GooseTales

Control Your Children

Look, I love kids.  Anyone who knows me can probably tell you this.  That doesn't mean I love your kids.  Last night, I had the (dis)pleasure of being joined on my late-night Metro ride home from class by a brood of children.  There were what seemed to be hundreds of them, all hopped up on cotton candy and giant lollipops (or so it seemed) from the circus.  They were accompanied by several adults and this was clearly a group that got on the car as they all knew each other and were talking back and forth.

The kids were incredibly loud, somewhere between the roar of a 747 and the space shuttle.  As if that wasn't bad enough, they were literally bouncing off the walls.  Jumping up trying to reach the overhead rail, running back and forth, pushing their way through the crowded car, screaming at each other down the length of the car ("are you standing up?")

Parents, I beg of you... keep your brats under control.  You've spoiled them to the point of pure rottenness.  They don't mind you (I saw this myself); They don't care about other people (my feet and shoes were stomped on, landed on, and stepped on many times); and you just let them run wild.  Worse than that, one of you, has the nerve to ask me to stand so your precious baby can sleep.  I'm all about giving up my seat to a pregnant woman, disabled person, someone with a broken foot, elderly, etc.  However, I don't know that I feel the need to give up my seat so that a woman in her mid-30s can put her (what appeared to be) 5 or 6 year-old child in the seat to sleep.  (Why are you holding this kid anyway? She looked a little large for you to still be carrying around.)

I thought about posting this last night, but passed because I didn't want to look mean-spirited.  This morning though, a woman was failing to control her two kids in the Metro station and they were running around like idiots.  One of them, looking at the other instead of where they were going, ran directly into me.  No apology from the kid (shock!).  No apology from the mother (shock!).  What did I get?  Watch out for my kid!  You've got to be freaking kidding me.  I have to watch out for YOUR kid while walking in a straight line through the Metro station?  I don't think so lady.

Parents, get your kids under control and do your damn job.

The People We Don't Know

Do you ever wonder who they are?  The people you see everyday... the woman on the Metro platform, the guy always in your Metro car, the woman walking the other way on the street.  Do you recognize the faces from the hundreds you pass everyday?  If you took them out of the context in which they've become familiar would you recognize them? Know where you've seen them before?  It's amazing how when you leave home five minutes earlier, the whole group is different.  The familiar faces replaced by hundreds of others, somehow more distant.  They are all the faces of strangers, yet some seem closer than others.  I wonder where they're off to in the morning.  Where they work, where they come from, are they happy?  Do you notice when their missing?

DC Neighborhoods

Tom Bridge asks whether we really care about our neighborhoods in DC.  Maybe I'm not qualified to comment, as I live in Maryland, but my general thoughts are DC does care about neighborhoods... some neighborhoods.  All one has to do is look at real estate listings to see how some neighborhoods are growing expansively large.  Take Dupont Circle, for example.  It's now grown to encompass pretty much everything South of V, West of 13th NW, East of the Park, and North of K.  Now, certainly, Dupont is in that area.  I'd submit that large swaths of that area aren't at all Dupont.  They have character completely different from Dupont and aren't really there.  I have a friend who lives at One Scott Circle NW in Dupont Circle.  One might wonder how Scott Circle could be in Dupont Circle without being concentric, but apparently, in DC real estate anything is possible.  I've seen places on U-St and 13th described as Dupont Circle, though being the location of the U-Street/Cardozo Metro station. 

I suspect that soon enough D.C. itself will cease to the District of Columbia and just be Dupont Circle as it swallows the city whole like a real estate monster.

Hecht's Clearance

You might want to scurry out to the burbs to the Wheaton Shoppingtowne.  The Hecht's out there is closing and as a result everything in the store is 40-60% off.  I went a little crazy, piling up bargains and spent more than I should have.  All told, it's a nice take and I recommend you get some loot while you can.  They should be open for 4 more weeks.

Foggy Bottom Goes Dry

The Washington Post has a story about the demise of Foggy Bottom Ale.  The Olde Heurich Brewing Co. is shutting down after years of brewing Foggy Bottom under contract  with a New York brewer.  The company used recipes from the original Heurich, which was owned by the current owner's grandfather and stopped brewing years ago. 

I'm not a huge beer fan, but I've had Foggy Bottom and it's not bad.  The Post article seems to lament the passing of the only "local" brew and Mr. Heurich seems to blame DC for a lack of loyalty to the local brewery company.  I do prefer Fordham Lager out of Annapolis.  I haven't tried their other brews, but I look forward to it.

Be Thankful for Each Day

Things like this remind me why we should be grateful for each day we have to live.  You never know when something will come up out of the blue and take you away from all those you love.  My sympathies to the families involved.

Have you seen this man?

I thought this article in the Post this morning was fascinating.  Not being a native Washingtonian, I didn't know the story of Brad Bishop, a foreign service officer with the State Department who bludgeoned his wife, mother, and three sons to death in Bethesda before driving to North Carolina and burning the bodies in a bathtub.  He's disappeared 30 years ago this week after committing the crimes and despite reported sitings around the world, he remains at large today.  He would be 69, if he's still alive.

I Wonder Why Those People Are Looking At Us?

I'm going to give all of you fellow lunchgoers a tip.  I often bring my lunch to work, but on occasion venture out into the fine city of Washington for a bit of lunchtime grub.  Today, I went to one of my favorite places, conveniently located around the corner, and enjoyed a seared tuna wrap with mango salsa, romaine, and tomato.

While there dining, I had the occasion to look around the small restaurant's eating area.  I'd estimate close to half of the people there were sitting, talking, reading, playing chess, or otherwise engaged in activities other than eating.  Half of the, perhaps, 12 tables in the place were being taken by people who had finished their lunch and proceeded to chat nonchalantly as others stood, holding trays of food, looking around for a place to sit.  Now, I'm all for enjoying your lunch, take your time eating, sit and read a book or the newspaper when your done... IF, and this is a BIG IF, there aren't people waiting for a table.  To take up a table in a small restaurant while people stand waiting for a place to open up to enjoy their lunch is just unquestionably rude.

So, my tip to my fellow Washingtonian lunchgoers is this... If you're done eatin' and there be some people waitin', be gettin' the hell out of the way.

Old Man Winter Roars

This has been a strange winter, alternating between pleasantly warm and frigidly cold in the nation's capital.  This morning it dipped down into the teens with a biting wind that was gusting upward of 20 mph.  Even with the wool coat, the Metro platform (which, of course, was experience a mighty delay) was unpleasantly cold.  Apparently, we've been into the teens three times in February 2006--compared to none in February 2005.  Global warming rears it's ugly head.  I guess it just goes to show that you can't beat Mother Nature (and Old Man Winter).

Wow, Groceries are Expensive!

So, just doing a little grocery shopping today.  12 Pack Frigo Cheesehead Light Cheesesticks are $4.29 on sale for $3.50 at Safeway this week.  Price back home: $2.89.  Coke products, 12 pack cans, normally $4.19(?), on sale 2/$7 at Safeway.  Price back home: $2.99 and usually on sale for $2.50. 

Now, I look at these price differences and I realize that life in DC is just more expensive than in other parts of the country (though obviously not all of it).  I can't help but wonder if a big part of the price difference on groceries is related to the presence of Wal-Mart grocery stores back home.  Wal-Mart carries a limited variety of products, but the products they do carry are cheap and the other grocery store almost always has their prices on those items set very close to the Wal-Mart price.  I don't think the local chain (like Wal-Mart) is unionized.  In contrast, all of the grocery stores in DC and the Maryland burbs (SuperFresh, Giant, Safeway) have a unionized workforce and don't have to compete against a grocery discounter like Wal-Mart for business.  Is it any wonder that the unions and Giant were the driving forces behind the Maryland legislator's decision to implement what The Post referred to as a "legislative mugging masquerading as an act of benevolent social engineering."  George Will referred to it as "Shoplifting as Governance."  If Wal-Mart makes the decision to stay out of the grocery market in the area, as seems likely, given Montgomery County's efforts to keep them out and Maryland's new law, it looks like the real losers will be those of us who have to buy groceries.