress need to stop talking, start thinking and start acting like the leaders they are supposed to be.
washingtonpost.com: GM Hides Fuel-Efficient Small Cars and Trucks -- in Brazil, (Post, May 21)
To, Girl On A Budget: Do not go to a Goodyear for your service. Find someone that specializes in Mazda and the like, not necessarily a dealer.
Lots of good qualified mechanics at independent shops. Find one and develop a rapport with your mechanic. You'll be glad you did.
Goodyear stores are franchise stores. Not all franchise stores do the same quality job. Some are great. Some are awful. That isn't Goodyear's fault.
I use Goodyear, Merchant and my local SUNOCO station. It's not the name of the company. It's the quality of the people behind the name. I shop for the best people.
We have baby on the way and 50 lb dog. We need car to carry both and groceries, good for errands, etc. We've narrowed down the choices to Rav4 and HHR. Which one do you recommend based on reliability, safety, functionality, fun to drive, etc. Any others we should look at?
Warren Brown: The Chevrolet HHR is a better value proposition. Also, quality and space are commensurate as far as I'm concerned. Downside? Yeah. Skip the wimpy 2.2, 143-hp inline 4-liter engine, unless you primarily are concerned about saving fuel. I'd go with the 2.4-liter engine, 172-hp engine with 162 foot-pounds of torque. Congrats on your coming new kid. Keep that heavy dog in the back, out of the way of the baby.
Re: Congress and E-85: Senator Obama has introduced a bill to require certain profitable oil companies to expend one percent of recent quarterly profits to install E-85 fuel pumps in the United States (S-2984) That may give the companies some cover.
Warren Brown: With all due respect to Senora, that is a wimpy proposal, considering the enormous profits of the oil companies and the outrageously generous tax breaks Congress already has granted to the energy industry.
What the good senator needs to do is bring the oil companies back to Capitol Hill for real negotiations. To wit: We will remove your tax breaks, possibly tax your windfall profits, remove tariffs from the importation of ethanol and take other steps to help the American people become energy independent if you allegedly American oil companies don't get serious about putting alternative fuels on the streets. How about 10 percent of your fuel stock being ethanol?
Pound Ridge, N.Y.: Dear Warren,
If you loved your A4 wagon because of its lovely looks and interior, its reasonable gas mileage its awd and its roomy wagon-ness, but disliked it because its not under warranty anymore, has had its share of problems and is making a worrying humming sound, where would you look for a new car?
Warren Brown: Dear Pound Ridge:
The wording is "for better or for worse."
You have not gotten to "for worse."
That being the case, I would try to work things out, give the relationship a chance.
After all, as you've indicated, you did enjoy the "for better part," right?
It's a funny thing about life and relationships, Pound Ridge.
Things tend to look dark after the easy part of "for better" fades. But it's a matter of perspective.
That could be curtains for just the first act, sort of end of Part I for "for better."
Take your trusty car to a good shop.
There is a possibility that the best--good service, no car note--is yet to come.
Bethesda, Md.: Regarding the follies of American car marketing: Do you have any further thoughts on this? I was literally saying the same thing yesterday, how many people realize that, for instance, the Mustang has the same crash test ratings as the VW featured in those "Safe Happens" ads and can run on 87 octane. It seems that when you compare base model to base model, the American cars often have more power and better fuel mileage that their Japanese counterparts, but since the American advertisements don't capitalize on this, people never even think to check.
Warren Brown: I totally agree, Bethesda.
It drives me nuts, makes me whacky.
If you go vehicle by vehicle throughout GM's North American lineup, you will find that GM beats or meets Toyota and Honda in fuel economy on a category-by-category basis.
But the domestics have been so goofily wedded to gitty-up-and-go advertising, so drunk on truck fumes, you'd never know that.
Also, and this happens every time I go abroad, I am shocked when I see GM and Ford-sponsored little runners that are smart, sassy, appealing, wonderfully different from much of what these companies offer in the United States.
But they keep giving me this stuff -- and I guess I have to take their word for it -- about the prohibitively high costs of shipping those models stateside what with currency exchange rates and homologation expenses and all. Okay, okay.
But you'd think that they could at least do a better job of advertising what they actually are selling in the United States, don't you? You'd think that they'd have the guts enough to say: "This is why we're better."
I just want them to show more guts, more passion. I want them to get angry, excited. Enough of their corporate politesse!
RE: E-85 question: "Will E-85 really take off as a realistic fuel alternative, or is this just temporary hype due to high gas prices?" Are we really daring to argue the incredibly basic economic law of supply and demand here and claiming that we have "temporary high gas prices"? Supply -- has been headed to zero since the first day human beings drilled for it. Demand is rapidly increasing with SUVs, china, India, etc. No sudden peace in the middle east, good relations with Iran, lack of bombings in Nigeria, or any other unlikely event is going to change the basic economics of our oil situation here -- so can we please stop fooling ourselves into believing this is a "temporary problem?"
And for the rest of you who might still labor under the dangerous illusion that currently high gasoline prices are a temporary problem, something the pretty faces on the evening and local network TV news shows can rant about until they're (the prices, not those pretty faces) are gone away, let me make this perfectly clear.
-- Oil is running out.
-- We long ago reached peak production in North America. We're rapidly reaching it globally.
In my travels in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, I did not, have not met one poor person who wishes to remain to remain poor. They want houses, schools, personal transportation, jobs, medical care, everything that many of us take for granted and apparently for ourselves alone in the affluent West.
It takes energy, lots of it, to get those things.
Increasingly, people in those countries are expending that energy in pursuit of the life many of us here know and love.
That means increased demand for a declining resource -- oil.
That means America's cheap oil ride is over -- forever.
No one on the 11 'O' clock news will tell you that.
With the skyrocketing gas prices, my car seems too big to be driving everyday (it's a 2001 Mazda Miata). What do you think of a Yamaha YZF600R?
Your Yamaha, absent emissions controls, pollutes a heck of a lot more than your Miata.
Make sure that your nose is facing away from the Yamaha's exhaust pipe.
Arlington, Va.: What is your opinion of Carmax? Is the easy buying experience too good to be true (are their prices fair) or is it truly the way to go for pre-owned vehicles? I've sold to them before and loved the experience, wondering about buying from them. Thanks!
Warren Brown: I like Carmax, very much. You won't get the cheapest price there. But you won't get ripped off, either. Also, Carmax keeps its word. That company lives up to its warranties and guarantees.
Ethanol: Just a comment, when we lived in Missouri, the state mandated that the fuel we could buy had to include 10% (I think) ethanol during the winter months.
Don't know if this was weather-related (although occasional AWD should average out against summertime air conditioning), but my mileage dropped by about 15%, and the overall fuel cost was higher.
Warren Brown: In think that was weather related. But here's betting that Missouri soon bumps up its corn crops. I mean, duhh, geez, they do grow corn in Missouri, don't they?
Warren Brown: Hey, here's a shout-out to al of the sugar cane producers and sugar refiners in my home state of Louisiana and in places such as Florida:
If an outfit such as Cosan in Brazil can become the world's second largest producer of ethanol, primarily derived from sugar cane, what are you guys doing?
Car Help: My husband and I are starting to think about getting a "new to us" car. We have been driving a Mercury Sable wagon for several years and we like it (it's got all the bells and whistles and drives well etc), but we have come to the realization that we have had to put a lot of money into in in repairs -- emissions system, air conditioning, etc.
We are thinking about the Mazda MPV (2005 or 2006 model year). I like the idea of the smaller minivan rather than a bigger one. What is your experience with this vehicle? I've heard lots of good things about Mazda reliability, but wondered what you think
Warren Brown: Hey, I like that. I love your attitude. A "new to us" car car. Way cool. And, yes, the Mazda MPV minivan is a good little urban minivan. Comes with a 3-liter, 200-hp V6, enough power to move a family without moving you into OPEC bankruptcy.
Dear Pound Ridge: Time to get a good maintenance plan going. Just because it's out of warranty is no reason to dump it.
Take a look at your owners manual and see what services need doing. Hopefully you have done the scheduled maintenance up to this point. If not, get your checkbook warmed up.
Warren Brown: That's what I said, but a bit more romantically. Geez! Show a little love.
Narrowed down the choices to Rav4 and HHR. : Don't forget to pay the extra for four wheel disc brakes and side curtains because the base model does not come with it.
Warren Brown: Thank you. Very good point.
I was so excited at the early word on the Mazda crossover, but it seems my hopes were dashed by your review. Did you spend any time in the passenger seats yourself, or rely solely on the word of your family in your review? Did they say why the seats/space was so uncomfortable?
washingtonpost.com: Built With the Driver, but Not Passengers, in Mind --2007 Mazda CX-7 , (Post, May 21)
Warren Brown: Yes, I did. The women were right. I was wrong. Mary Anne, Binta, and Kafi, I apologize for being so selfish. But I really enjoyed the drive, even if none of you did. Hey, I'm the Dad. I rule.
I love to go the the U.S. and hire those great big exotic cars that don't seem to exist in the rest of the world (for the proletariat at least), I hired a Crown Victoria once and felt like Kojac. My question: is the dream over and will I be offered only and Euro-boxes and Corollas in the future.
Only the dream of empire is over.
If you can accept that, you can join the rest of us in cruise control.
What do you think about an excess oil profits tax -- wouldn't that result in oil companies either manipulating their financial's to avoid the tax or deter them from profitable behavior? Is there another way to pay for a Strategic Energy Fund? Do we really need such a fund anyway -- I mean aren't the energy companies and alternative energy startups already working hard to develop alternative technologies? Is this just more unbridled bureaucracy? Thanks.
Warren Brown: Good questions, Northern Virginia, to which I ask:
Are we a government of people, or a government of big oil? Are not the people who run these companies American citizens? Are they not protected by the blood and sacrifice of our American troops? Is it too much to ask our American Congress to examine, really examine, the current spate of federal tax breaks for oil companies that make more money in one quarter than many countries earn in one year? What is so terribly onerous about mandating that the oil companies, in the wake of globally declining reserves, turn their considerably creative energies to the development of alternative fuels, that they make such fuels available in as many places in the United States as possible.
-- HOW MANY SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF OIL BARONS ARE FIGHTING AND DYING IN IRAQ?
Anonymous: My grandfather has said he can't ever give up his 6-year-old Park Avenue because he finds the sportier suspensions in most new cars too exhausting and painful for long trips. Despite your repeated support for that kind of suspension, don't you think automakers are shooting themselves in the foot here? Older customers are more loyal and often more affluent. Why not offer a softer ride to keep them interested in new models?
Squishy-soft for those of us of soft bottoms.
Hard rides for those of us who want that.
Anyway, I enjoyed being with you all today. It's always a pleasure, always educational.
Drive carefully over the Memorial Day weekend. Show a little love. Eat lunch, Ria.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Do you also have other questions about D.C. United? MLS? National team? Europe?
Washington Post soccer writer Steven Goff was online Wednesday, May 24, at noon ET to talk soccer.
Steven Goff: Are ya ready, kids?
Nice effort by the USA lads last night, eh?
Thanks for taking the time to chat.Last night was a good opponent for the United States: a hard working, defensive team who could hold possesion. I think it was a well-picked tune up.What I enjoyed last night was watching a guy like John O'Brien who, as they mentioned over and over again on the broadcast, has tremendous vision and good delivery. I also enjoyed watching Gibbs play.What I did not like was the lack of finishing. At times it was like watching Arsenal early in the season; great development and passing, but what/where is the result?Yes, it is one game, but we need to be on the right end of 1-0 or 2-1 next month. Is it a concern for you that we do not seem to have the natural finisher?
Steven Goff: For the U.S. to be successful, Donovan and McBride have got to finish. One thing you may have noticed last night was the slow decision-making by U.S. players in scoring positions. One too many touches, hesitant, etc. -- too often the ball was knocked away before a shot was taken.
Arena spoke afterward about how the team played tired, the result of two grueling weeks of training camp and, for the Euro-based players, a long season. His hope is to get them into top fitness before they head to Germany. Winning a game or two might also help.
Fredericksburg, Va.: I liked the size of the lineup Arena used last night, especially Gibbs out on the left. Do you think this is the type of lineup we'll need to use against the size and strength of the Czechs, or will Bruce go smaller and try to outrun them?
Steven Goff: I think you'll see Onyewu and Pope in the middle, just like last night (they played well together, IMO), with Cherundolo on the right and Lewis on the left. Gibbs is not a natural on the left; he needs to play centrally.
Washington, DC: Goff - Seeing as how you spend so much time at RFK, is it
true what everyone's saying - just how good looking is
But he's no Doug Hicks.
Richmond, Va.: I'm not going to pull a Chicken Little and scream that the sky is falling, but what exactly was that crap we saw last night?
Yeah, the result means nothing, but still...
Morocco brought a young team and had absolutely nothing to play for. Very disappointing from a U.S. perspective, but you know they're partying in Casablanca!! (I just like writing Casablanca in a sports discussion)
Baltimore, Md: Do you agree that last night's loss was a perfect reminder to the U.S. national team on how much work they still have to accomplish. Also, any news on the stadium for DC United???
Steven Goff: A lot of work to be done -- that's why they're playing these games.
Stadium for DCU...Cue the Zzzzz machine.
No news. Our Metro section handles those issues.
Penn Quarter, Washington, DC: So, given Dave Johnson's departure to XM for the next five weeks, and Harksie to ESPN, who's doing the Comcast Sports Net games? It's been suggested that two opposing fans give their commentary, like the SkySports Fanzone show.
I want the guy with the glasses in the Barra to do United's commentary.
Steven Goff: I think you'll probably see radio man Tony Limarzi move over to TV and work with Garth Lagerwey, perhaps. As for radio, they've hired play by play people from outside the area before. Also, a Comcast or WTOP voice is possible.
Batavia, Ohio: Do you think the level of play has inproved in the MLS?
Steven Goff: Yes, it's better. After a number of years in which most of the teams looked and played the same, there are actually distinct styles and tactics now.
As for the talent level, there are more good young American players than ever before, but the influence from foreign players doesn't seem to be changing. Also, they've got to find ways to hold onto the best Americans and not let them run to Europe for the cash.
Burke, Va: Steven--Thanks for your terrific coverage of soccer for the Post. Should we be concerned about our World Cup hopes based on last night's poor showing?
Steven Goff: Thanks for your kind words...
At the moment, yes, you should be concerned. But let's see how things unfold the rest of the week. If they struggle against Venezuela and Latvia, it could be very telling.
Atlanta, Ga: The last two goals that have been scored by DC's opponents have been Perkins fault for coming out way to soon when the forward had little to no angle at the goal. When will DC go out and get a quality keeper.
Steven Goff: Perkins has been at fault on a couple goals this year, but overall he's having a pretty good season. Rimando is healthy now, so let the competition begin! Beyond that, in MLS, you're not going to get much better.
Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC: Any word on the "expansion" news Garber is announcing today at 3:30??
Steven Goff: Not sure. Might be more trumped-up nonsense. We'll see...
Just wanted to get your opinion on the overall coverage of soccer in the US. It seems that, slowly but surely, more media outlets are catching onto the sport. (Time Magazine, various tv commercials). Do you think the Sport of soccer is close to turning the proverbial corner in the US?
Steven Goff: It's a World Cup year so the mainstream coverage should be expected. Let's see where Time and the others are next year at this, um, time. The only U.S. media that covers soccer consistently year in and year out are a handful of newspapers and soccer-specific web sites (plus Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, of course).
Re: MLS Improving: They don't have to try to keep the US players from going to Europe for the cash - they have to get top flight Europeans to come to the MLS so that US players can play against top flight competition every match. That's the only way we'll ever be a serious contender - instead of our team dominating CONCACAF and being completely overmatched/outpaced once we get to the teams of Europe in international competitions.
Steven Goff: MLS would be much more enjoyable if it were able to have most, if not all, of the American talent (Keller, Reyna, Beasley, etc). That's unrealistic because of the league's paltry pay scale. If the money increases, the talent will increase.
Steven Goff: Here's the MLS expansion news...
NEW YORK (Wednesday, May 24, 2006) - Major League Soccer has formed a partnership with Lew Wolff and John Fisher, principle owners of the Oakland Athletics, to bring professional soccer back to the Bay Area, MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced today. Wolff and Fisher have acquired a three-year exclusive option to acquire a MLS team should the group be successful in developing a new soccer-specific stadium
Any chance DC United trades a defender to add some depth up front? I'm wondering if Jaime can stay dangerous for a full season and with Gros playing in the back, Namoff getting into shape, maybe one of the other defenders is expendable? I'd like to see another scoring option up front.
Steven Goff: Who would they trade? Prideaux? John Wilson? David Stokes?
Prideaux and Wilson are decent players, but neither has much trade value. Stokes has been hurt all year.
It will be interesting to see what Quaranta's future holds...
Con-vee or Con-vay when pronouncing the young man's name?
You have covered Bruce pretty extensively and we all can pretty much script what he'll say to the media. What do you think he was really saying over beers after last night's game?
Steven Goff: A 6 a.m. flight this morning prevented me from staking out the team hotel (kidding), but I imagine he is furious. His body language and tone during the press conference last night was a good indication.
Rockville, Md.: Eddie Pope is by far DC's all-time best defender, but can he still cut it at the international level? I have a nagging feeling that he'll be 2002 Jeff Agoos in Germany, and that Bruce should be playing Gooch and Gibbs in the middle instead.
Steven Goff: I have had the same questions about Pope, but I thought he did well last night, and he seems to be in great physical condition. At the moment, I'd say he's your starter with Onyewu, with Gibbs and Bocanegra as other options.
Baltimore, Md.: What do you think about the new teams in Toronto and (most likely) Philadelphia in 2007? Is is too soon after the last round of expansion? Will the league get too watered down?
Steven Goff: Too watered down? With 14 teams? No, they;re ready to expand, but, again, payroll will dictate the quality of player.
What chances do you have of England winning the World Cup. I know Rooney is injured. They still have Gerrard and Lampard to score goals with Owen.Besides the first team is between the ages of 25-28 except Beckham and Neville who are 31.It's now or never for England.
Steven Goff: Great midfield, John Terry ruling the backline, Ferdinand and Campbell as defensive options, Ashley Cole among the best on the left...
But not a great goalkeeper and so many questions about Owen and Rooney.
I don't think they'll win the whole thing, but certainly a contender, regardless of Rooney.
Washington DC: Steven - Great job. Love the WC blog too!
What were your thoughts on the officiating in the Champions League Final? Saw where the ref said he should have been more "patient" on Lehmann's red... As an Arsenal fan, that doesn't help much after the fact.
Also, if Eddie Lewis mans the left back in Germany, where does that leave Gibbs (who I think should be on the field somewhere)?
Steven Goff: No one was happy with the Champions League decision: Barcelona does not get the goal, Arsenal does not get to keep its keeper. IMO, play should've continued, the goal should've counted, and Lehmann should've stayed in the game.
Gibbs's natural position is central back, so the only way he starts is if Arena pairs him with Onyewu in the middle.
Hanover, Pa.: Is it me or are the Internet nuts off the charts when they think Michael Bradley on the bench is anything more than payback for working his butt off in camp? Would Bruce really go beyond his alternate list and name an uncapped teenager to the World Cup squad if someone got hurt?
Steven Goff: Promising young player who did well in the Netherlands this spring, has a future with the national team, he's on summer break...why not? Just a practice player who gets to dress for the friendlies and plays only in case of emergency. I've got no problems with that.
Baltimore, Md: OK, you say Bruce is mad about last night. How does he convey (not con-vee) that to the team? People have said he's not a yeller, he's a communicator. What does he do to get a bunch of accomplished pros to play better or do they just know by his demeanor that they need to step it up?
Steven Goff: Bruce is a very effective motivator so I would imagine you'll see a much sharper U.S. team on Friday and Sunday. The players have immense respect for him and are probably embarrassed by their effort.
U Street, Washington, DC: Where can an adult in the DC area learn to play soccer? I am in my late 20s. Is it too late?
Steven Goff: Check out the Washington City Paper or the Post's Weekend section for adult amateur sports leagues.
Spotsylvania, Va.: Steve, since it looks like you were in Nashville for the game, did you get a chance to talk to any of the players afterward? What was their reaction to losing what should have been a win at home?
Steven Goff: Clearly disappointed. Not a good way to get things started. Having said that, they know there's time to straighten things out.
Renya, USA: Steve, I just don't get it and haven't for years. I know I must be missing something, but I don't see what everyone else sees in Claudio Renya. Granted, I haven't seen him play much over the years except for the MNT, but then he always seems to be hurt. Is he, was he really that good????
Steven Goff: Reyna sets the pace, controls the speed of play and can drop long balls onto the foot of teammates. Is he as influential as he once was? No. But still a critical element of the lineup.
Madison, Wis: Where are you staying for the first to US WC games? I need you to sign my GOFF US away jersey.
My whereabouts will be largely unknown...and for good reason.
Washington, DC: What are the odds Jaime might be subbed out of a game when it is obvious that he runs out of gas around 60-70 minutes?
Steven Goff: Good question. Long odds.
Washington, D.C.: Do you think Benny will get any playing time in the tune-ups?
Steven Goff: Yes. Everyone is expected to play.
Rockville, Md.: If Bruce plans to play 4-3-3 in Germany, is Wolff really the answer at right forward? One would think that E. Johnson is by far the better option, or even shifting Beasley over and putting Convey on the left.
Steven Goff: IMO, Wolff is a good 20-minute option in the second half. Johnson is a more dangerous player.
Norfolk, Va: Why does everyone assume Brazil will win the world cup.The defense is weak and the central midfielders are old. They have great attacking players but I believe their egos will get in the way. I say out by the round of 16 to Italy?
Steven Goff: I think it's fair to "assume" Brazil will win the World Cup -- they've got an unbelievable array of attacking players, they are the defending champions and, when in top form, no one can match their style.
Now, will they actually win it? We'll see. It won't be as simple as many people think. Italy is my second choice for the title.
Any updates on Jamil Walker? We could have really used him against Columbus.
Also, for the guy looking to learn soccer, there are tons of pick-up games around DC. I'd also check out the DC United section of Bigsoccer.com for the pick-game thread, which lists pick-up games in the area.
Steven Goff: Thanks for the info.
Walker? Could be ready this weekend.
Betheda, Md.: Steve,I am not saying FIFA fixes games (although they have been accused of in the past) but do you really think they would allow Germany to lose before the semis.Only Mexico, USA and Japan as hosts have lost before the semis since 1950.
Steven Goff: What benefit is there in Germany getting to the semis or beyond? All the tickets have been sold, fans from all over the world are going to attend the games, the global TV audience will be immense...regardless of Germany's success or failure.
Thanks for keeping it real on the soccer front...it's a World Cup year baby!!
Seriously, is it just me or do others have an impending fear that the U.S. is really gonna tank in the WC. THey may rise to the top of FIFA's joke rankings beating up on CONCAFA weaklings, but against others teams like Germany and now Morocco, they look bland and uncreative. They have not solved their biggest deficieny (identifying a world-class American striker). Now Reyna has a bad hammy. They overachieved last WC. And they are in a pretty killer group...am I just a pessimist?
Steven Goff: That's why they play the games.
Anonymous: US was ranked 5th in the world by FIFA, what criteria did FIFA use?
Steven Goff: Don't ask. It's ridiculed by fans, players and coaches around the world. You can check out the fifa.com web site for more details. In the meantime, don't pay any attention to those rankings -- no one else is.
Washington, DC: After 10 years of miserable service at RFK, I'm truly enjoying reading all the whining from baseball fans about the stadium. Do you know what kind of "improvements" we will see with Lerner's so-called re-opening of RFK? Or maybe they will only be in place for baseball and not us lowly soccer fans?
Steven Goff: I can't imagine much will change, in the stadium or on the field. Just the same ol bad baseball.
U Street, Washington, D.C.: Adult recreational soccer leagues, suitable for beginners:www.districtsports.com
Steven Goff: Here's another tip...
Washington DC: I was only able to watch the last 30 minutes of last night's game but I got the impression that Monaco just showed how to play the US team to anyone who was coaching: close marking on defense, because the passing/ball control just isn't there, and fast breaks on offense to compensate for defenders being too far forward/out of position.
Convey was very good but Donovan needs to stop acting like a petulant teenager or someone's going to tackle him so he stays down...
Washington, DC: Does last night's loss hurt morale? I know Bruce will say, the result didn't matter, but the boys need to lock and load for the next two matches.
At least JOB looked good in the first half!
Steven Goff: O'Brien's performance was promising, one of the few bright spots for Arena's lads.
Washington, DC: In addition to a lack of finishing, I think this team is missing the hunger/urgency/whatever that Germany exhibited against us after their humbling loss to Italy. You knew in that game Germany was going to come out looking to crush us. Unfortunately after we were embarrassed by Germany we put in another lackluster performance against Jamaica. Hopefully we can find a way to turn it on on Friday and embarass Venezuela.
Steven Goff: It's all about June 12. They've got about three weeks to figure things out.
Burke, Va: Well Steve, I am sure most of the buzz on today's chat will address what was seen/not seen by the MNT against MAR last night. I am usually a "glass half full" guy, but me thinks the MNT's stay in Germany is going to be short - 3 and home. Arena should be worried.
Steven Goff: In a tough group, they're going to have to be at their very best. They were not at their very best last night.
Just curious if you were going to do a predictions article for the World Cup? I'm interested to see you break down the groups and total tournament. And just because I'm in Vegas doesn't mean I'll place a wager based on your opinions (although I'm not saying I won't, either)...
Steven Goff: The Post will publish a World Cup preview section on, I believe, Wed., June 7. Not sure if you'll see any actual game predictions, though.
The smart money goes on Trinidad and Tobago!
Arlington, Va: Speaking of pronunciation, please tell Harkes that Moreno's name is "HI MAY" not "HI ME"
Steven Goff: I hear ya.
Alexandria, Va: So Man Ure fired the trainer overseeing Wayne Rooney's recovery. Is it because the news has been so GOOD lately, and Fergie would rather he sit out and be fresh for the club season?
Chantilly, Va: How is Bobby Boswell reacting to Clarence Goodson being on pace to shatter the single season (and career) own goal records?
Tough year for local guy Goodson
I think they played O.K. but as wee all know o.k. will get you out in the first round!!! Even though it was a friendly.. so we say!!! Comments and predictions?
Steven Goff: USA goes 1-1-1, fails to advance on goal differential, Italy and the Czechs go through.
world cup baby: The Group of Death... can the US beat the Czechs? Are the Czechs that good? We've all seen Brazil play but, never them.
What is a no BS assessment of how the US will do this year?
Steven Goff: Czech midfielder Rosicky just signed with Arsenal, and then you've got Nedved, Koller, Baros and Cech. Yeah, they're good, but will they be the 2006 version of Portugal? Or a hungry team playing to its potential?
St. Louis, Mo: Who do you think will be the leading scorer for the United States in the World Cup?
Steven Goff: Who says they'll score?
Any chance you can use your influence to cajole Comcast into carrying ESPN2 in HD, at least during the World Cup? It will make many of our lives that much more blessed during this every-four-year event. Thanks!
Steven Goff: Give em a call, mate!
I've got no TV influence.
Realist, USA: There has to be other questions coming in. Every single question can't possibly be..."Should the US be worried?" Of course the US should be worried. The US should've been worried the day the draw was held and they found out who was in their group. Don't get me wrong, I hope the US has a wonderful World Cup, but I get the feeling American Soccer fans are expecting greatness. Whats your take?
Steven Goff: 2002 created higher expectations. The ridiculous FIFA rankings created higher expectations. The draw was not kind, and at the end of the day, will probably doom the U.S. team's chances.
Washington, D.C.: I watched the morocco v us game last night and boy was I underwhelmed. I don't really care about the fact that we lost. There counter attack goal was against the run of play and was misplayed by cherundlo, he should have played it out first touch. I am much more dissapointed with our lack of offensive cohesion. Donovan played ok, but everyone else was a no show. I was particulary dissapointed with beasley, bad touches all night long and bad decision making. I can't believe that he can play like that for PSV and get away with it. What are your thoughts?
Steven Goff: Yup, I agree with most of that. Again, it was just one game. Let's see how they respond on Friday and Sunday. If they don't improve, it could be a very short world cup.
Herndon, Va: Since I presume many others will be covering the negatives from last night's loss to Morocco, I'd like to point out some positives:
1. John O'Brien -- Showed what a valuable distributor of the ball he can be. Lasted 45 minutes without an injury!
2. Bobby Convey -- Made an immediate impact when he entered the match in the second half. Should have earned an assist on his corner kick if Eddie Johnson had done better with his header.
3. Eddie Pope -- Looks sharp. Matching up well with Gooch.
4. None of the teams the US will play in Germany is going to sit back in a bunker like Morocco did. They will be attacking and that will open up the game for the US players.
Falls Church, Va: What's next for Arena? He's already a rarity (a national team coach in his second consecutive Cup for the same team) - he won't make it three will he? Is he getting any interest from European clubs? And who is likely to succeed him?
Steven Goff: Ultimately, he would like to coach a European club, but in order to have a chance, he needs to get out of the first round of the World Cup again.
Sorry I couldn't get to all the questions.
My next chat will be in a couple weeks from Hamburg.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Do you have questions about D.C. United? MLS? National team? Europe? Washington Post soccer writer Steven Goff answered your questions.
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The Reliable Source
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The Reliable Source is back, under the stewardship of Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts . Appearing in the Style section on Tuesdays through Fridays and Sundays, The Reliable Source brings you gossip from across the region and around the world -- candid looks at the lives and loves and hijinks of all your favorite bold-faced names, be they congressmen or millionaires,ballplayers or newsbabes, nightlife divas or master thespians, DJs or gadflies, has-beens or will-bes.
Argetsinger and Roberts are online each Wednesday at Noon ET to discuss your favorite gossip, what you thought about their recent columns or who you want to see them writing about in future ones.
Argetsinger is a veteran of all leafy-green, protein-rich sections like Metro and National while Roberts brought you the champagne and bon-bons of Style's society beat.
Roxanne Roberts: Happy Wednesday. Lots to chat about: Wedding picture fees, handcuffed activists, frozen assets, re-marriages gone south. What's on your mind before you scoot off to the beach for the long holiday weekend?
Kingstowne, Alexandria, Va.: I have a friend who's got quite a crush on Patrick Fitzgerald. Any info on where he stays when he's in town or where he hangs out? We wanna take a peek!
Amy Argetsinger: Ah, Patrick Fitzgerald, International Man of Mystery! We really need to find an excuse to write about him again. Wish we could tell you where he stays, but when we know these kinds of things we're sort of obligated not to encourage stalkerish behavior. As for where he hangs out -- doesn't really seem like a "hanging out" kind of guy, does he? As always, though, anyone who can help pull back the curtain on this man's inner soul should write to reliablesource@washpost.com...
There is a soccer chat going on at the same time as yours. Didn't you feature something about Mia Hamm and Nomar recently? If someone had to play Mia in a film I would go for our home grown Sandra Bullock. They look similar to me. How 'bout you?
Amy Argetsinger: actually, Mia and Nomar haven't been in our paper much at all lately. What's up with them? Sandra Bullock sorta looks like her, I guess... But the real question is probably who would play Brandy Chastain in the movie?
Chantilly, Va.: What was the purpose of your jaunty, mocking story on Ann Wright this morning? Was it to have an opportunity to marginalize a woman who has spent most of her life in public service to her country? Or was it to have an opportunity to run a photo that shows her in the worst possible light? You might think that you were portraying a light slice of life but what Ms. Wright is speaking out about is an action that was taken by manipulating the American public and has thus far killed more than 100,000 innocent people. There is nothing funny about that.
Roxanne Roberts: Chantilly: Whoa. Take a deep breath, and reread the item. It wasn't intended to be mocking or jaunty----if anything, it was a straightforward account of what looks like an over-reaction by the military to a retired colonel who was passing out postcards for an anti-war movie. The picture, I'm afraid, was her doing---Wright was thrown out of a speech yesterday morning for heckling Hillary Clinton. Her politics and the issues involved were not a factor in the decision to run the item or the picture---it was news value.
Washington, D.C.: Is Kenny Chesney a midget? Last week, you guys wrote that he was excited about his size 7.5 eel-skinned boots. Kenny looks like he's about 125 lbs. if he was soaking wet in his sweats. Does he ever take that goofy hat off?
Roxanne Roberts: Kenny is small-boned. Don't know if he ever takes the hat off (let's ask Renee!) Do know he picked the top prize at last night's Academy of Country Music Awards (second year in a row.)And he was very nice at the White House dinner for Australian prime minister John Howard.
Washington, D.C.: Hey, Washington is a pretty small town. Was that one of Capitol Hill's own who played the nymphomaniac in the movie Art School Confidential? She was billed as Alexandra Ryan but I recognize her as someone who grew up here.
Amy Argetsinger: In the fleeting moments since we got this question, we haven't been able to find any biographical information on Alexandra Ryan, so don't know if she's from here.... however, she DID play a receptionist on some of the final episodes of "The West Wing." If there's a good local story we should know about her, drop us a line at reliablesource@washpost.com
Mommy Track for Elizabeth Vargas: Are you as appalled as I am that Elizabeth Vargas got Mommy-tracked off her job as anchor of ABC World News Tonight? And they admitted it!
Roxanne Roberts: Let's step back a minute, okay? Any chance SHE decided a second child (a three-year-old son plus two stepchildren) and anchoring a nightly newscast might be too much right now? Maybe she wanted a saner schedule? Maybe the deal with Charlie Gibson was a one-person desk, regardless of who else was there? Could it be more complicated than Mommy Track-ism?
Amy Argetsinger: Confidential to the person who writes in every week snarking that a certain older woman in town has had too much plastic surgery: Damn, this is really bugging you, huh?
Roxanne Roberts: Unlikely she borrowed money for a face-lift from you, so what's the problem?
Philly: Come on! Jenna's bob will be grown out before we see a picture! Why isn't this a priority?
Amy Argetsinger: Exactly! We hear it doesn't even look like a bob anymore. You people have completely failed us.
Re: Chastain: She could be played by Kate Bosworth. Or Britney Spears.
Amy Argetsinger: It's as if you were waiting for us to pose this question...
Brandy Chastain: Pamela Lee or Anna Nicole. (for the purposes of dramatic license of course when she takes her shirt off with the sports bra underneath)
Amy Argetsinger: See? Everyone's been thinking about this...
Euan Blair: I thought congressional internships were for constituents. How's this kid get hired? Maybe he went home to join the effort to salvage his dad's political career -- not that there's much chance of that.
Amy Argetsinger: Constituents or not, haven't these internships always gone to the well-connected?... The latest official word out of Downing Street is that Euan had to return to take a couple of pre-reqs before grad school...
Your lawyers will love it!: Have you considered being a little more ... adventurous with your stories? Unsubstantiated rumors, private scandals, that sort of thing? Now that summer's almost here, we'll need something tawdry to read on the way to work.
Roxanne Roberts: No they won't! Besides, if we started with the tawdry unsubstantiated rumors, we'd put so many tabloids out of work that---well, I know I couldn't sleep at night. Besides, we've got all these lovely substantiated items to share. Which reminds me: If you had to stash $90,000 in cash somewhere in the house, where would you pick?
Talking about plastic surgery: I taped Oprah yesterday because she was interviewing Anderson Cooper about his new book.
His mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, was in the audience. Now, there's a lady whose plastic surgery was not good. It looked like the upper and lower half of her face don't match.
Roxanne Roberts: Let that be a lesson to all of you: Millions of dollars doesn't equal a decent face lift. Or hair. Or whatever. Choose your anti-aging path very wisely, or risk being mistaken for Joan Rivers.
Bluebell Madonna?: Seriously? Ginger Spice names her kid after a flower and a pop-queen/kabbalahist/rebel/fake Brit? Seriously?
Amy Argetsinger: You know why she did it, right? You know why Geri Halliwell named her baby Bluebell Madonna? She named her baby Bluebell Madonna so that entertainment writers and gossip columnists would be forced to write about Geri Halliwell for the first time in years! That's kind of why we didn't write about it ourselves...
Bluebell: "That's kinda why we didn't write about it ourselves."
Oops ... sorry. But that kid is gonna hate her mom when she's a teenager even more than daughters hate their mothers at that time, even more than Rumer, Scout, and Talullah must hate Demi.
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, come on -- celebrities have been naming their babies weird things for ages, and their kids don't "hate" them for it. Actually, I guess Chastity and Cher weren't on speaking terms for a while -- but it probably had nothing to do with the name.
So much going on outside D.C.!: So ... we've got Nicole and DJ AM splitting again, American Idol's possible spazztastic winner, the Dixie Chicks just not giving a hoot anymore (give those ladies a medal please), the "imminent arrival" of baby Pitt ... who the heck can keep up?
I love you guys, by the way. Makes Wednesdays fun!
Roxanne Roberts: Thanks. We in the gossip world are besides ourselves. Really. I'm next to myself coming up with baby names for Oh-The-Humanity Pitt.
Chevy Chase, Md.: I had no idea that Gloria Vanderbilt was Anderson Cooper's mom. Is Anderson Cooper a TV name? If so, what's his real name? Anderson Cooper does kind of sound like a "Stone Phillips" (or whatever his name is on that show ... all I know is he could be in Katrina and his hair wouldn't move an inch) in the world of entertainment
Amy Argetsinger: Real name, so far as I know. Hard-core old-money preps really do name their kids things like "Anderson."
Baltimore, Md.: Did you hear about the new reality show they have filmed on the Hill called Capital Hill Girls, or something? About Hill interns
Amy Argetsinger: Yes, a "docu-soap" that has been filmed as a pilot for Oxygen. So hope it airs... let us know if you've heard anything...
"News Value"?: The panda updates in the zoo's site is "news value". Your articles are not.
Roxanne Roberts: Well, then. You tell that mean man with a gun to leave you alone and stop forcing you to read the column.
Euan has left the building: Word is he quit one or both of his internships and is heading North to Yale.
Amy Argetsinger: Word is, indeed! That word was in Roll Call and then our column last week, and all over the British papers over the weekend, and in the New York Post today. But dude -- thanks for the tip.
Spice Girl: I would have named her Sugar N.
Downtown D.C.: I was at the Vegas Lounge for the first -- and probably last -- time a couple of weeks ago where there were a bunch of audience members acting like they were Southern liberal arts college frat party, complete with dancing with cigarettes in one hand and gin-and-tonics in the other. (I recognize the routine from long and sad experience.) I jokingly told my out-of-town companions that one of them was Jenna Bush. Now, the more I think about it, the more I think one of them really WAS a Bush Girl, though I don't know which is which. Is that one of their hangouts? It seemed like their kind of scene.
Amy Argetsinger: Bush girl -- or just a girl who looks like a Bush girl? This town is filled with them! I know a young woman who even ended up in a gossip blog ID'd as Jenna Bush when someone spotted her out to dinner somewhere, though she isn't actually Jenna Bush. But yeah, at least one of the twins has been spotted at Vegas Lounge.
Annapolis, Md.: Since you all brought up Kenny Chesney and the award show last night I was amazed the statement Reba said about the Dixie Chicks. I thought it was down right mean and spiteful. Do you think there will be any reaction? At this point I am ready to run out and buy the new Dixie Chick CD. For a bunch of people who make their money singing about drinking, fighting and putting women in their rightful place it took a lot of "b_ _ _ s" for Reba to come out with that statement.
Roxanne Roberts: News reports say Reba's quip was well-received by the crowd. For those who missed the show, she said, "I don't know why I was so nervous about hosting this show this year. If the Dixie Chicks can sing with their foot in their mouths, surely I can host this sucker."
Re: hiding $90,000: My garage. It's such a mess even a bloodhound wouldn't find it.
Roxanne Roberts: HGTV makeover time! Which leads to a question: Would a bloodhound find money? Remember the days when they found traces of cocaine on millions of dollar bills? Could a drug dog find that? Experts?
Washington, D.C.: Saw Anderson Cooper on Oprah yesterday -- what a fascinating life! Know anything about his dating life? He never talks much about it.
Amy Argetsinger: No, he never does talk about his dating life, does he? Hmm.
Roxanne Roberts: Then again, he works a lot. Yeah. That must be it.
Anderson Cooper is his real name: At least that's what he indicated on Oprah yesterday.
Roxanne Roberts: I never doubted it.
New York City: Back when I worked in D.C., a bunch of us Bush reelection folk would hang out at the 15 minute club. The Post was so shocked that us Republicans could drink and party and enjoy alternative music that they put us on the cover of the Life/Metro? Section! Is there still the thought that Democrats party more, and with more gusto than Republicans?
Amy Argetsinger: Hey, just found that story, from September '92. Headline: "Upstairs, Downstairs; On 15th Street, the Two Worlds of the Republican Party's Young Guard." Haven't read it yet but I hear what you're saying... I think that stereotype is pretty absurd.
Oh snap!: "You tell that mean man with a gun to leave you alone and stop forcing you to read the column."
Awesome! Will you be my friend. I'm definitely going to save that to use on someone.
Roxanne Roberts: Thanks. Shucks. Anyone with a sense of humor is a friend of the Reliable Source.
Reba: Of course it was well-received by the audience. Never has the phrase "know your audience" been better used. Seriously, these are the same people who booed the Chicks when they sang via satellite at the show a couple of years ago, prompting the great pacifist Vince Gill to say something like "forgiveness is good." Please. I may just go out and buy the Chicks' CD just to show them that not everyone's opposed to free speech.
Roxanne Roberts: This could be a great moment in counter-programming backlash marketing. Now all the Chicks need is a lawsuit and the CD goes double platinum.
Hiding $90,000: I would hide it in my sock drawer. I know, I know so unoriginal but my freezer is full of booze. Um ... forget I said that last part.
Roxanne Roberts: Okay----but which would you grab first if there was a fire?
Re: Anderson Cooper: And he's really well-dressed, too. Oh, no.
Chevy Chase, Md.: You know who's aging nicely? Doreen Gentzler. And speaking of Doreen Gentzler, why is Sue Palka getting more ink than Wendy Rieger? I mean, really. Wendy is smart AND pretty, which is a killer combination in this town.
Amy Argetsinger: Whoa, someone who's got nice things to say about female journalists -- what's up with that?
Doreen Gentzler is indeed very lovely. You think Sue Palka's getting more ink than Wendy Rieger? Seems like we've been writing about Wendy a lot lately -- well, at least we took note of her 50th (!) birthday and we ruminate on her in this chat.
Roxanne Roberts: The local anchors in this town---male and female---are a pretty nice bunch. Something in the water?
Falls Church, Va.: I love that the Dixie Chicks dissed the chicks on THE VIEW:
Taking a dim 'View' of Chicks
Maybe it's time for another apology from the Dixie Chicks.
The ladies of "The View" went nuclear yesterday about the Time magazine cover girls because of Chick Emily Robison's comment that they constantly ask themselves, "What would Bruce Springsteen do?"
Robison quipped: "Not that we're of that caliber, but would Bruce Springsteen do 'The View'?"
"We are furious," said co-host Meredith Vieira.
Before literally ripping up the Time story into teensy pieces, Joy Behar ripped the Chicks: "It's one thing to dis the Bush administration, but it's treason to dis 'The View.' This is a women's show, they're a women's group. You don't put a knock on another woman's show."
Yesterday, PR diva Cindi Berger -- who has the unenviable job of repping both the Chicks and "The View" -- told me: "My job is part negotiator, part deal-maker, part firefighter and sometimes I have to take a Hoover vacuum and clean up the mess." She added that her "View" clients "had a fun time expressing their opinions, and that's what television is all about."
Amy Argetsinger: Ladies -- please!
America's Next Top Model: Any news from Sara?
Amy Argetsinger: Hey, funny you should ask! Our colleague Korin Miller just happened to see her on the street the other day, rollie suitcase in town. Told Korin she was shipping off to New York...
(Just to catch everyone up, we wrote the other week about how Sara, who made the final four on the reality show, just quit her job at Advisory Board to go give this modeling thing a try.)
Chesney's hat: If you recall the circumstances, I don't think Renee knows either.
Roxanne Roberts: Four months! That's long enough to well....take your hat off. Even if he's shy.
Speaking of interns and summers: Isn't it high time that some sort of intern-member of Congress, intern-president scandal emerge? Come on people -- take one for the team -- these immigration debates are simply ghastly and we need a diversion.
Amy Argetsinger: Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and lord knows we could use a good intern saga. But seems like everytime our nation starts to fixate on interns, or missing white women, or shark attacks, then a major terrorist attack is always just around the corner, know what I'm sayin'?
Penn Quarter, D.C.: I was at Legal Seafoods at Gallery Place-Chinatown Monday night and thought I saw Ted Leonsis eating at a table nearby with another guy. Then I realized that the other guy looked just like the first guy, who looked like Ted Leonsis. Does Ted Leonsis have a twin? Or was this a pair of twins that happen to look like Ted Leonsis?
(Maybe TL employs a double to cover some of the many social and business engagements he no doubt attends?)
Amy Argetsinger: I think it's just that the Ted Leonsis "look" is really in these days.
Falls Church, Va.: Re: Reba and The Chicks
Reba was probably responding to this comment from Dixie Chick Martie Maguire:
"I'd rather have a small following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith," Maguire said. "We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
Roxanne Roberts: True 'nuf. Catfight!
Pittsburgh, Pa.: On "The View" an apology from Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks was read re the dissing remark she'd made about the show.
Amy Argetsinger: Aw, well, that's nice.
Re: Hiding $90,000: If my house were on fire I would grab the money. I may be drunk a lot but I ain't stupid. I can always buy more booze, you can't buy another $90,000 bucks.
Roxanne Roberts: That's a boy!
Amy Argetsinger: Well, lookee here at the time, and how we're all out of it. We'll chat with you next week in this same time and place, but meanwhile keep reading our column and drop us any news at reliablesource@washpost.com.
Re: Chesney: So he did take the hat off, and then she divorced him for fraud ... now I'm really curious what's under there ...
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Post Reliable Source columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts take your tips and dish about what's really going on in Washington.
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Israel Has 'Bold Ideas,' Bush Says
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President Bush yesterday embraced Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's strategy of withdrawing from isolated Jewish settlements on the West Bank and unilaterally imposing final borders over Palestinian objections if he cannot negotiate a peace plan with their leaders.
Welcoming Olmert to the White House for the first time since his election eight weeks ago, Bush reserved judgment on the specifics of any "realignment" plan but called the concepts "bold ideas" and expressed satisfaction that the new Israeli leader would first make a serious attempt to craft an agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"While any final-status agreement will be only achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes and no party should prejudice the outcome of negotiations on a final-status agreement, the prime minister's ideas could be an important step toward the peace we both support," Bush said with Olmert at his side in the East Room.
Although qualified, the Bush endorsement cleared the way for Olmert to pursue his plans for resolving decades-old territorial disputes with the Palestinians. In succeeding Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after his debilitating stroke, Olmert vowed to pull out of much of the West Bank and redraw lines -- much as Sharon withdrew from Gaza last year. Many Palestinians view Olmert's realignment as a land grab because he intends to keep major West Bank enclaves and East Jerusalem within Israel.
Bush pressed Olmert during their meetings to sit down with Abbas before proceeding. In his public comments, Olmert vowed to do so soon and to "exhaust all efforts" to find a mutually acceptable peace deal. At the same time, Olmert ruled out talks involving the Palestinian cabinet and parliament dominated by the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, unless it renounces support for violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist, a position that Bush supports.
"We are anxious to have negotiations," Olmert said. "We will look and find every possible avenue to help establish a process of negotiations on the basis of these conditions. However, as I said, we will not wait indefinitely."
If he does not find a negotiating partner, he said, he will proceed with his plan to draw his own boundaries separating Israel from a new Palestinian state. "Hopefully, this is something that will happen within the next three to four years," he said.
Abbas met with Olmert's foreign minister on Monday, but it remains unclear whether he has the ability to negotiate an agreement for the Palestinian side, much less enforce one. Abbas's more moderate party, Fatah, refused to join the new cabinet after Hamas won parliamentary elections in January, and security forces for the two factions have clashed in recent days.
For Bush, yesterday's meetings were the first opportunity to size up Olmert as a partner in the Middle East. Bush values personal relations with foreign leaders, and those who find chemistry with him often benefit. Aides called the visit a "getting to know you" summit with meetings in the Oval Office and the White House residence and a dinner.
Both sides said afterward the two got off to a good start. "The level of comfort between the two men, and the two governments, rose during the visit, and that was really the purpose of the visit," said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under official ground rules.
During their public appearance together, the president and the prime minister both made nostalgic references to the first time they met in 1998, when Bush was governor of Texas and Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem.
"The meeting went very well in terms of creating the bond between the two leaders," said Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon. "They are on the same wavelength, sharing the same vision and strategic outlook."
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President Bush yesterday embraced Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's strategy of withdrawing from isolated Jewish settlements on the West Bank and unilaterally imposing final borders over Palestinian objections if he cannot negotiate a peace plan with their leaders.
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Israeli General: Sanctions Won't Topple Hamas
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JERUSALEM, May 23 -- The head of the Israeli military told a legislative committee Tuesday that economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority following Hamas's parliamentary election victory this year would not topple its government nor diminish support for the radical Islamic movement in the occupied territories.
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the military chief of staff, also said he did not believe recent skirmishing in the Gaza Strip between Hamas gunmen and security forces controlled by the rival Fatah movement would lead to a broader civil conflict.
Halutz made his comments in a closed session of the foreign affairs and defense committee of Israel's parliament on the same day Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was scheduled to meet President Bush and other senior U.S. officials in Washington.
According to parliamentary spokesman Giora Pordes, who attended the committee meeting, Halutz said that "the international community united against the transferring of monies to the Hamas government, and there are signs of this on the ground."
"The fact is that the monies are not being funneled in, but the economic pressure in my view will not accelerate the collapse of the Hamas government," Halutz said, according to Pordes's notes of the meeting. "The economic pressure will not necessarily reduce the public support for the Hamas government. The Palestinian public opinion polls do not indicate a weakening in support for Hamas."
Halutz's assessment is perhaps the most critical yet delivered by a senior security official regarding Israel's policy toward the Palestinian Authority since Hamas's election victory four months ago. But it reflects growing concern inside Israel's security establishment that the nearly 4 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, facing hardships many of them attribute to outside pressure, may be strengthening the Hamas government.
Part of Olmert's agenda in Washington, his first there as prime minister, is to discuss future policy toward the Palestinian Authority with senior members of the Bush administration.
Since Hamas's election win, Israel has stopped transferring roughly $55 million in monthly tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian government while calling on foreign donors to suspend aid. The Palestinian Authority relies on foreign aid for nearly half of its $2 billion annual budget.
Hamas, known formally as the Islamic Resistance Movement, does not recognize Israel's right to exist. The United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- the group of Middle East peace mediators and donors known as the Quartet -- have called on Hamas to recognize the Jewish state, renounce violence and endorse previously signed agreements that advocate a two-state solution to the conflict.
Hamas officials have refused those demands, although some leaders of the party have suggested that it would endorse a long-term cease-fire if Israel withdrew from all territory occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, among other steps.
The economic isolation, bolstered by U.S. threats to use anti-terrorism legislation to punish banks that transfer money to the Palestinian Authority, has drained the Palestinian government of revenue. More than 150,000 civil servants and members of the security forces have not been paid in nearly three months, paralyzing the economy in the West Bank and Gaza.
"We must be able to differentiate between the Palestinian government and the Palestinian people," said a senior Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Olmert's visit to Washington made the remarks more sensitive. "This is the main point of debate right now inside the Israeli government: How do you free money for humanitarian needs of the Palestinians and make sure they do not go toward terror?"
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JERUSALEM, May 23 -- The head of the Israeli military told a legislative committee Tuesday that economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority following Hamas's parliamentary election victory this year would not topple its government nor diminish support for the radical Islamic movement in...
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Divisive In Any Language
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Yes, let's talk about the English language and how important it is that immigrants and their children learn it.
And please permit me to be personal about an issue that is equally personal to the tens of millions of Americans who remember their immigrant roots.
My late father was born in the United States, and grew up in French Canadian neighborhoods in and around New Bedford, Mass. When he started school, he spoke English with a heavy accent. A first-grade teacher mercilessly made fun of his command of the language.
My dad would have none of this and proceeded to relearn English, with some help from a generous friend named James Radcliffe who, in turn, asked my dad to teach him French. My dad came to speak flawless, accent-free English. He and my mom insisted that their children speak our nation's language clearly, and without grammatical errors.
None of this caused my parents to turn against their French heritage. On the contrary, my sister and I were taught French before we were taught English because my parents took pride in the language of our forebears and knew that speaking more than one language would be a useful skill.
My mom would give free French lessons at our Catholic parochial school to any kid who wanted to take them. When we were young, we'd visit our cousins on a farm in Quebec during the summer, partly to improve our French. (And Parisian French elitists take note: I still love the much-derided accent of the Quebec countryside, which many have compared to the English of the Tennessee mountains.) I tell you all this by way of explaining why I can't stand the demagoguery directed against immigrants who speak languages other than English. Raging against them shows little understanding of how new immigrants struggle to become loyal Americans who love their country -- and come to love the English language.
As it considered the immigration bill last week, the Senate passed an utterly useless amendment sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) declaring English to be our "national language" and calling for a government role in "preserving and enhancing" the place of English.
There is no point to this amendment except to say to members of our currently large Spanish-speaking population that they will be legally and formally disrespected in a way that earlier generations of immigrants from -- this is just a partial list -- Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, France, Hungary, Greece, China, Japan, Finland, Lithuania, Lebanon, Syria, Bohemia, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia were not.
Immigrants from all these places honored their origins, built an ethnic press and usually worshiped in the languages of their ancestors. But they also learned English because they knew that advancement in our country required them to do so.
True, we now have English-as-a-Second-Language programs that have created some resentments and, in the eyes of their critics, can slow the transition from Spanish to English. Still, the evidence is overwhelming that Spanish speakers and their kids are as aware as anyone of the importance of learning English. That's why we have an attorney general named Gonzales, senators named Salazar, Martinez and Menendez, and a mayor of Los Angeles named Villaraigosa.
Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, introduced an alternative amendment to Inhofe's that also passed the Senate. It declared English the "common and unifying language of the United States" while also insisting on the existing rights of non-English speakers "to services or materials provided by the government" in languages other than English. As Salazar understands, the best way to make English our unifying language is to avoid making language a divisive national issue.
I make my living writing and speaking in English, and I would preach to anyone the joys of mastering this Anglo-Saxon gift to our nation. My wife and I encourage our kids to speak the language with precision and to show respect for its grammar, as did the nuns who taught me as a kid -- even if some of them spoke French better than English. Politicians who care about the language might usefully think about how it can be taught well, to the native-born as well as to immigrants.
When I put my children to bed, I recite the same prayer that my late mother said for my sister and me. The prayer is in French. I certainly hope that it doesn't make my children any less American to hear a few spiritual thoughts in a language other than English before they fall asleep.
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Yes, let's talk about the English language and how important it is that immigrants and their children learn it.
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Extremism Isn't Islamic Law
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For a few days this year the world's media focused an intense spotlight on the drama of a modern-day inquisition. Abdul Rahman, a Muslim convert to Christianity, narrowly escaped the death penalty for apostasy when the Afghan government -- acting under enormous international pressure -- sidestepped the issue by ruling that he was insane and unfit to stand trial. This unsatisfactory ruling left unanswered a question of enormous significance: Does Islam truly require the death penalty for apostasy, and, if not, why is there so little freedom of religion in the so-called Muslim world?
The Koran and the sayings of the prophet Muhammad do not definitively address this issue. In fact, during the early history of Islam, the Agreement of Hudaibiyah between Muhammad and his rivals stipulated that any Muslim who converted out of Islam would be allowed to depart freely to join the non-Muslim community. Nevertheless, throughout much of Islamic history, Muslim governments have embraced an interpretation of Islamic law that imposes the death penalty for apostasy.
It is vital that we differentiate between the Koran, from which much of the raw material for producing Islamic law is derived, and the law itself. While its revelatory inspiration is divine, Islamic law is man-made and thus subject to human interpretation and revision. For example, in the course of Islamic history, non-Muslims have been allowed to enter Mecca and Medina. Since the time of the caliphs, however, Islamic law has been interpreted to forbid non-Muslims from entering these holy cities. The prohibition against non-Muslims entering Mecca and Medina is thus politically motivated and has no basis in the Koran or Islamic law.
In the case of Rahman, two key principles of Islamic jurisprudence come into play. First, al-umuru bi maqashidiha ("Every problem [should be addressed] in accordance with its purpose"). If a legal ordinance truly protects citizens, then it is valid and may become law. From this perspective, Rahman did not violate any law, Islamic or otherwise. Indeed, he should be protected under Islamic law, rather than threatened with death or imprisonment. The second key principle is al-hukm-u yadullu ma'a illatihi wujudan wa adaman ("The law is formulated in accordance with circumstances"). Not only can Islamic law be changed -- it must be changed due to the ever-shifting circumstances of human life. Rather than take at face value assertions by extremists that their interpretation of Islamic law is eternal and unchanging, Muslims and Westerners must reject these false claims and join in the struggle to support a pluralistic and tolerant understanding of Islam.
All of humanity, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, is threatened by the forces of Islamist extremism. It is these extremists, masquerading as traditional Muslims, who angrily call for the death of Abdul Rahman or the beheading of Danish cartoonists. Their objective is raw political power and the eventual radicalization of all 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide. Western involvement in this "struggle for the soul of Islam" is a matter of self-preservation for the West and is critical given the violent tactics and strength of radical elements in Muslim societies worldwide.
Muslim theologians must revise their understanding of Islamic law, and recognize that punishment for apostasy is merely the legacy of historical circumstances and political calculations stretching back to the early days of Islam. Such punishments run counter to the clear Koranic injunction "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256).
People of goodwill of every faith and nation must unite to ensure the triumph of religious freedom and of the "right" understanding of Islam, to avert global catastrophe and spare millions of others the fate of Sudan's great religious and political leader, Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, who was executed on a false charge of apostasy. The millions of victims of "jihadist" violence in Sudan -- whose numbers continue to rise every day -- would have been spared if Taha's vision of Islam had triumphed instead of that of the extremists.
The greatest challenge facing the contemporary Muslim world is to bring our limited, human understanding of Islamic law into harmony with its divine spirit -- in order to reflect God's mercy and compassion, and to bring the blessings of peace, justice and tolerance to a suffering world.
The writer is a former president of Indonesia. From 1984 to 1999 he directed the Nadhlatul Ulama, the world's largest Muslim organization. He serves as senior adviser and board member to LibForAll Foundation, an Indonesian- and U.S.-based nonprofit that works to reduce religious extremism and terrorism.
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Iran Requests Direct Talks on Nuclear Program
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TEHRAN, May 23 -- Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats.
The eagerness for talks demonstrates a profound change in Iran's political orthodoxy, emphatically erasing a taboo against contact with Washington that has both defined and confined Tehran's public foreign policy for more than a quarter-century, they said.
Though the Tehran government in the past has routinely jailed its citizens on charges of contact with the country it calls the "Great Satan," Ahmadinejad's May 8 letter was implicitly endorsed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and lavished with praise by perhaps the most conservative ayatollah in the theocratic government.
"You know, two months ago nobody would believe that Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad together would be trying to get George W. Bush to begin negotiations," said Saeed Laylaz, a former government official and prominent analyst in Tehran. "This is a sign of changing strategy. They realize the situation is dangerous and they should not waste time, that they should reach out."
Laylaz and several diplomats said senior Iranian officials have asked a multitude of intermediaries to pass word to Washington making clear their appetite for direct talks. He said Ali Larijani, chairman of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, passed that message to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, who arrived in Washington Tuesday for talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.
Iranian officials made similar requests through Indonesia, Kuwait and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Laylaz said. American intelligence analysts also say Larijani's urgent requests for meetings with senior officials in France and Germany appear to be part of a bid for dialogue with Washington.
"They've been desperate to do it," said a European diplomat in Tehran.
U.S. intelligence analysts have assessed the letter as a major overture, an appraisal shared by analysts and foreign diplomats resident in Iran. Bush administration officials, however, have dismissed the proposed opening as a tactical move.
The administration repeatedly has rejected talks, saying Iran must negotiate with the three European powers that have led nuclear diplomacy since the Iranian nuclear program became public in 2002. Within hours of receiving Ahmadinejad's letter, Rice dismissed it as containing nothing new.
But U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said government experts have exerted mounting pressure on the Bush administration to reply to the letter, seconding public urgings from commentators and former officials. "The content was wacky and, from an American point of view, offensive. But why should we cede the high moral ground, and why shouldn't we at least respond to the Iranian people?" said an official who has been pushing for a public response.
Analysts, including American specialists on Iran, emphasized that the contents of the letter are less significant than its return address. No other Iranian president had attempted direct contact with his U.S. counterpart since the countries broke off diplomatic relations after student militants overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Iranian analysts said Ahmadinejad's familiar list of grievances on Iraq, Israel and terrorism was designed largely for domestic consumption. CIA analysts and experts on Iran within the government said it also could be interpreted as an attempt to articulate points for possible discussion with Washington.
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TEHRAN, May 23 -- Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats.
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Muhammad Questions Fairness of Maryland Trial
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An increasingly agitated John Allen Muhammad complained yesterday that his ability to get a fair trial in Maryland was in jeopardy as prosecutors introduced a computer file -- a map marked with skull and crossbones icons -- linking him to the 2002 sniper rampage that claimed 10 lives in the Washington area.
An FBI computer analyst testified that the map, retrieved from a stolen laptop found in Muhammad's possession at the time of his arrest, contained travel routes to the locations where victims were shot or killed, some of which were marked with the icon. Where Linda Franklin was fatally shot in the head, at a Home Depot in Fairfax County, the map also contained a notation: "Good one."
The evidence was presented in a Rockville courtroom as prosecutors neared the conclusion of the case they have been building against Muhammad on charges of murder in six slayings in Montgomery County. Muhammad, 45, has been sentenced to death in Virginia.
Alleged accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo is expected to appear as a witness today, setting the stage for an unusual courtroom confrontation made even more unusual because Muhammad is acting as his own attorney. Although prosecutors have not said they will call Malvo, who also is charged with murder in Maryland, Montgomery Chief Sheriff's Deputy Darren Popkin said prosecutors asked his office to transport Malvo to the courthouse this morning.
Prosecutors contend that the laptop was stolen when Paul J. La Ruffa was shot and robbed Sept. 5 in the parking lot of a restaurant in Clinton. Through his questions, Muhammad implied that the laptop found in his car was not La Ruffa's and that there is insufficient evidence to connect him to the shooting.
"Isn't it true that I'm not being charged in the theft of the computer or the shooting of Mr. La Ruffa?" he asked the computer analyst, John Hair.
But his questions allowed the jury to hear more about the La Ruffa shooting than they otherwise would have. Under questioning from Assistant State's Attorney Vivek Chopra, Hair then said Muhammad and Malvo were identified as the perpetrators of that crime.
Muhammad clashed with prosecutors over whether he will be permitted to subpoena a witness who had already testified for the state -- a bank employee who said she had seen Muhammad's Chevrolet Caprice near one of the Virginia shooting scenes.
Muhammad, who has seemed increasingly distressed as the trial has progressed, accused the prosecutors of undermining his ability to defend himself by blocking him from calling witnesses. While Chopra argued that the witness had already been cross-examined and could add nothing more, Muhammad described the prosecutors as having "grand jury syndrome."
"They don't want the jury to hear anything but their side," Muhammad said. If he is unable to subpoena the witnesses of his choosing, he told the judge, "you could send me the verdict in the mail."
Judge James L. Ryan did not immediately rule. He has barred the prosecutors and the standby attorneys advising Muhammad from discussing the case publicly.
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Get Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia news. Includes news headlines from The Washington Post. Get info/values for Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia homes. Features schools, crime, government, traffic, lottery, religion, obituaries.
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Study Finds 'Extensive' Fraud at Fannie Mae
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Regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, in announcing a settlement with Fannie Mae that includes $400 million in penalties, provided the most detailed picture yet of what went wrong at the congressionally chartered firm.
They portray the District-based mortgage funding giant -- a linchpin of the nation's housing market -- as governed by a weak board of directors, which failed to install basic internal controls and instead let itself be dominated and left uninformed by chief executive Franklin Raines and Chief Financial Officer J. Timothy Howard, who both were later ousted.
The result was a company whose managers engaged in one questionable maneuver after another, including two transactions with investment banking firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that improperly pushed $107 million of Fannie Mae earnings into future years. The aim, OFHEO said, was always the same: To shape the company's books, not in response to accepted accounting rules but in a way that made it appear that the company had reached earnings targets, thus triggering the maximum possible payout for executives including Raines, Howard and others.
The settlement closes regulators' civil probe into Fannie Mae's accounting scandal, the result of the company's misstating earnings by about $10.6 billion from 1998 through 2004.
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and acting OFHEO director James B. Lockhart III said they now will turn their focus to individuals, including Raines and Howard, to determine what role former and current executives played in the accounting fraud and if they should be forced to forfeit millions of dollars in what the regulators called "ill-gotten" compensation. They said the Justice Department is continuing a criminal probe.
"Fraudulent financial reporting cheats investors of their savings," Cox said. "Those whose actions led to the accounting fraud you've heard described today will be vigorously pursued."
Lockhart agreed. "You could argue none of it was deserved," he said in response to a question on how much of $52.8 million in bonuses Raines received during the six years might have been linked to improper accounting manipulation. As the settlement was announced, OFHEO released a 340-page report summarizing what it found in its nearly three-year probe of the company.
"The conduct of Mr. Raines, CFO Timothy Howard, and other members of the inner circle of senior executives at Fannie Mae was inconsistent with the values of responsibility, accountability, and integrity," the report said. "Those individuals engaged in improper earnings management in order to generate unjustified levels of compensation for themselves and other executives."
Raines's lawyer Robert Barnett said in a prepared statement that Raines "has repeatedly stated that he never authorized, encouraged, or was aware of violations" of accounting rules. Even so, Raines "strongly believes that, as the leader of Fannie Mae, he should be accountable for what happened within the organization, regardless of personal involvement or fault."
Howard's lawyer had no comment.
Fannie Mae agreed to the settlement with the SEC and OFHEO without admitting or denying guilt. The company is in the midst of trying to create accurate accounting records for the years in question, an undertaking that is costing it hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Fannie Mae engaged in "extensive financial fraud" over six years by doctoring earnings so executives could collect hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, federal officials said yesterday in a report that portrayed a company determined to play by its own rules.
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Intelligence Panel Backs Hayden as CIA Director
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Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden won a bipartisan endorsement from the Senate intelligence committee yesterday to head the CIA at a time of reorganization and troubled morale, and legislative leaders said they hope to have the full Senate confirm him for the job by Thursday.
The panel voted 12 to 3 to recommend that Hayden, a four-star general with substantial experience in electronic surveillance, succeed Porter J. Goss, who leaves the CIA post on Friday after 18 stormy months.
Hayden won the backing of the committee's eight Republicans and four of seven Democrats. Voting against him were Democrats Evan Bayh (Ind.), Russell Feingold (Wis.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.).
They objected mainly to what they called the administration's failure to justify adequately the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretaps of Americans' international calls. Hayden headed the NSA when the program was launched, soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"My vote was an objection to the administration's unwillingness to ensure both our physical security and our civil liberties," Bayh said.
Wyden said he also believes that Hayden misled Congress by suggesting the eavesdropping program -- revealed by the New York Times in December -- was the full extent of the highly secret domestic surveillance operation. USA Today recently reported that the NSA also collected millions of phone records from U.S. businesses and homes.
But the panel's other four Democrats expressed confidence in Hayden. Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), after citing erroneous estimates of Iraq's weaponry that preceded the 2003 U.S. invasion, told reporters he believes Hayden will "stand up to the president or anybody else who's trying to get him to reach a certain conclusion on the intelligence, and speak truth to power."
Levin joined other senators in saying that Hayden, despite his military status, will protect the CIA against power plays by the Pentagon.
"He stood up to Secretary [of Defense Donald H.] Rumsfeld when Secretary Rumsfeld wanted certain intelligence components to stay with the Department of Defense," Levin said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Hayden "is the leader and honest broker the CIA needs to regain its footing as the world's premier spy service and the hub of our nation's intelligence analysis and research and development capabilities." She said the CIA has been "in turmoil" since late 2001.
Also voting to endorse Hayden's confirmation were Democrats Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), and Republicans Pat Roberts (Kan.), Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Christopher S. Bond (Mo.), Trent Lott (Miss.), Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.).
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the vote, saying: "Hayden's public and private support of the NSA's illegal program to pry into the lives of innocent Americans speaks volumes about his willingness to sacrifice the rule of law to cater to this administration's policies."
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Latest politics news headlines from Washington DC. Follow 2006 elections, campaigns, Democrats, Republicans, political cartoons, opinions from The Washington Post. Features government policy, government tech, political analysis and reports.
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For Barbaro, Cautious Optimism
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Sounding far fresher than he had Sunday evening after complex surgery to save the life of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro , veterinary surgeon Dean Richardson offered a cautiously optimistic prognosis yesterday for the horse's recovery.
"Every day that goes by, the risk diminishes," said Richardson, chief of surgery at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. "Every day that goes by that things are still the same, it's very good. If everything goes well, he could be breeding next year, but [that is getting] way ahead of it. We're two days post-op."
Richardson held a briefing on the horse's condition in the morning amid an outpouring of sympathy and support from around the country.
An anonymous donor gave "a very generous gift" to launch the Barbaro Fund for the hospital, which set up a message board on its Web site to field well-wishes. By mid-afternoon, it was filled with hopeful e-mails, many addressed directly to the horse.
"I'm praying for you, Barbaro! [And your humans, as well]," wrote Jamieson Scott , 59, of New York City.
On Sunday, Barbaro underwent surgery to fuse his fractured cannon, sesamoid and long pastern bones. As the heavy favorite to win the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course the previous day, Barbaro galloped about 50 strides out of the gate and was pulled up with multiple bone breaks around his rear right ankle. The long pastern alone had shattered into more than 20 pieces.
Richardson initially said 23 screws had been inserted with a long metal rod to stabilize and fuse the ankle but corrected himself yesterday, saying the operation required 27.
"I was pretty tired and kind of lost track," he said.
Barbaro remains in a stall in the hospital's intensive care unit with a large cast on his damaged leg. His left hoof has been fitted with a special glue-on shoe with extra padding to raise it up to a height equal to his right hind leg.
"The single most important thing is that we maintain his level of comfort on the fractured limb," Richardson said. "We will be changing his cast on a regular basis. We're basically doing good, solid care for the next few months. There are so many things that can go wrong."
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KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Amid the public outpouring of sympathy for Barbaro and his owners' hopes that "someday all of you will be able to see little Barbaros running around the track," there remains an underlying question:
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Forget Politics. This Battle Is Personal.
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Alabama's Jeff Sessions sure knows how to nurse a grudge. Talking about his family earlier this year, the Republican senator recalled that "Lincoln killed one of them at Antietam."
Now he is turning his prodigious anger on legislation the Senate is expected to approve on Thursday that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to become citizens. In the process, Sessions is taking on the White House, his leaders in the Senate, the Congressional Budget Office and business interests at home.
"This bill is one of the worst pieces of legislation to come before the Senate," he proclaimed at a news conference yesterday, his second on the topic in as many weeks. He paused, unsatisfied with that superlative. "It's the worst piece of legislation to come before the Senate since I've been here."
A stream of epithets about the legislation flowed from his mouth and those of the two conservative scholars he brought with him. "Colossal error . . . absolute scandal . . . budget buster . . . fiscal disaster . . . catastrophe."
Linda Scott of PBS's "NewsHour" pointed out that the Alabama Farmers Federation takes the opposite view.
The senator fired back: "They want cheap labor and they're not considering the interest of the United States of America."
With the exception of some small victories -- Sessions persuaded his colleagues last week to support 370 miles of fence along the Mexican border and 500 miles of vehicle barriers -- the man from Alabama knows he has lost the battle in the Senate.
"We're heading to passage," he conceded yesterday, even as he readied a last-minute parliamentary maneuver to derail the bill today. Ultimately, he's hoping House Republicans, who have passed an immigration crackdown without legalization, will prevail in negotiations with the Senate.
"It will have to be rewritten," Sessions predicted of the Senate measure. "The bill is not fixable."
A short, wiry man with protruding ears, Sessions has become the Lou Dobbs of the Senate. He argues his points not with the courtly Southern tones of the late senator Howell Heflin (D), his predecessor, but with the harsh twang of a country tough -- which, in a sense, he is.
Sessions was one of just nine senators to oppose a ban on torture. He has raised objections about renewing the Voting Rights Act. In the days after Hurricane Katrina, according to Time magazine, Sessions, pushing for repeal of the estate tax, called a former law professor to see if he knew of any business owner who died in the storm.
And if his current fight in the Senate appears unwinnable, Sessions also knows how to turn defeat into victory. He sits on the same Judiciary Committee that in 1986 rejected him for a federal judgeship; opponents at the time cited his labeling of groups such as the NAACP as "un-American" and his prosecution of civil rights activists for voting fraud.
Sessions has joined the immigration debate with typical ferocity, impugning the motives of those who disagree with him. "We have quite a number of members of the House and Senate and members in the media who are all in favor of reforms and improvements as long as they don't really work," he said last week of those who opposed the 370 miles of fencing. "But good fences make good neighbors. Fences don't make bad neighbors."
The senator evidently hadn't consulted the residents of Korea, Berlin or the West Bank.
On Monday, he was on the Senate floor again, accusing his opponents of dishonesty. "The legislation has been crafted in a way that hides and conceals, even misrepresents its real effects," he said. "We should be ashamed of ourselves."
The Bush White House worries that the words of Sessions and like-minded lawmakers in the House will alienate Hispanic voters from the GOP. And, indeed, the senator's words can sound a bit harsh, as he fights to limit legal immigration, cut off tax benefits for those earning legal status and limit legal immigrants' ability to bring over family members.
"It's painful to bring people who are unable to speak English or to effectively take advantage of the opportunities our country has," he told his colleagues this week. "They tend to pull themselves apart and continue to speak their own language, and they don't advance and assimilate."
Forecasting a mass immigration of 73 million to 92 million over the next 20 years, Sessions described the process in extraordinary detail: "The nuclear family that we bring in after five years, they become citizens, they bring in their parents. . . . The parents can bring in their parents if they're still alive. They really can. Maybe they're 90. They can bring in others -- their brothers and sisters. The uncles, all the uncles can come in with this through the parents here. And the wife can bring in brothers and sisters and then the wife brings in her brother, who brings in his wife and two children and she brings in her parents. And it just goes on."
This may not be the best way to broaden the Republican appeal, but that's not Sessions's worry. "I'm beyond politics," he said yesterday. His opponents would readily agree.
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Alabama's Jeff Sessions sure knows how to nurse a grudge. Talking about his family earlier this year, the Republican senator recalled that "Lincoln killed one of them at Antietam."
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Stephen King Mines That Tapped-Out Vein
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Stephen King is so emphatically the proverbial 800-pound gorilla that production companies are obliged not merely to place his name above that of a TV movie but also to include it as part of the title. The latest example of this presents a veritable "I dare you" to critics, who shun King generally, and particularly those who find his latest exercise in ho-hum horror to be exceptionally execrable.
Hmm. What to make of that? A rare case of truth-in-labeling? A suggestion that even Mr. Megabucks is tiring of his own work and recognizes that redundancy riddles it like rigor mortis? Whatever, "Stephen King's Desperation" is showing on ABC tonight, and Stephen King's desperation is showing, too, even more than it did in "Kingdom Hospital," the fast-folding flop King cooked up for ABC in 2004.
"Hospital" was meant to be a weekly series, but "Desperation," mercifully, is over and out after killing only three hours of prime time on ABC (8 p.m., Channel 7). The film at least finds King wandering away from the over-explored cobwebby corners of his beloved New England, but unfortunately he ends up in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" country -- not geographically, but topographically and too graphically; one grisly image is that of a corpse with pencils jabbed into its gouged-out eye sockets.
Obviously this is not proper fare for children and yet, as he has so many times in the past, King makes a child one of his central characters, thus irresponsibly encouraging curious kids to watch. The boy, played by Shane Haboucha (gesundheit), evokes memories of the telepathic tot in "The Shining" in that he has some sort of psychic simpatico with the sinister spirits at large. In fact, King is feeling so self-referential, and self-indulgent, that "redrum" ("murder" spelled backward) is seen briefly scrawled on a wall, "Shining"-style, and the boy's visions include a little dead girl who beckons him where he ought not go.
Of course "The Shining" had two little dead girls, not one, so that's a completely different thing.
The most assertive presence in "Desperation" is Ron Perlman as Collie Entragian, a malicious and corrupt cop who patrols a stretch of Nevada highway near Desperation -- a ghost town in the most literal sense. Entragian spends his days pulling drivers over, planting bags of marijuana in their vehicles when they aren't looking, and then dragging them off to one of the surreal cells in Desperation's ramshackle jail.
Perlman has solid menacing moments, buddy-buddy with his victims one minute, naughty-naughty the next. Apparently he is not completely corporeal, however, because he vanishes, or turns into a bird or a bush or something, roughly halfway through the picture. By this time his prisoners include Tom Skerritt as an old-hat troubadour living off memories of the '60s, Steven Weber as his smart-alecky assistant and Annabeth Gish as a hitchhiker Weber picks up en route. The ablest actor by far is lovable old Charles Durning, who appears to be the jail's first guest and Desperation's last living resident.
Durning has the thankless task of reeling off miles and miles of exposition, recalling how in pioneer times the Desperation Mining Co. brutally exploited Chinese laborers and thus irked the ancient god Tak, a vengeful sort with a flair for retribution, albeit belated -- and sloppy. All the residents of the town have been butchered to make amends for the misdeeds of their ancestors, it appears, but why should a group of random, would-be passers-through have to suffer?
Come to think of it, why should we?
Some, but not all, of the gaps in the back story are filled in by a silent movie playing at the local theater: "Tak! Or, The Unformed Heart," which includes scenes of mine owners murdering workers with pickaxes. Meanwhile there's some sort of theological seminar going on, with the boy pausing to pray for his mother and the other imperiled captives and Perlman bellowing such how's-that-again rantings as "God isn't here, any more than he was when Jesus was dying on the cross with flies in his eyes."
King pads out the three-hour time slot with digressions and dawdling and offers as relief occasional trenchant imagery, like a highway that disappears into the distance with dogs lined up along either side, acting as silent sentinels. Dogs and wolves seem prominent in Takology, but King also dispatches snakes, scorpions and spiders to terrorize victims. A mountain lion wanders into town and promptly sets about pouncing on one of the prisoners trying to escape.
If there's anybody in this movie that's easy to identify with, it's a prisoner trying to escape.
At one point Skerritt turns to the omniscient little boy and sizes up the situation. "This just isn't working, kid," he says. "Not working." No kidding.
Stephen King's Desperation (three hours) airs tonight at 8 on Channel 7.
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Stephen King is so emphatically the proverbial 800-pound gorilla that production companies are obliged not merely to place his name above that of a TV movie but also to include it as part of the title. The latest example of this presents a veritable "I dare you" to critics, who shun King generally,...
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Pedro Almodovar, Rounding Out Cruz's, Um, Career
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CANNES, France, May 22 -- The fantabulous French film festival here is like the Oscars, but different. In Cannes, some of the reporters wear hot pants.
There is more smoking, naturally, and less use of socks, and many small dogs with undiagnosed personality disorders are allowed into public places. It is a beautiful and ridiculous chaos, this Cannes Film Festival, and there is a lot of champagne drinking and jet lag, but most of all, for 12 days in May, this place is absolutely obsessed with film.
In Cannes, Hollywood tends to get the headlines. The international blockbuster that is "The Da Vinci Code" premiered here Wednesday (it was critically damned but box office blessed, grossing $224 million worldwide). But for the Cannes crowd, no one is more Cannes-y than the gay Spanish director with the gray pompadour, Pedro Almodovar, who just wowed them at the black-tie gala screening of his new movie, "Volver," starring Penelope Cruz (sporting a prosthetic butt, more on this later). The critics loved it, and it already is short-listed to win the top prize, the Palme d'Or (Oscar translation: Best Picture).
Almodovar, a favorite among the art house crowd (for "All About My Mother" and "Talk to Her" and "Bad Education"), is perfect for Cannes, the alpha and omega of the international film world, for his anxieties about death and mothers, his florid openness, lefty politics, absolute control-freakiness, and his palpable love and homage to film traditions and genres, which this bunch really gets .
On Friday evening, "Volver" (which means "to return" in Spanish) screened at the Palais, the much-photographed site of all gala film premieres in competition here, and though it probably is against the rules to reveal this, the Palais looks like a convention center built in Houston in the 1970s. Beige. Stucco. Glass. Oh, but the French, they put lipstick on this pig, and it is draped in banners and flags and there is the Cannes version of the red carpet, which here is actually red stairs, which looks wonderful on television but is actually a kind of velvety, pashmina-ish AstroTurf.
A few moments before the show, Almodovar and Cruz and the film's other female leads (Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Chus Lampreave) emerged from their Renault limos to the squeals of fans. The DJ was spinning mindless Euro techno house. It was silenced, then came the announcer: Madames, Messieurs, Pedro Almodovar! Almodovar was dressed in black, head to toe, like Johnny Cash but with poufy hair, wearing oversize sunglasses ( très Cannes) with his date for the evening, Cruz, who never left his side and looked like a shy model/bride dressed in a strapless white gown, ripe and ready for the honeymoon to come.
And the paparazzi go completely nuts, the Red Stairs erupting in a firefight of a thousand flashes, left, right and center, and Almodovar and Cruz mug (they have this pose down, cheek to cheek; it is on the magazine covers all over France), and then everyone rushes into the Palais.
The vibe inside the lobby? Like a night at the opera. Very grown-up. More attendees are older than young. All the men in black tie (the French, God bless them, call it "smoking, tenue de soiree tuxedo, dress shirt" -- which by the way they are serious about; this correspondent was required to spend 15 euros at the entrance to change his red tie to a clip-on black bow).
The lights dim, the movie is screened. The critics will have their reviews for its American release later, but "Volver" marks a return for Almodovar to his earlier fascinations, "a title that includes several kinds of coming back for me," he writes in his own description of the film. "I have come back, a bit more, to comedy. I have come back to the female world," to his home village in Spain in La Mancha region (known for its fierce winds that are responsible for an alleged "high rate of insanity"), and "naturally, I have come back to my mother. Coming back to La Mancha is always to come back to the maternal breast."
It is a film about women. There is a mother, a maternal ghost. Sisters and daughters. Indeed, the only substantial male character in the film ends up in an icebox, with a knife in his chest. There is a crime. A fire. Secrets.
And decolletage, which is relevant both to "Volver" and Cannes. The history of the festival here begins in the 1930s, when French cinephiles (and their press agents) decided that the Fascist Italian leader Mussolini should have some competition for the film festival then held in Venice, and so they hatched the Cannes fete (interrupted briefly by Hitler and World War II). Okay, getting to the cleavage: In 1954, the Cannes Film Festival became the international phenomenon it is today, with its reputation of risque business, when the French actress Simone Sylva -- posing for photos on the beach with Robert Mitchum -- exposed her top. (Reports vary: Some say Sylva "whipped off her bra," though others say she simply dropped her bikini top.) Sylva was followed by bikini-clad Brigitte Bardot and a legion of other "topless starlets," who made Cannes notorious -- and catnip for the press corps and paparazzi.
About his current muse, Miss Cruz, Almodovar has written: "Penelope is at the height of her beauty. It's a cliche but in her case it's true. Those eyes, her neck, her shoulders, her breasts!! Penelope has got one of the most spectacular cleavages in world cinema."
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CANNES, France, May 22 -- Pedro Almodovar -- with his anxieties about death and mothers, florid openness, lefty politics and palpable love for film -- is perfect for the Cannes Film Festival.
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Book World Live
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Among the most potent and poignant new novels to address post-9/11 America is Carolyn See's 'There Will Never Be Another You.' It is potent because the sense of dread and unease that mark almost every moment in the book is palpable; it is poignant because See, who in previous books has proven eminently capable of skewering her characters when they misbehave, has such compassion for the largely villain-less ensemble that populates this tale. -- Review: The Age of Anxiety (May 21).
Author Carolyn See will be online to field questions and comments about her new novel, "There Will Never Be Another You," which explores a post-9/11 America.
The author of five novels, Carolyn See is an adjunct professor of English at University of California at Los Angeles. Her book reviews appear regularly in the Style section of The Washington Post.
Join Book World Live each Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET for a discussion based on a story or review in each Sunday's Book World section.
Carolyn See: Shall I introduce myself? I'm Friday morning book reviewer for the Post, I taught for more years than there are in the Universe at Loyola Marymount University and then UCLA out here in Los Angeles. "There Will Never Be Another You" is my tenth book -- along with three others that I wrote with John Espey and my older daughterLisa See, under the name of "Monica Highland," books that we fondly thought of as "airplain literature for smart people. And I'm sitting here today with my younger Daughter, Clara Sturak who is former Associate Editor of the Santa Monica Mirror, and now an advocate for the rights of autistic kids. It's 70 degrees here in the Pacific Palisades, and we seem -- at the moment -- to be as happy as anyone can expect to be.
DuBois, Wyo : After all these years... is this your 1st Post on-line thinggy? I've read your once-a-week book reviews for ages -- how long have you been at it? Also, is your full, real name See? I've always wondered. Thanks!
Carolyn See: My real name is See, because I married a nice boy, Richard See, back when I was 21 years old -- and I'm 72 now. Richard was one quarter Chinese, but it was the Chinese part that stuck in the family, like ink in a tall glass of milk.My daughter Lisa thinks of herself as "Chinese in her heart..."And so do I. My life-partner, John Espey, was born in Shanghai and grew up "Chinese." So, that's the "See" part!
And yes, this is my first on-line-thingy. Clara is here so I don't have a nervous break down...
Venice, Calif.: just want you to know how much we appreciate yourwitty, refreshing and reassuring (!!??)voice......we love you....and appreciateyour work......
Carolyn See: My dears, has someone paid you to give that comment? I'm more grateful to YOU than I can say. And I love that you're from Venice. I'm just a few miles from you...I don't know what else to say. Witty and refreshing are sometimes pretty close to running amock, as we all know...
Harrisburg, Pa.: How did the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 personally transform you?
Carolyn See: The destruction of the towers were just another straw on the camel's back for me. When I was 11, my dad left and a couple of weeks later the Bomb dropped. Lots later, when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, I wrote "Golden Days," out of combined irritation and terror. I imagine things will go on like this!
Carolyn See: I was on a cable access talk show the other day and the poor guy had said he'd have me on before he read the book -- which appeared to have come as quite a shock to him. He ended up saying something like "I LOVE you, I HATE your character!!!" He was talking about Dr. Philip Fucks, one of my favorite characters, a hapless guy with a sweet nature who isn't "hard" enough on his kids. I'd like to ask someone out there -- is is OK to judge a book by whether or not you like a particular one of its characters? I mean, if all the characters are serial killers are one thing, but if one of them isn't someone you'd ask to a dinner party...how does that figure in critism? (And I wonder if I do that myself when I'm doing the reviews?)
People keep comparing this book to one of your earlier ones: Golden Days. Has your world view changed much since you wrote the earlier book?
Carolyn See: Hi honey! I think of "There Will Never Be Another You" as a kid brother to "Golden Days." "Golden Days" came at a time when the war mongers were threatening the total, awful, absolute, double-scary end of the world, and little peace-ladies were wailing,oh don't let it be the absolute, total, worse than we can ever imagine end of the world!!! The rhetorical din was awful. I kept imagining different ways we could just politely edge our ways out of the conversation -- wear a tee shirt, perhaps, that said on one side, YOU CAN KILL ME, and on the other BUT YOU CAN'T IMPRESS ME.
This new book is very much like that, since we're forced to listen to several sides of a very unpleasant argument. People who hold our lives in their hands are not going to be inclined to let us forget that. So, again, I tried to figure out ways we could just sneak out of the playground where the bullies -- on EVERY SIDE -- are holding forth. But this book is more comic, more mellow, in my opinion.
Anonymous: In matters of the heart, what is the biggest threat today--as opposed to, let's say, 12 years ago?
a friend in Gaithersburg, MD
Carolyn See: In my mind, in matters of the heart and in everything else, the greatest threat, the greatest disadvantage, the biggest thing to be afraid of, is a failure of the imagination. We fall back on easy cliches -- "Martha was always the good hearted one..." "George would never do that." Is something wrong? Lets have a WAR on it, like we can have a war in Iraq, on drugs, on cancer, on illiteracy, but it's all slugged under the rubric of WAR. And lets not forget the war on immigrants, which has genuine minutemen and everything. I'm not against "War," per se, but I am worried that our brains are so slack and low we can't be bothered to figure out whatever it is that we're "against," and how we should address it...
Ventura, Calif: Hi, Carolyn. I'm just curious if you have based any characters on anyone in reality? Would we know any of them, even if you're using different names?
Carolyn See: Hello, nice person in Ventura! When I'm "using" someone I "know" in a novel, I'll usually take three people and put them in a blender. The character of Vern, for instance, in "Another You," is a combination of my beautiful autistic grandson, Dash, Harvard, an old friend to whom the book is partly dedicated, and me. I'm the major "one" in everyone, of course. Thus, Felicia, the fretful wife in the same book, is prettier and younger than I am, but she's absolutely me -- back when they put up the Berlin Wall and I was desperate to get out of the country or off the planet, whatever came first. People often recognize "Themselves" in a narrative, and I haven't even thought of them, or I'll put someone in in and they won't recognize themselves. That's because the "self" is a fictional construct, at best. The closest I took or stole a character was the handyman in "The Handyman," and it was just his body, his sweet nature, and one distorted incident. I told him about it and told him I wasn't stalking him. He was pleased.
Chicago Ill: If you could be any other writer in the world, who would it be?
Carolyn See: I'd be E.M. Forster. He was a gay guy, I'm a straight woman; he was well-brought and upper-class and I'm neither, but he told -- not just the truth, but what he knew was RIGHT. I know that can be a tiresome trait, but there it is. I also admire, more than I can say, the fact that he gets so close to the details of everyday living -- how hard it can be to plan a picnic, how three women can squabble over who gets to sit on two little tarps on damp grass. Just the way life flows in its wonderfully intricate ways. I'm crazy about him, and I wish I were half the writer he was.
Washington, DC: Do you think the fact that you are yourself a novelist makes you a gentler critic? The courage and the discipline it takes to write a novel are so praiseworthy that a book has to be really, really, deliberately aggressively bad for me not to give it a respectful read and a kind word. Wondering if your perspective is similar.
Carolyn See: Yes, I think I'm a much more gentle critic than a person who's never attempted to write a book. That has another side though. When I'm reading a REALLY AWFUL book, first I get mad at the publishers, then the editors, then the writer. My thoughts run to: I DON'T GET PAID ENOUGH TO READ THIS!!! But that's not often. Not often at all. Often I see a soft place in a story, like a brown place in a piece of fruit, and mark it, and think -- if I were the editor, I'd get the writer to fix this -- but I tend to think that the average reader doesn't even notice this stuff. And you're right: It takes such reckless bravery to write a book that I really think twice or four times before I take a cheap shot.
Maria in Los Angeles, Calif.: Hi Carolyn! I'm really looking forward to reading this book. I just ordered it on Amazon. As a writer myself, I know how sometimes a book can come from a personal event as much as a response to outer events. Can you tell us a little about what inner events spurred you to write this story?
Carolyn See: Hi Maria in LA!
The personal events that inspired this book was/were a plethora of deaths in my friends and family. The death of my life-partner, John Espey, who died here at home, the death Harvard Gordon, to whom the book is dedicated, the death of my mother -- who was so mad at me she cut me dead -- so to say -- on her death bed. Just after this flurry, the World Trade Center came down. The thing about death -- and god knows this is not an original thought -- is that there's a before and an after to it. Before it happens to someone close to you, it hasn't really happened. It's like the trip you're going to take to Europe next week. After it's happened and you've seen it happen, all the circuses in the world are going to be hardpressed to cheer you up. You really do see that your swaddling clothes are your shroud. You live, die, then it's over and out. Loss is EVERYWHERE. To quote myself from another book, How do we see life clear and love it too?
Palo Alto, Calif: Can you get the Post to let you review less unusual books? They seem to give you stuff with a twist (plot, setting, narrated backwards, something). Which is fine, but I would like to see your opinion on, say, Anne Tyler's latest or even some other one.
Carolyn See: Let me be straight about this: I write from Los Angeles. The wonderful people at the Post -- I imagine -- have meetings where they decide which books to assign to whom. They're tired and bored after an hour or two and a book comes up about Siamese twins or a rat who makes his living in vaudeville and they hold it up, everyone cringes and shakes their heads, then somebody snickers and says, "Let's send this one to Carolyn! Let's see what SHE can do with it. Hee Hee." Of course, that's just my thought. And it truly may be that I attract "idiosyncratic" books like a magnet attracts iron fillings.
Washington, DC: I know you must tire of this question, but how in the world do you manage to write novels, teach and write your weekly book reviews (which I look forward to each Friday in the Washington Post)? And now it seems, based on your introduction, that you have a personal life as well!
Carolyn See: Not only that, I watch hours of bad TV! The secret, if there is one, is just the thousand words a day. You can't be writing all the time anymore than you can be raising kids all the time (as in, the kids are out playing or watching bad TV themselves, or lolling about). So there's plenty of time, actually, for us to do "what we want." For myself, I know I sepend way too much time gazing morosely out the window or dithering about what I should make for dinner or whether or not I'm going to pull myself together to go to the beach -- that's where my time goes (and let's not forget the crossword puzzle, which I completed this morning at 8:45). My point is, time is elastic. Think of all those English statesmen in WWI who managed an impossible war and carried on affairs with 14 mistresses and went skeet shooting at dawn.
Los Angeles, Calif: Hello Carolyn!I'm a struggling writer, dealing with writer's block, and I'm just wondering - what inspires you - and, do you wait for inspiration, or do you just sit down and work, no matter what?
Carolyn See: A thousand words a day! That's my motto. That's four pages, double spaced. And if you write 12 lines, you've only got three-and-a-half pages to go. I suggest -- for encouragement -- you take a look at Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way," (she's very good about reminding us that all we need to do is "show up," do the work, and "god" will take care of the quality.) Or take a look at my own "Making a Literary Life," which attempts to turn the whole process into fun. If you write four pages everyday, the block melts away.
Waiting for inspiration is like waiting for Mr. Right -- it might come along, or again, it might not...
Philadelphia, Pa.: Tell your critic that a memorable villain means there obviously was a good story that caused such a memorable reaction. Every great hero has overcome a great adversary, and often it is defeating a villain. Good villains in stories is something that is positive.
Carolyn See: You nice person! Thank you for standing up for me. I appreciate it. And I send you a hug.
Carolyn See: This afternoon has been so much fun! I really want to thank you guys for writing in. It's wonderful to make this kind of connection with readers. And it makes me happy that there are still so many people out there for whom the printed word is important. Remember that you can always get in touch with me (and find my schedule of events) at www.carolynsee.com.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Carolyn See fields questions and comments about her new novel, "There Will Never Be Another You," which explores a post-9/11 America.
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Geri Halliwell Names Baby Bluebell Madonna
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LONDON -- Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell has named her baby Bluebell Madonna. The singer also known as Ginger Spice, 33, told Hello! magazine she'd been inspired by seeing the spring flowers during her pregnancy.
"But what really clinched it for me was my mother telling me that the bluebell is increasingly rare _ so it's precious flower, which seems just right for my daughter," Halliwell was quoted as saying.
Halliwell said she had chosen the middle name in honor of one of her heroines.
"As she came out of my tummy, Bluebell had both arms flung wide in the air as if announcing to the world, `Hi! I'm here!'" the magazine quoted Halliwell as saying.
"She was screaming her head off, as though she was shouting, `Hello, Wembley!' No one else has that name, apart from the Virgin Madonna and the singer, whom I love."
The baby was born May 14 at London's Portland Hospital weighing 5 lbs 12 ounces.
In the Hello! interview, Halliwell made no mention of the baby's father. He is reportedly Hollywood scriptwriter Sacha Gervasi, 40.
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LONDON -- Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell has named her baby Bluebell Madonna. The singer also known as Ginger Spice, 33, told Hello! magazine she'd been inspired by seeing the spring flowers during her pregnancy.
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Mystics Are Ready After Busy Offseason
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The Washington Mystics began rebuilding in early February with the signing of free agent small forward Crystal Robinson and continued a few weeks later when veteran forward Latasha Byears agreed to a training camp contract.
On March 1, Washington made one of the biggest trades in franchise history, acquiring all-star point guard Nikki Teasley and the eighth overall pick in last month's draft from the Los Angeles Sparks in exchange for forward Murriel Page, guard Temeka Johnson and the fifth overall pick.
The Mystics drafted small forward Tamara James of the University of Miami in the first round and added Nikki Blue, a point guard from UCLA, in the second round.
The result is a roster that the Mystics believe is more talented than any other in franchise history -- a belief that will be put to the test starting tonight, when Washington plays its season opener against the New York Liberty (0-1) at 7 p.m. at Verizon Center.
"I think this is the best team we've ever had here," General Manager Linda Hargrove said. "I think on paper we are very strong, and in the preseason our team really came together like we'd hoped. I think there's no reason why we shouldn't be good this season."
How good? The Mystics feel they can contend for their first league title a year after finishing 16-18, one victory from making the playoffs.
"The word we've always used a lot has been 'playoffs,' " shooting guard Alana Beard said. "But having seen the team we have, which is by far the best we've had since I've been here, we need to start talking about 'championship.' We know what the playoffs are like. Now it's time to set the bar higher, and if we don't it would be an insult to the players we have this year."
Everyone in the Mystics organization -- from President Sheila Johnson on down -- knows this is a pivotal year for a franchise still trying to establish itself in the D.C. market. It is Johnson's first full season running the team and she's well aware attendance dropped for the third straight season, from an average of 12,615 in 2004 to 10,088 last year. In 2002, the Mystics' average attendance was 16,202, still a league record.
Johnson attributes the decline to several factors: the arrival of the Nationals, the turnover in ownership and the Mystics' slow start and eventual losing record.
"It was a culmination of all of those things," Johnson said. "So now it's like we're starting over. I feel there are more than enough fans for both the Nationals and the Mystics. I'm not scared of the Nationals. We want to give people a reason to come here to the Verizon Center to see our team."
Johnson hopes to make attendance at a Mystics game as much about entertainment as it is about basketball. The Mystics will have a festival outside of Verizon Center prior to Saturday's game against Minnesota. They also hope dance teams, giveaways and a new mascot -- a panda named "Pax" -- will increase ticket sales.
"But it will still come down to winning," said Coach Richie Adubato, the team's eighth coach in nine years. "Winning means two things. First, people jump on the bandwagon and games become a social event that everyone wants to go to. Second, it gives you more exposure on television and people in the neighborhood see you. If you can impress them, they'll be more interested in your team. If we can win, there will be kids who watch us on TV and they'll become fans and they'll stay with you as they grow up. Once you start to win, everything mushrooms from there."
The Mystics had plenty of problems to address during the offseason after ranking near the bottom of the league in rebounding (27.7 per game), three-point shooting (34.6 percent) and opponents' field goal percentage (44.5) last summer. Washington expects to have a more formidable inside game with the acquisition of Robinson, whom Adubato calls one of the league's premier defensive players. With Robinson on the roster, DeLisha Milton-Jones will be able to move from small forward to her natural position of power forward. And the 5-foot-11, 206-pound Byears gives the Mystics a physical presence coming off the bench that they lacked last year.
"And don't forget about Chasity Melvin," Adubato said of the starting center who averaged 11.7 points and 5.8 rebounds last year. "She has a lot of help this year and doesn't have to get every rebound. She won't have to fight through two defenders anymore to get the ball. I expect her to be one of the league's leading rebounders."
James, a prolific scorer in college, has a reliable mid-range jump shot and she, along with Robinson -- a career 38 percent three-point shooter -- should prevent defenses from keying on shooting guard Beard, who averaged a team-high 14.1 points last year.
The Mystics also have depth, which was sorely lacking last year.
Adubato said he's confident Blue can run the offense almost as effectively as Teasley, though Teasley is a better scorer. He also said he believes reserve guards Coco Miller and Byears could start for other teams. If the Mystics play against a zone defense, Adubato will insert guard Laurie Koehn and let the league's most efficient three-point shooter last year (46.7 percent) fire away.
"There's no question that Washington is a better team right now than they were last year," Connecticut Coach Mike Thibault said. "They have more athleticism with Crystal Robinson, more size and experience with Teasley, and I saw DeLisha play overseas and she played as well as anybody."
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The Mystics will finally get their first regular season look at the remade roster as they face the visiting New York Liberty on Tuesday night.
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White House Talk
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What's going on inside the White House? Ask Dan Froomkin , who writes the White House Briefing column for washingtonpost.com. He'll answer your questions, take your comments and links, and point you to coverage around the Web on Wednesday, May 24, at 1 p.m. ET.
Dan is also deputy editor of Niemanwatchdog.org .
Dan Froomkin: Hi everyone and welcome to another White House Talk.
My column today is about how "President Bush's exclusive focus on suicide bombers -- 'suiciders,' in his parlance -- when asked about violence in Iraq yesterday once again suggests that he lacks a realistic sense of the current state of chaos in that country."
We can talk about that, or about a million other things. The White House is a busy beat these days.
I also wrote in yesterday's column that, in honor of the chef who told Bush in Chicago on Monday that he's running the country the way a chef would, I'll be accepting your suggestions about what you think Bush is cooking up.
San Jose, Calif.: Hi Dan,
Thanks for the revealing information about Peter Wehner and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives (strategery) in yesterday's column. Keep up the good work!!
Regarding the President's guest worker proposal, and after his speech last week, it seems pretty amazing to me that no one is calling him out on his actual motive for such a proposal: cheap labor so that his wealthy constituents can get wealthier. Not only are no Democrats calling him out on it, but neither did any WaPo columnists either. All I see is those columnists calling the President a centrist, trying to find a middle ground, which is puzzling because he's been pushing this guest worker proposal since day one. Ironically, other than the columnists and bloggers on the left, the only person I see calling the President out on the people he actually advocates and governs for is, of all people, Richard A. Viguerie in Saturday's Post. What gives?
Dan Froomkin: Thanks. Wehner is one of my favorite White House figures.
And that's a very good point.
Viguerie, in his Live Online on Monday was particularly blunt: "It is not entirely true that Bush has betrayed everyone. The 1% of his voter support that came from big business corporate America - he's been truthful to them. They have gotten the legislation, the appointments; I can't think of any issue that they have strongly supported where Bush has opposed them."
The guest worker element would be a clear win for corporate America.
And the left and immigrant groups find it utterly distasteful. But I think they're mostly not making a big stink about it because they think it may go away when all is said and done, and they're concentrating on the pathway to citizenship stuff.
Toledo, Ohio: Dan, My Republican friends disagree with me, but I can think of no events short of another terrorist attack which would skew positive for Mr. Bush. Oil prices may drop, but it won't be much; the good numbers on the economy seem to be offset by the individual uncertainty felt by the people of the middle class;Iraq probably won't improve as U.S. troops prepare to spend their fourth summer in the blistering heat and the legal problems of Messers Abramoff and Libby (and Rove?)will continue to simmer. Where can the administration hope to find any news that could generate anything more than a slight up-tick in their poll numbers?
Dan Froomkin: Catching bin Laden would be good. There would certainly be a lot of celebrating.
Bush himself, in his interview with NBC's David Gregory acknowledged that the big momentum force is Iraq. Although, as you point out, that momentum may not change. Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei wrote in The Washington Post on Monday that "President Bush and his team are focusing on the fall midterm elections as the best chance to salvage his presidency."
In other words, if Republican majorities survive the mid-terms, Bush can declare another victory and start to lead again.
Me, I wonder if putting as much attention on governing as he does on politics might result in some slow but steady progress. New Gingrich might have been suggesting that at the end of the Baker-VandeHei story, when he suggests Bush take the Clinton approach.
Balboa, Calif.: Have any of the "Tony Snow questions" you collected actually been asked by the White House press corps?
Dan Froomkin: You mean these questions?
No, not so much -- with the notable exception of Helen Thomas.
"Q The new Italian Prime Minister says that the President's invasion of Iraq was a grave error. As the new kid on the block, can you give me the latest rationale the U.S. has for invading Iraq?
"MR. SNOW: There has only been one rationale, as you know, Helen, and this that Saddam Hussein had resisted -- what is the proper number, 17 United Nations resolutions -- and had refused repeatedly to permit weapons inspectors to do their work, and consistent with that. And also we had cited other concerns in terms of democracy and human rights. That case has never changed."
I'm not sure how he managed to keep a straight face while saying the rationale for war in Iraq has been consistent over time.
As Tim Grieve noted in Salon: "One that Snow didn't mention, at least explicitly, today: The threat, described by the president in his September 2002 speech before the U.N. General Assembly, that Saddam Hussein was going to give the weapons of mass destruction he didn't have to al-Qaida terrorists with whom he wasn't working."
By and large, the reporters are asking Snow small-bore, incremental questions, and his small-bore, incremental non-answers have made his briefings dull and eminently missable in record time.
Austin, Tex.: Bush is cooking up a monarchy. The FBI raid on Rep. William Jefferson's congressional office reveals a TOTAL disregard (and contempt) for the separation of powers.
Dan Froomkin: I was looking for something a little more figurative.
In fact, A few readers have e-mailed me their suggestions for Bush dishes.
Anne Dickson suggests the "Iraq Breakfast Special: Eggs, sunny-side-up served on (covering) burnt toast, with Hallibacon and rehashed beans (bupkes)."
Lisa Marshall recommends: "Caribou Anwr, thin slices of roasted juvenile caribou nestled in sauteed tundra grasses, dressed with light oil dressing" and "Bombe Iran, flaming medley of seasonal fruits."
New York, N.Y.: Hi Dan!
Here I was, minding my own and bringing up AOL to retrieve my email and I see the AOL news headline:
Osama bin Laden: "I am the one in charge" (this in relation to the attack on 9/11)
And this brought to mind the headline not long ago:
Bush: "I am the decider"
hmm...maybe these two have more in common than they'd like to admit?
Dan Froomkin: You're reminding me a bit of Bush's October 2005 speech where he was talking about Bin Laden and said: "And what this man who grew up in wealth and privilege considers good for poor Muslims is that they become killers and suicide bombers. He assures them that his -- that this is the road to paradise -- though he never offers to go along for the ride."
I see Bush focusing on the midterm elections as their short-term strategy.
At what point does it begin to appear -- will the point get traction -- that campaigning may be all the Bush team knows how to do?
I'm really amazed at the focus turning to the elections instead of, say, governing. At what point do you think winning elections may not be enough?
And how could retaining congress be perceived as a 'mandate'?
I have long suggested that Karl Rove's legacy is the complete merging of policy and politics in the White House -- like they're the same thing. As I wrote in my now-dated mini-profile of Rove, ages ago: "Traditionally, governing is a considerably different matter than running for office, where winning is everything. Not so with Rove. If he eventually starts losing, he could end up taking the blame for creating a divisive presidency, aimed more at achieving partisan goals than the common good. But if he keeps winning, he will be a kingmaker even as his boss becomes a lame duck -- and his legacy could be a GOP that is indeed the ruling party for decades to come."
Jury's still out. But the deliberations are getting kinda ugly.
Newark, Del.: Dan, I know you've watched a lot of White House Briefings. What is your personal impression of Tony Snow?
The more I watch the more I dislike how he treat people culturally different. Now, I know there are loonies in the press corp there. But I'm not just talking about his tar-baby reference which I do believe was an honest slip. To give another example, there's an Indian or Pakistani journalist which I believe you've mentioned before in your column. One of the reporters Scott McClellan would call on when he wanted to switch subjects.
English is obviously not his first language. So, when he asked a immigration question, it wasn't put very succinctly. He was obviously trying to ask how the White House would spur economic development in Mexico. Because the reason immigrants are coming here is for economic opportunity. He tried to ask how Mexico could compete with low wage jobs going to China. But after struggling for a few seconds, it eventually came out as, "How is the White House going to move factories from China back to Mexico?" He did not put the question properly, but it was obvious what he was trying to ask, which is a legitimate question.
Tony Snow's response just astounded me. He rolled his head, his eyes widened, and he repeated the question in the most dismissive fashion. After suppressing a laugh, he moved on. He treated the reporter like he was a nutcase on TV. It was absolutely insulting.
As someone who deals with people from different backgrounds, races, and ages every day, that type of elitism infuriates me. It's almost as if he's culturally obtuse! Scott McClellan may have been a stone wall, but I rarely saw him treat someone with such total disrespect.
Dan Froomkin: What an interesting observation.
You're referring to an exchange Snow had a week ago with Raghubir Goyal, one of the more persistent briefing-room characters I mentioned in a columnlast year.
McClellan was always scrupulously polite with Goyal, and used him like you said (ergo the nickname, Goyal the Foil).
But Snow's exasperation is not entirely without some merit. Goyal and Lester Kinsolving seem to like to hear themselves talk more than they care about actual answers, and their questions are almost always a colossal waste of time.
Notable exception: When Kinsolving asked last Tuesday what Bush's position is on contraception. Snow laughed that one off, too. But it's an good question. (See Russell Shorto in the New York Times Magazine.)
But let's all stay tuned.
Rockville, Md.: Has Tony Snow made any significant difference as McClellan's replacement? He's still just the messenger, and no matter how well he crafts and delivers the message, isn't the result the same?
Do you think that the White House is now more forthcoming with information?
Dan Froomkin: Early to say for sure, but so far, I would have to say: No real change; and no, not more forthcoming.
Now that said, Snow is obviously way more comfortable on TV and signs are that he'll be using that medium way more that McClellan. For instance, he's sitting down with Lou Dobbs on CNN tonight! That should be worth watching.
Grantham, N.H.: I noticed that Peter Wehner send his missive from a .gov email account. Why is a political email attacking someone being sent from a government email account?
Dan Froomkin: Why is Karl Rove on the White House payroll?
The answer to both questions is that politics and policy have merged at the White House. And it's been like that all along.
My understanding is that the only thing flatly illegal is using a government office, e-mail address, etc., to raise money -- assuming there's any controlling legal authority at all. I need to look into that more.
Bel Air, Md.: I know this is old news, but it still concerns me that the White House Press Secretary could use the term 'tar baby' and not be held accountable. He never apologized to those offended and claimed his critics did not understand 'American Culture'. You would think his sensitivity level would be higher since his racist past was exposed during the vetting process for Press Secretary.
What are your thoughts on the White House Press Corps' failure to seriously question Tony Snow, the man who speaks for the President, on his comment?
My sense is there were two mitigating factors at work on the under-coverage of Snow's "tar baby" comment.
One is that there is no evidence it was in any way intended as a racist statement at all. Although this shocked me, apparently in some circles there is indeed no racist connotation whatsoever to the phrase. (Me, I'm abundantly aware of its racist history. I was floored when I heard him say it.)
The second is that it was Tony Snow's first day, and the obvious "honeymoon" angle was his choking up when talking about his cancer. It would have been awkward for a reporter to package those two stories together. (Me, I didn't have that problem; I was critical of his overall performance.)
Incidentally, DeWayne Wickham, a columnist for Gannet, wrote about it the other day: "It's obvious to me that Snow had no racial reference in mind when he uttered those words. Like others who use the term 'tar baby' in describing a sticky situation, Snow was probably unmindful of its more insidious usage."
But, Wickham wrote: "Snow has been touted as a press secretary who will be more forthright in his pronouncements. If so, he ought to begin by apologizing for his innocent use of the 'tar baby' term, which many blacks believe harbors an ugly embedded message."
Wickham also quoted a "cryptic message" the Rev. Jesse Jackson left on his voicemail: "As for the tar baby; the lips cannot conceal what the heart wants to reveal."
Ann Arbor, Mich.: Dear D. F.,
I have been interested in the latest news involving the Justice Department and Rep. William Jefferson (D-Louisiana). The strong response coming from both parties across both houses and predictions of a Supreme Court case seem to imply that the limits of the constitution have been tested. I would like to hear your ideas regarding this issue. How has the executive branch defined its role and powers in relation to the other branches of government under the Bush administration?
Dan Froomkin: Wouldn't it be ironic if the raid of a Democratic congressman's office was what finally drove the Republican Congress to rebel against the Bush White House's unprecedented power grab?
Carl Hulse raises that prospect in the New York Times this morning: "Lawmakers and outside analysts said that while the execution of a warrant on a Congressional office might be surprising - this appears to be the first time it has happened - it fit the Bush administration's pattern of asserting broad executive authority, sometimes at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches."
But I think he's a little quick on the trigger, and in fact he pours a little cold water on his own idea: "There is no sign that Congressional Republicans' discontent over this particular matter may spread into a more general challenge to the administration's expansive view of executive authority."
Hampton, Va.: Just thinking out loud...how many turning points will it take before Bush realizes we are just going in circles?
Novato, Calif.: Sorry to submit two questions during the same session, but I just went and read your column from today about Bush repeating "suiciders" over and over, and it occurs to me that the White House is deliberately bringing this up in reaction to Baghdad ER. The show makes it extremely clear that IEDs account for more than 90% of their cases, and that the army still has little if any way to defend against them. It was appalling, really. And no, I don't work for HBO.
Dan Froomkin: What's amazing to me is that the White House's official narrative is that all the carnage we see on TV is what's getting us down on the president.
But where is that carnage? I don't see it on TV. Sure, I see the occasional bombing-wreckage (ergo, possibly, Bush's focus on those suiciders) but the day-in-day-out horrors, including the ceaseless killing and mutilating of our troops, the brutal murders of civilians by sectarian death squads, those aren't on TV! Neither, of course, are the returning coffins.
The American public has gotten severely down on the war and the president in spite of the fact that they are not seeing any visceral images of the cost of war, not because of those images.
So Baghdad ER is pretty much the first and foremost example of real, human, American carnage on TV. I think it could be huge -- though from what I gather, so far the reaction has been muted.
All that said, I don't think Bush is going to intentionally do anything to call any attention to that show. Quite the opposite.
Seattle, Wash.: Is a secret deal being worked out to withdraw most US troops from Iraq in time for the November elections, while at the same time marshalling them nearby for an invasion of Iran, or will Bush just go with the air bombing and use of nuclear warheads on Iranian facilities instead?
Dan Froomkin: You don't have to be particularly skeptical or conspiratorial to predict with confidence that there will be some sort of troop drawdown before November, and no attack on Iran until after.
Chicago, Ill.: In your column today you cover Bush's remarks about suicide bombers. Here's another thing to note, he also refers only to Sunnis. For anyone who's been reading the coverage of the chaos in Iraq knows that the Sunnis aren't the only ones killing US and British troops. Several factions of the Shi'ia are on the attack as well with the apparent support of Iran. And Bush makes no mention of this. Finally, there was a report of Iranian gunners shelling Kurdish positions in Iraq, and Bush (and most of the press) makes no mention of this. It's clear that the situation in Iraq is spinning increasingly out of control, yet the press dutifully covers Bush's remarks about the formation of a new Iraqi government without reporting the context of the actual situation in Iraq. Comments?
Dan Froomkin: In Bush's defense, he generally mentions the Sunnis, as he did yesterday, in the context of their participation in the government, and how important that is.
Bush has at least publicly been very clear on the importance of minority rights and representation in the new government -- it is, after all, the most obvious way in which the new government could accelerate rather than start to heal sectarian divisions.
You may find that ironic, but there it is.
Have you seen any increase in the number of e-mails and comments that are worried that this president and his cohorts are aiming for a dictatorship/kingship?
Just curious if it is about the same, less, or more?
Dan Froomkin: Many, many more. But I would be the last to suggest that my e-mails are a scientific survey!
Washington, D.C.: Dan, the reason Snow can keep a straight face on the rationale for war is because he is correct- the rationale has remained the same. They've just switched up the order a little. Before WMD's were the number one reason, but bringing Democracy to the Middle East and toppling Saddam were also repeatedly mentioned. Now they've just moved to the top of the list.
Dan Froomkin: You are very charitable. I recall a certain linkage to Al Qaeda, for example. And while I agree that in retrospect, democracy in the Middle East may have been a huge factor, it got very little mention in the run-up. Plus, all that leaves aside the both rationales you mention -- one for sure, and one for now -- show no sign of being well-founded.
Charlottesville, Va.: It seems to me that Bush's mindset of using midterms to get his Presidency back on track is a good plan, mainly because if the Democrats don't win control of either the House or the Senate the year will be deemed a failure for them (even if they pick up seats).
The media's hype about Bush's poll numbers, and a few tightly contested elections seem to obscure the fact that the Dems have a huge uphill climb to reclaim the Senate or the House. This hype seems to set the Dems up for a massive failure if they don't win in November, when in fact it's a long shot to begin with. Do you think the media is giving Bush an assist here?
Dan Froomkin: Yes, that's a pretty good narrative for Bush, you're right.
But it's not a media conspiracy that we're all focused on whether or not the Democrats win one or both houses. That's the big story of 2006.
And in some ways, that's not all good for the Republicans. They would probably much rather not "nationalize" local races -- it makes it easier for normally-near-invincible incumbents to lose that way.
Any thoughts on the theory that all the spying on ordinary Americans is not to prevent terrorism, but to prevent Democrats from being elected?
The evidence would center around Rove's obsession with electoral data, and the value of all the spied-upon materials could yield in that regard.
Dan Froomkin: I think you're being a bit conspiratorial there.
But the fact is that without the existence of demonstrable, trusted checks and balances, who knows what the hell they're doing with that stuff?
Do you trust someone like General Hayden to say no to Karl Rove? He didn't say no to the White House when they told him how to reinterpret the Constitution.
Washington, D.C.: Is Bush really out of touch?
The Iraq war seems much more justifiable if our enemy is a bunch of suicide bombers out to kill innocent people. The reality of it is much different, as you point out, but that reality is bad news for Bush and co.
Bush might not be out of touch as much as he's just continuing to spin the war in the best light possible.
Madison, Ala.: Regarding the Carl Hulse article, what about the "self-interest" angle he makes brief reference to? According to news reports in the last few months to a year, there are as many as a dozen GOP Members of Congress who may have believed their offices are their last refuge. Do you think this may strengthen what seems already to be an uncharacteristically swift and harsh reaction by the GOP House Leadership?
Dan Froomkin: You would think so. But you would also think that, oh, for instance, the authors of statutes that the president announces in a "signing statement" he doesn't actually have to adhere to would be a little ticked off, too. Or might at least ask for an explanation.
I could go on and on. To suggest that this Congress has been punked by this White House is something of an understatement. Where does it end? Who knows.
Philadelphia, Pa.: Do you think members of the press corps care when taken to task by blogs and others who accuse them of dropping the ball, carrying water or otherwise being duped?
Dan Froomkin: My sense is that they certainly notice, and take it personally. (They are very thin skinned.)
But they are also immensely self-rationalizing. So I don't see it changing their ways much.
Maybe you guys should try positive reinforcement! I'm not kidding.
(That's certainly part of my strategy with the press corps. Write something really insightful and non-stenographic about the White House, and you're almost guaranteed to see it excerpted in my column.)
Washington, D.C.: What little substantive information there is on the Rove/Fitzgerald courtship goes into your column, I know. Are there any hunches, gut feelings, or irresponsible rumors you'd care to share in this more freewheeling forum?
Dan Froomkin: OK, sure. What I hear, confirmed from multiple sources, and I know this will totally blow your mind is....
Oh, heck, I'm out of time. Sorry.
Thanks for all the great questions. See you again here in two weeks.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post music critic J. Freedom du Lac is online every Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET to talk about the latest on the music scene: hip-hop, pop, alternative, country, alt-country, rock, reggae, reggaeton, R&B and whatever it is that Ashlee Simpson does.
J. Freedom du Lac: Greetings, friends, family (and others). Was watching "Anchorman" on cable over the weekend and just about fell off the sofa when they got to that singing scene in Ron Burgundy's office. You know, the one in which the news team does an a capella version of everybody's favorite Starland Vocal Band song, "Afternoon Delight." Very good times.
Though not as good as the Neil Young parody that was buried near the very end of the otherwise lame "SNL" season-ender. It was a Kevin Spacey parody promoting a subtle new Neil album, "I Do Not Agree With Many Of This Administration's Policies." Songs incl "President George W. Liar" and "If You Love Oil So Much, Why Don't You Marry It":
"I heard that George Bush, he married Exxon/They had half-human, half-oil babies/They named them Chevron and Halliburon/These oil babies, they look really strange."
Silver Spring, Md.: I've been watching American Idol this season and am surprised at how bland the music is. The songs they performed last night (made for Idol songs) were terrible. Why?
J. Freedom du Lac: No kidding. And to think that they chose those tracks from a field of, like 150 contenders! Just awful.
Lisa de Moraes had it right on when she filed the two new singles under "treacle."
They should've commissioned Dan Wilson to write some tunes. He and the rest of the Rick Rubin-assembled crew (Neil Finn, Gary Louris, Linda Perry, etc) did great work on the new Dixie Chicks album.
IT'S 2:03pm!: Where you at??
J. Freedom du Lac: Missing deadline, as usual.
washingtonpost.com: Neil Young SNL parody
Not good enough for the Dixie Chicks, Virginia: In order to review the Dixie Chicks, did you have to take a pledge never to review the Reba McEntire and Toby Keith records?
J. Freedom du Lac: No, but I did have to submit documentation proving that I don't have relatives in Lubbock.
Motor City Escapee since 97: So is the the Raconteurs fairing any better for you? I was really looking forward to this record and it's a bit of a let down... White and Benson have been two of my fave songwriters for many years and was hoping for more than what comes off as unfinished demos or leftovers from them. Looking forward to hearing it live... Gnarles Barkley on the other hand is a great listen.
J. Freedom du Lac: If the year ended today, the Raconteurs album would be my pick for the dud of 2006. It's not nearly as good as it should be. Not even close.
washingtonpost.com: Dixie Chicks Leave Their Old Country
Upper Marlboro, Md.: Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" is, well... crazy good. That's understood by most at this point. What ye say about the rest of "St. Elsewhere?"
"Storm Coming," "Just a Thought," and "Smiley Faces" (in that order) are pretty solid too, but the rest are not quite as good, though hilarious ("Transformer" and "Feng Shui"). And the very unoriginal Violent Femmes cover doesn't belong in a mostly, very original album.
J. Freedom du Lac: "Crazy" is definitely the album's highwater mark. The rest of "St. Elsewhere" is sort of uneven. It has its moments, for sure - "Storm Coming," which you mentioned, is definitely the best of the rest. Good stuff.
Charlotte, N.C.: I've always liked the Dixie Chicks and have their previous CDs, and it's interesting how their nemesis Toby Keith couldn't crack into Nashville until he sang 'American Boot', then became who he REALLY was. He's welcomed in, dirt'n all. Remember what Groucho said, Chicks: "I'd never join a club that would have me as a member!" Does the TIME cover remind anyone else of the '02 Persons of the Year Cover: The 3 Women Whistleblowers?
J. Freedom du Lac: That's pretty much what the Chicks are saying now, too. I'm sure you've heard about or read what Martie said recently: "I'd rather have a small following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
Springfield, Va.: Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Old 97's are some of my favorite Alt-Country bands. Who would you add to the list?
J. Freedom du Lac: Here are a half-dozen: Steve Earle, Jayhawks, Neko Case, Bottle Rockets, Joe Henry, Giant Sand.
Washington, D.C.: Has the rise to prominence of the mighty Pitchfork engendered a certain wariness among other music critics of albums or artists that Pitchfork endorses? I sense some sort of loathing of Pitchfork by, well, everybody. Is it there? Am I wrong?
J. Freedom du Lac: Can't speak for my critical bretheren, but as it concerns yours truly: No. I love some of the music the Pitchfork editors and writers love, and I dislike some of it, too. (And vice versa, by the way. Not that Pitchfork's editorial staff is reading my work. I'm just sayin...)
FWIW, I don't read Pitchfork on a daily basis. Probably once or twice a week.
Radical Chicks and Mau-mauing the Rednecks: I'm totally amused. Are there three less likely looking radicals ?
J. Freedom du Lac: Well, they HAVE been wearing heavy eyeliner lately. Doesn't that count for something?
Indianapolis, Ind.: I just wanted to say that I have enjoyed your music for many years now. After listening to an interview with you on NPR and reading a little more about "the indicident" and how you've handled it, my respect for your group has increased. I also think it's really cool that you wrote your own songs for your new CD. I plan on purchasing it in the near future. Good luck to you all and God Bless!
J. Freedom du Lac: Thank you for the kind words of support. I'm particularly proud of my new album. It's the most honest record I've made yet.
Don't let the little photo on the WP.com home page fool ya. It's still just me. No Dixie Chicks to see here; move along now. Sorry for the let-down.
washingtonpost.com: Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It; Pitchfork Web Site Rises as Rock Arbiter
Whatever happened to : the Dixie Chicks? I found myself thinking about them this week, remembering a time when they could be in the New York Times and the Washington Post, appear on the cover of Time and get interviewed on NPR in a single week. Remember that?
I wonder whatever became of them. And really, I do kind of sort of wonder how Natalie Maines feels about President Bush. I wish I could pick up a magazine and find out. But I guess they've vanished from the scene, unlike the time when they were the Ubiquitous Chicks. Sigh . . .
J. Freedom du Lac: You know, I was wondering the same thing.
Thank goodness "Access Hollywood" is still giving them some run! (Oh, and "60 Minutes," too.)
St. Louis, Mo.: The new Dixie Chicks album is the best music written by women for a women audience since Jagged Little Pill.
J. Freedom du Lac: I'll have to take your word for it.
El Lay, Calif.: Re: Alt-Country
Two more great bands in this vein are Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers out of Arizona, and I See Hawks in L.A. out of, well, L.A....
J. Freedom du Lac: The hits just keep on coming...
Washington, D.C.: I still like the Dixie Chicks previous two albums (Fly and the other one), and have downloaded some of their stuff (legally!). Haven't heard anything off the new album. I used to like them as strong women, but now I think they're part of that celebrity cult that gets off on its own opinions. (For example, see their basically naked Entertainment Weekly cover story.)
They're too self-righteous for me. Same with Toby Keith (who, to correct an earlier comment, did break through several years before the "Boot" song, which, coincidentally, is when I started disliking him as well.)
Guess I'm just one of those people who would rather have my entertainers entertaining me than lecturing at me. If the music (or movies or whatever) is good, I like it - no politics attached.
J. Freedom du Lac: That's certainly your perrogative, though I don't think the new Chicks album is overtly political.
cap hill manager: Not sure why there werent reviewed in the Post last week, but the Go-Go's sold out show at the 930 was awesome! Those women could teach todays whiny girl singers a thing or two! They rocked the place and sound better than ever!
J. Freedom du Lac: As they say in the old country: Can't review 'em all.
Washington, D.C.: I watched Carson Daly a few nights ago and saw a band called Panic at the Disco.
- there were at least 20 young babes in the audience singing along blissfully to "Build God then We'll Talk"
- the band was absolutely awful, almost unlistenable.
Are these guys as popular as the audince reaction indicated, or do you think the babes might have been planted?
J. Freedom du Lac: Maybe they were with the band. Or the record company. Or both.
Or maybe it's just that one person's awful/unlistenable is another's iPod On-The-Go playlist. That'd certainly help explain the popularity of Nick Lachey, whose new album is horrible. And yet, it's a bestseller.
Herndon, Va.: Hi J. Free: Need your help. Graduated last week and got an iPod as a present. Also got a $25 gift card to iTunes. Have any recommendations for must have songs for the summer? My tastes are very wide ranging so any genre would be cool.
J. Freedom du Lac: Chris Richards recently launched a weekly download column called Singles File. Appears every Wednesday in Style (and on dot-com). It's absolutely worth reading every week, even if Chris does have strange musical tastes. (Ask me later about the time he borrowed the Windham Hill box set from me.)
Here are a few must-listens for you:
Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready to Make Nice"
E-40, "Tell Me When To Go"
The Coup, "My Favorite Mutiny"
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, "The Big Guns"
Regarding a comment you made a few weeks ago that Pete Doherty/Libertines get far more attention for drug abuse than for their music. This is clearly the case but what do you actually think of the Libertines music?
Personally I see the two Libertines albums as classics. Some of the best music to come out of the UK this decade. Babyshambles clearly are lacking and I've not heard Carl's record yet, though he does have some good tunes.
J. Freedom du Lac: I think the Libertines were very good. But their art was - and probably always will be - overshadowed by Pete Doherty's off-stage issues. I mean, the guy manages to make Courtney Love seem stable, rock solid and pretty much a bore, ya know? And that ain't easy.
Do you think the Dixie Chicks would be getting this much publicity and be on the cover of Time if they said mean things about a Democrat president?
J. Freedom du Lac: What does that have to do with the price of tea in Lubbock?
Baltimore, Md.: So me and my buddy Tom Clancy was out on the town the other night, and I don't mind telling you we tied a few on. After a couple of hours, Tommy C. stands up on the table and starts screaming, "Freedom isn't free!" over and over and over again.
After we got thrown out of the gentlemen's club I got to thinking -- what is it that you are charging Tom Clancy for that has him reduced to tears like that. I mean he's a grown man, for cryinoutloud!
J. Freedom du Lac: My legal team is on the case.
Actually, he's on vacation this week, working on some home projects before his internship begins. But he'll be on the case just as soon as he, um, finishes law school and passes the bar.
Washington, D.C.: And, the Chicks' quote you reference:
"I'd rather have a small following of really cool people who get it..."
is exactly why I won't buy their new album, despite being a fan of their music. It's seems incongrous to (rightly) defend their right to voice their opinion, while then slamming folks who don't subscribe to their viewpoint. That, and the jabs Natalie takes in the new album at the simple-ness of the lives of her former high school classmates' who have stayed in Lubbock, TX - just seem mean-spirited.
No matter how musically-gifted they are, it's the self-righteous attitude turning off this Texan...
J. Freedom du Lac: Depends on what "it" is. Maybe by "getting it" they mean people who get that in the US of A they should be allowed to speak their mind without having their songs pulled from country-radio playlists and without having their homes vandalized and their personal safety threatened.
But maybe that's not what they meant. So maybe you're right.
Lost in Clarksburg: JFree, my good man. Thanks for the weekly diversion from cube heck.
Here's one for you you get to invite 2 female songwriter standouts to talk songwriting over the alcoholic beverage of your choice. Who do you choose, Lucinda Williams/Patty Griffin or Emmylou Harris/Joni Mitchell?
For the record, I'm picking Lucinda and Patty as Useless Desires is one of my favorite songs, and Car Wheels Down a Gravel Road has to be one of the best 3 CD's in the last 10 years. I mean, in my humble opinion of course.
As always, I remain your loyal minion.
J. Freedom du Lac: I go with Emmylou and Joni, because I have a longstanding crush on Emmylou - and because Lucinda seems like she'd just babble. She was kinda goofy when I saw her at the 9:30.
Madison, Wis.: Just a shout-out to the original alt-countryist, Willie Nelson. How Nashville got from Willie (heck, and Waylon too) to Rascal Flatts or those other jokers is a mystery. But I'll take the Chicks and Willie any day.
J. Freedom du Lac: Willie, definitely. He's one of the greatest - and a personal fave.
Rascal Flatts: Journey with fiddle solos? Just wondering.
Speaking of Journey, somebody asked last week about Allison Stewart's Red Hot Chili Peppers review and its reference to Merle and Journey.
The question was: "When Alison Stewart reviewed the Chili Peppers' new CD, she said, "The Peppers are one of those acts who merely by surviving have become more interesting, like Merle Haggard or Journey." As a Haggard fan (and Journey hater) I am still trying to figure out that sentence. Given that Haggard was pretty interesting to start with (you know, getting out of prison, writing "Okie From Muskogee" and a bunch of great songs, getting married a lot), I don't know what she's driving at. And when you compare Haggard to Journey, you're walking on the fighting side of me. I need an explanation."
"I agree with your reader that Haggard-bless his heart-has done interesting things, just not recently. He spent most of the late 80s/early 90s being regarded as a cranky has-been, but he just sort of rode it out, and now he's seen as a cranky elder statesman, without having done much differently ( e.g., releasing a great, "American Recordings"-type album). Same thing with Journey; thanks mostly to "The O.C.," these days they're almost cool.
I was just making the point that if an artist hangs in there long enough, the public usually reconsiders them in a more serious light. How else to explain all the recent Barry Manilow love?"
"PS-Still, I'm not sure being much-married makes you more interesting. Doesn't it just make you not very picky?"
Alt-Country: Try Dave Alvin and Dwight Yoakam, two now-old guys who were as fresh as you could imagine when they invented alt-country about 20 years ago.
That's Dwight up to about 1998, that is. He hasn't been the same since he and Pete Anderson divorced.
J. Freedom du Lac: What's Pete Anderson doing now, anyway? Is he still releasing his own albums?
Dixie Chicks: Did you not find it a bit over the top when Reba (Ha-Ha) came on with her vicious statement regarding the Dixie Chicks. In this day and age when freedom of the speech should be affirmed what does the supposed country hierachy do - slam the Dixie Chicks. As far as I am concerned the Chicks can say whatever they want. Come on if the barbs and threats recd by the Dixie Chicks had been aimed at the gentry of country music I am sure we would have been hearing about it for years to come. Way to go chicks - I can only wish they out sell them all. There is a saying that only the strongest survive and I think the chicks have not only survived but have shown why they are better than the good old boys and girls of Nashville.
J. Freedom du Lac: Oh, good old Reba is just mad that the Dixie Chicks sell more albums than she does.
Take the Last Train to Clarksburg: My crush on Emmylou is much longer than yours, J. Freedom. And Joni Mitchell is a musical goddess. If any of you chatters haven't heard her, run out right now and get Blue, Ladies of the Canyon or Hejira.
J. Freedom du Lac: I won't disagree with you there.
Orange, Va.: I've long enjoyed both Toby Keith's and The Dixie Chicks' music, way before their spat, and still think they both put some out unique and listenable stuff. If they want to fight about politics, that's their prerogative, I just like their tunes
J. Freedom du Lac: That's the way it probably should be, too. Alas, it ain't anymore.
At least the Dixie Chicks are replacing the stupid DaVinci Code issue du jour: I think the Chicks' comment re the fans of Reba and Toby was mean. Why would they want to alienate a potential fan base? That's being elitist. But then grace is not part of the celebrity mantra anymore. I think their new stuff is great, unfortunately I think they were harsh to diss some of their fans.
J. Freedom du Lac: Alienate a potential fan base? You mean, the one that turned its back on the Chicks and even participated in CD-destroying events?
I don't think they're particularly concerned about finances at this point, anyway. Their previous three studio albums sold nearly 30 million copies in the US alone. Good for them for having the courage of their convictions. But even better, the new album is very very good. (Unlike Neil Young's, alas.)
Southern Maryland: The thing that gets me is that the Dixie Chicks don't seem to have any appreciation for the fans who bought their previous albums. It's more like they're writing everyone off and hoping the "smarter" ones of the bunch follow their lead.
The don't play real country anyway. Even Natalie Maines says she doesn't listen to it. Stay out of that genre then and good riddance.
J. Freedom du Lac: One person's opinion.
Actually, this is an opinion shared by millions. It'll be interesting to see how the new album fares commercially. It's stiffing at radio - especially country radio, which was to be expected. And early industry estimates had the CD selling about 300K in the first week but Hits is saying that the album s doing much better than expected and could hit 450K. Not quite Rascal Flatts numbers, but still pretty decent.
Rockville, Md.: The Dixie Chicks are just like Emeril Lagasse: ANNOYING!
J. Freedom du Lac: Natalie has a much better singing voice than that doofus.
Washington, D.C. (again): Ohmygoodness. Of COURSE it is wrong for the Chicks to have been threatened in any way, shape or form. I hope they sought the full force of the courts against any such horrid action, and I believe such action is below deplorable.
But, I think I absolutely get "it" about their rights to express opinion. I hope they and other artists continue to do so - whether or not I agree - and feel free to do so without threat. Just as I will continue to express my opinion in the small way I can, by choosing to buy music that I don't feel is condescending about fellow human beings. In other words, I have no problem with their viewpoints - only the haughtiness in the delivery.
If this album isn't a success (which I'm interested to see), I believe it will be less about the opinions expressed, and more about the attitude in which the opinions are being delivered (in their promotional efforts).
Thank you for your time!
J. Freedom du Lac: Just passing this along.
Dixie Chix: Hey, they've made their choice, and goody for them. Of course, it's pretty easy to complain about the free market when you've already made a few hundred million.
Want to impress me? Give it all to a worthy charity (they'd probably pick moveon.org, but it's their money) and start over with nothing but your name and reputation. Then see how well you do with those kinds of statements.
J. Freedom du Lac: Interesting. And I assume you've done the same with your money?
Seattle, Wash.: Be it known that the Future of Music may bear on your answer...
My 8-year-old kid has picked up the guitar, and really digs it. Now, I've shared with him, to some extent, my taste, but I am not one with a huge "High-Fidelity" record collection.
What I want is the Freedom-approved list of guitar influences to expose him to before he ultimately pierces his chin and starts playing Slipknot.
J. Freedom du Lac: Start with Richard Thompson. You'll thank yourself later.
Actually, his music probably wouldn't interest an 8-yr-old.
How about starting with some blues? T-Bone Walker, Robert Johnson, BB King, etc.
Warning: To the reader seeking itunes recommendations, these ones aren't available: Oppenheimer, "Breakfast in NYC"
Guess it's back to Kazaa for those ones.
J. Freedom du Lac: They will be soon. The albums aren't yet out, I guess.
Bethesda, Md.: I'm the one who was bugging you the past few weeks about the Raconteurs album. I agree the album was a letdown, though some of the songs are very good. I don't regret buying it -- with most other albums, I'd be happy enough. I just had my hopes too high.
For the Motor City Escapee who is hoping they will be better live, I can tell you they definitely were better in their live performance on XM.
So, am I the only one who isn't crazy about "Crazy"? I want to love it because of Dangermouse, really I do...
J. Freedom du Lac: Yes, you're the only one.
Lake Jackson, Tex.: As a long time and continuing fan of the Dixie Chicks, it is my perception that the American press took the Chicks' now infamous remarks about President Bush out of context and out of proportion. Do the Dixie Chicks feel their 2003 comments about President Bush and the Iraq War were fairly represented in the American press? What clarifications and/or explanations would they like fans and viewers to consider so that we can better understand the environment in London in 2003?
J. Freedom du Lac: You'd have to ask the Dixie Chicks. I seem to have misplaced Natalie's number, though.
I don't think the press was a major driver in the backlash. Try talk radio and the blogsphere.
Frederick, Md.: This chat is boring today. You're boring us, J. Freedom!
J. Freedom du Lac: Would you be more impressed if I hosted it from Starbucks and talked about Fremont, Calif?
Washington, D.C.: FWIW, Panic! at the Disco sold out their June 27th 9:30 Club date weeks ago. They are crazy popular with the 13-year-old set, apparently. Too bad, because the truly great Dresden Dolls are opening for them. (How you move from opening for NIN to this boy band is the big question.)
J. Freedom du Lac: 13-year-olds and hot 20-year-olds, apparently.
Garner, N.C.: Regarding the "Chicks".
It is our right to say as we please, and the "Chicks" have every right to criticize this or any president. By the same token, the public has every right to turn them off or stop listening to their music.
I guess my issue is how they act as if they've been wronged somehow. Far too often, people in entertainment stick their noses in places that they don't belong.
While you may garner a sector of support, you are also alienating others.
A Michal Jordan incident comes to mind. A number of years ago, he was asked why he didn't publicly support a certain democratic candidate. Jordan simply replied, "Republicans buy shoes too!"
J. Freedom du Lac: Another opinion.
Alexandria, Va.: Chicks: I find it amusing that so many listeners out there have time to complain about the Dixie Chicks right to complain about the state of this country YET these people don't spend any time interpreting what they are saying. So what if they use their platform to educate the abundant population of country-music fans that don't have the brain power to educate themselves on issues that affect them each day. It saddens me to think of how many people out can't figure it out. Educate yourself before joining the bandwagon. Stop me now before I say what I am really thinking!
J. Freedom du Lac: And another.
Ashburn, Va.: Is the new Johnny Cash album, Personal File, worth picking up?
J. Freedom du Lac: Absolutely. Though it'll undoubtedly end the year as the second-best Johnny Cash album of 2006. I can't wait to hear "V," which is coming out July 4.
Washington, D.C. : From watching the Country Music Awards last night, there seemed to be a pretty big emphasis on featuring music that has a more traditional feel than "Alt-Country." Do you have to be accepted by a genre to be in that genre? Or have the Chicks been permenantly excommunicated from country? In what section of the music store should I look for their albums now? Pop? Alternative Rock? Reba got a good response after her joke about the Chicks singing with their foot in their mouths. I can't believe they don't have any friends left in Nashville?
J. Freedom du Lac: You can find them on the endcaps. They'll be prominently displayed, because the industry knows that for all the poopie-stirring they've done, they're still going to make a lot of people a lot of money. To that end, I'm sure they have a lot of friends left in Nashville. Accountants, mostly.
Sacramento, Calif.: He said chicks...
J. Freedom du Lac: Thank you, Beavis.
Gaithersburg, Md.: The one Dixie Chick is a little rough looking. She looks like the next candidate for the metro door closing contest!
J. Freedom du Lac: Ouch.
Willie Fan: J Freedom: How do you reconcile the fact that Wilie Nelson, who has always been political, has not suffered the Wrath of the Righteous, yet the Dixie Chicks HAVE...is this a sexist sort of thing?
J. Freedom du Lac: Maybe there will be some Willie backlash when the smoke clears. Only, it never clears when he's around.
Falls Church, VA: re: Chicks
Allow me to quote from the last verse of a song I mentioned last week, when you "haxed me":
Well I know it wasn't you who held me down
Heaven knows it wasn't you who set me free
So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know who holds the key
Me - I'm already gone
J. Freedom du Lac: Okay, I'll allow you..
Out of The Loop, Apparently: What exactly did Reba say about the Chicks?
J. Freedom du Lac: Nobody knows. They were all watching American Idol.
(What genius scheduled an awards show against the AI final? Did CBS learn nothing from this year's Grammy bloodbath? Oh, wait - they did! The Grammys are moving to Sunday night next year.)
Richmond, Va.: I like Jimmie Rodgers. He sang about trains.
J. Freedom du Lac: You sound like that Brick guy on "Anchorman." You know, the one who said, eg: "I pooped a cornish game hen."
Madison, Wis. (again): As to the Chicks/Toby Keith kerfuffle, the question is, WWLGD (What would Lee Greenwood do?)
J. Freedom du Lac: Boom tsk.
Indianapolis, Ind.: The Gnarls Barkley single, which you've been raving about for weeks, doesn't seem to be on the radio all that much. I read a New York Times review today in which the critic said he hopes the song will be all over the radio this summer. Why the delay?
Oh, and just so you know, most of us in Indianapolis can tell the difference between you and the Dixie Chicks.
J. Freedom du Lac: Maybe the corporate radio overlords are too busy conspiring against the Dixie Chicks to get "Crazy" onto the radio. Or, it could just be that the song might be a bit too, you know ... bizarre/different for some formats here.
I have a random question that stems from the ubiquitious Rick Rubin producing the Dixie Chicks new CD. What does a producer "do?" If having a producer attached to a certain CD excites you because of his previous work, how much of the CD is him and how much is the artist? Does that make sense?
J. Freedom du Lac: Rick Rubin doesn't work like other producers. He's sort of an overseer and an idea-exchanger. At least in his rock era he is, anyway. (It was kinda different back when he was still doing hip-hop.)
Some producers really get into the technical side of putting an album together. Rick is more about drawing out ideas and getting artists inspired via discussions. He'll also put people together (which is how Dan Wilson, Gary Louris, Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell, Chad Smith, et al, wound up working on this project). And he'll make specific suggestions about arrangements/instrumentation/etc.
I get excited when he produces an album largely because of his ability to get the most out of the artists he's working with. He also has interesting ideas, eg steering Johnny Cash in his stripped-down late-career direction.
Washington, D.C.: Okay enough with the Dixie Chicks hype, already! Let's get to some real music. Where's the dude that always asks the Tool questions?
J. Freedom du Lac: He's probably passed out. The last couple-few weeks have been very exciting for him.
Washington, D.C.: Going by what I'm guessing is your middle name does not make your reviews any better. It only makes you sound like a pretentions idiot.
God help you if that isn't your real middle name.
J. Freedom du Lac: Don't make me write a song about you.
Anonymous: I love country music, but Nashville is the worst and always will be. They ran Willie out of town! Who hates Willie? Buck Owens had it right -- move to the sticks (Bakersfield) and buy up all the radio stations.
J. Freedom du Lac: Steve Earle, too.
Washington, D.C.: Lee Greenwood would accept $40K from a DC trade association to write a song
J. Freedom du Lac: But would he then donate the money to moveon.org?
Please: Tell us about the time Chris Richards borrowed your Windham Hill box set.
J. Freedom du Lac: He's suffered enough today, don't you think?
Washington, D.C.: The Dixie Chicks and Pearl Jam would make for a nice tour.
J. Freedom du Lac: Musically? Not really.
It's Bob Dylan's 65th Birthday: ...take moment from the Chicks' discussion to wish a happy brthday to the most influental songwriter of all...
J. Freedom du Lac: Here's to Zimmy.
Speaking of Genres: How the hell did Sheryl Crow end up in the country bin ?
J. Freedom du Lac: Eric Clapton dumped here there?
Winslow, Ariz.: Are we allowed to quote the "Eagles" now? I'd like to submit that one about sitting on fences and don't draw the Queen of Diamonds she'll beat you if she's a-Bull.
J. Freedom du Lac: Sure. Eagles are OK. No Tool, though.
Raleigh, N.C.: Re the Dixie Chicks.
I think some of the things that happened in the backlash against Maines's original comments about Bush are downright scary and flat-out unacceptable in a free society. Every person has the right to take a political stance. But I have a problem with Maines saying immediately after the backlash: "As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect" and now saying she's reconsidered her apology three years later (and coincidentially with a new album release) and now stating "I don't feel [Bush] is owed any respect whatsoever." To me this smacks of publicity-hunting.
And for the record, I totally agree with the Chicks' stance on the war.
J. Freedom du Lac: Another opinion.
dixie chicks, phooey: I heard the new single, and while it's all admirable and stuff, it's not all that good. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins' songs are far, far better.
J. Freedom du Lac: And another. (I love me some Jenny Lewis.)
Dixie Chix (again): Of course I haven't given away all my money, but I have walked away from a bad corporate situation and started a new business with just my talent (no snickering, please).
My point is that if I want to make statements guaranteed to alienate a significant part of my client base, I'd better (a) have enough resources to ride it out or (b) not complain about being broke because I've been rejected by the market after running my mouth.
Those country stations that aren't playing the album can't afford to have listeners reach for the dial when the Chix come on, because they have an obligation to their shareholders to keep as many listeners as possible. Everybody has a boss, you know? At least until they make some F-U money.
J. Freedom du Lac: And a response re an realier post.
Arizona Bay, Ariz.: The TOOL concert in Philadephia last Wednesday ROCKED!!!!!! That band and any of their songs blow away Gnarls Barkley, the Dixie Chicks, or any other band that no one will remember in 5 years any day of the week.
J. Freedom du Lac: There goes the neighborhood: He's back.
Here's one person's (incorrect) opinion.
Arlington, Va.: Re: Dan Wilson/Rick Rubin
Is that the Twin Cities' own Dan Wilson, formerly of Trip Shakespeare and that other one-hit wonder I can't remember from the late '90s? This inquiring mind needs to know!
J. Freedom du Lac: Yes, indeed. (Semisonic is the band in question.)
Rosslyn, Va.: Hey J. Free.
Better summer song: Rihanna "SOS" or Nelly Furtado "Promiscuous"? I'm leaning toward the Nelly Furtado, but that "Tainted Love" sample is used really well.
J. Freedom du Lac: I prefer "SOS" (another summer song worth downloading, btw). But I've been urged by a certain Wyndham Hill-loving colleague to listen to "Promiscuous" again and maybe even again after that. He thinks I'm overlooking its genius. I thikn he's losing his hearing, personally.
Washington, D.C.: Please excuse my poor spelling. I meant to say that going by your first initial and middle name makes you seem like a pretentious idiot.
Am I to understand that having a song written about me is some sort of threat/punishment?
J. Freedom du Lac: That's OK, nobody around here can spell - or type.
I'm definitely a pretentious idiot. That's why I chose that byline. I think names are very important. I hate it when bad names happen to decent/good people/artists. Boy Least Likely To, eg.
If you've ever heard me sing, you'd agree that I was most definitely threatening you.
Alexandria, Va.: Hey J. Free!
What's on the weekend hot to-do list for indie rock shows?
J. Freedom du Lac: Does it get anymore indie than Bruce Springsteen at Nissan Pavilion?!
Bethesda, Md.: Have you heard the Wolfmother album? What do you think? I've only heard a couple of singles, but they seem promising.
J. Freedom du Lac: I like them. Between Wolfmother and Sam Roberts, this might be a very good year, indeed, for newish classic rock bands. I REALLY like the Sam Roberts CD.
Falls Church, Va.: Country music is very unforgiving. In the mid-'60s some of the country music establishment questioned Buck Owens' dedication to country after a crossover hit -- Buck took an ad out in Billboard promising to only perform country songs...
J. Freedom du Lac: How sweet. Jeez.
Charlottesville, Va.: J.Free - how do you feel about The Boy Least Likely To? "Be Gentle With Me" nearly caused me to keel over from a cute attack. If anything, it's better than Yummy-3...
J. Freedom du Lac: I agree: That's a pretty tasty song.
Re: Dylan's BDay: It isn't until next Wednesday, genius. Don't disrespect the man.
J. Freedom du Lac: I think you need to turn the calendar page. Today is the day.
And now is the time for us to say sayonara.
Thanks for stopping by, folks. It's been fun.
Free Mont: J. Free: Instead of Starbucks how about a Biergarten?
J. Freedom du Lac: Do they have wi-fi access? If so, I'm there.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post music critic J. Freedom du Lac discusses the latest on the music scene: hip-hop, pop, alternative, country, alt-country, rock, reggae, reggaeton, R and B and whatever it is that Ashlee Simpson does.
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Dirda on Books
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Prize-winning columnist Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
Each week Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or rediscovering some minor Victorian classic. Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain a myopic 12-year-old's passion for reading. Heparticularly enjoys comic novels, intellectual history, locked-room mysteries, innovative fiction of all sorts.
These days, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (Glenn Gould, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, The Tallis Scholars), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, working. His most recent books include "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments" (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003) and his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, "An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland" (Norton, 2003). In the fall of 2004 Norton will bring out a new collection of his essays and reviews. He is currently working on several other book projects, all shrouded in themost complete secrecy.
Dirda joined The Post in 1978, having grown up in the working-class steel town of Lorain, Ohio and graduated with highest honors in English from Oberlin College. His favorite writers are Stendhal, Chekhov, Jane Austen, Montaigne, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell, P.G. Wodehouse and Jack Vance. He thinks the greatest novel of all time is either Murasaki Shikubu's "The Tale of Genji" or Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu." In a just world he would own Watteau's painting "The Embarkation for Cythera." He is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, The Ghost Story Society, and The Wodehouse Society. He enjoys teaching and was once a visiting professor in the Honors College at the University of Central Florida, which he misses to this day.
Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books, coming to you from sunny Lorain, Ohio. I'm back in my old hometown to visit my mother, give a talk tonight at the Rowfant Club of Cleveland (a distinguished book collecting sodality), and attend a college reunion this weekend. Most of the week I'm out of computer contact, but I've traveled over to my sister's to do this chat. Neither sunshine nor bookstores will stay me from this appointed round. Well, most of the time they won't. I did have a wonderful booking day last Friday with Douglas A. Anderson and Verlyn Flieger, two of the most eminent authorities in the world on Tolkien, fantasy and mythology. And then I spent a lovely Friday at Book Expo parties, capped by dinner with Edwin Frank who runs New York Review Books. Little did I know when I started reading Hardy Boys books back here in Lorain where that would take me. Not that I'm entirely clear where that is even now.
But on to the questions.
Milwaukee, Wis.: What do you think of Stendahl's the Charterhouse of Parma? I've been slogging through it for two months and it still seems exceptionally slow and difficult. Should I keep going?
Michael Dirda: If it doesn't work for you, put it aside for a few years. It is a wonderful novel--Andre Gide thought it the greatest French novel--but I don't think it works very well in English for some reason. At all events, I revere Stendhal, having written my dissertation on his Vie de Henry Brulard, but have never found that anyone I recommended Chartreuse to actually liked it all that much. I don't quite know why. Something mustn't come over when it's in another language.
Digital Pages: What are your thoughts regarding the trend of scanning the world's books into digitized form? (see Leslie Walker's article, Google's Goal: A Worldwide Web of Books)
Michael Dirda: Seems to me it's inevitable and bound to happen and doubtless a great research tool--provided care is taken in the digitizing. I can imagine textual nightmares from this, and corrupt texts prolifering on line. I once looked up a famous quote from Thoreau through Google and found four different versions of it on the first screenful of hits.
All this said, I think that tactile, manual encounter with a physical object is important to reading. One needs to turn pages, mark favorite passages, scribble in margins, carry the book in your purse or pocket, reread favorite passages, stare at it on your bookshelf. It would be a great diminution of the reading experience to miss out on these.
Medford, Ore: I think your columns and chats are a pure delight, and respect your opinion mightily. The NYTBR editor sent out a letter to a "couple of hundred" writers, critics, and editors, asking them to identify "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." In the list of respondents/judges, I noted yours (and Mr Yardley's) absence. I must assume you were invited to participate, and, Bartleby-like, you preferred not to. I don't know that I would; and certainly, Laura Miller at salon.com offered fine reasons for demurring. Care to weigh in on the parlor game of choosing "the single best work of American fiction in the last 25 years?"
Michael Dirda: I wasn't asked, and can't say whether Jon was. The Times and the Post tend to be leery of each other, so it's not that surprising I wasn't on the list. Or maybe I'm just not on their radar or they don't like me or they're just hateful, spiteful toads. At any event, I wrote a piece about American fiction for the 25th anniversary of Book World a few years back, covering the previous 25 years of Am fiction. I think Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy just makes the cut, and that would be my choice. I also think very highly of Pynchon's Mason and Dixon, Hoban's Riddley Walker, Salter' s Light Years, Proulx's Accordion Crimes, and the work of DeLillo and Roth and Gilbert Sorrentino (who died a few days back--sigh). But I don't really like these kind of lists--I like lists made by one person, such as my own, because they are quirkier and more interesting. Consensus makes for dull choices.
Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal" . . . : ROCKS.
Michael Dirda: Nearly all of Pratchett rocks, in one way or another. I even quote him in Book by Book, in a section about reading newspapers. The newspaper of AnkhMorpork's motto is "the Truth will make you fret."
Vienna, Va: Let me try again. Last week, I asked about the pitfalls of opening a book shop. You said it would be "hard," and I should consider taking a job in a book shop to learn the ropes.
Fair enough, but let me add a few details. The store would be in a smaller town, far south of D.C. No other bookstore within several miles. It would lean toward Book Sense bestsellers, with a specialization in military history, religion, and children's books.
It would be a strictly mom-and-pop operation until sales justified hiring additional employees. I do wonder about that, though. Is it possible to run a decent book shop, even a smaller, specialized one, with such limited staffing?
I'll stop pining for advice from you and your readers, but I appreciate any further feedback you, or they, can provide. Happy reading!
Michael Dirda: I stand by my original advice--get some kind of job in a bookstore, just to see what you're setting yourself up for. The model you propose could work--if you have a literate population and they don't buy their books from the Big Box store at the local mall or online. I'd go visit Politics and Prose or Chapters or Kramerbooks in DC and talk to the owners. Really, I would.
Washington, D.C.: I just finished Peter Carey's novel Theft, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I have heard concerning his ex-wife and her assertions that Carey has "misused" literature by using Theft to damage her reputation. Any thoughts?
Michael Dirda: Don't know anything about this. Sounds like a bitter breakup.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Translating is a daunting task. One must not only render the meaning accurately but also try to grasp something of the author's tone and mood. It's easier to recognize a bad job than a good one, alas.
Michael Dirda: True enough.That's why there are new translations of the major classics every generation or so. Each version betrays the presence of the preconceptions and language of its own time.
Gimme2CentsWorth: Is Beloved the best book of the past 25 years?
Michael Dirda: Depends who you ask. (Talk about a weaselly answer.)
New York, NY: Since you're there in Ohio, tell us what you think of Midwest writers. I grew up (in school) on Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson,
Willa Cather and the like. What are your memories?
Michael Dirda: I used to pass the paint store in Elyria where Sherwood Anderson worked for 10 years. I'm no regionalist by any means, but Winesburg, Ohio is an underrated masterpiece, Cather's A Lost Lady is one of the greatest American short novels, and Lewis is a more versatile and finer writer than he is generally given credit for. I'm surprised that more people haven't gone back to his gloomy novel about a fascist take over of America, It Can't Happen Here.
New York, NY: I so sorry to hear about the passing of Gilbert Sorrentino. "Mulligan Stew" has always been a favorite!
Michael Dirda: A wonderful book. It's the earliest piece of mine that I reprint in Bound to Please. I've never forgotten his quote about baseball pitchers: "Pitchers make such bad hitters because they think of the ball as their friend."
New York, NY: I recently finished "The Unquiet Grave" and it contained several lengthy quoates in several different languages. It got me to thinking about other literature most often "serious" books contain (or perhaps it's more in the past) quotes often in German, French, Greek and Latin. As someone who has only a rudimentary grasp on these languages, I feel I lose out on a lot (when say there are no footnotes tranlsting the text). I was wondering if there was a time when it was just assumed that a well educated person knew all of these languages, or is this just a sign of pretention? Or perhaps both? C'est tr}$ifficile.
Michael Dirda: Certainly an educated man of Connolly's generation would know French and Latin. No question of that. German or Greek might be more specialized. As a boy, I was often frustrated when running across passages in foreign langauges and not knowing what they meant. (Early editions of Gibbon and such writers would sometimes cite obscene passages untranslated, to disguise them from feminine eyes through "the decency of an obscure language.) But what you describe as a problem is part of a general symptom. So much common culture is being eroded now--Robertson Davies mentions that he once taught a graduate writing class in which a student didn't know who Noah was.
Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: I've just finished Roth's "Everyman"--another Rothian ode to Thanatos--where he even gives us the "taste of death" when he imagines his father's coffin lid disappearing and receiving the shovelfuls directly in his mouth.
Derrida said in his last years: "I think about nothing but death, I think about it all the time, ten seconds don't go by without the immanence of the thing being there." Coversely, I think it was Somerset Maugham who said, "Everyone knows he has to die but most of us have enough sense not to sit around and think about it all the time." How do you come out? Thanks much.
Michael Dirda: I don't really think about death, despite my hypochondria. But I think about diminution, about losing my intellectual powers and my looks, about coming to be regarded by the world as superannuated and irrelevant. On the other hand, I also like the idea of a quiet slipping away from the whirl, to spend a few years rereading favorite books, listening to music, watching sunsets, enjoying occasional visits from children and (eventually) grandchildren. Death itself still seems slightly inconceivable. But as I've grown older I find my connection with the world growing more tenuous. I dread the prospect of a long, debilitating disease. But I also hope to live long enough to write another few books and to see my children launched in life. That's about all I really hope for. But you might look at Book by Book, which addresses throughout this question, in an obique manner. It ends with a quote from Thomas a Kempis: "When we stand before God, he will not ask us what we have read, but what we have done."
Takoma Park, Md: Our book club read It Can't Happen Here, and enjoyed it. Definitely made us fret, nearly as much as the truth does in A-MP.
Ashcroft, B.C. (BR): Two points from last week:
A reader was looking for books that his grade four son, a somewhat reluctant reader, might like. A few hints from a mother with a grade three son: try to find out what his teacher is reading to them in class, and if he likes it, get more books by the same author. Our son is reading Roald Dahl, ever since his teacher read the class The BFG at the start of the school year. Also check with the school librarian and see what the 'hot' books for his age group are that his friends might be reading; he might feel happier reading if he can discuss the books with friends. You could also try books containing what I think of as factoids: things like Guinness Books of World Records or Ripley's Believe it or Not or Uncle John's Electrifying Bathroom Reader for Kids. Whereas many girls will happily curl up with novels, boys seem to prefer non-fiction, and they love interesting facts.
And regarding Bleak House: I agree that while it is a great novel, Esther does get on one's nerves after a very short time. It is worth hanging in there, though, for the marvellous supporting characters, especially Inspector Bucket, and the settings, particularly Tom All Alone's. You can speculate on how much of an influence Bucket (one of the first detectives in English fiction) was on the works of Wilkie Collins, particulary Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone, and then treat yourself by reading Moonstone and then Dickens's Mystery of Edwin Drood, and try to figure out if Drood came about because Dickens was jealous of his friend's success and was determined to show that he could write a mystery novel, too.
If you just can't stomach the thought of Bleak House then read Our Mutual Friend instead: even better, in many ways, and no annoying sickly-sweet narrator, either.
Michael Dirda: Good thoughts, as usual, Ashcroft.
My gay book group chose Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" for our monthly read. I was dreading this, as when I first encountered it in high school, it didn't make much of an impression on me. But encountering it many years later as an adult reader, I couldn't believe it was the same book. I thought it was a terrific story with marvelous characters and exhuberant humor. We had read the book with a possible "gay" angle, which I found kind of dubious. However, one person felt it was the first book about someone who was both an outcast and a bit of a hustler and that conferred on the book an honorary "gay" distinction.
Michael Dirda: Well, you may know about Leslie Fiedler's famous essay, "Come back ag'in to the raft, Huck, honey" in which he posits a kind of sublimated homosexual relationship between a man of color and a younger white man or boy as being the archetypal pattern of American literature. He expands some of this in his big book, Love and Death in American Literature, where he also talks about good and bad females (blonde and dark-haired). He seems the relationship everywhere. I myself don't see Huck as gay, except insofar as he chooses to go against the norms of the society around him and live his own life.
Munich, Germany: I just read "The Man on the Street", a short story by Georges Simenon, and was intrigued by Simenon's description of the relationship that develops between the detective, Maigret, and the fugitive, who is kept under constant surveillance for five days before being tricked into surrendering by a fake newspaper article. Both men get colds and both men acknowledge the declining health of the other. After the case has been solved and the real criminal found, the two become good friends. It reminds me of the Stockholm Effect, when hostages bond with abductors.
John le Carre describes this to some effect as well, in the battle between Smiley and Karla, where Smiley is forced to confront the similarities between himself nad Karla. But perhaps the strongest sense of bonding between foes that I've read is in "Ghosts of Africa" by William Stevenson, where Miles Hagen, a British spy, heaps constant praise onto Colonel Paul von Lettow, his arch enemy and a man he is trying to assassinate. Amazed by Hagen's knowledge of and fervor about Lettow, one of Hagen's female companions even accuses him of being in love with his foe.
I've often thought that European crime and spy fiction takes a closer look at the personal psychology between the hunter and the hunted. Are there any other American authors that get deeply into this concept?
Michael Dirda: Any thoughts, posters? It does seem to me that the old code of gentleman spies would encourage just this sort of attitude toward one's enemies. Junger's Storm of Steel discusses World War I soldiers feeling the same way about their opponents on the front, each man simply doing his job, luckless joes or would be heroes, but respectful of the other.
Wiltshire, UK: If you think "Going Postal" rocks, try Terry's "Soul Music", which is about Music With Rocks In.
Michael Dirda: Right you are.
Hamilton, NY : Hi Michael,
Is there anything new about that new Spinoza book?
Anything that would separate it from Nadler's definitive
Michael Dirda: A more personal approach, emphasizing the Judaic inheritance. The Nadler is the book to read, though, if you're only reading one.
Maryland: I also like to cook and bake. While you're in Ohio, will you get us your mother's recipe for nut roll? I had never even heard of this before I read "An Open Book." Must be an Ohio thing. Thanks.
Michael Dirda: My mother keeps no recipes. She has taught different dishes to my three sisters, so that after she is dead if I want her nut roll I have to visit Linda, if I want her stuffed cabbage Sandra, her bean soup Pamela. That sort of thing. I know how to make her apple pie.
New York, NY: The Village Voice just published an interestig article called "Do Bookstores Have A Future?" which the person asking may want to read (it's online). It also references a recent book called "Rebel Bookseller" by Andrew Laties which looks interesting.
Colorado Springs, Colo: I about died laughing last week when the poster asked if you were one of those "snobs", the kind that only reads serious literature. And I loved your response. I hereby assign you 2 Danielle Steel novels, 1 John Grisham, 3 Nora Roberts.... Shall I go on?
I just finished reading Damage by Josephine Hart. Enjoyed it immensely. Are her other works as good? And, if you read it, what did you think of her cross-gender first-person POV?
Michael Dirda: Hmmm. I can't quite make out if that's a dig at me or not. I did once write about three Harlequin romances (for Valentine's Day) and started the piece with this: "Here is where I lose all credibility as a critic." I liked the books quite a bit. They were by Rebecca Yorke, who was a great influence on the young Michael Chabon. Details another time.
Common Culture Being Eroded: Noah . . . you think that's bad? My husband once worked with a man who came running to him one day to exclaim about the humongous dog he had just spied outside. And it was a deer--no kidding.
New York, NY: I find in my reading I go through a kind of literary chain link. By this I mean that I'll find a certain author that I become obsessed with, and then read interviews with them and critical articles about them. See who they are compared to or who the authors themselves say they were influenced byt. Having been a WG Sebald fan for years, I found his name linked to Thomas Bernhard, who then became a new obsession. More recently I found his name linked to recent articles about Javier Marias whose books (in English translation) I then promptly read all of. (Marias' work reminds me of the feeling I first had when I found out about and started watching "foreign films" in High School). Most recently, both Sebald and Bernhard's names were mentioned in connection with the writer Roberto Bolano and specifically his first book to be translated in English By Night In Chile". There is a recent collection of his short stories out and work is being done on translating his two major works into English. I'd recommend all of these authors to anyone. By the by, your essay on Embers by Sandor Marai, also got me going on his works. And Embers in particular I feel links up with the above mentioned authors as well. That European (specifically in this case German, Austrian, Hungarian, Spanish and Latin American) meditative sensability. I could pretty much read anyting that takes place in old hotels, cafes, diners and trains. Any other recommendations of writers that follow a similar path as those mentioned above?
Michael Dirda: wonderful note. An earlier poster mentioned Simenon; you might try his work. Also, people like Joseph Roth, Lampedusa's The Leopard, Italo Svevo.
Lexington: Michael, Is there any doubt anymore about the renaissance in 'pulp fiction' today with the recent anthologies of McSweeneys ed. by Michael Chabon; Hard Case Crime republishing pulp writers like Richard Powell, Day Keene, Westlake, David Dodge, David Goodis; Slate today printed an essay by John Banville on Westlake; many who complained about the NYTimes list of books focused on the lack of crime, thriller, and SF writers, like Pelecanos and Burke and Hoban and Wolfe. True adventure stories are seldom published any more but aren't some of the crime writers today really writing a kind of adventure story and it's certainly true of SF writers like Mieville and Wolfe.
Michael Dirda: Great posting. And yes you're right about the adventure story. About time the TBR got around to acknowledging Westlake's mastery. But The Post's Book World has been there a long time already. I conducted a public conversation with DW at the Smithsonian Institution at least 10 years ago. And is there a better novel about the desperation of middle-aged men fired from their jobs than The Axe?
Culture: I lived in Italy for awhile and a friend came to visit me. She is an incredibly smart lawyer but was also the only person from her family to have a college degree. As I was taking her around Florence and Rome, every reference she had for the art was from The Da Vinci Code, which I still will not read because that experience was so disturbing to me. I'm afraid a lot of people "learn" about art from that book.
Wilmington, Del: I saw the recent NY Times list of the best books of the last 25 years. Don DeLillo was among the highest ranking authors. I am unfamiliar with his work. Can you recommend any of his books as a place to start? Thanks; I'm addicted to this chat every week!
Michael Dirda: White Noise, Libra, or Underworld. The first section of Underworld is almost a self-contained novella--and is just dazzling. In the article I wrote, mentioned earlier, I said that I thought DeLillo was the American writer who had most tried to come to terms with life in the U.S. from the 1960s on. None of his books is perfect, but together they from an astonishing oeuvre.
Washington, DC: I love reading certain diarists without knowing how adequately to explain why. I count Alan Bennett and James Lees-Milne among the master diarists, for example. It's their delightful use of the language, in part, and the idiosyncrasies of their uncommonly engaging personalities. But there's something else that makes certain diarists especially companionable, if you know what I mean. I hadn't been able to name the final ingredient, which is almost certainly to do with the actual content or the kinds of subjects on which the language and the personality are exercised--not, that is, until I read your terrific review of Untold Stories. There you write that, "most of all, though, Bennett values what one might call his domesticity--writing, listening to music, visiting museums and old churches, occasionally lunching with friends." I don't think "domesticity" would have occurred to me in this context, but it's serviceable all the same. And I'm so grateful to you for supplying a term for this!
PS: With all of this in mind, are there any diarists you'd propose admitting to the company of Bennett and Lees-Milne?
Michael Dirda: Francis Partridge, the longest lived survivor of Bloomsbury. You might also try The Lyttelton/Hart Davis Letters--very aristocratic but very much a literary correspondence.
Beltsville, Md: Recently Joe Haldeman won his third Nebula for Best Novel; his first was in 1976 with The Forever War (one of the best novels written by a Vietnam combat veteran). These are only a few of the awards that readers and his peers have given his work, yet he remains a classic mid-list author. What do you think keeps such a well-regarded writer from breaking out of the pack, at least in terms of sales and public attention?
Haldeman is also a Hemingway buff; he wrote the novella "The Hemingway Hoax" which won both the Hugo and the Nebula. And recent photos of him, to me, show a face much like that of the mid-life Ernest.
Michael Dirda: Yes, and Haldeman's body is probably as bruised and wounded as Hemingway's too. I think the problem is simply one of marketing glamour--Joe is quiet, seemingly shy, hard-working, and a very fine writer. But Philip K. Dick was wonderuflly crazy, a China Mieville looks like the genie from the lamp, Chip Delany was a gay, black, intellectual, etc etc.
Lenexa, Kan.: I also hadn't learned of Sorrentino's death until you mentioned it. You led me to him--"Mulligan Stew," "Imaginative Qualities of Actual things."
The reason I'm posting is to mention his first published novel, "The Sky Changes." Unlike much of his later work, it had a tight plot: Some guy realizes his wife is having an affair. To make things difficult, he forces her take a long car trip with him. Not a driver himself, he hires one (only to discover along the trip that the driver was the man having the affair with his wife). It's a short novel and a lot of fun.
Michael Dirda: Yes. All his books are good. Reminds me of the scene in Lolita where Humbert Humbert realizes that his wife's lover is the taxi driver of the cab there in.
Washington, DC: In your brief biography on the site, you are mentioned as being a fan of comic novels. Does this mean the same as graphic novels? If so or not, what is your view on this growing genre which I find overburdened with junk but produces a few 'diamonds in the rough'. 'Maus' is the most famous example but there are many others depending on one's taste. Thanks for the always interesting chats.
Michael Dirda: I meant funny novels, like Decline and Fall and Cold Comfort Farm. Graphic novels, like all novels, are uneven--you have a Maus or an American Splendor or a Sandman and Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentleman, and American Flagg and Ronin and Love and Rockets and many others, but then there's an awful lot of hyper-violent, soft porn out there too.
And on that note, friends, I must dash away and drive up to Cleveland. Till next Wednesday at 2--keep reading! P.S. I'm sorry I didn't get to any where near all the questions this week. Please try me again.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
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Prosecution Wraps Up Lay Case
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HOUSTON, May 23 -- Prosecutors closed their bank-fraud case against former Enron Corp. chairman Kenneth L. Lay on Tuesday by painting him as a sophisticated executive who seems "constitutionally incapable of accepting responsibility" for lies to three banks.
In his second and final day on the witness stand, Lay, 64, told the judge that he mistakenly broke the federal rules because they "pretty well moved out of my memory bank" and said he "just wasn't paying as much attention to my personal finances as I should have."
Because Lay did not contest his signature on loans he used to buy stock in violation of Federal Reserve Board rules, the only issue in the three-day-long trial is whether Lay intended to deceive the lending institutions. He faces a maximum six-month prison term for each of the four charges -- one for bank fraud and three for false statements -- that he is battling.
In calm tones that were in marked contrast to his prickly demeanor during the government's broader fraud case against him, Lay said he never meant to run afoul of the rules and that, had he known about the problems, he would have remedied them. Lay added that he only breezed through agreements to borrow millions of dollars. "If I read in detail every document that came across my desk in any given day, I don't know how I could have done it," he said.
Defense lawyer George "Mac" Secrest drove home the point in a short closing argument to U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III, who will decide the case without a jury. "Mr. Lay's flying at 35,000 feet," Secrest said. "He's got the big picture. He doesn't get into the details. . . . He relied on other folks to help out."
But prosecutors pointed to two memos from Lay's assistant to Lay in November 1995 that signaled that he was bound by the rule, known as Regulation U. Last week, a former bank executive testified that he told Lay about the regulations and that Lay initially balked at them.
Within a month of the 1995 memos, prosecutor John C. Hueston asserted, Lay "did exactly what you were advised not to do," paying off an Enron loan with a $3.6 million line of credit from Compass Bank. "So your consciousness about Regulation U ended 29 days after the memo?" the prosecutor said.
"Mr. Hueston, I know you find this very strange, but Regulation U was not something I carried with me all the time, thinking about what it was," Lay responded. "I'm not denying we were not fully in compliance. I just didn't understand it, and I don't think my staff did either."
Prosecutors contend that Lay was able to obtain an extra $27 million in borrowing power by misrepresenting how he would use loan proceeds. Lay, who had previously accused Hueston of misrepresenting facts, mostly kept his pique in check. But he took a few digs at the government, including a shot about furnishing prosecutors documents twice, "because they seem to have lost some of them the first time."
Defense lawyer Secrest once again criticized the government for bringing the bank case, which he called "virtually unprecedented in the annals of criminal law."
Lake interrupted the defense lawyer several times in the course of a 30-minute closing argument, once asking why Lay or one of his employees decided to "rely almost exclusively" on the forbidden lines of credit since the mid-1990s. "That almost presupposes he or they understood the difference," the judge said.
Justice Department Enron Task Force director Sean M. Berkowitz had the last word, telling the judge that "Mr. Lay did this for the worst possible reason: because he thought he could get away with it."
Meanwhile, the eight-woman, four-man jury in the broader trial against Lay and former protege Jeffrey K. Skilling ended a third full day of deliberations. The panel sent a note indicating that they would not meet on Friday or Monday, a sign that a verdict in the four-month-old case is not imminent.
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HOUSTON, May 23 -- Prosecutors closed their bank-fraud case against former Enron Corp. chairman Kenneth L. Lay on Tuesday by painting him as a sophisticated executive who seems "constitutionally incapable of accepting responsibility" for lies to three banks.
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Two Elderly Women Jailed In Deadly Insurance Scam
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LOS ANGELES, May 22 -- Two elderly women devised a complex plot in which they befriended homeless men, took out life insurance policies on them, and then killed the men in hit-and-run accidents in alleys around Los Angeles to collect $2.2 million in payments, police said Monday.
The women are linked to two deaths, one in 1999 and one last year. Los Angeles police are reviewing other hit-and-run accidents involving transients in a search for more possible victims.
The women were arrested last week after police investigating them began to fear for a third man's life, police said. The women, who remain jailed, were arraigned on eight counts of mail fraud, and the FBI froze more than $2 million in assets between them. They have yet to enter a plea.
"While our initial presumption was these women probably had some accomplices to run these guys over, the detectives are now actually leaning toward [believing] that these women are directly involved in these men's deaths," said Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman.
Investigators have impounded the women's Mercedes SUV and Honda Civic.
Olga Rutterschmidt, 73, and Helen Golay, 75, took out 19 life insurance policies on the two victims and tried to take out more, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. They offered to help the men get off the streets in exchange for the men signing a life insurance policy. Then the women had rubber stamps made from the signatures and used the stamps to acquire more insurance, court records show.
Police believe the women kept up the rent on the men's apartments for two years after their policies were signed and then ran them down to collect the money. California law allows an insurance company to contest a new policy for two years, Vernon said.
"Between the first and second incident, there's a six-year span," Vernon said. "It's very naive to think there haven't been any victims in those six years, especially when you consider they're using these men as certificates of deposit, with a maturity date of two years."
Police said the women recruited victims from the city's Eastern European community. Rutterschmidt is Hungarian, as was the first victim, and she met at least one potential target at a Hungarian church in Los Angeles.
In the first case, a homeless man took out a life insurance policy listing the women as his aunts and only relatives, although he had three living daughters. The man's body was later discovered in a Hollywood alley with injuries from a traffic accident. Rutterschmidt and Golay claimed the body.
The second victim was found in a different alley after having been run down by a vehicle, records show.
Los Angeles traffic police started the investigation into insurance fraud after two officers who happened to be at a meeting together realized they had worked on similar cases, Vernon said.
One officer described a homeless man whose body was collected by two unrelated women asking for all kinds of paperwork. Another said he had had a similar case years ago. "So they pull out the case, compare notes and find it's the same two women," Vernon said.
In November, police detectives watched as Rutterschmidt drove to meet an elderly Hungarian man, directed him to sign a sheaf of forms, then drove him to a nearby bank.
Golay has some background in the life insurance industry, though police do not know how much, Vernon said.
"It is one of the most sinister, evil plots I've ever seen," he said.
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Get Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland and national news. Get the latest/breaking news, featuring national security, science and courts. Read news headlines from the nation and from The Washington Post. Visit www.washingtonpost.com/nation today.
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Deal With Wen Ho Lee May Make Press-Freedom Case Moot
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Intensive settlement negotiations between former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee and the U.S. government are delaying -- and may ultimately avert -- action by the Supreme Court on appeals by reporters fighting to protect their confidential sources in the case.
The Lee case is viewed by the media as one of the most significant press-freedom battles of recent years. But yesterday, for the second time in two weeks, the court declined to act on the reporters' petitions.
It now appears that the court's lack of a decision may be linked to a May 16 letter to the court from Lee's attorneys, which said that "there have been recent settlement discussions" and that "resolution of the entire case may be imminent." USA Today first reported the letter.
If Lee and the government reach an agreement, there will be no need for the reporters to testify -- and the court may drop the case as moot.
Lee, a former scientist at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico, was the focus of a federal espionage investigation before being cleared of all but a single charge of illegally downloading classified information. He claims that federal officials violated privacy laws by leaking damaging information about him to the press. He wants reporters to help his lawsuit by naming their sources.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the reporters must reveal their sources. The journalists, citing a threat to press freedom, appealed to the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court stays out of the case, that would leave the D.C. Circuit's opinion in place as controlling precedent in federal cases.
For the media, "you could foresee a much worse outcome," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists. Since there is always the risk that the high court could affirm the appeals court's ruling, he said, "to get it off the table would count as a victory."
Also yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that police do not need to wait for a search warrant before entering a private home when they have reason to believe that someone inside is in physical danger.
By a vote of 9 to 0, the court overturned a Utah Supreme Court ruling which said that four police officers acted unconstitutionally when they went in to a Brigham City house to break up a pre-dawn scuffle between four adults and a teen.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that "the officers had an objectively reasonable basis for believing both that the injured adult might need help and that the violence in the kitchen was just beginning."
"Nothing in the Fourth Amendment required them to wait until another blow rendered someone 'unconscious,' or 'semi-conscious,' or worse before entering," Roberts wrote.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a brief concurring opinion, noting that the Utah ruling affected only that state, making it an "odd flyspeck of a case" that he had voted not to review in the first place.
But Roberts wrote that the court's ruling was necessary to clear up differences among state courts and federal appeals courts concerning the rules for warrantless entry by police in emergency situations.
The case is Brigham City v. Stuart , No. 05-502.
Separately, the court declined to hear a Tennessee death row inmate's case against that state's lethal-injection procedures. The appeal by Abu-Ali Abdur Rahman claimed the three-chemical protocol that Tennessee and other death-penalty jurisdictions use violates the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."
Though lower courts had upheld the protocol, Abdur Rahman presented expert testimony that the second drug, a paralyzing agent called Pavulon, can mask the excruciating pain that occurs if poorly trained technicians misapply anesthetic.
The court made no comment. But the decision came at a time when the justices are already considering a case in which a Florida death row inmate is asking them to relax the procedures under which prisoners can challenge methods of execution.
The rejection of Abdur Rahman's appeal suggests that, whatever the court may decide about that issue, it is not ready to ban lethal injection itself.
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Continuing coverage of the Supreme Court nomination and confirmation process from The Washington Post.
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Bush Says U.S. Is Set to Shift Burden After 'Turning Point'
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CHICAGO, May 22 -- President Bush on Monday hailed the formation of a new Iraqi government as a "turning point" that will allow U.S. forces to take an "increasingly supporting role" against insurgents as Washington and London look for ways to disengage from the war.
Acknowledging the "unease" felt by many Americans, Bush said the war in Iraq has proved "more difficult" than expected and has produced only incremental progress. But he said the first government formed under the new, democratic Iraqi constitution will take on more of the burden.
"We can expect the violence to continue, but something fundamental changed this weekend," Bush said in a speech to the National Restaurant Association. "The terrorists are now fighting a free and constitutional government. They're at war with the people of Iraq. And the Iraqi people are determined to defeat this enemy, and so are Iraq's new leaders, and so is the United States of America."
Bush did not say when the shift to a supporting role would permit U.S. troops to come home, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Monday and announced that he will fly to Washington to consult with the president Thursday and Friday about the next steps. The British have drawn down their forces by about 10 percent in the past two months, and officials have said they hope to make "good progress" toward a handover in the next year.
Bush has set a goal of turning most of Iraq over to Iraqi security forces by the end of the year, a target repeated on Monday by the newly installed prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. But U.S. and British officials dismissed a London newspaper report that Bush and Blair plan to announce a specific drawdown of forces in Iraq.
A British Defense Ministry spokeswoman called it "speculative" and said, "We will draw down when conditions for the handover are met." A senior U.S. official told reporters not to expect a "fixed number" of cuts to emerge from the Bush-Blair meeting.
Some Democrats insisted they should set a concrete plan for withdrawal. "Our soldiers have done their job," said Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), his party's 2004 presidential nominee. "Now it's time for the Iraqis to do theirs. We must immediately begin working with the new Iraqi government on a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces by the end of this year."
Pentagon authorities have spoken for months of plans to reduce U.S. forces in Iraq by 30,000 by the end of the year, which would bring the number of American troops in the country to about 100,000. Britain has been downscaling its presence from 8,000 troops and should have 7,200 left in a week or so, the Defense Ministry said. But both governments have rejected firm timetables and said reductions will depend on improvements in security.
Citing the formation of the new cabinet and Maliki's emphasis on tackling problems of security, corruption and basic services, the senior U.S. official said that some conditions in Iraq "are moving in the right direction." At the same time, the official sought to lower expectations about the new government's ability to quickly curb ethnic militias behind much of the violence.
"I would not expect to see an immediate decrease in the violence," said the official, who briefed on the condition of anonymity. "If you look at the pattern of violence over the past few years, there's generally been an uptick in violence after significant political events."
In his speech here, Bush tried to balance optimism with concessions of mistakes. "Yet we have now reached a turning point in the struggle between freedom and terror," he said. He noted that the new Iraqi parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab, once opposed the U.S. military presence. "He wouldn't have taken my phone call a year ago," Bush said. "He's now taken it twice." He added: "As the new Iraqi government grows in confidence and capability, America will play an increasingly supportive role."
In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Bush was asked about public disconnect from the government. "I would say that there's an unease in America now," he said, "and the reason why is because we're at war. And war is more difficult. . . . Our progress is incremental. Freedom is moving, but it's in incremental steps. And the enemy's progress is almost instant on their TV screen."
Bush has declared turning points and milestones in the war before. He called it "an important milestone" when a temporary governing council was formed in July 2003 and "a turning point" when sovereignty was turned over to the interim government in June 2004. Elections in January 2005, he said, were both "a turning point in the history of Iraq" and "a milestone in the advance of freedom."
He called it a "milestone" in October when Iraqi voters approved a constitution and "a major milestone" two months later when they elected a parliament -- a moment he also termed "a turning point in the history of Iraq, the history of the Middle East and the history of freedom." The selection of a prime minister last month was "an important milestone toward our victory in Iraq" and, a week later, "a turning point for the Iraqi citizens."
Bush addressed other topics here, including immigration, energy and tax cuts. He voiced concern about "the erosion of democracy" in Venezuela and Bolivia. And he poked fun at Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), his brother. When a Florida restaurateur praised the governor for supporting her industry, the president interjected, "He has been eating a lot, I noticed."
Asked if he plans to see "An Inconvenient Truth," the new film on global warming featuring Al Gore, Bush smiled. "Doubt it," he said.
Graham reported from Washington. Correspondent Mary Jordan in London contributed to this report.
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CHICAGO, May 22 -- President Bush on Monday hailed the formation of a new Iraqi government as a "turning point" that will allow U.S. forces to take an "increasingly supporting role" against insurgents as Washington and London look for ways to disengage from the war.
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FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Is Questioned
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An unusual FBI raid of a Democratic congressman's office over the weekend prompted complaints yesterday from leaders in both parties, who said the tactic was unduly aggressive and may have breached the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
Rep. William J. Jefferson (La.), who is at the center of a 14-month investigation for allegedly accepting bribes for promoting business ventures in Africa, also held a news conference in which he denied any wrongdoing and denounced the raid on his office as an "outrageous intrusion." Jefferson, who has not been charged, vowed to seek reelection in November.
"There are two sides to every story; there are certainly two sides to this story," he said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "There will be an appropriate time and forum when that can be explained."
The Saturday raid of Jefferson's quarters in the Rayburn House Office Building posed a new political dilemma for the leaders of both parties, who felt compelled to protest his treatment while condemning any wrongdoing by the lawmaker. The dilemma was complicated by new details contained in an 83-page affidavit unsealed on Sunday, including allegations that the FBI had videotaped Jefferson taking $100,000 in bribe money and then found $90,000 of that cash stuffed inside his apartment freezer.
Republican leaders, who previously sought to focus attention on the Jefferson case as a counterpoint to their party's own ethical scandals, said they are disturbed by the raid. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said that he is "very concerned" about the incident and that Senate and House counsels will review it.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed alarm at the raid. "The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important Constitutional issues that go well beyond the specifics of this case," he said in a lengthy statement released last night.
"Insofar as I am aware, since the founding of our Republic 219 years ago, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to do what it did Saturday night, crossing this Separation of Powers line, in order to successfully prosecute corruption by Members of Congress," he said. "Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement that "members of Congress must obey the law and cooperate fully with any criminal investigation" but that "Justice Department investigations must be conducted in accordance with Constitutional protections and historical precedent."
Relations between the two Democrats have been rocky. Pelosi refused to appoint Jefferson to the chairmanship of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee after the 2002 election, and early this month she called for an investigation of his case by the House ethics committee. Last week, the committee announced it would investigate Jefferson and Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), who is also the subject of a federal corruption probe.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, asked about the raid during an unrelated news conference in Washington, declined to discuss the case in detail but said "the executive branch intends to work with the Congress to allay" any concerns.
"I will admit that these were unusual steps that were taken in response to an unusual set of circumstances," he said. "I'll just say that."
About 15 FBI agents, wearing suits, entered Jefferson's office in the Rayburn House Office Building about 7:15 p.m. Saturday and left about 1 p.m. Sunday. Authorities said it was the first time the FBI had raided the office of a sitting congressman.
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Dozens Are Killed In Afghan Fighting
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BAGRAM, Afghanistan, May 22 -- As many as 80 Taliban fighters and 16 civilians were reported killed early Monday by U.S.-led forces attacking from the ground and air in Kandahar province, the epicenter of a broadening swath of fighting in southern Afghanistan.
The clash -- part of the bloodiest surge of combat since the U.S.-led military ouster of Taliban rule in late 2001 -- raised the death toll from attacks across the country since Wednesday to almost 250. The fighting has included the torching of a district headquarters in Helmand province and a suicide bombing outside Kabul, the capital.
U.S. military commanders and the Afghan government are expressing new concerns about the strength and determination of the revived Taliban movement, whose purported spokesman, Mohammed Hanif, vowed two weeks ago that "our sacred land is going to turn into an inferno" unless international military forces withdraw from Afghanistan.
The country's south was relatively calm and politically stable in the initial years after a pro-Western government was appointed in Kabul in 2001. U.S. and Afghan officials said the new flare-up stemmed from public disillusionment with the government, an increase in drug trafficking and efforts by Islamic extremists to terrorize residents in the south as NATO troops prepare to assume command over security there.
Monday's fighting inflicted the first major civilian casualties in many months. Some people in the religiously conservative area support the Kabul government, while others cooperate with the insurgents because of fear, old tribal relationships, economic need or outright support for their goal of overthrowing the Kabul government.
Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province, said Taliban fighters used civilian compounds near the village of Azizi as "trenches" to fire at U.S.-led forces, which provoked counter-fire and, later, airstrikes that he said killed 16 civilians and wounded 16 others.
"These accidents happen during fighting, especially when the Taliban hide in homes," the governor told journalists in the city of Kandahar. "I urge people not to give shelter to the Taliban."
Witnesses and wounded civilians at a Kandahar hospital later tearfully told reporters that they had lost children, relatives and neighbors in the strikes.
A U.S. military statement said troops, while searching for suspected terrorists after two recent attacks in the volatile Panjwai district of western Kandahar, met "organized armed opposition" and responded with ground attacks and strafing runs by U.S. A-10 jets. It said they had "only targeted armed resistance, compounds and buildings known to harbor extremists."
Military statements said that 20 Taliban fighters were killed and that as many as 60 others may have died.
Kandahar, Helmand and two other southern provinces are rapidly shaping up as a summer battleground between Afghan and NATO-led forces on one side and a variety of anti-government groups on the other, including Taliban fighters, other Afghan militia groups, opium poppy traders and foreign Islamic fighters.
Military officials said that despite the growing frequency and geographical spread of violence, they believed that these groups were not acting in coordination. Instead, they described the violence as a "pushing back" response to increasing encroachment by Afghan and foreign troops into the vast and rugged tribal region.
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BAGRAM, Afghanistan, May 22 -- As many as 80 Taliban fighters and 16 civilians were reported killed early Monday by U.S.-led forces attacking from the ground and air in Kandahar province, the epicenter of a broadening swath of fighting in southern Afghanistan.
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Off Label, Off Base?
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Every day in medical offices around the country, physicians hand patients prescriptions for drugs to treat conditions for which the medicines haven't been approved. Once a drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a doctor can, with rare exceptions, legally prescribe it "off label": for use as he or she sees fit.
That's a primary reason people with depression or attention-deficit disorder are prescribed drugs approved to treat seizures, acne patients are given prescriptions for antibiotics, and insomniacs are advised to take a schizophrenia drug. And it's why tens of millions of post-menopausal women for years were told to take estrogen, a drug approved to treat osteoporosis, as a way of staving off heart disease, improving their mood and memory, and smoothing wrinkles.
Off-label use of drugs may be axiomatic in medicine, but a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that the practice is frequently grounded more in anecdote than in hard science.
Using data from a national survey of 3,500 office-based physicians, researchers found that 21 percent of the 725 million prescriptions written in 2001 were for off-label uses. Seventy-three percent of these prescriptions lacked strong scientific justification, such as a clinical trial, and were based on observational studies, case reports or no discernable evidence. And without solid evidence of safety and effectiveness, the researchers maintain, consumers run the risk of taking ineffective, expensive and potentially dangerous drugs.
Estrogen is one such example. Only after doctors had prescribed it for decades to prevent a panoply of problems did a large clinical trial in 2002 find that the hormone actually increased the risk of heart disease, stroke, breast cancer, incontinence and dementia.
The new study, funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, compared patients' diagnoses with labeling information from the 100 most commonly prescribed drugs, as well as 60 randomly selected medications. Researchers then assessed the amount of scientific support for each case of off-label use.
Some prescriptions were logical extensions of the approved labeling, such as giving an asthma drug to treat another lung ailment. Others were less clear, such as using a seizure drug to quell anxiety.
"There is enormous variation in the reason drugs are used off-label, from extremely good evidence to experimentation," said Randall Stafford, one of the study's co-authors. Stafford, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University, said he was surprised by how many prescriptions were written without solid scientific justification. In psychiatry, for example, researchers found that 96 percent of off-label prescriptions lacked strong scientific support.
David Schopick, who practices in Portsmouth, N.H., said he thinks some of his fellow child psychiatrists "draw the line where we think our colleagues draw the line" between innovation, which is ethical, and experimentation, which is not. Enthusiasm for off-label prescribing has waned somewhat in psychiatry, he added, because of reports that antidepressants may trigger suicidal behavior in teenagers. "So much of what we prescribe has not been shown to be effective" in children, but has been approved for adults, he added.
In addition to psychiatric medications, drugs to treat heart disease, asthma, allergies and seizures are commonly prescribed for unapproved uses, the study found. Drugs used to lower cholesterol and control diabetes were least likely to be prescribed for other conditions, researchers found.
Reasons for the burgeoning practice vary, Stafford and other experts say. Some doctors may be swayed by small, promising studies funded by manufacturers tempted to increase a drug's sales without going through the expensive, time-consuming process of expanding its approved uses. (FDA regulations prohibit companies from marketing a drug to treat a condition for which it hasn't been specifically approved.)
In other cases, influential practitioners known as "thought leaders" in their specialty may endorse the use of a drug, their views then spread by word of mouth, especially at conferences.
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Every day in medical offices around the country, physicians hand patients prescriptions for drugs to treat conditions for which the medicines haven't been approved. Once a drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a doctor can, with rare exceptions, legally prescribe it "off...
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Dropout Data Raise Questions on 2 Fronts
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Economist Larry Mishel was troubled by high school graduation statistics that contradicted what he thought was good research. That was particularly true of data used by many politicians and pundits to bemoan a 30 percent dropout rate in American high schools.
"This picture was radically different from what I knew from labor market data I regularly examined in my studies of wage and job trends," said Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. His research indicated that only about 12 percent of the workforce lacked a high school diploma or its equivalent, so how could the dropout rate be so large?
Political scientist Jay P. Greene also had trouble with the data, but for a different reason. He found many school systems were claiming low dropout rates, even though their ninth grades were bulging with restless students eager to be elsewhere and many had disappeared by graduation time. Working as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and as head of the education reform department at the University of Arkansas, Greene reported that graduation rates seemed to be worse than many people thought, as low as 50 percent in low-income urban neighborhoods.
A collision of those two views by prominent scholars was inevitable, and in the past several weeks it has hit the education policy world in an explosion of articles, e-mails and public debates, some quite heated. Experts disagree over who is right, and some say the truth may be somewhere in between. But the argument has aggravated a widespread feeling that information on how many children are disappearing from public schools is not nearly as accurate as it should be.
"Jay Greene and Larry Mishel have performed the valuable service of exposing the huge inadequacies in the way we measure the percent of students who achieve a regular high school diploma -- inadequacies not attended to in over two decades of education reform," said Paul E. Barton, senior associate in the Educational Testing Service's Policy Information Center.
Such congratulatory words have not ended the scholarly strife. Mishel and Greene continue their sometimes testy exchanges, and the argument has broken into disputes over lost diplomas, growth computation mistakes, uncounted immigrants and other issues loved only by people whose livelihoods depend on population data.
The major event has been the publication of a book by Mishel and Economic Policy Institute economist Joydeep Roy, "Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends." It is only 100 pages, many of them full of charts, but it takes a big swing at powerful forces, particularly the National Governors Association and its recent report that said high schools are in crisis.
"About a third of our students are not graduating from high school," the association declared in a 2005 report by a task force that used Greene's data. "About three-fourths of white students graduate from high school, but only half of African American and Hispanic students do."
Mishel and Roy say that is wrong. Using U.S. Education Department data that follow student experiences and results of Census Bureau household surveys, they get very different numbers: an overall high school graduation rate with a regular diploma of 80 to 83 percent, a black student graduation rate of 69 to 75 percent and a Hispanic graduation rate of 61 to 74 percent.
They say that in the past 40 years, the high school completion rate, including graduates and those passing General Educational Development diploma tests, has gone up substantially and that the black-white gap has shrunk, except in the past 10 years, when there has been little improvement. Only graduation among Hispanics increased during the past 10 years.
Greene and Manhattan Institute research associate Marcus A. Winters have quickly counterattacked. They say the Mishel-Roy book is too dependent on Education Department longitudinal studies that follow a representative sample of students over several years and on census surveys that depend on people telling the truth about their success in school. If, for example, there were as many high school graduates in 2003 as Mishel and Roy said, they would number 476,442 more than the number of students school systems reported that year, Greene and Winters said.
Russell Rumberger, a University of California at Santa Barbara education professor, said he carefully checked the longitudinal survey used by Mishel and Roy and found that it appeared to "generate very accurate population estimates confirmed by published data." Greene struck back with a political analogy. He said the "assertion that we should believe the results of a survey over population counts is a little bit like the people who asserted that Kerry really won the 2004 election because the exit polls showed him winning even though the vote count gave the victory to Bush."
Daniel J. Losen, senior education law and policy associate at the Harvard University Civil Rights Project, said he agreed with Greene that the dropout problem is severe. "There is a consensus that this crisis is real and particularly severe for Latinos, African Americans and Native Americans," he said.
Researchers say this is not just an academic question; there are consequences for many children. "If Larry Mishel is right that the graduation rates have been improving, then some of the radical reforms for high schools being proposed may be misguided or dangerous," said Richard Rothstein, a former New York Times columnist and a research associate at Mishel's think tank.
"It may seem that we are talking about just a few percentage points here and there," said John Robert Warren, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota who agrees with Greene, but "five percentage points would be 175,000 young people annually."
No matter who is right, Barton said, it is embarrassing for educational research to have scholars as reputable as Mishel and Greene be so dubious about the value of major sources of dropout data.
Barton said census officials told him that there had been no field or validity studies of the census question on high school completion rates -- so experts cannot be as confident about that data. By contrast, he said, "tens of millions of dollars have gone into getting the questions right in that survey that gives the monthly unemployment rate."
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Economist Larry Mishel was troubled by high school graduation statistics that contradicted what he thought was good research. That was particularly true of data used by many politicians and pundits to bemoan a 30 percent dropout rate in American high schools.
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Calculating Diplomas for Class of 2009
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With graduation now on the line, 200 teenagers gathered at a Prince George's County high school for a final coaching session before state tests that many of their predecessors in years past failed.
"It's showtime!" a county school official called out as students grabbed juice and danishes from the cafeteria to fortify themselves. "How many of you are ready?"
"Right on!" yelled one boy, pumping a fist as others cheered.
Today, tens of thousands of Maryland ninth-graders will learn firsthand what higher diploma standards mean for them. They will take a 150-minute test of basic algebra and data analysis skills that will be used, for the first time, to determine whether they graduate three years from now.
In the run-up to the introduction of high-stakes tests for these freshmen, nervous educators redoubled efforts this school year to help struggling students. School systems monitored grades, attendance and practice-test results in Algebra I classes to identify students in jeopardy of failing. Growing numbers of teachers reviewed X's and Y's with them outside of class, including a three-hour Saturday morning drill at Surrattsville High School in Clinton.
To spark urgency, administrators repeatedly reminded parents and students in the class of 2009 that the algebra/data analysis test and three others will count for graduation.
The Maryland High School Assessments -- administered after algebra, English, biology and government courses -- are the state's answer to a national movement that aims to ensure graduates are better prepared for college and the workforce. Geared toward material taught late in middle school and early in high school, the tests are meant to establish a baseline value for a high school diploma.
"Some students right now are getting diplomas that aren't worth the paper they're written on," said Ronald A. Peiffer, deputy superintendent for academic policy at the Maryland State Department of Education. "This would help eliminate that problem."
Virginia and 22 other states also tie graduation to student performance on statewide exit or end-of-course exams, according to Education Week. D.C. public schools do not, but an official said District schools are headed in a similar direction.
Such tests often are controversial. A California judge this month halted plans to withhold diplomas from tens of thousands of students who had not passed a state test, a victory for critics who argued the test was unfair to students in low-performing schools. The state government has appealed the ruling.
In Maryland, the algebra/data analysis test is getting the most attention because more ninth-graders take Algebra I than the other three courses that are tested. But some ninth-graders also are taking biology and government tests this week that will count for graduation. The English test, administered yesterday, generally is taken by sophomores. By next spring, all four tests will have high stakes for nearly all students who take them.
In recent years, students from the classes of 2008 and earlier have taken the tests without a performance requirement. Educators say the lack of consequences for failure helps explain last year's low pass rates: 66.4 percent in government, 57.6 percent in biology, 57.3 percent in English and 53.8 percent in algebra/data analysis. Many high-performing algebra students take and pass the latter test in middle school. The pass rate for only those who take it in high school is much lower.
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D.C. Mayor Hopefuls Make Pricey Promises
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The leading candidates for D.C. mayor pledged last night to make social justice for children and the poor their top priority in office, vowing to spend about $1 billion on neighborhood redevelopment, youth services and 14,000 units of affordable housing.
The five Democrats didn't bat an eye before committing themselves to funding the expensive demands of the Washington Interfaith Network, a coalition of churches, unions and community groups that held a forum last night.
In front of more than 800 coalition members gathered at Asbury United Methodist Church in downtown Washington, the candidates promised to pay for those programs by managing existing city funds more efficiently and by generating cash from development projects.
None of the candidates proposed raising taxes. But organizers of the interfaith network seemed particularly skeptical when D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4) pledged to find $350 million in "new dedicated revenue" for such youth services as libraries, recreation centers and extracurricular activities in public schools.
Last month, Fenty told a forum organized by some of the city's most influential business organizations that he would not raise taxes if elected mayor. Fenty was asked to clarify his position last night.
"I commit to you that I'm going to raise the bar," Fenty said, explaining that the city's housing production trust fund and its new school modernization fund are both being bankrolled with existing tax revenue. "We'll take that $7.4 billion budget we have and make sure the money goes to the priorities that you and the rest of my constituents want it to go to."
The other candidates were only marginally more specific about where they would find the money.
Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said she would charge developers for access to air rights above public buildings and lands, such as Interstate 395. Former Verizon Washington president Marie C. Johns said she would make sure the city spends the federal funds to which it is entitled, charging that some Community Development Block Grant funds go unclaimed.
Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (Ward 5) said he would implement the interfaith network's funding strategies, including a plan to tap tax revenue generated by a massive planned development along the Anacostia River. Orange said he also would demand that developers pay condominium-conversion fees that the network charges have gone uncollected for years.
Lobbyist Michael A. Brown offered no specific proposals to raise money. He did, however, criticize city leaders for encouraging the wealthy to move to the nation's capital, saying that a thriving middle class is more critical to keeping the District fiscally strong.
Each candidate was asked to respond to three questions: Would they dedicate an additional $500 million to neighborhoods, $350 million to youth services and at least $117 million a year for affordable housing? Their answers -- an unbroken string of yeses -- were recorded in foot-high letters on a big, white board.
The candidates also promised to meet with leaders of the interfaith network in March to lay out more detailed plans for accomplishing their goals.
In the meantime, the nonprofit organization, which will not endorse a candidate, plans to put more than 400 election workers on the streets to educate voters about the candidates' commitments and to make sure they vote Sept. 12 in the Democratic primary.
"Others have come before us, and they said they would put neighborhoods first, and it didn't really happen," the Rev. Christine Wiley of Covenant Baptist Church told the crowd. "Read my lips. We are aware of the promises in the past that were made and not kept. We're going to hold you accountable."
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The leading candidates for D.C. mayor pledged last night to make social justice for children and the poor their top priority in office, vowing to spend about $1 billion on neighborhood redevelopment, youth services and 14,000 units of affordable housing.
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A Star Act Helps Unite The Faithful With Song
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It almost looked like a Gladys Knight concert, except there was no "Midnight Train to Georgia."
It could have been a Pentecostal revival, but it was a Mormon-sponsored event starring the R&B Grammy winner.
For two days, there they were: Blacks and whites rocking and clapping together in a church that was once segregated.
Knight led her 100-member choir, Saints Unified Voices, and preached to 3,000 people during two services over the weekend at the Suitland Stake Center, headquarters for 12 Mormon congregations in the District and Southern Maryland. The choir won Best Gospel Choir Album in February at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
"I am pressed so surely in my spirit to give you my testimony," said Knight, telling the crowd about her conversion from the Baptist Church to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997. "They thought I was crazy. They thought that I had lost my mind. 'What are you doing over there with those Mormons? They don't like black people.' Yes, when I came to this church, I asked, 'Do y'all like black people or not?' "
As Knight joked, Bryan Powell laughed in the audience. Powell, a 43-year-old African American mortgage banker from Upper Marlboro, left his Pentecostal church 12 years ago to become a Mormon after two missionaries stopped at his home.
"Initially, I had been very closed-minded," Powell said. "But they were very persistent, so I decided to listen to what they had to say. I found out that much of what I believed, they believed." Today, Powell is an elder in the Suitland ward.
It was not until 1978, under prophet Spencer W. Kimball, that the Mormon Church admitted blacks into full membership, allowing them to hold the priesthood, marry in the temple and receive the same privileges as other members. Since then, missionaries have pushed hard to be inclusive, and the church in the Washington area has grown significantly.
Ken Page, president of the Suitland Stake, said 20 percent of the 4,500 Mormons in his stake are African American. He said the Knight event, called a "fireside," was another effort to reach out to the community.
"We want everyone to realize that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is welcoming to all people regardless of race, creed, heritage and walk of life," he said.
Attendees who listed their addresses were promised a free CD of the choir, a copy of the Book of Mormon and a DVD called "The Restoration: Introducing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," delivered by two representatives of the church.
Malcolm Jordan, 32, an African American from Southeast Washington, said he became a Mormon five years ago after a visit from two missionaries.
Knight's husband, William McDowell, said his wife converted him to a church that he was skeptical about because he grew up in a segregated North Carolina community. "I had heard that the sister had lost her mind. . . . Today, I know without a doubt in my mind that this is one of the greatest gifts my wife brought to me."
In her testimony, Knight, 61, said: "I am grateful for the missionaries on those bicycles. When they knock on your door, let them in."
Powell said he paid a price to become a Mormon. "People were saying, how could you join that white man's church? I corrected them to say that it wasn't the white man's church, but the Lord's church. This is why the event was so important because it showed that the church is open to all races, creeds and colors."
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It almost looked like a Gladys Knight concert, except there was no "Midnight Train to Georgia."
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Post Politics Hour
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Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post White House reporter Peter Baker was online Tuesday, May 23, at 11 a.m. ET .
Political analysis from Post reporters and interviews with top newsmakers. Listen live on Washington Post Radio or subscribe to a podcast of the show.
Peter Baker: Good morning, everyone. Nothing like a good scandal to get the juices going in Washington, and Washington hasn't seen anything as interesting as Rep. William Jefferson's cash-packed freezer since, well, Rep. Duke Cunningham's yacht and Rolls Royce. Lots of other things to chat about too, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's first visit to the White House today and British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit later this week. So let's get started.
Annapolis, Md.: It seems the FBI was very busy over the weekend in searching the office of Congressman Jefferson. It seems both the Senate and House are upset over this invasion. My question is if the FBI with the Attorney General's approval can raid a Democrat's office then why can't the FBI and Attorney General grant approval for a raid on a Republican's office. It seems we have two rules. It seems the Republican's have more than their fair share of problems. I for one would have been very interested in what could have been found in Duke Cunningham's and Tom DeLay's office. Do you think Ney's office could be next? My point is what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Or is this raid something the Republican's can point out was on Democratic Congressman to take the spot light off the current Republican problems?
Peter Baker: These are the kinds of questions that invariably arise when the Justice Department of one party investigates a politician of the other. But that presumes that Justice has gone easy on Republicans and certainly when it comes to the Jack Abramoff case there seem to be plenty of signs of a very serious investigation of a number of top Republicans. Moreover, Duke Cunningham may not have had his office raided, but I imagine he doesn't think he got off easy sitting in his jail cell with the longest prison sentence ever handed down to a corrupt member of Congress.
I'd like our effort in Iraq to succeed, but am I wrong or has the administration declared that Iraq is at a "turning point" before, and that wasn't really the case?
Peter Baker: Good question. I remembered the same thing, so I went back yesterday to check and found that the president has used "turning point" and "milestone" on a number of occasions. We recount that rhetorical history in our story in today's paper about Bush's Chicago speech. Let's see if we can post a link here.
Hamilton, Ohio: Is this the 73rd or 86th "Turning Point" for Iraq? Does anyone, including the Iraqis, care?
Peter Baker: Thanks for the question. See above.
washingtonpost.com: Bush Says U.S. Is Set to Shift Burden After 'Turning Point' , ( Post, May 23 )
Boston, Mass.: With the hoopla over Condi Rice coming to speak at Boston University, do you think her "grace under fire" shows she has the backbone required to run for president? Did you see all the "I Like Condi" buttons worn and displayed by graduates? Those buttons are similar to the "I like Ike" buttons from 1952, so is it possible she could be drafted into running for president in 2008?
Peter Baker: This question comes up a lot -- will Condi Rice run for president. Anything's possible, I suppose, and she has done some things lately that seemed candidate-like, such as allowing a TV camera to shoot her daily workout routine and allowing a New York Times photographer to shoot her playing her piano at home and giving a British paper her Ipod playlist. At the same time, she would have an awful hard time winning the nomination for no other reason than two little words she has used to describe herself "mildly pro-choice." It's possible she could get around that as a vice presidential selection but it's hard to see how she could navigate the powerfully anti-abortion Republican primary electorate for the top slot.
Minneapolis, Minn.: In his online chat yesterday, Howard Kurtz said he thought the Post had "underplayed" the Ned Lamont story. Your thoughts?
Peter Baker: Could be. I don't make play decisions. But we've covered this race at length before. Our sharp-eyed congressional correspondent Shailagh Murray went to Connecticut to write an indepth piece on this race just three weeks ago. I'm sure we'll continue to cover it as the contest gets closer if it looks like Lamont has a strong chance of beating Joe Lieberman.
washingtonpost.com: Tough Primary Race Confronts Lieberman , ( Post, April 30, 2006 )
Just a thought, perhaps inspired by conservative Richard Viguerie's recent appearances in The Post. I've always been independent, but radicalized to the left by the Bush administration's debacles and, as Viguerie says, betrayals of just about everyone. If the so called true conservatives could bring themselves to address the fiscal, budgetary, sovereignty, foreign policy, and other substantial issues facing the country and forego their obsession with people's sex lives, there are probably many folks like me who would take them as a serious alternative. Do you think there's any chance that a third force could form that got out of people's bedrooms and into the boardrooms and war rooms, where serious policy advocates belong?
Peter Baker: There's been a lot of hunger over the last few years for third parties or independent candidates, but the practicalities of modern politics always seem to doom them -- witness Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot and his Reform Party or Ralph Nader and his Green Party.
Worcester, Mass.: From our Congress: "Justice Department investigations must be conducted in accordance with Constitutional protections and historical precedent."
I understand and agree with the former; all citizens enjoy equal protection under the law; even Congressmen allegedly caught taking bribes.
But what historical precedents are being referred to here? Are Congressional Offices to be treated like foreign embassies?
Is there a legitimate legal reason for this "concern"?
Peter Baker: Well, there was concern from the nation's beginning about the legislative branch coming under pressure from the executive branch and the framers wanted to make sure Congress was independent. In practice, that hasn't stopped prosecutors from locking up crooked congressmen, but they have had to step carefully to avoid a constitutional confrontation. In this case, it seems they were pushing the envelope and we may have to wait to see how a court resolves the issue.
Lexington, Mass.: It seems that The White House Press Briefing is not on C-Span as often as it used to be. Is this because the Senate and Congress are being covered more closely, or has Tony Snow reduced the number of publicly televised briefings?
Peter Baker: The White House typically doesn't do an on-camera briefing on days the president travels and it's just happenstance that President Bush has had a lot of travel just as Tony has started. He's briefing today at 1 and I presume it will be aired as usual.
Richmond, Va.: So, are the tactics that the FBI used to raid William Jefferson's office going to overshadow the corrupt behavior of this Congressman? I don't hear much outrage at Mr. Jefferson's conduct. Wouldn't it have been politically "wise" to have commented on both incidents? Now it appears that some in Congress are more concerned at how "corruption" is ferreted out, rather than the act itself. And this body wonders why a majority of Americans think both parties are horribly corrupt?
Peter Baker: Good question, we'll have to wait and see. I think the details of the Jefferson case, though, will continue to grab attention -- it's not everyday a congressman is alleged to have taken $100,000 on videotape, then have $90,000 of the same marked bills turn up in his freezer. The headline on Dana Milbank's well-crafted Washington Sketch today seems to capture the intriguing quality of this case: "So $90,000 Was in the Freezer: What's Wrong With That?" You do have to wonder, though, why they felt a raid on his office was necessary if they have him on tape taking the cash and have the cash itself from the freezer.
Colchester, Vt.: Assume Condi Rice actually decides to run for office -- any office. Can she really be an electable politician? She has no kids to use as props on stage. As a speaker she makes Hillary Clinton look downright spontaneous. And I just don't see her out there gladhanding and making people feel good about themselves. It has nothing to do with her qualifications, but ultimately do you think the American electorate would go for someone who is such an obvious technocrat?
Peter Baker: A lot of Condi questions today. I'm going to post a few for the sake of discussion.
Arlington, Va.: The AP coverage on the Condi Rice graduation speech added a bit of color on both sides of the issue for her speaking and the honorary degree issue. The I LIKE CONDI buttons added a bit of festive fun. With that said, is it possible that her diplomatic style of handling the situation shows how Condi Rice can handle any pressure without turning into mush? Would this Iron Maiden quality help her if she decides to run for president?
Cambridge, Mass.: Why exactly do so many people think Condi Rice would make a good president? Is it only because of her personal characteristics? Isn't the obvious hurdle to her candidacy her central role in the Iraq war mess -- and, given the war's wide disapproval, wouldn't that be insurmountable?
Peter Baker: And still another.
Re: FBI Raid: Mr. Baker,
I'm not sure I understand what the issue is about the FBI raiding a Congressional office. Why is their such outrage (or whatever) that the FBI entered into an office?
Peter Baker: Members of Congress from both parties are especially sensitive to the notion that they could come under investigation by a politically motivated executive branch and feel strongly about protecting the prerogatives of the legislative branch as an independent and co-equal branch of government.
washingtonpost.com: So $90,000 Was in the Freezer. What's Wrong With That? , ( Post, May 23, 2006 )
Rochester, N.Y.: Excellent article today in the Post about the anger among congressmen over the raid of Jefferson's office!
My question is this: are there any allegations that Jefferson was dealt with so aggressively because he is a Democrat? There certainly have been no raids of the offices of Congressmen Ney, Doolittle, DeLay, Pombo, Lewis, etc. all of whom are under some sort of investigation. Is it not unreasonable to think that perhaps the (Republican) DOJ wanted a high-profile Democratic bribery scandal to hit the papers and muddy the waters before the deluge of (most Republican) Abramoff and Cunningham related investigations really get going?
Peter Baker: Well, people will draw their own conclusions. I don't know the investigators or the cases enough to give you any insights about motivations. But any Justice Department that didn't move aggressively on a congressman allegedly taking $100,000 in bribes on tape and stuffing $90,000 of it in his freezer would hardly be doing its job, would it? They moved pretty aggressively on Duke Cunningham, who as we noted earlier will have more than eight years to think about his own corruption while sitting in prison. Whether they needed to raid his office and whether that's constitutionally appropriate, those are questions that will be debated for a while.
Philadelphia, Pa.: Thanks for hosting chat today; you folks all do a great job.
Today's question is a suggestion for a story: why should our Republic seek it's presidents from two or three competing families at the beginning of the twenty-first century? All this talk of Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush has me greatly concerned for the continued success of our Republic. If -either- were to be elected, it would mean that for twenty-four years (24!) our government would be held in the hands of two families. That is -not acceptable- to me as a citizen. Some one of you should take a look at the possible consequences of such rule.
Peter Baker: And what about Chelsea Clinton versus Jenna or Barbara Bush in 2020? Seriously, of course, it's an important question. The notion of dynasties wasn't exactly what the framers had in mind, though of course the second president begat a president-son himself. It's an issue that's sure to complicate Hillary Clinton's run. And I think it's one of the main reasons Jeb Bush is not going to run.
Anonymous: I'm very confused by Gonzales.
From an AP article: But he -Gonzales] added that the First Amendment right of a free press should not be absolute when it comes to national security. If the government's probe into the NSA leak turns up criminal activity, prosecutors have an "obligation to enforce the law."
What?? The attorney general doesn't think the first amendment is absolute? Really?
Let's take a moment and read the first amendment again: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Seems pretty clear to me. If government officials leak classified information, then they have broken the law. But if a reporter finds out about classified information, then he has every right to publish it. I'm not saying he always should, or that it's always a good idea, or that he doesn't sometimes have a moral and ethical obligation NOT to publish it, but he has the right to publish it.
Congress cannot make a law that abridges the freedom of the press, therefore there cannot be any "obligation to enforce the law" against reporters publishing news.
I'm just utterly baffled by this. Is anyone else really worried about the kinds of precedents we're setting, prosecuting and investigating (and probably wiretapping) reporters?
Peter Baker: Have to say, I'm with you on this. Not a lawyer, but the First Amendment seems pretty darn clear to me too. Hope our courts think so.
Reston, Va.: Has there been any movement on the rumor that Karl Rove has been indicted? I know this 'story' has gotten a lot of attention in the blogosphere, but it appears that all attempts to verify it through legitimate news sources has failed. Is the press still pursuing this to determine if it's true, or has everyone pretty much concluded that it's bogus?
Peter Baker: So far as I know, there is no indication that it's true.
Roseland, N.J.: Re your article yesterday with Mr. VandeHei, "Elections are Crux of GOP Strategy".
Not to be rude, but... duh? Isn't that a touch "Dog, Using Teeth, Bites Man"?
Peter Baker: Point taken. Depends on the dog and depends on the man, I guess.
No matter which party wins control of the Senate or House, I'm foreseeing (not hard) that it will only be by a small majority. Does it appear to you that both parties have learned that their members will have to grit their teeth and actually WORK with the other side in order to get anything substantial achieved in the areas of health care, Social Security, immigration, environment and business regulations?
Peter Baker: There seems to be little evidence of that, at least in the House, where both the rules and the culture seem to favor a winner-takes-all attitude. In the Senate, as the debate on the immigration bill lately shows, there's more tradition of working across party lines, but even that's been strained in the last few years.
Chicago, Ill.: Isn't there a decent chance that the concerns expressed by Frist, Hastert, and Gingrich on the constitutionality of the Jefferson sting stem from a desire to keep Jefferson in the headlines and drag the whole thing out rather than Jefferson resigning quickly (as I'm sure the Dems would like him to do)?
Peter Baker: Hmm, that may be thinking it through a little much. You could easily argue the opposite, as at least some of our questioners this morning have -- that by raising questions of constitutionality, Frist, et al, have distracted from the real issue, namely the congressman with $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer.
Wilbraham, Mass.: I do not understand how there can be any legitimate outrage over the search of a congressional office for evidence of a crime. Are they above the law? What's next congressional preferred parking at the airport, reduced cost haircuts, gifts and office supplies, or well above market-rate retirement packages?
Peter Baker: I don't think anyone wants to defend a corrupt congressman, if that's what we have here. But there are serious issues to be explored that go beyond the fate of a single member, since this presumably would set a precedent that could be applied for many years in the future and, possibly, in cases where the evidence doesn't seem as compelling.
Fairfax City, Va.: So how is the FBI supposed to be bipartisan in its raids? Dems on even weeks, Repubs on odd weeks, Independents in leap years? Seriously, this is a guy who, during the Katrina aftermath commandeered National Guardsmen to go to his NO house and retrieve a laptop, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator (see ABC News). I wonder what was in those items that was so important.
Peter Baker: Would love to know, hmm? Maybe the feds do.
Charleston, S.C.: If I was a corrupt congressman, I would be very much in favor of knowing that no government entity would be searching my office. Why would I conduct my corrupt business anywhere else? Hard to believe, but common sense seems to be lacking once again in those that are "outraged' or "concerned" that a corrupt politicians office was searched by the FBI.
Peter Baker: Good points, of course. If you know your office is immune from search in any and all circumstances, then obviously it would be the place to hide any evidence, assuming you're dirty. So is there a balance between this simple logic and the constitutional concern? Or does one trump the other, pure and simple? That's the debate in Washington right now.
Bethesda, Md.: I don't like the idea of ongoing Bush and Clinton dynasties either, but out of 43 presidents, haven't we had 4 pairs of relatives hold the office? There were the father-son Adamses and Bushes, and weren't the two Harrisons grandfather and grandson and the two three pairs, but it does suggest we have tended to fish from a small pool, doesn't it?
Peter Baker: You're correct, of course. And Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt were distant cousins as well. In fact, I once saw a book -- sorry, don't remember the title or anything -- making genealogical connections between many of the presidents beyond the ones you mention. Evidently, the Fords and the Bushes and the Kennedys and the Roosevelts and a lot of the presidents can be linked if you go far enough back in the family tree. Some of the exceptions, if I remember correctly, were Reagan, Carter and Clinton, who didn't come from the same aristocratic lineage.
Centreville, Va.: Peter, it looks like we got that Middle Eastern civil war a lot of people were expecting, except that it's in Palestine, not in Iraq. Do you think Olmert will request a more direct intervention into this situation, and what might be the administration response?
Peter Baker: I'm not sure what kind of intervention you have in mind. Certainly the clashes between the Fatah and Hamas security forces does not augur well for a stable and peaceful Palestinian territory. That has to be a major concern of Olmert, and it clearly worries the U.S. as well.
Akron, Ohio: re: raiding of Democrats offices vs. Republican. Original coverage of this story stated that the FBI raid occurred because DOJ had requested copies of some of Jefferson's papers, the copies were made, and then Jefferson's legal people refused to turn them over as required. This wasn't just a random fishing expedition - but a response to a withholding of papers required to be turned over. if this had occurred in Cunningham's case, or in regard to another Congressman, certainly the same tactic would be open to the DOJ. Since it didn't happen with Cunningham, a presumption can be that he actually did cooperate as required.
Peter Baker: Thanks for pointing that out. It's a good point to remember that investigators may seek warrants in some cases and not others simply because of the information or circumstances in that particular case.
First, thank you for answering questions.
Who writes the jokes for politicos when they show up at events, such as the Press Club dinner? Are their hired political humorists out there? Are some of the regular speechwriters actually funny?
Peter Baker: Is anyone in the White House funny? Good question. Not a lot of bellylaughing going on there these days, or for that matter any days. So yes, presidents often bring in outside professionals to help them write the funny speeches they give at Washington events like the White House correspondents dinner.
Everyone is talking about a potential Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential run, and there is talk of a possible run by Al Gore. But what about Howard Dean? Any chance he'll throw his hat into the ring? He's still got plenty of fans out there (moi, for example).
Peter Baker: Doesn't seem to be any indication of that. When he ran and won the DNC chairmanship, he pretty much precluded another run for the presidency, at least in 2008.
Dunn Loring, Va.: If your art department were to draw a graph charting the page placement of the President's speeches the last two years I bet the would parallel his approval rating. For instance, yesterday's latest "turning point/milestone" speech is on page 12 today. Last weeks tax cut signing wound up as a small picture on page 10 with no story at all. Last year I think both of these events would have been on the first three pages. Am I wrong on this or is it because the White House stage-manage these speeches and photo-ops too frequently and too repetitively?
Peter Baker: Each story on any given day has to compete with other stories for the front page. If it's the first time a president has made a proposal or offered his assessment of things, then it has more chance of getting better play. But you're right, if we've heard it before, it tends to go inside the paper. It's a cliche, but the first three letters of "news" rule the day.
Peter Baker: As always, too many questions and not enough time. But thanks for playing today. Join us again tomorrow for our crack congressional correspondent, Chuck Babington. And remember to clean out your freezers.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post White House reporter Peter Baker discusses the latest buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
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The Garden Plot
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Got a chronic case of green thumb? Like getting your hands dirty? Adrian Higgins , garden editor for The Post's Home section, is here to help. Higgins is a firm believer in "tough plants for tough times" -- the varieties that combine good looks with stiff resistance to disease and pests. He currently rules over a garden filled with spring bulbs, daffodils, ornamental onions, perennials, asters, yarrows, hostas and day lilies. Higgins, an avid organic gardener who believes chemicals are a last resort, also tends his own herb and vegetable gardens where he grows peas, garlic onions, lettuce, rhubarbs, radishes, carrots and more.
Catch up on previous transcripts of The Garden Plot.
Higgins is the author of two books, "The Secret Gardens of Georgetown: Behind the Walls of Washington's Most Historic Neighborhood" and "The Washington Post Garden Book: The Ultimate Guide to Gardening in Greater Washington and the Mid-Atlantic Region."
Besides the store brand fertilizers, is there anything a bit more natural that I can put on my tomato plants ? I do the powder mix once a week, but it doesn't seem to be helping.
Adrian Higgins: I don't know what a powder mix is. You don't want a high nitrogen feed, but you do what a superphosphate fertilizer.
I have a rose bush that is blooming wonderfully, however, there are a few branches that are growing uncontrollablly. They don't have any flowers on them. When is the proper time to prune the bush? I also have a big peony bush/plant that I would like to cut back. When is the proper time?
Adrian Higgins: An annual pregrowth pruning in February will check wayward branching. If a branch is growing astray, take it off. Peonies always seem to flop don't they, no matter how much you try to stake them? I would cut the flowers, either fresh for the vase or when they are fading in the garden, and obviously leave the leaves.
Capitol Hill, Washington, DC: On my walk to the Metro in the mornings, I pass by a rather scrubby tree nearly falling out of someone's backyard. It's about 15-20 feet tall. I've never thought twice about it, but it bloomed a couple weeks ago and it now is COVERED in berries that are dead ringers for blackberries. Covered. I pass by twice a day and think how yummy they would be if they were blackberries, but I assume they are either not tasty or poisonous (or both!) Any idea what this is and should the fruit only be eaten by the birds?
Adrian Higgins: This is the mulberry, which comes in a dark and a white fruited form.
Arlington, Va.: Good morning, Professor! I planted bee balm (Monarda, I think) about a month back, and within the last week or so, the leaves starting from the bottom of the plant have developed brick-reddish streaks on them. This coloration goes about one-third of the way up the plant, and some of the leaves are almost completely discolored. Any idea what could be causing this or how to fix it please? Thank you!
Adrian Higgins: This sounds like rust. In which case, the affected leaves should be removed and the rest sprayed.
A small peach tree that was planted last year hasn't leafed out, I'm guessing b/c of our drought last season. It now has small branches growing from the base, can I let them grow out or should I remove the tree altogether?
Adrian Higgins: If the only growth is the suckers from the base, take it out. The top has perished and you are seeing the suckering rootstock, which may not even be a peach.
Washington, D.C.: Do I need to do anything to my iris now that they're done blooming? Can I deadhead or cut them back? I'd like to for aesthetic reasons provided that doesn't damage the plant.
Adrian Higgins: Remove the stalks but keep the leaves, which are food producing machines. Some people cut the foliage into fans but don't. Wait until after you divide them in mid summer before doing this.
Alexandria, Va: I have an invasive vine with heart-shaped leaves that loves to devour my rose bushes and other plants. I don't know what the weed is called or how to get rid of it. Any suggestions?
Adrian Higgins: It sounds like bindweed, which goes deep and will take a lot of top cutting to kill.
Overland Park, Kan: I planted a honey locust tree last fall and this spring there are about six dead branches. I have a 2 year guarantee, so should I replace it? There are many healthy branched with leaves remaining.
Thank you for your help.Lisa
Adrian Higgins: A little dieback in to be expected, but if the dead branches are a leader or major secondary branch, you might want to take it back. If you keep it, cut back the dead wood, which harbors disease.
Arlington, Va: We would love to grow some vegetables and/or fruit in our garden, but the only very sunny areas are right at the edge of driveway and front yard. Can you do a small vegetable, fruit plot right up against a sidewalk? How do you make it look pretty, neat enough to avoid disdain from neighbors with more landscaped yards? What plants would you recommend?
Adrian Higgins: SOme are quite pretty, chard, spinach, lettuce, carrots and radishes, or example. Asparagus, which is a perennial, is a pretty thing.
Charlottesville, Va: Thank you for your chats.
My neighbor has some carpet roses which she says have black spot. What should/can she do about it?
Adrian Higgins: The remedy is to take thick gloves and pruners and remove every yellowed leaf (bagged, not dropped)and then spray with a preventative fungicide.
Bristow, Va: I planted a shrub last week (I have forgotten the name) But I followed all the directions and watered it but the leaves are droopy and even though it's still green, it looks like it's dying. I know the information given is vague but would you happen to have any ideas for reviving it?
Adrian Higgins: It needs water, but not on a daily basis. Check to see that the soil is evenly moist and make sure too that there are no air pockets around the roots. That's about all you can do short of shading it for a while, which might be worth doing. It is best to plant a shrub in cloudy or rainy weather.
Arlington, Va: We have a shady backyard with tall 100 yr+ trees. What sort of ground cover and shrubs would work well to give a "native woodland" feel back there and be pretty low maintenance and environmentally friendly?
Adrian Higgins: If you go with native you are limiting your choices quite a bit. Check first to see if the soil is moist or whether you are dealing with dry shade, which is tougher to get plants established in. I would consider chrysogonum, senecio, ferns, lamiums, sweet woodruff, hellebores, trilliums, Virginia bluebell, squill and mayapples, though these aren't all native necessarily.
Greenbelt, Md: Is is possible for crook-neck yellow squash to grow outdoors in large containers?
Adrian Higgins: Only, I would say, in big containers that have lots of good soil in them and a commitment from the gardener to feed and water them regularly. You may need to water twice a day in August. (I'm trying to say stick it in the ground and mulch).
Northeast, Washington, DC: Adrian:I bought and planted in the ground a Better Boy tomato plant from my local mega-hardware store back in mid-March. Despite the very early start, it's looking great and is about 2 feet tall and happily growing with healthy foliage and is held up by a tomato cage. My issue is this: I noticed last week that it has started to bloom. I've been pinching off the flowers, but am curious whether this is necessary now, and if so, how long should I continue to block the development of fruit. Many thanks!
Adrian Higgins: I think you're lucky that it has done well given our cool spring and cold nights. It is about to warm up significantly and the tomato will repond quickly to this. Keep the flowers and be the first on the block to savor a vine ripened tomato.
Washington, D.C.: I have some spiderwort in my front and backyard and love it. Alas, it tends to get a bit leggy and high and sometimes topple, ruining the otherwise lovely ornament. Ought I trim it back some or just settle for it's lackadaisical look?
Adrian Higgins: SOme folk consider it a bit of a weed. I would confine it to the sunniest locations, this will minimize flopping.
Hillcrest Heights, Md: Love the weekly chats....I have tiny red bugs all over my concrete patio and back porch (brick) just purchased the semi-attached home in October. By my internet research; they are "clover mites." How do I get rid of them?
Adrian Higgins: Mites are a fact of life in the garden. The concern is when they build in large numbers on certain plants that are prone to them, e.g. dwarf Alberta spruce. Horticultural oils are an effective way of beating back problem populations.
Alexandria, Va: Please help! My lawn, which is partially zoysia, has large crispy and brown patches. I can't tell if it's dead, or still dormant because it hasn't warmed up enough. Do you have any suggestions?
Adrian Higgins: Soil temperatures may still be a little cool for active zoysia growth. This will change in the next couple of weeks.
Linden, Va: Adrian - My garden on a windy site halfway up a mountain and I can only get out to it on the weekends. I water and mulch, but the top layer of soil dries out very quickly. I planted some melon and squash seeds last Tuesday, but when I got out there on Saturday, everything was dry. I'm anticipating a similar situation this weekend with the dry skies we're having. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to keep these seeds moist or are they doomed?
Adrian Higgins: Perhaps cucurbits are not a good crop for that reason. Other vegetables might be better, such as beets, carrots, other root crops and beans. Do you like Jerusalem artichokes?
Washington, DC: Will plants hardy to Zone 8 survive a DC winter? I live near downtown where it's always warmer than the suburbs and have a sheltered rowhouse backyard. While shopping for plants online, it seems there are so many interesting semi-tropical plants (like Confederate jasmine) that I would be willing to try if there were a reasonable chance of them surviving most winters.
Adrian Higgins: Certainly worth a try. You may get them through four out of five winters. Certainly gardens in the city are appreciably warmer than those in the suburbs.
Chambersburg, Pa: Hi Adrian,Are mock oranges invariably ratty? Every year after bloom we cut out 1/4 and it grows up nicely, but the rest of the plant is constantly producing dead branches and we cut them out, but we can't keep up with them. Are there better ways to manage a mockorange? Or is it destined to be a two-week wonder and a 50-week eyesore?
Adrian Higgins: That's what it is and this is why it is one of those old fashioned plants that has fallen from favor. I would suggest a major rejuvenation of the shrub by cutting it to the ground and waiting a couple of years for it to grow to its former size. It should come back with more vigor and health.
Cucumber: Adrian, Do you have any advice for planting cucumbers? I have a very small vegetable garden that I'd also like to play host to green beans and tomatoes.
Adrian Higgins: Cucumbers work beautifully in small gardens by growing them on trellising or netting. Arrange the trellis on a north south axis if possible for even light. Watch for cutworms as the seedlings emerge (fashion a barrier from cardboard)and pick off the cucumber beetle. Other supports can be used to grow both beans (get pole beans, not bush varieties) and tomatoes.
I was going to ask how to control spider mites on a buddleia. Would horticultural oils work in that situation? What sorts of oils should I look for? I've tried some homemade sprays--dishsoap and canola oil mixed with water was one recommendation--with no great success so far.
Adrian Higgins: Horticultural oil is commonly available, it is critical that you dilute it to the label instructions for use in hot weather.
Purcellville, Va: My Asparagus plants are all six feet tall and flopping over. Is it necessary to stake them or can I leave them as they are? Thank you?
Adrian Higgins: If your patch is big enough I would consider building an open fence around the plants to keep them from sprawling.
Germantown Md: Every year I buy a number of the margarita sweet potatoe vine for a number of pots that I have. At the end of the season I end up with many sweet potatoes. Last year I dried the potatoes and planted them in soil in early April. I am getting some shoots coming up. To get more plants from the potatoes, is it possible to cut the potatoe into smaller sections? Should I put the cut potatoes in soil to get them to root?
Adrian Higgins: You should cure them for a few days so the wound calluses. I think I would buy fresh tubers each year, which have been grown to be virus free and vigorous. I do admire your thrift, however.
What mulch(es) do you recommend using in raised vegetable beds (tomatoes and peppers, mostly)? Thanks!
Adrian Higgins: Not shredded hardwood mulch. I wish we had better access to salt marsh hay, but both pine straw and plain old straw work well. Hay tends to be seedy and weedy.
Fairfax, Va: Is it too late in the spring to spray my hemlocks with horticultural oil to control the wooly agelid? I planted 3 very nice hemlocks 5 years ago and up to now have not seen any white fuzzies until this weekend. I would hate to lose them and am willing to try whatever it takes to save them.
Adrian Higgins: A spray will help. Some people use a systemic insecticide, which reaches big hemlocks in a way spray cannot.
Southwest, D.C.: Up in New England, I swore by Moo Doo to give my yard's somewhat sandy soil a little more food. Any leads on where I can grab a few bags in the D.C. area?
Adrian Higgins: You don't need a specific brand or type. Any rotted compost or livestock manure will help with soil building. Leaf mold is great if you can find it.
Charlottesville, Va: Good morning and thank you very much for taking time out of your busy day.
I've got two questions both related to the fact that last winter I removed a red maple, and the front yard (about 12 by 15 yards) changed from pretty much full shade to almost full sun. One, the grass planted there was a dark shade fescue, and what if anything would you do now? Replant with a full sun variety? Wait to see how it handles it? Two, I am thinking of replacing the maple with a small fruit tree, either an apple or a cherry preferably. I am looking for a hardy, smallish tree with nice blossoms. It would be a definite bonus if the shade it produces is not total.
Adrian Higgins: A smaller apple or cherry tree sounds great. I would not try to do much to your lawn now until September, when you should sow turf type tall fescue. YOu will need to keep the crabgrass at bay, so do lay a preemergent now and keep on top of whatever sprouts. Don't use a herbicide too close to sowing time, however.
Bethesda Md: I recently have had an interest in growing some Tea plants, but i have had trouble finding seeds or seedlings. Can you give me some tips on how to go about this?
Adrian Higgins: If you had the tips you wouldn't need the plant. There's a lame joke in their, perhaps not worth fishing out. The botanical name is Camellia sinensis, I would do a Google search and see if you can find some commercial sources in the US.
Capitol Heights, Md: I have just "created" a back yard garden in a home we recently bought in Capitol Heights. The soil is very think and clay like. Most of the plants I have put in appear to be doing well, however, I'm wondering what I can add to the soil to create a better soil type for the longevity of my plants.
Adrian Higgins: I'm glad you see the wisdom of building soil. I had a call on a radio show the other day and the lady complained that she couldnt' grow anything. Well, you can grow everything if first you build the soil, and this involves the short term amending of beds and the long term building of beds through top dressing with screened compost. Investment in the soil now will avoid years of frustration.
Maryland: I thought rust generally was common only out west, while we on the east coast deal more commonly with mildew and fungi?
Adrian Higgins: We've had western weather for the past eight weeks. Dry and bright and cool.
I discovered last weekend that squirrels have been chewing on the expensive wood patio set we purchased in March. I've already tried spraying it down with ammonia - do you think that will help? Any other suggestions to keep the critters away? Thanks!
Adrian Higgins: I would try chewing on the squirrels. (Just kidding). Squirrels have a need to erode their teeth and they find your furniture perfect for this. I can't think of any remedy but covering it with hardware cloth for a while. Ugly but effective.
Arlington, Va: I have a question about the peony plant in my back garden. When I planted it last spring, it had one bud on it (which bloomed very nicely). This year, I was pleased to see 3 flower buds, but in recent weeks, two of the buds have stopped maturing (they got about as big as the tip of my index finger) and turned brown. The third is still growing, but has not bloomed yet (my neighbor's peonies are already well past peak bloom). It gets partial to full sun in the morning to about noon and dappled shade through the rest of the day. Is the plant still just maturing/getting established and will bloom more abundantly in coming springs? Did I miss a critical time to fertilize? Any insight you might offer would be useful.
Adrian Higgins: Dryness at the time the buds develop can cause them to abort, as can a cool climate fungal disease called botrytis.
Next year, make sure the beds are well watered in the spring, but keep the moisture off the buds.
Pittsford, NY: I have a Stewartia that has leafed our everywhere except the top (leader). It started dropping leaves last summer and I thought it was because it was so hot and dry. But it looks like that is not the case. Is there anything I can do that won't deform the tree permanently?
Adrian Higgins: You do need to remove the dead wood back to its junction with another branch.
Arlington, Va: I pot planted green jalepeno seeds of which, to my surprise (black thumb), one has sprouted. It is about two inches tall at this point and I would like to know what I should do to ensure I will be able to pick nice, ripe jalepenos later this season. Thanks.
Adrian Higgins: Peppers need hot dry sites and good soil moisture. Keep your pot in the sun and make sure the soil a) drains and b) gets sufficient moisture. I might also stake the plant before it needs it, and feed it a tomato feed. Alas, we have run out of time again. Enjoy this spectacular weather. The heat and humidity will be with us soon enough.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Post Garden editor Adrian Higgins is online to answer your plant questions.
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Life at Work Live
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Washington Post columnist Amy Joyce writes Life at Work on Sundays in the Business section and appears online every Tuesday to offer advice about managing interpersonal issues on the job.
An archive of Amy's Life at Work columns is available online.
Find more career-related news and advice in our Jobs section.
Amy Joyce: Good beautiful morning, folks. It's Tuesday, which means it's time to talk about your life at work. As always, join in with your own advice and stories to help your fellow readers along. There are a few posts here already that could use some insight from you, and perhaps learn from your good and bad experiences. So pipe up.
Meanwhile, I wrote a column on Sunday about networking and how we can do it and should do it anywhere, anytime. Sort of. I'm going to follow that with a column this coming Sunday about overdoing the networking thing. Are you overrun with calls asking for your guidance and help? Requests to meet for coffee? Requests for recommendations? Or did you ever realize you crossed the line when asking for help/guidance/a leg up on the competition? If so, email me at lifeatwork@washpost.com. I'd love to hear from you.
Alrighty then. Let's get this conversation going...
D.C. (Northwest): What's the difference between "networking" and "sucking up" or "kissing a--"? Furthermore, I wouldn't dare use my friends and contacts as a way to get a job. Isn't that called "using?" How shallow can one be?
Amy Joyce: Oh, dear. No, that's not sucking up or using. It's life. Reverse it. If you know of a great job opening that would be a perfect fit for a friend, wouldn't you want them to know about it? Wouldn't you want to help them if they came to you and asked for guidance/help/advice?
Networking is just putting yourself out there, letting people know who you are and what you hope to do. Networking is also putting yourself out there so you know what is available to you, opportunity-wise.
"Using" friends and contacts as a way to get a job isn't meant to be a back alley whispered thing. It's an obvious open way of finding what opportunities are available, that you could fill, and that would be a benefit to both you and these friends/contacts.
Howard County: Hi, Amy. I work for a government contractor in DC, a small company with less than 15 employees. I was hired three years ago as an accounts payable clerk but my duties are more along the lines of an administrative assistant. The pay is good, I've gotten a raise the last two of three years. I'm debating if I should stay or go.
The president of the company is a great employer and a very down to earth person. I haven't left yet because I have such a great boss. He is very supportive and understanding of my being a single parent and part time student(I'm a year and a half away from my bachelor's in accounting). He allows me to bring my child with me to work whenever necessary and take time off during midterms and finals to study. Though he is great to work for, I feel like I'm not making any progress professionally.
My problem is I'm bored at work and I've tried asking for more but there isn't more for me to do. My other problem is that I live in Howard County and work in Georgetown. My company was in Silver Spring when I first started here. Needless to say I spend roughly about 4 hours a day commuting. I've never enjoyed working in DC but I make the trek everyday because of the flexibililty I have. I'm questioning if having a job with this much flexibility is worth this amount of unhappiness. Any thoughts?
Amy Joyce: This is one of those questions where we could use your insight, folks.
Howard County, this is a tough call. I daresay it would be nearly impossible to find someone as flexible and understanding as your boss. Very few bosses would be so kind as to let you bring your child to work, let you focus on your education, AND offer you raises two years in a row.
If you can hold out until your schooling is over, this might be the time to do it. Then when you have your degree, look for that exciting job close to home. Can you hold out for that long?
I realize four hours of commuting is probably unbearable, so I know a year and a half sounds like an eternity. But I think if you found another job closer to home, you might have to give up time off to study or bringing your child to work when you're stuck.
How about you try having a serious discussion with him about your feeling that you're stuck professionally. Go beyond just asking for more work. Have a conversation with your boss about wanting to grow. Ask for a chance to try something off of your regular job description.
Anyone else want to pipe up with your own experiences about trying to decide?
Frederick, Md.: Great article about job connecting at social occasions! I'm not about to date to network but I have joined Toastmasters, which is great place to network. Although you need to take Toastmasters seriously, being a club member opens up very diverse opportunities for networking!
Amy Joyce: Any sort of group like that, or volunteer program is a good way to find diverse opportunities to meet people, hear about other jobs and get yourself out there. I just picture people going to things like Toastmasters and waking up and realizing that the job they so hate isn't something they HAVE to do. There are a lot of different opportunities out there. It's just up to you to find what else you can do.
Laid Off in D.C.: I was recently laid off and am not enthusiastic about networking. I know it's important but in D.C. the first thing people want to know is where you work, and when you say, "I recently left Company X," there can be a bit of awkwardness.
I normally tell people that I feel very relaxed about it and am looking forward to a new opportunity. Is this the right response to put people at ease? I don't want people to think I'm desperate.
washingtonpost.com: Maybe this will help ... read Amy's Sunday column about social networking: Job Connections Start as Social Connections , (Post, May 21)
Amy Joyce: I think that's totally fine. People aren't going to think you're desperate even if you say: I recently left Company X, but am hoping to find another job soon in Y.
Do that and you never know who might jump in and say that their company is hiring.
Washington, D.C.: I signed on with a company with the promise of a raise at my review in three months. I asked for the review at three months, and four, and five. I've now been here eight months and keep getting excuses for why I can't have a review (and subsequent raise) that I was promised when I took this job. How do I say that I can't stay here at my current salary without burning any bridges? And once I get my raise, how do I tactfully ask for the difference in back pay that I should have been receiving for the past five months?
Amy Joyce: I assume the three month raise issue wasn't in writing. That's the first thing to remember: It's at the company's discretion.
Also, even if you were reviewed at three months, how do you know your work was up to par to have earned a raise already? You can't ask for back pay. You don't know that you would have been given a raise even if you were reviewed.
Chill out, think about what you've done to earn a bump in salary. Once you've figured that out beyond the "But you SAID I'd get a raise" then go talk to your supervisor. Make a pitch as you would with any other business decision. Your boss knows you can leave if you're not happy. No need to threaten them. If you do, you are pretty likely to burn a bridge or two.
Stuck in a Rut in D.C.: I fear I know the answer to this question already, but I wanted to get your sage wisdom on it before I drew any conclusions. I detest networking. I find it phony, fake, awkward, and full of self-aggrandizing self-promoters who make you want to take a shower after meeting them at a cocktail reception. I believe that people should be rewarded based on merit. Don't get me wrong ... I will socialize and a flash a phony D.C. grin when the situation requires. But every time I see some dim-bulb schmoozer get promoted and earn more money, I can't help but think that my aversion to this ritual has held me back from advancing in my field. Isn't it a sad commentary on D.C. that the best back-slappers get the best jobs. While the most talented are often overlooked because they would rather just do a job professionally and not engage in this silly dance?
Amy Joyce: If you just sit there and do good work, no one will assume you want to move up or on. You need to tell people that you want to grow, move, advance. You need to pitch to people that you want another opportunity. Bump in salary. Different opportunity. That's networking.
In a perfect world, people would notice your good, hard work. Sometimes they do. But more often, you need to get out of your cube and talk to people. Let your boss know you want to move up. Let people at cocktail parties know who you are, and what you like to do. No backslapping necessary.
RE: Howard County:: Hang in there - your boss is worth his weight in gold. I've never heard of anyone so flexible and understanding with all the things you have going on, and I imagine that if/when you change jobs you'll compare all future bosses to him. You don't know how good you have it, girl. (Or guy.)
And congratulations for working towards a degree as a single parent! I have so much respect for you - I'm a married parent of one and don't have the mental energy to tie my shoes after work.
Amy Joyce: You bring up a very good point I was thinking but not typing: Howard County, you're amazing. Child, job, school. No wonder you feel a little burnt out. But despite all that, you're hoping to have more work and grow professionally. Just stop for one minute and pat yourself on the back. We all should take lessons.
The other side of networking: I think networking to get jobs is a great idea. But what about unemployed friends who persistently ask you for help ... and you really don't want to help that friend for good reasons? It's uncomfortable to tell someone you've been friends with for a long time that you don't want to help them because they don't take work seriously. I've been burned before. Not going to do it again.
Amy Joyce: This is the flip side of networking. I'll be writing about this for Sunday's Life at Work column in the dead tree version of the Post.
In fact, please email me at lifeatwork@washpost.com if you're willing to talk about this a little bit more. I'd love to hear how you've handled the multiple requests from your friend.
Washington, D.C.: I'm in the midst of negotiations for a new job with two companies currently. How do I indicate to each of these companies that they are not the only current offer on the block without sounding pretentious or arrogant? Could I legitimately use this to my advantage in terms of leveraging a higher salary?
Amy Joyce: Just say that you're looking at another offer right now as well and trying to figure out where you'd be a better fit. Then negotiate with each separately and make your decision from there. They will know that there's a chance this other company is offering more. Focus on each separately so you can make a decision based on the merits of each offer.
Washington, D.C.: Hi, Amy. How do you maintain your professionalism at work during personal problems? Very recently, I have gone through some major things, including an emotional breakup with my live-in boyfriend and deaths in the family, and on top of that, I don't even really like my job. I am getting into the habit of just leaving work when something upsetting happens, but I am starting to fear that I will soon be reprimanded for just "up and leaving". I want to be able to stick it out and push those issues aside while I'm at work, but its hard. So far no one has caught me crying, but its just a matter of time unless I figure out how to deal. Any advice would be great.
Amy Joyce: This is another one that readers here might be able to chime in about. We've all been through this personally unbearable stuff while trying to keep going at work. What words of wisdom do you all have?
From me: I'm so sorry about the personal side of your life right now. Can you look at work as a nice constant when everything else is in flux?
Take baby steps: I'm a big fan lately of lists. Either at the end of your work day or in the morning, make a list of 10 things or so that you want to get done. Even little things like "E-mail XX to tell her about the project deadline." As you finish each, cross them off. Soon, you'll find you're at the end of your work day. If you have to cry, go for it. That's what restrooms are for. If you need to get out of the office for some air, do it. Take a walk around the block. Treat yourself to a midday coffee or something that gives you a little thrill.
Changing jobs in the midst of a big life change might only add to your problems. Try to hang in there. When your mind clears a little bit, you can then decide what to do about your job.
RE: Networking: I can understand that some people would not want to network because they're shy or don't like promoting themselves. I feel awkward about boasting about myself, but I also know that there are so many talented, smart people in this city who want to move up, get better opportunities, and no one will know that I want those things too unless I talk to them. I don't walk up to people in positions of power and tell them I want a job or even expect them to give me a job. I use every opportunity to learn more about what's out there, what people are doing, and what I might like to do next. I've found that most people like to talk about their work (if they're in interesting jobs) and more people than not are willing to help someone who seems interested and smart and not overly pushy. This city works on networking more than most, and taking advantage of that is necessary if you want to move and grow in this town. I've also found that networking is good at honing my instincts - if someone feels sleazy or I don't get a good feeling, then it's off the list - trust your instincts and think of it as a way of meeting new, interesting people who some day might be able to send some good information or work your way. And finally, I agree with your answer to the first question - if I hear of something that may not be right for me, I think of who of my friends might be interested, and if I meet someone who is in a line that's not mine, but a friend's, I'll network for friends!
Amy Joyce: Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks.
RE: D.C. : For the poster in Washington who was promised a raise. I worked as a manager of a company that hired people at very low "probationary period" salaries -- with a promise of a step increase based on performance. Sounds reasonable? Yep. But the company really only wants a steady stream of low level analysts. When the probationary period ends, the goal is to get rid of that person and start the process again. I don't know if this is happening where you are, but it sounds like it. I know several people who have been caught up with firms like this. It's horrible because there is no way change the dynamics.
Amy Joyce: Ugh. That sounds miserable.
Another view: People who have posted so far in this chat seem to have a very sleazy view of networking. It is not just the way unworthy schmoozers get ahead through subterfuge. For me networking can be nothing more than attending work related events like workshops and seminars, asking a question to a speaker after their presentation, or sending an e-mail to inquire about someone's recent publication. It is not so unseemly to pursue your professional interests in ways that benefit your current work, and, oh by the way, maybe someone else out there also thinks favorably of your work, interest, and intellect. Some people are quick to jump on the person that engages a superior at a luncheon, for example, but maybe that person asked an insightful question or made a compelling point. That sort of interaction counts when building your professional reputation.
Amy Joyce: Another smart view. Thanks...
Washington, D.C.: I used to hate networking, then I ended up in a job where it was required. As an introvert and anti-backslapper, I was sure I would blow it. But, seriously, it's not that bad. I've learned that the vast majority of people are uncomfortable in social situations, and if you start a conversation they actually consider it a relief.
In D.C., almost everyone is from somewhere else, so I tend to start with the "where are you from?" chestnut. From there, you can either talk about their hometown OR about their time in D.C. Consider the conversation a road and just keep taking whatever forks come your way. If you run out of steam in one direction, backtrack and start over at the fork you didn't take.
I also decided that it was easier for me to not be a quantity networker. I would rather have one or two quality conversations and learn something about the people than have a handshake with everyone in the room. It's what works for me.
Amy Joyce: Yep, I'd say it's not about backslapping (which I think is an imagined part of networking that barely exists) and more about having conversations. People are people, even at networking events.
Networking to help friends: How about if you submit your friend's resume with personal recommendation at your work, the friend interviews yet doesn't get the job? I made no promises, and the job position was open and well-suited for my friend, but it just didn't work out for reasons I don't know and won't ask the interviewers. It's a little awkward now because my friend is really disappointed and hasn't had much luck elsewhere.
Amy Joyce: It happens. At least you got your friend an interview, which probably wouldn't have happened otherwise. They should know you have no power other than to pass the resume along, but that's better than nothing.
Working the network: I used to think I hated networking. I'm very shy and don't do self-promotion. Then I took a look at my job history and realized that I've gotten atleast five jobs through friends. Turns out I've been networking all along without even knowing it.
Amy Joyce: That's it. And true for most people, I'd think.
RE: Howard County: I can emphasize with Howard County and her commute as I have the same one. I have been lucky to have a boss who lets me be a little flexible. I hate my commute but will stick it out another couple of years till I can retire. I would advise her to stick with it another year and a half until she finishes school. She has a great advantage with her supportive boss. She has done it for three years so another year and half is not that much in the grand scheme of things. Hang in there!
Amy Joyce: Another opinion, if you can stomach it, Howard County.
RE: Emotional problems at work: A few years ago, my husband surprised me by asking for a divorce. I went through the process of grieving/dealing with that, plus trying to find a new place to live, etc. -- mostly at work. There were two coworkers who were great in giving me a shoulder to cry on and would check in with me daily. Aside from them, I didn't tell anyone about it at first. I mostly kept my office door closed and just did the best I could to get my work done. As Amy said, lists were key.
I actually found work kind of a refuge -- I had been at that job a few years at that point, and I felt that I could do the job pretty well. It gave me something to think about besides my personal problems. I went to counseling appointments during my lunch hour (twice a week at the beginning).
When I finally felt like I could hold myself together, I told my boss what was happening. Mostly I wanted her to understand what was going on in case I wasn't doing my best work. Not to give me a free pass, but I wanted her to be able to tell me if she thought I was slacking in a certain area. She was very supportive and actually said I had been doing a good job, which made me feel a little better.
Work remained the one constant through that whole crazy time, which was really important to me through lots of upheaval. It helped me get through some of my personal crises.
To the earlier poster, good luck.
Amy Joyce: Thanks so much. I hope the earlier poster is still reading.
For the three month raise person: Amy, the poster isn't just asking about the raise. He/she has asked for a REVIEW and keeps being put off. Yes, it appears the poster assumes a raise will follow, but is there really any excuse for putting off someone's review? How can someone know if work is up to par and make corrections so as to BE raise-worthy if supervisors won't talk about performance? And it's not that they're saying, "I'm sorry, we only do annual reviews" or something, but that they keep making excuses. Hasn't your position been that asking for a chance to talk about performance is a good move?
Amy Joyce: I didn't get in to the whole review thing because this person, unfortunately, isn't looking for feedback, it sounds like. But you do bring up a good point: This person could just go to the boss and say he wants feedback even if a raise doesn't follow. That might push the boss to give a review. But I don't think that's what this poster is looking for...
Washington, D.C.: I work in the nonprofit sector, and for the most part enjoy my work. However, I'm in my late 20's, and have been giving some thought to whether or not this is what I want to do forever. In thinking about what other skills I have to offer, it struck me that I've always enjoyed planning -- planning vacations, planning parties, helping my sister plan her wedding ... you get the idea. I've also planned several medium-sized conferences in the past and done a good job with them. Do you know of any relatively low-cost ways to explore this option more fully -- a class or lecture series, perhaps?
Amy Joyce: Gang? How should DC find out about planning? Is there an association anyone can recommend?
RE: Washington, D.C.: Sometimes going into counseling can help develop coping mechanisms for this. We all have problems, and are essentially expected to continue to work and be productive/effective anyway. It you're not feeling successful at this, go talk to somebody.
Amy Joyce: Good point. And make sure to see if your company has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)... you could get a few free sessions.
Philadelphia, Penn.: Here's my experience with networking (which I'm a huge fan of). I attend a professional convention every year. Occasionally I'll see someone I haven't seen in years -- usually it's an old college acquaintance. Twice I've been asked on the spot to give a recommendation for a job. What can they be thinking? I don't understand why someone who hasn't seen you for a long time would want a recommendation, much less put you in that position. You don't know anything about the person, how she works, whatever. You can't write anything positive if you haven't interacted with them.
Amy Joyce: Please email me. I'd love to talk about this. Thanks. lifeatwork@washpost.com.
Amy Joyce: Folks, I have another question for you, and am hoping you'll email me. Have you had to take a personality assessment or other ethics test when you applied for a job? I'd love to hear from you at lifeatwork@washpost.com.
Washington, D.C.: Hi, Amy. I started my job at a new company 3 months ago and have been enjoying it very much. It's in the field I love and I'm working with really great, influential people. Yesterday I got a phone call (out of the blue) from a recruiter that said my name had been mentioned a few times by different people and he'd like to set up an interview with me for another company. The job he proposed is basically my dream job. It's a bit of a stretch professionally, but I love a challenge. It also happens to be almost DOUBLE my current salary. I feel guilty even entertaining the thought of an interview, though, especially because I've only been at my current job three months. I'm not sure whether to pursue this other offer ... I could use your advice! Thanks!
Amy Joyce: It doesn't hurt to check it out. It might go nowhere, or you might interview and decide you're much happier where you are. Just because you interview with someone doesn't mean you're moving on.
Advice on networking...: (I'm the person who got laid off.) I have to say that I regret not networking more. I have a circle of professional contacts but somehow they all seem to forget where I work. They always say that they never see me out. And now that I'm looking for something new, I'm feeling a little bit reluctant to calling "now that I need something."
It's important to stay connected. Not just for your next job, but to maintain your professional profile. My excuse? Burnout, I think.
Amy Joyce: And just because you haven't seen them in a while doesn't mean you shouldn't call them now. Just start breaking back in to that circle. Don't ask them for a job right away. But if they ask you what's up, tell them. And a good reminder to always stay at least a teeny bit in touch with those contacts.
The Kids' Table, D.C.: Hi Amy,
I am about ten years out of college, but still get asked if I'm an intern. (I am petite and look very young.) I've tried everything - cutting my hair, wearing heels, dressing up, everything. But I still get asked if I'm an intern.
First off, I'm worried that I'll never get taken seriously because of the way I look. Second, coworkers (especially older women) go on and on (and on!) about how young I look, which I find really embarrassing.
Amy Joyce: I'm in the same boat (most days). Lots of people are. This winter, the woman I buy coffee from commented on my scarf. I told her my husband bought it for me. "You're married already?!" she exclaimed. I proceeded to tell her my age. She was shocked. I know I get the same thing when I meet people, interview them and work near them. The best thing to do is stop focusing on it. You're not an intern. So do your not-intern job. It'll all clear up soon enough. If it doesn't (and I'm sure you've heard this before) bask in your fountain of youth.
Amy Joyce: Okay, gang. It's that time. Join me again next week, same time, same place to discuss your life at work. Don't forget to check out Life at Work, the column, in your Sunday Business section.
And please email me if you had to take those pre-employment assessments/personality tests/ethics tests at lifeatwork@washpost.com.
Have a great week and long weekend!
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post staff writer Jon Gallo was online Tuesday, May 23, at 11 a.m. ET to examine the WNBA season and the Washington Mystics.
Jon Gallo: Hi. It's time for another WNBA season. I've spent plenty of time around the Mystics the past month and they feel they have assembled the best team in franchise history. Is that true? I guess their fans will start finding out tonight against New York.
Silver Spring, Md.: Dear Jon: It's been good to see some articles covering the Mystics. Quite a few of us have been writing to the ombudsman to complain about the lack of coverage. It's appalling that The Post has ignored one of our city's professional sports teams so completely in the past. How often can we expect to see some news now that the season has begun? I would like to commend reporters like Jayda Evans in Seattle and Mechelle Voepel in Kansas to you as examples of how fascinating daily coverage of our exciting sport of women's basketball can be. I look forward to reading more and longer articles by you in the Post about our beloved Washington Mystics and our championship Maryland Terps! Thanks, Joan
Jon Gallo: Our paper is committed to covering the Mystics. I thought we gave our readers a comprehensive preview package on not just the Mystics, but every team in the league. I attended practice regularly during the preseason and any cuts the team made were reported in the next day's paper. We covered the draft from inside the Mystics' "War Room" inside ESPN Zone. I also wrote a feature on the players' lives while they are competing overseas. We covered their preseason game against Houston. I know I'm biased, but I don't think any newspaper has given the WNBA more space so far than The Washington Post.
Clinton, Md.: What is the team's chances of winning it all?
Jon Gallo: Right now, it's too early to tell. Last year, there were several teams in the Eastern Conference that were clearly better than the Mystics---Connecticut, Indiana, New York.
However, the Mystics may have improved their team more than anybody else in the league during the offseason. It's tough to talk about the "team's chances of winning it all" before they have played a regular season game. There's no reason why the Mystics should not make the playoffs and in the postseason, it's not always about who is the better team: it's about which team is playing the best at that point. I still think until the Mystics prove they can beat Connecticut, Indiana and Detroit---the Shock has five starters who played in the All-Star game last year---any talk of contending for the title is premature.
How would you assess the Mystics three rookies: Nikki Blue, Tamara James and Zane Teilane.
Jon Gallo: Tamara James: Great shooter, but needs to work on her defense. She'll come off the bench and will be expected to contribute right away. Richie Adubato thinks she could blossom into a star. It will be interesting to see how James adjusts from being a go-to player in college to being a role player with the Mystics. But based on what I've seen, she's done a good job with the adjustment so far.
Blue: Adubato thinks she's the steal of the draft. When I was in the Mystics "War Room" at the draft. They had Blue being selected from No. 5 to No. 10 overall. They never thought they had a shot at her. But as she kept slipping, the Mystics still didn't think she would fall all the way to No. 19---the Mystics' pick in the second round. But when Blue was available, they chose her without hesitation. In camp, she's been the biggest surprise. I don't think Adubato or GM Linda Hargrove knew she would be as good as she has been. She appears to be a great back-up for Teasley based on what Blue's done during the preseason. Will that continue in the regular season? I guess we'll start finding out tonight.
Teilane: She's 6-foot-7, 170 pounds and is on the inactive list for a reason. She's a project. Her height is great, but will she be physical enough to compete against post players who outweigh her by more than 20 pounds. I don't think she'll make much of an impact this season, if any.
Hampton, Va.: Hello. Rumors are Alana has an ankle injury and may not play tonight. Can you confirm her status? Thanks.
Jon Gallo: Alana Beard is fine. I just talked to a representative from the Mystics who is at practice and she is watching Alana in particpate in the shootaround and as of 11:04 a.m. she is fine. She is expected to start tonight....
Basketville, Washington, D.C.: So Jon, any relation to Ernest and Julio?
Jon Gallo: Nope. But I do buy Gallo wine because I think the company has by far the coolest name in the world.
Lusby, Md.: Jon: When you cover a game, do you actually write your story as the game is being played, or do you take notes and write the story afterwards?
Jon Gallo: I write as the game porgresses because in sports, the most important moment could happen at any time. At the final buzzer, I have most of my story done. Then, I go to the locker room where I talk with Richie Adubato and the players. I take the quotes and plug them into my story and brush the story us with some more details and then send it via email to a copy editor after I proofread it.
Washington, D.C.: Jon: Your answers above show a lot of knowledge about the team and the league. You are new to this beat; what did you do to get yourself up to speed?
Jon Gallo: This is my first year covering the Mystics. However, I've spent the past few weeks talking to coaches around the league---Bill Laimbeer, Anee Donovan, Mike Thibault, Muggsy Bogues, Paul Westhead, etc...
I've attended practices regularly and spent a lot of time talking to Mystics GM Linda Hargrove and I read all the WNBA stories in other newsapapers. I feel as a reader, you deserve to read a story written by someone who understands his or her beat very, very well.
Norfolk, Va.: Rebkell nation would like to know status of Alans for tonights game. Thanks
Jon Gallo: Alana Beard is still fine. She is still expected to start tonight.....
Los Angeles, Calif.: I've watched the WNBA since game one in Los Angeles, Now w/3 of the Spark's top pieces from the Championship teams in 2000 & 2001 play for the Mystics,, I have to say I hope they win the East and the title as long as the West Champion isn't LA. The amazing piece to the puzzle is Latasha Byers, your GM should win the executive of the year for that signing alone. How did you get the two best players to line up in the front court next to Lisa Leslie, ever? (Olympics included) D_Nasty & Tot....that's some kinda forward starpower. Wow!
Jon Gallo: Byears was a huge signing for the Mystics and it also came with very little risk. She signed a training camp contract and if she didn't make the team, she would have been owed no money. Byears bring a physical presence the team lacked last year. DeLisha Milton-Jones and Chasity Melvin couldn't be more happy the 5-foot-11, 206-pound Byears can help them rebound. The Mystics front court didn't produce as Richie hoped last year---the Mystics were one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. Now, they will start Crystal Robinson, Milton-Jones and Melvin, with Byears and James coming off the bench. The Mystics feel their front court can now hold their own against Connecticut and Detroit, which boast arguably the best front court in the league. But as for Hargrove winning executive of the year, let's wait and see until how Byears plays this year. She's been out of the WNBA for three years ..
Alexandria, Va.: Jon: Abe Pollin is of course a sports legend in D.C. What do you think the biggest impact the new owners of the Mystics will have on the team?
Jon Gallo: I've talked to President Sheila Johnson on several occasions. I don't know how much she knows about basketball. But what I do know is she is proven business woman and has a track record that proves it. Already, she has shown a huge committment to improving the Mystics. She quadrupled the team's staff who work on improving the franchise year-round. She's gone out and more than doubled corporate sponsorships to bring added revenue. She also is making game's more fan friendly.
As for the basketball aspect, she's hired people who understand the game and how to run basketball team---GM Linda Hargrove, Coach Richie Adubato and Chief Operating Officer Curtis Symonds. She knows that all the work she does in the community in terms of making the game more appealing to fans won't matter if the Mystics lose regularly. She is confident that her plan can bring a championship to Washington.
Where did Teilane come from? One minute we had Sanford, Chones and Smith vying for the final two spots on the team and then suddenly Chones and Smith were out and Teilane fell into the picture.
Jon Gallo: Chones, Smith and Sanford were competing for the final two spots. Chones got cut, and GM Linda Hargrove said that this was likely the final roster unless she saw someone on the waiver wire. That person turned out to be Teilane, who they obviously felt was better than Aiysha Smith. Teilane is 6-7, 170 and had a great college career at Western llinois. She's a project though-and that's why she's on the inactive list. She needs to get bigger.
washingtonpost.com: Chones Cut As Mystics Set Roster (Post, May 19)
Washington, D.C.: Every time I see a Mystics box score, I always see Laurie Koehn 2-3 or 3-4 from behind the arc, and usually that's only with 8 or 9 minutes of play. Why doesn't she get more playing time, and more opportunities to shoot the three.
Jon Gallo: Koehn is a great outside shooter. There was no more effiecient three-pointer shooter in the league last year. However, Richie is concerned with her ball-handling and defense, which is why her playing time is limited. If she improves those two areas, she could be a starter since it will force teams to play man-to-man. If the Mystics see a zone defense, Adubato will insert Koehn and have her shoot three-pointers until she can't lift her arms.
Stockbridge, Mass.: Jon, What do you do to prepare to cover a specific game?
Jon Gallo: Let's say the Mystics are playing Houston. I'll read the Houston Chronicle for the latest news. I'll talk to Richie before the game about what he's planning on doing, and what worries him---with Houston, you know he'll be focused on stopping Swoopes and Thompson. I'll read the media guides and then I'll head to Verizon Center.
Washington, D.C.: Do you think that the mystics have improved better this year?
Jon Gallo: I asked Richie that question a few days ago. He said his team should be much better than last year and as long as they stay healthy, should make the playoffs.
Triangle, Va.: While the Mystics have drawn reasonably well over the years, they've struggled a bit in recent seasons. Will Maryland's NCAA title have a residual effect in getting D.C. people interested in the WNBA again? Also, there's been talk about expanding the WNBA to 16 teams in a few years. What markets do you consider likely to get teams, either through expansion or relocation (e.g., Charlotte)? Large markets, such as Philadelphia, the Bay Area or Kansas City? Areas with women's or girls' basketball tradition, such as Des Moines or Nashville?
Jon Gallo: Great questions. First, I'm not sure if there will be any residual effect between Maryland winning the NCAA title and the Mystics. If the Mystics win, the team believes, the fans will come.
As for expansion, I asked WNBA president Donna Orender about it last week. Here is what that portion of the transcript:
Q: Over the next few years, do you anticipate any more expansion and are
you looking at any cities specifically?
Orender: I do anticipate expansion. We're looking at a couple of markets
right now. I would think that right now my personal focus is getting us
through this great season and enjoying it. Then, strategically, we're
talking.the phone rings with all kinds of people interested in franchise
ownership. Our job now is to strategically analyze that and then prioritize
the markets that we would want to enter.
Q: Do you want to get x-number of teams by [for example] 2008?
Orender: (People) ask me that all the time. The answer at this point and
time is "no." We don't say we have to have this number. With 14 right now,
I'd like these 14 to be humming. There's a tremendous amount of momentum
out of these markets and I would like to see them grow. And as the right
situation is developed, we'll embrace it and bring it on.
Q: [What city] has inquired the most about getting a WNBA franchise?
Orender: At this point and time I think that it's better for all parties if we just say that there are several key markets that would make sense to join the WNBA.
She didn't exactly reveal anything.
I think if there is expansion, I think the league would look at the following cities: Dallas and Boston.
I don't think you could put a WNBA franchise in a city that does not have an NBA team. Right now, even the established teams are having trouble improving their atttendance numbers and attendance throughout the league is dropping.
Texas: How good do you think Delisha Milton-Jones is and do you think she will reach All-Star Status again
Jon Gallo: She's one of the top-10 players in the league. Last year, the Mystics had to use her at small forward, but now she'll get to play pwoer forward, her natural position. DMJ is one of the top players in the league right now according to Adubato and Sun Coach mike Thibault, who was very impressed with how she played overseas.
Washington, D.C.: Can the Mystics pull it off this year, with this team? It would be nice to see the team get a banner along with the fans.
Jon Gallo: All I know right now is they are better team right now than they were last year. Remember, this was a team that didn't even make the playoffs last year, so for the Mystics to go from 16-18 to a league title would be pretty remarkable....
Silver Spring, Md.: Jon: Am I missing something or is the Mystics publicity really lacking? I see ten-story posters of Wizards players everywhere and very little about the Mystics. The Wizards aren't drawing legions of paying fans and their players' salaries are waaaay higher than the Mystics players. Do you think a better Mystics publicity campaign is deserved and do you think it would raise attendance enough to be worth it?
Jon Gallo: First, the Wizards were in the playoffs and I think you are referring to the huge banner on Verizon Center.
The Mystics have not started their season yet. I think the Mystics spent more time improving their team on the court than it's public image. If they poured a lot of money into posters and billboards and then fielded a bad team, it would be a bad investment. I think if the Mystics start winning, the players faces might start popping up around town a little more regularly.....
Washington, D.C.: The Mystics' owners have said they'd love to have the 2007 All-Star Game here, as part of the team's 10th anniversary celebration. It was a blast when it was held here before, but the ASG hasn't been out west for some time and will be in NY this summer. Do you think Sheila Johnson can get it here next summer?
Jon Gallo: The Mystics want the All-Star game, but it's unclear if they will get it. I think you make a point. The All-Star game usually helps a team's attendance throughout the year. Apparently, Phoenix (7,302 average attendance last year), Houston (7,139), Minnesota (6,673) and Charlotte (5,746) are having trouble attracting fans.
Georgia: Do you think Delisha Milton-Jones will be chosen to the All_ Decade team
Jon Gallo: As a staff writer at The Washington Post, I am not allowed to vote on the All-Decade team. Here are DeLisha Milton-Jones' career stats since her rookie year in LA in 1999: 11.2 ppg on 46.1 % shooting, 5.8 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.5 spg.
And, she's won WNBA championships.
Kingstowne, Va.: What do the other teams' press say about the Mystic team this season? Do they see us in the same light as we do: a team to be reckoned with? Thanks.
Jon Gallo: From what I've read, the national media has deemed Detroit as the WNBA champion and the Mystics as a playoff team. The general feeling is that the Mystics have improved enough to make the playoffs, but not go very far in them.
Columbia, Md.: Why did the Mystics just give up on and trade their WNBA Rookie-of-the-Year, Temeka Johnson? I am so angry about this (as a fan of LSU women's basketball). It seems that they never gave her a true shot last year. The way they played her (or didn't), and the fact that they gave up on her and traded her has really turned me off for being a Mystics fan. In fact, I'm going to the game Saturday to pull for Minnesota (with LSU star Seimone Augustus), especially after what happened to Temeka (and now Aiysha Smith, too).
Jon Gallo: Here's why the Mystics traded Johnson.
1. They felt Nikki Teasley was better.
2. They felt Murriel Page---the last original Mystic--had run her course.
3. They felt the quality of player they would give up with the fifth pick would not be that much better than who they would select with the eighth pick. For the record, Blue's teammate at UCLA, Lisa Willis, was taken fifth. Tamara James was taken with the eighth pick. I think the Mystics will keep a close eye on both of them to see who develops into a better player. In her first game, Willis scored exactly 0 points against Seattle on Sunday in 12 minutes.
Jon Gallo: Thank you for all the great questions. I'm sorry I couldn't answer them all today. Thanks for tuning in---let's do it again soon.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Fitness - Moving Crew
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The Moving Crew is here to take your questions, comments, stories and ideas about personal fitness.
Health section editor Craig Stoltz and section contributor John Briley were online Tuesday, May 23, at 11:30 a.m. ET to talk with you throughout the hour. Health assistant editor Susan Morse was unable to join the discussion.
As the Moving Crew, we specialize in helping beginners get started, regular exercisers reach the next level and everybody avoid injuries, stick with their programs and have fun.
And because the fitness world can be so intimidating to folks who are overweight and sedentary -- and since they can benefit so much from a fitness program -- we take special pride in helping them along the path to fitness.
The Moving Crew will be online to take questions every other Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. ET.
John Briley: Goooood Moooorning Chatland!
Hopefully you all have warmed up appropriately (coffee, tea, healthy snack), donned your e-chat wear (business casual!) and settled into your ergonomically correct chair. Me, I'll be squirming around in my seat a bit today due to a hamstring injury suffered playing ultimate Frisbee (I know, gotta stop pretending I'm a kid, right?) but this should not impact my chat skills.
Today we're discussing - surprise! - fitness, anything and everything related thereto. So bring us your questions, confusions, complaints and compliments and we will do all we can to help out. Let's do it...
Hyattsville, Md.: For months I have been thinking of joining a gym in DC (WSC and likes) because it was convenient to go after work, but it looks like almost all of them will ask you to sign up for two years contract or pay unreasonably high monthly installments.
Do you know a decent, inexpensive gym around DC area that doesn't committ you a long term contract?
I was for a long time member of Fitness First, a chain of fairly priced clubs known for decent but unfrilled service. At that time I was paying $33 a month ($38 if you also wanted access to the downtown facility near K and, I think, 19th Street). They required a one-year deal at that rate and then converted to month-to-month. I'm told they have similar policies still, but seek other Crewsters' weigh-ins on FF and the question generally.
Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.: Good Morning,
Is it okay to do ab-only exercises on days that I don't do cardio or strength training and still received the benefits of the workout. I just don't have time to dedicate 20-30 minutes soley to abs on the days that I visit the gym or take my 2 mile walks. Thanks so much.
John Briley: Sure, D.C. D.C., you can do the ab work independent, but do something to warm up a little before launching right into crunches. If you've been sitting at a desk all day, for example, your muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc etc could be tight and cold and maybe, just maybe, you could pull something, even doing a basic crunch. So five minutes of light cardio, a few gentle neck rolls, some standing side bends - that type of thing.
Two other points: One, the abs are big muscles and don't really need quite as much focus as some people put into them. As part of a standard strength training workout, 10 to 15 minutes of ab work should suffice. As I trust you are doing already, make sure you work the obliques.
Two, make sure you work your back muscles at least every other strength training workout. You want balance throughout your core to ensure stability and to guard against back injury.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: I'm heading to the beach at the end of June, and I would like to get a little more muscular before the trip. I am at a good weight for my height (male, 5'9, 160) but I have a small spare tire and very little visible muscle. Is my goal a lost cause, or do you think I could make an impact somewhere? I plan to concentrate on core, shoulders, chest, and arms, with some cardio and lower body work.
John Briley: Hey Pittsburgh -
There are no lost causes! The answer here depends on what you're currently doing for exercise, coupled with your diet. Are you already working out regularly? If yes, and you are not seeing results, try to mix it up - you can work the same muscles through different exercises, and your body should respond. Focus on large muscle groups - chest, abs, back, glutes, quads - and some of the others will fall into place.
Regarding the abs, see my answer to the poster above about working all parts of the core: This WILL NOT "spot-reduce" your spare tire, but will develop the muscles so that if you manage to lose that fat your he-man strength will show.
How to lose the fat? Burn more calories than you consume - try to run a 200- to 300-cal-per-day deficit (moderate to intense cardio is a quick way to burn calories) - and eat healthy. WHAT you eat is so important, along with how much. So brown rice, broccoli, grapefruit, lean protein (grilled fish or chicken), nuts and grains... Avoid junk food, fast food, trans fats, sodas, rich dairy and decadent desserts.
Last note: Body type has some say in how much our muscles develop. Sounds like you are fairly lean, so you may not achieve Charles Atlas status in a month, but you should be able to get some tone.
Falls Church, Va.: I'm recently considered taking supplements to add to working out process. I'm a novice when it comes to GNC, thus I was wondering if you could recommend anything I could take and the pro's and con's of doins so.
Craig Stoltz: Hi Falls Church,
As regular visitors to this chat know, I can get lecturey on this topic, but here 'goes: I don't believe supplements are a good idea for most people. Because of their thin layer of regulation, they often are sold with claims that are not supported by scientific evidence; some may be harmful; you never know what's really in the pill.
Here's what I recommend: Maximize the benefits you seek (I imagine it's adding muscle volume) first with a healthy diet and a robust workout plan. Then if you're not satisfied, consider *careful and modest* supplementation.
Whey protein is healthy stuff, providing a lot of "clean" protein and amino acids that *may* help add muscle bulk, but in any event in moderate amounts does no harm. It's essentially a dairy byproduct. Of other bulking supplements, creatine is the best studied and shown to be at least moderately beneficial (in some people in some circumstances, of course).
Do not buy supplements from a trainer; do not load up on amino acids beyond what you find in a whey protein; do not consider vitamins and minerals beyond what you find in a multivitamin (see today's lead story in the Health section for more on multis); do not buy anything at a vitamin store with icky pictures of ripped people on the front and names like "mega" and "max" and "pure ripped fuel 5000x with beta maxitine hydroxy acid and muscle-whopping xadrine plus."
Washington, D.C.: Can you suggest a good book (or Web site, or other source of info) about core training?Thanks!
John Briley: Framework, by Nicholas DiNubile, is good BUT is not solely for core. It's a total body management book, with good illustrations, and you conceivably could use it to cherry pick core exercises. We always recommend total body management anyway, so I do recommend it.
Washington, D.C.: Hi Crew! Thanks for taking my question...I just want your opinion on my schedule! I have worked out consistently for about 5 years now (since college) because before that, I always managed to stay in shape playing sports! Anyhow, I joined weight watchers in Feb. to try to lose about 25 pounds...I'm down 15! So, on my 5'5'', 24 year old frame, 138 puts me at a healthy BMI but I still want to lose 10 more (mainly for looks). I do yoga about twice a week, lift circuit weights twice a week, spin twice a week, and then mix up my cardio the rest of the week (cardio kick class, step class, running). I feel like I'm in overall good health but looking to keep my schedule mixed up enough to stay on my weightloss track. Oh, whenever I walk or run on the treadmill, I'm constantly switching up the speed and the incline. Do you think I'm doing well? Any suggestions? Thanks!
Craig Stoltz: Hi Washington, you're an inspiration to us all, with the weight loss and your regular commitment to a very intelligently designed program.
I have little to suggest beyond what you're doing. The mix of cardio and strength work sounds right (and ambitious), the inclusion of yoga adds flexibility and functional strength, and the variety should reduce the chances of plateauing and overuse injury.
If you do plateau, shake it up more: for instance replace yoga with kickboxing or body pump classes, change to multiple set strength work focussing on your legs, give that much-ignored rowing machine in the corner some attention.
One note: Many folks reach healthy BMI and have a hard time losing that "last" 10 pounds or so. I speak without portfolio on this, but I suspect there are some people whose bodies are determined to maintain a "healthy" weight with some degree of insulation rather than maintain a (perhaps more aesthetically desirable, to some, I guess) lower weight.
You're fit, you're healthy, you're happy. It's the smile that's most important, not the definition in your glutes.
New York, N.Y.: Which setting on the treadmill do you recommend best for weight loss? Is it better to go a shorter length on a more aerobically intensive course (such as the "hill" setting) or is greater sustained distance a better option?
John Briley: Hiya NYC - We get this question a lot, and what we say a lot is this: A. For weight loss, what matters most is energy expended, not method; and B. It's always good to mix up your cardio workouts over the course of a given week, both to keep your body guessing and to keep your training interesting.
So, one day long and steady, another day short and brutal, another day moderate with some interval sprints tossed in. All of that supplemented by strength training to keep your muscles and bones strong enough to excel at the cardio.
Regarding fat loss, yes, there are subtle differences in precisely what energy stores your body will tap into depending on intensity, but from an exercise standpoint all that really matters is whether the number of calories you're expending exceeds the number you are consuming. (There is more to consider from a dietary standpoint; for that I suggest you hit Sally Squires' Lean Plate Club chat today at 1 p.m.).
Alexandria, Va: The pool is opening this weekend, yippee. How do I know I am getting a good work out swimming? I'm in the process of getting healthy so making sure I am doing "enough" is very important. Is time more important than speed? or vise versa. Does a half an hour on the treadmill equal a half an hour of laps?
Craig Stoltz: Hi Alex, I'd like to hear from water-loving Crewsters on this. I'll tell you what I've read and know from some limited (quite distant) experience with fitness swimming:
1. It's easy to slack while swimming; once you have a smooth stroke you don't have to work too hard to gin out lots of laps. Alternating -- fast lengths/laps with easier ones -- is a good way to ensure you get your heart rate up without the pain and necessarily shortened time of an all-sprint workout.
2. Generally, because you are not fighting gravity and "benefitting" from all that wonderful up-and-down shimmying and pounding from running, other things being equal a swimming workout burns fewer calories than a similar workout say, running.
Any veteran swimmers have anything to add, correct?
Washington, D.C.: When I take yoga the room is always cold because the class is right after an aerobics session that uses the same space. Are there socks that are made to be used in yoga? Because my feet tend to cramp up when they are cold. Thanks!
Craig Stoltz: Well hello, Washington:
You're in luck: there are several brands of yoga socks that give you traction and warmth.
ToeSox, as the name suggests, have little sheaths for each toe and look really funny, at least to me.
Yoga Grip Foot Gloves have a model where only the big toe has its own pocket, and the rest of the sock is normal.
There are quite a few brands of tractioney regular socks made for a variety of fitness activities.
Look these up on the Web and you should find what you want.
washingtonpost.com: All That Sweat Is No Elliptical Illusion (Post, April 18)
Bored, bored: First time poster. I am bored with my regular workout, running, elliptical, running, elliptical. I enjoy geting on the treadmill and would like to stick with that, but where could I get new workouts to try on there? Any information on iPod workouts? Suggestions would be appreciated!
John Briley: Alright BB, we have some medicine for you. Our host will re-post a column I wrote a few weeks back on elliptical training, and if that doesn't juice up your time on that machine, perhaps you check to see if you have a pulse! It is an intense and effective approach to the elliptical and, as I say in the column, it kicked my tail (and I am in very good shape, thank you very much. Or at least I was until I mangled my hamstring. Anyway...).
See my above answer on treadmilling: Try to do some days hard, some easier, some with intervals. I also wrote a column a couple years back on how to spice up the "dreadmill" and these included hopping off every few minutes to do a set of push ups; gradually increasing the incline setting every two minutes, say, from 2 to 3 to 4 and back down again; playing little games with whatever is on TV (keep...up...the...pace...until...the...next...comercial.) That type of thing.
I don't yet have a great grasp on iPOD treadmill workouts, though I have started investigating some for all-around gym time. one, called PumpPod, seems pretty good, but I have not really finished evaluating it.
Last piece of advice: Go outside and play. Find a jogging or walking route near home and time yourself one day. Then see how much you can improve over a month. That will help motivate you to workout on the treadmill/elliptical.
Washington, D.C.: For the poster looking for a gym that doesn't lock you into a long-term contract, Results is a simple month-to-month membership. I've been a member in the Dupont Circle (U Street) location for over a year and I love it. They also have a gym on Capitol Hill. Check out www.resultsthegym.com
John Briley: Good call, D.C. - Thanks!
Wheaton, Md.: Hi. I'm interested in purchasing some high-quality walking shoes - any recommendations on places to go with good sales staff, willing to answer questions, make smart suggestions, etc.? Thanks!
John Briley: Fleet Feet in Adams Morgan is one store I know of with good people. Anyone else out there with recommendations?
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Hey Crew! Am looking for info about Heart Rate Monitors; I thought that I remember a recent discussion about these items. If possible could you post a link to the discussion/article about HRMs? Thanks for the chat!
Craig Stoltz: Well good morning, Pittsburgh, this is one of my favorite subjects; adding a heart rate monitor brings a new level of awareness and precision to your workout regimen. I sort of feel odd exercising without one now. I know that makes me a Fitness Nerd.
I love the Polar brand and recommend it highly. I also recommend folks get the kind with a chest strap, which you get used to quickly. The wrist-only kind do not, despite makers' claims, record your hr as precisely.
Our producer, the talented and diligent Katie, has gathered recent Crew material about heart rate monitors, which I will post immediately after this.
Let us know how your HRM workouts go, Pitts.
washingtonpost.com: Be Still, My Beating Heart. Or Not. (Post, Sept. 13, 2005)
Discussion Transcript: Moving Crew: April 26 (Includes discussion on heart rate monitors)
Dumb and Dumber at the Gym (Post, Feb. 16)
Hey Kids, Strap This On! (Post, Nov. 9, 2004)
Craig Stoltz: Here ya go.
Michigan: Is it better to choose a "program" option on an elliptical or stationary bike (rather than manual mode with a high resistance level)? Also, is it safe for your knees to do the elliptical backward?
A program (most machines offer half a dozen more more) usually adds variety to your workout automatically, by increasing incline, speed, resistance or some combination according to a preset script. They are an excellent way to add variety and intensity--to say nothing of more interest--to a workout. Most will bring your heart rate up and down over the course of the program, offering a kind of automated interval training, which is far superior to steady-state (i.e., the same pace for the entire workout) regimens.
As for knees and backward movement, I have read or heard nothing about this, and will offer this chestnut: If it hurts your knees, don't do it. If it doesn't go for it.
Washington, D.C.: I do 45 minutes of cardio 5 days a week, yoga twice a week, and pilates a few times a week. When/how should I incorporate weight training? I'm a 5'5"/120 lb woman. I can spend about an hour at the gym each day.
Also, sometimes I skip the cardio by walking home from work----it's about an 1.5 hour walk. Is this an ok substitute?
John Briley: Well, look at you D.C. That's an enviable workout regimen, so a hearty pat on your back! The yoga might - might - suffice for strength training, depending on the type you are doing. Are your muscles typically mildly sore the day after yoga? That would indicate they are getting some good work (no, you don't have to be sore to get benefit - but that's one indication). Do you feel strong?
Also, the Pilates (done properly) constitutes strength training for your core.
If you conclude you need more strength training, dial back the cardio on two of those days to 25 or 30 minutes, and do a strength circuit. Most gyms have these now. If they don't, try a series of exercises focusing on big muscles (two sets of 10 to 12 reps, at a weight that makes the last couple reps challenging).
Yes, the 90-minute walk is a good substitute. Again - great work on the routine!
Madison, Wis.: Hi! Thanks for all of the chats and good advice. I am running my first marathon on Sunday and am very excited. I've been training for months and am into the taper. I have tiers of goals (in case something goes wrong) and plans for pacing. Any last minute words of wisdom? Thanks!
Craig Stoltz: Way to go, Madison, the Crew will be cheering for you (if I have anything to say about it). This a great thing to do, a defining moment for many recreational fitness folk.
Two things I pass along: 1. Don't be afraid to walk; and 2. Don't overdrink. Let your thirst be your guide, and don't drink at each station just because you "should."
Others who have done Marathon I have anything to add?
Elliptical agony: I read your article a couple of weeks ago about not bouncing, etc on the elliptical machine. I shared the article with the docs I work with who have all started doing it that way too. I started watching others and was surprised at how many do bounce. I now try to keep my feet flat and come down on the heel rather than the ball of my foot (you are right - much harder)but my problem is that I am short! In order to do the arm movement and lean forward that little bit I have to lift my foot off the pedal for a bit. It is tougher then to come down "heels first" as we call it now. Any ideas?
John Briley: Hey, E.A., nice to know the columns are helping people! Don't sweat every last detail. Sounds like you're getting a great benefit from the workout and the foot-lifting adjustment isn't putting you at elevated risk of injury, so carry on. Perhaps toy with your stride length and resistance to see if you can find a 'sweet spot' where it flows smoothly without the lift, but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Keep up the good work!
Washington, D.C.: I've only been really swimming for about a year and a half, so I may be talking out of my hat, but I get a good workout from "pyramiding": 25 meters (one length), followed by 50 meters (one lap), 75 meters, 100, 125, 150, then heading back down with 125, 100, 75, 50, and 25. Take a ten-second or so rest after the first 25, then up it by 5 seconds after each interval on your way up and knock off five seconds on your way down. You can pace yourself in different ways doing this--fast for the short intervals, slower for the longer intervals, say--and mix up your strokes, too.
Craig Stoltz: Thanks much, Washington, and no, this doesn't seem to be hat-talk at all.
Any others have thoughts on fitness swimming workouts?
Columbia, Md.: Our health club offers a test for free they call "polar body age fitness" basically they weigh you, test your hr on 5 min on the treadmill walking, you do a sit and reach test, they take fat measurements from 3 spots w/calipers and they do a test of bicep strength. The computer then prints out a report that tells you where you are in comparison with others your age/gender and gives you a "Body Age". I'm wondering if you've heard of this or what your opinions are on this test and if its really useful/something to pay attention to.
Craig Stoltz: Good morning, Columbia,
I am very familiar with the tests you cite--indeed, I took them all when I joined a new club about. . .10?. . .years ago. I found it very valuable to have those benchmarks, and enjoyed re-taking the tests (once "officially," with a trainer, several times on my own) to monitor my progress. I recommend this highly for folks who enjoy numbers and watching progress. Far better than just watching the scale.
Having said that: The "age" stuff is pure marketing, designed to make you think you are taking "years" off your age by being in shape. Baloney. It's a toy, a gimmick, fun if you like it, but it's not an accurate measure of anything related to age.
If you like to goof around with that idea, though, go to www.realage.com, where a similar concept is advanced. It's fun.
Marathon: Love the Gu! It saved my bacon around mile 10.
Craig Stoltz: Ah, yes, the carbs-in-a-tube. Thanks, Marathonner. . .
Arlington, Va.: I recently moved to Arlington and would like to know where I can walk in parks, etc. I will need a map of some sort and recently saw one in the Post but lost the website. Can you help? Also are there any parks safer than others for a single woman who may walk at night?
John Briley: You might have see an article in the Sports section the other day about this Web site - www.usatf.org/routes - which has an increasing library of jogging and walking routes.
I do not know the security situation in Arlington, but sadly I have to caution you to investigate areas before assuming they are safe. Too many wacky incidents the past few years to take anything for granted. Talk to people in your 'hood about various places and perhaps start up a little walking group.
But I can say that the National Mall is beautiful at night, fairly well patrolled and is not too far across the bridge from Arlington - plus parking at night is a breeze - so you could head over there, stick to the better-lighted areas and take in some U.S. history along the way. Good luck!
Fitness First member: I joined Fitness First a couple of months ago and still really enjoy it. No frills, reasonable price and free personal trainers with appointments.
Craig Stoltz: There you go, a satisfied customer.
Bethesda, Md.: Hi Moving Crew! I have been a long time lurker but have never asked a question....
I set-up a small work-out area in my home because I can't afford a gym and find it is easier for me to fit in exercise this way.
Do you know of a web resource where I can go to print-out examples of strength training exercises? I have been doing exercises that I know and need to mix it up because I am getting terribly bored. I don't have a tv or dvd player nearby.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Craig Stoltz: Bethesda, if you're a regular lurker you know what I'm about to offer:
The very best sources for this are www.menshealth.com and, if you're really into more classical strength training, exrx.net. You'll find simpler workout ideas at www.acefitness.com.
Anyone else have favorite sites to recommend?
Alexandria, Va.: I've recently started working with a personal trainer and really love it. The only problem is I can't sustain the cost over the long term. Is there a source for new trainers that are looking to get their name out, but maybe don't have their own location. I have a gym in my apartment that I could use...
John Briley: Not sure about that, Arlington, but I can recommend a home DVD program called PUSH (www.push.tv). I started getting these in January and they are great - tailored to your specifications, requiring minimal gear and (the best part) progressive from month to month.
I concede that, when I reviewed PUSH in my column in February, I said I would keep using the ones I had but not order new ones, but now I am on the verge of subscribing again. Oh, the cost: $25 per month.
Which of course doesn't directly answer your question. Anyone else in the chatburbs with suggestion on cut-rate personal training?
washingtonpost.com: Overtraining: Feel the Burnout! (Post, May 23)
John Briley: Here is today's column...
Washington, D.C.: Hi, I wrote before about worrying about my knees on hard surfaces. I`ve been careful, but now my legs are just really tired. Iv5sed to running every other day, but for the last week, just walking makes my legs and rest of me exhausted. So I am taking a break, but am wondering what`s going on.
Craig Stoltz: Not to alarm you, Washington, but you might want to check with your doctor if the fatique is persistent.
The other recommendation is always: change what you're doing. Walk instead of running, bike instead of walking, do a TV workout instead of bikiing, etc.
Finally: do read John's characteristically sharp column today, on burnout. I'll post it right after this.
Let us know how this turns out, WDC.
pre-marathon breakfast: My normal pre-race breakfast is a waffle with peanut butter. A little carb, a little sugar, a little protein...
Craig Stoltz: look, we're getting a marathonners support group!
Fort Washington: My cheap gym pick is the Maryland National Park and Planning Commission. The fee is about $120 a year and you can use recreation weight room facilities through the County. Contact: www.pgparks.com
Craig Stoltz: Hey, I haven't heard this one. Good get, Fort W.
Alexandria, Va.: The YMCA in Alexandria is only month-to-month, and I think the same goes for all YMCAs. Of course, the price of the Y seems fairly high compared to the promotional offers at places like Gold's Gym, where you sometimes get $30-something/month deals if you sign on for 2 years. I pay a bit under $60/month at the Y, and that's the "Young Professional" rate. Next year my monthly rate will go up to almost $80!!!
Craig Stoltz: Good note, Alex.
Ah, yes, I recall when I "outgrew" the young folks' rate the downtown Y used to offer me in my callow youth.
Marathon Advice: I did the MCM in 2004, and all I can say is, keep extra salt packets on you! The day was hot, and I gave my packets to a running buddy, who then left me behind at mile 13, and at mile 14 I really needed it...Good Luck, and ENJOY it!
Craig Stoltz: Feel the love!
Anonymous: This is a real question - how much exercise is going down stairs? I work in a place with about 6 flights of steep stairs. I try to the go them once or twice a day, but find I go down them about 4 times a day.
John Briley: Hi Anon - I will try to give a real answer: I'm not entirely sure. Walking is exercise, and descending stairs works certain muscles (quads, hip flexors, some calf and hamstring) while going up works those muscles, with more emphasis on the calf and hamstring, plus the gluteus.
If you are getting at least a little out of breath from the stair work, you are getting some cardio, but going up will of course give you more in that department. Do you have time at lunch to do a few stair laps? Boring, I know, but that will help advance your fitness.
For the past couple of years when I finish an aerobic workout (running, elliptical)and am cooling down, I experience an uncontrollable coughing spell. It doesn't last long but is intense - to the point where I almost gag. It is definitely more pronounced during cold weather. I don't suffer from asthma and have no problem with it during the actual workout - always just after. What might it be?
John Briley: Yikes, Burke, sounds annoying. Obviously something related to fluctuations in your breathing pattern is aggravating your airways. I hate to punt here, but check with a respiratory specialist. And good luck.
Washington, D.C.: My office has recently opened an on-campus gym, and I finally signed up for a membership. Unfortunately, there aren't any trainers who work there, and I don't think I can afford to hire anyone on my own. Any suggestions on how to begin a workout?? Which machine to use for cardio and for how long? How to determine how much weight I should use? I'm worried b/c I'm not in great shape, but I haven't been sore the day after I exercise, so I'm not sure if I'm being effective. I really want to stick with a good, solid workout plan, but I have no idea where to begin! Thanks for taking my question!
Craig Stoltz: A few general ideas:
1. Start slow. Don't try to "feel the burn" on your first few workouts. You are getting your heart-lung machine, your muscles and your various connective tissues used to exercise. Give yourself a week or two to ease in.
2. Use a variety of cardio machines instead of starting in a rut with one.
3. Most trainers will understand you're not intersted in the twice-weekly-for-a-year package they hope to sell (and is very valuable), and will sell a three-session package. That is definitely worth the money.
4. Use a weight you can do at least eight times and no more than 12. Do each rep with perfect form, no leaning, rocking, or other corporeal indignities. Do just one set as you begin your workouts; later, when you've made some gains, you can add a second set, time permitting.
Washington, D.C.: Am posting early because I have a meeting during the chat! I read the story Eyes on the Thighs with great interest, as I am a woman who definitely bulks up quite easily. My question is, I used to run four to five days a week, at a fairly decent clip, for five miles. After an injury, I took several weeks off, and am now just getting back to running (with slow twenty minute runs at first). I've heard in the past from a personal trainer that slow running can bulk up your muscles. Is there any truth to this? If so, how can I gingerly get back in to running without reinjuring myself and avoid bulking up? Running is my favorite form of cardio, and the most effective for me. The last thing I need is bulkier thighs!! Thanks!
John Briley: I have not heard this D.C. Maybe slow running uphill, repeatedly, or walking stairs all day, but simple slow running? I seriously doubt it. Stick with your return to form and keep an eye on your own thighs, but I'd be surprised if you noticed a problem.
McLean, Va.: I have a devout reader of your column. I began training with a wonderful trainer who helped me to not only being motivated to exercise (I was very discourage for similar past training sessions in the past) but he also helped me with guidance towards nutrition. I commit myself to exercise with him in August 2003 and I have followed him until today. Three times a week, plus a spinning class on one day I do not exercise the rest of the days. I lost until mid 2004 50 pounds....Slowly but steady I have recuperated 15 of those pounds. I have changed program, routine, add vitamins and minerals. My main problem is that I am very, very hungry!!!! adding to this that I am under a lot of stress also at work. I am 59 years old and counting....Talking about vitamins and minerals, the theme of Health Section today, I am taking Vanadium 250 mg. Chromemate, 200 mg, Relora-Plex from Douglas Labs (these three) plus Zinc 50 mg, Multi Mega Minerals form GNC (those 2) and Fish Oil. Any advice? I am very hungry in the morning and at night...specially after my work-outs...I eat small healthy snacks during the day and before working out...Thanks for being there and help!
You're taking a lot of stuff I wouldn't recommend; if your trainer has a nutrition or exercise physiology degree, his or her recommendations carry some weight. Otherwise. . .you don't know. I hope you're not buying any of these *from* your trainer; that's a clear conflict of interest is a sign of poor professional hygiene.
Best proven ways to fight hunger: eat "clean" (i.e., close to its original source, generally crap-free) protein at each meal; make your carbs whole-grains; and drink enough water to keep your pee almost clear. Taking protein/carb mix after a hard workout will feed muscles you may have drained of glucogen and provide the stuff your body needs to repair muscle.
Arlington, Va.: Hi,I saw your column this week about the woman who rides her bike 5 miles a day round-trip and has thighs that are too muscular. I'd like to know where I can get some of that! For the past month and a half I've been riding my bike 18 miles round trip, three to five days a week, and my thighs are just as flabby as ever. I also do Pilates every day, along with 50 situps, 10 pushups, 250 crunches and arm weights. I average 90 to 120 minutes of exercise a day. Despite this, I am having a very difficult time losing weight. I have a 15 month old son and am still 15 pounds above pre-pregnancy weight. I also eat a healthy diet with lots of veggies and good carbs. Any suggestions?Thanks
washingtonpost.com: Eyes on the Thighs (Post, May 16)
John Briley: Hi Arlington -
Try working in intervals along your rides where your pedal in slightly high gears - not to the point where it hurts your knees, but to the point where you have to apply some hard effort to crank the pedals (hint: If you are not breathing at least somewhat hard, keep raising the gears). Also, maybe trade a little Pilates time or some crunches for a few minutes on the weight machines - some quad extensions, lunges and squats will help build some muscle back.
And be patient with yourself. These changes will take a little time.
John Briley: Alright, chatsters, we've cooked through yet another (hopefully) informative hour, but it's time to say farewell until next time.
Come back on June 6 (that's 6/6/06 for folks keeping score at home) for more of the same. Meantime, enjoy the spring weather!
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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What's Cooking
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Calling all foodies! Join us for another edition of What's Cooking , our live online culinary hour with Kim O'Donnel .
A graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly known as Peter Kump's New York Cooking School), Kim spends much of her time in front of the stove or with her nose in a cookbook.
Catch up on previous transcripts with the What's Cooking archive page .
Kim O'Donnel: The skies here are a brilliant blue, but deceiving. I am freezing! I type to you with a cup of tea in hand to warm up my frosty fingertips. Such is life in mercurial May. So, the long holiday weekend begins in just a few days, and I'll kick it off with a new blog, Savoring Summer, which launches this Thursday, May 25, here on this very site, all the way til Labor Day. Check the wp.com home page, and my archive page for the latest. Also on Thursday, I'm hosting this month's veggie hour, at 1pm. Do join in for some meat-free banter. It was a fruitful experience out in Monterey, Calif, where I was attending a conference on sustainable seafood and agriculture. My brain is chockful of new nuggets which I'm still digesting. After last week's special from the road, I heard from a reader who recommends a Trickling Springs Creamery of Chambersburg, Pa. for local/sustainable milk. She says that you can find this milk, sold in glass bottles at MOM's in Rockville. Thanks for the tip! And please, send this stuff in; it's quite useful and I'm plannning to put together a list of resources in the blog. Speaking of which, what would you like to see in a summer cooking blog? Send in your thoughts. And now, let's chow...
Charlotte, N.C. Bacon Drippings: Hi Kim,
Just moved to Charlotte and have been culinarily homesick, so I thoroughly enjoy tuning in every week.
Is there a problem with using bacon drippings as an oil substitute? I know you are not supposed to recycle used cooking oil since there is some chemical breakdown/reaction going on. Does the same apply to bacon drippings? What other additional yummy/comparable ways of using second-hand fats would you recommend?
Kim O'Donnel: You can reuse oil if you drain it out (as to allow food particles to pass through) and store it properly. I would reuse within a week or so, as oil does oxidize and will turn rancid, particularly after it's been exposed to air and heat. As for bacon drippings, they've been using them (and still do) in kitchens in the south for over a century, and I think every once in a while, it's okay to indulge. Again, drain it out, store it in airtight container, and you can store in fridge. Shmaltz, of course, is the age-old fat from the chicken which was a traditional source of fat in Jewish cooking, but these days with uber-concern over fat, you don't see much of it being used. Of course, if you go to France, duck fat is used and in Italy, lardo (pork fat, but not bacon) is used regularly, even eaten raw.
Nut-free chocolate redux: Kim --
On your advice, I called Whole Foods, Sur la Table, and Dean and Deluca about nut-free chocolate (chocolate that has been specially prepared to be free of nut allergens). None of them carry it. Any other suggestions, maybe from fellow chatters?
Kim O'Donnel: Try My Organic Market, in Alexandria, Rockville or Bethesda. Gee, I'm stumped. Any ideas out there?
Washington, D.C.: I would like to comment about the wonderful mangoes that are in season right now and your encouraging the readers to slurp them up gleefully.
I have just discovered that I am allergic to the mango skin and peel, and I have heard of quite a few other people who are afflicted with the same condition. My lips and face are all red and swollen and I went to the doctor yesterday, it's that bad. Anyway, we should eat mangoes with a knife and fork if we eat them at all -- we should not nibble the fruit from the skin or pit.
I understand that the mango plant is related to poison ivy. A word to the wise ...
Kim O'Donnel: Yes, this is the caveat of mangoes, which belong to the anancardiaceae or cashew family, of which poison ivy and poison oak are pesky members. I'm sorry to hear of your allergy and hope you mend quickly. Thanks for chiming in.
Washington, D.C.: I have a bunch of mashed potatoes (red potatoes, skins on) and nothing to eat them with. Can I turn them into latkes? How would I do that? Thanks!
Kim O'Donnel: No, latkes require shredded potatoes, but you certainly can turn them into mashed potato cakes...beat an egg, add a little flour and form into patties. Chill until set then fry in a pan, with some oil...a little parm is nice here, too.
Greenbelt, Md.: Hi Kim --Did you have any luck finding your garlic scape pesto recipe? I'm eager to give it a try!
Kim O'Donnel: I did...here you are. One note: scapes should be arriving in farm markets within next two weeks. And if you've never tried, do so this year. It's a goodie I wait for every year!
1 cup garlic scapes (approximately 9-10 scapes), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4-1/2 cup grated parmigiano (depending on cheese preference)
Salt and pepper to taste
Place scapes in the bowl of a blender or food processor and puree. Drizzle in oil and let ingredients emulsify (blend together). Add walnuts and continue to puree, until smooth. Scoop out of machine and into a serving bowl. Add cheese and stir with a spoon or rubber spatula. Taste for salt and pepper and add accordingly. Pesto may be used immediately or can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about three days.
Makes about 1 cup of pesto.
A few years ago you recommended some type of herb for black beans, possibly Mexican but I am not sure. I bought a plant of it, had a very successful crop and have been enjoying delicious black beans with the dried herb ever since. It looks like I will be running out sometime in the next few months so I would like to plant some more this summer but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called. Can you remind me of the name? Browsing at the greenhouse has not struck a chord yet.Thanks so much!!
Kim O'Donnel: Hey Rochester, the wonder herb is epazote, and its origins are Mexican and Central American. Please send notes on how it grew for you, would love to know.
Left Over Mached Potatoes: Mashed potato and sliced onion sandwich! YUM! (slightly warm the taters)
Kim O'Donnel: Is there gravy in there? And are there bread book ends? Do tell.
Summer food blog?: Tailgate food! The fare at RFK is awful, and it's a long baseball season. Vegetarian ideas a plus!
Kim O'Donnel: Duly noted. Tailgates, picnics, outdoor grazing, beach slurping -- I'm hoping to cover it all.
Bethesda, Md.: What is a garlic scape?
Kim O'Donnel: Also known as a garlic shoot or curl, it's the part of the garlic plant that grows out of the bulb. If farmers didn't trim the scape, growth of the garlic plant would be stunted. While green and curly, it's loaded with mild garlic flavor and a delightful addition to sautes, in salads, with eggs, as pesto. Give it a whirl if you can.
Durham, N.C.: Hi, I have a recommendation for last week's reader who was looking for a corn syrup-free marinade for grilling. He should give State Fair Spiedie sauce a try! It is probably the best marinade I've used, and I've gotten my entire family hooked on it. It's an upstate N.Y. specialty that is vinegar-based, with no corn syrup. It is at its divine best with chicken; marinate for an hour to overnight and then grill by itself or as kebabs or whatever. Oddly, the same company makes a chicken BBQ sauce as well, but I don't think it's anywhere as good as the original State Fair Sauce. It might be hard to find, but I would recommend trying Wegman's, since they're based out of upstate N.Y. Enjoy!
Kim O'Donnel: Great, thanks Durham. I also believe that Newman's products are free of the HFCS. If you're not making your own marinade, it's worth checking those labels before purchasing.
Arlington, Va.: Let me ask you this: is it possible to get a medium hamburger out of a frying pan? I usually use 85 percent lean ground beef, shaped about one inch thick, and I swear the inside goes straight from raw to well done. I happen to like my burgs well done, so I haven't really worried about it before, but I have a new husband who prefers them a little more pink. I can't seem to get to pink ... it's either raw (which, as he is a guy, he'll eat anyway, but we've only been married a month so I'd rather not kill him just yet) or brown. Any suggestions?
Kim O'Donnel: The only surefire way to get a medium burger out of a frying pan or any other way is to use an instant read thermometer. No ifs, ands or buts. Get ye one of these tools and stick in the middle of the burger, off the heat, and when it reads 135 degrees or so, it's medium. Well done is about 160, by the way. Think of the thermometer as a newlywed gift to one another. cheers.
Beautiful downtown Reston: Hi Kim,
I was looking for the spinach pie recipe on your blog and can't find it. Can you help a spinach craving foodie out?
Kim O'Donnel: Did I post that in the holiday cooking blog? Hmm. Okay, if not, then send me an e-mail: kim.odonnel@washingtonpost.com
Happy to oblige with the details.
Summer food blog: BBQ! And I mean back to basics. Marinades or rubs for chicken breasts, shrimp, tofu. Juicier burgers. Grilled veggies. Yum!
Kim O'Donnel: Marinades and rubs, check. Juicier burgers? Well, I can share my secrets, which involve a little Zen. Kebabs? Absolutely. BBQ? I am thinking of enlisting an expert on this matter. Stay tuned. and thanks for your wish list.
Mashed Potato Sandwich: You can put gravy on it if you want to. That might be kind of messy. I just use white bread and thinly sliced red onions with the mashed potatoes. Salt/pepper if you want.
Kim O'Donnel: This is a sandwich my mother would love. You should start a mashed potato sandwich club.
Re epazote: A previous commenter said he/she used dried epazote in cooking beans. I have found that the epazote doesn't soften and is unpleasant to eat. What's the secret?
Kim O'Donnel: Let's ask the reader, as he/she grew a whole bunch. Hello, Rochester?
Arlington, Va.: Have you or any readers tried the frozen fish from Trader Joe's? It seems like a $ saver, but I wasn't sure of the quality/taste. Thanks.
Kim O'Donnel: It's my understanding that at least one of the brands TJ sells is EcoFish, which is tested for contaminants and labeled with info on recommended monthly servings. I have not tried but have been curious. I need to get over there. Anyone with first hand experience doing seafood from TJ?
Washington, D.C.: Is Basil going out of season in the grocery stores? I went to Giant yesterday and there was none.
Kim O'Donnel: Honeypie, basil, at least the good stuff, is on its way later this summer. First place to check is your local farm market or with your gardening neighbor. It will be undoubtedly be much fresher and livelier than the stuff trucked in from a zilliion miles away to the local Giant. I know hydroponic basil is sold at Whole Foods during off season, and May is still fair game. Hang in there, wait just a little bit longer.
Washington, D.C.: I joined a CSA for the first time this year and CAN'T WAIT for my first bag on the 6th! Do you have suggestions of cookbooks or resources for cooking all these lovely veggies I'm going to be getting this season? (Some of which I'm sure I'll never have tried before!) Thanks!
Kim O'Donnel: Do check in with the summer cooking blog, as I'll be posting tasty bits daily throughout the season. Books to consider include titles by Deborah Madison, new Organic Cook's Bible by Jeff Cox, Elizabeth Schneider's titles, titles by Peter Berley and Jack Bishop.
Garlic question: I lived in Italy, and my Italian roommate told me that when the inside of the garlic goes green (that little stalk part), it's bad and that the green part is poisonous. I had never heard that before, but figured she was Italian and should know about garlic. So, I've been dissecting my garlic for two years now, removing the mid-section if it's green. Can you please tell me the truth in this?
Kim O'Donnel: I've never known the green part to be poisonous, but it does tend to bring on a bitter quality if not removed. I have been guilty of not removing many times over the years, and I'm still kicking, but I have noticed difference in sweetness/bitterness of garlic when I remove the germ.
We just moved into a new house and the oven doesn't have a broiler pan. Believe it or not, Sur Le Table, Linens 'n Things, Crate and Barrel and W-S don't have any. Does All-clad make one or should I just buy a cheapy $20 one off of Amazon?
Kim O'Donnel: That is surprising. Where would I go for a broiler pan...anyone have ideas beside Amazon.com?
Washington, D.C.: Hi Kim,Just wanted to respond to the reader who wants to know about frozen seafood from Trader Joe's. I frequently purchase the frozen wild salmon, mahi mahi, and ahi tuna. It saves me a ton of money and allows me to better plan my meals. I would highly recommend. Also, they have a great satisfaction guarantee policy so there is no harm in trying the frozen seafood and taking it back if you are really dissatisfied. I would say overall that Trader Joe's offers great frozen products at low prices. I also purchase the frozen avocados and mango.
Kim O'Donnel: Thanks for chiming in, greatly appreciated.
TJ's frozen fish: I use Trader Joe's frozen fish regularly. I find that it's often fresher than what I can get at the supermarket. I have only tried the mild, white fish varieties, but have been happy with all. I go in with a guide about which kinds of fish to avoid (overfishing, mercury, etc), and only pick the ones that are OK according to that list.
Kim O'Donnel: Glad to hear you are shopping with a seafood card. Which one are you using?
Spring Meal: Made a lovely spring meal recently -- garlic soup thickened with potatoes, patties of beef and pork mixed with wilted spinach, garlic, and onion, then baked in a 375 oven for 25 mins. Side of plain green beans.
On the menu tonight? Kung pao chicken with cashews instead of peanuts, stir-fried bok choy with red pepper flakes, and cucumber-scallion-avocado salad with soy and sesame.
Kim O'Donnel: Aren't you industrious and fabulous? Nice going. I think a bowl of garlic soup would be wonderful right about now. Tell me more about it.
Sterling, Va.: For the mashed potato cakes -- use Panko Bread Crumbs on the outside of the cake. It will give it a nice crunch!
Kim O'Donnel: And more on these intriguing mashed potato cakes...
Mashed potato sandwich: White bread, mashed potatoes, onions, and gravy? I feel my arteries clogging ... Can the mashed potato person not make it to the store? My use for leftover mashed potatoes is a small shepard's pie -- saute lean ground beef with onions and garlic, throw in some mixed frozen veggies and tomato paste, salt and pepper, top with taters, sprinkle with a little shredded cheddar, and bake 'til browned. Yum.
Kim O'Donnel: And yet another idea for the mashed...
Barbecue: Second that motion: Just wanted to add that in addition to traditional grilling fare, it would be great to also explore some international grilling techniques. E.g., I recently made a Moroccan chicken marinade using harissa and it was excellent grilled. Also, Salvadorean carne asada and some Peruvian/chimichurri exploration would be awesome as well.
Kim O'Donnel: Got it on the list. Many thanks!
Nut Free Chocolate: This isn't chocolate candy, but Cherrybrook Kitchens makes certified nut-free mixes for chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, and chocolate chip cookies. They are also vegan, kosher, and quite tasty. Available at many Whole Foods, SuperTargets, and online at their Web site. My son is allergic to dairy and nuts and we make these all the time.
Kim O'Donnel: I bet this will come in handy for other nut allergy-sufferers. Nice of you to share.
For CSA member:: Check with your CSA to see if they have recipes. I'm a first-time CSA-er this year (and am likewise so excited to get my first delivery!), and the farm I joined has a bunch of recipes on its website. See Recipes .
Kim O'Donnel: yes, this is true...many of the CSAs do offer a weekly newsletter or recipe to give a whirl. Good point.
Fairfax Station, Va.: Why does the milk from the local farmers market taste so different from the supermarket's milk? I never liked milk as an adult because it had an "off" smell (even organic), but the farmers market milk smells fine. Is it the glass container?
Kim O'Donnel: Well, it's the glass, but it's also the way it's been handled and processed. Far fewer hands were involved in the production of milk from local farms than anything you'll find in the supermarket. It's also been processed within the week of purchase, so you're getting an infinitely much fresh product. You may also be able to taste things like the grass or clover that the cow ate, a wonderful bonus when buying a local product.
Fairfax, Va.: Re broiler pan. We had the same problem and went to the oven manufacturer and got a replacement. Can probably be done via manufacturer's Website. Look for parts listing.Otherwise try yard sales, Goodwill, etc.
Kim O'Donnel: Good one, Fairfax. Many thanks.
Just wanted to thank you for your suggestion in last week's chat for where to buy fresh softshells.(Last week I had tried to buy them at Whole Foods, and was told they stopped selling them !In WASHINGTON!). You advised me to check out Buster's Seafood at the Dupont Farmer's market. I got some there this weekend for a dinner party Sunday night -- they were fantastic! Thanks!
On a totally unrelated topic, I need to get some olive oil, and can remember an article in the Post Food section a while back about the best ones to choose. What is your suggestion for a very good extra virgin olive oil? Thanks !
Kim O'Donnel: Great you were able to make it over to Buster's at the market. Yes, Walter Nicholls reported last week in Food section that WF has stopped selling soft shells as well as lobsters in response to concerns about the way they are stored/temperature of seafood case...I will ask about olive oil piece in Food and get you a link by next week. You can also talk to the Food staff tomorrow in their weekly chat. But before I offer some of my own suggestions, what do you want to use the oil for -- cooking or as a raw ingredient?
For those looking for good grill rubs ...: The latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine has a set of great grill rubs paired with fresh salsas that are geared towards the "white" meats -- chicken, turkey cutlets, and pork chops. I tried "southwestern" rub and salsa on pork chops this weekend and it was FANTASTIC. The rub had brown sugar, cinnamon, garlic powder, dried ginger, cloves, and salt, and the salsa was made with green grapes, jalepeno, green bell pepper, onion, mint and lime juice. (I know, neither sound very southwestern to me either, with no cumin or corriander in the rub and mint instead of cilantro and no tomato in the salsa). Coat the pork chops with the rub, grill, and spoon the salsa over the meat after you pull it off the grill. This one turned out so well that I can't wait to try the others. I highly recommend folks pick up a copy or check the Fine Cooking Website for the recipes.
Kim O'Donnel: Nice. I really prefer making my own rubs and marinades. I think you get so much more bang.
Alexandria, Va.: My family picked about 25 lbs of strawberries over the weekend and I'm looking for more ways to eat them up. I'm freezing a bunch for later use, using them in turkey paninis, muffins and chocolate dipped, any other suggestions? Thanks!
Kim O'Donnel: Smoothies, with yogurt, on top of cereal, in pancakes, with spinach, with cheese, with sparkling wine, in an upside down cake with rhubarb...with lots of mint and/or basil...
For broiler pans: Check the Web site of the oven manufacturer. Can't hurt to try, and you might be surprised what you find. Something made for your oven, presumably guaranteed to fit and work properly ...
I got myself into a dither when the little tiny nearly invisble how-important-can-it-be tab thingy (technical name) broke off the lid to my Cuisinart food processor bin. I didn't want to shell out for another FP when the blender part still worked ... once I cleared my head of the dithering, I looked on the Cuisinart Web site, and lo and behold -- a replacement lid thing for a mere 15 bucks, shipped right to my door. Enough to make me spin up some pesto in celebration!
Kim O'Donnel: Great tip. Sometimes the most logical next step is staring at us right in the face.
Un-smart question:: What is CSA?
Kim O'Donnel: It stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and the 'it' is a share of land you purchase in advance from a local farmer in exchange for a weekly box of harvested fruits and veg that come from farmed land. It's done on a subcription basis, and farms vary on season, frequency, drop off, etc.
Athens, Ga.: Hi Kim & chatters! I am hosting a BBQ dinner on Memorial Day. Shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches, baked beans, coleslaw, raosted corn salad, etc., but I am stumped about what to serve for dessert. I want something cool, utterly delicious and impressive. Know of any dynamite recipes that could work? Thanks a ton and as always, thanks for the chats!
Kim O'Donnel: Something cool? What about a granita -- a flavored ice...no machinery required. I also love upside down cake at this time of year, but that's not cool..Oh! what about a fool? It's a parfait without the ice cream, using fresh whipped cream instead, and you can use stewed rhubarb. Interested?
Herndon, Va.: How do you select kitchen knives? I recently had one of those Cutco in-home demos, and while I didn't buy anything, it made me realize how bad my knives are. Are there certain brands you prefer? Japanese vs German? Other tips? Thanks.
Kim O'Donnel: It's really key to try a knife on, as in put it in your hand and test its weight as well as grip. Go to a store and try it on; if you want to mail order a knife because it's cheaper, that's fine, but don't do blind ordering, trust me. As for brands, I've never owned a Japanese knife, but do like the way they feel. I've had my Henckels for years now, and because I take care of it, hope to have it for more years to come. Am in the market for a smaller knife and I'll let you know what I decide. Don't forget to buy a sharpening steel -- PLEASE.
Husks or no?: How do I grill corn: with husks or without? How long do I cook themm for? My brother steams them and then grills them. Does anyone else do that? Love your ideas!
Kim O'Donnel: If you like husk on, remove at least one layer or maybe even more, then lather up with some oil. Your bro's idea is nice, which would definitely cut down on grilling time. If I don't feel like firing up grill, I will roast my corn. Usually in a 400 oven, it takes about 30 minutes. A compound butter with lime zest and paprika is nice here.
Fish food guide: I got mine from Organic Style (the fabulous magazine that went out of business), and my Mom sends me supplements to it from her medical newsletters (she's a doctor)
Kim O'Donnel: Thanks. Make sure you keep updated with those cards, as the situation is constantly changing. I know for a fact that Monterey Bay Aquarium prints its cards twice yearly and then updates its Web site more frequently. Cheers.
Garlic Soup: Sautee a leek and an onion in a little oil with 1-1.5 C of raw peeled garlic cloves until things wilt and start to color. Add 6c stock, 1tsp salt, and about 2lb of peeled cubed potatoes. Simmer for 25 mins or so, then puree. Additional butter and cream are optional.
Kim O'Donnel: That's A LOT of garlic, but nothing I can't handle. Sounds heavenly.
Kim O'Donnel: Time to run already. Check the site on Thursday for link to Savoring Summer, my new summer cooking blog and/or my monthly veggie show. Also, from veggies to steak -- this week, I'll be grilling on the air on Washington Post Radio, Friday at 2:20. Tune in, 107.7 FM or 1500 AM. Til next...
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Calling all foodies! Join us Tuesdays at noon for What's Cooking, our Live Online culinary hour with Kim O'Donnel.
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Rep. Jefferson Holds News Conference
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SPEAKER: U.S. REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAM JEFFERSON (D-LA)
I know there's extraordinary interest in the matters at hand regarding me, and I've come here because I recognize that and because I want to be as available to you with respect to these matters as I can be.
However, as you know, there's a criminal investigation going on regarding this, and my lawyers have advised me not to discuss, and I will not discuss any of the alleged facts in the case. That would be extraordinarily foolhardy to avoid their advice. And therefore I will not do that.
I do want to say to you, however, that there are two sides to every story. There are certainly two sides to this story. There will be an appropriate time and forum when that can be explained and explicated. But this is not the time, this is not the forum, and operating on advice of counsel, I will not get into facts.
On the second matter, with respect to the search in my office the other day, I think it represents an outrageous intrusion into separation of powers between the executive branch and the congressional branch, and no one has seen this in all the time of the life of the Congress.
As far as I know, there's no real authority for it. Beyond that, there were no exigent circumstances of which I'm aware under ordinary circumstances would require it.
And so we are at a loss as to what has happened. My lawyers have expressed outrage. Others have as well. All of those who consider themselves scholars in the matter have also done so. And so I think that, with respect to that, we are correct.
JEFFERSON: There was some discussion about what I would do from day to day here. I plan to go to the floor to vote tonight. I plan to go to the floor to vote tomorrow. I plan to carry out my responsibilities here, as I have since the time that I've been here.
I expect to continue to represent the people who've sent me here and to try to respond to their needs and their issues. And I will continue to do that, so long as they permit me to. And that is my position with regard to that.
So I will try, if I can, to make some brief response to you, but it won't be very much of one, because I will not get into the facts, and you should know that before you start, that if you ask me, of course I will simply decline to answer.
JEFFERSON: My lawyer is Bob Trout, Robert Trout, Trout & Cacheris.
JEFFERSON: I expect to run for reelection, but that's a matter that's down the road. But I expect to run for reelection.
QUESTION: Would you concede that it does not look good at this point?
JEFFERSON: Well, I can't talk about the facts of the matter, with respect to whether things look good or don't look good, and therefore, I won't make a response to that.
QUESTION: Mr. Jefferson, if you did not take a $100,000 bribe, why not just say it now?
JEFFERSON: You're asking me to get into facts that I have told you I will not get into.
JEFFERSON: I told you I will not get into and if you ask me, that, I simply will decline to answer that or any fact you can think of or dream of today or that is apparent to you to ask, I know that there's a great deal of interest in having me answer questions about facts. I've simply told you I will not get involved with that because it is not a prudent thing to do based on advice of counsel, so I will not.
JEFFERSON: I still maintain that.
QUESTION: Would you grant that the situation that you're in today and the situation that (inaudible) do you think this would compromise your ability to be effective?
JEFFERSON: I think I have been extraordinarily effective since the storm came last August. The matters we handle on the tax side, on the Ways and Means Committee, we've had extraordinary success.
I've been to the district with the president two or three times. And the last time just a few weeks ago.
JEFFERSON: And I think that's been an example of how we continue to work with the administration.
My colleagues on the floor have been very responsive to the needs of our district. Our Katrina caucus continues to work and I continue to work with it. And I expect to continue to represent the folks down there as well as I can.
Obviously, we would not like to have to deal with this in the middle of anything, but this will not retard my capacity to continue to work for the people I represent.
QUESTION: Why was the search of your office -- if they have a warrant, why was that outrageous?
JEFFERSON: This is the last thing I'll do.
Because I'm told by people who know this better than I do, constitutional scholars, that there's not been a search or a raid by search warrant of any office of any member of Congress in the history of the Congress, and that is a violation of separation of powers for that to have happened, along with other arguments of comity and all the rest.
But they will make those arguments in the proper forum. I'm not an expert on that, but I'm told that, that is what the matter is.
Source: CQ Transcriptions © 2006, Congressional Quarterly Inc., All Rights Reserved
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Read a transcript of Rep. William Jefferson's comments during a news conference about his criminal investigation.
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Reclaiming the Democratic Agenda
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Though you'd never know it from surfing the Internet, there exists in the Democratic Party a substantial body of politicians and policymakers who believe the U.S. mission in Iraq must be sustained until it succeeds; who want to intensify American attempts to spread democracy in the greater Middle East; and who think that the Army needs to be expanded to fight a long war against Islamic extremism.
Their problem isn't only that some people (mostly Republicans and independents) don't believe they exist. Or that the flamers at MoveOn.org would expel them from the party if that were possible. They also face the formidable task of rescuing what they believe is a quintessentially Democratic policy agenda from the wreckage of the Bush administration, so that a future president can do it right.
No, I'm not talking about House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who wants to quickly abandon Iraq, regardless of the consequences; or Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who recently issued a "Democratic Plan to Protect America and Restore Our Leadership in the World" that does not include the word "democracy."
This is about a coalition of mostly younger foreign affairs professionals who held mid-level positions at the State Department and the National Security Council during the Clinton administration and who have spent the past several years formulating a distinctly Democratic response to the post-Sept. 11 era -- as opposed to a one-dimensional critique of President Bush or Iraq. Now they are beginning to gravitate toward some of the centrist Democrats who -- unlike Pelosi or Reid -- might actually emerge as serious presidential candidates in 2008, such as former Virginia governor Mark Warner, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.
This month they published a fascinating book that lays out what the foreign policy of a winning campaign by one of those Democrats -- or perhaps Hillary Clinton -- could look like. Sponsored by the Progressive Policy Institute, which is an outgrowth of the Clinton-friendly Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), it's called "With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty."
Like most of its authors, editor Will Marshall, a DLC founder who now heads the policy institute, sees himself as reviving the foreign policy of Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy, who formulated the Democratic response to the totalitarian menace of communism. Jihadism, Marshall says, requires a similar exercise of intellectual muscle. "Democrats have always been at our best when we have defended democratic values against illiberal ideologies," Marshall told me last week. "When we do that we can appeal to a broader public, not only at home but globally."
As Marshall sees it, the rapidly sinking popularity of Bush and the Republican Congress provides Democrats with "their first real opportunity since 9/11 to make the case on national security." The paradox is that Bush has appropriated some of the central themes of the Truman-Kennedy foreign policy -- above all, the emphasis on the global promotion of freedom. Bush has poisoned grass-roots Democratic support for democracy promotion: The book quotes a German Marshall Fund survey showing that Democrats now oppose it by 50 to 43 percent, while Republicans favor it by a margin of 76 to 19.
So Democrats have to start by "reclaiming our own ground," Marshall says. His book proposes two important ways to do that. First, Democrats can clean up the crimes perpetrated by the Bush administration at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and the CIA's secret prisons, and restore America's reputation as the world's foremost defender of human rights. They can also end Bush's cynical policy of demanding democracy from enemy regimes such as Iran and Syria while tolerating the continued autocracy of such friends as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In an essay laying out a "grand strategy for the Middle East," former NSC official Kenneth M. Pollack proposes that a Democratic administration take a simple but crucial step that Bush has eschewed: directly linking the $2 billion in annual U.S. aid to Egypt to the implementation of "a long term plan for political and economic changes."
Unfortunately, Pollack and his fellow Democrats acknowledge, no liberal policy in the Middle East will work if Iraq fails. While Democrats differ over whether the invasion was right, notes an introduction by Marshall and Jeremy Rosner, both national interests and national honor demand that "we not abandon the Iraqi people to chaos and sectarian violence."
"The fact that President Bush and his team have mismanaged virtually every aspect of postwar reconstruction does not justify an immediate or precipitous withdrawal," they say. "Instead we should rally the American people for an extended and robust security and reconstruction presence."
Are those Democrats talking? Yes, indeed: Marshall's group also has ideas on how Democrats can build stronger ties to the Republican-dominated military, revitalize NATO and the United Nations, and reverse Bush's tax cuts in order to modernize and expand the Army. Don't be surprised if, after all the Internet noise fades away, such ideas are at the center of the next presidential campaign.
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Abuse Trial Revives Old Questions
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As the Iraq insurgency grew rapidly in the spring of 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld complained to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in the country, that he was not seeing results from the interrogations of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers.
"Why can't we figure this enemy out?" Sanchez recalled Rumsfeld asking in frustration, according to a previously unreleased transcript of a July 2005 interview by senior Army investigators. "Was there intense pressure? You bet. You bet there was intense pressure" to extract more from the interrogations, Sanchez said -- some of it self-imposed and some of it emanating from "different levels of the chain of command."
The involvement of senior Pentagon officials in policymaking associated with the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib later in 2003 will once again be debated in a military court at Fort McNair beginning today, during one of the last two trials involving Army personnel accused of the abuse recorded in photos circulated around the world.
Ten military courts-martial have essentially concluded that the acts -- including forced nakedness, the use of leashes and sexual humiliation -- were perpetrated by rogue personnel, working under poor supervision and in violation of their military orders. But the trial this week of a sergeant who threatened Abu Ghraib detainees with a military dog will for the first time include the testimony of a key military officer who carried out policy instructions issued by senior officials in Washington.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, an artilleryman who commanded the U.S. military's prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and also helped set interrogation policy at Abu Ghraib, has agreed to testify in the court-martial of Sgt. Santos A. Cardona at the request of the dog handler's defense team. It will be Miller's first public account of events since he testified briefly at a Senate hearing in April 2004.
In sworn statements to Army investigators, Miller has denied recommending or approving the use of dogs for interrogations at Abu Ghraib and said he was unaware of such use during his tenure at Guantanamo Bay. But the senior intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib and the prison's chief warden have said in court and also told Army investigators that Miller urged military dogs be used in association with Abu Ghraib interrogations.
In addition, an Army report last year said dogs were indeed used in interrogations before and during Miller's tenure at Guantanamo Bay. "Unless the dogs are on patrol, they would always be in an interrogation room," a senior military officer told Defense Department investigators in an interview last year. The statement has not been released by the Pentagon.
In an effort to clarify the dog-handling issue, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), the committee's senior Democrat, told Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey in a letter two months ago that Miller's planned retirement from the military this spring should be delayed until the courtroom proceedings are completed and he can be questioned again on Capitol Hill.
The Army complied, and Miller -- who left a job as prison commander at Abu Ghraib last year -- is now a special assistant to the Army chief of staff at the Pentagon.
Cardona's lawyers plan to call as witnesses both officers whose testimony conflicted with Miller's statements: Col. Thomas M. Pappas and Maj. David DiNenna. They will also ask Miller about the use of dogs and the instructions he received from Defense Department policymakers.
Harvey Volzer, the lead civilian lawyer, said he expects evidence at the trial to show that Miller "strongly recommended the use of military working dogs [at Abu Ghraib] based upon their efficacious use" at Guantanamo Bay. "It is a tragic miscarriage of justice for my client to face charges for actions that were ordered and approved," Volzer said he will tell the military panel.
Winning an acquittal will not be easy. In March, a similar military panel rejected the assertions of Cardona's dog-handling colleague, Sgt. Michael Smith, that he was acting on orders from superiors and sentenced him to 179 days in a military brig. Others involved in Abu Ghraib abuse have received sentences ranging from forfeiture of half a month's pay to 10 years' confinement.
On Friday, the U.N. Committee Against Torture -- a group that oversees compliance with an international treaty barring cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment -- said in a report that using dogs to induce fear during interrogations constitutes a violation of U.S. treaty obligations. But no one more senior than Pappas has been found responsible for the use of dogs against prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
In May 2005, Pappas received a letter of reprimand, was relieved of command in his military brigade and had half his pay docked for two months for failing to gain superiors' approval for using dogs. His allegations that the abuse originated in orders, pressure and encouragement by superior officers, including Miller, were rejected.
The Army inspector general is still investigating the matter, however. Pappas reaffirmed in an unreleased interview with Army investigators last month that when Miller and others from the Guantanamo Bay prison visited Abu Ghraib on a Pentagon-arranged inspection tour in August and September 2003, "dogs came up . . . [namely the idea] that they were effective in doing interrogations with Arabs. . . . The tenor of the discussion was that we had to get tougher with the detainees."
An e-mail summarizing Miller's visit, cited during the interview with Pappas but written by intelligence officer Capt. Carolyn Wood, separately noted the advice from Miller's team that "working dogs are highly effective and useful." Pappas said that this meant "setting conditions for interrogations," and "did not mean do illegal things."
According to statements to investigators by officers in Iraq, Miller's visit to Abu Ghraib caught the interest of Rumsfeld and his top intelligence adviser, Stephen A. Cambone. Before he left, it was discussed in a teleconference by Miller; Sanchez's top intelligence adviser, Maj. Gen. Barbara G. Fast; and Cambone's deputy, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin.
Before departing from Iraq, Miller reported his findings to Rumsfeld via a secure video link, according to Pappas. Other secure video-teleconferences (VTCs) between Rumsfeld and senior defense officials in Iraq about interrogation matters were held in November and December 2003, the period when abuse occurred. According to a recent court filing by Cardona's attorneys, "on 3 May 2006, [the] government sent the defense an e-mail stating that they are attempting to find these VTCs."
In a briefing with top Pentagon officials upon his return, Miller described his plan to have military police soldiers set the conditions for interrogations, according to PowerPoint slides from that briefing. In one slide, Miller explained that "MPs enable increased intelligence production" by providing "focused support" for interrogations.
Other U.S. officers stationed then in Iraq have noted the involvement of Rumsfeld and Cambone in deliberations about interrogations. "There was pressure from higher [echelons] to provide actionable intelligence," Col. Steven J. Boltz, Pappas's senior deputy, told investigators in May 2004, in an unreleased interview. "There were direct questions [to the U.S. military command in Iraq] from Dr. Cambone and SECDEF. They wanted in detail [a] chronology down to the brigade level [of] HUMINT and Interrogation operations."
Portions of Boltz's statement were redacted in the version obtained by The Washington Post.
Sanchez, who also described pressures from Washington, told investigators last year that he had decided to "push our [legal] authorities to the limit without ever violating the Geneva Conventions." Sanchez said that when he signed a memorandum on Sept. 14, 2003, allowing soldiers to "exploit Arab fear of dogs" while maintaining security during interrogations, it was on advice from his legal adviser, Col. Marc Warren, that the instruction was consistent with the Geneva Conventions.
Sanchez's memo was modified a month later, after more senior military officials objected to it. Portions of his statement were redacted in the copy obtained by The Post.
Klaus Stoehr, a Defense Intelligence Agency officer who helped oversee interrogations in Iraq at the time, told a Pentagon investigator in May 2004 that interrogators were encouraged "to go to the outer limits to get information from the detainees by people who wanted the information." Asked whom he meant, Stoehr named Sanchez.
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Abu Ghraib, once notorious as Saddam Hussein's torture chamber, is now infamous for photographs of U.S. military police abusing Iraqi prisoners. A timeline of events at the prison and the ensuing investigations into the abuse.
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S. Korean Who Headed Health Agency Dies
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GENEVA -- Dr. Lee Jong-wook, who spearheaded the World Health Organization's successive battles against SARS and bird flu and was the first South Korean to head a U.N. agency, died Monday following surgery for a blood clot on the brain. He was 61.
Lee fell ill Saturday while attending a function in Geneva and underwent surgery later that day, the agency said.
Anders Nordstrom of Sweden will take over as WHO's acting director-general.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Lee "a valuable leader to WHO staff the world over."
"This sudden loss of a leader, colleague and friend is truly devastating," he said.
Lee took over as director-general of WHO in 2003 as the agency battled the SARS outbreak in Asia. After that threat was contained, WHO turned its attention to bird flu amid fears the virus could mutate into a strain easily transmitted among people.
The agency oversaw a number of preparatory meetings as experts developed their plans to tackle the H5N1 strain. WHO also built up a reserve of antiviral medicine and encouraged vaccine research. At a global donors' meeting in Beijing in January, $1.9 billion was pledged to the fight against bird flu and to prepare for a potential pandemic.
Lee worked for WHO for 23 years, including time served in regional posts. He was the first South Korean to head a U.N. agency, after winning praise for his low-key but efficient management style as head of the agency's tuberculosis program.
Time magazine named Lee one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2004.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, who traveled with Lee last year to southeast Asia to learn about a possible pandemic, paid tribute to his leadership.
"During the course of our travels, Dr. Lee shared with me how he was as a young boy from the war-torn country of Korea," Leavitt said.
"He spoke with me of three difficult and arduous months when he and his mother walked mile after mile after mile in search of his father, who was during that cold winter in exile. Dr. Lee experienced hardship at a very early age, and my sense is it was the reason that he chose to devote himself to public service," he added.
Lee "was an exceptional person and an exceptional director general," said Elena Salgado, Spain's health minister and president of the World Health Assembly, at the opening of the annual meeting of the 192 members of WHO. Flags flew at half-staff on the U.N. building, where the meeting was taking place.
Lee initially said he wanted to improve international monitoring to help tackle outbreaks of diseases like SARS and that his mandate would be defined by the fight against HIV/AIDS, particularly in hardest-hit poorer countries.
But his time in office came to be dominated by the spread of bird flu through Asia, Europe and Africa and its potential for causing a human flu pandemic.
"We know another pandemic is inevitable," Lee told a 2004 meeting of experts. "And when this happens, we also know that we are unlikely to have enough drugs, vaccines, health care workers and hospital capacity to cope in an ideal way. So we must act wisely."
Lee was elected by WHO's executive committee in 2003 to replace Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former Norwegian prime minister who stepped down after transforming WHO from a disillusioned and badly managed organization to a high-profile agency that has put health firmly on the global political agenda.
Lee, a tuberculosis expert, had previously run WHO's Stop TB program.
He was the only WHO insider in the race for the top job in 2003 and the only candidate never to have held a ministerial or top U.N. post.
Although initially regarded as a political lightweight, he showed his acumen by persuading 53 members of the U.S. Congress to write to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and Tommy Thompson, the health secretary, backing his candidacy.
Lee is survived by his wife and son.
Associated Press writers Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva contributed to this report.
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GENEVA -- Dr. Lee Jong-wook, who spearheaded the World Health Organization's successive battles against SARS and bird flu and was the first South Korean to head a U.N. agency, died Monday following surgery for a blood clot on the brain. He was 61.
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Stone, Sans Conspiracy
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CANNES, France, May 21 -- When it was announced that Oliver Stone would direct a big-budget Hollywood movie about the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York, some wondered whether the director known for political fare -- with a taste for conspiracy theories -- would produce controversy. Those people can relax.
At the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday night, Stone showed an audience at the Palais des Festivals the first 20 minutes of his new film, "World Trade Center," which opens nationwide in August. The movie appears to be a straightforward tale of ordinary cops lost in an extraordinary hell.
"It is the true story of two New York Port Authority policemen trapped in the rubble," their wives and children "and their incredible, improbable rescue," said Stone in brief introductory remarks.
Sgt. John McLoughlin (played by Nicolas Cage) and rookie officer Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), were the last two men pulled alive from the wreckage. Three other members of their team died in the collapse of the trade center. While it is too early to know the texture and narrative arc of the whole film, the first act screens like a traditional disaster movie, with men rushing into harm's way, but it's more haunting because we remember the confusion and disbelief of that September morning.
After Stone had shown the opening segment, the audience did not erupt in applause. It paused. You could hear an exhalation of breath. Someone whispered "wow." And then they clapped, politely, but clapping felt off-note, as the last frame showed Cage's face, dark and panicked, his eyeballs gleaming white, trapped under 30 feet of dust, concrete and metal.
The film is still rough, and Stone apologized before it was shown.
"I think Cannes is the toughest audience in the world," he said, explaining that the sound and special effects were not complete. A few scenes look, Stone confessed, "like Japanese science fiction" because the computer wizardry is not finished. But watch it, he said, "warts and all."
Touching on the concerns about how he would approach his subject, Stone said, "History is shaped by collective memory, what I hope one day will be seen as the truth." He was hunched over a microphone on the stage, speaking in English and awkward French. He concluded, "The truth must exist in some way to confront power and extremism."
The two officers whose stories the film revolves around were paid $200,000 each for the rights to re-create their dramatic rescue, and they have helped promote the film and to quiet fears that it would be a political work and critical of either Bush or former New York mayor (and possible presidential candidate) Rudolph Giuliani.
In a clip shown on the film's Web site, McLoughlin says the movie is "the story of the humanity of 9/11," that "it's not about the terrorists, it's not about the major part of the event itself. It's about families and loved ones and what they were going through that day."
Stone has called his approach a "24-hour document," a tightly focused story that begins the morning of the attack and ends with the rescue the next day. Paramount Pictures, the studio that financed and will distribute the film, has been sensitive to charges of exploitation, and repeats often that this is story of heroism and sacrifice, of how ordinary New Yorkers -- police, firefighters and civilians -- came together to help the wounded and search for the lost.
Still, some of the widows of firefighters and police officers who died in the towers have complained.
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CANNES, France, May 21 -- Oliver Stone unveils a portion of his 9/11 drama "World Trade Center," which suggests the director has put politics aside.
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Living Color
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"Yo! Put the phone up -- I said put that phone up!" Allen Carter is sitting in the front of his classroom and calling to the back, where a favorite student has a cell phone cemented to his ear. "You know you not supposed to have that thing on in here."
"But, Al," the boy says.
"No buts," Carter replies. "This is a time for art!"
The boy pulls the phone away from his blond dreadlocks. The classroom of Allen D. Carter, the artist otherwise known as Big Al, Al, or just plain Big, is now in session.
Carter sits behind a long wooden table littered with curls of drying clay, plastic wrap and the gray forms of several half-finished student works -- a fish, a gnome and two teddy bears.
A second student, Veronica, a quiet 19-year-old and a new mother, sits beside Carter, smoothing one of the teddy bear's sides with a wooden tool. The bear is for her daughter. Once the sculpting is finished, she will need to paint it before firing it in the kiln.
"Big," she says, "I heard that if you mix all the colors together, you get black. Is that true?"
"Nah, not really," Carter answers, and then raises his voice so the whole class can hear. This is an opportunity for a lesson about color theory, but, like most of the information and ideas Carter unleashes in his Arlington classroom, it will also contain a lesson about life and, along the way, a brush stroke of self-portrait.
"Listen up," he says. That all-colors-equal-black thing is a myth. The truth is, if you mix all the colors together, what you get is a kind of deep, rich brown. His color, he adds. "Look, look," he says: "People ask me: 'What are you? Who are you? Are you black, are you white, are you Indian? Are you a printer, are you a painter? What are you?' And I say: 'I'm a burnt-umber man. I'm the burnt-umber artist.'" At this, Carter emits a huge, window-rattling groan of a laugh. His students, by mid-semester accustomed to this kind of eruption, look simultaneously impressed and inspired by this sound. Burnt umber. The color from the crayon box. Exactly.
This description, with its skillful sidestepping of the question of racial identity -- is a kind of statement of mission. In 30 years, Carter has produced housefuls of paintings, prints and sculpture but has resisted the conventional corridors of success in order to go his own way, to the frustration of his former dealer, his collectors and other admirers. Despite this, he is not unknown. The Corcoran Gallery of Art has two Allen Carters in its collection. In 1985, he was nominated by a Washington curator to the Sao Paolo Biennial, a large and prestigious international art show.
For 25 years, he has shown his art as far away as Richmond, Georgia and the Carolinas, but never in New York City, the great, career-making capital of the American art world. Instead, to make ends meet, he has taught art for more than two decades in Arlington County public schools. Monday through Friday, he shuttles among three centers for continuing education (one a renovated former funeral home), working with students who fell between the cracks in regular high school and want a second chance at a high school diploma. He starts teaching at 8 a.m., quits at about 3:30, drives home for an egg sandwich or some Chinese takeout, naps if he can, and then descends to his basement studio, where his second workday begins. With his jazz or blues records and CDs playing, and sometimes taking breaks to play along on cornet, he works -- sketching, painting, carving and etching. Very often he stays up all night, then showers, drives to school at about 6 a.m. and, once there, naps in the driver's seat of his Ford van until the school day begins.
He is a particular type of Washington artist, someone who was understood by peers to have the promise to make it in New York, but who for one reason or another -- temperament, taste, fear, arrogance or some combination -- decided to stay here and fashion a different, quieter career and life. Now, on the eve of another regional show -- in Wilmington, N.C., where he will be part of an exhibition of five African American artists, including master painter and collage maker Romare Bearden -- Carter, 58, is busy sifting through decades of work.
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"Yo! Put the phone up -- I said put that phone up!" Allen Carter is sitting in the front of his classroom and calling to the back, where a favorite student has a cell phone cemented to his ear. "You know you not supposed to have that thing on in here."
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In Malvo's Testimony, Hope for Full Story
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Lee Boyd Malvo is expected to testify in a Montgomery County courtroom as early as today against his former mentor John Allen Muhammad, potentially providing an insider's account of the 2002 sniper attacks and adding to the public understanding of the rampage that claimed 10 lives and terrorized the region.
Key questions about the attacks remain unanswered even after the Virginia trials in which Malvo was sentenced to life in prison and Muhammad was sentenced to death. Those trials, in the fall of 2003, did not conclusively reveal which of the two was the gunman in each shooting. Nor did they provide a definitive motive for the slayings.
"If it goes right," Richard A. Finci, a lawyer who is not involved in the case, said of Malvo's testimony, "it's what Montgomery County really wanted out of this case. The whole story will come out."
Several other lawyers cautioned that, because Malvo is already serving a life sentence, he could be a difficult witness for prosecutors to control. Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. described Malvo, whom he prosecuted, as bright and clever. "I'd lose a few nights sleep before I'd put him on," he said.
"When you've got a guy with nothing to lose, it's hard to feel confident in what he's going to say," Horan said.
In addition, Malvo already has given conflicting accounts of the shootings to detectives, psychiatrists and others, raising the question of the accuracy of his testimony. A source familiar with his expected testimony said last week that he will name Muhammad as the triggerman in five of the six Montgomery slayings.
Neither prosecutors nor Malvo's attorneys have disclosed what, if anything, he might hope to receive in exchange for his testimony. A source familiar with his decision to testify said he is "seeking some sort of personal redemption by telling his story."
Muhammad, 45, is charged with murder in each of the six Montgomery slayings. Malvo, 21, is charged in the same slayings and is scheduled for trial later this year. Montgomery Circuit Court Judge James L. Ryan has ordered prosecutors and the standby attorneys assisting Muhammad as he defends himself not to discuss the case publicly.
Malvo was talkative in the days after he and Muhammad were arrested Oct. 24 at a Frederick rest stop. In taped conversations with investigators in Fairfax, he laughed and boasted about shooting FBI analyst Linda Franklin and others.
At Malvo's trial in Virginia, defense psychiatrists testified that Malvo had recanted, telling them he had taken responsibility for the shootings to protect Muhammad, whom he viewed as a father.
Malvo said he and Muhammad intended to use the $10 million they hoped to extort from the government in exchange for stopping the shootings to build a utopian compound in Canada, where Muhammad would raise 140 black children to start a world that was more just. Malvo's attorneys suspected that Muhammad was using that vision as a way to justify serial killings that could mask his true aim: slaying his ex-wife and regaining custody of his three youngest children.
Malvo came close to taking the stand at Muhammad's trial in Prince William County. In a meeting with prosecutors on the eve of that trial, Malvo described how his relationship with Muhammad evolved into a murderous rampage.
One of Malvo's Virginia attorneys, Michael S. Arif, said last year that, after remaining loyal to Muhammad for months, Malvo had a change of heart, saying, "I'm not going to die for what he did."
Arif said the possible plea arrangement, in which prosecutors would have spared Malvo's life, collapsed under pressure from other authorities he did not name.
Another lawyer not involved in the trial underway in Rockville said that, in a worst-case scenario, Malvo could say something that might provoke a mistrial. Lawyer Clarke F. Ahlers said Malvo could jeopardize a prosecution that has been "virtually perfect."
"There's overwhelming evidence in my mind of Muhammad's guilt, and the reality is that no matter what the prosecutor thinks, she probably can't control Malvo," Ahlers said.
There's also the specter of Muhammad, acting as his own lawyer, personally cross-examining Malvo, whom he still considers a son. Such a confrontation could lead to some unpredictability for prosecutors.
But others said the risk is minimal. Attorney Joseph Murtha said Malvo "can act as a navigator for the state's case," corroborating the ballistics and other scientific evidence that prosecutors have presented.
Faced with cooperating witnesses, particularly those testifying in exchange for leniency, defense attorneys often seek to divert jurors' attention away from more compelling scientific evidence and toward the witnesses' credibility. But lawyer Robert C. Bonsib said testimony from Malvo would more likely cement the circumstantial evidence and "be of substantial benefit to the prosecutors in closing the holes."
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Lee Boyd Malvo is expected to testify in a Montgomery County courtroom as early as today against his former mentor John Allen Muhammad, potentially providing an insider's account of the 2002 sniper attacks and adding to the public understanding of the rampage that claimed 10 lives and terrorized...
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O'Malley Replaces Campaign Manager
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Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley announced a shakeup in the senior staff of his campaign for governor last night, naming a former leader of the Maryland Democratic Party to replace a national Democratic operative as his campaign manager.
The campaign said Josh White, former executive director of the state party, would replace Jonathan Epstein, who was tapped to lead O'Malley's campaign last year. Epstein's résumé included leading field operations in Democratic presidential contender John F. Kerry's win in the 2004 Iowa caucuses.
"We're doing this from a position of strength, not a position of weakness," O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said last night. "It was a mutual decision to move in a different direction, and we wish Jonathan the best of luck. The change in direction now is that this campaign will become more focused on Maryland and the people of Maryland."
In a Democratic primary contest against Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, O'Malley has enjoyed early leads in polling, fundraising and key endorsements, and has aimed his campaign at the Republican governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., rather than at his primary opponent.
There have been signs of a tightening race, although recent surveys have presented different pictures of the degree to which that may be happening. A poll last month by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies, for example, showed O'Malley leading by nine percentage points among likely Democratic primary voters. Another statewide poll, conducted about the same time by OpinionWorks, showed a margin of 17 points. Neither O'Malley nor Duncan could muster enough votes to win the endorsement of the state's largest teachers union over the weekend.
Aides to O'Malley acknowledged personality conflicts between Epstein and some longtime advisers to the Baltimore mayor, who was elected in 1999 and has been eyeing a run for governor for several years.
White joined the O'Malley campaign in March as deputy campaign manager for political outreach. In addition to his promotion, the campaign announced that O'Malley's younger brother, Peter, a longtime political adviser, and Lucie Snodgrass, another longtime activist in Maryland politics, would be elevated to deputy campaign managers.
Snodgrass has worked as an aide to U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) and as a governmental relations director for Harford County.
The Duncan campaign offered a muted response last night.
"Jonathan is a consummate professional with great experience, and we wish him well as he continues his political career and other pursuits," Duncan campaign manager Scott Arceneaux said.
In a statement, O'Malley said he has "a strong campaign, with strong leadership and a committed, hardworking staff."
"With these additions, our campaign is now poised for the tough battles ahead to take back the State House and put the governor's office back on the side of Maryland's hardworking families," he said.
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Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley announced a shakeup in the senior staff of his campaign for governor last night, naming a former leader of the Maryland Democratic Party to replace a national Democratic operative as his campaign manager.
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Cavs Dominate Hoyas, Advance to Semifinals
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TOWSON, Md., May 21 -- The Virginia men's lacrosse team scored three goals in three minutes during the third quarter of its NCAA tournament quarterfinal against Georgetown on Sunday. The Cavaliers scored three more goals in 3 minutes 7 seconds. They finished the quarter with three goals in 2:47.
The nine goals in the quarter were more than enough for Virginia in its 20-8 victory before 7,317 in the second quarterfinal at Johnny Unitas Stadium.
Top-seeded Virginia (15-0) advanced to play No. 5 Syracuse (10-4) in an NCAA semifinal on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Meantime, the No. 8 Hoyas (11-3) lost in the quarterfinals for the fifth straight year. The nine goals in the third quarter were the most they had given up in their playoff history. The previous high of seven came in the second quarter of a 14-13 overtime loss to Princeton in the 2002 quarterfinals.
"I don't think it's reasonable to expect that to happen," Virginia Coach Dom Starsia said of the spurt.
Georgetown trailed 8-5 at halftime but had possession, and a man advantage, to start the third quarter. The Hoyas had myriad problems in the quarter.
Junior Christiaan Trunz entered having taken all but 35 faceoffs this year. He had not practiced much last week, however, because of an unspecified injury, and he appeared to slow down after taking 10 faceoffs in the quarter.
Virginia rotates its faceoff men, and that unit won 7 of 10 to keep the pressure on the Hoyas. Georgetown also had a problem in goal. Sophomore Miles Kass started the game, but fifth-year senior Rich D'Andrea had warmed up on the sideline late in the second quarter with the Hoyas trailing 6-2.
Kass began the third quarter, but did not finish it. He left with 5:42 left and the Hoyas trailing 14-7. D'Andrea hugged Kass and said a few encouraging words to him as the two switched places. Kass finished with seven saves; D'Andrea had four.
A quarter that began with promise ended with the Hoyas trailing 17-7.
"When we were down 10 going into the fourth, at that point you're pretty much trying to play with some class and keep playing hard," said senior Pete Cannon, who finished with two assists.
The Cavaliers scored the game's first four goals. The third, on a long shot from senior Kyle Dixon, hit Kass's helmet before it went into the goal. The shot had such velocity that Kass's helmet needed to be repaired on the sideline during a timeout.
Georgetown closed to 8-5 following a goal by fifth-year senior Dave Paolisso with 46 seconds left in the first half. Georgetown then had a 30-second man-up opportunity following a pushing penalty on junior Ricky Smith. But junior Trevor Casey had a turnover on the extra-man chance, and senior Matt Poskay scored on a point-blank shot off an assist from Dixon to start the clinching spurt.
"Down 8-5 at halftime, that's not the worst place to be," said Georgetown Coach Dave Urick. "I know one thing. I wouldn't want to play Virginia again anytime soon."
Sophomore Ben Rubeor had five goals and senior Matt Ward added three goals and a career-high five assists. Poskay added four goals, and sophomore Kip Turner had 12 saves. Paolisso had four goals for the Hoyas.
Virginia entered with assists on 70 percent of its goals, an uncommonly high number, and had 13 assists on Sunday. By way of comparison, Johns Hopkins went undefeated and won the national title last year having assisted on 49 percent of its goals.
The Cavs face the prospect of finishing their first undefeated season.
"We certainly respect the final four," Ward said. "During the season, you play before a few thousand people, and in the final four there's 45,000 people there and you're in an NFL stadium. It's something you remember the rest of your life. And it's something you miss if you don't get there."
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Unbeaten and No. 1 Virginia scores nine goals during the third quarter Sunday and the Cavaliers run out Georgetown, 20-8, to advance to the Final Four.
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TV Commercials Move Beyond the Box
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When CBS television writers and producers sat down this spring to think about "Jericho," a new program for this fall, they crafted two story lines: one that would appear on television and one that would appear -- and fish for ad dollars -- only on the Internet.
CBS calls the second one the "D" story line, for digital. It will involve the characters and premise of the show but will consist of original content available only on the company's expanded Web site and on cellphones, where advertisers search for younger, harder-to-reach consumers.
For half a century, the 30-second commercial spot was the template for television advertising, a one-size-fits-all solution that networks offered everyone from soapmakers to car companies -- take it or leave it. They still pack a punch -- for launching blockbuster movies, for instance -- but now that networks face increasing competition for ad dollars from the Internet and the wandering attention of viewers, the 30-second spot is only one ingredient in a cocktail of options that networks are mixing for advertisers.
The new advertising choices also affect what viewers see on television and the Internet, as networks are creating extra programming tailored for advertisers. Fans of ABC's hit drama "Lost," for instance, are exploring additional original content that is nowhere to be seen on TV on the show's many Web sites.
Last week, as thousands of television network executives, media buyers, agents and advertisers gathered in New York for the annual "upfronts" -- when networks roll out their fall program lineups and try to sell the commercial spots contained therein -- digital buzzwords such as "extension," "engagement" and "Internet iterations" flew about.
"The Internet is everywhere this week," said Julie Henderson, senior vice president of corporate communications for Fox Interactive Media, the online arm of the Fox television network.
In many ways, the powerful networks are like a kid with a new train set, trying to figure out how to set it up and seeing if it will run. "It's a new world," said Jo Ann Ross, president of advertising sales at CBS. "There's a lot of experimenting." CBS is pitching its many digital platforms to advertisers, Ross said, as advertisers try to figure out which ones are best for them.
The networks are entering the online content and advertising space as never before now that 17 percent of all households -- and most workplaces -- are equipped with high-speed Internet access. The fast pipeline largely ends the frustration of trying to watch video online that plagued the Web's dial-up days and kept the networks out of the early Internet boom.
Combine a speedier Web with the rollout of numerous portable devices -- Apple's video iPod, Sony's PSP handheld video device -- and it's now possible and increasingly enjoyable to watch television shows on something other than TV.
That means a new frontier for advertisers -- car companies, beermakers, movie studios and so on -- and an ability for them to laser in on target audiences with "much more demographic distinction than television advertising" can, said ad buyer John Rash of Minneapolis's Campbell Mithun.
"The transcendent theme to this year's upfronts is content being put on multimedia platforms," Rash said.
For example, the hardest television viewers to reach are the 18- to 34-year-old, which is why shows that cater to them, such as Fox's "American Idol" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," draw the highest ad rates, as much as $2 million per 30-second slot for the finales of some popular shows, such as "Friends."
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This is your source for news on personal technology. Find info and reviews on the newest technology that affects your life. Read our latest features on new tech gadgets.
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Chatological Humor* (Updated 5.26.06)
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* Formerly known as "Funny? You Should Ask ."
DAILY UPDATES: 5.24.06 | 5.25.06 | 5.26.06
Gene Weingarten's controversial humor column, Below the Beltway , appears every Sunday in The Washington Post Magazine. He aspires to someday become a National Treasure, but is currently more of a National Gag Novelty Item, like rubber dog poo.
He is online, at any rate, each Tuesday, to take your questions and abuse.
This week's poll (please choose the appropriate door): Men 34 and Younger | Men 35 and Older | Women 34 and Younger | Women 35 and Older
Weingarten is the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca. "Below the Beltway" is now syndicated nationally by The Washington Post Writers Group .
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ .
This column engendered many e-mails from readers reporting the results of their own research to find Googlehits for "[adjective] breasts." Some of my favorites, all of which resulted in at least one hit: "sputtering breasts," "obsequious breasts," "flatulent breasts," "envious breasts," "cataclysmic breasts," "sophisticated breasts," "intellectual breasts," and my favorite, from reader Horace LaBadie, "galumphing breasts."
Gave a commencement address yesterday at the University of Maryland College of Journalism. Before the ceremony, I was speaking with my old Miami Herald colleague Tom Kunkel, who delivered one of the funniest anecdotes I've ever heard.
Tom, who is now the dean of the college, was suffering through some back pain. Because he was about to preside over the graduation ceremonies, he told me he was not taking strong pain meds for fear they would affect his speech the way they did the last time he had back problems: At that time, the dignified dean of the University of Maryland school of Journalism solemnly informed a room full of people that he had a "bulging disc." Only it came out without the "s" sound.
As I was driving home, I heard an ad on the radio that was so unsettling I pulled to the side of the road to write it down. I think it's new, because I haven't heard it before:
A man talks about how much he loves his Mercedes, and how pleased he is with his experiences at American Service Center in Arlington. He is obviously a black man, and even if it weren't obvious, he soon specifically informs you of this fact. He claims he is in his mid-70s, though the voice suggests this is a polished actor, probably younger. Then he tells you how he appreciates being treated courteously by AMC, because, as an African American from an older generation, he has had negative experiences at other car dealerships.
The message seems to be: Come to ASC, black people, and we won't patronize you.
Can there BE a more patronizing ad?
I don't want to be guilty of what I have accused others of: Taking offense on behalf of someone else. So, maybe I'm wrong. Can we hear from some African American readers? I know African Americans have had, and sometimes still do have, sour experiences in retail establishments, but isn't there something very wrong with this approach? Or is it somehow refreshing in its honesty?
Cashews are the best-tasting nuts, obviously. I won't even brook any debate on this subject. Wouldn't cashew butter taste a lot better than peanut butter? Has anyone here ever seen or tried cashew butter? The web claims it exists. Does it suck or something? Why has no one made a fortune on this product? Also, I happen to think Barry Bonds is getting a terribly rough deal. He was just a guy trying to do the best he could, looking for whatever edge possible, and his accomplishments should be celebrated. Also, Babe Ruth was fat.
Please take today's poll. You are responding so far in record numbers. So far, the results are both highly predictable and highly interesting. There is only one question containing a "right" answer, and most of you are astounding wrong. Analysis awaits.
Sunday's comics provided two unusual things. Foxtrot , which was in code. (Jason is tapping out "Someday I will rule you all.") And Frazz , which made unusual and inventive use of black and white to emphasize the central character: The egg. Very nicely done.
Comic Pick of the Week is a joint billing: Sunday's excellent Opus . And Sunday's excellent Watch Your Head . First Runner-Up is Sunday's Sherman's Lagoon .
Can anyone explain Saturday's B.C. ? Or Friday's Close to Home ?
Gene Weingarten: Oh, I forgot to mention. Regarding the Google-sex column, I received a correspondence a reader who lamented that his emails often wind up in the recipient's spam basket. His name is Jay Cummings.
Vientiane, Laos (really!): Gene, I just voted in your poll from Vientiane, the capital of the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic, where I'm on vacation. There's a notice posted outside the U.S. Embassy here that the Laotian authorities have a law the makes it illegal to have sex with a Laotian national, unless you are married. The notice further says that this is a "secret law" and that the Laotians will not be able to show you the law in any book of laws, but will still imprison and fine you if you, as a foreigner, have sex with a Laotian out of wedlock.
My question is not whether or not I should have sex with a Laotian, as my wife has already answered that for me, but whether you have ever gotten a question from a country where it is illegal to have sex with the locals?
Gene Weingarten: No, and this is now officially my favorite chat question of 2006.
I wonder how much Laos charges for a quickie wedding? This could be the equivalent of a speed-trap town, you know?
Oh Great, today's poll yet again divides the world up by gender and age. And today is my 52nd birthday. And I'm a woman. Thanks for the reminder.
Women of a certain age get no respect. We slowly become invisible. (And it doesn't help that increasing portions of my demographic are getting so desperate that they are doing bizarre things to maintain "youthful" looks, even though they end up looking frightening. Have you seen Linda Evans lately? It's ghastly.)
So enough about old dogs. Could you spare a few minutes and say something nice about old gals. Remind everybody that we can still be frisky and sensuous and that we know good tricks and know who we are and what we want. What is sexier than that?
Come on -- just for my birthday?
Gene Weingarten: My wife is about my age, which is to say older than you are. She is the sexiest woman I know, personally.
Close to Home: The car sent up the ramp, spun sideways, and landed in the garage. Not funny, nor does it reall make sense, since the car wouldn't spin as a result of a ramp, but I believe that was intent.
Gene Weingarten: Exactly. WHY WOULD IT SPIN?
Washington, D.C.: I have just recently come across a revelation so shocking that I don't know if I will ever be able to recover, and I think the topic is perfectly suited to your chat. After thinking extensively about the issue, I have decided that almost all public and many private bathrooms or restrooms have been designed with a serious structural flaw.
As has been discussed several times in this space, many if not most people wash their hands after going to the bathroom. This may be due either to hygiene or social pressure (if others are present). However, when one is in the stall, doing one's business, one must, upon completion, use one's hands to pull up pants, down skirt, button or zip, etc, BEFORE cleaning those selfsame ostensibly dirty hands.
If there is something dirty or messy on the hands, doesn't this action only serve to spread the filth around to one's clothes? Should not the sinks be located within each stall (as is the case in some handicapped stalls)?
The concern is the same in some private bathrooms, especially larger ones where the toilet may not be right next to the sink. You can shamble toward the sink, pants around the ankles or skirts pinned up around the waist by the elbows, but that can also cause potential contamination from the floor or if your filty, dirty hands come into contact with your clothes.
Now that I have realized this, I have never looked at a bathroom the same way again. Fortunately, I am made of stern stuff and not so troubled by the prospect. Also, I am reasonably careful and don't get anything on me.
I hope that I have not horrified those of your readers who are sensitive about bathroom issues and etiquette. I just felt I had bring this serious design flaw into the open so that the best and the brightest can begin their work to resolve this critical public health issue.
I await my call from the Nobel Committee.
Gene Weingarten: So you would get up with your pants and undies around your ankles, stutter-step to the sink, and ablute? I think not.
Cashew Butter: Yes, it exists. Trader Joe's has it, naturally. What's even better, though, is Cashew-Macadamia butter. Just a tiny spoonful will send you into rapture. I refer to it as NC-17 peanut butter, because I believe it should be for adults only.
Gene Weingarten: Actually, Chatwoman has just informed me that macadamia is better than cashew. I call it a tossup.
Washington, D.C.: While walking my two dogs Sunday afternoon, I encountered you (going through your recycling), your wife and son. Your son scratched my dog's head (she loved it). My question: is humor communicable? Because she was already a pretty funny dog, and I've been watching closely to see if she's grown any funnier as a result of your son's touch.
Gene Weingarten: Humor is not tactilely communicable, I fear.
I go through my recycling regularly, like an old vagrant. That is because I am forever accidentally throwing out Style sections that have comix I intended to mention in my chat. I never found the one for Thursday, which is why I didn't mention any Thursday comics today. I am actually bedeviled by this. I might have missed something good.
Loqua City: What a biased column! You gave no space at all to searches such as "loquacious penis" or "perspicacious penis."
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway: Googling America's Brain , ( Post Magazine, May 21 )
Gene Weingarten: True, true. But you will find virtually no Web porn that uses the word "penis." And if you think about it, you will understand why I did not explore this further in the column.
Thoughts and feelin, GS: First of all, I find it amusing to use state designations that do not exist. I think fondly upon the consternation felt by those of you who think it is more amusing to use words ending in real states.
Secondly, I'm apparently the first person who answered the 34/under poll with "I could go to jail for my thoughts", and I will tell you both reasons why:
It is surpassing rare for me to look at a 14-year-old and to then have lascivious thoughts. But sometimes I have the thoughts first and then wonder (or find out!) her age. I feel a certain measure of guilt, but I'm happily married and therefore consider myself Mostly Harmless.
I would never, EVER tie up and rape my one particular co-worker until she begged for more in real life. Not that I think that would work the way it does in my fantasies.
So, my question for you Gene -- this poll is still completely anonymous, right? Nothing has changed on that front?
Gene Weingarten: It is anonymous, you ol' coot. What you been up to? This is my old college roommate, Allen DeNunkyhaven.
My life improvements: No white bras, no sweater around the waist, and, now, no more "..." in my e-mail correspondence. That has been the hardest by far, but I haven't used it in a week. I think the world is a slightly better place as a result.
washingtonpost.com: This is turning into a cult. What next, Mr. Koresh?
Gene Weingarten: It's not all Thou Shalt Not, lady. For example: calf-high boots and skirts just above the knee. Please. Just for me.
Less respect for the Guy, Va.: Hi, a woman who picked "the obscenely illegal type fantasy option" here.
Don't respect the guy -- he kept a DIARY of his innermost sexual fanasties where presumably his kids could one day read that stuff when he died.
To illustrate this, would you actually write about XXXX your beloved dog with costumeing, S&M, death and fruit involved -- knowing that there was the remotest chance your family would read it one day.
Of course, I have never recorded any sexual urge in a diary. As far as my diary is concerned, I'm an neutered nun, and that's how it stays. I would devise a code if I needed to record any extremely personal thoughts, so when I die people can try and break the code and come up with the conclusion I'm descended from a bowl of fruit or whatever.
Gene Weingarten: Actually, if memory serves me right, the greatest diarist in literature, Samuel Pepys, used an elaborate code in his writings to indicate when he practiced self-pleasuring.
Washington, D.C.:: Who is smarter, you or your wife?
Gene Weingarten: Well, my wife has much better judgment than I do on most matters. She can handle many more things at one time than I can, including financial matters, which completely elude me. She is more persuasive than I am. She can more effectively analyze a situation and chart an effective course of action. She is more practical, more observant, and her memory -- both long and short-term -- is vastly superior. She intuitively understands people and their motivations far better than I, and while she has performed ably at my profession, I could not function at all in hers. But my SATs were higher, so I am smarter.
Actually, this is a pretty good template. My daughter has attended two Ivy League universities, and has passed courses in biochemistry, multi-species neurology and cellular physiology, courses that are so intimidating, complex and arcane I cannot even understand the terminology, let alone the theory. However, I am smarter than she is because I had higher SATs.
Politic, AL: Gene, Regarding the "conservatives" that keep attacking your (and by extension many of your readers') patriotism.
Look, I'm a die-hard liberal, and I would have been willing to let your lunatic raving go because my bias could be just as wrong as yours. But here's the thing, my father is a 28-year military veteran from the South who, in my whole life, has never had a nice thing to say about a Democrat. Heck, I'm not sure calling him "staunch" covers it if you get my drift. He is also (apart from the previous lack of judgment) one of the smartest people I know, and I often measure my political views against his. Testing my arguments for weak spots, looking for holes in my logic. This weekend, for the first time ever, I won an argument.
My father has voted a straight Republican ticket for the last 37 years, but he now says that he does not see a way that he can continue to support the party.
The fear mongering, human rights violating, hate-spewing lies have finally converted a Republican touchstone.
If my dad has converted then the rest of you rabid conservatives really don't know what your talking about. So I'm begging you, don't make this be about "being right" -- step back, take another look without your blinders on and realize someone (or something) can make terrible mistakes and you can point those out while still loving them -- seriously.
Gene Weingarten: So I guess your message of oneness and conciliation is:
Behold, all you rabid conservative maniacs -- we love you."
Gene Weingarten: You'd probably agree with the people who created that Mercedes ad.
Charlotte, N.C.: Is your judgment of what's funny species-specific? Care to make an assessment of dog humor?
My dogs are always let into the yard by the same door, a side door from the laundry room. They're too big for a doggie door, so when they want to come back in they let out a single bark as a signal and we come open the door. Pretty efficient system. Lately, though, maybe once a week, one of them has taken to going to the back door, on the deck, and doing the "I want to come in" bark. I'll go to the usual side door looking, he's not there, I'm confused, and then realize he's at the back door. I go and let him in there.
Now, the thing that gets me is that when he does this, he comes into the house in full-body tail wagging mode. Very happy dog. So, my question is, is this a doggie joke? Does he think it's funny to make me go to the wrong door? Have I been punk'd?
Many years ago we had an older dog, Clementine, and a young dog, Harry. Both labs. Clem was a food hound. Harry was a house protector. Those were their basic personalities. Clem was smarter than Harry.
We fed them at the same time, in bowls a few feet apart. Clem figured something out. Everytime we put the food down, Clem would run to the front door and bark. This would tell Harry that someone was trying to get in! He would run to the front door to bark. At which point Clem would double back to the kitchen, and eat Harry's food.
She had a major-league dog sense of humor.
Hair, RI: Gene, I have a question that I know you'll know the answer to. I am a particularly hairy woman, mostly my legs, and I have to shave every day. The hair seems more akin to men's beards than my girl friend's leg hair. Would I be better off using a razor designed for men -- I'm not brave enough to try it your way, I'm talking about the disposible or electric type -- than the dainty one designed for women's legs?
Gene Weingarten: They're the same razor! It's just that one is pink. I used to use my wife's venus sometimes. Perfectly good shave.
Boston, Mass.: Only a fan of the Yankees, a baseball team that historically has operated on the same management principles as GM, would defend Barry Bonds.
Leesburg, Va.: Last week, I submitted a question to Josh du Lac Freedom Rock chat. Josh du Lac is a music critic for the Washington Post. I wanted to get his opinion of these song was better, Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express, or Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. No surprise, he picked the wrong song. This is your chance to prove that your musical taste is much better then some music critic for The Washington Post. Which one of these two songs is better, and why?
Gene Weingarten: I see where you are going, but I am not biting the way Yummy Yummy bites.
Washington, D.C.: OK, I think you'll be able to help me out with this. What year is it supposed to be in the flashback of Sally and Ted Forth, presumably college students, planning their wedding? I know this strip has been around a while and the characters don't age, but it seems that they are portrayed as 60s/70s hippies, which would make them at a minimum in their 50s now. Am I misreading this?
Gene Weingarten: I am glad you asked this! About a year ago, when Marciulano did a pre-marriage flashback, he labeled the year: 1987, I think. I chastised him in the chat, pointing out that devoted readers of Sally Forth REMEMBER the strip from 1987, and they were married, Hilary was still eight years old, etc. Marciuliano and I (or possibly his wife and I, I forget) had an email exchange on this. I held my ground.
HE TOOK MY ADVICE! This week flashbacks reference only an "earlier" time.
New York, N.Y.: I am incapable of averting my eyes from a calf-high boot/knee length skirt combination. I drifted off there when you mentioned it.
Gene Weingarten: I know. I wonder if women are aware of this. They can't be, right? Or they'd all dress like that, all the time.
Tom, how could you?: How did Mr. Butcher let this one through?
On page 18 of Sunday's Magazine:
"...the enormity of building a school half a world away begin to weigh on him."
Undisclosed location, Pennsylvania Avenue: Who is smarter, you or George W. Bush? Let's compare your SAT scores to mine, I mean, his.
Gene Weingarten: I guess George's must be higher than mine. Otherwise, how could he have gotten into Yale?
Upper Marlboro, Md.: If you could have dinner with any actor/actress, and one of their characters who would it be? I would chose Alan Alda and Hawkeye. As for an actress, I'm not sure.
washingtonpost.com: Russell Crowe and Jack Aubrey.
Gene Weingarten: You need to be more specific. You mean, the actor playing the character? Or the actor and the character, if the character were real. I assume you mean the latter, and I assume if I chose "Raymond Massey and Abe Lincoln," I would not get the REAL Abe Lincoln.
So. Hm. I might abandon my sexism and go with Bogart, and Rick Blaine. Rick Blaine was real interesting. Or possibly George Burns and God.
No, Kirsten Dunst and the character she played in Spotless Mind would only be about number seven.
Gene Weingarten: washingtonpost.com has just informed me that Ms. Dunst was born in 1982. She is trying to suggest I am a hypocrite, is ms. washingtonpost.com.
My point is that in this movie, the comely Ms. Dunst exhibited a distinct nearly insatiable physical attraction to smart but paunchy middle-aged men. That's all I'm saying.
Gene Weingarten: Whoa. My son's answer to this question puts mine to shame. Dan's answers:
1. "That kid who played Urkel, and Urkel. Every time Urkel said something stupid, I would slap the actor in the face."
2. Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Capote.
3. Kathleen Turner and Jessica Rabbit.
A Bearded o, NE: Do not shave legs with a man's razor. Faces are shaved WITH the grain of the whiskers, while legs are shaved AGAINST.
The razor makers, of course, know this and design their cutty edges accordingly.
Gene Weingarten: Faces are shaved in ALL directions.
Eastern Market, Washington, D.C.: Gene,
So how do you satirize this administration? Attempts at humor range from Steven Colbert's uncomfortably literal recitation of actual facts to (I believe) your recent reference to our president as a coprophagic invertebrate. Neither was funny because both are true. Could you say something flattering and sort of heroic about our leaders and maybe that will be funny? Or maybe something dealing with sexual potency?
Gene Weingarten: I was nowhere near the first writer to sharply criticize this guy, but I may have been the first to suggest that he will turn out to be in the pantheon of Worst American Presidents, possibly even atop the scrap heap. I think I first said this in a chat in early 2003.
It's mind-boggling what a screwup this fella is, and if it weren't for the body bags, he'd be a TOTAL HOOT.
Tucson, Ariz.: I bought both of your books a couple of weeks ago. I'm poor, so I had to buy them at a used bookstore (I'm sorry I had to deprive you of any royalties you might have earned). The funny thing is, there was a paperback copy of your hypochondriac book at half the cover price (the usual price of used books at this particular store), but I found a hard cover copy for the bargain price of $1. It even had stamps that said "$1" all over it so I can't try to sell it back to the store. What do you think the significance of this is? Was the book contaminated somehow, and therefore only worth $1? What kind of horrible diseases could I have caught from your book?
Both books were pretty good, but I notice you used some of the same jokes in both of them, like the one about the Sound Princess emitting an ear-splitting fart. It was funny once, but twice was a little bit of overkill. Just thought you should know.
Gene Weingarten: True, true. I think I reprised two observations from the first book. That was one of em. The other involved a diet involving having to look at the chewed food on your tongue before you swallowed. And Gina used two anecdotes that she had used in previous books. We figured limited self-plagiarism is okay, if used extremely sparingly.
King of Prussia, Pa.: hey Gene, I'm a long time reader, first time writer to your column. About 18 months ago I started having severe panic attacks (ah, my heart! I'm gonna die! kind of thing). Since then, I've become a severe hypochondriac. My main concern is that the doctors have missed something (even with a stress test, blood tests, x-rays, etc.) and that I'm going to have a heart attack and die. Any advice on how to get a handle on this situation? Or should I just accept that paranoia about my health is just a part of who I am and embrace the fear?
Gene Weingarten: You seem to have confused me with someone who actually KNOWS something about hypochondria. I just make fun of it.
This is only going to get worse, if you don't deal with the symptoms immediately. You need to buy several copies of my book, to remind yourself at all times, and in all rooms of your house (hint hint) what a self-absorbed neurotic jerk you are being.
Bronx, N.Y.: You know how you can tell the Yankees are a great team? So many Yankee ballplayers tell about the chill they get the first time they ever put on that pinstripe uniform. I have never heard a ballplayer tell about the chill the first time he put on his Devil Rays uniform.
Gene Weingarten: Or ANY OTHER TEAM.
Your piece on telltale signs of alcoholism reminded me of one of my favorite Web sites: Modern Drunkard. A little intense, but at times hilarious! Check out some of the great links!
Sign Language for Souses is epic and should be framed
Drinking is the solution to all of life's problems
Gene Weingarten: That first one is quite funny AND pretty disturbing. It's the matter-of-factness of it all.
College Park, Md.: How was your experience giving the commencement address at the University of Maryland's journalism school? As an audience member, I thoroughly enjoyed it. You were inches away from me at one point as you processed in. I was considering whispering something chat-related, but my courage failed me.
"The sword is mightier than the pen." I never expected to see a commencement speaker unsheath a sword in the middle of his speech. Where did you get your hands on that thing? Congratulations on going so far with such a simple gag. I hope that last week's chat contributor who hoped you would be uplifting wasn't crushed by your line that journalists' job approval rating is between that of "loan shark" and "ho-bag skank." Thanks for bringing your usual class to our distinguished institution of higher learning.
Gene Weingarten: It was fun. I was actually a little nervous. I have no problem speaking truth to power, but speaking truth to parents... uh oh. People seemed to take it fine.
New York, N.Y.: I forget whether this chat has ever mentioned this. Are men supposed to shave their faces with the grain? I shave mine against. Have I been doing it wrong all this time?
Gene Weingarten: As a wielder of a straight razor, where every pass must be carefully considered, I can tell you: Mostly against the grain, but in places with. Sometimes diagonal.
The Late Prescott Bush: Excuse me, did you just ask how the grandson of a United States Senator from Connecticut could get into Yale?
Gene Weingarten: Y-you, you... mean it wasn't LEGIT?
Philadelphia, Pa.: I answered the poll and then realized maybe I can vary on some of these issues. Ordinarily, it does not bother me one bit to learn that someone I admire for their entertainment or sports or public service value had some secret sexual life. It's their own business. It does not affect my enjoyment of Woody Allen's movies knowing that people think he married his daughter (which he actually didn't.) It does not mean I can't enjoy an Elton John song without thinking he may have been singing about another man. Yet, when I read about how an actor I viewed as a sturdy grandfather type used to hire prostitutes to join him in bars to pretend to be his wife for wife swapping, I have to admit: I did begin thinking less of him. Is that bad of me?
Gene Weingarten: Well, the question in question was talking about FANTASY life, not actions. This guy sounds REALLY skeevy, but it's not rining a bell for either me nor celebritologist. Who is this person? Or are you disclosing privately held information?
Washington, D.C.: Some years ago (I'm terrible at remembering when something occurred) there was an article in The Post written by a reporter emeritus who had written for The Post for decades. He was old and infirm and the article was about his decision not to have surgery which might extend his life but also might kill or futher debilitate him. He started the article with one of the most amazing leads I've ever seen, something like: "By the time you read this I may be dead." That article is very pertinent to a discussion I've had with a close friend, but now I can't find it. Searches on the washingtonpost.com website and with Google haven't worked for me. Are you familiar with this article or do you know the writer's name? Thanks much.
Gene Weingarten: This was a 2004 piece by the great Chalmers Roberts, and it was one of the most compelling things I've read in the Post. Straightforward, fearless, breathtaking. He died not long afterwards. Here it is.
washingtonpost.com: The Decision of a Lifetime , ( Post, Aug. 28, 2004 )
Corporate Ago, NY: Hi Gene,
Today at work I am tasked with constructing my goals for the year, on which my performance will be judged and my compensation adjusted. I devote most of my energy to your chat group, so I need embellishment. Can you help me bamboozle my employers with some aspirations that sound high-reaching, but are in fact completely ornamental and could easily be accomplished by a three-toed sloth like myself? Surely something from your commencement address would do the trick?
Gene Weingarten: Remind them that The future lies ahead. This is Dave Barry's advice, and it is very good.
I know this is a Hax question, but I think you'll give me a good answer.
My sister is 19 (I'm 24) and just completed her freshman year at a big out-of-state university. In her first semester, she drank herself up to a .4 BAC and was hospitalized and handed a "minor in possession." She'd been partying with her new sorority sisters. My parents were furious and devastated, but didn't pull her out of the sorority or the school (all of which they're completely funding), on the condition that not another drop of alcohol pass her lips until her 21st birthday. She's been flagrantly violating that rule, which my parents don't know. I know, though, from reading her away messages, and from the fact that I went to visit her and my brother, who attended the same school until he graduated last month, and we went to a house party together and she begged me to let her drink (I said no, of course). I don't theoretically have a problem with underage drinking. I did it, my brother did it, everyone I knew in school did it, but we never almost killed ourselves with it. The reason I'm bringing this up now is that about two weeks ago, my brother had a few friends over, and they all had some beer (all of them are 22-23), and my brother told me later that my sister did also, right there in our parents' house, while they were asleep.
Should I tell my parents? My brother doesn't see what the big deal is and I don't want to bring him into this. It's also no secret that my sister and I don't always get along, because I see her as selfish and entitled (she expects my parents to buy her an expensive sports car, tells them if they want to live with her in their retirement they'll have to sell the house they live in and move into one she approves of, etc.; my parents aren't made of money) and she sees me as a party pooper. I don't want my parents to think I'm just being a rat, because I'm not. In that case, I would have told them two weeks ago. Should I tell them at all? I'm really struggling with this one. I'm worried she's an alcoholic, or that she'll hurt herself again. Thanks, Gene. I heart you.
Gene Weingarten: I'm not really qualified to answer this, but why let that stop me?
Kids do incredibly stupid things, and sometimes learn from them. Blowing a .4 and nearly dying from it is an incredibly stupid thing. A major warning signal. I think that AA would tell you that your sister IS an alcoholic, and needs help, pronto. Could be true, may well be true, and if it is, you are morally obliged to tell your parents.
Me, I would go one step further before doing that.
Is it possible that your sister HAS learned her lesson and is drinking responsibly? Do you know that she is actually getting drunk, as opposed to having a drink or two? I know she has lied to your parents, and that's not good, but 19-year-olds lie to their parents about things like this. I sure did. And I did grow up.
Is there a way you can find out? Sounds like your relationship with her precludes intimacy. Does your brother know whether she is still drinking to excess?
If you can't find out, or if you do and the answer is that she is still partying hard, you need to tell your parents.
The stakes here are high, as it were, and the penalty for doing nothing (your sister dies, or thoroughly plunges into alcoholism) is higher than the penalty for ratting her out. But I'd take that one extra step, first.
My guess is that you are not going to like what you learn, and you are going to talk to your parents. And that's not bad.
Silver Spring, Md.: Gene, have you talked with Molly about the injury to the horse Barbaro. An interesting question came up yesterday in Wilbon's chat. Was the horse saved for love (emotion) or money (stud fees)? Does she have any thoughts on this? I know she's an about to be second (?) year student, but am curious as to her professional insight.
Gene Weingarten: I think that question can only be addressed to the owners. Suffice it to say that I don't think it was an unwise fanancial gamble. Would they have done it if the horse was just a farm animal whom they loved? Ask them.
The Late Senator Prescott Bush: From my recollection of Physics, if a car is turning into an approximate 90 degree angle from a road onto a driveway at a high speed and suddenly hits an object that propels it into the air, there would be some residual forward momentum that could cause the car to spin in midair. Stating that, no way that car spun that much on that cartoon unless wifey dear was driving at about 200 MPH.
Gene Weingarten: Or maybe if she cut the wheel sharply at the last minute, in fear. I suppose that could explain it. But a dum comic.
Hazeln, UT: Hazelnuts are the tastiest nuts, and almonds are a close second. You, my friend, are a fool.
Gene Weingarten: Hazelnuts are waaaay too distinct a flavor to be great. That's like liking a menthol cigarette. Frangelico -- yech.
Bethesda, Md.: Jimmy Carter was a worse president than the incumbent. Far worse. And if you think about it for a few minutes, you will see that historians tend to be slaves to the popular will, to the extent that two-term presidents always get rated above those voted out of office after one term. Carter will end up with Hoover and Buchanan at the bottom of the heap.
W is probably going to sit comfortably with Polk (fellow warmongers).
And that just kills you, doesn't it?
Gene Weingarten: Polk was a near great president. You are totally ridiculously wrong.
Carter was very weak. A failed presidency. But we wasn't actively malevolent. He was passively malevolent.
Need A Suggesti, ON: I just was in the restroom and I noticed that my panties are on inside out. I can't decide if it's ickier to leave them that way, or to put them right. If I was wearing a skirt without hose, I'd probably reverse them, but with pants on, I'm not so sure.
By the way, I don't heart you Gene, but I think Molly's kind of cute, if you get my drift.
And this question has me laughing out loud. What a dilemma? Girls? Any thoughts?
Seattle, Wash.: " I used to use my wife's venus sometimes. Perfectly good shave. "
Didn't you note in a chat once that this WAS NOT the case, and that in fact using your wife razor mangled your face?
Gene Weingarten: I did? Wait, maybe I did. Maybe I am wrong! Maybe I am thinking of using her Bic, which was non-gendered.
Don't use your wife's razor unless we get to the bottom of this!
Dog humor: I suspect it is a joke from your dog. Our two goldens LOVE to play the game where we come up to one baby gate, pretend we are about to come through, then run to the other one. They scramble like mad from their side to the other gate. We can go back and forth like this four or five times and it never gets old for them.
And our boy dog pulled the Clem trick on our girl dog with a "Look over there" bark when they were eating outside.
Gene Weingarten: It's really kind of amazing, isn't it? I mean, that is truly strategic behavior.
Boots and skirts: Oh, we are aware that men like that look. It's just not possible for every woman to pull that look off correctly. I am short and I have muscular calves from years of gymnastics. I can rarely find calf-boots that I can actually get to zip up, even though I am very petite. Women with really skinny legs look weird in the boots too.
Gene Weingarten: Ah. Okay, thanks.
Cashew is to Walnut: as a McDonald's hamburger is to a Five Guy's burger.
The texture and taste are supreme. Cashews have minimal surface area to expose their flavor prechew, whereas walnuts have a distinct taste before and after masticination. Cashews look like little baby turds, but for walnuts to resemble turds, they would need to be excreted from some sort of multidimensional transcended anus. Walnuts are superior in every aspect.
Gene Weingarten: Walnuts look exactly like human brain. But you are wrong: Their taste is not as sophisticated.
Crystal City, Va.: AMC: As a Black man (I'm not really a fan of the term African American, but that's another discussion...), I'm guessing that the ad in question is more interested in pulling that segment of the market (i.e. older black men) away from Cadillacs, a brand to which they seem to be extremely loyal (take a look around for yourself).
As to whether or not the treatment these men receive at the Caddy Dealerships is somehow patronizing, I have no personal experience; I'm not yet that old, and I drive a BMW.
BTW, I'M NOT COMPENSATING FOR ANY SHORTCOMINGS!! I'M NOT COMPENSATING FOR ANY SHORTCOMINGS!! I'M NOT COMPENSATING FOR ANY SHORTCOMINGS!!
Respe, CT: I am a woman older than 35. My answers to the poll were with the majority until I came to the last question. Imagine my surprise to find that I was almost the only one who voted for more respect. It seems almost obvious to me that if a person had those internal thoughts and still managed to live the live he lived, he would deserve more respect for not acting out his fantasies. Am I crazy?
Gene Weingarten: No, you are right.
Baltimore, Md.: So, I stopped by the University of Maryland journalism commencement ceremony yesterday and caught your address to the graduates. I thought it was pretty funny and I was impressed that you brought props.
A couple questions: First, it seemed like you had a prepared speech for the ceremony, as most people tend to do. Do you think you're funnier when you get a little lead time and get to pick and choose from your best material or when you're talking off the cuff and thoughts just fly nonstop from brain to mouth?
My second question is, what do you think the main difference is between written and spoken humor? I want to say it's timing. Thoughts?
Gene Weingarten: Timing is key to both written and spoken humor; it's just a different sort of timing.
You will see excerpts of my speech in my column on Sunday, and if you parse it, you will see the difference. I presented some things a little differently.
The advantage to spoken humor is that you can deliver facial expressions, long, pregnant pauses to allow a thought to sink in, fester, etc. I actually did that yesterday at one point: I informed the group that there was a basic irony at play in that their distinguished commencement speaker not only never went to journalism school, but never finished college. I said that there were two ways of looking at this: First, that they and their parents had just flushed tens of thousands of dollars right down the toilet. On the other hand, I said... and then fell silent for ten seconds, and looked flustered. By second number ten, most people got it, and were laughing. Can't do that in a column.
The advantage of written humor is that BECAUSE people are reading it at a rapid pace, you can be wordier to better effect. Jokes can be more literary.
Okay, the poll. Well, as I said, not many surprises. Women of all ages ogle far less, and are more bothered by being ogled. Men think dirtier thoughts than women. Men are dirty across the age spectrum. The younger the woman, the dirtier her thoughts. The greatest disparity comes with the genders' reactions to being ogled: Men dig it, women are much more ambivalent. Older women are a little more flattered by it than younger women. Very few people would welcome a diminution of their sexual fantasies.
Analysis: Men ogle, women not so much. Ergo, women get ogled, men not so much. Ergo, women are kinda sick of it, and less flattered, since it happens all the time. All pretty evident, but sometimes confirmation of the evident provides a sort of satisfaction.
It's the secret pervert answers that mystify me. Men are more willing than women to give the old perv a break (is it that men can more identify with him? That "rape" was one of his fantasies, and women were particularly skeeved by that?), but not all that many people of either sex found him more admirable.
I do, and I do for reasons summarized in the post below this one.
Listen, we are all at war with our inner demons, all of us. A life lived well is a struggle to do the right thing. How much harder was it for this guy, than for most of us? And he succeeded, against overwhelming temptation.
If a person, deep in his being, craves terrible things, that is probably no more his fault than if he were born blind or mentally retarded or with no legs. His triumph over that is no less of a triumph than that of a blind person who becomes a doctor - in fact, in a way, it is more admirable, because he is doing it not for ambition or personal gain but for the sake of morality and to avoid inflicting pain on others.
I'd be terrifically impressed by this person. Almost awed.
Herndon, Va.: One vote for (c) on question 5. of the poll would come from Immanuel Kant - not bad company to be in.
"Suppose that the mind of a friend of mankind to be clouded iver with his own sorrow so that all sympathy with the lot of others is extinguished, and suppose him still to have ther power to benefit others in distress, even though he is not touched by their trouble... and now suppose that, even though no inclination moves him any longer, he nevertheless tears himself from this deadly insensibility and performs the action without any inclination at all, but solely from duty -- then for the first time his actions have genuine moral worth."
Gene Weingarten: Whoa! That is exactly my position on that question.
Baltimore, Md.: Can we take a moment to remember Lloyd Bentsen? Best debate insult, ever.
Gene Weingarten: He died? Yes, it was one of relatively few really memorable moments in a debate. I believe it was carefully planned, though, by a panel. Right? I mean, there was nothing spontaneous about it. He anticipated that Quayle would make the Kennedy comparison, because he had made it before.
Washington, D.C.: Btw - ever since you referenced Dan's preference for boxers or briefs some week's back I can't stop picturing him. And this is made all the more strange by the fact that I don't know him nor what he looks like. But it gets me a little flushed every time. I know this is weird. Weirder is I then think - oh you're 32 and far too old for him. This person who I don't know. Have I officially gone insane?
Gene Weingarten: No, he's a looker.
Panties Inside Out: Either change'em because you don't want to wear inside out panties or go through the day happy that you at least remembered to wear panties. Don't worry about the "dirty" aspect; you are going to wash your pants anyway, right? Personally, I'd just let 'em go. Who is going to see that your panties are inside out? ::shrug:: Lighten up.
Bethesda, Md.: Hey Gene - Have you seen that Trudeau might let us choose which college Alex Doonesbury will go to? Daily Dose .
I think that the chatters should cast their votes for Cornell. Big Red Hockey, ivory-billed woodpeckers, amazing vet school, top engineering -- what's not to love about Cornell?
Gene Weingarten: Definitely Cornell. I know from my daughter, who is there, that there is an email campaign at the school to stuff the ballots.
Cornell is a very cool school. Beautiful, not terribly taken with itself as an ivy. Plus, best vet school in the country.
Sex Poll: Hi Gene... just out of curiosity, why is there no question in the poll as to how often we think about sex in the abstract? Such as with someone who is not immediately in our presence, or just sex in general? Were we supposed to include that in the first question? If so, I need to change my answer... (proudly sexual under-34 female, here!)
Gene Weingarten: I think that is a whole different poll. Harder to quantify, though, I think.
Washington, D.C.: Have you ever seen this?
I saw "Sunday on the Pot with George" and instantly thought of you.
washingtonpost.com: Oooh, this is very good in a Lileks kind of way.
Gene Weingarten: This will take you all away for a while. This is an excellent site.
Bethel, Alaska: Presumably this isn't an aptonym in French.
"... a history of bikinis, 'The Bikini Book,' out this month from the French art publisher Assouline."
-- New York Times, 5/18
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, this is a problem as an aptonym. It reminds me of my favorite tragic foreign-language-ruined aptonym. I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating because this would have been, bar none, The Greatest Aptonym in the History of Civilization.
The famed French circus performer of the late 1800s, whose entire act consisted of farting, called himself Le Petomaine, or (translated) The Fartiste. But his given name was Joseph Pujol.
Sadly, tragically, he was French, at it was pronounced Pu-zhole. Because if he had been Spanish ...
Gene Weingarten: Okay, okay. You can stop posting about Barry Bonds and what an idiot apologist I am. What I wrote was bogus. Not true. I don't feel that way. It was a personal act of penance for me, ordered by Marc Fisher at my request.
Last week, with the Yankees behind 9-0 in the second inning, I turned off the TV and went to bed. It was a shocking abandonment of my team; it went against everything I respect in a sports fan. The Yankees came back to win it 14-13, on a walk-off two-run homer. The next day I emailed Fisher - a better fan than I (he stuck it out to the glorious end) and asked him what I could do to atone. He prescribed a spirited defense of Barry Bonds. So I did it.
Barry is indefensible. But my soul is purged.
And Ruth was not fat. He was "husky."
Re: Underwear: Okay, this girl has it all wrong. First off, you leave them as they are. Assuming this girl washes her underwear after each use, wearing them inside out is not that big of a deal. However, the idea of flipping them if she was wearing a skirt with no hose is kind of gross. If she is disturbed enough about her (hopefully) clean inside out underwear she should be really disturbed with reversing (at this point) dirty inside out underwear. Ew.
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, this is what i sorta thought.
Arlington, Va.: I respect the dead politician more because he kept his fantasies to himself.
If you do a poll on just sexual thoughts about people who aren't in my line of sight, I can score much higher.
I hate it when guys stare, and it's never flattering. I shouldn't know they're looking. Remember Seinfeld: Cleavage is like the sun -- you get a sense of it, then look away.
Gene Weingarten: I like that Seinfeld quote.
Herndon, Va.: I am confident that you must have seen this by now. But, on the off chance that you haven't, let me introduce you to the latest genius.
Gene Weingarten: I have, and it seems shrewdly choreographed and very funny, but I will take both your words for it that this is genius. I don't have the cultural references. Dance eludes me.
Poll: Why I would respect that man less isn't because of what he thought at all. It was that he was foolish enough to write it down, almost asking to be caught. If the question had left out the proof, I would have answered more respect.
Gene Weingarten: Several people have said similar things. I am thinking the diaries would be his way of purging the thoughts, and that he intended to destroy them, but died first.
Richmond, Va.: My girlfriend moved into her new apartment last week. We were trying to figure out when, exactly, a new place is considered "yours." Is it:
1. The first night you sleep there;
2. The first time you have sex;
3. The first letter you get;
I say getting a letter, she says the first poop: "Do you know how many psychological barriers girls have to break down to poop anyway? The fact that I'm pooping there at all means it's mine!"
Gene Weingarten: Sorry to disappoint you, but it is the first letter. You can do all those other things in other people's houses.
Jim: Hey, I now own your house.
Jim: Yep, I just pooped in the powder room. You have two days to vacate.
Pepys' diary: Pepys wrote the whole diary in code, but not one of his own making, just an early version of shorthand. That way his wife and servants couldn't read it, but it was easily decoded when he left it to his college in his will (along with his books and bookselves). I wrote my thesis on the diary, but alas, do not recall how he indicated self-pleasuring. He talks about sexual actions and thoughts frequently but vaguely, so there's a lot of debate about exactly what he did.
Gene Weingarten: My memory is that he had some interlinear notation, no? I remember reading a monograph on this some years ago.
Things you wish you hadn't said in Ohio.: Years ago, when I was a young student teacher, V-neck sweaters were very popular for girls. Also popular were faux blouses with just a collar and a small amount of material in the front and back. If you wore one of these under your V-neck sweater, it appeared that you had on a complete shirt. These faux blouses had a rather suggestive name.
I was teaching away, reviewing for an important test, when I noticed that a girl in the back of the room had untucked her faux blouse front and back and appeared to be taking it off without unbuttoning it. Unfortunately, she had gotten it stuck half way over her head. Many of the students around her were convulsed with laughter.
Hoping to end the disturbance quickly and get back to the lesson, I said rather sharply, "Maureen, put your dickey back in!"
Class for that day was effectively over.
Gene Weingarten: Noted. But not as good as Tom Kunkel's blunder. That was world class.
Whale-poop-sniffing dogs seems like your kind of thing.
Gene Weingarten: It's got poop, dogs, and even a subtle aptonym. What's not to like. See the aptonym?
New York, N.Y.: I'm in a meeting this week on a different floor of my office building. The bathrooms on this floor have newer stalls and fixtures than the ones on my floor. I was in the stall doing my business without reading material, and I noticed the latch on the stall door had the product name "Hiny Hiders." The logo for this product was a bathroom stall door with the two walls on either side and a standing figure whose head and feet are visible above and below the stall door. The logo forms the "H" for "Hiny Hiders."
I thought you'd enjoy that.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you. But it should be spelled "hiney."
Gaithersburg via London: Dear Gene,I'd like to tell you a bit about my old dog, because I think you and the readers of this chat can appreciate old dog remembrances better than anyone I personally know.
His name is Rusty, and he's been with our family ever since we moved into our current house. The man who installed our garage door opener came back a week later after finishing the job, this time with two puppies. I was in kindergarten then, and my dad really had no choice but to let us adopt one of them (we chose the hyper one, who was almost falling over the edge of the box).
Rusty is a mutt, and he's 15 years old this year. Depending on his mood, he can resemble a wolf, a raptor, a deer, or a bat; we love him so much more now that the only thing he looks like is our dog, well-loved, eyes a bit clouded, his fur gone to a dull brown and gray sheen, and just as stubbornly contrary in old age as he was as a puppy.
Over the years he's developed phobias for random things (coffee, toy guns, and cameras), but he doesn't seem scared of what we all know is coming soon, and he wakes up every morning at 6 a.m., ready to start the day with my father.
I'm studying abroad this semester, and today, the day after my 21st birthday, I learned that he will have to be put down within a month. He's been in my childhood house as long as I've been there, and we've grown up together. I guess in a way the timing is fitting -- I'm an adult now, and he will be moving on to the doggie heaven we all know exists.
I love him so much, and because I can't take any pictures of him without scaring him, all I have are old photos (from before he developed his fear of cameras) and, more importantly, memories. I was going to tell you my favorite, but I simply can't -- they're all different, and all entirely "Rusty."
It's hard to love an old dog, but would we have it any other way?
Thank you, Gene, for the chat and the book and this.
Gene Weingarten: Email me at weingarten(at)washpost.com. Do it today.
Cleveland, Ohio: I just took the poll and answered that I wouldn't respect the person in the last question any more or less after finding out about his personal writings. However, I think I would find him more interesting somehow, knowing that he had a subversive side. I am a working mom, married for eight years, dress conservatively, etc. However, I enjoy indulging in Henry Miller, the Marquis de Sade and watching porn. People probably wouldn't suspect it of me, but it's part of what gives me an "edge" as my husband would say. Re: checking out the opposite sex: yesterday while eating at a diner, it occurred to me that he and I sized up pretty much everyone who walked by our table. I suspect all of us do this all the time to each other. We think about whether they are sexy or not for a second, then decide if the thought should go any further. Does this resonate with you or any of the chatters?
Gene Weingarten: I'll just put this out there.
Gat, OR: : Alligators eating people up in Florida? I don't know, but antynomically I'd keep an eye on the guy who's covering it for the St. Lucie News, instead.
Gene Weingarten: Interesting. I do not believe I have ever seen this surname, ever, anywhere.
Women's Razors...: Yeah, Gene. One of your calls to 800 numbers columns you complained about using the women's razor and how it ripped up your face. Oddly enough, I did the same thing (before I read your column). Little cuts everywhere. I REALLY thought they were the same.
Gene Weingarten: I don't think I did. Plus, what I say in the 800 calls isn't true.
Vermont and L, surrounded by bars: Looking at some of the Modern Drunkard links reminded me of something I always wondered: why do people "do" shots rather than "drink" them? Are we sufficiently embarassed by shots that--unlike beer or wine--we have to euphemise drinking them?
Gene Weingarten: Well we also "do" lines, and "do" acid. I mean, not WE, but people.
I remember when I was about 14, I was staying with my brother and his intensely hippie and drug addled friends, and everyone one had been "doing" all manner of recreational drugs, and one guy stood up and announced "I'm gonna do some sleep now." I cracked up.
I haven't thought of this in 40 years.
Gaithersburg, Md.: Don't forget that Cornell has the best Ag school in the Ivies! (Cornell State College of Agriculture and the Life Sciences, Class of '75)
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, but isn't "the best ag school in the Ivies" like saying "the best football team in the Ivies?"
Chalmers: So did he drop dead or die slowly? I hope he dropped dead.
Gene Weingarten: I don't remember, and I just learned that he lived about six months after writing that piece.
Three bad dogs: We have three dogs: a mutt, a beagle, and a beagle/rat terrier mix. When they get their postprandial rawhide stick, the beagle/terrier immediately starts trotting around the house, looking extremely concerned. This intrigues the other two dogs, who leave off eating their rawhide so they can follow her to see what the hubbub is. She then loops back around, snatches the rawhide, and hides it in the folds of a blanket kept on the armchair where she sleeps.
There have been times that I've shaken out that blanket and 10-12 rawhide sticks have clattered to the floor. The mutt and the beagle are always completely astonished when this happens. The beagle/terrier is just extremely annoyed with me.
Baltimore, MD MD: Blind people cannot (or should not be able to) become physicians. X-rays and electrocardiograms don't come in Braille. A blind psychiatrist can't tell if his patient has turned yellow from a medication. A blind physician would be very dangerous.
Gene Weingarten: Well, he doesn't have to be a clinician. I would also think he would do fine if he had a competent PA.
A question for Liz the Chatgoddess: Is there any chance that the Deep Archives could be updated to include the next couple of years, past June of 2003? Pretty please, with soy-based non-dairy whipped topping and an organic cherry on top?
washingtonpost.com: I will see what I can do...
Gene Weingarten: Many people have registered this complaint.
SATs: I believe Pres. Bush had a 1350, but I could be wrong. I do remember that it is below 1380, because that's how I knew I was smarter than him.
Gene Weingarten: I bet this is wrong.
Then again, I did a piece back in 2000 about how the great Princetonian, Bill Bradley, had 1260 SATs. Or maybe 1230. Really unexceptional.
Mine: 1468. I'm daring enough to print that.
Was is wasser?: Wasser=water in German. Good name for a marine biologist.
Bethesda, Md.: I've used the "no drinkie for you" sign on a drunk that was swaying towards me about to grab/fall/puke on me as a dance gesture. It worked, he turned around and tottered off.
Those signs are copied from a dictionary of ASL signs, the captions are very amusing and have no relation to the REAL meaning most the time.
Gene Weingarten: I didn't know that. Makes it even funnier.
New York, N.Y.: "Yeah, but isn't 'the best ag school in the Ivies' like saying 'the best football team in the Ivies?'"
Which would be Penn. Go Quakers!
Gene Weingarten: Also, the best basketball. Penn: The Jock Ivy!
(which makes me think of Jock Itch, which makes me think of poison Ivy.)
Raz, OR: Women's razors cut the hell out of men's faces after the first use. Hacking away at all that damn leg hair makes them lethally damaged for use on the face -- my brother and dad always told me they know EVERY time I used one of their razors on the sly, and once they put in a new blade it was fine.
Gene Weingarten: Oh, DEFINITELY. I wasn't suggesting you use a USED woman's razor. One use by a woman, and it is unfit for face.
Gene Weingarten: Okay, we're done. Thank you all. I believe this was the highest response so far to a poll, and I think we also may have published more questions and answers than ever before.
Next week, same time. I'll be updating daily, too.
Ogling question: I do not stare at cleavage because I'll get caught at it. Conversely, I will occasionally eye a well-proportioned derierre` at length, since I'm not likely to get caught. However, I've discovered some women will use any local reflective surface (e.g., a store window or dark marble) to check back to see if I'm ogling. What's up with that?
Gene Weingarten: Women are smarter than we are.
Gene Weingarten: The following is an unedited transcript of an IM conversation that occurred yesterday between my son and daughter.
Dan: so what's up?Molly: not much. studying diuretics right nowDan: things which make you pee? what kinda drugs do that?Molly: um...it would be really hard to explain without a pretty long explanation of how the kidney creates urine. but basically, these drugs increase sodium excretion. and since water follows sodium, more water is also excreted. hence, increased peeDan: so it's like the pied piper of pee?Molly: ...in a way...Dan: hey that was probably the best alliteration you'll ever hear, so shut up. dad would be bursting in laughterMolly: um, but it doesn't really make a whole lotta sense.Dan: well the pied piper is the diuretic, his notes are sodium excretion and the rats are waterMolly. ok. pretty good actually
Gene Weingarten: This marginally insane research is just in, from reader Philipp Lenssen. After reading my Sunday column, Philipp checked out the incidence of Google hits for "imagined" and "moaned," as plotted on a graph. He discovered that briefly, mysteriously, during late 2004, imagining overtook moaning: Trend History.
(Philipp runs a Google-related blog)
I got caught: Last Christmastime my wife and I were visiting my mother, when my niece and her 24-year-old roommate stopped by on their way out shopping. The roommate was quite attractive and dressed in a form-fitting hoodie.
They also stopped back after shopping and as they entered the house, I "noticed" the roommate had unzipped the hoodie, revealing a chestful of cleavage (a white top perfectly offsetting her olive skin). My eyes locked and she zipped up.
Gene Weingarten: Busted, indeed. This is one of the very worst examples of BFL (busted for looking) that I've ever heard.
Fear of BFL has actually changed my behavior. A few years ago I got caught turning around after passing a woman on the street. I don't know if it was a coincidence that she turned around just then, but if not, it had the intended effect. It was the last time I did that. Makes you feel small and dirty.
SATs: Gene, you probably beat W in the SAT race:
In 1999 the New Yorker obtained a copy of the future president's Yale transcript and revealed that he'd had a C average in college and, more interestingly, scored 1206 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) -- 566 on the verbal and 640 on the math.
Gene Weingarten: There we go. I'm surprised he did that well on the verbal.
RE: ASC Ad: I think that it speaks to a very, VERY specific demographic. In fact it is so narrow that I wonder that ASC spent the money to make it. They have John Thompson as a spokesman, and I would think that his positive referral would catch more fish than the generic noble Bgeezer, without the negative blowback that could (and obviously did) result from that approach.
And you should be honest; you are not offended for others, you are offended for yourself. The ad is patronizing, and you surely are agitated by the notion that they think their customers are dopey enough to respond to that sort of thing. You are anticipating the patronizing attitude you would receive if you went there. ("Of course I'll try to get the car to you at the price you want, Mr. Weingarten. Haven't your people been through enough suffering?")
I am also curious to know what station you were listening to. It sounds like an ad that would run on WHUR rather than WTOP. BTW, I am a 44 year-old black male.
Gene Weingarten: I think it was 100.3. A couple of readers say they think the voice I heard WAS John Thompson's. Could be, in which case the ad was at least not completely hypocritical.
But, no, I disagree with you about why I am offended. I am not a potential Mercedes customer; I don't care if that place disses their customers. I just think it was extremely patronizing to black people. However, I haven't heard from enough black people to know if I am right or not. No harm, no foul. To bring us back to John Thompson.
The Gift of Fear: One reason, perhaps, while women are more skeeved by men's staring:
From Gavin de Becker's "The Gift of Fear":
"It is perhaps understandable that the perspectives of men and women on safety are so different -- men and women live in different worlds. I don't remember where I first heard this simple description of one dramatic contrast between the genders, but it is strikingly accurate: At core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them."
BTW -- it's a great book about why you should trust your gut.
Gene Weingarten: Boy, this does ring true. I once asked a woman friend of mine whether she has a feeling of fear -- even a very minor one -- if she is on an elevator, alone, and a man walks in. Any man she doesn't know. And she said that her level of stress elevates very slightly every single time.
Falls Church, Va.: My dog is almost 13, and has lost a bit of a step in the past year or two, along with some of his hearing, which makes his big goofy ears even goofier. He has developed a number of fatty tumors, one of which gives him a jaunty hunchback, and his brown head, which was once quite distinct from his grey body, is now almost completely dyed to match. His nobility remains intact, however, as does his killer instinct and complete (stupid?) lack of fear. In light of that, it seems a shame to either "blue-juice" him or let him drift away in his sleep. Recently, a large black bear has taken to haunting my parents' trashcans and/or deck, and my dog demonstrates no fear of this monstrosity, chasing it away with his barking (from the safety of the house). When our protector is trapped in the house and the bear can safely amble away, this arrangement works fine, but should the two beasts ever meet face to face, we imagine things would turn out differently. In light of this, the current end-of-life care strategy is to baste Captain in steak sauce, wait till the bear is at the far end of the deck, and send our hero out to meet his maker in a blaze of glory, locked in brief and mortal combat with the largest (and last) squirrel he has ever met.
Gene Weingarten: This really has me laughing. Can you email me at weingarten(at)washpost.com.
Get a Good shave - Gender NEUTRAL: Gene,
I happen to be employed by the number one razor manufacturer in this country. Yes, we manufacture them here.
All I can tell you about Mach3 versus Venus -- they use the same "docking platform" so the blades will fit on either handle.
The actual coatings on the blades (which keeps the blades sharper longer) may be slightly different, depending on whether you are buying base Mach3, Turbo or Power (or Venus or Venus Divine).
The "goo" strips are different (women tend to like more lotion-y goo). Some people really hate the goo, but most people like it just fine (hence the number 1 selling brand).
The handles are weighted and shaped differently because a woman holds the razor differently while shaving her legs than a man will hold it while shaving his face. This is especially evident if you notice the Vibrance handle (power button on the end) and the M3Power (power button in the middle of the handle).
But all of this is moot, because as great as the Mach family is, the Fusion is an even better shave. It is more expensive, yes, but the blades also last longer -- so it evens out in the long run.
Gene Weingarten: Thanks. I THINK you are saying, though, that the blades are set identically, so the razors could be used interchangeably by men and women, right? Or not?
Gene Weingarten: A couple of readers alerted me to the somewhat stunningly inappropriate use of an adjective in this otherwise moving and excellent story about a young Sierra Leonian's ordeal. It's in the 14th paragraph.
St. Pete, Fla.: Gene - Dean Young, who writes the Blondie comic strip, is about to open a chain of Dagwood sandwich shops. No problem there. But isn't it just a bit crude for him to pimp the new venture in the strip? (See today's panel, one of several on the subject.) As you're the closest, or perhaps the only, thing we have to a moral guidepost on writing comic strips, what's your take on this? He inherited the strip from his dad, for crissakes.
Gene Weingarten: I feel about it the way I feel about creative artists doing product endorsements. As Bill Hicks said, "once you go there, you should be off the creative rolls forever."
Respe, CT: I think your survey question with the "right" answer must be the last one, and I do agree with you. Surely it is deserving of some respect that a person with such a degenerate fantasy life was able to rise above the filth, so to speak, and do good. I'm surprised more people don't see this. Most of us are lucky enough to have fantasy lives that can, in some respect, be satisfied. How horrible it must be to have one that could not have any hope of being so.
On that note, I've got a question for you, Gene. Is it bad to create, and use, child pornography if no child is ever harmed? I'm thinking Photoshop and/or animation. I'm pretty sure it's illegal (why?) but is it wrong? I don't think so.
Sure hope this is really anonymous... oops.
Gene Weingarten: Boy, is that an interesting question.
Hm. The casual reader of this cannot know how much time went by between that "Hm" and my answer, below. It was a lot of time:
I think we can agree that child pornography is terrible, because it victimizes the children who are used in it. Is the mere EXISTENCE of it terrible?
It would be, I think, if people are more inclined to turn to pedophilia because of the availability of the pornography, but I don't think that case can be made. In fact, it might be that the existence of pedophile porn might sate pedophiles and prevent them from seeking victims. I also think pedophiles are pedophiles for life, so it is not as though kiddie porn keeps their tastes alive.
So, my answer would be conditional on the previous paragraph being true. If it is true, then, no, I don't think photoshopping pictures to create pedophile porn would be bad, certainly not if it is for one's own use.
I might be wrong and would be happy to hear dissenting opinions.
Dirty, OH: I love this chat: a lesbian walks into a bathroom, her panties are on inside out, what does she do?
Washington, D.C.: Sort of related to the "when is it my place" observation: both of my sisters and I are divorced, and have joint custody with our respective exes. After each of us moved into new quarters, each of the three ex-husbands, during the first time they stopped by for whatever reason, peed, like they were attempting to mark new territory (fortunately, all of them used a toilet). My sisters warned me about this phenomonon, and when my ex headed for the bathroom I was convulsed with laughter. These guys are not related to each other and would never have occasion to speak/communicate. Weird??
Gene Weingarten: This is absolutely intriguing. Probably meaningless, but absolutely intriguing.
Frederick, Md.: I can't believe you really need an explanation about the skateborad ramp. Think about what a skateboarder does at the top of a ramp like that. He/she turns 90 degrees and hangs then turns another 90 and goes back down. The car mimicked this but failed to turn and go back down. You people are truly simpletons.
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, I accept this explanation. It was a better comic than I thought. Not great, but better. I cop to simpletonianism.
Laurel, Md.: Sorry, but a house is "yours" the first time you take time off from work to wait for a repairman and then have to pay him.
You didn't have to do those things in an apartment.
Gene Weingarten: Thanks to Lori Lantzy for this. What's interesting about it, I think, is his skill coupled with an odd listlessness. This is a difficult feat made to seem not "easy" so much as... "boring."
Damn Yankees: Bronx, N.Y.: You know how you can tell the Yankees are a great team? So many Yankee ballplayers tell about the chill they get the first time they ever put on that pinstripe uniform. I have never heard a ballplayer tell about the chill the first time he put on his Devil Rays uniform.
That is the feeling of their soul leaving their body.
Alexandria, Va.: This is a serious question, and I am leaving for my honeymoon early in the morning so I won't be able to read your response until I come back.
My husband and I had our wedding this weekend. We were to be married by an officiant at an outdoor site. Our officiant had a terrible personal emergency and was unable to come perform the ceremony (we think and hope everything is okay now). Because there isn't such a thing as 1-800-dial-an-officiant, we had our best man and maid of honor wing it. A few cobbled-together "repeat after me" statements, an exchange of rings, and one Shakespeare sonnet later and we were "married," and the party began.
We went to the courthouse today to make it official with our parents. So here is the dilemma. When is our anniversary? Is it the day that his brother and my cousin joined us in marriage before an audience of friends and family? Or is it the day that the state will recognize, where a judge married us before our closest family members?
Or (and I am fond of this choice), do we have two? And if we have two, does that mean I get two gifts from my husband each year?
Gene Weingarten: I am surprised you even had to ask this. Your anniversary is the day your loving friends coupled you. The rest is stupid paperwork.
Logan Circle, Washington, D.C.: Gene:
I was sitting on the toilet the other day and thought of you. I have a question that can really only be addressed in this chat: When women are wearing a skirt, do they pull it down to go to the toilet, as if they were wearing trousers? Or do they pull it up, but then pull their underwear down underneath? Does it depend on the length of the skirt and the elasticity of the waistband?
washingtonpost.com: The waistband doesn't really enter into the equation, it being so much higher than the -- umm -- business ends being discussed. Myself, I pull up the skirt and pull undies down.
This is small potatoes compared to some other challenging attire women have to contend with -- for instance a one-piece bathing suit. Particularly annoying when nature calls.
Ya know, I really don't care that I'm sharing my bathroom habits in a public forum. I think five years ago I would've. Gene has completely desensitized me. Thanks Gene.
Gaithersburg, Md.: "Best Ag school in the Ivies" is a joke because it is the ONLY Ag school in the Ivies. When I was there the Brown U. marching band did an absolutely hysterical half-time show in honor of the "best Ag school in the Ivies." The chicken formation was the best. It was the kind of show that would have been considered an insult if performed by UVa about U. West Virginia, if you remember that incident. Best half-time show I ever saw.
SATs: I am an SAT tutor and help kids with admissions essays and other college admissions-related stuff. I would like to post your "I'm smarter" theory to the NACAC (National Association of College Admissions Counselors) e-mail distribution list. I think they'll LOVE it because everyone on there, inclduing me, is always trying to show that kids are more than a collection of some numbers. May I have your permission?
Gene Weingarten: You don't need my permission, but you have it.
Memphis (actually Arlington, Va.): Since you have a deep, reverent respect for both great American music and scatology, I have written this fine blues song in your honor. Like all blues songs of merit, it is autobiographical, based on times of hardship and despair. Also I wrote it in about 20 seconds. You can probably guess where.
The Farmers' Market BluesOh, I had fresh beets for dinner,I'm peeing purple like a fool,Lord, I ate those beets for dinner,Still peeing purple like a fool.I can't wait 'til tomorrowWhen it shows up in my stool.
Gene Weingarten: I am honored. It is excellent, and we shall end the week with this.
Get a Jump on Next Week: Submit early questions and vote in next week's poll!
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Post columnist Gene Weingarten answers your questions about his column, "Below the Beltway," and more. Funny? You should ask.
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Journalist Azadeh Moaveni was online Tuesday, May 23, at noon ET to discuss her book,"Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran," which describes the conflict she felt between her two disparate yet connected worlds. "Lipstick Jihad," named after the formerly imprisonable offense, examines not only her personal identity but the world of modern Iran: the defiance of its youth, the role of Islam in its political culture and the disaffected elements of the population that oppose the regime.
Washington, D.C.: Azadeh, do you feel that women in Iran are much more repressed, sexually and politically, than women in the United States? I look forward to reading your book.
Azadeh Moaveni: Not really, I find that Iranian women -- especially educated ones, which are a substantial segment of the female population -- are quite savvy politically. They read newspapers, follow debates, are generally very tapped into the issues of the day affecting women, like the recent row over women's access to soccer stadiums. As far as sexually, I think again women in urban areas who work, who have gone to school, especially those who are middle class, feel that they have more sexual options than their mothers' generation. That doesn't mean it's openly talked about, though, in society, things like premarital sex.
College Station, Tex.: Would an American attack on suspected Iranian nuclear facilities serve as a setback to progressive forces in the country? Would the supposedly restless younger generation abandon their opposition to the government and "rally around the flag" in the face of American aggression?
Azadeh Moaveni: I definitely think an attack would mobilize people around the regime. Already activists and intellectuals are feeling intimidated by rhetoric about regime change, especially from Washington, because the line now is that the US government will support change from within. That automatically makes every critic here a potential agent for overthrow, and hands conservatives eager to crackdown anyway a pretext.
Washington, D.C.: Do you often fear for your safety as a young woman when you visit?
Azadeh Moaveni: No, as a woman I don't fear for my safety at all. Tehran is quite safe, it's only when you start breaking the rules that one could fear repercussions. Flouting hijab, drinking alcohol, etc, and those worries apply to everyone, men and women alike.
Washington, D.C.: I am interested in your take on head scarves. What was your reaction to finding out that schools in France had banned women from wearing them?
Azadeh Moaveni: I'm pretty divided on that. The liberal cultural relativist in me immediately thinks it's an infringement on civil liberties, to restrict an individual's right to cover herself out of religious principle. But I can see the secularist argument as well, that Muslims in Europe need to assimilate to secular societies, and sometimes that doesn't happen voluntarily. I'm split!
Arlington, Va.: I love your rich descriptions of food, vivid accounts of your experiences and, most of all, your talk of love in Iran. Do you see a difference between young love here versus in Iran?
Azadeh Moaveni: Thanks. I love that issue. I think here there's still a bit more breathing space for romance. I find that in the West, young people are obsessed with categorizing their experiences, and each progressive state of their romantic life. Popular culture encourages that. That to me doesn't leave much room for discovery or the unexpected, and veers toward the clinical.
Thanks so much for joining us. I am curious, how do you feel about the current coverage given to Iran by the mainstream media? How do you feel that papers such as The Post could do a better job illuminating what is really going on with Iran/Iran-U.S. relations?
Azadeh Moaveni: Given that Western reporters are not granted regular visas and access to report in Iran, I should say first that the work my colleagues do manage to do is often excellent. That said, I think the analytical reporting on US-Iran that comes out of mainstream Western media is often through the lenses of unexamined US-Israeli security concerns. Now that Iran is behaving so intransigently, it's harder to make the case that Europe, for example, is less worried about Iran because of separate security calculations. But the Iranian political establishment is also opaque and extremely complex, so reporting on what's really going on in Tehran within the regime is extraordinarily tough.
I would say as a general thought that more stories and coverage of how everyday Iranians are experiencing this new regime would be illuminating for Americans, beyond the diplomatic back and forth.
Washington, D.C.: It seems like you've seen some of the best and worst aspects of both nations and I wonder: with which nation do you most identify?
Azadeh Moaveni: I've come to a point where I don't lean towards one or the other, but have become quite comfortable existing in the middle. I think with identity questions you reach a point where the various moments in your life swing more toward one direction, and then the next. When I make decisions about my personal life and family, for example, I tend to identify more with Iranian or Eastern values; intellectually, I'm still very much a product of a Western humanities education, and that shapes how I think about rights and democracy, etc.
Alexandria, Va.: What kind of feedback have you received about your book, from both Iranian and American readers?
Azadeh Moaveni: When I'm on book tour American readers often ask, "If Iran is really how you say it is, why doesn't our media reflect that?" I think US readers still find that their media represents a dated Iran, very different from the world I present in my book. Iranian readers have all sorts of different reactions, depending on their politics, quite honestly, and whether or not they have hang-ups about exile or the Iranian government.
Bethesda, Md.: What are the kind of things you have to be mindful here in America, and when you travel to Iran given the vast set of societal and cultural rules? Do you have a preference on where you'd rather live?
Azadeh Moaveni: In Iran I have to be mindful of keeping myself intellectually engaged, because here one needs to make an effort to feed one's mind. You can't just switch on NPR while you're eating lunch. It seems silly that I wouldn't have a more urgent preoccupation than that, but you really get used to the various rules and they become part of life, and you don't get bothered about them on a daily basis. I haven't lived in the US for more than a month or two since I graduated college, nearly eight years ago (!), so my sense is somewhat skewed by distance. I think if I lived in the US I would have to live in New York, by preference and trade, and that means being mindful of not going into debt. Seriously.
Brambleton, Va.: Ms. Moaveni - I was born in the Soviet Union and was raised in the US and I was drawn to your book because I was interested in reading about someone's similar experience of assimilation and struggle for a sense of self within two different cultures. So far your book has spoken volumes for me - I've often thought about putting pen to paper about my family's experience. Thank you for sharing yours.
Azadeh Moaveni: Thank you so much for your kind thoughts. The process of writing about living in between was amazing for me personally, there was something about the physicality of working my thoughts out on screen, on the page, that helped me see things more clearly than ever before.
Arlington, Va.: I recall a good Iranian friend who spent some youthful years in both Iran and the United States. One small thing that struck me as interesting, as it struck her as something major, was she was shocked to see school children disciplined in American schools in front of the other students. In Iran, the discipline may be similar, but it was held in privacy. I don't know if that is particularly cultural or just her experiences, but I was wondering if that holds as a cultural norm that children in America are more prone to humiliation in front of others than what Iranian society does.
Azadeh Moaveni: I never went to school here, but my husband is sitting next to me and I just asked him. When he was in school, he says the punishments happened in front of the whole class, and that they were very rarely conducted in private. That was both before and after the revolution. Of course he says he was never punished for anything, being model citizen from infancy.
Washington, D.C.: A Post article about youth in Iran reminded me of my experiences in Central Asia. In nearby countries such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, opium or heroin is widely available and cheap despite the poverty and the highly controlled nature of the societies. That being said, its hard to think that the leaders are ignorant of the problem or aren't benefiting from the situation. After two years working in the region, I wouldn't say the governments are 'marketing' opium to the younger population but its clear heroin addicts aren't going to start any revolutions. The aforementioned Post article went into depth of heroin use among youth in Iran. Do you see any parallels to Central Asia's heroin use? Or if you could just comment on heroin use in general that would be appreciated. Thanks for your time!
Azadeh Moaveni: I think along the same lines. At a point when heroin use becomes a widespread and alarming social epidemic, the government either handles the problem with seriousness of purpose, or finds that somehow turning a blind eye is not somehow un-useful. Of course I would never say the government condones heroin use, and its dismal track record in many other areas could suggest that it couldn't even handle the problem if it wanted to. But the parks where dealers deal are notorious, and it seems to me that young people numbing themselves with cheap drugs keeps them apathetic, as you suggest. It is a great tragedy, especially given the numbers here in Iran, of addicts and usage.
When I first picked up your book, I expected it to be a romanticized version of life in Iran akin to another book I've read written by an Iranian-American. Instead I discovered you have a strong anti-Iran bias which quite frankly, shocked me. Here, you have the opportunity to portray the country in a positive light, and counter the negative perceptions the media perpetrates -- which is something I would expect from a Iranian-American. Instead I found a strong negative slant in everything you described Iran.
I was disappointed with your half-hearted attempts (if at all) to explain the Muslim culture and/or religious beliefs that lead people to do the things they do.
Your description of the ladies gathering in the month of Muharram really shocked me -- you seemed to take it out of context and not explain the background behind it, and you made it appear it was a woman's event only. You very well know these are attended by men as well.
Of course, you are entitled to your biases and viewpoints, but don't give people the impression you are an Iranian in America because you clearly are only American. Thanks.
Azadeh Moaveni: I don't feel responsible, as either an Iranian or an American, to 'frame' reality for the benefit of either side. I am a reporter and a writer, regardless of nationality, and my calling is to report what I see. There is much in Iran that is deeply problematic, which is why, if you have perhaps noticed, there is an opposition movement and criticism.
Bethesda, Md.: In Iran, there are self appointed defenders of morality who impose their beliefs on what they find moral by physically attacking those who violate their norms. In America, we have the Christian Coalition, which at least do not attack physically, but does attack verbally. What similarities and differences do you see in the two countries on those who defend religious norms?
Azadeh Moaveni: From what I gather, not knowing about the CC in intimate detail, is that religious conservatives tend to seek to impose their agenda and values on others either through force, or the law. There seems to be little tolerance for freedom of choice in lifestyles and values among the religious right in general, and it seems that compulsion to impose is the real commonality there.
Va.: How many Americans live in Iran?
Azadeh Moaveni: I have no idea exactly, but not that many. A smattering of American women who married Iranian men before the revolution, I gather.
Washington, D.C.: Does the young population of Iran view the U.S. differently than the government? How do you think the attitudes of today's youth will affect U.S.-Iran relations in 10-20 years?
Azadeh Moaveni: When I moved here in 2000, young people adored the US. They were smitten with pop culture, with fake McDonalds that open up here, with movies, and everything you could imagine. They romanticized the US as a benevolent power and by in large backed better ties with Washington. After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, after the Abu Ghraib scandals, the US has lost serious political capital among young people, who now are very suspicious and skeptical about US designs in region. That is somewhat fluid, though, and if the US behaves differently, it could find itself popular here again, and with that, find that Iranians again back restored ties with the US.
Bethesda, Md.: This may be a little of-topic, but how is the West's use of the word "jihad" regarded in the Muslim world? As I understand the term, it means "struggle," primarily at the personal and spiritual level as one seeks to overcome sin and earthly obstacles to God. But it's taken on decidedly political and terrorist connotations by Western press and politicians, and I was wondering if you've heard reactions to this elsewhere.
Azadeh Moaveni: Yes, in the West jihad is synonymous with terrorist. Which is why I always feel badly for my Arab friends who are named Jihad, which is not an uncommon name, given the peaceful, internally-directed definition of the word. But I don't hear much complaining among Mideast intellectuals about this particular point, perhaps because the Islamic radicals use jihad in such terms themselves, and have created the phenomenon by which the term lost its other meanings.
Arlington, Va.: Having grown up in the suburbs of the U.S., was it a shock to you when you went to Iran for the first time? How did the reality differ from your the place of your imagination that had been described to you over the years? Did you have a picture that was to idealistic, or just different?
Azadeh Moaveni: Well, I went to Iran from Egypt, which is decidedly more un-developed and Third World. So Egypt was my yardstick, and I found Iran to be refreshingly modern and functional. The Iranian middle-class, I would argue, is more Westernized than other middle-classes in the Middle East, so there wasn't an extreme moment of cultural shock. I was taken more aback my how culture had evolved here since the revolution, and how the culture of my imagination and childhood, uninfluenced by war and revolution, was a thing of the past. The private/public divide that followed 1979 has so shaped how people here live and see the world, and I think only living in a somewhat restrictive society could prepare one for understanding all that that entails.
Austin, Tex.: You responded to an earlier question that you did not feel women were more repressed in Iran than they were in the United States. Yet later you admitted fear over flouting "rules" --like not wearing hijab-- that are themselves repressive, in this instance specifically repressive towards women. How do you justify this blatant discrepancy personally?
Azadeh Moaveni: I think that question was about sexual repression, not general repression. Women by in large conduct their sexual lives here in private, and that regime does not follow them into their bedrooms. A woman here can have many lovers, just as she does in the US.
If we're talking about legal rights and access to public space, etc, then of course women here face a myriad of restrictions, from getting an easy divorce to child custody to...the list goes on and on. An Iranian woman's rights as a citizen cannot be compared to the rights of a woman in the West, obviously.
Rockville, Md.: At the time of the Revolution the university I worked at in Texas had many students from Iran. I suspect that a lot of them are now in Iran. What is their impact on the society? Do they keep quiet? Or do they talk about what they saw and learned?
Azadeh Moaveni: Iranians who have experience of the US often share their insights and familiarity with that culture with friends and family, and I think that knowledge is passed on that helps correct the endless misperceptions here about life in America. Often it is Iranians who've actually lived or studied in the US that can remind Iranians about issues like race, or about what Americans are actually like as people, as opposed to what Iranians watch on satellite television.
washingtonpost.com: Thank you all for joining us today.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Journalist Azadeh Moaveni discusses her book,"Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran," which describes the conflict she felt between two disparate but connected worlds.
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Welcome to The Lean Plate Club, hosted by Washington Post health and nutrition writer Sally Squires. Share your tips on healthy recipes, meal plans, sugar alternatives and resisting overeating with other readers.
Now that the school bell is ringing for many kids, there's a morning time crunch at home that often leaves little time for breakfast. How do you entice your kids to the table -- and make sure that they eat the food that will help boost their performance in school? And what can you eat in the morning to feel sharper on the job? During today's discussion, Sally will share tips to keep your family well nourished as school starts and life goes from the lazy days of summer to the fast pace of fall.
On Tuesdays at 1 p.m. ET, Sally, who has a master's degree in nutrition from Columbia University, leads a lively discussion for readers looking for new ways to eat smarter and move around more throughout the day. The Lean Plate Club is dedicated to healthy living -- whether you're trying to whittle your waistline or simply maintain it.
We want to hear your tips, strategies, meal plans, successes, setbacks and more. Of course Sally will be happy to answer questions and turn others over to the Club. None of this, however, is a substitute for medical advice.
Squires is a veteran health reporter for The Washington Post. She is co-author of "The Stoplight Diet for Children" and author of "Secrets of the Lean Plate Club" (St. Martin's Press; 2006).
Sign up for the free Lean Plate Club e-mail newsletter . The Lean Plate Club column appears weekly in the Washington Post Health section and is nationally syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group .
Sally Squires: Welcome to the Lean Plate Club. I'm writing this from the shores of Boca Ciega Bay in St. Petersburg, Florida where we're visiting family this week.
It's raining, but still lovely...and not very hot. We've got multivitamins up for part of the discussion today, but also can talk about Memorial Day weekend--the barbecues, the parties, the chance to be more active to help burn off those calories. Oh yes, and the unofficial start of summer--a great time to instill healthier habits.
Today's LPC e-mail newsletter should be in your electronic in-boxes right now.You'll find some links to recipes that will help you get some of those key vitamins and minerals from food.
There's also a link to some Hand Dancing sites--a great activity that I discovered thanks to one of the Lean Plate Club families who took the family challenge.
If you don't yet subscribe to the Lean Plate Club e-mail newsletter, you can sign up for this free weekly service at www.leanplateclub.com. Look for a special "thank you" edition later this week with two recipes from the recently published Secrets of the Lean Plate Club.
Now on to the chat:
Washington: Hey Sally, I have taken a multi-vitamin for men for a number of years, but wonder now if it's really worth it. How can I tell if the pill is really helpful or simply too much? Also, when are you appearing again in D.C.? I want to get my copy of "Secrets" signed. Thanks.
Sally Squires: The expert panel reviewed the currently available evidence on multivitamins/minerals and concluded that they couldn't recommend for or against taking them. So if you don't mind shelling out the dough--and you're not taking megadoses of vitamins--then keep doing what you're doing. One caveat: if you're a smoker, avoid taking beta-carotene. The evidence from a Scandinavian trial found an INCREASE in lung cancer for smokers who took these supplements. But it would be even better, of course, not to smoke!
I'd be happy to sign your copy of Secrets of the Lean Plate Club. No immediate appearances scheduled right now for DC, but I'll post them as they are scheduled.
Chicago, Ill.: I'm going through a hard time emotionally right now, and all I can manage to eat these days is some oatmeal with fruit in the morning and some yoghurt in the afternoon. I skip dinner, but usually end the night with some green tea. I exersize a lot. I know I'm not getting enough calories each day. What am I doing to my body? I normally eat fine, but things are rough right now and I have no appetite at all.
Sally Squires: Sounds tough indeed, Chicago. Very sorry to hear that you're going through a rough spot. You're missing some good nutrients. So you'll want to make the food you are eating as nutritious as possible and if you can, slowly add some healthy food back in. It could also make your workouts--and maybe even your mood better.
So make your oatmeal with skim milk--which will add some protein and some calcium. Can you stomach some snacks? That might be a way to get some additional healthy food in. Maybe you want to eat once a day with a friend or colleague. When people eat together, they tend to eat a little more. And if this persists much longer, it is very important for you to seek a friendly ear or some professional counselling.
Please let us know how things go.
Houston, Tex.: Sally, will you comment on turkey bacon? I very much like and have been using about 5 slices a day for about 2 yrs. Jennie-O's extra lean, 95% fat free, 20 cals, .5 grams fat per slice. I have no connection to this vendor but this is the only brand that I have found that is 95% fat free. IMO higher fat brands have a very baaad taste. I cook mine in the microwave.
Sally Squires: Hey Houston: There's nothing wrong with turkey bacon. You like it, although if it has 5 grams of fat per slice, it's got more than 20 calories (but maybe I'm misunderstanding your posting.) A gram of fat has 9 calories, so 5 grams x 9 = 45 calories.
Anyway: the biggest question is not that you are eating five slices daily of turkey bacon, but what else are you eating? Are you getting a well-balanced diet in other ways? Are you getting enough essential nutrients? Are you getting enough variety? And do check the sodium level on that bacon--or at least factor it into the other foods that you are eating. Bacon of any kind if a processed food that often can be high in sodium.
Alexandria, Va.: Hi Sally, I am posting something similiar on Kim's chat, but I hope your healthy readers can help me out! I just bought pearl barley and wheat berries at Whole Foods, and would like some ideas for salads and side dishes. Does anyone have a great recipe?! Thanks! The recipe can include just one, or both...
And, I just want to add that your columns and this chat have really helped me on my weight loss journey. I have lost 64 pounds, with 8 more to go! And the amount of info I have gotten here has been so valuable...thanks to everyone!
Sally Squires: Wow Alexandria--64 pounds! That's fantastic. And by the way, barley has just gotten a health claim from the Food and Drug Adminisration for helping to lower heart disease risk.
Here's one recipe from Barley Foods, a nonprofit part of the National Barley Foods Council:
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup slivered and toasted almonds
Place barley and water in medium saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 45 minutes or until barley is tender and liquid is absorbed. Set aside. Spray large skillet with non-stick cooking spray; add dates, apricots and marmalade. Cook over medium heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. Blend in cumin, salt and pepper. Simmer 2 minutes longer. Stir in cooked barley and almonds. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until warmed through. Makes 4 servings.
Per serving: 436 calories, 10g protein, 82g carbohydrate, 13g fiber, 10g fat, 0 cholesterol, 306mg sodium.
washingtonpost.com: Tips for Preparing Barley (whfoods.com)
Muncie, Ind.: I understand that calcium and vitamin D supplements were advised for post-menopausal women by the expert panel that weighed in on the benefits of multi-vitamins.
But what about for younger women? I'm 24 years old and want to know if I should be taking a calcium supplement. If so, can you recommend how many milligrams daily? And is coral calcium better than non-coral supplements?
Sally Squires: Current recommendations are for adult
s less than 50 to get 1,000 milligrams daily of calcium--a little more than the amount found in three glasses of skim milk. So if you're not getting that equivalent in fortified juice or other foods, then you may need to take a supplement. There is a huge array of calcium supplements, from chocolate flavored Viactiv to Tums.
The details of these supplements are too numerous to post here, but we'll put up a link to a wonderful fact sheet on the topic published by the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Watch this space for more.
washingtonpost.com: Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Calcium (ods.od.nih.gov)
So, is corn syrup the weight-loss devil? I'm trying to avoid it, but it's in everything! My new goal is all-natural eating. Now I can't even trust yogurt cups, Was that last week's discussion? So many supposedly healthy foods have tricked me.
Sally Squires: It's good to be a reader of food labels, but it's important not to drive yourself crazy either. You know--balance in all things. However, having said that, I am a huge fan of plain nonfat yogurt. That way you can add whatever fruit you wish--even a little honey if you are so inclined--and still not go overboard on added sugar. Plus, you stay in control of how much and what you add.
What are the foods that have surprised you the most in having high fructose corn syrup, which as you point out is the added sugar of choice these days...
Bethesda, Md.: Hi Sally! Healthwise, I've been really out of it. My allergies are in full gear, vertigo haunts me a few times out of the day, and I am feeling really weak due to anemia. Do you have any advice as to what I should do? I'm particularly interested in your advice for battling anemia and vertigo. I have iron supplements, but am afraid to take them due to side effects, but may have to soon. I have pretty much no energy at the end of the day and have neglected going to the gym because I am so tired. Your thoughts are much appreciated. Thank you!
Sally Squires: Sounds awful Bethesda. Have you been prescribed these iron supplements by your physician? I suspect so, because of the anemia you describe. Since things are not under good control, go back and have another discussion with doctor and be sure to plank out all your symptoms and how it is affecting your life. You might also ask about taking B12 while you're at it.
The vertigo is likely another issue--again one that is important to discussion with your doctor.
In the meantime, instead of going to the gym or exercising, can you just take a walk after work? Might just clear your head and often can help you find a little more energy. (But don't do this if you are dizzy!)
Let us know how it goes please!
South Riding, Va.: My doctor wants me to slow down a little on my pregnancy weight gain, so I need to go back to watching what I eat more carefully. Am I better off with a whole grain cereal that's mimimally processed, or with a cereal that is fortified with vitamins and minerals?Also, any tips on how to keep the calories down without using artificial sweetners?
Sally Squires: Volume is going to be one of your allies here, South Riding. So you want to think high volume foods that are lower in calories, but high in nutrition. If you're taking a prenatal vitamin, it likely won't matter that you also eat a fortified cereal.
Shredded wheat is a high volume, whole grain cereal that could get you started in the morning. Oatmeal with skim milk would also be treat. You could add some berries which are now in season and getting quite reasonable. I just snagged blackberries for a $1 per half pint here in Florida. Berries are very high in fiber.
Salads and soups would be other good options for you. In today's LPC e-mail newsletter there are links to two great sounding cold soups perfect for summer months.
And by the way, congratulations on your expanding family!
Bethesda, Md.- tofu noodles: Hi Sally: I wrote a while ago about shirataki noodles - i learned about them from hungry girl and i am not affiliated with either the noodle company or hungry girl. I did want to let you know that whole foods (at least the one in rockville) now carries these tofu noodles. They taste fine if you put a sauce on them, one night i had them with meat sauce and another night with a veggie stir fry. Because they are all tofu the entire bag has only 40 calories and 3g of carbs and is full of protein and calcium. WArning though - they stink when you take them out of the bag - rinse them thoroughly before flash boiling them. For me, they taste better than whole wheat pasta and tricks me into thinking I'm actually eating my refined white flour pasta!They cost about 1.30 a bag too, so they are relatively cheap as well as low cal.do try them!
Sally Squires: Great food find, Bethesda. Also, spaghetti squash is a nice alternative to pasta that will give you another serving of vegetables and very few calories. Plus, they really taste great with either some tomato sauce or even just a little oil and a little grated Parmesan.
So many wonderful foods to try, so little time!
Frederick, Md.: To Chicago, I feel your pain when it comes to eating during emotional times. Unfortunately, instead of not eating, I eat too much and don't even realize it. This past Saturday, I went car shopping and ended up buying a car I didn't want because of the salesman's pressure so when I got home, I was so upset that I baked and ate an entire Toni's frozen pepperoni pizza. About a hour after I did that, I watched Barboro break his leg and I ate again. I didn't eat the whole pint of ice cream, but I ate over half of it.
For you, softer foods may be the most tollerable at the moment. Try some tomatoe soup or other types of basic soup (vegetable or chicken noodle). When I eat canned noodle soup, I drain most of the broth off of it before adding water. It helps to cut down on the sodium. I know it's not the healthiest of foods, but try to get something in your tummy.
Sally Squires: Oh, Frederick. We feel your pain too. One thing that I learned from writing a column for the Holiday Challenge--another peak food time--is to find another oral alternative to eating when one is feeling emotionally upset. Calling a friend, chewing gum or just taking some deep breaths can (sometimes!) help. But both your postings are important reminders of why some researchers call the stomach the "second brain." Hope you both feel better. It's good news that Barbaro seems to be improving...Thanks for weighing in.
Corn syrup: There is corn syrup in most deli meats, especially the smoked kinds. I suppose it's part of the curing process. The new spray salad dressing, while only 1 calorie per spray, has corn syrup. Most dressings do. Really, pre-made anything cannot be trusted.
Sally Squires: Another reason to take back control of your kitchen! Storm the pantry, the freezer and the 'fridge! Thanks!
Salt Lake City, Utah: RE: Multi-vitamins
I have been taking a multi-vitamin off and on for years and I have discovered that over time they give me more energy (you have to take them consitently). The vitamins that I take are 'whole-food based' and as I understand it, these types of vitamins are more easily absorbed by the body. I have found that when I don't take my vitamins I tend to be sluggish. Despite what the studies say, either way, I will continue to take my multi-vitamin b/c I notice the difference in myself. I'm also a vegetarian, so supplementing B vitamins, particularly B12 has been very important.
Sally Squires: Supplementing with that B12 is absolutely important for vegetarians like you, Salt Lake. And it's also important for people who are 50 and older since reduced stomach acid means that they are less likely to absorb from the B12 found naturally in food. But the crystalline variety--found in fortified food and supplements--is absorbed ok.
And yes, your comment about simply feeling better came up a lot last week, including from researcher Bruce Ames, who said that he eats right AND takes a multivitamin precisely because of what you described. So if it's working well for you, the committee also found that there is no reason to recommend against doing what you are doing.
Alexandria, Va.: Bravo to the person who is trying to eliminate high fructose corn syrup! It is not as hard to eliminate these things from your diet as it seems. Just keep reading the labels. A few months ago, I eliminated it from my diet as well as artificial sweeteners and refined sugars, artificial flavors and most preservatives. Took a while at first, because I had to read every label when I was shopping but it was worth it. Now, when I take a sip of Coke, it is too unbelievably sweet to drink. And anything sweetened with Nutrasweet tastes like pesticides. I get my "sweet fix" from fruit. I have dropped about 12 pounds in 4 months.
Sally Squires: A great example of a small change that adds up to big rewards. Congratulations and thanks much for weighing in Alexandria. And isn't it interesting how your tastes can change? Same is true of reducing sodium. And I just have to say that I just watched two pelicans dive in the water for their lunch! Pretty cool.
Houston, Tex.: Sally, that's five tenths of a gram of fat for lean turkey bacon. I cook mine very crisp and one of my favorite uses is as a chip-like accompniment to a virgen Mary (11 0z can tomato juice with tabasco and worchestire sauce). Helps satisfy my craving for chips.
Sally Squires: Thanks for clarifying. That makes much more caloric sense. Figured there was something awry with that previous posting.
Have you checked to confirm that it is not a sinus infection and not allergies? I had very bad vertigo when a terrible sinus infection (root cause, deviated septum). Could it be that your nasal passages are so inflamed that they are causing this?
Sally Squires: Precisely--and another reason to check out persistent vertigo with a physician. Thanks!
Just wanted to share something I started doing over the weekend. I had a bag of dry white cannelini beans. I soaked and cooked as I normally do. I try to keep beans on hand to throw into salads throughout the week or as a snack. I just received a new food processor. While I thought I wanted to make a white bean dip, I ended up pulsing the white beans into the consistency of parmesan cheese. I have been throwing some tablespoons of this mixture onto my salad and makes me think I am eating cheese, when instead I am getting some protein and fiber. I also put this onto a sandwich with whole wheat bread, avocado, greens, and mustard. It was delicious and filling.
For the pregnant reader, I highly recommend eating more fiber as a way to fill up in a healthier way.
Sally Squires: Great idea. Beans are such a versatile food. They're cheap, tasty and a fast food if you buy 'em in cans. I even get black eyed peas that are frozen. You can throw them in the microwave in a pinch. You message reminds me of the mint garbanzo salad that is included in today's e-mail newsletter and of the black bean brownies which will be in the special edition newsletter later this week. We've also had "ranch" dressing made from beans as the "cream" base. The possibilities are endless.
Arlington, Va.: Here's my experience with multivitamins. For years I did not take one. But a few years ago I started having problems with asthma, and as a result I was getting colds and upper respiratory infections all the time. At about the same time I read Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, and in reading the part about vitamins and minerals I realized that I probably wasn't getting much zinc in my diet, which is important to the immune system. I also realized I probably wasn't getting enough iron, since I'm practically a vegetarian. So I started taking a daily multivitamin. Since then I hardly ever get sick. I figure the vitamin could be the reason for my improved health, and it's most likely not hurting me, so it's worth it. p.s. I have trouble swallowing large pills so I buy Centrum chewables.
Sally Squires: Thanks for weighing in Arlington. What you lllustrate is another great example of doing what is fits well for you. And by the way in addition to those chewable vitamins there are also liquid vitamins. There's pretty much something out there for everyone. And let me echo that I really enjoy Nancy Clark's book.
Watertown, Mass.: RE: Turkey Bacon (for Houston). Hi, Sally. I believe that the Jennie-O turkey bacon is 0.5g of fat (not 5) per slice. Which would make more sense, what with the 20 cal per slice. And if there's a Trader Joe's in Houston, that poster may want to try the Turkey bacon from TJs -- it's fabulous. It doesn't crisp up like real bacon, but it's like having slabs of canadian bacon.
Sally Squires: Yep, that's correct. Looks like the original poster put the decimal point in the wrong position. And that TJ's product sounds like another good food find.
Upper Marlboro, Md.: VERTIGO - my husband has had bad experiences with vertigo, where it was disabling. We went to MANY doctors and had MANY tests, specialists, you name it. They were going to do an experimental surgical technique to "cushion" his vestibular nerve from his cerebral artery.
We had one last referral, to Dr. Buchholtz at Johns Hopkins, the premiere neurologist/migraine specialist (his book is Heal Your Headache 1-2-3). Turns out, vertigo is a fairly common symptom of migraine that often occurs absent a headache.
A few changes in my hubby's diet and he is vertigo free! MSG & caffeine are his main triggers, but other people are more sensitive to nuts, hard cheeses, some fruits (citrus, some berries), etc.
Ask you doc if it could be migraine!
Sally Squires: Another reason to go check out that vertigo. I hope that the original LPCer is still reading. Thanks and glad to know that your husband is doing better.
water weight question: What is so-called "water weight" as in, what one is alleged to lose at the beginning of (some diets)? I was advised by my physician to try the South Beach program, as I have a condition that puts me at very high risk of insulin resistance. I am nearly through the two week Phase One ('strict') regimen, and am doing OK. Lots of veggies, lean protiens. Feeling good, and like what I see on the scale and in my waistband. Looking forward to having a glass of wine again next week, but otherwise can see the value in this approach, given my circumstances. I drink a LOT of water every day. At LEAST 80 ounces. That has not changed on this diet. But some of what I read on the Web as criticisms of the diet is that the intial loss is all so-called water weight. What does that mean?
Sally Squires: South Beach is a mostly low-carbohydrate diet. This shifts glycogen in your body. Glycogen causes some water retention. So initially, you lose this water, which results in the scale moving lower. That's quite motivating, isn't it?
Long-term weight loss, however, requires consistently burning more calories than you eat. It takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose a pound. To achieve that kind of weight loss in a week, you'd need to have a deficit of about 500 calories daily.
So yes, initially, your weight loss is from water loss, but if you stick with this, you will see loss of fat too.
Hope this helps clarify and good luck with your efforts. Also, easy on the wine next week. Alcohol sadly has 7 calories per gram--nearly what if found in a gram of fat and almost twice that found in protein or carbohydrates!
High Fructose Corn Syrup seems to be the ingredient to avoid these days. I bought some of the new spray salad dressing and didn't realize that it contained HFCS. I like the convenience of using the spray bottle as it cuts down on the consumption of the salad dressing, but would like to have an alternative. Have any of the LPC members out there made their own spray salad dressing?
Sally Squires: Let me poll the membership and see. I do have a spray atomizer for dressing. So there's no reason that you could just put your own salad dressing in that and, well, spray! What say you LPCers?
Food inspiration: I'm really burned out at work and consequently physically and emotionally exhausted. I have always enjoyed cooking, but lately it just seems like a major chore. I find that I just go for comfort food (I usually end up eating cereal for dinner - no preparation and I LOVE cereal). Do you have any ideas for low-prep, high-energy, healthy meals? If I leave it up to my husband, we'll be eating mac & cheese from a box (which doesn't sound too bad right now...)
Sally Squires: You bet! And whether you're going through a low energy time or not, we all get tired of cooking from time to time.
1. Check out the five healthy meals designed by Stephanie Sedgewick of our Food section for the recent Family Challenge. You can find a link to them on our home page at www.leanplateclub.com
Stephanie designed these simple meals for anyone to make. There's even a shopping list.
2. Check out some of the 15 minute meals in today's LPC e-mail newsletter. Those are really easy too.
3. Cold soup and salad may be just the thing for you. Don't want to cook? Let your grocery be your sous chef. I've added nonfat yogurt or nonfat sour cream to potato soup from the grocery store. Add spices and a dash of Tabasco if you choose. Chives are also good. Get a bag of lettuce--wash--and add your favorite ingredients: goat cheese, beans, Parmesan, sun dried tomatoes, olives, capers, chopped peppers, fresh Grape tomatoes...the list goes on and on. It's an easy, nearly effortless way of eating.
You might also consider picking up a roast chicken from a market and adding your own sides. Or pick up two fresh chicken and roast both of them tonight. Then you will have leftovers. That's one of the things that we did last night. Tonight we dine on a cold chicken salad with fresh corn (easy to make in the microwave or on the grill). We also plan cold asparagus marinated and more fresh blackberries. Yum!
Tujunga CA: One of my favorite barley soups:
Tex-Mex Chicken and Barley Soup with Avocado
Source Kathleen Daelemann's Getting Thin and Loving Food
1 teaspoon extra-vigin olive oil
1 carrot, peeled and diced
6 cups homemade low-sodium chicken broth or water
1 cup barley, hulled or pearled
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
Coarse-grained salt and cracked black pepper
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
1/2 cup loosely packed, coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime, cut into 6 wedges
Saute onion, garlic and carrot in oil until onion is soft, about 10 minutes. Add remaining 5 3/4 cups chicken broth or water (and chicken breasts, if using raw, and cook until chicken is fork-tender and cooked through, 6 - 8 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate to cool. )
Add barley, carrots, celery, tomatoes and their juice, cumin, chili powder and oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until barley is tender, about 1 hour. Dice or shred chicken and add to soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle soup into bowls. Top each bowl with avocado slices, cilanto and a lime wedge to serve.
Sally Squires: Sounds great! Thanks very much for sharing.
Framingham, Ma re Vertigo: My experience with this sometimes debilitating syndrome is due to "benign" vertigo, caused by a minute particle that may fall loose into the inner ear canal...and although very intimidating, once you knwo it is "harmless" albeit for the symptoms, it usually passes. My first experience with it came when pointing my head to the floor during a yoga stretch...
Sally Squires: Ingteresting how many people on this chat have had experience with this pesky problem. Thanks very much for weighing in. By the way, sting ray going by now in the Bay.
Spray salad dressing: My only concern with that would be that I make mine with fresh herbs - I don't think an atomizer would allow them through.
Sally Squires: No, it wouldn't. But it would still flavor your dressing nicely.
Los Angeles, Calif.: Members in my Weight Watchers meeting were discussing good tasting, low- or non-fat salad dressings. When I checked out the two favorites, I found the FIRST ingredient in each was low fructose corn syrup!
Needless to say, I passed.
Sally Squires: Very interesting discovery, Los Angeles. Thanks much.
Washington: I have a good food find for those trying to eliminate corn syrup & other sweeteners/artificials. Trader Joe's has a juice-sweetened line of jams that are great. Microwave them for a few seconds and they're great on pancakes or waffles instead of sugary syrups.
Falls Church, Va.: Hi Sally,I am new to your chats but really enjoy them. I have a column suggestion for you, although I won't be offended if you say it's not exactly on topic. I would like to read about weight-loss plateaus, what people do to get over them, and even what causes them. I have been exercising and watching what I eat for 3-4 months but have not lost a pound yet (!!). Thanks.
Sally Squires: Welcome Falls Church! You've come to the right place. We'll post two columns that address this very topic momentarily. Watch this space!
Too tired to Exercise...just think:: Too tired? Just walk because you can. Some exercise will probably make you feel a whole lot better. Try not to think what you can't do but focus more on what you can do.
Ask someone without the capability to walk and they'll tell you they'd walk if they could...just give it a try.
Sally Squires: Yes, exactly. Inactivity seems to have its own inertia and yet, once you get moving, well you can't imagine why you haven't been moving more...Not that I'd have any experience with that or anything :-) And as for that last posting, my fingers meant to say that we were born to move!
washingtonpost.com: Successful Losers (Post, July 26)
Medford, Ore.: You asked about how we're fitting in being fitter. A few weeks ago our family started to skip out on the gym one night a week and do something together. We've been on a walk in a neighborhood woodlands and taken a long bike ride so far. This week we're going to investigate the street on the hill above us and take the dog along(funny how we always head out other directions when we leave home and never head straight up the hill above the house).
This has been a great way to get out of the exercise rut, enjoy the outdoors, and spend some time with our pre-teen boys. We can get in a good hour of exercise before dinner (Have a casserole ready to pop in the oven when you leave home and it'll be waiting for you when you get back.)
Sally Squires: Great strategies Medford. Thanks much!
I just came up with a neat and healthy lunch idea. I stuff a whole wheat pita (a small one) with a few slices of turkey, one slice of low fat cheddar cheese and spread with a tablespoon of gaucamole. Then, I put the sandwich in the microwave at work for about 30 seconds. The cheese gets melty and the pita is soft and warm. It's like a homemade hot pocket for 5 WW points!
love the chats! they keep me motivated!
Sally Squires: You're making me hungry, DC. Time to end the chat!
Frederick, Md.: For Too Tired to Cook: make a big pot of chicken or turkey chili during the weekend. It's yummy when warmed up. Also, you could put a couple pieces of salmon in the oven and open a bag of salad. The salmon baked in no time and it makes a great salad!
PS: Putting aluminum foil on the baking pan makes for great clean up!
Sally Squires: Yep, cooking ahead is a great strategy. Cook once, eat twice--or three times or four depending on how much you cook!
Arlington, Va.: Just wanted to mention -- while out shopping this weekend I stopped at Wendy's and tried one of their new turkey sandwiches, and it tasted good. It's not a nutritional powerhouse, e.g., bread is not whole grain, and the one I tried had cheese and mayonnaise. But I'm sure you could get mustard instead of mayo and ask for no cheese or remove some of it yourself. It did have a nice lettuce leaf and tomato slice. Definitely a better choice than a burger or fried chicken strips, and it went well with a baked potato with a touch of margarine.
Sally Squires: Another example of how the fast food industry is changing. The salads at Wendy's and McDonald's are also great. Just skip the once with fried chicken if you want to get the most nutrition without trans fat.
Sally Squires: We're out of time, but thanks very much to all for a lively and wide-ranging. Look for updates this week at about noon each day.
No prizes this week so that I don't get behind on sending them out while away. But we'll resume them when I return to DC. Happy--and safe--Memorial Day to all. Look for a special edition of the LPC email newsletter in the coming days.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post staff writer Dave Sheinin was online Tuesday, May 23, at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the latest major league baseball news.
Dave Sheinin: Hi folks. Welcome to another baseball chat. I'll try to get to as many questions as I can. Here we go ...
Washington, D.C.: Here's an oddball question for you. Where does the term "rubber game" or "rubber match" come from? I told someone I was going to the rubber match between the Nat's and O's on Sunday, and he asked me what that meant and the origin. I know the meaning, but I don't know the origin.
Dave Sheinin: I honestly don't know. Anybody? (And keep it clean, if you know what I'm saying.)
Rockville, Md.: Ah, the O's just lost the series to the Nats, their "prized prospect" had emergency surgery, and they're tied for LAST place in the AL East. Can it get any worse for O's fans? What's next, Peter "The Great" Angelos announcing that he will hold on to the team until he dies and than his children will inherit the team instead of him at some point (hopefully in the very near future) selling the team off to someone who wants to turn a once proud organization, now a laughing-stock of the entire sport, back into a consistent winner?
Dave Sheinin: I have a feeling this is not a question so much as it is a pointed commentary masquerading as one. Still, well said.
Nats look like they are in a desperate situation for pitching. Bowden commented that perhaps a trade can be made. How realistic is that in light of the current ownership transition the team is in?
Dave Sheinin: The sense I'm getting is that any deal involving a significant amount of money -- such as a salary dump on the part of the Nats, a potential release of a veteran making real money or an acquisition of a veteran player making real money -- is probably not going to happen until the ownership change is official. So the options, in other words, are quite limited. Perhaps a waiver claim or some such thing.
Section 213, Row 12: Shiner,
What's with all the fuss about a rivalry with the O's? If it's what the fans want, why should we be getting dismissed by the local media (WTEM - in particular).
Right or wrong, the fans here hold Peter Angelos responsible for being against Baseball in Washington in general, voting against the move of the Expos, and the heist of the TV rights from the Ted Lerner (the eventual owner).
The bottom line is that this market could be big enough for 2 teams. In 2 years, the Nats will have the new stadium in a lively developing area, with forward-thinking ownership. But with Angelos' Orioles in a death spiral, it's the Orioles that will ultimately suffer and be unsuccessful in this market.
Dave Sheinin: Shiner? That's a new one... Anyway, I think Boz nailed this one the other day (as he usually does) when he wrote that the rivarly, such as it is, is between Nats fans and the Orioles' owner, as opposed to between the teams themselves. Hatred of Peter Angelos is a perfectly healthy thing for Nats fans, I would venture to say.
Washington, D.C.: I'm as sick of talking about Barry Bonds as anyone else, but there's one thing that still really bothers me: the idea that there is no proof Bonds ever did steroids. Bonds has admitted to using the 'cream' and the 'clear' which are now known to be illegal steroids. Bonds says he thought they were flax seed oil, but even if you believe this (ridiculous) claim it still amounts to the same thing: Bonds took steroids.
Dave Sheinin: Technically speaking, Bonds's "admission" that he used the cream and clear came via grand jury testimony that was allegedly leaked and printed by a newspaper -- in other words, we are trusting that the San Francisco Chronicle got it right. I am in no way implying it was wrong -- I'm just pointing out that, legally speaking, that in itself doesn't amount to an admission. However, between that testimony and mounds and mounds of visual and cirumstantial evidence, I think it is fairly clear to everyone that he used.
Eisenhower Ave., Alexandria, Va.: Hey Dave,
When children are abused by their parents they can be taken away and put in foster care. Any chance there's a similar system in the works for ballplayers abused by Bowden and Robinson?
Dave Sheinin: Any time a question makes me laugh out loud in the middle of a press box, by gosh it's getting in.
Mike, Washington, D.C.: I've always assumed that "rubber match" referred to the idea that the series could swing either way depending on which team won the last game- thus, it was flexible like rubber.
Dave Sheinin: I'll buy that.
Orono, Maine: A small item in the Post this morning mentioned that the Nats wanted to release some players and replace them with rookies - but Tavares apparently said no because he doesn't want to make any decisions that will affect the future of the team. Do you know who those vets might be, and could they be cut after the new management team takes over?
Dave Sheinin: I think you could look at a stat sheet and figure that one out, and yes, I think those moves could still occur once new ownership takes over.
We noticed that on Sunday's game the Nationals were sporting a new "DC jersey" look. Any particular reason? Also, any idea why Escobar had on the "W" hat, while it seemed the others had on the "DC" hat?
Dave Sheinin: Teams often sport a "third uniform" (as opposed to their traditional home or road uniforms) to entice fans to buy one to complete their wardrobe. I wasn't around on Sunday, but I'll assume that Escobar wore the "W" cap because he either showed up from Class AAA New Orleans too late to be fitted for one of the DC caps, or because he simply loves George W. Bush so much that he couldn't bear to wear anything but the "W."
Washington, D.C: Justin Verlander had another great night for the Tigers yesterday. What will Jim Leyland and the Detroit front office do if the Tigers continue their hot streak into the playoffs, since Verlander is probably on a strict innings count to protect him long term?
Dave Sheinin: I think if the Tigers make the playoffs -- or even get themselves in contention in September -- Verlander's pitch count will disappear in the interest of winning games. But wow -- what an arm on that kid.
Rosslyn, Va.: Dave, what exactly does Bowden think he accomplishes with comments like this
"I vomited because of the baseball. It was a joke."
Where is the professionalism? He is honest to god a joke. How soon can he be out of here?
Dave Sheinin: I'll admit I was a bit startled to hear Bowden say that. But at the same time, that's what we've come to expect from him -- brutal honesty, with a television personality's flair. I won't criticize him for being that way -- because as a member of the media, I always appreciate folks who are honest and entertaining in what they say on the record. I prefer that to someone who is boring and inaccessible. However, if I were a Nationals player, I would be livid with him.
Silver Spring, Md.: Do you foresee any realistic scenario that Soriano (the Soriano Scenario) could stay with the team?
Dave Sheinin: Unfortunately, I don't. The only way it would even be a possibility is with an overwhelming offer -- something like the Tejada contract (six years $72 million) -- but, wisely, the new owners seem disinclined to build the franchise that way in the short-term. I think Soriano still thinks of himself as a second baseman, and I see him testing free agency to see if he can find a team that will let him play there -- preferably an American League team.
Manassas, Va.: RUBBER MATCH - "A 'rubber match' or 'rubber game' or simply 'rubber' in any sport means a deciding contest between two tied opponents. The term dates back to the late 16th century but no one seems certain of its etymology or in what sport it originated. The expression was not used in card games until the mid 18th century and the earliest recorded use of it appears to be a 1599 reference, cited in the 'Oxford English Dictionary,' to the game of bowls. The word 'rubber' in the term seems to derive from a word of unknown origin, not the resilient substance called 'rubber' or the verb 'to rub.'" From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).
Dave Sheinin: Thanks, Manassas... There you have it.
East of the Park, Washington, D.C.: Hi Dave--
Marlon Byrd has been looking good out there in right field...should we be expecting a Guillen trade soon?
Dave Sheinin: I think a Guillen trade is very much a possibility this summer, although it isn't helping matters that he has been hurt and ineffective most of the year. A team can get him at the trade deadline for less than $2 million (the prorated portion of his $4 million salary this year) and add a potentially explosive bat to their lineup in the heat of a pennant race. The Nats have several other players (Hernandez, Soriano, Vidro, etc.) who could be enticing trade targets this summer.
Washington, D.C.: OK, so should we be concerned that last nites game had lowest attendance ever, or was that an anomoly? Personally I think all the negative stories has people saying to themselves, "It's true, RFK IS a dump, and the team is lousy, so why spend my hard-earned money?" Actually I was just thinking that myself.
Dave Sheinin: That's what I keep saying. The situation here is no different than anywhere else: Put this franchise in a nice stadium and put a good product on the field, and it will draw.
Mount Vernon, Va.: There was an item at MLB.com last night that was removed as of this morning. It stated that there were concerns within the organization that Brian Schneider had become complacent since signing his contract extension.
Have you seen/heard/perceived anything that might validate this?
Dave Sheinin: Interesting. I did not see that, and find it curious that it was pulled. Obviously, someone expressed that sentiment to the MLB.com writer. Personally, I have not heard that about Schneider. But there is a shockingly long history of in-house sniping within the Nationals' clubhouse, dating back to last season. So it wouldn't surprise me if someone said that.
Alexandria, Va.: We were at the Saturday Nats game, and the guy in front of us put on his rally cap in the fifth when Soriano came up to bat. We remonstrated with the chap that it really was too early, then Soriano hit a two run homer to shut our yaps. I still say it was too early. When should one don the rally cap?
Dave Sheinin: Obviously, any time Soriano is at the plate.
Topeka, Kan.: A few chats ago you commented on the coincidence that the only 2 MLB players named Marlon both play for the Nats. Here are a couple more: The only two MLB players ever named Mariano, Ducan and Rivera, both played for the Yankees at one time. And the only two managers with double zz's in their names (Mazzilli, Perlozzo) managed consecutively in Baltimore.
Dave Sheinin: Wow, Topeka. That's... um... fascinating. Keep up the good work.
Bethesda, Md.: The Tigers? The Tigers?!?! How did that one happen?
Dave Sheinin: It happened because the Tigers' management tore down the team (witness their 119 losses in 2003) as a prelude to building it back up through the farm system. They also stockpiled young pitchers (Maroth, Bonderman, Verlander, Zumaya) and added just enough veterans (Todd Jones, Kenny Rogers, etc.) to plug holes. I suspect it is precisely the model the new owners hope to follow here -- Stan Kasten, as president of the Braves, did a very similar thing in Atlanta in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Washington, D.C.: How much blame should 'Pitching is my Priority' Bowden shoulder for the Nationals dreadful mound woes this season? Is there an end in sight, for either Bowden or the Nationals pitching problems? Who should be on the trading block by July?
Dave Sheinin: I know Bowden is a popular target these days, and I am certainly no apologist, but he has also had some awful luck. When the spring began, he figured he had a very good pair of starters at the front of the rotation (Hernandez and Patterson) and a solid, 200-inning guy as the No. 3 (Brian Lawrence). It has blown up on him because Lawrence got hurt in the spring, Patterson has been out most of the year and Hernandez has been ineffective until recently. The rest of the pitching staff was simply not built to withstand all three of those calamities. Bowden certainly could have put the Nats in a better situation by maintaining more pitching depth (Ohka, Rasner, etc.), but who could have foreseen having only three wins at this point from Hernandez, Patterson and Lawrence combined?
On rubber, Washington D.C.: Both my dictionaries say that rubber, as in rubber game or match, is of unknown (and pretty ancient) origin. So the flexible it-could-swing-either-way idea is, alas, folk etymology. Somewhat like the folk management the Nats seem to be getting these days.
Dave Sheinin: OK, folks. I think we're all set on the "rubber match" definitions and origins. Thanks.
Ducktown, Tenn.: "I wasn't around on Sunday, but I'll assume that Escobar wore the "W" cap because he either showed up from Class AAA New Orleans too late to be fitted for one of the DC caps, or because he simply loves George W. Bush so much that he couldn't bear to wear anything but the "W.""
You would think if Escobar loves the President so much, he would be ok wearing the initials of the Vice President, yes?
Dave Sheinin: Oooh. Nice post, Ducktown.
Fairfax, Va: Why is it whenever Bowden says we need "pitching, pitching, pitching" he always seems to bring in an outfielder or back-up infielder?
Dave Sheinin: Beautiful post, Fairfax.
Washington, D.C.: Why is Kasten getting a free pass? Scheurholz and Cox built the Braves. If Kasten was responsible for a team's success, the Hawks (which he also ran) would not have been perennial laughing stocks.
Dave Sheinin: Good point. By no means was Kasten singlehandedly responsible for the Braves' semi-dynasty. It is generally seen as a triumvirate -- the "Kasten-Schuerholz-Cox" Braves. But Kasten was the one who convinced Ted Turner to abandon his reliance on free agents and build the franchise from the ground up. He also hired Schuerholz and convinced Cox (who was GM before Schuerholz) to return to the dugout. As for the Hawks, don't forget that the powerful, Dominique Wilkins-led team of 1986 could have been NBA champs if they could have squeaked past the Celtics.
Plagued with injuries, this Nats team has yet to develop an identity, other than 'schizophrenic'. They can look good one day and the next look completely lost. Some of that can be blamed on their circumstances, but I think leadership, or lack thereof, is responsible for the rest. And I am not just talking about Frank and Jim, though I think both fall short in the effective leadership category. Does this team have any real player leaders? If they do, they aren't obvious to us fans.
Dave Sheinin: Good point. I do think there is a leadership vacuum in the Nationals' clubhouse. Soriano, for instance, is often described as a model teammate -- and I think it is true, to a degree. But he is not a vocal leader-type. Nor are Vidro or Schneider or some of the other veterans who have been in the organization a long time.
Specifically, I am wondering what you think of Michael Barrett right now? What did you know of him before this weekend?
I went to school with Mike in Atlanta and he was truly one of the nicest guys I had ever met. This weekend's antics were completely uncharacteristic of him, and he's the first to admit it. I hate to see him receiving negative press, especially at a time when his potential is translating to his game. Any thoughts?
Dave Sheinin: I love Barrett. He was always a go-to guy for me when I was writing stories about the Montreal Expos and their prospects of being relocated to Washington. I think his actions this weekend involving A.J. Pierzynski were totally out of character.
Washington, D.C.: If you had the helm, what changes would you make to improve the Nationals this season?
Dave Sheinin: The thing is, this team needs far too many things for it to improve greatly this season -- it is not a team that is one or two players away from getting into contention. That's why I think the new owners' apparent plan to tear it down and build from the ground up is a good one.
CLEVELAND PARK, Washington, D.C.: Are the Nationals as bad as they seem? And is The Post gradually weaning from the coverage of the Orioles?
Dave Sheinin: Yes and no.
Natsville, Va: Hello Dave, So just what is the latest in the Roger Clemens saga. I've now seen that no later than June is his newest deadline for making a decision on whether or not to come back. Any inkling on where he might go?
And now that Zack Day is on the 15 day DL, are they going to start asking for volunteers?
Dave Sheinin: I talked to some folks with the Yankees recently, and it seems like everyone expects Clemens to wind up back with the Astros.
Washington, D.C.: A few weeks ago, you speculated that Patterson's injury may be an elbow. Now, he's being pushed back to a mid-June return AT BEST...sounds like you were on to something! What's the deal? Is the rest of his season in jeopardy?
Dave Sheinin: In my experience, a "strained forearm" is usually a euphemism for an elbow injury. That's why I was suspect about the timetable given for Patterson's return. I talked to John a couple of days ago and he seemed adamant that he would be back in a week or two. But that is still no guarantee his arm will hold up all year.
Dave Sheinin: OK everyone. Time to run. Thanks for the questions. Don't forget to stop by for Nationals beat writer Barry Svrluga's weekly chat tomorrow at 2 p.m.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post staff writer Dave Sheinin discussed the latest major league baseball news.
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In the Northwest, Nuclear Power Takes a Hit
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KALAMA, Wash., May 21 -- It was ironic -- for an explosion.
Just as nuclear power begins to emerge as a possible savior from global warming -- the co-founder of Greenpeace said last month it might avert catastrophic climate change, a New York Times editorial said last week that it deserves a "fresh look" -- the cooling tower from what had once been the nation's largest nuclear plant is blown to smithereens.
The explosion occurred near here on Sunday morning. After a carefully controlled kaboom, the 499-foot cooling tower of the Trojan Nuclear Plant tilted gently to the east and melted in a cloud of whitish-gray dust that drifted upstream with the wind along the Oregon side of the Columbia River.
For most of the past three decades, the concrete cooling tower -- a spookily gigantic industrial apparition visible for miles above the evergreens along Interstate 5, the busiest highway in the Pacific Northwest -- has loomed in the region's imagination as a symbol of all that was sneaky, leaky and insanely expensive about nuclear power.
The softening of political opposition to the nuclear industry that seems to be occurring elsewhere in the United States, with tentative plans by utilities in the Midwest and Southeast to build new plants, is not yet changing hearts and minds in Oregon or Washington.
For that, the Trojan plant, which began making electricity in 1976 and was shut down in 1993, has much to answer for. Besides chronic technical, safety and reliability problems, it cost local utility customers more than $400 million to build and is costing them $409 million to decommission.
The Trojan plant came online in an era when Northwest politicians and corporate leaders were besotted by the promise of clean nuclear power. In a spectacularly ill-conceived scheme, work began on five other nuclear power plants as part of a consortium of utilities called the Washington Public Power Supply System, which quickly became infamous as Whoops.
Whoops indeed. Construction of the five plants -- only one of which ever produced electricity, none of which was then needed -- led to what, at the time, was the country's largest municipal bond default. Consumers across the Northwest are still paying for Whoops in their monthly electricity bills -- a catastrophe that in one five-year stretch pushed up electricity rates by about 600 percent. Washington and Oregon have since passed laws that restrict the construction of nuclear power plants.
If all that were not enough, the Trojan plant was also widely reported and popularly believed to have been the real-world inspiration for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, the laughably mismanaged, wildly dangerous workplace of television's Homer Simpson. Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," grew up in nearby Portland, Ore., during troubled times at Trojan.
That rumor, though, turns out not to be true. "There is no connection between the Trojan Power Plant and the one in 'The Simpsons,' " according to Groening's handlers.
In any case, it took just a few seconds for the towering symbol of bad nuclear times gone by to disappear in dust. The "Trojan Implosion," as it was billed, was the handiwork of Controlled Demolition Inc., a Baltimore company that blows up lots of large concrete things, most notably sports stadiums such as the Kingdome in Seattle and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
Mark Loizeaux, who owns the demolition company and joined reporters to watch the blast from the Washington side of the Columbia, cheerily rated the tower's implosion as "a textbook job." He noted that a rather large bit of concrete from the tower was still standing -- about 45-feet high in one spot -- but said that he had expected as much. A 20,000-pound wrecking ball, he said, would soon clean up the mess.
About a minute after the tower fell in on itself, Loizeaux barked into a radio, telling police that they could unblock traffic on I-5 and the Coast Guard that it could unblock shipping on the Columbia.
The plant owner, Portland General Electric, was also pleased. Tower demolition was a major step in the utility's long, costly and embarrassing effort to extricate itself from a plant whose problems ranged from chronic steam leaks to an exceedingly unfortunate location -- on a major earthquake fault, sitting on the southern bank of the West's largest river and just upwind from Portland, the second-largest city in the Northwest.
With ratepayers footing the bill, PGE has been taking Trojan apart for more than a decade. The plant's nuclear reactor and nearly all of its radioactive machinery have been barged upstream on the Columbia for burial at the federal Hanford nuclear reservation. Highly radioactive fuel rods remain in storage at the site, waiting for the federal government to decide where they can be safely buried.
Scott Simms, a PGE spokesman who watched the implosion, was eager on Sunday to talk about how his company has shifted its focus to wind power and high-efficiency, gas-driven turbines.
Asked about the irony of knocking down a nuclear plant when other utilities are planning similar plants, Simms noted that Trojan was "outmoded compared to anything that might be built today." He did not mention irony.
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Find Washington Post science, politics and opinion coverage of the growing threat from global warming.
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2 Congressmen Seek Security Plans
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Two key Democrats on the House committee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security criticized the agency last week for not releasing to Congress reports on 118 security plans for mass transit, rail, aviation, ports and borders.
Many of the reports were due in 2003.
"The American people deserve more from the Department of Homeland Security than missed deadlines, especially when our nation's security is at risk," said a letter signed by Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Kendrick Meek (Fla.) ranking Democrat of its subcommittee on management, integration and oversight.
Department spokesman Russ Knocke dismissed the complaints. He said the department has issued more than 300 reports this year and 972 briefings. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has testified before Congress 19 times, Knocke added.
"The notion that somehow the department is moving slowly in coordinating or providing information to Congress is far-fetched. It's very evident that there is an extraordinarily high amount of congressional oversight of the department's activities," Knocke said.
One late report, according to Thompson and Meek, assesses the impact on travelers' privacy and civil liberties from the Transportation Security Administration's proposed Secure Flight program, which would pre-screen passengers by computer. That report was due March 13, 2004. Another late report focuses on threats from international air cargo; it was due June 15, 2005. Congress also wanted an update on the criteria to be used to consolidate names on the terrorist watch list; that report was due in June 2005.
"Given the below-average performance of the department on so many fronts including emergency preparedness during the past year, adequate assessments of the department's capabilities and plans are not only needed but critical to our nation's security," the letter said.
The Homeland Security Department received a similar request from Thompson and Meek in March 2005. In an interview, Thomson said the reports were needed for Congress to review funding proposals and assess the effectiveness of various strategies.
"In order for us to do a good job as legislators, the department has to respond with appropriate information," Thomson said. "It's as much to our benefit to get the information as it is for them to produce it so that at the end of the day we can have America as safe as possible from either terrorist threat or the ability to respond to natural disasters."
Thompson has been a vocal critic of the agency. At a hearing last week, he said there were numerous critical leadership positions in the department that remained vacant and needed to be filled.
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Latest politics news headlines from Washington DC. Follow 2006 elections, campaigns, Democrats, Republicans, political cartoons, opinions from The Washington Post. Features government policy, government tech, political analysis and reports.
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Allergies Can Drive You Nuts
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That's how a Lean Plate Club member from Maryland felt recently when a flight attendant asked passengers not to open any food that might contain nuts. The puzzle? The same airline had served nuts on the outgoing fight.
About whether a fellow passenger might eat nuts. "It would be quite devastating for me to, say, touch the airplane bathroom handle right after a passenger who has been eating almonds has left it," says a Lean Plate Club member who (mistakenly) fears that this alone could set off her almond allergy. "Same goes for armrests and tray tables."
"When I was a kid, it seemed like we all ate peanut butter like it was going out of style!" noted a 30-year-old Lean Plate Club member in a recent Web chat. "Now it is sometimes banned in day care centers and school cafeterias."
"I'm allergic to nuts," e-mailed a Lean Plate Club member recently. "Allergic as in throat swells up, [hospital] ER visit allergic. [But] even I can sit next to people eating nuts. . . . I have a feeling that some of the allergic people have gone overboard and need to get over it."
To clear the air, let's get some expert help from Hugh A. Sampson, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and medical director of the nonprofit Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network's advisory board in Northern Virginia.
One percent . That's the proportion of Americans -- about 3 million people -- who are allergic to either peanuts (technically a legume, not a nut), tree nuts (such as almonds and walnuts) or both. Nut allergies account for the majority of the 30,000 severe food allergic reactions that occur annually, causing 2,000 hospitalizations and about 200 deaths. For 99 percent of the population, however, nuts are a good source of healthy fat that helps protect the heart.
It's not your imagination. If it seems like more attention is being paid to peanut and nut allergies, it's because the incidence is rising in the United States and other Western countries, for reasons that are not understood. Consumption alone doesn't explain it. In the United States and China, per-capita consumption of peanuts is the same, but China has virtually no peanut allergies. One difference: We eat mostly dry-roasted peanuts, even in peanut butter; the Chinese eat peanuts either boiled or fried. The higher temperatures from dry roasting appear to expose more allergens in the peanuts, Sampson says.
Fear of flying . In 1999, Sampson and his colleagues investigated 62 suspected allergic reactions to nuts among airline passengers. They verified 42 cases. Half occurred in children aged 2 or younger who either ate airline food containing nuts or found stray nuts on the plane. There were no deaths, although 19 people required treatment in flight to ease breathing problems. Another 14 were treated after landing. Eating nuts caused the most severe reactions, followed by inhalation of nut dust and exposure on the skin.
Best time to fly if you have nut allergies: early morning, when planes are cleanest. Bring your own food, and if you're really worried, wear a surgical mask, Sampson says, although he notes that many people with nut allergies fly and never have a problem.
Hand washing. Aside from avoiding food with nuts, washing is one of the best protections against allergic exposure, Sampson says. That's because many people, especially children, put their hands in their mouths frequently. No soap and water available? Carry pre-moistened towels to wipe hands and easily reached surfaces. The good news: Skin exposure alone rarely produces more than annoying rashes or hives.
Age advantage . About 20 percent of children who are allergic to peanuts outgrow the allergy -- a far better outlook than researchers believed just a decade ago. But that's still small compared with the estimated 80 percent who outgrow allergies to other foods, including wheat and soy.
Reduce risk. Most American children are exposed to peanuts in the first year of life either through food or breast milk, or in utero when their mothers eat peanut products. In countries where peanut butter consumption is low, peanut allergies are also much less common. In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service advises women from families with peanut allergies to avoid eating peanut products during pregnancy and while nursing, and to wait until their children turn 3 before introducing peanut products. ·
Join Sally Squires, author of the newly published "Secrets of the Lean Plate Club" (St. Martin's Press), online from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays at www.leanplateclub.com, where you can also subscribe to the free LPC e-mail newsletter.
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Confused. That's how a Lean Plate Club member from Maryland felt recently when a flight attendant asked passengers not to open any food that might contain nuts. The puzzle? The same airline had served nuts on the outgoing fight.
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Schools Bank On Teaching Kids How to Save
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There's a bank in Nate Folger's Fairfax elementary school. A real one. Never mind that the teller is a fifth-grader and many deposits come from tooth fairy funds -- it's one way a nation of non-savers and big spenders is trying to teach the next generation to do better at finances.
It might be working: Nate, 10, recently plunked a rumpled $5 bill onto the counter of the new Sunrise Savings Bank and walked away with a deposit slip.
He earns about $4 a week in allowance -- for setting the table and putting his clothes away -- but he has a plan.
"It's pretty tempting to spend," Nate said. "But every week I'm going to deposit $2 and keep $2 so I can watch it grow and grow and grow."
Sunrise Valley Elementary School Principal Beth English hopes that banking in school will make saving money second nature to Nate and his classmates. She watches them proudly carry checks that grandparents tucked into birthday cards and plastic baggies stuffed with pennies and deposit them in the bank, a school branch of Northern Virginia's Cardinal Bank with no minimum balance.
"Habits like brushing your teeth, those are developed early," English said. "I want them to learn the benefits of savings for their own stability, their own security, their own independence. A very small number of Americans are saving. Even among my adult friends, it's not a habit they've developed."
English sees the ABCs of personal finance as essential to today's classrooms, and she is not alone. With savings rates falling and personal bankruptcies on the rise, educators and policymakers are beginning to insist that the basics of money management and, above all, the importance of saving, become part of school offerings.
Last year, Virginia lawmakers mandated that economics and financial literacy be taught in middle and high schools. Beginning next year, students will learn about online shopping, creating a budget, identity theft and even how to decide whether a rebate or discount is really a good deal. Legislators in Texas and South Carolina recently passed similar laws.
The Maryland State Department of Education is developing lessons on personal finance that cover such topics as health insurance selection, retirement planning and credit card management.
This is against the backdrop of a U.S. savings rate that is the lowest it's been since the 1930s, an uncertain future for Social Security and the gradual demise of pension plans that have been a mainstay for aging Americans for generations.
Education groups and financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions, have stepped up to offer instruction. Operation Hope Inc., a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization working against poverty, operates Banking on Our Future, which teaches kids money management basics, at 20 schools in the District and Virginia. Banks and credit unions open branches at such schools as Sunrise Valley in Reston and allow students to work as tellers and managers.
"Kids are the obvious targets to reach," said Dan Iannicola Jr., who as deputy assistant secretary for financial education at the Treasury Department visits classrooms to talk about the benefits of saving. (In one lesson, he gives children a piece of candy at the start of class. They are allowed to eat it, but if they choose to wait until class ends, they get a second piece.) "As early as their teens or their twenties, they can get into trouble, and it can take a lifetime to get out of it."
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There's a bank in Nate Folger's Fairfax elementary school. A real one. Never mind that the teller is a fifth-grader and many deposits come from tooth fairy funds -- it's one way a nation of non-savers and big spenders is trying to teach the next generation to do better at finances.
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Munich and Stuttgart: Germany's Perfect Match
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In case anyone is wondering how I ended up on a barroom stage in Munich, throwing my voice into a soccer-fighting tune, I can tell you this: It started with a tip.
Mine had been a familiar traveler's predicament. Wanting to find a no-attitude place to catch a game and a brew on a Saturday night, I turned to my friend, Wolfgang, a nightclub bouncer. He knew just the place. Soon I was making my way down Schraudolphstrasse, a side street in the city's Bohemian Schwabing quarter. Inside the Arc, beer flowed like a geyser as youthful revelers watched a soccer face-off on a large-screen TV. Eventually Catherine, a local schoolteacher, coaxed me into joining her in a duet of "We Are the Champions," the Queen tune that sports fans the world over employ to exhort their teams to victory.
As suggestions go, the Arc scored. After that, I relegated my Lonely Planet to a bottom drawer and relied instead on advice from locals.
I'd come to explore the Bavarian capital and the nearby city of Stuttgart as a kind of advance man for fans headed to this year's World Cup, the international soccer tournament taking place in a dozen German cities (including these two) from June 9 to July 9. How, I wondered, could visitors weave in the flavor of these two delightful southern Germany cities between matches?
I was familiar with Munich and Stuttgart from earlier visits, but nonetheless had questions. Was it worth fighting the crowds in Munich's Hofbraeuhaus -- the raucous 5,000-seat beer hall -- for a half-liter of beer and a super-size platter of calves' brains? Would the Viktualienmarkt, the elegant open-air gourmet market in the city center, make a suitable picnic spot? Was Olympic Park, site of the 1972 Summer Games and backdrop for Steven Spielberg's "Munich," as thrilling in life as on celluloid? Was the view from the top of the 712-foot Fernsehturm television tower in Stuttgart -- reputedly the first such structure ever built -- worth it?
In the end, I gave all of them a pass. My ad hoc team of travel agents -- a clerk in a department store, a student on the subway, a restaurant waiter, a seatmate on a train to Stuttgart-- recommended brilliant alternatives.
Few things in Munich come cheaply, a point drilled home as I walked through the ever-popular Viktualienmarkt, passing dozens of stalls sagging with fresh meats, pungent cheeses, just-baked breads and other gourmet foods. The goods for a modest picnic lunch for two, I calculated, would run around $40. But during a coffee break in nearby Deutsche Eiche, a popular restaurant on the gay scene for more than five decades, a waiter told me there was no better place for picnic fare than Elisabethmarkt in the Schwabing quarter.
A quick ride to Josephsplatz on the U-bahn, the city's easy-to-use subway system, and I was there. The products were much the same as at Viktualien, but less expensive. With a lovely $11 picnic in hand -- hunks of Camembert and Gruyere, a piece of Spanish ham, a loaf of bread and some strawberries -- I plopped down in the adjoining beer garden for lunch.
The more I traveled through the city, the more it seemed on the brink of World Cup overload. Posters for the tournament hung on street corners; clocks ticked away the seconds until the first kickoff. The Allianz Arena, the city's uber-modern sports stadium, will host the opening match and five others.
Throughout the Cup, Olympic Park will host a sports fest, highlighted by a free open-air screening of all 64 games nationwide, leading up to the championship game in Berlin. On July 2, the Long Night of Sports program will feature dozens of local sports clubs, including aquatic divers and horseback riders, in public sports demonstrations. Those who tire of watching will have the chance to participate in in-line skating, tai-bo, Nordic walking, gymnastics and other sports at various sites. The Deutches Museum, Munich City Museum and State Ethnology Museum will hold special exhibits. (For more information on World Cup tickets, see Page P10.)
It's no surprise, then, that the city is expecting a rush of tourists. When I asked Jill Henne, managing editor of the English language magazine Munich Found, where visitors could go to escape the hordes, she pointed me to two happening neighborhoods: Schwabing for its youthful cafe and club scene, and Haidhausen for good, inexpensive eateries.
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Find Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland travel information, including web fares, Washington DC tours, beach/ski guide, international and United States destinations. Featuring Mid-Atlantic travel, airport information, traffic/weather updates
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Post Politics Hour
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Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post chief political reporter Dan Balz was online Monday, May 22, at 11 a.m. ET .
Political analysis from Post reporters and interviews with top newsmakers. Listen live on Washington Post Radio or subscribe to a podcast of the show.
Dan Balz: Good morning to everyone on a bright and chilly Monday morning here in Washington. Lots cooking these days so we'll get right to the questions.
Washington, D.C.: Although the President's ratings are very low, and he won't be leaving office anytime soon, what is the trickle down effect for his party?
Dan Balz: President Bush's low ratings clearly are having an impact on other Republicans. We did an article over the weekend about the growing number of House districts that now could be in play, and a big factor is what some Republicans describe as the drag on GOP lawmakers because of the president's low numbers. GOP strategists say it is between 5 and 10 percentage points depending on the congressional district, which means their own numbers tend to be lower than in the past. Republicans are worried about lack of enthusiasm among conservative voters in particular.
Tampa, Fla.: After watching Secretary Condi on Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday, I think she really could be our next president. When do you think is the latest she could do it and still be a contender for 2008? How complicated is it for her to participate in the Iowa Caucus or the New Hampshire Primary in early 2008?
Dan Balz: Lots of Republicans think Secretary Rice would be an excellent presidential candidate in 2008 but she has been pretty consistent is ruling it out -- despite encouragement from first lady Laura Bush. She might be able to jump in later than other candidates, given how well known she is -- particularly if her candidacy came with the president's blessing. That said, it takes considerable time to build an organization to compete in Iowa. And raising money, even for someone like Rice, takes longer than some people realize.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Your thoughts on Ned Lamont's unexpectedly strong showing at the Connecticut Democratic Convention?
Dan Balz: Ned Lamont did very well over the weekend, winning about a third of the delegates at the Connecticut convention and easily clearing the bar to force a primary contest with Sen. Joseph Lieberman. There's clearly a lot of dissatisfaction among Democrats about Lieberman for supporting Bush on the war. Lamont's showing makes the primary even more interesting.
Greenville, S.C.: Dan - any comment on the Drudge item that your buddy Howard Dean was backing the "white" candidate over the "chocolate" candidate in the New Orleans mayoral election? I probably won't see this question addressed by you, will I?
Dan Balz: The spokeswoman at the DNC, Karen Finney, said this morning the Drudge item is "outrageous" and "absolutely not true." She also said she has asked the DNC's lawyers to explore legal action.
Thanks for taking my question. I happened to notice the New Yorker's latest cover story -- Al Gore, the "anti-Hillary" which suggests that, at the very least, Gore has not shut the door on an '08 run. Who do you think Republican strategists consider the tougher opponent in '08, Hillary Clinton or Al Gore?
Dan Balz: Al Gore has been fairly consistent now for a couple of years: he says he really doesn't think he will run but because he hasn't totally shut the door there are some people who think he might change his mind. I don't know what he will do although I tend to believe he likes the life he has now. As for who would be stronger, my sense is that Republicans believe Hillary Clinton would be a stronger candidate than do many Democrats. They doubt Gore could make a successful comeback.
Tallahassee, Fla.: Any chance the Democrat candidate for 2008 will come out for strict border enforcement?
Dan Balz: I would assume that every Democratic candidate will come out for strong border enforcement. The question is what else they support and how much they talk about it.
Groton, Conn.: I don't understand. Why does the media persist in portraying Democratic dissatisfaction with Lieberman as being solely about his support for the war? The central problem isn't that Lieberman supported and continues to support the Iraq War. It's that he supported and continues to support President Bush over his own party. It's comments like "in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril". And his aping of administration talking points on Social Security and Terri Schiavo. Etc.
Dan Balz: Thanks for the comments. Quite a lot of interest this morning in the Connecticut race.
Arlington, Va.: As your coverage today of the mid-term elections show, it will be a battle of which party offers the best solutions for our nation. Have you polled Republican voters on the question of whether they are willing to vote for a Democrat instead of the President they voted for twice? I might be miffed at the President once in awhile, but I can't believe solid Republican voters want him to fail under the thumb of Democrats. Could Rove get the Republicans to rally one more time for Bush by November 2006 and keep the House and the Senate? Thank you for taking my question.
Dan Balz: Good questions, Arlington. The worry in Republican circles is not that Republicans will vote for Democrats but that many Republicans just won't vote. Midterm elections, more than presidential elections, sometimes swing on who turns out and in some years we've seen one side more motivated than the other. Karl Rove & Co. have been good at mobilizing Republicans around Election Day. Their task is obviously tougher this time around but they've got a few months left to motivate their base.
Medford, Mass.: I haven't heard much recently about the Plame case and Rove's involvement. Any insight about what to expect next in the case?
Dan Balz: We're continuing to try to find out but so far have nothing of significance to report.
Possum Kingdom Lake, Tex.: A distressing number of the 535 member Congress do pretty much what William Jefferson was caught doing. Everybody knows that - yet, it seems acceptable unless one is caught in the act.
Does that seem right to you? Why is there not some attempt to make such corrupt, lying and dishonest actions unthinkable?
Dan Balz: If true, what Jefferson is alleged to have done -- namely taken $100,000 in cash and stuffed it in his freezer -- is certainly not the norm.
Sherman, Tex.: Good morning, Dan, you say that Republican strategists are particularly worried about a lack of enthusiasm among conservatives. What do you think the chances are that the upcoming debate on a Gay Marriage amendment to the Constitution will be a real push to get that voter block involved?
Dan Balz: My hunch is that the gay marriage amendment will have less impact this year than it did in 2004.
Boston, Mass.: Is it Bush's ratings that is having an impact on other Republicans, or Bush's performance?
If I drive off a cliff marked on a map, it's not the topo marks on the map that kills me, but the actual fall.
Dan Balz: Thanks for the clarification.
Rolla, Mo.: It looks like the recent discovery of a national immigration "crisis" was drummed up by some social conservatives as a distraction from all other ills in the Republican party and the administration. Getting down to specific congressional races, is this a net plus or minus for the Republicans?
Dan Balz: No question that the issue has been pushed by conservative radio talk show hosts and others on the right, but long before it burst into a big national debate, we were told by Democratic Govs. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Bill Richardson of New Mexico that this was becoming a major issue in their states and would spread across the country.
The number of races where immigration is the dominant issue is still pretty small. It's obviously important in Arizona races and we see evidence of candidates using it elsewhere, but in many districts it is part of the overall atmosphere but not a major point in the debate. We'll see what happens once Congress finishes (or doesn't) its work on the bill.
Hamilton, N.Y.: Hey Dan, if Gore does run, how will he play his relationship with Lieberman? Thanks!
Dan Balz: For starters, he wouldn't invite Lieberman to be his vice president.
Seriously, the two have followed divergent paths since they ran together in 2000 and that won't change.
Atlanta, Ga.: The Wall St Journal has blamed Joe Lieberman's poor showing against Ned LaMont Friday night on the "out of state, angry-left". My understanding is that only Conn. residents were allowed to vote, right? Is this going to be the MSM's standard response when progressive candidates score an upset against D.C. insider candidates? Does the angry left have that much power? Also, what is The Post doing to honestly engage with American progressives?
Dan Balz: Yes, only Connecticut residents can vote in Connecticut race, but Lamont has received help, encouragement, etc., from out-of-staters and anti-mainstream bloggers. As for your last question, we try to report on activities of both progressives and conservatives, particularly as this affects political races and political parties.
Minneapolis, Minn.: We're now starting to hear a lot about Bush fundraising for Republican congressional candidates. Seems odd to me. I would think candidates would want to keep their distance from him, given the national political climate. No?
Dan Balz: Republican candidates are more than happy to have the president help raise money for their campaigns, and he still has the draw to pull in big audiences and significant amounts of money. His fundraiser for Rep. Thelma Drake in Virginia on Friday picked up about $475,000, which was about $75,000 more than they were predicting a few days before the event. More interesting will be how many of these candidates want Bush to come campaign for them in October. Some will but others will ask him to stay away.
Indianapolis, Ind.: Because districts are created in a way to be majority Democrat or Republican, don't you think it's possible for voters to vote for change nationally in 2006 but not get it?
Dan Balz: Possible. One thing people will be looking at will be the margins by which incumbents win in November. But if there is a big desire for change, you'll see incumbents going down to defeat in districts long presumed to be safe.
Atlanta, Ga.: What is the GOP aiming for in this fall's elections? Clearly, it seems like the way things are going now, there will be losses, but are they mostly aiming for keeping control of Congress, even if by one member?
Dan Balz: Their goal is not to lose control of either the House or Senate. They know they will lose seats in November, but they believe they can argue that maintaining control of both houses constitutes victory.
Baltimore, Md.: It's a shame that the Democrats are being criticized for their pluralism. If anything, I think that should be one of the things they trumpet. Do you think that our single message culture is going to bite the Democrats yet again or can they make the electorate see that pluralism (which gives way to multiple opinions) is not only a small d "democratic value," but one to vote for?
Dan Balz: Pluralism is something Democrats promote and they believe it is an attractive attribute for their party. Confusion is a problem and that's what they have to avoid. If voters don't have a clear sense of what Democrats stand for and how they would govern in power, that's a problem.
Richmond, Va.: Do you think the latest revelations about Rep. William Jefferson (D-La) taking money will put a crimp in the Democratic plan of painting the Republicans as part of a "Culture of Corruption"? Will this just make voters think they are all corrupt? What has been the Democratic reaction to this story? Thanks.
Dan Balz: It certainly will hurt the Democrats' effort to run strictly on the corruption issue. We're pursuing how Democratic leaders will deal with the latest revelations.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Have you been watching the situation in Pennsylvania? Long-time Republican leaders in the state house and senate were ousted by challengers who spent a fraction of what the incumbents spent. Does this reinforce your theory about voter dissatisfaction sweeping incumbents out regardless of money and gerrymandering?
Dan Balz: We wrote about this last week and suggested it was a further sign that voters are disaffected this year. Some strategists believe what happened in Pennsylvania stays in Pennsylvania, that it was a local reaction to the effort by legislators to raise their own pay. But there are other signs that people are unhappy with the status quo in politics in Washington.
Minn.: In regard to Minneapolis' question, the fundraising will just be quieter than before. For example, Cheney was here to MN recently, did a brief appearance with some Guard troops, then went to a fundraising event at a private residence with no press, very little publicity, no appearances with Republican candidates.
Dan Balz: Thanks for posting. I should have noted that candidates sometimes don't even show up for a fundraiser when the president is there. That happened Friday in Virginia. Thelma Drake skipped the event. Her staff said she had to stay and vote on a bill involving benefits for military families, who are an important constituency in her district.
New York, N.Y.: Sen. McCain was a conservative, yet he disagreed sometimes with fellow Republicans. He was loved by the press. Sen. McCain is now a conservative, yet he disagrees sometimes with fellow Republicans. He is loathed by the press. What gives?
Dan Balz: Sen. McCain got some very favorable coverage when he ran in 2000. He's gotten some critical coverage this spring from some of those who were favorably about him in the past. But in neither case is the coverage likely to determine whether he becomes the Republican nominee in 2008 -- if he runs.
Philadelphia, Pa.: Regarding today's story on GOP hopes during the midterm elections, isn't the story somewhat redundant? Isn't every election cycle part of both parties strategies? I've never heard either side ever say that an election cycle somehow was unimportant (at least until after the election when one side loses, then that side claims it was not important).
Dan Balz: Every election cycle is important but this one especially so for a president trying to avoid early lame-duck status. The president's advisers think that a better-than-expected showing by the Republicans in November could give him the kind of boost he can't get elsewhere.
We're out of time. Thanks to everyone for participating today.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post chief political reporter Dan Balz discusses the latest buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
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Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
Howard Kurtz was online Monday, May 22, at noon ET to discuss the press and his latest columns.
Read today's Media Notes: Rove "Scoop" Remains Exclusive , ( Post, May 22, 2006 )
Kansas City, Mo.: Howard, I think it's quite obvious that our 24hr cable news networks will not go away from kidnapped blonde stories to focus more on events that shape our world - that's left to newspapers and newsmagazines. My question is why? Is it that a cable news network that focuses its attention on investigative journalism would not get the same ad revenue? Is it cost-prohibitive? Would people not watch? BBC does a great job, but I'd almost like to see that combined with a large portion of the telecast like 60 Minutes - great investigative stories. I know it's time-consuming, but I just want to know what's happening in the world, not who was the latest person questioned in the Natalee Holloway case... frustrated... It really is all about money isn't it?
Howard Kurtz: The cable networks playing up missing-women stories -- although there's been a bit of a lull since the Holloway story peaked -- because it boosts their short term ratings. It's a quick fix, like heroin. Investigative reporting is expensive, time-consuming and risky, and so there isn't all that much of it on cable.
Seattle, Wash.: Now that we know the NSA is not just wiretapping the press, their cell phones, their homes, and all the people they contact, have most members of the press realized they are already on the Enemies List, or are they still delusional that they're not under attack for telling the truth about a despotic regime?
Howard Kurtz: "Telling the truth about a despotic regime"? You wouldn't have any strong opinions about this, would you?
Actually, what ABC's Brian Ross reported is that federal authorities are tracking the calls made by top investigative reporters, not eavesdropping (as far as we know at the moment). This is, of course, incredibly chilling, although all bets seem to be off when it comes to the administration trying to choke off leaks of classified information.
If there is an Enemies List, I'll be mighty ticked if I'm not on it. I was too young to make Nixon's, and this could be my big chance.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Did I miss something? I thought these Chats were supposed to be Weekly. Are you on a new summer schedule? Without your weekly chat transcripts my boss might expect me to be productive!
Howard Kurtz: I was traveling the last two weeks, sorry to disappoint you. I'll also have to miss next week's but they will be pretty regular after that.
Avon Park, Fla.: If Patrick Fitzgerald decides not to indict Karl Rove, will he announce that he won't or will no news be good news for Karl Rove? Could it be that while we are expecting an indictment that Mr. Fitzgerald may have already wrapped up his investigation?
Howard Kurtz: No. Rove or his attorney would receive a letter informing them that the case against him is no longer being pursued, so the world will know pretty quickly if there is a decision not to seek an indictment.
New York, N.Y.: Maybe it's just me but I found your description of Luskin's visit to the vet just a little too canned - like a chunky little anecdote full of contrivance. And, as it seems pretty clear that Rove is in this up to his eyeballs, I find it indigestible.
How come The Post didn't write anything about McCain's reception at The New School? I thought hearing the same speech in a hall full of engaged students was much more illuminating than the cut and run trip to the Liberty event. You are the media reporter and McCain is the media's darling after all.
Howard Kurtz: The Post extensively covered McCain's speech at Jerry Falwell's university --the same speech he gave at the New School in New York -- and I recently wrote a column about journalists treating McCain with more skepticism and liberal columnists going after him. As for the New School address, The Post ran the following AP story on Saturday:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) received a cantankerous reception Friday at the New School's commencement, where dozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised protest signs and a student speaker mocked him as he sat silently on stage.
The historically liberal university has been roiled in controversy in recent weeks over the selection of the Republican and likely 2008 presidential candidate to speak to its 2,700 graduates and thousands of family members, friends and faculty.
The Madison Square Garden crowd cheered loudly as Jean Sarah Rohe said McCain "does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded."
Rohe, one of two distinguished seniors invited by the university's deans to address the graduates, spoke before McCain did but noted that he had promised to deliver the same speech he gave at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University last weekend and at Columbia University on Tuesday.
"He will tell us we are young and too naive to have valid opinions," Rohe said. "I am young, and though I don't possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."
McCain later thanked Rohe for her "CliffsNotes" version of his speech.
Sticking to the remarks he made in earlier speeches, McCain reaffirmed his support for the Iraq war but urged debate and dissent. And he repeated the theme that drew Rohe's derision: "When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent, well-informed and wiser than anyone else I knew."
As he delivered his remarks, several dozen students and faculty members turned their backs and lifted signs saying "Our commencement is not your platform."
About 1,200 students and faculty members had signed petitions asking the university president, former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey (D), to rescind his invitation for McCain to speak, saying McCain's support for the Iraq war and opposition to gay rights and abortion are not in keeping with the prevailing views on campus. Kerrey urged students to exercise the open-mindedness that he said is at the heart of the university's progressive history.
"Senator McCain, you have much to teach us," Kerrey said early in the ceremony, drawing a smattering of boos and hisses.
I'm not a statistician, but I'd like to comment on your gripe about different polls claiming new lows for the President (or whatever). Each poll uses a differently worded set of questions, and these sets are asked of a different randomly selected sample of people. Random really means that the pollster uses a process to try to get a representative sample of the public at large, or likely voters or whatever. Each pollster uses a different process.
Assuming that the questions asked by each pollster and that the process the pollster uses to select the random sample don't change each time, the best comparison of a particular set of polling results is another set of results from the same poll.
Here's an analogy: the sets of questions are like thermometers and the selection processes are like locations. Say National and Dulles airports, the mill in Rock Creek Park, and The Washington Post building. They all give about the same reading, but not identical because their locations differ. We would all agree though that any would give you a good idea of the temperature in Washington.
But if you wondered if today was colder than yesterday, you would compare readings from the same place, say the WaPo building, not Dulles yesterday to National today. That's (in part) why the polls are self-referential.
Howard Kurtz: Technically, each news organization is accurate when it says that Bush has hit a new low as measured against previous polls by that organization (though frankly, there isn't much variation in "Do you approve or disapprove of the job that George W. Bush is doing as president?", as opposed to many other questions. My gripe is that the spate of "New Low" headlines in recent months give the misleading impression that Bush has dropped from the previous week and the week before that, by failing to acknowledge in some cases that there are other polls out there with similar results. What's at work here is that media organizations pay for these surveys and so like to play up their own polls. Bush has blipped up a little in the latest couple of polls I've seen, so perhaps the "new low" question will be moot, at least temporarily.
Gonzales on the First: The Post reported a comment by the Attorney General this morning to the effect of "The right of the government to prosecute crimes trumps the First Amendment." Meanwhile, this administration appears to be moving aggressively to track down 'leakers' (with the exception of the Plame situation).
Is this already impacting on journalists' ability to acquire sources?
Howard Kurtz: Sure. Although journalists don't like to admit it, it makes life more difficult. Any potential source has to decide whether to risk his or her job, or even prosecution, by sharing sensitive information with a reporter. And in the wake of Judith Miller going to jail and several other leak investigations going on, every journalists has to question whether a particular story is so important that he or she would be willing to go to jail to protect the sources being promised confidentiality.
Smithtown, N.Y.: Would a 1 hour nightly news show from 7-8pm on one of the three major networks work? What if their whole promotion was strictly about news, no fluff, no bias, no human interest shows, no pretty people, just newscasters reporting the news - in depth, beyond the sound bite. And their slogan? "If you are an idiot, don't watch!" Seriously, couldn't that work? I am only 35 and I'd love to see that!
Howard Kurtz: It would be absolutely terrific (though I don't think using a slogan to insult the audience is the way to go). Dan Rather wanted to do one for years. The reality is that the affiliate stations don't want to give up an extra half hour of time -- most of them make money from syndicated fare such as Wheel of Fortune or Entertainment Tonight at 7 or 7:30 -- and especially not in an era when the audience share for the network newscasts is shrinking.
Washington, D.C.: Howard: Did you see the 60 Minutes tribute to Mike Wallace last night? Although I have watched the show for years, I had forgotten the number of big interviews and the number of tough questions posed by Mr. Wallace. Particularly amusing was when Wallace asked Ayatollah Khomeini whether Anwar Sadat's assessment of him as a lunatic was accurate, and the translator's reluctance to ask the question. Wallace said that he stopped doing the tough interviews because he was getting to be a caricature of himself. Is there a place in journalism for the Mike Wallace type today, or have all the potentates gotten savvy enough to either having their PR acts together or to avoid such interviews altogether?
Howard Kurtz: I had the pleasure of interviewing Wallace for my CNN show yesterday, and he spoke quite candidly about the ambush interviews he pioneered and how he sometimes got caught up in the drama at the expense of the facts. In fact, he was feisty on just about every topic we discussed. I guess when you're 88 and have survived the slings and arrows for so many decades, you can say whatever you want. I asked Wallace about that Khomeini interview and he said, "What were they going to do--hold me hostage?"
Falls Church, Va.: George Will feels that Tony Snow will add nothing to the White House poor ratings, and official message - I strongly disagree when comparing the press conference of Snow vs. any of McClellan's. Although everyone knows that the Press Secretary cannot divulge every single piece of info from the Oval, Mr. Snow is a huge breath of fresh air, don't you think?
Howard Kurtz: Snow has certainly, in his first few days, displayed more of a willingness to engage with reporters and bat around the issues rather than just assuming a defensive crouch. Of course, like all press secretaries, he has also deflected or refused to answer questions that he wants to duck.
Silver Spring, Md.: Why has the Post not written an editorial, lambasting Tony Snow for offending people of color by using the word "tar baby" in answering a question during his first press conference. Why did The Post not report this in the story that it did on the event? Tar Baby is a derogatory term and Snow should be fired for using it and then trying to defend it with a lame explanation. Toni Morrison defines tar baby this way: "Tar Baby is also a name, like "n---," that white people call black children, black girls ." How can a person like this be a spokesman for the White House, when he obviously has no sensitivity to people of color--a necessary trait at any given time, but especially so considering race relations in this country, and the current negotiations regarding immigration issues. Why has The Post expressed outrage over this insult?
Howard Kurtz: Dana Milbank reported Snow's use of the "tar baby" phrase. I have no idea why the Post editorial page decides to write or not write on a particular issue, but perhaps the folks there were giving Snow the benefit of the doubt in not using the phrase as a racial insult.
Polling: Here's a take on the President's job approval ratings: if a pollster asked me "Do you approve of the job the President is doing?" I'd respond negatively. But if the same pollster asked whether I would support, say Hillary Clinton or Kerry, I would also respond negatively.
I look at approval ratings like an employee review: just because I'm not currently satisfied with an employee's performance doesn't mean I want to fire them, or that I'm sorry I hired them...just that I'm not currently satisfied.
Howard Kurtz: That's the way I look at it as well. And Bush, of course, doesn't have to face the voters again. But for the president's approval rating to fall by more than 20 points in a year -- with declines even among Republicans -- is highly significant, whether voters want to dump him or not.
Drayden, Md.: If the Truthout story on Rove is such a big nothing, how did it ever get your attention?
Did Rove go see Fitzgerald five times to keep Americans safe from terrorists?
Howard Kurtz: Rove remains under investigation in the Plame case, as we've reported a zillion times. A story contending that he has already been indicted got my attention because a number of bloggers picked it up, either to trumpet it or question it. That Truthout story is now nine days old and if Rove has in fact been indicted, it remains a closely guarded secret, even, apparently, from Rove's own lawyers. Which is not to say that Rove is out of legal jeopardy, of course.
Washington, D.C.: Howard: Good morning and thanks for taking questions.
Your earlier chats said "...with the Internet, cable TV and 24-hour news networks, the news cycle is faster and more constant, with every minute carrying a new deadline. But clearly more news and more news outlets are not necessarily better..."
Realizing there's a conflict in answering this question but, from a listener's perspective, how do you feel Washington Post Radio has affected the flow of information to the D.C. audience? I think that, while it may provide additional information, it dilutes the WTOP listener base rather than attracts a new audience (more than it dilutes the listener base of public broadcasting and WMAL). If the content is similar to WTOP, wouldn't it have made more sense to modify or tweak the WTOP format with Washington Post input/features and perhaps add a station to "saturate" the listening area?
Isn't there just so much information that can be disseminated and so many listeners to absorb that information.
Howard Kurtz: Look, people are free to listen or not listen to the new radio station (and we won't know how many people are tuning in until we get some ratings). But it's not the same as WTOP. For those of you outside the D.C. area, WTOP is your classic all news/all the time station, while the new Washington Post Radio (done in partnership with the same company that owns WTOP) is basically talk radio and news analysis featuring Post journalists and some outsiders. Plus, Post radio has me.
Boston, Mass.: Wouldn't a reporter think twice before reporting a verified truth from an anonymous government source if she were subject to jail time for reporting? Wouldn't this be considered an abridgement of the free press and thereby unconstitutional? Is there no limit to what this administration considers legal in the name of terrorism?
Howard Kurtz: It is illegal to leak classified information, so the administration is within its legal rights in going after leakers, as other administrations have done. The difference is in prosecutors investigating and trying to compel testimony directly from reporters. Do these tactics make journalists think twice before publishing a controversial story? How about three, four, five and six times?
Conn. Convention: I'm curious as to why the Post hasn't given very much coverage to Lieberman being embarrassed in Fri's Dem Convention. Not only did the Lamont campaign force a primary, but exceeded even the Lieberman team's "expectation management" estimates.
Seems a sitting three term Senator being snubbed by his own home state party organization would be news.
Howard Kurtz: I agree. We handled it as an item in the Sunday politics column. Given Lieberman's prominence as the 2000 veep nominee and a presidential candidate last time -- and the fact that so much of the Democratic dissatisfaction with him is directly tied to the Iraq war -- I think we badly underplayed the story.
Washington, D.C.: "What if their whole promotion was strictly about news, no fluff, no bias, no human interest shows, no pretty people, just newscasters reporting the news - in depth, beyond the sound bite."
Newspapers do this every day and partisans still hate it.
Howard Kurtz: I think a few folks might quarrel with the "no bias" part. And the Style section has been known to run pictures of a few pretty people. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Your column today takes the blogosphere to task for running with a sketchy online report by Jason Leopold alleging that Rove has already been indicted in the Plame case -- and yet you failed to note that almost every major liberal blog either (a) ignored Leopold, (b) presented his report with skepticism, or (c) actively debunked it. Why did you decide to leave that part of the story out?
Howard Kurtz: But my column didn't take the blogosphere to task. What I was explaining was how three dozen reporters for major news organizations had to chase a Rove indictment report on a single Internet site, a report that, shall we say, remains unconfirmed. The reporters were doing their jobs, and no one went with it. But it's still a highly unusual situation.
Greenville, S.C.: Why has the Post not written an editorial lambasting Dan Froomkin's use of the phrase "scot-free" in his post on Tony Snow's use of the word "tar-baby." Froomkin could be construed as advocating the ethnic cleansing of all us who claim Scottish descent. Granted, Froomkin meant no such thing, my reading is tendentious at best, and many other on both sides of the political spectrum have used the phrase in its intended purpose. However, none of these reasons has stopped the pile-on against Snow.
Howard Kurtz: Next thing you know someone will object if I refer to a Dutch treat.
Cauley's Judgment: "Now the reporter who broke the -Verizon et al story, Leslie Cauley, has come under criticism from conservative activists who accuse her of political bias. They point to records showing that in 2003, Cauley gave the maximum $2,000 contribution to Dick Gephardt's Democratic presidential campaign."
Of course she's biased; we all are, one way or another. The only thing she's guilty of is some combination of poor judgment, idealism, and cynicism--kind of a snapshot summary of the Gephardt campaign.
Howard Kurtz: My view is that journalists who contribute to political campaigns are giving their critics a club with which to beat them. Unless it's a special situation, such as your spouse running, the best strategy is to just say no.
Why do many people regard Mike Wallace asking Khomeini whether he is a lunatic as a great moment in journalism? It made about as much sense as it would make now to ask George Bush whether he is a lunatic. Absolutely nothing achieved by that.
Howard Kurtz: It wasn't a "great moment in journalism." It was just a very arresting television moment with a leader who gave almost no interviews to western correspondents.
Washington, D.C.: For Smithstown, NY. There is a one-hour news show already - The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. On PBS. Great stuff.
Howard Kurtz: Good point. Of course, PBS is less ratings-driven than the commercial networks.
"no limit to what this administration considers legal...": Have there been any other reporters jailed other than Judith Miller? I'm not sure once can classify Patrick Fitzgerald as being part of "this administration", at least as the questioner uses it.
Howard Kurtz: The leak investigations of the NYT on the domestic surveillance story and the WP on the secret CIA prisons story could well put other journalists in the position that Judith Miller was in. And the only reason that other reporters, such as Time's Matt Cooper, weren't jailed in the Plame case was that their sources agreed to release them from their pledge of confidentiality.
Cincinnati, Ohio: Good afternoon Mr. Kurtz! I just switched from Dan Balz' live chat and he has used the term "progressive" versus "liberal". Has there been a conscious effort to make this change or an identifiable event that dictated the change with the DNC or the MSM?
Howard Kurtz: If so, I didn't get the memo.
Arlington, Va.: To Silver Spring, I think the reason there wasn't an uproar over Snow's use of "Tar Baby" is that it was pretty obvious he was using it in the context of the Brer Rabbit/Brer Fox fable and not as a racial slur. I don't think he should be criticized for being insensitive or racist by using the word Tar Baby- I think he should be criticized for being stupid not to realize some reactionaries would seize on his using it to fabricate an issue.
Howard Kurtz: Perhaps he didn't think about it in advance.
Arlington, Va.: Today in his column, Paul Krugman states:
"You see, the talking-head circuit loves centrists. But a centrist, as defined inside the Beltway, doesn't mean someone whose views are actually in the center, as judged by public opinion.
Instead, a Democrat is considered centrist to the extent that he does what Mr. Lieberman does: lends his support to Republican talking points, even if those talking points don't correspond at all to what most of the public wants or believes."
Do you agree or disagree?
Howard Kurtz: I think that's an awfully narrow view of a centrist. What about Democrats who regularly challenge their own party on issues, or believe in compromising with Republicans to get things done, or are more hawkish on government spending than their liberal counterparts? Why does the definition only have to be framed in terms of supporting GOP talking points?
Germantown, Md.: H. I agree that people are free to listen to the new station but being more traditional I've remained with WTOP and can't bring myself to splitting my listening time between two stations I would like to listen to, as well as some of the other news outlets. While I'd like to listen to you and other Posties (is there such a word?) I would have liked to have the Posties brought into the current station providing more information than splitting of assets, something like "The Washington Post on WTOP, analysis and in-depth, every hour on the forty-five".
But if it matters I still love your chats and your reporting which I can read at my convenience.
Howard Kurtz: Well, thanks for that. I certainly understand the value of an all-news radio station, though they can get repetitive (by design) if you're listening for any period of time.
Washington, D.C.: Mr. Kurtz, thanks for taking questions.
I've heard about reporters being chastised for anonymous (political?) postings to the Web. I don't understand why, since they are anonymous and the comments are not linked back to their employer.
Howard Kurtz: When the Los Angeles Times suspended its columnist Michael Hiltzik (and took away his column and blog) for making such anonymous postings, Editor Dean Baquet said that Hiltzik was essentially being dishonest by not posting his views under his own name, which he had not one but two outlets to do.
Washington, D.C.: PBS is less ratings-insulated than other networks. Brian Lamb of C-SPAN did pioneer the television call-in program long before Larry King joined up with CNN. Lamb showed it COULD work, so King knew he could work it. If it will work on PBS or C-SPAN, then a cable channel could work it too, but BookTV has no competition except for Russert once a week on CNBC.
Howard Kurtz: Right. But keep in mind that C-SPAN, which is a fine public service, does not have to sell advertising and is financially supported by the other cable networks. ABC, CBS and NBC don't have that luxury.
Thanks for the chat, folks.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Post media columnist Howard Kurtz discusses the press.
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Post Magazine: Living Color
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2006052019
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Allen D. Carter is a big talent, admirers say, but his art hasn'tgarnered half the attention it deserves. That may be just the way Big Al likes it.
Mary Battiata, whose story about Carter and the local art world he inhabits appeared in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine is online Monday, May 22, at Noon ET , to field questions and comments.
Mary Battiata is a Magazine staff writer.
Upper Marlboro, Md: Thank you so much for your cover story on local arts! We need more stories like these of the interesting characters that give life to our city.
Can we PLEASE have the name of the museum in North Carolina where Big Al Carter will be featured in an art show? We want to go see the show!
Mary Battiata: I know, I want to see it, too.
It is the Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum (sometimes known just as the Cameron), in Wilmington NC.
Rockville, Md: How much of Carter's income comes from selling his art? Also, how much would you estimate his collection is worth if sold?
Mary Battiata: The answers to those questions are,
1. Not the major part.
2. I have no idea.
3. Why do you ask?
Milton, Del: I don't really have a question for Big Al but I wanted to send my regards to him. In the 80's Big Al worked at DCART/WORKS during the summer, painting murals around DC with kids from the Mayors Summer Youth Employment Program. I think he did 3 of them and each of the finished murals were not only bold and exciting, he was a magical and wonderful influence on the youth who painted with him. He took bland walls in broken down neighborhoods and over the course of the summer turned them into a living statement of color. Big Al's murals were so terrific, and so is Al. I often wondered what happened to him and was so pleased with your article. I don't know if Big Al will remember me, but I remember him with much fondness.
Mary Battiata: I'll be printing this online colloquy out after we're done today and sending it to Al.
Mary Battiata: His murals are great, it's true. I've only seen them in photographs.
Seeing Big Al on the cover of the magazine made me smile. I remember back in the late 70s and early 80s, when I used to work out at Thomas Jefferson Community Center in Arlington, Big Al would make regular appearances at the weight machines. The rest of us would struggle with 100-175 pounds on the overhead press machine. When it was his turn, Big Al would plug in the key at the bottom of the weight stack, take two or three huge "CHOO-CHOO-CHOO" Thomas the Tank Engine breaths, and proceed to lift the entire weight stack.
It wasn't Big Al's size or strength that made him so memorable. It was the size and force or his personality. I'm sure there are at least as many Big Al stories as there people who have known him.
I often thought about buying some of his art, but at that time I was in the same boat as Al: not much money. Seeing the pictures in the magazine and online made me think.....
I lost contact with him after I moved to Fairfax in the 80s. How would I contact Big Al? Through Langston?
Mary Battiata: Ha! That's a great story. One of his artist colleagues told me that Al was really fast on the basketball court and could stop on a dime. Surprising for a guy who is so Big.
Re contacting Al: Langston is one way to contact him, and you can also, for lack of a better idea, forward your contact info to me in care of the Post (battiatam@washpost.com) and I'll send it on to him.
Washington DC: 1. Where is Mr. Carter's art on view in the Washington DC metro area?
2. Where in Washington DC metro area is his art for sale, as I am interested in purchasing a painting?
Mary Battiata: He's not exhibiting anywhere at the moment, but I know he's selling work. I don't know who's handling it for him. If you send me your contact info, I'd be happy to forward it on to him. That's how we handle all reader queries to people who appear in our stories.
Mary Battiata: Also, his longtime (now former) dealer Gail Enns, who ran the Anton Gallery here in DC for 20 years, has reopened her space in Northern California, near Monterey CA, and I think she may have some work. But I don't know for sure about that.
Washington, DC: I'd like to check out the museum show in North Carolina.
When is the show? Where is the museum? What's the name
of the museum? What are the hours that the museum is
Mary Battiata: The museum is the Louise Wells Cameron Museum, in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Washington, DC: This is a terrific view of a local DC area artist... but why are these profiles of our local visual artists so rare?
DC has one of the largest and most active art gallery scenes in the nation, and yet, I cannot recall the last time that I read about a local DC area artist.
Can we get more profiles like this one?
Mary Battiata: My colleague, Post art critic Paul Richard, sas that DC is a great city for paintings (i.e., masterpieces of all kinds, in all of our great museums), but not so great for painters (i.e., living painters.) Part of it is that we don't have as many of the dedicated, deep-pocketed collectors that New York does, and the ones we do tend to be more conservative in their tastes. So it's hard to make a living here as an artist.
Re coverage of the art and gallery scene: it's true, we tend to cover gallery shows, rather than the artists themselves.
Alexandria, Va: I met Big Al once at the Pearl on Telegraph Road before it moved to Skyline and like everyone I know who has met him, was immediately captivated by Big Al's personality - we talked briefly in the printing supplies and in line, and if I remember correctly he said he received his MFA at American (where I attend), and he is indeed well remembered by those in the department who were working when he was there.
So why no mention of this in the article? It seems relevant to point out that Big Al is indeed not an outsider in the formal or racial sense - something that remains somewhat ambiguous in the article, and indeed reinforced to an extent when anecdotes like the NC museum director's asking him somewhat hesitantly about William Blake or his eschewing of other DC art movements (with a predominantly African American slant - Sam Gilliam being mentioned as offshoot of the WCS because he's claimed as DC? Or black?)
Mary Battiata: Yes, I noticed the William Blake thing too, and that's why I put it in the piece, of course.
As far as I know, Al does not have an MFA from American, and I wasn't aware that he'd studied there. He does have an BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design, and an honorary masters degree from that school.
Washington, DC: As a person of color, I was happy and surprised to see a
cover story of an African American artist featured
prominently on the cover of your Sunday magazine. What I
find curious, however, is that the article seems to be
written from inside the cocoon of the white dominated art
world. Besides Leslie King-Hammond, how many key
African American art world power figures were interviewed
for this story? It seems to me that comments from African
American art collectors or commercial gallery owners
would have been key to a balanced story here.
curator and print expert Eric Denker, white man
former dealer Gail Enns, white woman
Mary Swift, rich white woman
Could we have gotten a quote from an African American
contemporary of Big Al's such as say Michael Platt or Sam
The Washington Post has written recently of a large
collection of powerful black business leaders in the many
articles about the ownership of the Nationals don't some
of the powerful black business leaders buy artwork by
Doyle Mitchell, Rodney Slater and Paxton Baker
Howard University president Patrick Swygert, Tony Lewis,
president of Verizon Washington, DC, a member of the DC
Chamber of Commerce's Governing Board, member of the
board of directors of the Greater Washington Board of
the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Federal City
Council, the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington
From a recent chat about the Nationals, I paste this:
Black people have been discriminated against not just in
D.C. but in this entire region. This has happened far more
systematically with far worse consequences than to any
This applies to the regional art world. There is cultural
apartheid in Washington DC and continually reporting
from inside the white box does not help
Re writing inside the white box: I mostly agree with you, though, that said, i should also say that I (and my editors) struggled hardest on this very point, and devoted long hours to trying to figure out what to say, and what the truth of the matter was and is. I think we got it mostly right.
But it is a complicated subject, and I don't think I can do it justice here. But i take your point, and take it seriously.
Re white on white on white:
I did contact a couple of prominent DC-area African American collectors, but they did not return my calls. I don't know why, but I had the sense that they were not eager to talk about race and art collecting and Al Carter and his work, perhaps because it is a difficult subject, and one where it is easy to be misunderstood, or misinterpreted.
Washington, DC: Yeah! A full length focus on a living artist in DC!!
We want more of this PLEASE!!
How much does the fact that the NC museum curator is
the sister-in-law of the editor of the Washington Post
magazine play into the existence of this article?
Mary Battiata: Some, in an oblique way. The director of the museum (editor's sister in law) was in town doing an early reconaissance of Al's work for her show, mentioned the amazing scene she'd seen at Al's house (wall to wall paintings) to her brother in law (my editor) who passed the idea along to me. I was looking for a story, we needed something for an art issue, I thought it sounded interesting, and we were off to the races.
Bethesda, Md: On the cover of the magazine there is an interesting subtitle to the article on Big Al ."What does the inexhaustible creativity of Big Al Carter say about fame, success and the meaning of art?"
while I've heard that newspapers have writers who just write headlines, I am frustrated because the article does not seem to answer this question .
So I would like to ask you Mary,
What does the inexhaustible creativity of Big Al Carter say about fame, success and the meaning of art?"
Mary Battiata: to me one of the most interesting things about Al is that he knew, has known all along, what he needed to survive as an artist, decided he could best get that thing here (as opposed to chasing around New York or anywhere else) and he stuck to his guns and stayed. In the face of pretty strong opinion from all corners that he should get out.
The other thing is just the old truth, that it's veryhard work to make art. It's joyous, a lot of the time. But it's hard.
Arlington, Va: I was so impressed that Big Al is teaching at Langston. I am really proud of Arlington for having a school like Langston. As your article says, it is a program for those kids that could not finish high school in a traditional way or timeframe, due to personal problems or family problems or other issues. In so many systems, these kids are left with a marginal program to get their degree. Arlington has thrown a lot of good resources at it, including a great new building and great faculty, like Big Al. It is cool to think of this artist who has chosen a different path working with kids that are on a different path.
Mary Battiata: I feel the same way.
The other really nice thing, for me, was getting to see, a little bit, the map of Arlington's longtime and still close-knit African American community. A lot of the teachers that Al works with at Langston and the other schools are people he's known, or are relatives of people he's known, since he was a kid. Known them, known their parents and grandparents. And that is really nice.
Washington, DC Brightwood: There are many DC artists like Al who do not wish to deal with the New York Art Scene. Thus, they remain relatively unknown to the art world.
It's a shame because he is a hidden treasure. His work is great.
Mary Battiata: The risk in staying, I guess, is that you can get blinkered. But going has plenty of perils, too.
The English writer Bruce Chatwin said it's always better to go than to stay, but I don't think that's true all the time. (I don't think he did either.)
Arlington, Va: Big Al was my art teacher in the adult(alternative)school in 1975. He was always very down to earth and extremely supportive even with non-artists such as myself....me and my sister who also attended Al's art class still talk about Al quite often and what an amazing artist Al is.He also had a mean ping pong serve and was quite a fishing angler as well.
I think Al probably likes his life style the way it is - maybe fame and fortune isn't for everybody.
Mary Battiata: Yes. That's what I concluded.
Anonymous: it's INFURIATING thru the whole article you keep referring
to some museum in North Carolina where Carter's work
will be featured in group show...
after searchingon the curators name you can dig up The
Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum
First Sundays"Pay What You Can"
Friday11:00 am - 9:00 pm
WHY MUST A POST READER HAVE TO GO ON THE
INTERNET TO LOOK ALL THIS UP?? WHY ISN'T THIS
INCLUDED somewhere in the paper??
Mary Battiata: Sorry it made you furious.
Dale City, Va: I grew up in Arlington,went to Oakridge, I would have loved to have met him while I lived in Arlington. How can I purchase a piece of work or commission a painting? I know Al doesnt want his work to be sold like products at a grocery store, but I want one.Plus, my workplace is looking to commission an articst to fill up empty space in our building, and perhaps we should pay him to do it.
Mary Battiata: Send me your contact info with the questions you ask below, and I'll make sure he gets the info.
Arlington, Va: I remember Big Al from the South Arlington neighborhood where we both grew up. I'm glad you featured him in this story. I too want to attend the show in North Carolina.When is the show?B. Barbee
Mary Battiata: see the museum's website (provided by a reader about two questions ago) ...
the show opened on Thursday down in Wilmington and I think it will be up for a while ...
Washington, DC: This sentence has me really curious
"A Washington curator doled out the wood to a dozen
local artists and commissioned them to create their own
Mary Battiata: joshua taylor, I think
Arlington, Va.: I expect I'm not the only one asking this question. I am quite interested in purchasing one of Mr. Carter's paintings. No art dealer's commission! It seems that Mr. Carter might be a little ambivalent about selling, however. Since he is not interested in the sort of self-marketing required in today's art world, and he certainly doesn't like working with dealers, how can art buyers see his work, short of invading his privacy by looking him up and knocking on his door?
Mary Battiata: right, that is the big question -- can an artist be an artist and also deal with buying and selling.
anyhow, if you send your contact info to me, I'll forward it to Al, and then I guess he or someone who's helping him will get back in touch. ....
Washington, DC: Do you think that if the writer of this story was a person
of color that more African-American art collectors and
gallery owners would have opened up and contributed to
Mary Battiata: No, but I could be wrong. The truth is, I really don't know.
Upper Marlboro, Md.: People are commenting here that Al doesnt have fame & fortune...well he might not have fortune, but he has fame doesn't he? He's on the cover of the Washington Post Sunday magazine..he's in an art show in a museum in North Carolina...he's been in a museum show at the Smithsonian--if that isn't fame, I don't know what is
And he has fortune, too, in a way. He's doing his work, has people who care about him, etc.
Palmyra, Va: I am an artist (ceramist), 77 yrs of age, supervised and taught art for 30 yrs, and was attracted to your article on "Big Al". First, as an art teacher, Al was basically unprepared, he tried to impress you with use of art expressions as "negative space" and then his drawing ability. Their really was no art lesson. Telling teens to draw something is not instructive or helpful. As to his work: I admire his persistance and compulsion because that is what artists must possess. But his work is cartoonish and dirivitive and shows anger and stress more than the skills necessary for painting. Painting is very difficult and that is why great painting is rare. Big Al is over-rated in your piece both as an artist and teacher. You should leave him in peace and not make him what he isn't, a competent artist. As to teaching, he needs a good supervisor to quide him.
An alternative view. Thanks for writing.
Arlington, Va: Thank you so much for the cover story on Big Al.
I would have very much liked to have read more about his
Mary Battiata: right. we only have so much space, but yes
Washington, DC: Thank you for this cover story on Big...his talents deserve
our attention. However, I have some issues with the
The article seems to paint a portrait of one kooky artist
who turns down gallery representation by the former
Anton gallery owner, now living in California. Well, it was
common knowledge on the street in DC, that the owner of
the Anton gallery grossly insulted a prominent member of
the fourth estate. After this insult, very few art reviews
were written about the shows at Anton gallery. The owner
of the Anton gallery complained about this treatment in
published letters to the editors of local press. But perhaps
if she had ever made an attempt to apologize or make
amends for her actions, she would have received the
reviews that she so desired.
With this information in mind, is Big Al Carter as Big of a
kook for not wanting this person to represent him?
The piece does not treat Al as a "kook," nor do I think of him that way.
As for his former dealer, in my interviews she struck me as someone who'd worked hard for Al and has maintained a good relationship with him, despite the fact that she no longer handles his work. Some of her colleagues described her as "a saint" for her interest in her artists.
Re the anecdote about the fourth estate, etc., the Post archive is full of reviews of shows at the Anton Gallery through the 80s and 90s. I think the gallery closed in '02, when its owner relocated to CA for family reasons.
Reston, Va: It's worth noting that the museum show in NC is all
African American artists. Why is it that curators seem to
have limits when dealing with African American art--that
is, they only seem to be able to show "with their kind"
"But being a Renaissance man, several curators say, may
not be a wise business move in an age when
contemporary art is a commodity and art investors can be
twitchy and afflicted with short attention spans"
This statement seems proof og the limited attention spans
the definition of a Renaissance man
is a person who excels in multiple fields, particularly in
Is Al Carter really a Renaissance Man?
Just because an artist doesn't paint the same painting over
and over again to make a "brand" doesn't mean that artist
Mary Battiata: Well, all I can tell you is that the director of the NC museum is white, i have no idea of the race of the curator, and the whole point of that show, as I understood it, was to say with great thundering clarity that these artists have something important to say to the larger culture.
i take your point on the larger meaning of renaissance man. But it came to mind because Allen Carter has been so afflicted over the years by people who, he says, can't believe he can sculpt if he also paints, etc.
Arlington, Va.: Just curious: do you know if the basketball player Grant Hill owns any of Mr. Carter's work? Mr. Hill has an excellent, well-respected collection of art by African-American artists. If he doesn't know about Mr. Carter, maybe he'd like to.
Mary Battiata: That's interesting. I don't know if Mr Hill owns any of Al's work.
Washington, D.C.: The Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum web site says the Five American Artists show runs from May 19-September 17.
Mary Battiata: Oh, good. Thank you very much.
Washington, DC: Thank you for this excellent piece Mary! It really was the
BEST thing I read ini the paper yesterday. My whole family
read it and everyone was talking about it all day.
We'd love to read more of your take on culture in DC.
Is the visual arts your "beat" ?
Mary Battiata: Aw, thank you very much. You made my day. No kidding. thanks a lot.
No, the visual arts aren't my beat. I'm a generalist. You know. Renaissance Man.
Charlottesville, Va: Is there a separate criteria for artists that happen to be black? In fact, why isn't all art produced by Americans just called American art? Art has intrinsic values and is hung and appreciated on the basis of being acceptable and worthy as a work of art. Why do you have to announce or label the color of the artist? Are you trying to patronize both artist and readers?
Mary Battiata: The title of the NC show is "Five American Artists," for just that reason.
Alexandria, Va: As a followup to something I was hinting at in my earlier question and some of the subsequent comments regarding ethnicity and the realities of art commerce, I would say that while I may be inferring too much, that the issue of racial identity may play a part as well in why Big Al avoids commercial representation.
The commercial necessity of pigeonholing artists - not only formally but ideologically - can drive artists to avoid what might be more financially sensible career paths precisely because it perpetuates an image they don't want to project for fear it will override their work import on its own. Is Big Al African American? Yeah. Does his work address that? Sometimes. Is he making African American artwork? Nah. He's making Big Al art.
Mary Battiata: Right. I agree with you, I think, on most of that.
washingtonpost.com: Thanks to Mary Battiata and to all who participated.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The Post's Mary Battiata fields questions and comments about local artist Allen D. Carter and the world he inhabits.
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Career Track Live
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The Washington area is a magnet for smart, ambitious young workers. Post columnist Mary Ellen Slayter writes a regular column for these professionals who are establishing their careers locally, and offers advice online as well.
Read Mary Ellen's latest Career Track column.
Find more career-related news and advice in our Jobs section.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Good afternoon!
Lots of questions and comments, most of them about my column on flip-flops at the office. You know my stance on the matter (it's a major pet peeve), but I'm happy to hear (and share) alternative thoughts as well.
Thanks for your "unpopular" take on flip-flops as commuting or work attire. I couldn't agree more that they are exactly the wrong choice for anywhere but home or the beach. I've yet to meet a fellow employer who has anything but negative things to say about how they look (and sound), not to mention the impression they convey of the wearer.
washingtonpost.com: Here's Mary Ellen's article: Avoid the Flip-Flop Flap and Join the Well-Heeled , (Post, May 21)
Mary Ellen Slayter: A kindred spirit! And a link to my original rant.
Arlington, Va.: While I agree with your Sunday article regarding the wearing of flip-flops in the office, I must tell you that my boss and her second in command wear flip-flops most of the year. My boss's boss wears flip-flops. And my boss has ridiculed those who think flip-flops are not right for the office. She's had four promotions in one year so they haven't slowed her down. I'm just saying.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Maybe we can send all the diehard flip-flop wearers to work for her then!
Gaithersburg, Md.: May I ask an ethical or even silly question? I cannot locate the disk I kept my resume on. Is it ok to ask HR for a copy of the resume they have on file for me so that I can make a copy?
Mary Ellen Slayter: Did you forget what you put on it? This is why it's very important not to make things up on your resume. It can be so hard to keep your stories straight.
It will make you look a bit silly, but I guess the alternative is even less appealing to you: writing up a new resume. Next time, make more than one copy. I have one on my laptop, one on a flash stick, one on the Web, one that I've emailed myself to my gmail accounts, and so on. The whole world would have to send for me not to have a copy of my resume.
Baltimore, Md.: I'm finishing my BA this week and heading off to grad school in the fall (a master's in Classics, with PhD to follow). While I'm quite confident I want to go down the academic route, I have a tiny bit of anxiety about what seems like a career commitment. Is there a point at which I've spent so much time in grad school that I've locked myself out of non- academic careers?
Mary Ellen Slayter: Nope. Most people who head into academia at first don't wind up working there for the long haul. If it doesn't work out for you, you'll be in good company. Just try not to borrow your life's earnings over the next six years.
Washington, D.C.: Dear Mary Ellen:
I want to get a graduate certificate in PR. I want to become a Public Affairs Specialist in the Federal Government.
Currently, I am a secretary in the federal government, and I really want to switch to the public affairs field, because I'm more interested in this field.
However, I also found out that I could roll over my certificate credits to a master's degree in public policy, but I really don't know if I could do school for another year, when getting a grad certificate is faster and cheaper.
My question is: do you think that the grad certificate will carry the same weight? I found that most public affairs positions in the federal government want you to have at least a year's worth of grad courses if you are like me and don't really have two to five years of public affairs experience.
P.S. I must admit though, I read your May 8, 2006, chat and agree that we all should relax. I'm 27 by the way, and I didn't realize the importance of relaxing until I suffered an anxiety attack on Mother's Day weekend.
washingtonpost.com: And here's that May 8 chat for reference...
Mary Ellen Slayter: Since you're already a federal worker, why don't you ask someone who would be doing the hiring for one of the positions you're interested in. They should be able to tell you what kind of education and experience would make you most competitive.
Austin, Texas: Hi Mary Ellen,
I just graduated from business school and I am looking for a job. I am using the typical job search resources, but wanted to get your opinion on using a head hunter. I don't know anything about where to start and how to choose the best one for me, so any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Well, first keep in mind that headhunters don't work for you. They work for the companies that need positions filled. So choosing the "best one" for you isn't really the issue. Instead, research recruiters who work in your desired field and get your resume in their hands. You don't pay them, and you're not limited to just one.
Maryland: I graduated a year ago and started working out of school almost immediately.
I'm considering looking for a new job. My questions is two-fold. First, what do I put on my resume? Do I keep all my internships from college on it considering I've only got a year of experience under my belt? Secondly, do I let my employer know I'm searching for a new job or do I keep that hush hush? The reason I ask is I don't feel entirely comfortable taking days off to go on interviews only to lie to my current employer about why I need off. I'm not sure what the appropriate etiquette is in this situation.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Yes, you include your internships
No, you don't tell your boss you're looking. Schedule the interviews early or late in the day, or at lunch. The best solution is to take a vacation day.
Alexandria, Va.: Every time I go to my boss office to get a question answered (and it's not too often when I go), I usually have to 15 minutes of sitting there while she answers her phone and cleans out her mailbox to get an answer. Should I be bothered? This happens every time.
Mary Ellen Slayter: If it's not that often, I would let it go.
If it's every day, I'd give her a call to let her know you're coming. If she still seems busy, ask if you should come back later. That should prompt her to give you her full attention.
Miami, Fla.: I graduated in 2005 and have been temping for one year at the same organization. I will start law school in the fall and my supervisor is aware of my departure. Am I required to write a letter of resignation?
Mary Ellen Slayter: As a temp? No, I don't think so. As long as the temp agency knows you're leaving, that should be sufficient.
FLIP FLOP FIX -- RE: Your article!: Mary Ellen,
Good article this weekend! I agree, perception is reality and flip-flops, for the sake of comfort, don't cut it in the workplace -- though I have tried, with regret. BUT, I have found a perfect solution. I was in Carbon this weekend and bought really cute, work appropriate COMFORTABLE shoes! Miz Mooz, they are low-key enough for the office, comfortable enough for the Metro and I broke them out for happy hour! Sharing the love -- www.CarbonDC.com.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Those shoes are very cute!
Washington, D.C.: What do you do when you are at an interview and realize you do not want the job? Do you continue to smile, nod, and assert your skills or when they ask "does this sound interesting to you" do you answer "no" and leave? It seems rude to just up and leave, but then it seems the only alternative is to lie. Thanks for your help!
Mary Ellen Slayter: Be polite, go through the motions. Consider it practice for future interviews. Decline any further interviews if they call you back.
Northwest D.C.: I am an experienced worker (41 years of work experience in gov't, private industry, and law firms) in only a support staff level. I am currently assigned to work for a senior partner who is extremely disorganized, absent-minded, and probably attention deficit as well. He's also very dependent on his assistant to keep him organized. He inserts comments into his instructions that have nothing to do with the subject at hand. (For instance, he asked me to set up a conference call with a client, commented London time so it would have to be at a certain time convenient for all parties. NOBODY ON THE CALL WAS IN LONDON!) I followed a disorganized person who sat at this desk before. First off, it's difficult taking on a new supervisor to begin with. But to follow another disorganized person is a double whammy. I feel like I'm stamping out forest fires all day. Now he's denying me vacation days which I must use or lose before the end of June. (I call them mental health days.) One previous supervisor at this office drove me to ulcers. Should I let this one drive me nuts as well?
Mary Ellen Slayter: No job is worth an ulcer. I'd look someplace new.
Arlington, Va.: I was thinking about getting my resume redone professionally but wonder if it is worth the cost and, if so, where would be a good place to do this? Is Monster's service worthwhile or is it better to work through a local service?
Mary Ellen Slayter: Hire someone locally. There are a lot of good people who do this work, and at good prices.
Flip-flops, NO: One million thank you's for your column on flip-flops yesterday. I don't think it will make a dent on some of the twenty-somethings in my office who just cannot understand what is wrong with wearing flip flops in the office and feel horribly mistreated at being told they can't, but at least I can give them something to read on the subject. Helps that you are a young 'un, too.
Other alternative footwear includes the infinite variety of ballet flats like the kind I am wearing now ...
Mary Ellen Slayter: I like those, too.
Dupont Circle: If flip-flops are unprofessional, what about wacky (purple, blue, etc.) hair colors?
Mary Ellen Slayter: It depends on the office. You can get away with it in more creative places. Law firm or the Hill? No way. Advertising shop? They'll be disappointed if you don't do something somewhat edgy.
I also have to say that I don't see dyed hair and flip flops as quite the same. The dress code "violations" that bug me personally tend to be related to too much skin exposure, not excessive edginess or even casualness. I.e., I'm forgiving of jeans, tattoos and nose rings, but not low-cut tank tops or shoes that don't even cover your feet. (This could just be my Gen X vs Gen Y bias here, of course.)
I used to dye my hair a lot (though the weirdest I went since college was pink.) I never did it at a job interview. Now that my job involves meeting with outside people more often, I don't do it at all. Though honestly, I just got tired of the upkeep/outgrew it. I think that's what happens with most people in terms of super-casual college-type clothes, as well.
I always admire your thoughtful and helpful column. I am a recent college graduate working in professional services. After being asked to resign from one position after a brief tenure on account of lack of attention to detail and a "bad attitude," I joined a competitor company. Here, after six months, I was issued a final warning for those same reasons. My friends and family tell me that I may act arrogantly towards my colleagues and superiors, and I try to address that. However, I feel like my current boss is dead set against me and has always been. A nice guy as a person, he seems intent on seeing my work (and relations with colleagues) in the worst possible light. Moreover, he is inconsistent and difficult to communicate with.
I would like to stay with the company I am with but, obviously, want to transfer to a different group. Is there any way I can convince HR or people in another group that my boss is unfair rather than that I am arrogant and inattentive? Seems like a tall order.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Since this has happened twice in a row, I think you need to look at your own behavior more closely, and not get too worked up about making your boss out to be the bad guy. Listen to these two companies that have let you go. Listen to your friends and family.
I'd start looking for another job, but also get yourself to therapy or a career coach. Something's going on here, and you need to fix it sooner rather than later.
Flip-flops, Va.: Gee, I figured that all the flop-clad young ladies were wearing them as commuting shoes (I still don't like it). There are actually people who wear them as work shoes?
I don't think I'm an old fogey at 33, but another shoe faux pas I see is women wearing three-inch evening shoes to work. I don't see this often, fortunately, but come on, where's the sense of propriety?
Mary Ellen Slayter: Yes, people really wear them to work.
You think that's bad ...: If you think flip-flops are bad, you'd have been utterly appalled at something that happened to me last summer.
I bike to work frequently. I came in one morning to the boss in a panic, hair-on-fire, take-care-of-it-NOW emergency. It took a good hour or so to deal with this emergency, but there I was, bopping around the office in my bike jersey, spandex shorts, and cleats, until I had a chance to go to the ladies' room and get changed.
The boss never said a word -- other than to thank me for taking care of the emergency.
Mary Ellen Slayter: That was an emergency. Apples and oranges.
I have an upcoming interview with a very high ranking senator. It is a committee job. Any words of advice?
Mary Ellen Slayter: Don't wear flip-flops.
When you say no flip-flops : ... do you mean just the rubber ones you can wear in the shower, or ones made of leather, too? Is anything that "thwacks" considered a flip-flop? Incidentally, my boss -- a conservative woman in her late 50s -- is wearing green flip-flops with little rhinestones on them, so quit blaming us twenty-somethings!
Mary Ellen Slayter: I hate all the thwacking shoes! I don't care how fancy they are. If your boss is wearing them, though, you're probably safe to thwack away.
D.C.: The flip-flop rule is easy -- if you have a job where you can wear shorts to work, then you can wear flip-flops. If you wouldn't wear shorts, then you have no business wearing flip-flops. And yes, some jobs are really that casual.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Actually, that sounds completely reasonable to me!
D.C.: For the would-be public affairs specialist ... I am a senior one who does help my boss review the resumes. The grad degree is weighted and does help with the hiring (I don't think it necessarily prepares one for the job though). Proofreading is essential -- we are looking for good writers, editors and communicators and we get a lot of applications, so one too many typos and that will be that. Don't spell the job title wrong (or list the wrong one -- I remember one cover letter that listed some other agency's public affairs specialist opening). Right there you're showing you don't pay attention to detail, which is key.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Thanks for the inside scoop!
Ballston, Va.: Loved your flip-flop article. As you stated in the article, one should look to their superior for guidance for what and what not to wear. What if the supervisor has no clue on that? Today she came in with watermelon capris and her husbands polo (worn out) shirt. May I add, I work for a financial consulting team where most of the employees dress appropriately. I believe my sup. gets away with it because she handles the assistants (lowest on the ladder here).
Mary Ellen Slayter: Pay her no mind. Look to her boss, and your other colleagues for guidance.
RE: The arrogant firee: Your boss probably is just tired of the attitude and wants you gone. After the first warning, you really have to turn it around and be practically perfect. Given that this is likely your third warning, the boss isn't going to go out on a limb for you or try to see your interactions and work in a positive light -- I am guessing he tried that the first few months. Right now, the tide is really against you and you are going to have to work quadruple hard to just stay employed. I also doubt HR is going to assign you somewhere new given you have the crappy track record and not your boss.
And you sound a bit delusional when you think a group change is going to fix this problem. One thing you may want to do is ask for brutally honest 360 degree feedback from everyone you work with and ask for examples. You may find it illuminating and helpful in the next job.
RE: Maryland: I am in a similar position as Maryland. My problem is that I work for a university and would be looking to stay within that university setting. My boss is the head of the department in which I work, and I'm worried he'll find out that I'm looking for a job. Plus, I've been a good worker here and would like to use my boss as a reference. What to do?
Mary Ellen Slayter: In that situation, I think you have to go to your boss and ask for his support. Word will most certainly filter back to him that you're applying for this job, and it's better that he hear it from you.
Arlington, Va.: I notice that there is a lot of flip flop attacking in general that is directed at younger workers, but, no one ever goes after the older workers who dress like they rolled out of bed in non-matching clothes that are wrinkled, hair not done, etc., etc. I may drive and walk in flip-flops and work in three inch stilettos, but I look nice everyday and make an effort. It's such a double standard sometimes. Sorry. Just needed to vent.
Mary Ellen Slayter: It's not my job to scold older workers, though! The Post would need a separate column for that.
And stilettos? Don't get that really. But as long as you can walk in them, that's your business. At least they don't make That Noise.
Anonymous: Nothing great to add to the discussion, but what a terrific column this weekend. If the writing hadn't been as good, it would have looked just petty or stupid, but you did a great job getting your message across in an entertaining way.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Glad you liked it!
Petty and Stupid were my nicknames for the first two drafts.
D.C.: Another question -- how is wearing sneakers/tennis shoes while commuting any different than wearing flip flops? (Assuming in both cases the wearer changes into work shoes upon arriving at the office).
Mary Ellen Slayter: Honestly, I don't care as much about the commuting in flip-flops.
Mainly, though, I don't get the shoe change thing, for sneakers or flip-flops. Every single pair of shoes I wear to work are professional AND comfortable. None have more than an inch and half heel. I've got high heels, but those are for dates, not the office.
This isn't that hard for me. I must be missing something.
RE: Flip-flops: Serious question time: I have two pairs of sandals that yes, make flip-flop sounds, but they aren't flip-flops, they're just regular sandals. Would you consider those inappropriate as well? (Mainly asking for curiosity, since they're allowed by our dress code, as I work in a very casual office).
Mary Ellen Slayter: They would bug me, in the same way stupid ring tones bug me when people leave their phones at their desk while they step away for an hour.
But if the sandals are allowed in your office, you're obviously fine.
A whole office of that noise. My nightmare.
Falls Church, Va.: For the classical studies PhD-er: pure academic study is a noble calling, but if he or she is borrowing even a cent to pay for it, reevaluate your situation. Borrowing for law, medical, or business school may pay off, but borrowing for the humanities will cause nothing but pain. Either get a full ride (which you should, if you are good enough), or pay your own way. Any while an MA may open doors in the non-academic world if and when you seek a job, a PhD may close them.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Yep to most of those. I don't think a PhD is going to make them unemployable though.
Mary Ellen Slayter: Thanks for the lively discussion. See y'all next month!
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post columnist Mary Ellen Slayter comes online twice a month to answer your questions about getting ahead in your career.
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Did Someone Fail a Dying Man?
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James Leon Waters worked in Seattle for most of his adult life, but he was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He was a product of District public schools, graduating from Anacostia Senior High School, which taught him the shop skills that helped him land jobs as a printing operations specialist with The Post and two other local companies. Eventually, however, he was lured west to Seattle, where he worked for the city until he retired early last year.
Waters returned to Washington in July with his wife, Gail, to visit his family. As he was leaving his mother's house, he gave her a kiss on the cheek and told her, "I'll see you tomorrow." She never heard his voice again. The date was July 26, 2005.
What happened that evening will help explain why the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department continues to appear as Topic A in this space.
Shortly after James Waters rejoined Gail in their room at the Renaissance hotel at 999 Ninth St. NW, he started feeling chest pains. He took an antacid but then collapsed. The record shows that his wife called 911 at 9:32 p.m. Thirty minutes later, he arrived at George Washington University Hospital's emergency room. At 10:53 p.m., James Waters was pronounced dead.
The events that unfolded between the 911 call for help and Waters's arrival at GW's emergency room are the subject of a complaint and claims against the District government filed by a Seattle law firm representing Gail Waters on behalf of her husband and "others similarly situated." In a Jan. 18 letter to Mayor Anthony Williams and D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti, the firm's lawyers, Michael D. Helgren and Leslie J. Hagin, charged that James Waters died as a result of the failures and utter indifference of D.C. fire department personnel -- "which are part of a pattern and practice of deliberate indifference to the well-known risks and failings by the District and its relevant decision makers, relative to training, supervision, and other aspects of the District's Fire Department/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system."
To no one's surprise, D.C. Fire/EMS has battened down the hatches and assumed a protective crouch. In response to my query, Fire/EMS spokesman Alan Etter wrote yesterday: "Because this case is the subject of litigation, we are not permitted to make any comment at this time."
What is known about James Waters's final hours comes by way of reports pried out of D.C. Fire/EMS, courtesy of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Hagin. Here is what's been pieced together -- based on the heavily redacted D.C. Fire/EMS reports:
9:32 p.m. -- 911 received a call from the Renaissance hotel "asking for ambulance."
9:33 p.m. -- Engine 16 and Ambulance 16 were dispatched to the hotel.
But en route, Engine 16, carrying a technician, two firefighters and a lieutenant, changed direction and went to another location to investigate smoke coming from a building. They assessed the source of the smoke, determined it was not a life-safety issue, found out that other units were already responding, got back in their vehicle and proceeded to the hotel.
After arriving about 9:38 p.m., however, Engine 16 immediately left the scene without assessing Waters's condition and went back to the non-life-threatening fire, leaving Ambulance 16 to carry on at the hotel alone. In special after-action reports to their superiors, Engine 16 members said Ambulance 16's two firefighters told them they could handle the call by themselves.
It turns out that Ambulance 16's firefighters were in over their heads.
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James Leon Waters worked in Seattle for most of his adult life, but he was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He was a product of District public schools, graduating from Anacostia Senior High School, which taught him the shop skills that helped him land jobs as a printing operations specialist...
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As Babies Are Born Earlier, They Risk Problems Later
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More and more babies each year are being born just shy of spending a full pregnancy in their mothers' wombs, putting more infants at risk of health and possibly developmental problems because they enter the world before they are ready.
The percentage of babies born slightly early has been increasing steadily for more than a decade and is now at an all-time high. So many babies are being born a few weeks early -- more than 350,000 annually -- that the average U.S. pregnancy has shortened from 40 weeks to 39.
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The increase is driven by a combination of social and medical trends, including the older age of many mothers, the rising use of fertility treatments and the decision by more women to choose when they will deliver. At the same time, medical advances are enabling doctors to detect problem pregnancies earlier and to improve care for premature babies, prompting them to deliver more babies early when something threatens their lives or those of their mothers.
Many obstetricians argue that the trend is positive overall because they are preventing thousands of stillbirths and avoiding potentially serious risks for mothers. But other experts worry because these babies are prone to a long list of serious, potentially life-threatening complications, which often require intensive, costly treatment. Moreover, growing evidence suggests that their long-term development may be more problematic.
"We should be concerned about these babies," said Tonse N.K. Raju of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "They have more short-term problems, and there is evolving evidence that they have long-term risks as well."
Although most of these babies fare well and face far less risk than very premature infants, researchers have begun to realize that they are nevertheless more prone to short-term complications, such as problems breathing and feeding, and jaundice. And because so many are being born each year, even a small increased risk translates into thousands of sick babies. Studies are also starting to suggest that these children may tend to not develop as well as full-term babies, leading to behavioral, learning and other difficulties.
"There's no question these babies tend to have more [immediate] problems compared to full-term babies," said Richard E. Behrman of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations, who chairs a panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences that will issue recommendations on the rising late-preterm birth rate next month. "The concern is about whether there is some adverse impact on their long-term development."
For years, most of the attention focused on the earliest, smallest "preemies" -- those born before 32 weeks -- because they face the greatest risks of dying or having permanent disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, deafness and blindness. But the proportion of babies born that early has leveled off, while the rate of "near-term" or "late-preterm" births -- between 34 and 36 weeks -- continues to rise. They now account for about two-thirds of all preterm births.
"These kids have been below the radar screen," said Marie C. McCormick of the Harvard School of Public Health. "They're just starting to get our attention."
Nearly 9 percent of all babies delivered in the United States were born late-preterm in 2003, according to the most recent federal data. That is up from 7.6 percent a decade earlier and the highest since the government started tracking such births -- and translates into about 50,000 more of these babies each year.
"It's a huge increase," said Mary E. D'Alton of Columbia University. "The question is: Are we doing too many of these deliveries?"
While the precise cause of the increase is unclear, one reason is that more women are delaying childbearing until their thirties, when they are prone to complications, including premature labor. Older women are also more likely to need fertility treatments, which increase the chances of having twins and triplets -- which tend to be born early. The obesity epidemic may also play a role -- obese women have more complications, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, that can make it necessary to end a pregnancy early.
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'Baghdad ER': Saluting Valor On the Medical Front Lines
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To read political motives into "Baghdad ER," a poignant and powerful documentary about military medical personnel working in Iraq, would be to insult and diminish not only the film but also its subjects. Even so, the right wing has started flapping already, and the Pentagon reputedly finds the movie worrisome.
Truth is always worrisome to those with vested interests. Those who would denigrate the film -- which is a lesson in humanity, not politics -- presumably have chosen to ignore the printed prologue on the screen: "This film is a tribute to the heroism and sacrifice of the soldiers who are the patients and staff of the 86th Combat Support Hospital" -- men and women working feverishly and around the clock to put wounded soldiers back together amid the horror of a bedeviling war.
"Baghdad ER," premiering tomorrow night on HBO (with a timely encore on Memorial Day at 10 p.m.), deals far more in actions than in words -- the sometimes desperate actions of medical personnel who repair wounds, alleviate suffering and try to restore the spirits of soldiers who arrive in the hospital with bodies riddled by shrapnel or with severely mangled limbs.
Among the first of innumerable stinging images: a nurse carrying a severed arm from the operating table to a plastic disposal bag. Says a corporal working with the team: "We do our best, our level best, to make sure that our people survive and make it back to their homes." The prologue states that 90 percent of the American soldiers wounded in the war survive, patched up at the Baghdad hospital and flown to Germany for more thorough and elaborate care. And the patients include not only American soldiers but also Iraqi citizens.
"It just hurts a little bit from the burns to keep my eyes open," says a young man who risks losing his vision (but doesn't, we learn later) from burns to his face. "It'll take time to heal -- just like my hand," philosophizes a National Guardsman who lost a thumb -- and his best buddy -- in a "traumatic incident": Their Humvee was hit by mortar fire.
The enemy's destructive weapon of choice is the IED -- improvised explosive devices that can be hidden along roadsides, in abandoned vehicles, almost anywhere. They are a coward's weapon, deposited under dark of night and left to do its worst, tearing victims apart when activated. Another problem is the insidious timing of double explosions -- one set to kill or maim as many victims as possible, then another calculated to go off when rescue workers are likely to have rushed to the aid of those injured in the first blast.
HBO leaked a print of the film to an op-ed pundit who wrote about it weeks ago and noted that it was neither pro-war nor antiwar. It sets one to wondering: What kind of documentary filmmaker of measurable sanity would set out to make a pro-war movie? Haven't the lunacy and inefficiency of war been fairly well established after all these centuries?
The more relevant question, and one more likely to stir debate, is whether the film, made by the brilliant documentarian Jon Alpert along with Matthew O'Neill, is for or against the Iraq war. Understandably, the constant influx of maimed, shattered and near-dead bodies takes its psychological toll on the medics. One of them finally erupts: "I hate this stupid war. I think it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I don't think it's more intelligent than any other war that's ever been fought."
Even so, he says the work done in the beleaguered hospital is "very dear to my heart" and deeply rewarding: "I hope I've had a chance to make a difference. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat." He's hardly giving aid and comfort to those calling for the withdrawal of American troops.
The camera is present at the most intimate and sometimes most mournful moments. After working feverishly to revive a badly injured soldier, the doctor on duty finally announces, "Okay, it's called," meaning the young man is pronounced dead. "Right now it's 11:56," he says for the record, and to his colleagues, "Nice try, guys."
For all the grimness, the doctors try to leaven the horror with humor, inevitably bringing to mind "M*A*S*H" and its depiction of comic relief among medical personnel in the Korean conflict. A doctor tells a "sick" joke about a double amputee to break the tension and explains that a little "gallows humor" is necessary because "it helps keep us sane."
One battered victim, it is noted, turned 21 the day before he was riddled with shrapnel, and a nurse, after promising him a beer once he gets to the hospital in Germany, mutters sadly, "Some of 'em aren't even old enough to drink." On the Fourth of July, one doctor announces his wish for the celebration: "No dead soldiers . . . today," and gets it. A National Guardsman from New York, one of the first victims seen in the film, was shot by a sniper, we learn, while he was giving out candy to Iraqi children.
An ER doctor tells one young soldier, who is choking back tears, that it's okay to cry over the loss of a buddy, and the soldier bursts out weeping. Later, a doctor whispers urgent encouragement into the ear of a badly wounded Marine: "Hang in there . . . keep fighting," hoping he can help the injured man steel his resolve to live. It may be the film's most wrenching sequence.
The choppers arrive with frequency with their cargo of bodies that are bloodied and torn and, sometimes, dead. No one says anything political or blames any particular elected official for the carnage, and no one comes right out and calls it monstrously misguided, either.
But one doctor, exasperated almost to the breaking point and seeming to speak for his similarly exhausted colleagues, pauses during a lull to wonder why any of them are there: "This war, and the number of lives affected by it, is just unbelievable. I have to think . . . we'll be in a better place for it. I have to believe that.
"Otherwise, this is just sheer madness."
"Baghdad ER," which brings the war home more painfully than perhaps any other film has done, or tried to do, is sheer, if bitter, brilliance.
Baghdad ER (60 minutes) airs tomorrow night at 8 on HBO.
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An American In Venice
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VENICE -- It's just another church in a city full of churches, and the name doesn't register at first. You're walking down the Via Garibaldi on a warm spring day, reveling in the street life on the unusually broad avenue and in the relative absence of tourists here in the outer reaches of the Castello district, where native Venetians still outnumber interlopers like you.
Then you look up and think: San Francesco di Paola! Didn't Tassini, the night watchman in "Through a Glass Darkly," live opposite the church of San Francesco di Paola? Didn't Brunetti walk down here from the Questura , the police station, to meet him in that bar that draws little swirling hearts with cappuccino foam?
And just like that, you've entered the Venice of Donna Leon.
As it happens, you've gotten a bit obsessed with Leon's Venetian mysteries ("Through a Glass Darkly," just published in the United States by Grove Atlantic, is her 15th). All feature Commissario Guido Brunetti, tenacious detective and devoted family man, whose unblinkered humanity you've come to admire. More to the point, perhaps, for someone with just a few days to spend here, reading Leon has fueled a fantasy common to visitors in this secretive, surreally beautiful city: that somehow, despite your total lack of local credentials, you'll be invited through what writer John Berendt calls "the invisible door" between the tourist's Venice and the one where actual Venetians live.
Pretty to think so. Won't happen.
But in Leon moments like this one, you come about as close as you're going to get. A minute ago you were an outsider with zero language skills and too little time. Now you're an intimate of Guido Brunetti, who has come to this very spot to meet a man who works in a glass factory (a fornace ) on the island of Murano.
Something sinister is unfolding on the glassblowers' island that your good friend the commissario does not yet understand.
Donna Leon's Venice is so popular in Europe, where her books are bestsellers, that specially organized tours bring fans from Austria, Germany and Switzerland to follow Commissario Brunetti's footsteps through the calles (lanes) and campos (public squares) of her adopted home. She's less well-known in the United States, but Grove Atlantic is working on that: It has brought her to Washington this week to commune with booksellers at the gargantuan annual publishing convention, BookExpo America.
Venice is so much Leon's element, though, that you've been hoping to encounter her in it first. With luck, she'll make it back from a trip to Zurich in time. But in case she doesn't -- well, why not take a Brunetti tour?
This one is given by Leon's old friend Toni Sepeda, another expatriate American with a home in Venice. The two met while teaching U.S. servicemen at European bases -- on contract with the University of Maryland -- which Sepeda still does but which Leon's writing career has rendered unnecessary.
Sepeda is a diminutive, gray-haired Henry James fanatic with a completely un-James-like directness and an infectious energy belying her sixty-something years. She meets you in front of the reborn opera house, La Fenice, which seems doubly appropriate.
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VENICE -- It's just another church in a city full of churches, and the name doesn't register at first. You're walking down the Via Garibaldi on a warm spring day, reveling in the street life on the unusually broad avenue and in the relative absence of tourists here in the outer reaches of the...
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Jonathan Yardley
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Now in his mid-eighties, Roger Angell has had what he calls "a life sheltered by privilege and engrossing work, and shot through with good luck." His father was Ernest Angell, a distinguished Manhattan lawyer who "put in great amounts of time with the American Civil Liberties Union," and his mother was Katharine White, an equally distinguished editor at the New Yorker and author of a widely venerated book about gardening, Onward and Upward in the Garden . After his parents' marriage dissolved, he acquired as stepfather E.B. White, one of the greatest essayists this country has known and the author of two universally beloved books for children, Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web .
That was only for starters. He attended Harvard, from which he graduated in 1942, and almost immediately went into the Air Force, for which he labored throughout the war in assignments far from harm's way. He got married in the fall of 1942 to Evelyn Baker, whom he had known for four years; eventually that marriage ended, but it produced two daughters to whom Angell is devoted. After the war he worked for Holiday magazine, which gave him and his bride the opportunity to travel widely, and eventually he found his way to the New Yorker, where he has been for half a century, editing other people's fiction and writing reportage and commentary about baseball that has been collected in several books -- most notably The Summer Game (1972) -- and is widely regarded as the best baseball writing anyone has done, period.
A long life, then, and a successful one, and certainly it seems to have been on the whole a happy one, though punctuated by enough "rotten news" to teach Angell what any sentient adult surely must understand: "Life is tough and brimming with loss, and the most we can do about it is to glimpse ourselves clear now and then, and find out what we feel about familiar scenes and recurring faces this time around." That is what Angell has attempted in this unusual and affecting book. Let Me Finish is not precisely a memoir but closer to scenes from a life. It began as one brief piece for the New Yorker, then another, and eventually, like Topsy, it just grew.
Certain aspects of Angell's life are passed over lightly or ignored. There is much about World War II but little -- mercifully -- about Harvard. Angell lovingly recalls his boyhood romance with baseball -- he can remember seeing Babe Ruth and the young Joe DiMaggio and Lefty Gomez -- but his rise as a writer about baseball, and the éclat this brought to him, goes without discussion. He barely mentions the fiction and occasional nonfiction that he published when he was young. He describes his first marriage with fondness but does not mention the reasons for his divorce and only hints at the apparent happiness of his second marriage.
All of which is fine by me. In a time when people barely old enough to vote are writing their life stories in books filled with highly detailed (and often highly fictionalized if not outright mendacious) accounts of self-abuse and other misdeeds, it is a relief to come upon someone who understands -- so at least I interpret it -- that not everything about oneself is fit for public consumption, that reticence is often the better part of autobiography, that discrimination and artful selection are the best ways to tell one's story, rather than merely letting it all hang out. Yes, we readers do want the juicy details, but we should also respect the discretion of someone who writes the book he wants to write rather than the one we think we want to read.
"Memory is fiction," Angell writes, "an anecdotal version of some scene or past event we need to store away for present or future use." There is no such thing as a "true" memoir, much though former presidents and other scalawags would have us believe. As any police investigator will tell you, human memory is so fallible that no two witnesses to the same event will have identical accounts of it even moments after it has occurred. One of the reasons for the current infatuation with memoirs is that readers think they are getting "truth" as opposed to the "fiction" that novels offer, but writing one's own story is every bit as much a creative act as writing a "made-up" story, and often involves every bit as much fictionalizing.
So Angell presents himself not as memoirist but as possessor of a random assortment of imperfect memories. Some of these obviously are important -- above all, I'd venture, his parents' divorce -- and are recalled with some clarity, while others are only slivers of what must have been actual truth. Angell has an almost encyclopedic memory for the movies he saw as a boy and a young man -- he was one of those who came upon the movies in "the great cresting tide of late-thirties and early-forties Hollywood," and "we were the lucky ones, we first citizens of film" -- and for the baseball players whom he watched, mainly in Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. But he readily admits that he can't recall essential moments with treasured friends or other aspects of his life about which other, less modest memoirists would have us believe they recall everything.
The three most important people in his youth were his mother, his father and "Andy" White. He loved them all, but with a wry understanding of their shortcomings. When his parents divorced, his father fought for and won custody of Roger and his sister, Nancy, a job for which he had virtually no preparation and no apparent talent, yet "for all his destructiveness and ferocity and self-doubt, [he] turned out to be an exceptional father, with heroic energies," who "plunged right ahead with fatherhood, striding up its trail at full charge." Roger loved his mother no less, but she is a more elusive figure here. He quotes, approvingly, a piece someone else wrote about Katharine White: "It's funny; as an editor she was maternal but as a mother she was editorial." This made Angell "laugh, not cry," because he recognized the essential truth of it and accepts, without lament, that "nobody in our family was much of a hugger, to tell the truth, Mother least of all."
As to Andy White, he provides the exclamation point on Angell's insistence that divorce, notwithstanding all the pain it causes, brings people into one's life whom one otherwise never would have known and thus enlarges one's world. Angell was still a small boy when his mother and White married, but he immediately saw through his new stepfather's "shy and self-conscious" exterior to the person inside: "He was a grownup, but there was a readiness for play in him that lasted all his life. Luckily, I didn't need another father and that freed us up." He "brought to his undertakings" a "sense of ease and play." Angell writes:
"Though subject to nerves, he possessed something like that invisible extra beat of time that great athletes show on the field. Dogs and children were easy for him because he approached them as a participant instead of a winner. . . . When Andy, without his trying and almost without my noticing it, taught me how to sail or how to row or how to lure a flounder with a bit of periwinkle as bait and -- in some part -- how to write, ease seemed to be the whole trick. He let things emerge, like the time he unexpectedly put his nearly empty bottle of Pabst or Schlitz down on the carpet in front of his big dachshund, Fred, who sniffed about and soon found that by laying one paw on the neck he could tip the last of the beer toward the top of the bottle and lap it out. Then he ate the label."
Angell tells the story of his growing up in bits and pieces. "Getting there, becoming my adult self, was not a steady goal in my scattered youth, and changes in me, when they came, took me by surprise," so he makes no attempt to impose a pattern on them where none, obviously, existed. Fortunately, though, the larger part of Let Me Finish is focused on his younger self because this seems, in truth, to be the most interesting part of his life. He does devote a number of pages to his life at the New Yorker, but there is almost none of the cozy, self-congratulatory air that marked Brendan Gill's undeservedly popular Here at the New Yorker . Angell does write about the mysterious and semi-legendary William Shawn, the magazine's second editor, but without idolatry; indeed, he confesses that "I have joined those who have no wish to linger within the great William Shawn National Forest after its recent-strip-minings." Shawn "was amazingly generous and friendly with me," but he was not God and the magazine he edited was not "Western civilization itself."
So: a lovely book and an honest one. What Angell writes may or may not be "true," but it contains truths: about loyalty and love, about work and play, about getting on with the cards that life deals you. It's also a genuinely grown-up book, a rare gem indeed in our pubescent age. ·
Jonathan Yardley's e-mail address is yardleyj@washpost.com.
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LET ME FINISH By Roger Angell Harcourt. 302 pp. $25
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New Money for Aging Amenities
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When Lake Ridge in Prince William County and Reston in Fairfax County were built in the 1960s, they were among the first and largest planned communities in the nation.
Lake Ridge, west of Interstate 95 near the Occoquan River, eventually grew to 30,000 residents, while Reston has almost twice that many. They were pioneers in what is now considered the norm for amenities in such large-scale communities: town and community centers, tennis and basketball courts, swimming pools, walking trails and tot lots.
But both communities are learning the hard way that those aging amenities cost more money to maintain than anticipated. Reston's leaders have found out they need to spend $21 million during the next 30 years to replace facilities. Lake Ridge raises just $115,000 a year in homeowner fees to spend on capital improvements, but repairing a pool can cost $100,000.
And so Lake Ridge and Reston have become pioneers once again, this time imposing fees on new homeowners to help offset the cost of maintaining the amenities. Lake Ridge recently began charging new homeowners a one-time $500 fee, and Reston residents recently approved a $250 fee for people who buy new homes there.
Although the fees are a first in the Washington area, they are common in other maturing planned developments across the country. Analysts predict that the trend could catch on, despite opposition from real estate agents who say they don't like tacking on another charge for their clients.
"The older the communities get, the more cash they need," said John Rhodes, executive vice president of Legum and Norman, a residential management company. "I was not aware of communities charging these fees before. Now, I know of two or three [other] places that are thinking about it."
Although still nice places to live, some of the older communities have become like an aging strip mall that seems outshined by a new shopping plaza down the street. Many older communities are low on funds to keep up and replace their pools, centers and trails. That's because previous boards of directors tried to keep homeowner fees low or were prevented from increasing fees by the group's bylaws, said Peter B. Miller, a principal of Miller Dodson Associates, an Annapolis-based firm that does reserve studies for Reston. Developers also kept fees low to encourage sales, he said.
"It was well-intentioned but misguided," said Miller, who is also a past president of the Community Associations Institute, a national group for homeowners associations based in Alexandria.
Local real estate agents say they are not enthused about the fees because new home buyers are already strapped by high sales prices and closing costs, said John DiBiase, director of government affairs for the Prince William Association of Realtors. "There are some significant questions about its enforceability and fairness," he said. "This is an existing community imposing this fee on new purchasers."
Del. Michele B. McQuigg (R-Prince William) said she considered legislation that would have prohibited such fees but found that the associations do hold the authority to charge new home buyers.
Supporters said the fee is not that high. Communities such as Reston and Lake Ridge have homeowners associations that are supported through annual dues paid by residents. Those dues are the main source of revenue for financing operations and maintenance of facilities and programs.
Robert E. Simon Jr., Reston's founder, said home buyers would not be hurt by the fee.
"It's a nice little source of revenue, painless to everybody. If you're buying a house for $400,000, what's $250?" he said.
In addition to approving the one-time fee, Reston residents also voted last month to allow the homeowners association to raise the cap on annual dues, which will make it easier for officials to generate more money for upkeep.
Thomas Freeley, general manager of Lake Ridge, defended the fees as the easiest way to raise revenue for badly needed capital improvements to facilities that have aged or are more expensive to maintain.
Graffiti can be spotted occasionally on sheds and fences across Lake Ridge. The forest-green upholstery with tiny maroon designs on the chairs in Lake Ridge's Tall Oaks Community Center is stained. Outside the community center, the pool has cracks, and the poles supporting the diving boards and lifeguard chairs are rusted.
"The amenities we have are simply outdated," Freeley said.
When the Lake Ridge association was created, the group required only users to pay to maintain the pools, later expanded to include every homeowner when funds got low in the 1980s. The homeowners association also limited increases in annual dues to 5 percent a year, said Michael Dakes, president of the Lake Ridge Parks and Recreation Association, the homeowners group. "That has been a hindrance," he said. "The cost of living exceeded this increase."
At the time Lake Ridge was developed, there were no proffers, the voluntary fees developers pay to support such county services as fire stations, libraries and schools. But Ken Thompson, an original developer of Lake Ridge, said the developers tried to be responsible, donating open space and land for schools and a library.
Though the donations were generous, the open space -- trees and trails and the picturesque Occoquan Reservoir -- that still makes Lake Ridge desirable was more upkeep than people thought, resident Linda McCabe said.
McCabe said building the homes helped cause some of the erosion that the development is now struggling to combat.
As for the pools, tennis courts and other infrastructure, the homeowners association's maintenance plan was flawed for several years. "It appeared to me that they were doing patchwork," she said.
Jim Caddigan, 69, the first president of the homeowners association, said his family lived in Lake Ridge from 1969 to 1974. The Caddigans were the ninth family in the development, which had just 200 families when they left in 1974. Although the group came up with a maintenance plan for the one pool that existed, "our vision was shortsighted," he said. "I don't think any of us envisioned Lake Ridge to be as big as it is."
The problem is maintaining Lake Ridge, McCabe said. "We're 33, 34 years old now. During that time, plans were neglected. Now, we're, like, 'Wait a minute, we've got to catch up,' " she said.
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Wheeling and Dealing
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Next week's premiere of "Cars," the latest release from Disney/Pixar studios, is expected to draw a record 30,000 people to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., where they'll take their seats in the Turn 2 grandstands and watch on four custom-built outdoor movie screens, each six stories high and 10 stories wide. And NASCAR executives are doing celebratory burnouts in advance, confident that a surge of young stock-car racing fans will follow in the wake of the June 9 release.
NASCAR may be America's fastest growing sport, claiming a fan base of 75 million and a TV audience second only to the National Football League's, but NASCAR executives are aiming far higher. In 2000 they became the first major sport to open a Los Angeles corporate office, charged with becoming the most aggressive athletic player in cultivating the entertainment industry.
Six years later, that initiative has spawned a lucrative, if unlikely, partnership between Tinseltown and stock-car racing: Hollywood is tapping NASCAR to sell its latest movies, TV projects and music; NASCAR, meantime, is hitching onto Hollywood vehicles to extend the boundaries of its impassioned fan base, known as "NASCAR Nation."
With Hollywood's help, NASCAR officials are integrating NASCAR drivers and story lines into every form of entertainment imaginable: From cartoons for the pre-kindergarten set to soap operas; from reality TV to made-for-TV dramas; from MTV videos to live race-day concerts; and now, major studio releases.
"Cars," the story of a brash stock-car racer named Lightning McQueen who learns that life is about more than trophies, could be the highest-grossing Pixar movie yet, Hollywood insiders predict, topping "The Incredibles," "Finding Nemo" and "Toy Story."
NASCAR expects another big splash with the Aug. 4 release of "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," a farce featuring Will Ferrell as a top NASCAR driver. Female audiences are in the sport's marketing crosshairs, too, targeted by a series of NASCAR-branded Harlequin Romances that debuted in February.
As NASCAR seeks to extend its brand, no demographic is being overlooked. "From Main Street to Wall Street!" says Dick Glover, NASCAR's vice president of broadcasting and new media.
From Hollywood's perspective, the alliance is a no-brainer, says Howard Burns, editorial director of the Hollywood Reporter. "If you're tying in with NASCAR, you're tying in with a hard-core, dedicated audience," Burns said. "If you're looking to get the word out and market your movie, it's all there. For Hollywood to get involved makes perfect sense."
For TV viewers who don't care about cars going around in circles, it used to be easy to tune out NASCAR. Just change the channel.
But NASCAR personalities have been popping up across the dial lately. Driver Carl Edwards had a bit part as a Homeland Security officer on a recent episode of the Fox hit, "24." Rookie David Stremme turned up in the audience of "American Idol" in April. And Jamie McMurray had a cameo on "The West Wing," playing a NASCAR driver who riled the president's wife by kissing her in Victory Lane. All of this was orchestrated by NASCAR's Los Angeles-based Entertainment Group.
"We've always thought we could do a lot better than we've done [in media penetration] by tapping into the Hollywood entertainment machine, if you will," said NASCAR Chairman Brian France. "But we had to have people that were on the ground and very skilled at that."
France started by hiring Glover, a former ESPN and Disney executive. He then met with the head of every major studio to introduce stock-car racing to the uninitiated and dispel stereotypes that it was a strictly down-scale, red-state phenomenon. France's pitch was direct: NASCAR had 75 million brand-loyal fans who were three times as likely to buy products associated with NASCAR than rival brands. He also stressed NASCAR's openness to corporate tie-ins -- whether splashing ads for movies on its cars' hoods; inviting movie stars to wave the green flag at its races; or getting involved with movie production by providing NASCAR footage, racetracks or consultants for racing sequences.
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With Hollywood's help, NASCAR officials are integrating NASCAR drivers and story lines into every form of entertainment imaginable.
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Congress Agrees to Raise Broadcast-Indecency Fines
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More than two years after proclaiming outrage over Janet Jackson's briefly exposed breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, both houses of Congress have passed legislation that would significantly increase indecency fines for television and radio broadcasters.
On Thursday night, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that would increase from $32,500 to $325,000 the maximum fine that the Federal Communications Commission could impose for violating its standards for decency. The House previously passed a version that would raise the maximum fine to $500,000.
"When families are watching a Sunday night football game, they shouldn't have to brace themselves for a televised strip tease," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said in a floor statement yesterday, referring to the 2004 Super Bowl. Frist championed the new bill.
The unified congressional push comes as major networks are suing to overturn the government's authority to police the airwaves. The bills will proceed to conference to reconcile the fine amount and then to President Bush, who has said he will sign such legislation.
The FCC does not allow broadcast of "patently offensive" material of a sexual or excretory nature on over-the-air radio and television, such as ABC and Fox television and AM and FM radio stations, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., when children are most likely to be in the audience.
The agency does not police cable and satellite radio and television programming, such as shows on XM Satellite Radio, MTV, ESPN and HBO. Those would continue to be off-limits under the new legislation. Lobbying by the cable and satellite industries appears to have paid off, as have their education campaigns designed to instruct parents in how to use technology to block offensive channels.
The passage of the Senate bill is a "major victory for families," said L. Brent Bozell III, founder of the Parents Television Council, which has criticized the FCC for being soft on indecency.
Michael K. Powell , when he was FCC chairman, asked Congress for higher fines, saying that current amounts do little to discourage multibillion-dollar broadcast giants from crossing the line.
The exposing of Jackson's breast culminated a contentious year for the agency and Congress, as the two bodies tussled over several incidents of tasteless radio and television broadcasts, including the on-air utterance of the "F-word" by U2 frontman Bono that the agency originally ruled was not indecent, spurring widespread ridicule and criticism.
After the 2004 Super Bowl, the FCC moved swiftly to fine 20 CBS stations the then-maximum fine of $27,500, for a total of $550,000. The Senate and House each passed legislation that would have raised the fines substantially, but both bills stalled.
Last year, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) led a revival of the House version, fixing the maximum fine at $500,000. The Senate version stalled until Frist picked it up this year and pushed it through.
ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and more than 800 affiliated television stations sued in federal court last month to overturn several FCC indecency rulings proposed in March.
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More than two years after proclaiming outrage over Janet Jackson's briefly exposed breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, both houses of Congress have passed legislation that would significantly increase indecency fines for television and radio broadcasters.
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Enron Trial Update
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Washington Post staff writer Carrie Johnson was online from Houston to answer your questions about the case against former Enron executives Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling , which is now before a jury.
Coverage on Enron's collapse and the legal proceedings against its former executives, including regular audio reports from Carrie, is available in a special report online here .
Carrie Johnson: Hello from Houston, where battalions of lawyers on both sides of the Enron trial are taking their first long weekend in more than four months. But there's little rest for former chairman Ken Lay, whose separate bank fraud trial resumes Monday even as the jury in the broader case deliberates behind closed doors. Let's go!
Rochester, NY: If Lay and Skilling are convicted on any of the counts, will they go directly to prison, or will be stay out on appeal????
If Lay and Skilling are convicted, they will most certainly seek to remain free until they have exhausted their appeals.
Under those circumstances, a judge must weigh a few important factors, including the likelihood they will flee the area and the likelihood they will succeed on at least one appellate issue.
In the case of WorldCom founder Bernie Ebbers, a judge in New York allowed him to stay out of prison while his appeal of a 25 year prison sentence works its way through the courts. We're all eagerly awaiting a ruling from a federal appeals court in New York based on oral arguments in January 2005.
Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas, who is elderly and sick, also is free pending an appeal. But judges sometimes make the opposite decision, as Judge Sim Lake (the jurist overseeing the Enron case) did in the case of former Dynegy executive Jamie Olis, convicted of taking part in a fraud at the energy company.
Houston, TX: Carrie - If convicted, where is it likely for Skilling and Lay to serve their sentences - at a Texas state prison or a Federal prison?
Carrie Johnson: If Skilling and Lay are convicted of federal crimes, they will serve time in a federal prison, not a state facility. The Bureau of Prisons would determine where they are sent, based on their criminal history and the amount of time they must serve, among other factors.
There is a niche industry of consultants who help defendants convicted of crimes try to handicap the best prison facility for them and convince judges/prison officials to send them there.
This is in contrast, by the way, to the case of former Tyco officials L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, who were convicted by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. They are serving time in New York state prison in Fishkill--a very unpleasant place--while they appeal their sentences.
New York City: In his closing summation, Ken Lay's lawyer Mike Ramsey stated that any moment of hesitation in the jury's deliberations should be interpreted as reasonable doubt.
Would it have been appropriate for the prosecution (or Judge Sim Lake) to object? After all, it is the judge's responsibility to charge the jury and explain what reasonable doubt is.
If the standard for reasonable doubt is "any moment of hesitation," there would rarely be a conviction of any kind in any criminal proceeding!
Carrie Johnson: This is an excellent question. The government did not object to Ramsey's 12-minute emotional oratory.
But in his powerful, two-hour-long rebuttal, prosecutor Sean M. Berkowitz responded directly to Ramsey's assertion.
Berkowitz, the director of the government task force, told the jury that there was no "mythical standard" for this case, but rather the legal standard was the same for any criminal matter in any court around the country. He said jurors should think long and hard about the case--but Berkowitz asserted that it was not like brain surgery for one's child (a comparison Ramsey advanced a day earlier).
Berkowitz added that Ramsey wasn't wearing a robe, but the judge was.
Worth noting that the jurors each got copies of the judge's jury instructions to carry with them as they deliberate.
Everett, Washington: I wonder why Lay didn't ask for a continuance when his lead lawyer got sick. Seems like he could have used that to separate himself from Skilling, and likely would have had better courtroom rapport than he did with Secrest.
Carrie Johnson: Not sure about this, but from the day defense lawyer Mike Ramsey left the trial because of illness, Lay and his lawyers denied they would ask for a delay in the trial. It might have been an easier decision had Lay faced trial by himself, rather than alongside his protege Jeff Skilling.
While it's unclear that Judge Sim Lake would have granted such a request for a delay, the request at least would have preserved the issue for Lay on appeal.
That said, Lay has a battery of lawyers at his disposal and all of them are experts in their field. Lay was angry at his treatment by the government and that anger may have only been magnified if Ramsey (who uses anger to great effect in the courtroom) were questioning him.
By the way, attorney Mac Secrest, who did the questioning of Lay in Ramsey's absence, has a terrific reputation in town and was the Texas Criminal Lawyer of the year in 1998.
Stockholm, Sweden: Your estimation reg. when the jury will be back with a verdict?
Carrie Johnson: If I knew that, I would have my bags packed.
We have not heard or seen members of the jury since they began deliberations Wednesday, so it is difficult to predict what they are doing and how long they may take to reach a decision.
Herndon, VA: Hi Carrie -
We can all understand why a low-level employee would not be expected to notice large-scale fraud, but did the prosecution try to make the point that CEO's with large compensation packages (including base salary, stock, insurance, etc.) implicitly carried the responsibility to understand accounting errors and fraud on the scale of billions of dollars? Did anyone ask Skilling and Lay exactly how they earned that income, and whether they considered supervising the books and using their business experience to keep the company comfortably from scandal being part of their job? I would think such an argument might resonate with a jury, particularly when combined with the judge's instruction that intentionally ignorance is not an excuse.
This is a good point and it was not raised quite as cleanly at trial as you phrase it in your question.
That said, both Skilling and Lay faced a number of questions on cross examination about the scope of their responsibilities at Enron, where they earned a combined $370 million in the three years before the company fell apart.
For Skilling, it mostly took the form of whether he read and understood the code of conduct, and questions about why he did not sign documents approving deals Enron did with partnerships run by then CFO Andy Fastow. Prosecutor Sean Berkowitz ridiculed Skilling for what he said was "running away from" the documents and other knowledge about the parnterships, known as LJM. At one point, Skilling testified that during an important board meeting, he was helping find a new hotel after the lights went out. In his rebuttal argument this week, Berkowitz asked jurors whether it was plausible that the #2 executive at a company would really be involved in making hotel reservations.
As for Lay, this issue was a sub theme of prosecutor John Hueston's cross examination. Lay said he did not use email, his staffers testified that they intercepted messages that raised alarms, and yesterday one of his secretaries said she never saw him open his mail in 22 years. He also attacked Lay for being the company's chief compliance officer but for apparently not following the code of ethics in his own personal investments.
Madison, Wisconsin: Can you give us any insights about the apparent mood of the jury when they went into deliberations? From reading the accounts of the closing arguments, it appears that the defense was pretty defensive. Despite his denials, Lay's attorney seemed to be urging a hung jury. Did people have the sense that the jury was favoring the prosecution?
The jury, composed of eight women and four men, has been publicly silent over about nine hours of deliberation. They seemed to be taking notes during the government rebuttal, enjoyed the show put on by some of Lay's defense lawyers the day before, and smiled at Skilling's lead lawyer Dan Petrocelli. They did not take many notes during the defense presentation, for what it's worth.
I was particularly interested in the multi-level defense arguments on Tuesday. As in, they made two intellectual arguments: 1-there was no fraud at Enron. 2-don't believe government cooperating witnesses.
Those were followed by far more emotional, last-ditch pleas that seemed to be directed to one or more possible holdout jurors. 3-not guilty is not innocent! 4-they'll pay in a civil setting so don't punish them now and finally 5-don't lock my client in a cage for the rest of his life. This, I believe, is what you mean by defensive.
Atlanta, GA: I am a very visual person. Did the prosecution use a lot of visual aids in their case? I'm thinking detailed timelines and sequencing of events aligned with witness testimony would be very damning.
Both the government and the defense hired graphics people and projection specialists to create and display timelines, photos, and other documents. This was really important in a circumstantial case with millions of paper documents. Particularly notable was the defense display team, led by a woman named Pam Radford who was absolutely stellar in every regard.
I don't know the names of the government's specialists off the top of my head (I recall prosecutors addressing a "Mr. Sasso" but there was another fellow sitting beside him.) The government had a nice "black and white" posterboard for the rebuttal argument, as well as funny little photos of their cooperators smiling in better times.
Judge Lake praised both sides this week after the jury left the room for their skill in displaying graphics and emails, among other papers. In a case that may depend on whether the government can prove what the defendants knew and when they knew it (such as before selling stock or making optimistic statements) the importance of these timelines really is critical.
Bethesda, MD: How come none of the Post's coverage ever mentions the close ties George W. Bush has to these figures on trial?
Carrie Johnson: Um, have you been reading? Go back and take a look at our special report online, which frequently mentions Lay's relationship with political power brokers, including members of the Bush administration.
washingtonpost.com: An archive of The Washington Post's Enron trial coverage is online here .
Van Alstyne, Texas: If theses two knuckleheads are convicted of one or more of the crimes they are charged with, when can the public expect to see them enter prison? As we look back on the Worldcom debacle and the subsuquent conviction of Bernie Ebbers, He is STILL not behind bars. Can these guys still buy their freedom even after conviction?
Carrie Johnson: No--the law has a long arm, and if these defendants are convicted, and those convictions are upheld on appeal, they will serve time.
Why do you think rich people so prone to crime, corruption, and ethical lapses?
There are so many these days.
Carrie Johnson: Crime, corruption and ethical lapses are not a province of the wealthy, as you can see from reading the police blotter of any town, small or large.
New York, NY: Was any mention made of Enron's participation in the rolling black-outs in California? That part the documentary, "The Smartest Guys in the Room," was absolutely chilling to listen to, the complete coldness of those speaking. These people should be on trial. Does the government know who they are?
Carrie Johnson: Three Enron traders have pleaded guilty in federal court to taking part in energy market manipulations, including schemes with such names as Death Star, Get Shorty, and Ricochet. One of the traders, a brilliant analyst named Tim Belden, testified in this trial. But, because of successful defense motions before the trial began, most of the California evidence has been excluded from this case.
Crofton, MD: In your opinion, what are the chances for an acquittal on all charges? Frankly, I found Skilling and Lay unbelievably obtuse and blind to wrongdoing
Carrie Johnson: Conventional wisdom among lawyers following the trial is that an across-the-board acquittal is unlikely. That may be why defense lawyers used their closing arguments to argue for invididual jurors to hold firm in the case of pressure to convict. Lay and Skilling both had a rocky time on the stand, Lay far more so than the mercurial and sometimes winning Skilling.
Virginia Beach, VA: In addition to alledgedly violating SEC, banking and accounting related laws, are any of the charges derived solely from the damage done to pension holders within and without the company? Seems that the jurors might find that easier to understand.
Carrie Johnson: Government lawyers reminded the jury again and again this week of the employees who testified that they had lost money amid Enron's collapse, including a fellow named John Sides, a plain spoken pipeline worker named Johnnie Nelson who testified that Ken Lay had violated his trust, and a sharp, sweet utility worker from the Pacific Northwest named Patti Klein, a friend to pack-rats everywhere who laughingly testified that she kept in piles at her home Enron documents, presentations, and annual reports on which she relied to make investment decisions.
Silver Spring, MD: I have to admit, I haven't followed the entire thing ALL that closely. But, I've read the occasional article, and I have to wonder... In your opinion how much of what they are being convicted of is ACTUALLY illegal, and how much is terrible, despicable, inhuman, and unethical things that we really just WISH was illegal? Because honestly, if we could convict every CEO that mistreated their employees, and got compensated with outrageous salaries and benefits as a result of "improving the bottom line" there wouldn't be ANY CEOs left (and don't get me wrong, I for one, think that's a GREAT idea). But, in your personal opinion, are we trying American laws here? Or are we trying American ethics? (Last I checked, we're only actually supposed to do the former)
Carrie Johnson: One of the reasons why the prosecution case took so long to build, and was so vexing to corporate governance experts, is that Enron deftly assessed the boundaries and the grey areas, pushing rules to the limit.
That said, the government case revolves around lies that Skilling and Lay allegedly told, rather than such things as accounting treatment for byzantine partnerships.
Prosecutors accuse both Lay and Skilling of lying about certain things they had no duty to disclose in the first place--but once they opened their mouth to the public, those statements became fair game.
Defense lawyers Bruce Collins and Dan Petrocelli argued throughout the trial that the government was making criminal normal business practices that had been vetted by accountants, lawyers and subordinates. Business failure is not a crime, they thundered in closing arguments this week.
Now it's up for the jury to decide.
Do you have any sense of how long the jury may be out in their deliberations?
Any facial or body language clues as to how they received the closing arguments?
Thanks much for your answers.
No sense of how long the jury will take. Some reporters (perhaps overly optimistically) believe the jurors may issue a verdict before the long Memorial Day weekend.
But it is a huge case (16 weeks, more than 50 witnesses) and these jurors were scrupulous in their duty, never once showing up late in four months. So they may decide to take their time in a case with such historic implications for Houston and for American business.
What will you miss about Houston when you leave? Any impressions of the city turn out to be false/true?
Carrie Johnson: I like lots of things about Houston (including the amazing people in the press corps here, my wonderful friend Mary Ann, the fine museums, the stories people tell, the baseball park, and the pecan pie at Goode Co. BBQ) but the weather is a killer.
Los Angeles: While the issue of deregulation and overall lack of transparency due to relaxation of regulatory oversight was rarely brought up at the trial, there are continued efforts to further deregulate markets and cut back on oversight. Given that the Enron case demonstrates that Lay and Skilling had at least tacit approval from accountants and attorneys to conduct business as they did, do you believe that the whole process of deregulation -- including that of derivative transactions and hedge funds -- will, or should be revisited?
Carrie Johnson: I think we are still in the process of evaluating the first wave of post-Enron/WorldCom reforms, as business groups challenge aspects of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act in courts and at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Very much is up for grabs, seems to me.
The hedge fund registration issue, not directly related to Enron, is still a live issue, as is the mandate that mutual fund boards of directors have independent chairmen.
Boulder, CO: I think you were unfair to Bethesda in your response to the question re: the Bush Administration and the Press. While it's true that there's been considerable mention of relations between Lay and the Bush power players, it's not true that this relationship has been clearly assessed. What I mean by this is that the deregulation that was part and parcel of Enron's ascent is also part and parcel of the Bush Administration's platform; and whether there were direct flesh-and-blood ties or meetings between the two parties, it seems to me that that there's an important story under the sheets here about deregulation, government intervention, and the kind of wrongdoing that it empowers. Far from being an "opinion" or an "editorial" story, as many journalists are quick to label such assessments, there are legitimate conceptual ties that warrant journalistic investigation.
Carrie Johnson: Ok...this is a fair point.
Atlanta GA: Were there any questions during testimony directed at Lay or Skilling around the following: "You claim you didn't know what Fastow was up to, yet his partnerships were helping deliver significant profits at quarter end. Thus, did you ever go to Andy and ask him...where are these profits coming from?" You can't have it both ways...not "knowing" what he did, yet getting the profits each quarter. ANY CEO or chairman would want to know EXACTLY where those profits were coming from, since they were so vital to their earnings reports. Correct?
Carrie Johnson: Both Skilling and Lay got several questions along these lines, and prosecutors used their action, or lack thereof, to argue successfully for a jury instruction on the issue of "deliberate indifference" or willful blindness. That provision would allow the jury to convict if they find either or both men buried their heads in the sand to avoid knowing facts about Fastow's partnerships and other troubling issues to preserve plausible deniability later.
Pittsburgh, PA: If you were on the jury, Carrie, how would you vote?
Carrie Johnson: I would, in the words of the charming government witness and risk analyst Vince Kaminski, vote myself off the island.
New York, NY: Thank you for doing this. While I haven't read everything, I find myself obsessed with these two (in my opinion, despicable) human beings. I've been wondering about Skilling's wives. Did the dumped wife seem like she'd like to see some of her ex's blood, or did she seem supportive? Any impressions about either of them?
Carrie Johnson: Not enough time to do justice to this question, but for one provocative view, read my colleague Frank Ahrens's blog post on the testimony of Sue Lowe (formerly Skilling) who told the jury on behalf of her ex-husband that he had never suggested she sell Enron stock to get a big payday in advance of storms hitting the company. I can tell you she is unfailingly polite in the hallways.
washingtonpost.com: In the Pipeline: The Apparition of the First Wife
Carrie Johnson: Sorry I couldn't get to all of your good questions today. I'll look forward to this again next week, when we may or may not have a verdict to obsess over. At the very least I'm hoping for some jury notes we can read like tea leaves. Have a great weekend!
Carrie Johnson: Oops, made a typo. The appeal for WorldCom's Bernard Ebbers was argued in January of this year, not last. Sorry for the error. See ya next week.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post staff writer Carrie Johnson was online from Houston, where jurors are considering the case against former Enron executives Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling.
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Potential Advance in Body Armor Fails Tests
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The Army's struggle to find a new, more flexible body armor was dealt a setback yesterday when a California company's high-tech Dragon Skin vests failed to pass military testing, a senior Defense Department official said.
After three days of testing this week, the Army determined that the body armor does not meet military specifications, said the official, who declined to specify which tests the armor failed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the results have not been released.
The Army paid about $170,000 to buy 30 sets of the armor for the testing.
Generally, during testing, various types of ammunition are fired at the vests, and the armor may also be subjected to extreme temperatures or environmental conditions. The tests were done by H.P. White, an independent ballistic testing lab in Street, Md.
The Army has expressed great interest in getting more flexible body armor. One of the key complaints about the armor used by troops on the battlefield is that it is too heavy and inflexible and may lessen a soldier's speed and agility. The current armor includes heavy ceramic plates in the front, in back and on the sides.
The Dragon Skin testing was initially delayed because of a dispute over testing conditions between the Army and Pinnacle Armor of Fresno, Calif., which makes the product.
Earlier this week, the Army announced it would conduct three days of testing, signaling the dispute's resolution.
A request for comment from Murray Neal, Pinnacle Armor's chief executive, was not immediately returned.
Neal, however, has previously contended that his armor is of high quality and its "capabilities have been proven to be significant improvements over the current Army issue."
He said he has nine years of ballistic data, both classified and unclassified, that show the armor taking over 40 rounds of ammunition from an AK-47, then another 150 rounds from a submachine gun, all at close range without any failure.
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New Orleans Race For Mayor Is Tight
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NEW ORLEANS, May 19 -- Mayor C. Ray Nagin made a final flurry of appearances in his campaign for reelection here Friday, jumping into traffic to lobby commuters, visiting senior centers and walking the aisles of a gourmet grocery, moving within a halo of news photographers.
"How you doing, baby?" he cooed to shoppers at the Whole Foods Market in Uptown. "I'm doing good, doing good."
Behind in fundraising and behind in major endorsements, and with his campaign undermined by some of his controversial remarks, Nagin is nonetheless running well enough that, to the surprise of many here, the race against Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu is considered too close to call.
The outcome will decide who will lead New Orleans at a critical time of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, helping determine whether the city can regain its place in the nation's cultural history.
The winner will also be the face of the city to the rest of the country and will have to make the case for federal assistance to rebuild the city, which is largely below sea level.
"It's the wildest ride I've ever been on," Nagin said outside the grocery. "This is the biggest reality television show ever, and I'm right in the middle of it."
The two candidates running for mayor here often hold identical positions on the major issues of rebuilding. But when it comes to style and temperament, they stand in stark contrast to one another, as the final full day of campaigning showed.
While Nagin made a number of appearances, Landrieu gathered supporters together at his campaign headquarters, where a tuba, a trombone and a banjo played "You Are My Sunshine." Once an aspiring actor, his remarks inclined to oratory.
"How can all of us come together?" he asked the group. "This great city has one chance. . . . Tomorrow is the day we will begin again."
Despite the rhetoric, however, Landrieu confessed afterward that while he was certain before the primary that he would make it to the runoff, he carried no such assumptions of success into Saturday's vote.
"I have no confidence about tomorrow -- I don't know how it's going to turn out," he said. "I said after the primary this was going to be a 50-50 race, and that's what I think it's going to be. And I don't know how it's going to fall."
Nagin won the primary with 38 percent of the vote; Landrieu finished second with 29 percent.
Nagin his touted his margin of victory. But Landrieu has proven much better at fundraising.
Moreover, because Nagin did so poorly among white voters in the primary -- drawing only 6 percent of their votes, many here had assumed he would fare poorly in tomorrow's election because he needs to win a larger portion of the white vote.
But Nagin, who won broad support from white voters in his first mayoral run, this time around won the endorsement of Rob Couhig, a white Republican who finished fourth in the primary. Nagin has played up Couhig's endorsement in ads, as well as his administration's efforts to root out chronic city corruption.
"Ray is an affable, honest guy, and we haven't had too many honest politicians in this city," Couhig said when asked to explain Nagin's appeal.
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Complete Coverage on Hurricane Katrina and Rita including video, photos and blogs. Get up-to-date news on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, news from New Orleans and more.
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Democrats to Focus on Fuel
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Seeking to gain advantage on a potent election-year issue, Democrats are promoting ambitious ideas to lower gasoline prices, targeting key voting blocs such as farmers and autoworkers.
Party leaders are requesting that all House and Senate Democrats stage events back home over the Memorial Day recess to signal the start of the summer driving season. The lawmakers will pitch new Democratic proposals to reduce foreign oil imports and expand domestic alternative-energy supplies.
Their marching orders even include instructions for how to select locations, recruit participants and set up camera shots.
The kickoff event will take place today in Ohio, when Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) appears with Rep. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Senate candidate, in front of a giant wind turbine outside a Cleveland science center.
"Wherever you live, your gas prices are out of control, and you want to hold someone accountable for it," Reid said.
Brown is making an issue of the $330,000 in donations that Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) has received from oil and gas companies over the course of his career. Democratic Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., running for Senate in Tennessee, attacked oil companies in TV and radio spots this month.
Democrats hope energy will help in Senate races in the biofuel-producing states of Missouri and Montana, as well as in House races across the agricultural Midwest and in commuter districts on both coasts.
For a special election on June 6 in San Diego, to fill the House seat vacated by Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R), House Democrats are sponsoring local radio traffic reports, using the spots to highlight Republican candidate Brian P. Bilbray's energy record from when he served previously in the House.
The rush of activity comes as the average national price for gasoline hovers around $3 per gallon. It also follows a spike in natural gas prices that caused heating bills to soar over the winter and drove the cost of nitrogen fertilizer to record highs, putting the squeeze on many farmers.
Polls show mounting voter concern about high energy costs and the dent they are making in family budgets. A Pew Research Center survey this month showed that respondents ranked high gasoline prices second only to the Iraq war as the most important issue facing the country.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week showed that 54 percent of respondents said they trusted Democrats to tackle gas prices, while 23 percent favored Republicans.
House and Senate Democrats are promoting separate energy packages. The differences reflect the challenge of reconciling the many regional interests and biases that influence energy debates in Congress.
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Full coverage of Congress, including the House of Represenatives and the U.S. Senate. The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com provide analysis of Capitol Hill.
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Religious Liberals Gain New Visibility
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The religious left is back.
Long overshadowed by the Christian right, religious liberals across a wide swath of denominations are engaged today in their most intensive bout of political organizing and alliance-building since the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s, according to scholars, politicians and clergy members.
In large part, the revival of the religious left is a reaction against conservatives' success in the 2004 elections in equating moral values with opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.
Religious liberals say their faith compels them to emphasize such issues as poverty, affordable health care and global warming. Disillusionment with the war in Iraq and opposition to Bush administration policies on secret prisons and torture have also fueled the movement.
"The wind is changing. Folks -- not just leaders -- are fed up with what is being portrayed as Christian values," said the Rev. Tim Ahrens, senior minister of First Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio, and a founder of We Believe Ohio, a statewide clergy group established to ensure that the religious right is "not the only one holding a megaphone" in the public square.
"As religious people we're offended by the idea that if you're not with the religious right, you're not moral, you're not religious," said Linda Gustitus, who attends Bethesda's River Road Unitarian Church and is a founder of the new Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture. "I mean there's a whole universe out there [with views] different from the religious right. . . . People closer to the middle of the political spectrum who are religious want their voices heard."
Recently, there has been an increase in books and Web sites by religious liberals, national and regional conferences, church-based discussion groups, and new faith-oriented political organizations. "Organizationally speaking, strategically speaking, the religious left is now in the strongest position it's been in since the Vietnam era," said Clemson University political scientist Laura R. Olson.
What is not clear, according to sociologists and pollsters, is whether the religious left is growing in size as well as activism. Its political impact, including its ability to influence voters and move a legislative agenda, has also yet to be determined.
"I do think the religious left has become more visible and assertive and is attempting to get more organized," said Allen D. Hertzke, a University of Oklahoma political science professor who follows religious movements. "But how big is it? The jury is still out on that."
"My gut tells me that all this foment [on the religious left] is bound to create more involvement in politics," he said. "I don't know whether there's going to be more of them numerically, but you don't need greater numbers to have a political impact; all you need is to be more active. You already see that in Ohio and some other states, where Christian conservatives no longer have a monopoly on faith in politics."
Conservative Christian activist Gary L. Bauer said the religious left "is getting more media attention" but "it's not clear" that it is getting more organized.
"My reaction is 'Come on in, the water's fine' . . . but I think that when you look at frequent church attenders in America, they tend to be pro-life and support marriage as one man and one woman, and so I think the religious left is going to have a hard time making any significant progress" with those voters, he said.
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Get Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia news. Includes news headlines from The Washington Post. Get info/values for Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia homes. Features schools, crime, government, traffic, lottery, religion, obituaries.
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Belgians Seek Roots of Racist Crimes
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ANTWERP, Belgium, May 19 -- When 18-year-old Hans Van Themsche was expelled from his boarding school dormitory for smoking, police officials here say, it pushed him over some existential edge. He shaved his head, bought a Winchester hunting rifle, put on a black leather trench coat and wrote a note saying he was going to kill foreigners. Then he went on a shooting rampage in the narrow cobblestone streets of this ancient port city.
First he shot and critically wounded a Turkish woman wearing a head scarf as she sat on a bench reading a book. Then he calmly walked down a street and turned his gun on a black, 24-year-old nanny from Mali and a 2-year-old white toddler in her care, killing them instantly.
Police say that a plainclothes officer caught up with Van Themsche a short time later. After the teenager ignored orders to drop his weapon, the officer shot him, wounding him in the stomach.
The May 11 rampage was the worst in a string of racially motivated crimes that have rocked Belgium in recent weeks. Mainstream politicians, religious leaders and human rights activists have warned about a dangerous rise of intolerance. Many of them blame that atmosphere on Vlaams Belang, or Flemish Interest, a xenophobic and hugely popular separatist party in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium. Members of Van Themsche's family hold prominent positions in the party.
"It was not only a racist murder but a political one, because the guy who did it was from the circles of an extreme right party and was influenced by their ideology," said Meryem Kanmaz, a political scientist at the University of Ghent's Center for Islam in Europe.
A swelling tide of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East is fueling frustration among the majority populations in countries across the continent. "Europe is not ready to accept that our societies are multicultural," Kanmaz said. "Today, the European identity is a European one and a Muslim one, too, and if they don't accept that, it leads to discrimination."
Vlaams Belang is the successor to Vlaams Blok, a Flemish party that was outlawed in Belgium two years ago on the grounds that it was a racist, criminal organization. Frank Vanhecke, the head of Vlaams Belang, condemned the May 11 killings and said opponents were trying to link them to his party to undermine its surging popularity before municipal elections in October.
"Nobody has the right to hold us morally responsible for these events," he told a party congress shortly after the shootings.
Some politicians and activists are using the murders to try to strip Vlaams Belang of the government funding received by every political party in Belgium. But analysts say that even as other parties express alarm at the group's growing appeal -- it received 24 percent of the vote in Flanders in 2004 elections -- they are moving closer to some of its xenophobic positions.
"Since 1994, other political parties, such as the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, have been saying the same sorts of things" against immigration, "so there is a validization of the racist way of seeing things," said Christian Desert, a spokesman for the Brussels-based Movement Against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia.
"There is a social crisis here, like in other European countries," Desert said, "and if the politicians can't find political solutions, some try to find the solution with foreigners by saying they're the problem."
Philippe Van Der Sande, a Vlaams Belang spokesman, pointed to foreigners as the problem but said that the party had never advocated violence against them.
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World news headlines from the Washington Post, including international news and opinion from Africa, North/South America, Asia, Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather, news in Spanish, interactive maps, daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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5 Professors Quit Religious School
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Nearly a third of the faculty members at Patrick Henry College in Loudoun County are leaving the school because of what they described as limitations on their academic freedom, causing unusual introspection at the politically connected Christian liberal arts college.
They claim that Patrick Henry College, established in 2000 to attract academically gifted home-schoolers with the hope of send them on to work on Capitol Hill or at the White House, does not value equally both parts of its mission: to offer students a strong biblical perspective while educating them according to a classical liberal arts curriculum. In one case, the professors said, faculty members were reprimanded for writing that the Bible "is not the only source of truth."
"I'm leaving the college because I want freedom," said David C. Noe, assistant professor of classics. He said he came to Patrick Henry in its first year expecting to find "a liberal arts college that will be the new Ivy League" -- as the school bills itself -- but instead found a place where classical works by non-Christian authors are sometimes considered suspect and where there is an increasingly narrow view of Christianity.
The departure of five of the school's 16 full-time professors follows the forced resignation last year of Jeremy Hunley, a library clerk who promoted the idea that baptism is essential for salvation, a violation of the 10-point statement of faith that all faculty members and students are required to sign when they come to Patrick Henry. According to the statement, and to many evangelical Christians, salvation is found only through faith in Jesus Christ.
The rebellion reflects the recurring tension at many Christian colleges between adherence to articles of faith and the free-ranging spirit of academic inquiry. Some departing faculty, alumni and students say it calls into question the future of a college that was established as an "evangelical Ivy League" that would prepare conservative Christian students for influential positions in government.
College President Michael P. Farris, a lawyer and home-schooling advocate who founded the Purcellville school, said Patrick Henry is a place that encourages "a free flow of ideas" beyond some core principles on which everyone must agree -- principles such as the existence of God and Satan and the infallibility of the Bible.
"The only problem I have when there are two schools of thought is that there are too few," he said.
But Noe and government instructor Erik S. Root, who is also leaving, said that they have encountered additional "arbitrary limitations" set by the president when they raised issues that do not contradict the belief statement.
Root said his contract was temporarily withdrawn this spring in part because of an article he wrote for a school publication about a Christian saint that prompted the president to question his loyalty to a biblical worldview. In a letter to Root, Farris questioned whether Root shared the views of a Darwinist he had quoted. Root called Farris's concerns "guilt by association."
Noe co-authored an article in March arguing that the Bible is not the only source of truth and that students can learn valuable lessons from non-Christian writings. The 900-word story led to a 2,600-word response by the chaplain -- endorsed by the administration -- detailing its "harmful implications" and saying it "diminished the importance of" Scripture.
Noe, who has been ordained by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, said that the article was not meant to challenge the Bible but to defend liberal arts.
The college has ambitions to place conservative Christian graduates in positions of influence, where they will help reshape American culture. Since the school opened six years ago, its student body has grown from 88 students to 300, and it has sent students to prized internships at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
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Nearly a third of the faculty members at Patrick Henry College in Loudoun County are leaving the school because of what they described as limitations on their academic freedom, causing unusual introspection at the politically connected Christian liberal arts college.
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Three-Ring Circus by The Sea
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It's the essential paradox of Ocean City that it is simultaneously PG- and R-rated: chock-full of classic kids' rides and mini-golf and wide, free public beaches (and good restroom facilities) and yet addicted to the crudest of T-shirts and baldest of double-entendres, the loudest of beach bars and most artery-clogging of junk foods. (Is there anything that soars more temptingly over salt air than the scents of caramel popcorn and barbecue?) High-rise hotels and boardwalk views. Carousels and spinning heads. Espresso bars and bloody mary bars. Not to mention all-you-can-eat, morning and night, vs. -- well, raw bars and smoothies.
It's the same with boardwalk bodies: bikini-worthies and wetsuit wonders vs. undershirt strainers and elastic waists. Teens in tiny shorts, teens in droopers. Hungover twenties and hearty morning-walk seniors. Goths getting pierced and soccer moms getting tattooed. Guys with golf tans and guys with fishing burns.
Frankly, Ocean City's a circus, and it's the one you might as well run away to. If you can't find somebody, or something, to love in Ocean City, you have neither romance nor remorse in your soul.
7:30 p.m. Head straight to Fager's Island (60th Street and the bay; 410-524-5500) for the ritual sunset playing of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," just as the cannon fire, and natural fireworks, subside. Grab a basket of free popcorn and a drink and a spot on one of the decks. Although someone stole Stumpy the deer off the gazebo roof a few years back, its angelic replacement does assume a somewhat more impressive presence when backlit by flame.
9 p.m. The newly expanded Liquid Assets (93rd Street and Coastal Highway; 410-524-7037), with its nonsmoking Tuscan-look dining room and more casual bar tables, lets you either pick from the wines-by-the-glass list or browse the shelves and choose your own bottle. Best bets: the day's artisan cheese choices, spicy calamari salad and scallops over risotto.
11 p.m. Cool off with a last round on the deck at Jive (82nd Street and the bay; 410-524-1111), the coolest retro-Rat Pack lounge south of Wildwood, N.J. Remember, olives are one of the primary food groups.
Midnight Head to the south end of the boardwalk and indulge in Ocean City's most unabashedly romantic ride, the giant Ferris wheel (410-289-3031). High above the glittering water on the pier, the nostalgic array of lights magically softens the crasser surfaces of the boardwalk and gives it a tinted-postcard aspect. (As it should; even though it's not the original pier building, the current structure is 80 years old.) Take a spin on Trimper's 1902 Herschell-Spillman carousel (South First Street) with its fine hand-carved menagerie of perches, and maybe even giggle through the old-fashioned haunted house. Finish the evening with a last-call soft ice cream at Dumser's original stand or Thrasher's fries with vinegar near the pier entrance.
8:30 a.m. Doughnuts are a beach staple, but skip the mass-market conveyor belts and head for the hometown heroes at the Fractured Prune (28th Street at Philadelphia Avenue; 410-289-1134, and Route 611/Stephen Decatur Highway and Sunset Avenue in West Ocean City; 410-213-9899). When you walk in, the staff drops fresh dough into the oil; you have a minute or so to decide on the glaze (16 choices, including peanut butter, banana, mixed berry and caramel), topping (eight choices, including Oreo cookies and butterscotch morsels) and sugars (powdered, granulated or cinnamon). The name is a tribute to Prunella Shriek, who once owned much of the land around 46th Street, where the first stand went up. A feisty septuagenarian athlete who continued to compete against younger rivals, mostly men, in such sports as tennis and ice skating -- she was the county ping-pong champ in 1895 -- she frequently had to resort to crutches or even wheelchairs at contest's end, and friends began to call her "Fractured Prunella."
9 a.m. Miniature golf is just as much a tradition as the doughnuts, and Old Pro has seven themed courses -- medieval, Lost World-ish, piratical, even underwater (and that's indoors) and more -- on the main drag between 23rd and 136th streets, with the largest one at 68th Street. Get a $12 pass, and you can play any of them for as long as you want between 9 and 5.
This might be the time to get into the bus-riding habit, which not only saves energy and parking annoyances but might come in handy later on, when no one wants to be the designated driver. The bus runs 24 hours, every five to 10 minutes (15 to 20 in the weeest hours), from the inlet to the state line at 146th Street. Each ride is $2, exact change required, or get a 10-ride coupon book from the driver for $15. (Seniors 60 and older can get half-price passes; call 410-723-1607.)
Noon One of the eternal burning questions of beach life is, surf or turf? The first name for one is Phillips, which has been serving crab cakes and fried shrimp for 50 years; and for the other it's the Bull on the Beach . The Phillips Crab House at 21st Street and Coastal Highway (410-289-9121) is the most fun -- it looks like a giant sand castle -- but there's a branch at 141st Street (410-250-1200) as well. The Bull on the Beach network is only half as old, but the bull market is still strong (Second Street and Boardwalk, 410-289-2855; 94th Street and Coastal Highway; 410-524-2455; and Route 50 in West Ocean City, 410-213-4744). The original mascot's "portrait" was painted by Randy Hofman, now best known as the sculptor who creates the biblical scenes every day in the sand near Second Street, but it was destroyed when the building was torn down.
1 p.m. Prime tanning time, and the smaller children have pooped out, so it's only you, the mad dogs and Englishmen on the beach. Grab a kite or Frisbee at the Kite Loft (Boardwalk at Fifth Street; 410-289-6852) and tack down the towels.
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If you can't find somebody, or something, to love in Ocean City, you have neither romance nor remorse in your soul.
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Post Politics Hour
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Don't want to miss out on the latest buzz in politics? Start each day at wonk central: The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post White House reporter Michael Fletcher was online Thursday, May 18, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
Political analysis from Post reporters and interviews with top newsmakers. Listen live on Washington Post Radio or subscribe to a podcast of the show.
Milwaukee, Wis.: I am still angry at Dana Milbank for his "not funny" comment about Stephen Colbert at the WH Correspondent's Dinner. However, I just watched his video of Tony Snow's "first day," and boy was I impressed. Previously, I have always been disappointed in those things. Milbank, however, is a prodigious talent, and he really pulled that one off. Another plus for Milbank in my book was his "catch" of Rove's "we're doing a heck of a job," to the AEI. Froomkin was the only other journalist, anywhere, where I saw it. Olbermann actually ran a clip from Rove's speech to the AEI, but he missed it to.
Michael Fletcher: Good morning, everyone. I thought I'd start on a light note today. All I can say, Milwaukee, is that Tom Edsall, another colleague here, also sees Dana Milbank as a prodigious talent.
Good morning. Were you present at the briefing when Tony Snow used the expression "don't want to hug the tar baby"? I ask because I was watching it live, and was physically jolted when I heard that sentence. In fact, I was stunned to have heard it. The reaction of the press seemed to be laughter. The coverage of his debut all but ignored it, save a few reports. Do you think this deserves some sort of coverage, or am we (people that I've discussed this with) just over-reacting?
Michael Fletcher: I wasn't there,but I heard about it. My view is that people who are upset should not be. I think the meaning of tar baby in that context is clear: something messy that would stick to him. I think there is no racist connotation there, at least in that construction.
Alexandria, Va.: Hi Michael - what is your guess: would a Rove indictment lower Bush's poll numbers further? If so, by how much?
Michael Fletcher: I think a Rove indictment would lower Bush's numbers, but it's hard to say by how much because he must be getting close to the bottom by now. Worse for him, I think an indictment would make any recovery in his public standing all the more difficult.
Richmond, Va.: Can you explain this: There seems to be a huge disconnect between most of the Senate's discussions and votes on illegal immigration and the rest of the country. Many Democrats feel the same way as many Republicans about this issue, and yet their collective their voices are not heard in this body. How come?
Michael Fletcher: I don't even hear Republicans speaking with one voice on this issue, and for good reason: the issue is politically fraught. On one hand both political parties are concerned about not alienating Hispanic voters, a growing bloc that has proven to be in play for both parties over the years (Hispanic voters also tend to be concentrated in hugely influential states, including California, Texas, New York, and Florida, adding to their clout). Also, immigration has always been difficult for Americans, yet it lies at the core of our national identity. Thirdly, many businesses, from large farms to construction firms to restaurants, depend heavily on immigrant labor. At the same time, however, the concerns of people worried about being overwhelmed by illegal immigration are real. There also is compelling evidence that immigrant labor depresses wages (even as it keeps prices for some services and products lower) and members of both parties are sensitive to those issues.
New Orleans, La.: With our mayoral election on Saturday, there is much talk concerning which candidate, Ray Nagin or Mitch Landrieu, would better be able to deal with the powers that be in Washington, particularly concerning the funding for rebuilding. Any thoughts?
Michael Fletcher: My only thought would be to be careful about putting much stock in that line of analysis, because it seems like it frequently tilts against the black candidate, often because of racist assumptions. Much has been made about how well Mississippi has done relative to Louisiana in reaping federal help but the unique clout and experience of their governor and US senators can't be overstated as a factor in this. New Orleans is another matter. In the end, I think the "powers that be" will deal with whoever the mayor is because New Orleans is too important--as a city and as a symbol, now--to ignore.
McLean, Va.: Is there any Republican presidential candidate who Bush and his allies see as his logical successor?
Michael Fletcher: Not from what I can tell, even though a lot of President Bush's former backers seem to be drawn to John McCain. Bush did raise a few eyebrows last week in Florida when he endorsed his brother, Jeb, for higher office, adding that he he would make a great president. But Jeb Bush has said he won't be running in 2008.
Tallahassee, Fla.: Any chance one of the Democratic candidates for President in 2006 will come out strong against illegal immigration and strong border security?
Michael Fletcher: I think that is a real possibility, but that message will likely be leavened by calls for more green cards and more legal routes, generally, for low skill workers to come into the U.S. As I said earlier, I think members of both parties recognize how difficult this issue is, if only because no matter which way they lean, they risk alienating significant numbers of voters.
Phoenix, Ariz.: What calculation are to making in support your bald assumption that Bush's poll ratings are close to bottoming? The public has heard this canard for the last 12 months, yet Bush's job approval rating has steadily declined about one point per month since January 2005 with no apparent end to his freefall in sight.
Michael Fletcher: I won't go so far as calling my method a calculation. It is just that I assume every president has a core of supporters who'll love them no matter what. Even at his low point Nixon had 24 percent support--at least that's what I hear from one GOP strategist.
Rockville, Md.: "overwhelmed by illegal immigration .."
China is growing now because it has enough workers. We have a population that is growing older and we need workers. If we were to have enough workers, we could be wealthy for the next two generations. How about overwhelmed with gratitude?
Michael Fletcher: I hear what you're saying. But there are many people, particularly in border states (but not just there), who look at crowded schools, hospitals, etc. and worry that they are being overwhelmed. That's a reality.
Washington, D.C.: I see Kurtz quoting Dick Morris and his analysis of whether Gore is running for president or not. Does anyone serious listen to Morris and why?
Michael Fletcher: I'm sure they do, if only because Morris has been there in the big leagues of political consulting no matter what's happened since. Remember, he helped guide President Clinton back from the depths.
New Bedford, Mass.: Good morning Mr. Fletcher. What did you think of the letter from the Iranian president to Mr. Bush? He seemed to have some valid points. How far would a more conciliatory approach go in reducing the threat of terrorism vs. a strategy of just trying to kill all the terrorists.
Michael Fletcher: Interesting question, New Bedford. I thought that letter was intriguing, if only because it reflects the point of view of many people in the world. If only for that reason, it probably should be engaged. To be clear, that doesn't mean it has to be agreed with. President Bush has made clear that there is no appeasing Islamic radicals, and he has a point there. But there is a difference between Iran and Osama. And as you suggest, you can't just kill all the terrorists.
St. Paul, Minn.: Thanks for taking my question. I know the Jeb is saying right now that he will not run in 2008. However, we all know that politicians say one thing and then change their mind. Given W's immense unpopularity right now, do you even think Jeb would have a good shot?
Michael Fletcher: In a word, no. But let me quickly add that polls by their nature change. Imagine if Osama is captured and peaceful democracy blooms in Iraq over the next two years, maybe then another Bush presidency would sound like a good idea to the American people.
Rockville, Md.: If there ever was a "black hole" in government it is a conference committee. How will the Immigration Bill fare behind closed doors?
Michael Fletcher: Talk about sausage making. I think the only kind of bill that could emerge from a conference committee will have both tough border security and some kind of guest worker program. Otherwise, I don't see how the conference report gets approved in both chambers.
California, Md.: Why is there nothing in the Post about the Government of Mexico suing the U.S. over the use of Troops on the Border?
Michael Fletcher: I'm surprised there wasn't a mention of that in the paper. But the point, anyway, is that the Bush administration has made clear that the 6,000 National Guardsmen headed to the border will be working in support roles. Building berms, operating radar, etc. They say Border Patrol agents will be doing the actual face-to-face law enforcement work.
Henly, Tex.: I have no investment in defending a right-wing ideologue like Tony Snow, but his reference to the story of the Tar Baby is totally without racial overtones, as anyone who knows the Tar Baby fable is well aware.
A few years ago a Washington D.C. official was roundly castigated and nearly chased from his position for referring to certain salaries as "niggardly". The word, of course, is totally unrelated to any racially demeaning slur, and certainly is an appropriate description of a stingy salary.
Those who strive as I do for social equity and universal human respect are constantly suffering setbacks due to the ignorance and intolerance of some people's pursuit of misguided "political correctness".
Michael Fletcher: I buy most of that, even though one is best advised to steer clear of certain inflammatory language. My Post colleague Courtland Milloy, in commenting on the "niggardly" controversy, noted that some say there are many words that have the potential to offend but get used all the time without an uproar. Milloy disagreed: "I say take a word like "fagot," which the dictionary says means a bundle of sticks, twigs or branches," Milloy wrote. "Spelled with one g, it has nothing to do with a slur against homosexuals. But if I wanted to start a fire, I'd never call for wood that way."
Columbia, Md.: I do not see even if Osama bin Laden is captured that it would help another Bush presidency. If we had peace in Iraq and do not attach Iran in the meantime then yes it could happen but does anyone really see that happening?
Michael Fletcher: That's why I asked you to imagine that scenario...
Lewiston, N.Y.: Saying that there must be a floor to a president's popularity - beyond which his numbers won't drop further - is a bald assumption for an objective reporter to be making, but it gets worse - you are now saying that not only is there a floor, but that we're getting close to it right about now. That's a double injection of opinion.
Michael Fletcher: Hopefully that won't stop me from fairly and accurately reporting whatever the poll numbers prove to be in the future.
Des Moines, Iowa: Since so many Republicans and Democrats are coming to my state to test the political waters for a run in 2008, do you see the Senators like Frist, McCain, or Clinton as the apprentices for higher office, or do you think Romney, Richardson or Huckabee have the best chance to win the nomination from their parties or do you think strong leaders like Rudy or Condi Rice have the "hands-on" experience necessary now for the 2008 race? Does any of these leaders have the foreign policy experience to build strong relationships with world leaders?
Finally, do you think that this 2008 talk now is harming President Bush or is it necessary to use this time now to raise a higher profile by coming to Iowa in order to be seen as a contender for the White House? Thank you for taking my question.
Michael Fletcher: I think you can argue for all three positions, and it's hard to know which will win out. It seems particularly perilous running for the presidency from the Senate because so many Senate votes can be misconstrued or used to make a candidate appear unprincipled or inconsistent, at best. Ask John Kerry about that. As far as foreign policy experience goes, I suspect many Americans don't consider that when voting. And to be successful in that arena, American presidents seem to be successful when they surround themselves with foreign policy experts and strike an image with the world as one who will listen and engage but stand on principle.
Michael Fletcher: Time's up. As always, thanks for the questions.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washington Post White House reporter Michael Fletcher discusses the latest buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
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Every week, the Washington Post Home staff talks about various ways to improve your home. Find out about new trends, upcoming antiques shows and a variety of how-to help.
Ask Post staff writers Annie Groer and Jura Koncius about all things home related.
You may also browse an archive of previous Home Front discussions.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Good morning all - Annie here at the keyboard, Jura on the phone, on her way out the door to Philly for her son's crew meet (Go Gonzaga!!)
I have all the "Not So Big" books, and what I've learned is that those books are mostly for upper-income people. They're for people who have $800,000 or more to spend on a house, and the message is to spend your $800,000 on architectural detail, not on square footage. Well, that's a nice message but it really doesn't help those of us who can't afford grand additions, and whose dinky houses have 7.5-foot ceilings. I think I've got to stop looking through all these shelter magazines and design books, because they just leave me depressed.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Virginia - You are not alone in you thought that this is a movement spawned by/for the affluent. But perhaps there will be a trickle-down effect in time. Think about organic produce, which in its early days, was available only in pricey versions. But grocery stores have wised up to what consumers want and are tyring to offer organics at more reasonable prices.
Developers and builders may respond in homebuilding if enough people make it clear they are interested in this trend. Let's hope so.
Color Confused?Hello Ladies, I love these chats. My house is brick exterior, which I will keep that color. However, I have awnings. What color will work well on these things? Or should I take them away; are they "out of style?" I've noticed some houses have them, others don't. Your help is appreciated!
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear DC - We're great fans of awnings for a number of reasons, including the not insignificant fact that keeping the blazing sun out of the house can lower your cooling bills.
You don't say if the awnings are canvas or aluminum. If the latter, you can paint them any color you'd like, from simple white to something dramatic like a deep blue or forest green. If they're canvas, you can do a solid but we've always loved the look of striped fabric -- with classics that inlcude yellow and white, green and white, or, in honor of Dorothy Draper (see Jura's terrific story today in the Home Section) black and white. Very crisp.
Please suggest a good gray/green paint color. You're the best.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear SS - One of our faves is Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware. Someone posted a message some weeks back saying this color had been discontinued (horrors!!) but a quick call to RH in Georgetown reassured us that the chain is not about to kill one of its best sellers.
The article on power washing has one glaring omission. If your home gets water from a well, not the city, your exterior, deck, etc. cannot be power-washed unless your well provides at least 5-6 gallons per minute. Our well gives only 3 gallons per minute, and trying to find a professional with a water truck was nearly impossible. When our house was repainted, the painter had to handscrub the exterior. Think of the expense of that!
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Yikes!! The things we don't think of until it's too late...
Thank you for sharing your tale of woe. The rest of you out there with well-water systems, take note.
Hi there - Looking to distress the kitchen cabinets in my newly purchased town home to go for a cottage feel, and my current method of sanding and hitting with a mallet seems to take FOREVER. Any other ideas/solutions for distressing cabinets? Thanks!
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Invite half a dozen friends over and give them all some sandpaper and pass the mallet.
I loved Jura's article this morning. I happened to read a quote this morning from Ms. Draper (in another newspaper's Home section) that I thought you two would enjoy:"American women are divided into two classes: the happily married and the decorators," Dorothy Draper, the decorator and advice columnist, once said.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: That's a very funny quote and it might have been true in Draper's heyday, but an increasing number of husbands are really into their interiors. Too bad Dorthy's Dr. Draper was not among them.
Meanwhile, Jura got a call early this morning from a retired Washington journalist who told her that Dorthy's son George, who worked briefly in he '50 for the Washington Post, lived in a Mom-decorated apartment at 2500 Wisconsin Ave., the Carillon House, where Jura, another distinguished ink-stained wretch, also resided.
Love your chat. I have an area rug on top of carpet and I can't get it to lie flat. I have a pad underneath the area rug that is supposed to do the trick but the rug still buckles. The pad is sticky and covers the whole area of the rug. Is there another product out there that works better until we can afford to put in hardwood and take out the carpet?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Vienna - Try removing the pad. There just may be too many surfaces at work here. Or buy some double sided tape for the edges of the area rug.
Hello! I'm planning to paint a wall in my home office with chalkboard paint and wondering whether normal chalkboard paint will make the wall magnetic, or should I layer magnetic paint underneath the chalkboard coat? Do they sell a "combo" version? Thanks!
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Ah, another Vienna questioner..We just talked to John, the manger of the downtown Monarch Paint Store, who reminds all of us that magnetic paint and chalkboard paint are two entirely different things. So, apply two coats of magnetic paint first, and since the chalkboard paint is equally dark, just add a top coat of that. Happy writing and magnetizing.
I just painted my kitchen orange for a little zip - Duron's stirring orange to be exact. Now, I'm looking to paint the adjoining room a warm beige/tan. It flows right from the kitchen and they share a reddish-brown wood floor. It's pretty light-limited, so I don't want anything too gray or too dark, but I want it to be a real color -- not just off-white. Any ideas? I love Duron, but BM is good, too.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear SS - Try Duron's Interactive Cream for that beige; but for some real zip, why not go for the next lighter orange color, Pizazz Peach, to compliment your Stirring Orange.
Hi -- hope you can help me. I have a new-ish house with no woodwork/casing around windows or around the openings between rooms (although there is standard molding around interior doors). There's an 8-foot opening (no doors) between the living room and dining room. Would it be weird to put nice white-painted wood casing around just that opening? The room does have crown molding, and I'm going for a traditional decorating style.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Sounds good to us...give the space a finished look.
I am preparing to paint a bedroom with a "Shore" blue paint from Restoration Hardware. I need to prime the walls to cover drywall repairs to nail holes, et cetera. In the past, when using Kilz primer or other stain-blocking primers, it is impossible to properly cover the primer coat with one or two finish coats (the underlying primer always makes the finish coat look too light). Normally, you can tint the primer, but if I already have the white primer and the "Shore" paint, can I just add some of the "Shore" color paint to the primer paint in lieu of other "tinting"? Thanks very much for your sage advice.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: DEar McLean - Glidden makes a gray primer for just this purpose...it covers up all the dings but then lets your dark top coat look really good.
Can you suggest a good gray for a kitchen and dining room?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear SS - Benjamin Moore's Mt. Rainier Gray would be terrific in both rooms, but if you want one of them slightly lighter, try Silver Cloud in one of the room.
Can you give advice on how to incorporate greater use of "green" architecture, design and energy into houses? I'm especially interested in making use of renewable energy.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Burke - Get yourselves directly to the National Building Museum, where, starting Saturday, there is a year-long terrific exhibit on green architecture. (The press releases are all on brown, recycled paper of course.)
401 F St. NW, free admission. call 202-272-2448 for hours and other info www.nbm.org
The "not so big" house books may be a blessing if they inspire a few of the affluent from ruining well-detailed old houses, and encourage the less affluent to invest in a few tasteful goodies, like quality light fixtures and a carefully-planned yard. Locally, we have a plague of pseudo-Mediterranean monster mansions, including one that's painted dump truck orange.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear VB - true...and yuck for the Tuscan behemoth.
What kind of pad is best for wool Tibetan carpets, laid on hardwood floor? Carpets do not have a stiff backing. And where do you get the pads? The last time we used carpet pads, they dissolved into dust, and stained the floor.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear DC - We reallly like the thick, felt-like pad sold at Greenfront in Sterling 703-406-0761 at 1304 A Severn Way, STerling.
I have a redwood stained cedar sided house, and would like advice as to what color I should paint my front door.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear BEthesda - In a total about face, Jura is pushing aqua --Behr's Windwood Spring -- and Annie is going traditional with a deep evergreen called Whispering Pine. Go figure.
Is there a difference between Turkish marble and all of the other ones out there?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Va - Probably it's from Turkey, as opposed to Italy, Greece or all the other geographic sources of this fab and versatile stone.
I enjoyed the article on today's Post on Dorothy Draper. Having stumbled across the exhibit on her work at the Museum of the City of New York over the weekend, I can highly recommend it to anyone who will be there.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear DC - Lucky you, and we're happy to hear a first-hand report. If there is anyone out there who has the good fortune to live or play in a Draper environment, speak up.
I need HELP. I have zero decorating sense. I am living in a 650 sq ft condo -- a long rectangle living room with passthrough to teeny kitchen. Tiny square bedroom. I actually love the place because of location, people, pets, etc. However, I have been here three years and my lack of decorating is getting to me. How do you make a long, sort of narrow rectanglular room with a passthrough on one end and a big window on the other NICE? To add insult to injury, it has, you heard it here, old FUSCHIA SHAG carpet. I don't have a lot to spend and have two cats so I don't want priceless fabrics. What can I do to make my little pink palace livable and in this century?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Since the room is small, get a couple of small scale comfy chairs for a conversation group rather than a couch. If pet hair isn't too great a problem, black would be great for those chairs. Then add a coffee table, a couple of throw pillows (think green, black, pink and white print or stripe) and some sheer curtains.
Get some lively art for the walls, a big mirror, lots of candles and go for it.
Like the person who wrote the first question, I'm also a big fan of the "Not So Big..." books, and relied on them a lot when planning our new beach house in Nags Head. If you know that area, you'll know that a lot of people are building 6-, 7-, 8-bedroom tasteless houses to squeeze in more people for the rental market. We went the other direction, built a four-bedroom house for ourselves, friends and family to enjoy, and worked with a builder who could customize the stock plan, add attractive tile work and finishes, etc. It cost us much less than the mini-hotel things, and we got a very livable, attractive house.The "Not so big..." movement really helped us to stay on budget and think about putting our money into long-term value; it was a successful strategy for us.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Two-Towns -- This is a perfect example of the trickle-down. A great idea is a great idea and can be translated without breaking the bank. Good for you for not becoming a Marriott.
This may have been answered in a prevous chat but what do you think about bamboo for the floor in a family room and kitchen. The rest of the house is hardwood.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Arlington - It's a green renwable product, but there is a risk that it will not lay absolutely perfectly flat because bamboo is a grass, not hardwood. So if you can stand a little imperfection, do it.
Hi Ladies-I am in the process of planning the nursery for my baby (don't know gender) due in August. I plan on painting the room BM riveria azul, and I would like to place several wonderful graffiti (referred by you in the Home section a few years ago) words as a border around the room. Here's my question: Where would you place the graffiti? Around the middle of the walls in lieu of a chair rail, or as a border below the ceiling?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Clarksburg -- Great idea. As for placement, that's your call. If you want Baby to become an early reader, do it at chair rail height (that was a joke.) Either place would look fine.
Hi Ladies,The carpet in my recreation/family room is showing its age (20-plus years), so I want to tear it up. However, I hate the ugly linoleum floor that's underneath, so will want to put something else down. The rest of the house (except kitchen and baths) is hardwood. It's a split level, so that floor is just the rec room and the laundry room. The room is the most "lived in" in the house. It takes some heavy use from the kids, the adults, and the pets (four dogs). What would you suggest for flooring in the room? If it matters, it has two east- facing windows (morning sun) and a sliding glass door that faces north. The walls are paneled in a medium oak and the furniture is mostly cream colored with throw pillows and such providing the color.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Bethesda -- You could invest in hardwood or go with wood laminate. Jura has a Pergo kitchen floor (talk about a high traffic room) and loves it.
Good morning, all! I getting my house ready for sale. All the common rooms need painting. I assume I stay away from "my" colors and go neutral on my plaster walls? But which ones? The house's NE/SW exposure requires warmth and light. And does this include the relatively newly painted bedrooms, too, which each have a different color. What a job!
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Arlington -- There are two schools of thought...One is to go neutral -- like Sherwin Williams' Lemon Drop, which is the palest of yellows. The other theory is to be yourself and paint what floats your boat. Annie sold a house three years ago in the super-Colonial land of Chevy Chase that had turqoise exterior trim, a turquoise bedroom and a deep aubergine dining room. The buyers, of course, repainted everything, but that is what buyers do. They saw past the color and understood the layout and bones of the 50s rambler.
What can I do with the space under my porch?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Alexandria - You don't say whether it's in the front or back, but the easiest way to spiff it up is to use large, latticework panels painted in a color that works with your exterior.
Hello Ladies,I want to bid on a new Pottery Barn duvet cover listed on eBay. It is in a black and cream toile. Question, is toile still fashionable? Thanks! Love this chat.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Bidder -- Toile will always be with us. Hope you get it.
Other than the Washington Design Center, where can I find European- style plumbing fixtures. The Europeans have such beautifully designed plumbing fixtures and I am search of a good quality shower pan not made of synthetic material. I like Ravak, Ideal Standard, Villeroy and Boch. Any ideas?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear DC - Try Cady's Alley. There are a number of European kitchen places in this Georgetown design mecca in the 3300 block of M Street NW, as well as Waterworks and Ann Sacks (which are both very expensive but well worth a look)
I agree with most of what Susanka says in the story about the importance of connecting garden and home, but I take issue with many of her statements, such as: "As a culture, we are waking up to the fact that quality matters." Or: "People are terrified of moving outside from their homes." What nonsense, not to mention arrogance! Most people I know are very devoted to their gardens and homes, but don't always have the means to do major design or landscaping to create the "quality" she seems to espouse.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Good thoughts all.
My husband and I are moving soon and I'm looking at this as a great opportunity to declutter. He is a pack-rat. Any advice on what I can do with the knick-knacks he only notices when I want to get rid of them?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Cluttered...How about packing them in a box that you forget to put it on the truck...Oops, that probably won't work.
Try having him look at everything he owns and tell him he can take just half. It may require putting it all on the front lawn or living room floor, but he'll have to choose.
And to be fair, so will you. Certainly there are things you can get rid of as well. If you both do it, he won't feel so picked on.
Hi - This is more of a general question than a specific color question, so I'm hoping you can help me. I'm moving to DC next month into a studio apartment. I have no idea how to decorate a room that is all at once a living room, bedroom and dining room. Luckily, the kitchen is separate. Where do I start? Do you have any tips or know of any books/magazines that are specifically for people who lived crammed into a very small space?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Almost-here...welcome to town. Annie recommends a new book called "Small Apartments" by Collins/Design, $19.95, which features apartments all over the world, some as small as 400 feet. There are some very clever solutions throughout the book that you can borrow or adapt.
As for a bed, Annie, too, now lives in an open space with a separate kitchen and just had a Murphy bed installed. It folds out of the wall for sleeping and folds right back up into cabinetry when not in use. It even comes with overhead reading lights and a slanted pillow rest for reading in bed.
As we suggested to the occupant of the small pink palace, find small scale furniture. A futon, as you know, doubles nicely as a couch.
I'm redoing two bathrooms soon in an older house. All the walls are blown plaster with texture. Once I tear down, I'm not sure what to do about the tile thats goes half way up the bathroom walls. I can re-tile or tear down all of the walls and drywall. Neither option sounds good, but I can't think of anything else. Does the tile on the walls make these tiny bathrooms even more cramped (and dated) or will the drywall in the bathroom look funky since the rest of the house has blown plaster?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Louisville - We love bathroom tile, and since you're in the process of updating, you can use large tiles, maybe four by six inches, or six by eight, laid horizontally. It's very bright, architectural and sleek looking.
Annie has now redone three bathrooms this way and they look great...white tiles, white wall paint, white fixtures, and a sheer white organza shower curtain with a plastic liner hung from as close to the ceiling as possible to give the room the illusion of height.
Mastercraft Furniture has gone belly-up. Who else sells Stickley/Penn. House in the area? When will the store liquidate?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Maryland, do not fret. Go to the www.stickley.com website and submit your info and the Stickley folks will send back the names and addresses of authorized local dealers. And when you get this info, send it along to us so we can tell everyone else about it.
We're panting our kitchen Palladian Blue. What colors would compliment it for our dining room? Also what's a good trim color for the blue?
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Kensington - How about Benjamin Moore's Covington Blue for the dining room. And white trim for both -- not ivory or with a hint of yellow but a good, clear white.
Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: To the person looking for an extra-wide shower curtain -- whose question mysteriously vanished from my screen, try www.signaturehardware.com.
And to all the rest of you, we're out of time. So catch us next Thursday, same time, same place.
And don't forget to tune into WTWP radio on Wednesday mornings when Annie and Jura yak it up about decorating, etiquette and most everything else home-related on "Hillary and Friends."
That's 1500 on your AM dial, and 107.7 on FM
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Post Home staff editors Annie Groer and Jura Koncius are here to answer your decorating-related questions.
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Books: 'American Gospel'
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Author Jon Meacham was online Thursday, May 18, at noon ET to field questions and comments about his book, "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation." Meacham is managing editor of Newsweek.
"American Gospel" examines more than 200 years of American history in its quest to prove that the idea of religious tolerance, along with the separation of church and state, is "perhaps the most brilliant American success." Meacham's principal focus is on the founding fathers, and his insights into the religious leanings of Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Co. present a new way of considering the government they created. So it is that the religious right's attempts to reshape the Constitution and Declaration of Independence into advocating a state religion of Christianity are at odds with the spirit of religious freedom ("Our minds and hearts, as Jefferson wrote, are free to believe everything or nothing at all-and it is our duty to protect and perpetuate this sacred culture of freedom"). -- Adapted from Publishers Weekly
The Prayer Breakfast Presidency (Post, April 16)
Jon Meacham: Hello, I'm Jon Meacham, and I'm looking forward to taking your questions.
Richmond, Va.: I really enjoy your work. Thank you.
I am a Protestant pastor. I find one aspect of a unique brand of Americanized Christianity is how many are hooked on "end times" ideology. Not just how it shapes an "odd" reading of Scripture, but how it even influences politics. Any comments?
Jon Meacham: Thanks for the kind words. I agree with you that many Americans seem particularly fascinated with the End Times. (Ronald Reagan was one.) Is the interest uniquely American? I don't think so, but that does not mean it is not an influential force in, as you say, politics. If one reads the Revelation of St. John the Divine literally---which one should not do, since the author himself says he wrote it "in the spirit on the Lord's day," signaling that it is a spiritual vision, not a historical one---then one sees why sweeping events in the Holy Land would stir up anxiety in some quarters. I think the best thing for us to do is to always remind people that the Book of Revelation is a theological document, not a predictive one.
Fairfield, Iowa: What prompted/inspired you to write American Gospel?
Jon Meacham: It was one day last August, when in a single edition of The New York Times a Nobel laureate in science was quoted on the front page saying one could not be a believer and be a scientist and, deeper in the paper, Pat Robertson was reported to have called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez---hardly the most Christian of utterances. My sense then, and it remains so now, is that most Americans are far more moderate than either of those two extremes, and that the great good news about the country (literally, the American Gospel) is that religion shapes the life of the nation without controlling it or strangling it.
Nashville, Tenn.: Mr. Meacham, I generally find you to be a thoughtful and insightful commentator and writer. However, on Meet the Press on Easter Sunday, you said that you did not see a reason that Christians in the U.S. feel abused. I doubt you have ever been more wrong. Here is a simple test you can take. Since the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, has there more negative things written and said in the main stream news media and in Newsweek about the Islamo-facists who have attacked us or about the Christian right, Christian conservatives, religious right, etc.? You see the point? When Pope Benedict was installed, Richard Cohen wrote a column about the Catholic Church's position of birth control affected everyone, Catholics and non-Catholics, because of AIDS. What Mr. Cohen failed to mention and what never gets mentioned is how much money and effort the Catholic Church spends to help the AIDS crisis - billions of dollars. No one in the main stream press ever bothers to report that. Do you think the press does a good job reporting on the good Christians do?
Jon Meacham: Thanks for the question, because I want to make my opinion (and it's just that, one man's opinion) about why many Christians in America feel under siege in a nation in which 80 percent of the population claims some affiliation with a Christian denomination, and your email goes right at the matter. (I do see a reason, in other words, for the feeling, but, as I hope I will make clear, I think the feeling of persecution or abuse is exaggerated.)
The reason, I think, is this: in the more than forty years since the school prayer decisions and in the thirty years since Roe v. Wade, evangelical Christians have mobilized and participated in politics in a very explicit, high-profile way. They have spent time and treasure, as is their constitutional right, electing Reagan and both George Bushes. And yet the two central, initial demands of the movement---amendments to the Constitution banning abortion and reinstating prayer in public schools---have not come to pass. And so the high level of frustration (a frustration evident from your own remarks) is understandable, given that many Christians feel they are losing a war for the culture of the country.
Here's what I was probably trying to say on Meet the Press, but may have mangled at the time: I believe Christians, of which I am one, should stop indulging in self-pity and simply keep fighting---with civility, with grace, and with charity in keeping with the gospel---for the things they believe in without becoming so angry that they begin to appear intolerant. I know this is almost certainly not what you want to hear, but it's my view. As for your "test," I think the press does just fine reporting on what we now call "faith-based" charities. Could we do more to report on good works and programs that make a difference, be they religious or secular? Of course, and we try to do that. We can always do our jobs better, more fairly, and more judiciously. My hope is that everyone in the American arena will also try to conduct themselves with more civility, for far more unites us than divides us.
Silver Spring, Md.: I can easily see the wisdom of your point about the miracle of tolerance. But: I've been reading Salon.com columnist Michelle Goldberg's new book, "Kingdom Coming." She paints a very troubling picture of growing religious intolerance in America as large segments of the evangelical movement seek to expand into the political sphere (for example, seeking to add a Constitutional amendment stating that the US is a Christian nation). To your mind, is the situation as bad as she sees it? Or does your historical perspective reassure you?
Jon Meacham: History is VERY reassuring on this point. Just to take the Christian amendment as an example: the Founders had every opportunity to use sectarian language and imagery in the Founding documents (the Declaration and the Constitution) but did not; the framers of the Constitution explicitly rejected a rewrite of the Preamble that evoked Jesus. And the first movement for a Christian Amendment took shape during the Civil War, when ministers came to Lincoln with the idea. Ultimately, a legislator called the idea "unnecessary and injudicious," which is a good test for such things. We are nowhere near becoming a theocracy. Religion is part of the life of the nation because the life of the nation is the sum of the lives of its people, and many people are religious. The wonderful thing about the system the Founders gave us, and which subsequent generations have protected and preserved, is that we have the liberty to choose to believe or not believe, and to pursue our own destinies by our own lights. It is a gift we must guard well.
Martinsville, Va.: Who do you think was the least religious of modern presidents?
Jon Meacham: I think it is fairly safe to say that Richard Nixon, despite his Quaker mother's best efforts, is a strong candidate for that label, though the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. told me a wonderful story for this book: a writer once mentioned to one of John Kennedy's sisters that he was thinking of doing a book about JFK's personal faith, and the sister remarked, "That will be a very short book."
Fairfax, Va.: Dear Mr. Meacham,
We know that Raleigh, in Virginia, and Gov. Winthrop, in Massachusetts Bay Colony, predated the Revolutionary Founding Fathers as earlier "fathers" for the nation.
Unlike Virginia, Winthrop's Colony began as a Bible Commonwealth, seeking to be ruled by one law book. During that "founding" father's rule as Governor, there were 24 capital crimes - all emerging from the Bible - not from statutes enacted by a colonial legislature.
The New England signers of the Declaration knew of the earlier experiment - in America - of Biblical fundamentalism/as government. They knew the benefits as well as the drawbacks.
Does your book provide that background, rich with debates between Winthrop, Roger Williams, Mistress Ann Hutchinson and the founding of Rhode Island? Does it help American readers learn that, in contrast to Virginia's pursuit of commerce, early seventeenth century Mass. and R.I. pursued faith in God, based upon the Bible?
Jon Meacham: Yes, the book does indeed tell the story of Winthrop, Williams, and Hutchinson, and I make the point that Virginia was, early on, seemingly more about Mammon than about God. But the New England experience is a very mixed one, it seems to me: Massachusetts Bay was indeed theocratic, and the experiment in building a "Christian Commonwealth" was not a happy one---as the founding of Rhode Island, as well as the creation of Maryland and Pennsylvania, can attest. At her best, America is about the search for liberty, not for religious certitude, or certitude of any kind for that matter. History teaches us that faith and reason and experience are all essential elements in conducting human affairs peaceably and well.
Nashville, Tenn.: Mr. Meacham, what is the legacy of Billy Graham in your opinion?
Jon Meacham: I think Billy Graham is an intriguing and critical figure in what I call, quoting Benjamin Franklin, America's "public religion." Reverend Graham is a preacher, pastor, and patriot, and when he has made mistakes, he has admitted them, put them in theological context, and moved on---not a bad example for any of us. When he was captured on the Nixon tapes making anti-Semitic remarks, Graham apologized, and said (I am paraphrasing) that his whole life had been a pilgrimage, a process of learning and growing and changing and coming to see the human-rights implications of his gospel message. In other words, as he has grown older (he is now 87) he has become more humble, and after Nixon, Graham moved farther away from partisan politics, which I think only increased his effectiveness as a pastor.
Atlanta, Ga.: In my opinion a return to school prayer can't be enforced by government or laws or even rules in a school. It's when children and their parents understand that anytime is a good time to pray and they don't need a rule or a "official time" to do it. And that comes from Faith; not rules.
Jon Meacham: Amen to that, so to speak.
Hillcrest Heights, Md.: Were Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, James Madison, and John Adams, deists?
Jon Meacham: You are asking a very complex, and ultimately unanswerable, question. (For only God, in Christian terms, knows the secrets of all hearts.) But Jefferson and Franklin were clearly heavily influenced by Deism, though Jefferson was a moving target in religious terms. Adams was a fairly orthodox churchgoer, though he said he hated "polemical politics and polemical divinity." Madison is more of a mystery. A ferocious advocate of religious liberty, he was intensely private about his own particular beliefs.
Vienna, Va.: It seems that the Founders were part of a more aristocratic age, where it was acceptable for educated men to scoff at orthodox Christianity, but where they would still accept that it was good for the masses (especially women) to be religious. Washington, Jefferson and Franklin seem very detached from the bible-thumping world of backcountry evangelicals. I suspect they liked it that way.
Jon Meacham: You make interesting points. "Scoff" is a little strong; they were very respectful of all sorts and conditions of belief, for they were fully committed to the idea and the reality of religious liberty, which included the liberty of evangelicals, Quakers, Baptists, and other denominations which were not part of the Anglican establishment in the South or the Congregationalist establishment in the North. Remember, these men were willing to die for the rights of "bible-thumping...backcountry evangelicals." And thank God, if you will, they were, for in doing so they, the Founders, made it possible for all of us to live in freedom.
Washington, D.C.: Re: your piece on "The Prayer Breakfast Presidency" - The curtains before which George H.W. Bush stood were most certainly not "burgundy." As any good Texan knows, those curtains in College Station are the maroon of Texas A&M.
Jon Meacham: I stand corrected and humbled. My only excuse is that I am a Tennessean, and Texas still owes us a great debt for our early and enthusiastic support, so perhaps we can call this one even. But thank you.
washingtonpost.com: The Prayer Breakfast Presidency (Post, April 16)
St. Mary's City, Md.: I'm one of those troubled by the "persistence of a public religion," as Pauline Maier noted in the review of your book. You correctly note that the public religion concept does not constitute government endorsement of one faith, and I applaud you for that. Still, I think there is a danger in discussing patriotic spirit and religious faith as though they are generally the same thing, which is what "one nation under God" does. I think the concept implies that one has to believe in the Judeo-Christian God to be an American, that each of us has to justify our innermost beliefs to our fellow Americans. It wasn't so long ago that Catholics and Jews in America had their patriotism questioned simply because of their religious beliefs.
Jon Meacham: Thank you for the question. I don't believe that "patriotic spirit and religious faith...are generally the same thing," and I surely don't believe that one has to believe in any particular God or any god at all to be an American. The point of my book is quite the opposite: that there is both a legal and religious basis for liberty of conscience in this country, and that this liberty of conscience is what sets us apart from so many other lands. Without freedom there is no faith, but without faith there is still full and unqualified freedom. I do think religion is important to many people and that religion has been important in the founding era and beyond, but the fact that religion has been (and is) important to many does not mean all have to believe or that any should be made to feel uncomfortable by voluntary professions of faith. George Washington had it exactly right in 1790, when he wrote that every man should sit under his own vine and fig tree, "and none shall make him afraid." If any American's rights are abridged, then all Americans' rights are abridged; our most solemn duty, it seems to me, is to protect our liberty and a spirit and reality of inclusion, for liberty and inclusion has gotten us far, and we have farther still to go.
Thank you all very much. Terrific, thoughtful questions. All the best, Jon Meacham
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Author Jon Meacham fielded questions and comments about his book, "American Gospel." Meacham is managing editor of Newsweek.
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Examining Journalism
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Jay Rosen , author of the blog PressThink and journalism professor at NYU, was online Thursday, May 18, at noon ET to examine current issues in journalism: relations between the press and the Bush White House, Press Secretary Tony Snow 's first week behind the podium, White House chief of staff Josh Bolten 's influence in the administration, media coverage of alleged leaks, the role of bloggers and how the White House press corps has changed.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Jay, nice to see you here.
On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal used you to give a big smackdown to the blogs on the Jason Leopold story alleging a Rove indictment. Do you think that was fair? Many of the biggest blogs on the left -- Tim Grieve, Peter Daou, Firedoglake, The Next Hurrah, even Raw Story -- treated Leopold's story with responsible skepticism from the beginning.
Jay Rosen: I wasn't happy with the way that came out. You talk to reporters for a good while about a great many things, and what is quoted is so tiny. Sometimes that system doesn't work very well. (And that's one reason I write a blog.)
I didn't realize what use could be made of my comments until I saw the Wall Street Journal article by Anne Marie Squeo. As I recall the interview I spent much of it arguing with the reporter (an NYU grad, and fun to talk to...) about the accuracy of her attitude: "On the Web, anything goes. No matter how far fetched, it gets picked up. Then we're off to the races with rumors and much worse! There's no accountability. No ethics. Let's take Jason Leopold..."
I was trying to establish that while the old system of controls is, in fact, giving way, the new system for establishing reliability among blogs and online news sites is being born, and is not--at all--what Anne Marie Squeo (or her editors) see when they look at the Web. The Wild West! Anything goes! No one accountable for nothing. That's a conversation about a cartoon. Tim Grieve in Salon gave a good reply to Anne Marie Squeo.
How have White House press relations changed since Teddy Roosevelt described the "Man with the Muck Rake", Spiro Agnew described "nattering nabobs of negativism" and the gotcha/stiff'dya rollback relations today?
Jay Rosen: Teddy Roosevelt was the first to invite the press in from the street, in from the cold. He set aside a room in the White House for reporters to work in, and in doing that brought the press into the presidency -- now a working part. So the executive branch got a interlocutor, and that is what the White House Press corps is.
This was actually a way of expanding presidential influence, and it gave the White House an edge over Congress in the new theatre of media politics and presidential character.
By the time Spiro Agnew lit into "these men of the media" who had become so powerful, the partnership between the presidency and the press had accomplished a lot. Agnew showed it was possible to run against the press while in office. Instead of using it as a bully pulpit, tear down the pulpit and incite the crowd by your reaction against the culture elites who had commandeered it. Rather than controlling the news agenda, discredit the news carriers and then your own agenda can roll on, free and clear.
Agnew was a failed politician, but his idea--make culture war with the press, excite your base, weaken one of your adversaries--finally triumphed during the two terms of George W. Bush. That's what I call rollback. Scott McClellan was Agnew at the podium.
Okay, too glib. But you get the point.
It's Leonard at PJNet.org. If you were editor of a major newspaper, how would you be working with your audience?
Jay Rosen: I would be telling my people we're going put into practice Dan Gillmor's simple insight: My readers know more than I do. Bring me the journalism that follows from that fact, I would tell them.
Washington, D.C.: How would you describe the relationship between Fox News and the White House? And is there anything similar on the other side?
Jay Rosen: I think Fox is an Administration-friendly but mostly independent news network that is well-connected to Bush World-- in a way that other news empires are not. I would treat the movement of Snow to the White House as normal traffic between the two.
Do you feel that the question about Snow's yellow bracelet, by a local journalist, was pre-planned, so that Snow could garner sympathy on his first day?
Nashville, Tenn.: After both BellSouth and Verizon denied handing domestic phone records to the NSA, USAT notably stopped short of saying "we stand by the story." One can almost smell the sweat from the USAT newsroom. After all the Gannett criticism of the use of confidential sources by others, do you think that USAT itself has now been burned by anonymous "sources with direct knowledge" of the program?
Jay Rosen: Seems to me we are just at the start of something.
Washington, D.C.: Did the MSM give Snow a pass on "tar baby" -- or it just a legitimate, colorful term?
Jay Rosen: I don't think it's a big deal that he used the term, myself. I don't think much of a controversy ginned up around it, either. But you could say it was poor craft on his part, because you don't want that to be one focus of your first briefing.
Jay Rosen: I would like to see less attention on "slips" and more on slides-- what reporters let slide because its no longer news, or hard to explain, or too boring to some.
Portland, Ore.: Is Tony Snow offering anything more than a change in personal style to the press (and the people of this country). Or is it just more of the same policy of press nullification you have so wisely identified as the favored mode of this administration?
Jay Rosen: I don't know yet. I'm not sure he does.
After Snow was hired, I wrote about the signs of regret that appeared in news accounts, where people in the White House basically said they blew it with the news media-- went too far, got hurt by being so disengaged, and so on. Of course they said it anonymously. Who knows how real that was? I am not sure there's any stock-taking there. Rollback may be alive and well, but with better hair in Tony Snow. We don't know yet. We will know by July 4th.
My very strong impression after watching Snow this week is that to have a potential star in the Administration preaching from the podium would be a new dynamic in the Bush White House, and probably not welcome to all power players in the West Wing. Snow has charisma, and convictions. He's articulate, quick on his feet. He could become a factor. But what happens when he has to defend the indefensible? Then we'll see what moxy he has.
San Francisco, Calif.: Do you think Tony Snow's emotional moment was such a big deal as the media made it out to be? Has it gotten to the point that, when a (Bush) administration member shows his softer side, we're supposed to be impressed and pleasantly surprised? Like, we didn't realize he was human before? I don't get it. I think it's an outgrowth of our culture's obsession with knowing every detail of celebrities' personal lives. Now, we're doing the same to those in government. Frankly, I'm more concerned that someone's doing a good job and is honest and competent and has integrity. Snow's emotional reaction to the bracelet question isn't the problem. The problem is that it was presented in the media like a rare display of humanity that warranted special coverage. I wonder if it would have made such headlines if he weren't the spokesperson for a president who's so reviled at the moment.
Jay Rosen: No, I think it was the contrast with a Scott McClellan who did seem almost machine-like in his style of non-communication.
It wasn't fake. This itself said something in that room.
Washington, D.C.: Do any bloggers currently have access to White House briefings? If so, which ones? It seems like they have a reputation as being outsiders looking in, vs. having direct access most of the time.
Jay Rosen: Yes. See as one example the work of Eric Brewer of BTC News . He was there at Snow's debut. It's important that he is, too. Often Brewer will try to ask something that group think in the press wouldn't permit.
Madison, Wis.: I find it astonishing that neither The Washington Post nor the NY Times editorials has had anything to say about Brian Ross of ABC News' report that the Bush Administration is using the National Security Letters (NSL) provision of the Patriot Act to monitor and collect the phone records (and perhaps other information) of certain reporters who have raised questions about the legality of certain administration actions.
Recently, Patrick Fitzgerald had to go to court to get the phone records of Judith Miller. There was a lot of howl from the media about this because of freedom of press concerns. Yet now when the Administration decides to get the phone records of reporters without any court approval, the press is surprisingly mum about the whole thing. How come?
Jay Rosen: I think with every one of these stories, what is surfacing is such a small part of the forces at play that caused the story to come out, and most of what we need to know is hidden, despite what we call the "revelations."
Sometimes what you see as inaction in the press is people grappling with this condition.
Re: Nashville's Comment: The telephone companies are very careful in their denials that they are giving call records to the NSA. And - it took them a while to come up with the right press releases. USAT will do more reporting on this, in my opinion. Look for the phone companies passing call records THROUGH an intermediary company or some entity, not directly. Hence, their ability to deny giving records to NSA directly.
Jay Rosen: This is an extremely serious story, and it needs to be investigated by more than one agency. Journalism, and Congress, and bloggers, and NGO's. We cannot let it become another one of those frozen scandals.
Silver Spring, Md.: Do you think Snow should be fired for using a negative racial term--tar baby--during his first press conference?
Washington D.C. : Independence of thought has not be a key requirement for Presidential Appointments. How do you think Josh Bolten will get past this and make educated and calculated choices that will reflect real promise for the American people?
Jay Rosen: That is a great question. When the record is written on the Bush White House one of the biggest black marks against Bush himself will be his tendency to choose confirmation over inquiry. The people chosen reflect this trait of his.
Long Beach, Calif.: I have to admit I'm a bit puzzled by the Scott McClellan thing: It seems to me that he carried the administration's water, the way they ordered him to, to his own personal detriment, if I'm not wrong.
And now the administration that can't get rid of D. Rumsfeld has fired him. Why don't they feel they owe him? Did he get a golden parachute or something, a la Tenet?
Jay Rosen: The case of Scott McClellan requires a quality novelist. Only then will our understanding of him improve.
washingtonpost.com: Thank you all for joining us today.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Jay Rosen, author of the blog PressThink and journalism professor at NYU, examines press coverage of the White House, relations between the administration and the media, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow's first week and current issues in journalism.
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Washington Post staff writer Michael Lee was online Thursday, May 18, at noon ET to examine the latest NBA news.
From The Post: NBA Coverage
Michael Lee: Hey, everybody. I just wanted to let everybody know that the rumors you're hearing aren't true. I won't accept anything less than a $30 million buyout to walk away from this online chat today. There is so much to talk about, from the wacky New York Knicks to Kobe vs. Chucky. And oh yeah, the playoffs. Here we are in the conference semifinals, and the two teams I picked to go to the NBA finals - Detroit and San Antonio - are on the brink of elimination. Surprisingly, we are "witnessing" the dawning of the age of LeBron James and small ball has taken over as the Mavericks have been zipping around the old, stodgy-looking Spurs. Just a week ago, I thought the second round was a bore - and it was - but the games have been so entertaining and so gripping that I have ditched one of my favorite pastimes: sleeping (I can't believe I was up past 2 a.m. on Tuesday watching the Clippers?!). The NBA is back to being fantastic again. I can't remember being so enthralled. But I'm sure you have some questions. I hope I have some of the answers. Let's go. . .
Falls Church, Va. via Detroit: Why aren't analysts more critical of Flip Saunders in his role in the series? He is being outcoached again as he has been in numerous playoff appearances. He has not made one single adjustment in the past three games other than playing Evans, which obviously was not effective.
Michael Lee: You know, my immediate reaction after watching Game 5 was to call up Ivan Carter. I told him, dude, I've got two words for you: Flip Saunders. Since Ivan is from Minnesota, I knew he understood how terrible Flip is in the postseason. Kevin Garnett got all the blame for the Timberwolves' first round flops, but Saunders was the coach. You have to remember that the Piston's first-round win over Milwaukee was just his third playoff series victory. Saunders has been terrible in this series. It's like he started drinking all of the Kool-Aid from his players and began to believe that they are so playoff tested and proven that they can turn it on at any time. So much so, that he has absolutely refused to make any adjustments, declined to utilize his bench AT ALL and has allowed his team to completely fold in the fourth quarter. Saunders was rightfully credited for opening up the Pistons' offense in the regular season, but Detroit has been an offensive eyesore against Cleveland. They aren't moving the ball. It's just a series of isolations for Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton. Rasheed Wallace standing around the three-point line and Ben Wallace standing around, doing nothing. A reason for the fourth-quarter problems could be fatigue. Flip rode his guys so hard in the regular and it looks like it's catching up. The problem for the Pistons and Saunders is that they never faced any adversity through the course of the regular season. When they let down their guard, everyone dismissed it as boredom. Detroit always found a way to overcome to little bumps in the road. But Cleveland is no longer a little bump and Flip has to start earning his money right now.
Washington, D.C.: What is more valuable to a NBA team, or to the league itself than a player who is 1st-team offense AND defense?? Kobe is that nearly every year. L. James, S. Nash, G. Arenas, A. Iverson, etc..etc...are all top players...half of the time. None of them are top defensive players (which is HALF of the game?!?) What do you think is the real reason behind this NBA MVP tradgedy? Oh, and it is a NBA tradgedy...this guy (Kobe) put together one of the most impressive NBA seasons of all-time and he should have been recognized for it. 1st team Offense and 1st-team Defense, who else plays on that level?
Michael Lee: Nobody this season. That's why I voted for Kobe for MVP. I think it takes a lot out of a star to play on one end of the floor, let alone two. One of the reasons I haven't voted for Nash for MVP the past two seasons is because he is a SERIOUS liability on defense. I mean, the man gets killed repeatedly. Kobe averaged 35 points a game, which is ridiculous - and he was first team all-defense. But somehow, some writers didn't have him in their top three for MVP. A lot of people just hate the dude. I mean, seriously dislike him. I know why (the list is way too long to put here) but you have to respect his game (most of the time).
Fairfax, Va.: Seems to me that Dallas learned how to play a little D and now, they look like the team to beat. Do you think Eddie Jordan is watching? Eddie, gotta teach defense man ... you'll never make it out of the 2nd round with your D.
Michael Lee: I knew somebody was going to say this, so let me get this one out of the way right now. I'm pretty sure if Eddie Jordan has defensive-minded players, the Wizards would play better defense. The Nets never had problems when they had Kenyon Martin, Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson playing defense. Who are the defensive stoppers on the Wizards? (Tick, tick, tick, tick) Time's up.
As we have drilled this into everyone's head for the entire year, you have to have players who want to play defense to be an effective defensive team. Last I checked, Larry Brown was a defensive-minded coach, but how did that work out with the Knicks? Those guys played no defense. Was it because Larry Brown can't coach? I don't think so. Was it because Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, Steve Francis, Jalen Rose and Maurice Taylor aren't exactly noted for their defense? Probably so. So, let's get off Eddie and focus on personnel. It makes a difference, people.
Washington, D.C.: So, as closely as I've followed the Wizards over the years I have to admit I've NEVER, EVER heard or ready that Larry Hughes' family (and brother) was a major deciding factor behind many of the player's personal, financial and basketball decisions over the course of his young life -- as it is now being widely reported and said since the sad death of Justin Hughes.
So what's the story? Did Hughes keep it quiet? Did we totally miss the story while he was here and when he was leaving for Cleveland? Did I just not buy the paper that day? Or is this largely revisionist history being written by an understandably sympathetic media during a difficult time for the player?
Michael Lee: Are you sure you "read closely"? Because in a story that ran in February, Hughes said he missed Washington but had to make some personal sacrifices so that his brother could get the attention he needed from the Cleveland Clinic - and Mike Wise wrote about it in his early column from Game 5 in the Wiz-Cavs series (of course, he wrote another great column about Gilbert and LeBron in the locker room after that overtime thriller). But you have to remember, it was A factor, not THE factor. THE factor was Cleveland offered the man $60 million with a chance to make another $10 million or so from incentives. And, the way LeBron looks right now, those insentives are easily attainable whether or not he plays. His brother certainly was a factor, and it wasn't drilled into our coverage, but it was covered.
Forest Heights, Md.: Mr. Lee,
What's up with Detroit? Cleveland looks like they own them and Lebron is "God". This has been surprising yet entertaining. Who do you see coming out of the West? What's the better matchup for Miami, Cleveland or Detroit? YOUR East Pick?
Like your journalistic style and always look forward to anything you do. Keep it coming!!!!!!
Michael Lee: Thanks. To me, the biggest problem with Detroit is that throughout the course of this season, in which they had the best record and had four players make the all-star team, they lost that chip, that desire to prove the critics wrong. Nobody slighted them, so they felt entitled to everything because they are the Pistons. Some people don't handle prosperity well. It looks like the Pistons have gotten fat on their own press clippings this year. Falling behind 3-2 might be the best tonic for their over-overconfidence. I've had Detroit going to the Finals all season, but the past two games, I've found myself rooting on LeBron and the Cavs. They are playing like they want it. The Pistons are playing like they already have it. I guess they forgot to remember that the Spurs are the defending champions. They didn't win it all last season.
I know this sounds silly after everything I just said, but I still see a Detroit-San Antonio rematch. Call me crazy. San Antonio looks shaky right now, but the champ has to get knocked out. As long as Dallas lets them hang around, the worse it will get for the Mavericks. They have to win Game 6.
Reston, Va.: What can I say about this years playoffs other than 'WOW'. Every game has been competitive and fun to watch. Growing up in Ohio, i have always been a Cavaliers fan even when it was not the hip team to root for. What do you really think their chances are for beating the Pistons? Maybe being from ohio has jaded me but i am always waiting for the next THE fumble, or THE drive,, or THE shot. I am positive that they have won these games just to get our hopes again and tear our hearts out.
Michael Lee: I've always believed that Cleveland is THE MOST CURSED SPORTS CITY in America. I have a friend from Cleveland, and I always like to remind him that no city has had worse luck than Cleveland. Including all the references you made, you have to remember that Atlanta Braves only championship in baseball came at the expense of the Indians and the Ravens won the Super Bowl only a few years after they moved from Cleveland. Right after the Cavs drafted LeBron, my friend from Cleveland told me - this is far-fetched but funny - that God gave the city LeBron James to reverse that town's miserable history. That being said, your heart is about to ripped apart. I still think Detroit wins that series. My advice is to just enjoy these couple of days. Remember them fondly. I can't see Chauncey Billups playing that poorly for the rest of the series. And believe me, Chauncey has been so horrible that I'm starting to re-think putting him fifth on my MVP ballot. If Chauncey keeps playing like he has, you have to side with the kid, though.
Alexandria, Va.: Do you think the Heat are feeling pretty good about what they are seeing in the Detroit/Cleveland series? If Cleveland closes out Detroit, do you see the Heat advancing to the finals or the Cavs continuing their magic season?
Michael Lee: I think Pat Riley is doing his little jig every night this series goes on. The Heat handled its business, mostly because they thought they'd need to get some rest for Detroit. Miami will have a long rest, especially if this series goes 7. If the Cavaliers win, best believe Miami is headed to the Finals. But if Detroit wins, I think Cleveland has already exposed some glaring weakness for the Pistons: their lack of depth and an over-reliance on jump shots. They think they can shoot their way out of trouble but don't have any answers when those shots don't fall. Right now, they look putrid.
Silver Spring, Md.: Can you please post this just in the off chance it gets to Larry Hughes. We feel for you man. I was pi**ed that the Wizards faithful chose to boo Hughes so much during the 1st round series. Hughes is nothing but a stand up guy and anyone who says they would have left all of that money on the table is a liar, a fool, or both. Our thoughts are with you and I personally am pulling for the Cavs the rest of the way, anything to brighten up your day. Rest in peace Justin, look up Ralph Wiley in heaven and watch the game with him, you'll enjoy it..
Michael Lee: Here you go, Silver Spring.
Frederick, Md.: Should praise concerning Tim Thomas coming out of nowhere to play fanastic playoff basketball be directed toward Thomas or coach D'Antoni?
Michael Lee: We have a couple of things going on here. . .One, Tim Thomas is a free agent this summer. If he was playing like this ever since Ernie Grunfeld gave him that six-year, $67 million deal in 2000, trust me, he wouldn't have been traded twice and cut once by the Bulls. I still think the Bulls really screwed up just sending the man home and not trying to move him - or play him. But you have to remember, Thomas has always been a considerable talent, but the knock on him has been that he doesn't work hard. Right now, Thomas is motivated to get another pay day. . .And Two, Mike D'Antoni has the most player-friendly offensive system in the league because everybody on the floor is an option. They like to run and shoot. They don't waste time working down the shot clock and with Steve Nash driving and forcing the defense to collapse, Thomas is bound to get tons of open looks. Thomas is in a great situation now, so you are seeing the best of Tim Thomas.
Bowie, Md.: So how much of "great defense" is simply style of play? Granted Detroit is holding Cleveland to about 80 points a game. But they are having trouble reaching 75. Has the Cleveland team that was giving up 120 points to the Wizards suddenly improved their defense by 40 points a game?
Michael Lee: I think Cleveland's defense in this series can be attributed to the Pistons' horrendous offensive performance. The Wizards like to run and they have an incredible offensive weapon in Gilbert Arenas. The Pistons haven't really had anyone step up offensively in the past three games.
You're correct when you say a lot of folks hate Kobe. And in game seven against the Suns he showed the nation why it is justified. He was like a guy in pick up who stops trying when his team begins to lose so he can claim that he wasn't beaten, he just didn't care enough to try. The dea opposite of the winning attitude guys like MJ displayed. Attitude, good and bad, flows from the star, and that's why guys like Kobe should never be selected as MVP over guys like Nash of LeBron.
Love your stuff in the paper, by the way.
Michael Lee: Thanks. I know I was in the minority, but I never quite understood the level of scrutiny that Kobe received for his performance in Game 7. I just didn't get it. I mean, I know Kobe wasn't as aggressive as we've grown accustomed to seeing him, but he wasn't aggressive the whole series. And guess what: they led 3-1 against Phoenix because Kobe didn't take over offensively. When I was listening to Kobe defend himself on TNT last night, I actually found myself believing him. He made a good point about mentioning Game 4, because the Lakers were down by eight with about four minutes left and guess how many shots Kobe took in the fourth quarter of that game? One. The shot that forced the game into overtime. No one wanted accept that Kobe was sticking to the game plan. It didn't work - and it's his fault?
I think every player, especially a high-profile star like Bryant is open for criticism, but I don't know of a player who is hated more than Kobe Bryant. If he scores 50, he's selfish. If he takes three shots and involves his teammates, he's. . .selfish?! I don't think that Kobe taking 15, 20, 30 shots in the second half against Phoenix was going to make much of a difference in Game 7. Either you win or you lose.
It still doesn't change the fact that Phoenix completely demoralized the Lakers in that game. The Suns led by double-digits most of the game and won by 31 points! And did anybody notice that when Kobe scored 23 points in the first half that the Lakers were still down 15! The reason the Lakers lost was because they didn't defend. They escorted Leandro Barbosa into the lane for uncontested layups and the Suns hit every shot they put up. The shot 61 percent! Dang. And, Kobe could not save the Lakers if Kwame Brown, Lamar Odom, Smush Parker and Luke Walton were missing layups and open jumpers. Kwame was, like, 2 for 10 and all of his shots were within six feet. Even Mr. 81 couldn't bail them out with that. Let's say for argument's sake that Kobe scored, say, 31 points in the second half instead of one. Know what, the Lakers still would've lost. Phoenix actually preferred him to go beserk offensively, because it meant the rest of the Lakers were spectators. The Lakers were 0-5 when Kobe scored more than 35 points against Phoenix.
Kobe really gets hated for the wrong reason - because he isn't Michael Jordan. Is that a crime? No. Kobe is not MJ. He never will be. He never was going to be. Michael Jordan was arguably the greatest basketball player of all time (although I still side with my man Magic Johnson), so if we use Jordan as the top of the basketball totum pole, then that means that everyone else will come up short - including Kobe, right? Just let him be, and accept that he is a great player whose team lost in the first round. Let's get over it already.
Silver Spring, Md.: Let's just say that the Cavs do get passed the Pistons, how do they match up with the Heat? The Heat looked great against the Nets but for some reason I don't buy them getting along for thre stright weeks.... Could Lebron carry this Cavs team to the finals? Would you change your MVP vote then?
Michael Lee: We're talking hypothetically, right? I don't want people to be confused. But if the Cavs get the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, I think I'd still have to go with Miami. I just see LeBron James and Dwyane Wade cancelling each other out in terms of production, leaving the game to really be decided by the role players. And, since Shaq would be considered a role player and he will be guarded by a lead-footed Zydrunas Ilgauskas, I think he gives Miami the edge. Plus, Pat Riley will probably coach like he never has, or at least like he never has this season. The Heat has the edge in intangibles. But James and Wade makes me want to break out the popcorn for real. Whew. Remember that great game those two had last month. Aw man, let's go Cavs!!!
Frederick, Md.: As a Wizards fan, I can't help looking at the Cavaliars/Pistons series and asking what if. Three playoff games between the Wizards and Cavaliers were decided by one point. Now the Cavaliers have the Pistons on the ropes. The Wizards also beat detroit three times during the regular season. How would they be doing now in a series against Detroit? But, I guess it's just pointless speculation.
Michael Lee: Only a few weeks ago, I was adamant that the Wizards could not beat the Pistons in a seven game series, but now that I have seen THESE Pistons, I have to wonder. Detroit has looked uncharacteristically tight and shaky against Cleveland. And, the one concern I had about Detroit this season was injuries. I don't know the severity of Rasheed Wallace's ankle injury, but he doesn't look like himself out there. I guess as long as Rasheed shuts up, Detroit has a chance to win the final two games.
The Pistons are great when they play like a team, a quintet playing in unison. In the regular season, they were the most efficient team in the NBA then put it on cruise. But THESE Pistons aren't sharing the ball, taking good shots or making any adjustments. I discount regular season basketball when it comes to playoffs but you have to remember the Pistons won three out of four against Cleveland in the regular season. I know LeBron made reference to the "three little pigs" and the "big bad wolf" after the Cavs won Game 5, but I think this series reminds of another fable. The tortoise and the hare. The Pistons look like the overconfident hare, chilling under the tree, sipping on lemonade while the tortoise is strolling to the finish line. Those Bad Boys better wake up.
Woodbridge, Va.: Do you think the Wizards will sign Eddie Jordan to an extension?
Washington, D.C.: What up Mike? Kobe looked totally arrogant up there last night. Don't get me wrong, his analyses of the games were great but you could feel the flames off the TV when he cut the Chuckster off last night during the halftimes talks. Your thoughts. Ron
Michael Lee: More Kobe hate.
Give me your opinion on what the Wizards should do this upcoming offseason. I've already got a few ideas....How about keeping the entire core together...rather than making a trade to impact our chemistry. If Jeffries receives the an offer for the Mid Level elsewhere. We shouldn't match it...especially when you have a player in the fold like Blatche who can assume Jeffries role right away. How about extending Eddie jordan? How about signing Free Agent Vet's at the minimum like Antonio Davis and Matt Harpring? How about trading the 18th pick, Etan Thomas, and Jarvis Hayes to the Hornets for JR Smith and PJ Brown's expiring contract???
Michael Lee: You make some good points. I don't think the Wizards necessarily have to make a splash in the offseason. You look at what Dallas did to become a better defensive team. They signed DeSagana Diop and Adrian Griffin. Small moves that went a long way to turning around the Mavs identity. Anything is possible. Plus, the chemistry of this team is pretty good. They are missing some serious pieces when it comes to defense, though.
Originally St. Louis, Mo.: On the question regarding Larry Hughes and his brother - this has been a huge issue from the time Larry was in high school (before the transplant.) He stayed in St. Louis to play for a crappy college team (SLU) because he didn't want to leave his brother and left college only when told his family couldn't afford health care for his brother anymore (with coach's blessing).
You may not have seen it, but anyone who knows Larry Hughes knows that Larry's younger brother was his world. Sometimes being cynical isn't being fair. Ask Gilbert - I bet he'd tell you the same thing and he's the one who was hurt by Larry's move to Cleveland.
Michael Lee: I wasn't trying to discredit the impact of Larry's brother on his decision to sign with Cleveland, but Hughes has said repeatedly that if the Wizards hadn't given him such a low offer initially he would've stayed in Washington. I wasn't being cynical, I was stating something that Hughes said himself.
washingtonpost.com: Michael Lee notes a clarification to his above response ...
Michael Lee: I originally thought the question asked if Hughes signed with Cleveland because of his brother. I only got part the question right. Larry's relationship with his brother, Justin was covered thoroughly in a story that ran last summer when Justin first began having complications with his heart. His body began rejecting the heart for the first time in more than eight years. The story was about how Larry was struggling because he was a free agent and was about to sign a big money contract at a time when his brother was fighting for his life. He told me then that it would be the last time he spoke publicly about his brother's health. I also talked to his mother, who provided a lot of insight. It clearly was a tough time for him last summer. It may not have gotten much attention because it ran during the NBA Finals, but trust me, that aspect of Larry's life was covered in this paper. If you want to find the story, it ran on June 14 last season.
Laurel, Md.: Devon Harris is doing well in Dallas. I know we drafted him to trade him, but what could he have done for us?
Michael Lee: Help the Wizards acquire Antawn Jamison. That's all he was ever going to do for the local five.
Boulder, Colo.: I was never a Larry Brown fan, but watching the way the Pistons have struggled makes me think that maybe Larry Brown was a pretty darn good coach. Thoughts?
Michael Lee: It's funny that during a time when the Knicks are considering buying out Larry Brown, the Pistons are probably missing the man right now. Say what you will about Brown's age, health, wandering eye and tendency to belittle his players, the man gets results wherever he goes -- if he is given more than one season (Hello Isiah!). Brown is a Hall of Famer, a proven winner, no matter how bad it looks right now. I won't say that he absolutely ruined the Knicks and the 2004 Olympic team, but he didn't help out much. This past season hurt his rep some, but the fact remains that this Pistons team didn't go to the Finals until Brown grabbed a seat on the bench.
Upper Marlboro, Md.: Why don't you think cleveland can beat miami?. Miami one weakness is guarding the small forward position. They have been victimized by good small forwards all season. I think the cavs have a shot if they meet miami
Michael Lee: I didn't say the Cavs didn't have a shot. I said the Heat would win. Everybody who makes it this far has a shot.
Silver Spring, Md: What in the world is going on with Detroit? I cannot believe what I saw last night. I am just dumbstruck. They look terrible... Rip just dropping the ball out of bounds at the end of the game, praying the official would bail him out.... They do not look like a veteran team at all..
Michael Lee: I think I've beat Detroit to death during this chat, but you're right. They look scared. You have to get a shot off with 1.9 seconds left. Rip's little flop was weak. You've got to want it. I guess I've been drinking the Pistons Kool-Aid this season, because I think they'll figure it out in time. They like people counting them out. Here is there opportunity to prove us all wrong - I guess.
Kobe: Thing is, he just stood around during the second half. He didn't drive and kick. He did nothing. It's not the three shots, it's that he did nothing else. How did he try to get his teammates involved. There's more to it than simply not shooting.
Michael Lee: The last time I'll address this. Would it have made a difference? Would the Lakers have won the game? It doesn't matter if he gave it his all. The Lakers still lost. Let's move on, people. Kobe is gone. Seven teams are left in these playoffs and the Lakers aren't one of them.
The Cavs are for real: When the Wiz lost to LeBron and his boys, it seemed they really benefited from Washington's crappy defense rather than their own merit but, going up 3-2 against Detroit, these guys are for real!
Michael Lee: LeBron James, indeed, is for real. And rookie coach Mike Brown is doing a pretty good job, too. He has pushed the right buttons since the second half of Game 2. I'm not ready to give them this series yet. But even if Cleveland loses this series, they still have to feel great about the future - and their chances to retain LeBron James with an extension this summer. Watching him really become a superstar in the postseason has been a pleasure.
Long-suffering Knick Fans (Everywhere): Michael,Can the Knicks be saved??? Is Dolan just plain crazy, or has he been hypnotized by Isiah's million-dollar smile? Is there any chance they'll come to their senses and send Starbury packing? Or should we all just root for the Nets (after they move to Brooklyn, of course)? A little hope here, please . . .
Michael Lee: No, the Knicks cannot be saved as long as James Dolan is the owner and he continues to support the near-sighted moves of Isiah Thomas. You're right, Thomas does appear to be hypnotizing Dolan. Thomas has been on the job 2 1/2 years and his only plan appears to be acquire more "assets," spend more money on wanna-be stars and fire Hall of Fame coaches. They already dumped Lenny Wilkens, who went 40-41 (pretty good when you consider Larry Brown won 23 of his first 82 games with the Knicks). The only hope is that if start laughing at this team, you will have so much more fun with all of this silliness. Don't get down. Laugh it up. This is pure comedy.
Michael Lee: Yo, people. I've got to get out of here. I might have to head up to Cleveland to watch LeBron take on the Pistons. I wish I could talk more. Thanks for your questions and enjoy watching the rest of these games. Peace.
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Potomac Confidential
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Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher of the latest news and a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
Fisher was online Thursday, May 18, at Noon ET to look at Virginia's vote on same-sex marriage, the latest in the NCAA's war on Indian team names and the D.C. mayoral race.
Today's Column: A Gut Feeling on Va.'s Gay Marriage Vote (Post, May 17)
Check out Marc's blog, Raw Fisher .
In his weekly show, Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.
Marc Fisher: Good day, folks, and welcome aboard.
The early posts focus on the same-sex marriage vote in Virginia this fall, the D.C. mayoral race, the face-off between Mayor Williams and the church leader who teed off against gays last week, and a slew of other issues.
Today's column looks at strategies in the campaigns for and against the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Virginia. On the blog this morning, an item on the NCAA's latest salvo in its battle against Indian team names, this one aimed at the College of William and Mary and its "Tribe" teams. You'll find my take--and a lively discussion among readers--at washingtonpost.com/rawfisher
On to your many comments and questions, but first, the Yay and Nay of the Day:
Yay to Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who likes to tout his independence, but usually ends up saying very little that breaks with the Bush Administration or Gov. Bobby Haircut. But Steele, the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes, has now broken rather cleanly with the president on the wisdom of his No Child Left Behind regimen and its impact on schools. Steele slapped Bush for the "teaching to the test" that NCLB has forced upon many public schools and called for a reversal of cuts made to the budgets that were supposed to pay for school improvements as part of NCLB. A little more independence like that and the Democrats might have a tough time holding on to that seat.
Nay to Mayor Anthony Williams for his cynical endorsement of Linda Cropp as his successor. Cropp may be the most well-versed candidate in the ways of the D.C. government, but she is also Williams' opposite in many ways; where he has a smart and ambitious vision for the city, she has never shown any evidence of any vision. Where he is politically awkward but relatively transparent, she is more of a dealmaker but utterly secretive and hostile to open government. Where he has a remarkable record of achievement despite low popularity, she has hardly anything to show for an extended career in government, even if she has remained reasonably popular because of her pleasant demeanor and inoffensive public rhetoric.
Your turn starts right now....
Washington, D.C.: Interesting article today. One line caught my attention in particular -- the pro-amendment side focusing their efforts on ministers. They even have developed sample sermons.
Is that legal? Where is the line between what a non-profit can do with churches to encourage a political agenda? Is there one?
washingtonpost.com: A Gut Feeling on Va.'s Gay Marriage Vote (Post, May 17)
Marc Fisher: Totally legal. This is, after all, a non-partisan election. Churches are not permitted to make endorsements if they want to maintain their tax-exempt status, but there's no bar against ministers preaching their views on morality and sexuality.
Arlington, Va.: Thank you for today's column. It hits the nail right on the head. Unfortunately it's probably too late for the people running the campaign to come to their senses. I guess all we can do is lobby our friends and hope somehow that helps. It certainly helps steel my resolve to get my straight friends on board in opposing this idiotic amendment.
Marc Fisher: What I find so curious is the reluctance on the part of the gay advocates who are working on the anti-amendment campaign to make the case for the social good that is represented by any stable, committed relationships. My own personal view is that government should play no role in marriage of any kind, but even with that perspective, I see social merit in long-term, stable families of any stripe.
Baltimore, Md.: Bravo on today's column Mark. As a gay man who has been in a partnered relationship for 12 years, I too would welcome the SECULAR benefits that a civilly-sanctioned union would provide my partner and me. Unfortunately every time we use the two words "gay" and "marriage" together, the result for cultural conservatives is the emotional effect that you've described. I wish our society could separate the civil vs. religious connotations of unions between TWO (and no more than two) consenting non-blood-related adults. For me, it's mainly a matter of civil fairness.
We need more voices like yours and David Brooks, who wrote an excellent NYT column last year about why conservatives should not be so agonized over gay unions.
Marc Fisher: I agree--separating the civil from the religious is an important part of any solution to this problem. But I'd go further and remove the civil piece almost entirely. If government needs to keep a registry of citizens' living arrangements for tax purposes, fine, but there's really no other call for a state role in how people organize their private lives. Let each faith figure out its own path on these moral questions and let people choose their faiths accordingly.
Anonymous: I was in college when the Massachusetts Courts legalized gay marriage in their state. I used to sit at my computer and read news articles until I would lose my faith in humanity. As someone who is gay I would become distraught reading the horrible and false things gay marriage foes would say about gay people and I would also become frustrated with many gay rights activists who just didn't get it that most of our country wasn't ready to take such a big step, all at once, in the path towards full gay rights. That period helped me mature a lot which is necessary for any gay person
Marc Fisher: But if you see from the outcomes in 19 other states that you are almost certainly headed for defeat, why not use the campaign not to chip away at support on semantic grounds, but to address voters directly on the question of morality and the reality of how people live their lives?
Silver Spring, Md.: "after all, most Americans know someone in a committed gay relationship"
Wow Marc, where did you get that stat from, or is this something that you just thought sounded really good?
Marc Fisher: You may be shocked, but I try not to write anything for which I don't have a factual basis. Here's a Harris poll that looked into those questions and found that 82 percent of Americans know someone who is gay and half of Americans have a close personal friend or relative who is gay:
Vienna, Va.: Truth be told, I think many Virginians would accept some kind of state-sanctioned partnership status for gay couples.
Maybe I'm off-base here, but I suspect there are two things that are really unnerving many people about this whole issue. The first is that gay activists want gay marriage, and not just at the courthouse, but the altar as well. While some Christian denominations would perform such ceremonies, many would not, and I suspect most other non-Christian faiths would not, either. What are the legal ramifications of gay marriage for such congregations and their beliefs? How would it affect the separation of church and state?
The second worry is that the legal reasonings and other tactics used by the gay activists will be used by other, more extreme groups. Most people laugh at this and say that that concern is a straw man, but I'm not so sure. If, as the Supreme Court said in that Texas case, that there is no compelling state interest to justify anti-sodomy laws, then what exactly is the compelling state interest in banning polygamy? If two people of the same gender have every right to marriage that a man and woman have, then why not three people of the same gender, or just about any combo you prefer. Why is "two" a magic number? If there's no sacrosanctity in the one man -- one woman arrangement, then why should there by any for the one man-one man situation?
Marc Fisher: Ok, let's accept your idea that condoning gay unions will lead to demands for similar acceptance of polygamy. I'm not sure there's good grounds for the state getting involved there, either. Most religions have very strong taboos against polygamy, for good reason. Doesn't that really serve the necessary purpose? Wouldn't you agree that the main reason most people steer clear of polygamy is because they are raised to believe it is morally wrong? Does the law against polygamy really have an impact on people's overwhelming decision to stick to one on one marriage? There are many aspects of life that are best governed by ethical and moral codes that have nothing to do with law.
Alexandria, Va.: Hi Marc: I'm probably not different from a number of folks out there in that I am friends with a lesbian couple who individually and together are probably the most committed, dedicated, compassionate people I have ever met in my life. They live together, want to have a family together, and want to share in the same benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy. Can someone explain to me why they shouldn't? And don't give me the religious, morality line. I want to know why, under the constitution, they should not have this right. And how can the creation of a massively discriminatory law be right? All people should share equally under the law, regardless of their sexual preference.
Marc Fisher: Well, there are religions that believe homosexuality is wrong and there are religions that accept it. There's a whole other line of argument that focuses on sociological research on the optimal nature of families--kids should have a mother and a father--but of course, that line of argument is undermined by the epidemic of single parenthood in this society.
Anyone want to offer other arguments?
While you mull that, I'll push on to some other topics and we'll come back to this later in the hour.
Washington, D.C.: What's your take on Mayor Williams scolding the local pastor for his comments on gays? It seems to me that the mayor would be perfectly within his rights to remove the pastor from the inter-faith commission. But expect him to apologize for something he said from the pulpit?
Colbert King said in his column that these comments "leave gays and lesbians] to feel they aren't equal and valued residents of our city." He's missing the point -- the paster wasn't speaking on official policy with government approval. However hurt some people might feel, I don't think the government gets to tell preachers what they can and can't say.
washingtonpost.com: Gays, God and Bishop Owens (Post, May 13)
Marc Fisher: The mayor is free to ask the bishop to apologize for his slam against gays, and the bishop is free to stick with his slurs, as he apparently has chosen to do (see his letter on today's Post editorial page.)
But if the bishop holds views that are antithetical to the mayor's own moral sense, then it seems the least Williams can do to can Bishop Owens from the city's interfaith advisory council.
It's kind of fun to see the new unleashed Tony Williams--being a lame duck sometimes brings out the best in politicians.
Washington, D.C.: Hey Marc -- If that so-called bishop Owens has such a regressive outlook about gays, he's pobably not too keen on evolution either. So I'll bet the story on this morning's WP front page about chimp-human hybrids will really drive him crazy. Can't wait for this Sunday's sermon.
And how does a cleric from a single congregation -- as opposed to a larger organized religion, become a "bishop" anyway? Can he just declare himself to be one? Oy!
Marc Fisher: Yup. He just picks his favorite self-aggrandizing title and slaps it on the sign out front, right next to the fancy car with the suburban license tags.
washingtonpost.com: Letter to the Editor (Post, May 18)
Washington, D.C.: A family member is a Fairfax County Police officer and told me that prior to ambushing officers at the Sully Station Michael Kennedy told family members of his intention to commit suicide by cop. Also, while he was in custody on the warrant from Maryland he told FFX authorities of his intention to commit suicide by cop and that this information was relayed to Montgomery County Police as well as the Circuit Court Judge who still released him on a relatively low bond of 33K. Why isn't this being reported?
Marc Fisher: Haven't heard any of that, but I'm sure our reporters on the story will be quick to check that out if they haven't already.
Alexandria, Va.: Did you see Tim Kaine on "American Idol" last night? I was hoping he would sing, but alas ...
Marc Fisher: Our Tim Kaine? What was he doing there? Doesn't he have a budget to negotiate?
Arlington, Va.: So tell us, o well-plugged-in one: What's the official status of Tony Kornheiser at the Post these days? Are his columnettes on hiatus as he preps for his new TV football gig, or has he left the hallowed halls for good? I realize that newspapers don't usually tout the departure of writers, but unless I missed the announcement along the way, the silence on the status of Mr. Tony seems particularly deafening.
Marc Fisher: I just saw Mr. Tony in the hallway on Tuesday, so he's still around. I know he's in major TV-prep mode, and I don't know when he'll be back in the paper, but knowing Tony, there's no way he can keep himself out of print for terribly long.
Alexandria, Va.: I went to William and Mary. On one hand, the NCAA is gutless. On the other hand there are no good cheers for "The Tribe." Beats being a Wahoo or a Hokie. And who even knows what a Hoya is?
Marc Fisher: W&M's president has a letter out today that tries to interpret the NCAA ruling as narrowly as possible, arguing that what the NCAA is really upset about is just the eagle feathers that accompany the Tribe name in the school's team logos. The hope, apparently, is that William and Mary can appeal the decision and get away with keeping Tribe while losing the feathers. But if you read the full NCAA letter--there's a link to it on my blog today--you'll see that the NCAA is out to eradicate all traces of Indian references in sports names, period.
With regards to the NCAA ruling on William and Mary, can nothing be done to stop this ridiculous over-sensitivity? How in the world could any college control what their fans might or might not do with regards to a mascot? I'm sure even the most benign mascots could be made into something offensive to someone.
Marc Fisher: There is, of course, no end to the censoring that can go on once you decide that you want to construct your society with an aim toward controlling people's thoughts. You would think that after the last century's experiences with attempts at thought control, we'd finally understand that the creation of taboos has exactly the opposite effect of that which is supposedly intended.
I got a survey in the mail the other day from the Post circulation department. Most of it was questions about if I am satisfied with my delivery service (yes) and with the billing process (yes). But at the bottom was an open-ended question something like "Is there anything you would like to see the Post do differently?"
So I wrote "Give Marc Fisher a raise and return him to his rightful spot along the left side of the Metro front page" and sent it back in.
I got your back, dude.
Marc Fisher: You're most kind.
Chevy Chase, D.C.: I was happy to see you call out Tony Williams on his endorsement of Cropp. Her several 180s on the ball park represented the worst kind of grandstanding and cynical posturing.
But do you find Fenty a suitable alternative?
Marc Fisher: I don't know. As I've written before, this is not exactly a powerhouse of a field of candidates. All five of them have major weaknesses. Going to the various forums is a very disheartening experience. There is a palpable lack of passion among these candidates, a lack of vision that is so striking that every audience I've seen at these events comes away shaking their heads over the sameness of their rhetoric, the safeness of their ideas, and the overarching sense that none of them compares to Williams--who, of course, is not exactly beloved.
There's still a lot of pining for some last-minute miraculous entry of a better candidate, but that seems ever less likely.
Washington the D.C.: Linda Cropp, regardless of her political modus operandi, will be elected mayor, which will continue the D..C tradition of having the clowns run the circus. Amen.
Marc Fisher: Don't know why you say that--she's running behind Fenty in every poll I've seen so far. Obviously, she's one of the top two contenders and the race will have its ups and downs from now til September, but there's no way this is already wrapped up.
I was just wondering how you felt -- as both an American 'and' a journalist -- about the NSA phone controversy. I mean, if plain old Americans phone calls are being monitored, I can only imagine what they are doing to people like you in the big scary media.
Marc Fisher: Doesn't especially bother me--they're not monitoring individual random phone calls, they're collecting information on gross patterns, which is something intelligence agencies have been trying to do with phone calls and other electronic communication since those technologies first came along.
The primary problem here is the administration's continuing disregard for the legal niceties involved in such effort. But the ultimate safeguard for the people is that all of these efforts fail because no matter how automated the information collection becomes, the final synthesis of the information involves human beings, and we have long ago passed the point when human beings were overwhelmed by the volume of collected information. This overload was the core reason for the collapse of the Soviet Empire--the intelligence machinery couldn't possibly keep up with or make sense of the stuff that was pouring in. And that is the backstory of our own intelligence machinery as well--it will always be possible after the attack to go back and find out what the Mohammed Attas were doing. But catching them beforehand is a virtually impossible task to do through automation; it can only come through enlisting members of society in a cause they believe in, and there this administration has failed utterly.
Baltimore, Md.: Marc: Had to share this with someone and I think you are the guy who would appreciate the absurdity.
I am on the MARC Penn line yesterday in Union Station, sitting behind a woman who obviously had not done something she was supposed to do at work. Her exact words were:
"Sorry. I haven't been anywhere near a phone."
Of course, she was saying this on her cell phone.
Ahhhh ... where have all the good old time work excuses gone? Sacfrificed on the altar of technology, I guess.
But of course with caller ID, the boss could have checked her number and found out that it was a number assigned to a cell. This game can go on endlessly.
Dunn Loring, Va.: Can you articulate any positions taken by Maryland's democratic senator candidates that diverge from the DNC platform? abortion, NCLB, Iraq, gay marriage, or any other topic?
Washington, D.C.: Hiya Marc --Is there some way for the D.C. government and police department to enforce parking restrictions near churches with ministers who spout off against homosexuals?
Maybe the mayor's "task force" on church-neighborhood relations will tackle that issue. And maybe the city will suddenly learn how to fill potholes. Join us now as we travel to Dreamworld....
Just returned from Europe: Hey Mark, I had a different kind of comment to offer to the discussion today. I just got back from visiting a friend in Hamburg, Germany. We were riding the subway there Saturday night after a big soccer game (Hamburg vs. Bremen, apparently a big rivalry), and people on the subway were drinking beer! It's perfectly legal. But even with all the rivalry, team "colors", and boisterous singing, everyone was well-behaved. And no one blocked the door.
Marc Fisher: You should have stayed on that train for a while longer. I've seen some very bloody fights on those Hamburg trains on late Saturday nights.
Fairfax, Va.: Re: today's column. Can you give some more detail about the wording of the proposed Virginia amendment? I know the point of the column was not to argue semantics, but I seem to recall that the amendment, as written, spells out what the amendment, if passed, would still permit gay people to do. It seems that the Virginia GOP was trying to defuse the idea that the amendment would keep gay people from visiting each other in the hospital, etc. Is my memory correct? Can you give us the proposed language?
Marc Fisher: Rocci is looking for that wording for you right now, but in the meantime, basically the amendment has two sentences: The first says Virginia bans any marriage except one man and one woman, and the second says that the state shall not recognize any legal relationship that looks like or smells like marriage, and it's the wording of that piece that got Gov. Kaine to turn against the amendment, because the wording appears to ban legal rights and benefits for any cohabitating couple that's not legally married.
Farragut Square, Washington, D.C.: Marc, Orioles store still here and still void of customers, when will it go away?
Marc Fisher: Probably not for a long, long time--it's Peter Angelos' outpost in enemy territory, which he, of course, considers "my territory." What the Lerners should do is open a Nats store in the Inner Harbor.
The District ... : ... Marc, this may be a little out of your domain as a columnist, but I thought I'd ask anyway. The other day there was a pretty serious manhunt going on in my Adams Morgan neighborhood ... lots of police -- both in cars and on bikes. Even brought the chopper out with the spotlight. This was about 10 p.m. on Saturday. So in the following hours and into the next day, I combed the Web and the WashPo for a story ... and got nothing. Which is fine, I understand deadlines and staffing issues. So, how would you go about finding out what was going on? Can you harken back to your courts/cops days? Are the police obliged to give out such information?
Marc Fisher: Yes, if you go to the front desk at your police district HQ, they will have both an incident log and an index by address and you are free to look at either, or you can ask the desk sergeant and he will likely know exactly what you're referring to and if he's at all cooperative, he'll give you all you need.
Silver Spring, Md.: "Our Tim Kaine? What was he doing there? Doesn't he have a budget to negotiate?"
He was on film, honoring erstwhile Idolette Elliot Yamin in Richmond last week.
Dee Cee: I say: Restore Marion Barry to his throne as Mayor-for-Life! Then maybe housing prices will fall enough that we who work for average American wages will be able to buy something.
Marc Fisher: And maybe it would keep the Nightowl off the midnight streets. Or maybe not.
Washington, D.C.: "He just picks his favorite self-aggrandizing title and slaps it on the sign out front, right next to the fancy car with the suburban license tags."
EXACTLY! And then he and his congregation are free to park anywhere they want without the fear of being ticketed.
I'm proud of Tony Williams for having the coconuts to stand up to the tyranny of the Churches. I wish more of our elected officials would do the same, instead of changing the message to suit whichever group they're addressing (I'm looking at you, Mrs. Cropp).
Marc Fisher: Well, the mayor was looking good and tough for a little while there when he declared that the city would finally start to enforce parking regulations around those churches. But he quickly backed off and seems to have no interest in pursuing that issue, which is too bad, because as you indicate, none of the mayoral candidates is willing to touch this either. See above comments on the weakness of this field of candidates.
Bethesda, Md.: Regarding same-sex marriage, my husband is from Spain, and that country legalized same-sex marriage not too long ago. In Spain, civil marriage is completely separated from a religious ceremony. Couples visit the courthouse for a quiet civil ceremony normally a week or so before the wedding, then have their large celebrations with the religious component.
Therefore, to make the addition of same-sex marriage wasn't a problem. Same-sex couples now go to the courthouse like everyone else, and if they belong to a religious community that will recognize the union, then they may have a ceremony there; if not, they have a secular celebration or just stick to the civil ceremony.
I think that would be the best idea here: completely separate church and state, get religion out of recognizing marriage. Everyone is required to be recognized by the government, then whoever wants can have a religious ceremony.
Marc Fisher: But why have the government recognition at all? What is the government's purpose in being involved in marriage? Why not simply maintain a registry of who is living alone and who is living as a couple, for tax purposes, and leave it at that?
Fairfax, Va.: I have learned to accept much of the hateful statements many on the right have made about gay people in their crusade against gay marriage because I will always live my life based on what I know to be fact, not on the faith of others. I know that many of these people, who profess such a hatred towards people such as myself, are good people at heart trying to do what they honestly believe to be what's best for their country. After all, how can you understand that which you are not.
Having said that, every time I read the language of Virginia's Marriage Amendment, which I have no doubt will pass, my stomach turns and my heart sinks to the point I want to cry. I wish people would understand that even if they voted against this amendment, our legislature would still come up with another one that would just ban gay marriage.
Marc Fisher: Actually, Virginia already has a law banning same-sex marriage. The pro-amendment campaign says that this amendment is necessary only to stand as a protection against the possibility, however remote, that some judge might someday strike down the existing law. Pretty far-fetched, huh?
Washington, D.C.: I noticed the usual "slippery slope" arguments coming up here -- if we allow gays to have some civil rights then before you know it we'll have polygamy and (didn't Sen. Santorum warn against this?) human-animal marriage.
I think gay marriage must be getting pretty accepted if opponents are trying to turn the subject to these sillier scenarios.
Marc Fisher: Good point. But the scare tactics seem to work pretty well.
Born-again Christian: Hey Marc, My take is that homosexual behavior (not feelings) is wrong b/c the Bible says so. However, they're right to do wrong gives me my right to do right. If I want the right to go to a house of worship and read my Bible on the Metro, they should have the right to civil unions. (God created marriage for one man and one woman, but He didn't say anything about civil unions.) As long as they aren't calling themselves married, it's their business, not mine.
Marc Fisher: Seems fair enough, except that many gay couples have been getting married or calling themselves married for many years, simply ignoring the legal aspect of the relationship, and thus far, the planet continues to spin at its normal pace.
Arlington, Va.: Heterosexual marriage is part of the fabric of nearly every social system for which there is a recorded history. Gay marriage is a fad that has emerged in the past 20 years. Were it not for the AIDS crisis and the lack of universal health coverage we would not even be having this discussion. Moreover, studies have shown that gay men share the same commitment problems as straight men, so marriages between two men will not contribute to more stable relationships.
Marc Fisher: This is the same argument that gets thrown up against D.C. voting rights. Your government is lousy and corrupt therefore you don't deserve the basic right of voting. Well, a basic right is a basic right, and that's true for D.C. citizens and for gays; just because gay couples may not be any more successful at long-term commitments than heterosexual couples doesn't change the nature of their attraction and their desire to live as a family.
Washington, D.C.: Even with the slim pickings for DC mayoral candidates, is there one that you think will be more effective than the others in dealing with Congress and the oversight? Who will get us statehood?
Marc Fisher: None will get statehood. None will lift a finger toward that end. It's not in the realm of the possible. But getting a vote in Congress is possible, and I'm not yet clear which, if any, of them would do much for that cause. Most of the candidates are unknowns on the Hill. The one they know best is Cropp, and I've heard nothing but contempt for her from the Hill aides I've spoken to.
Nationals Blunders: Maybe we should rename the team "Dippin Dots".
Washington, D.C.: Marc, the Orioles store in the Farragut neighborhood is like Vatican City in Italy. Angelos is Pope, and the collections keep coming in from the TV revenue. Or maybe it is like West Berlin before the wall came down. Anyhow ... it is a small aberration in an otherwise homogeneous neighborhood that is not well-suited to common metaphors.
Marc Fisher: But they have very nice air conditioning. Something to keep in mind in the coming weeks if you're a downtown worker.
Will we see you at RFK this weekend rooting on our Nats?! They need all the help they can get.
Marc Fisher: I'll be there Friday night, rooting for the new kid on the mound. He's local, too. Mike O'Connor.
washingtonpost.com: House Panel Accepts Disputed Explanatory Language (Post, May 11)
Yesterday I took a walk to the Capitol. The little pond in front of the Capitol has been drained. I assume they're planning on cleaning it/refurbishing it, whatever. In the meantime, there are at least two families of ducklings with their momma duck, just wandering around on the dirt. I'm assuming the ducklings are too small to get out up and out of the pond perimeter. And, there is no water. Just wanted to post this in case someone knew who to inform about this. I fear they're going to die of starvation/thirst, since the momma duck will likely not leave her babies there. Don't scoff, I'm being serious.
Marc Fisher: Thanks--I'm sure someone will walk on over to check on them. The Park Service workers are often pretty good about that sort of thing.
Washington, D.C.: Marc, do you plan to see The Da Vinci Code?
Marc Fisher: I haven't read the book, but sure, I'm likely to see the flick, though today's wires say the early reviews out of Cannes are that it's awful.
Washington, D.C.: What's your take on the (small? large?) controversy about the Central Union Mission wanting to move to Georgia Avenue and expand their services?
Marc Fisher: Makes a lot of sense for the Mission, like the other non-profits that used to line 14th Street, to cash in while the money is top dollar and use those newfound resources to expand their services at a less expensive location. This is how the evolution of city neighborhoods can lift all boats.
Falls Church, Va.: Could Mayor Williams' endorsement of Linda Cropp be payback for Cropp not stopping the baseball deal?
Waldorf, Md.: Maybe not the right forum, but still. Today's dedication at the WW bridge was really poor timing! Seriously, 45 minute backups in both directions! This should have been scheduled for a weekend or at least a Friday when traffic is a little lighter anyway. I had to travel to Reston today (normally I ride a commuter bus to D.C.) and it took me two hours!
Marc Fisher: The pols have campaign events and fundraisers to go to on the weekends, and I'm sure the officials didn't want to gum up weekend traffic, which is when voters are out on leisure activities and want roads clear. It's easier to do it on a weekday when the usual commuters are on the road--folks who are more accustomed to big tie ups.
Washington, D.C.: A major problem with Fenty is his total lack of executive experience. He has 5 years work experience outside of being on the council. And as a perpetual candidate, he's spent six years belittling every agency or department head, even those who have overseen major improvements. Why would a top level public administrator risk their career working for him?
Marc Fisher: Good point--there is much antipathy toward Fenty within the city government. But that could be a good thing, if he has the gumption and skill to make the personnel cuts that so many candidates have promised for so many years. Still, you're right--the permanent bureaucracy has long since learned how to survive reformers.
Fairfax, Va.: I want to marry the bird feeder outside of my window. Do I go down to the courthouse or to the nearest church? Also, would it be considered polygamy, since I would no doubt have to marry all of the birds that stop to feed there?
Granted, I'm being ridiculous. But for all of the people who subscribe to the "If you allow gays to marry, that'll lead to polygamy, interspecies marriage, and who knows what else?" argument, can't they see that their arguments sound just as ridiculous?
Marc Fisher: Bird feeders are notoriously disloyal. Watch out.
Baltimore, Md. : In response to Arlington about straight vs. gay marriage: Study history of the West and you will see that marriage was always about property rights and knowing if children were legitimate so inheritances would not get fouled up. The peasantry often didn't bother with it. In fact, in 17th century England, vast numbers of the peasantry had never heard of Jesus. (Contemporary clerical writings bear this out.)
Marc Fisher: Right--all the more reason to separate the religious rite from the government's clerical function.
Washington, D.C.: re: "Why not simply maintain a registry of who is living alone and who is living as a couple,"
Marc -- It is not the government's business to know whether I'm living alone or shacking up with someone, period. I file my taxes as a single, that has nothing to do with my co-habiting situation and the govt has no need or right under the Constitution to know.
Marc Fisher: Well, sure they do--we have a census because it's important for the government to know who's out there and basically how they're living, as a guide to apportioning resources and determining what needs government has to meet. They're not interested in your personal arrangement, just in the gross trends in your area.
Washington, D.C.: Hi, Marc,This may be a bit off-topic, but ... my neighbors and I live in one of those areas where it's necessary to take Metro-bus, even to get to Metro-rail, and we were shocked to learn that WMATA plans to cancel our late-night bus service. I understand some WMATA survey decided there aren't "enough" riders late at night. Over the last few years, we've lost one route altogether and two others have been combined into one, which means the ride takes much longer than it used to. And, of course, the buses run less frequently .It feels like a war of attrition against public transportation users: the city will keep reducing our services until we give up using them. Any suggestions?
Marc Fisher: I used to live in a neighborhood where WMATA kept chipping away at the bus service until it became entirely useless, and then Metro declared itself mystified that ridership was down. There doesn't seem to be much of a commitment to bus service, which is too bad, because it drove me back into the car, as has surely happened to many other folks too.
Gambrills, Md.: If your bird feeder is like mine, you'll wind up marrying more squirrels than birds.
Marc Fisher: Squirrels are so loose.
Triangle, Va.: Marc, O'Connor's "local" only in his ties to George Washington U. He's actually from Ellicott City, which is closer to Baltimore than D.C. (Not his fault, of course.)
Marc Fisher: Howard County is in our circulation area.
Washington -- The Mall: Marc,
You've written before on the future use of the Mall. Last week the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building on its national list of most endangered historical sites, and is urging an adaptive use of the old museum. Although I am not thrilled with the apparent trend toward having hyphenated-American museums, as the Smithsonian has decided to create an African-American museum, why not renovate the Arts and Industries building? It's in a very prominent, accessible location and we wouldn't lose more green space and vistas to a new structure near the Washington Monument.
Marc Fisher: The building is surely not big enough for the kind of museum that is being planned. But Arts and Industries should be saved, and certainly there are plenty of uses that it could be put to; after all, so much of the Smithsonian's collections go unseen. But I'm with you on the hyphenated museums--not only should they not be on the Mall, but they shouldn't be built at all. Those stories are best told at the American History museum.
Beltsville, Md.: I'm a happily married hetero male with three kids. Why should I care if a couple of gays or lesbians want to be married?
RE: diminution of bus service: In the year and a half I've lived at my house, the bus service has changed 4 times or so and is relatively useless if you leave work after 6 and no service after 8. I finally gave up and sucked it up to pay the $140 for parking and am no longer taking the transit subsidy from my employer. That 1/2 hour drive is SOOO much better than the 1:15 bus/metro/metro ride!
Marc Fisher: Sad but quite common.
S. Rockville, Md.: Before you go... predictions for this weekend's series? I say Nats take 2 of 3, Angelos gets booed in absentia, beer runs out after the 5th inning, but dippin dots available for everyone!
Marc Fisher: Pretty good. Two out of three sounds right--O'Connor and Armas can beat the O's, Livan cannot. I'd love to hear a lusty anti-Angelos explosion, but I bet it doesn't happen, mainly because he won't show.
How about a demo against the lack of those helmet sundaes that the Nats are advertising on TV, but don't actually have in their stadium?
Marc Fisher: Thanks for coming along, folks. More in the paper on Sunday, on the blog every day, and here again with you next week at this time.
Stay cool and write if you get work.
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Post Metro columnist Marc Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.
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