Where to Stay: the Jefferson

One thing locals are often not terribly good at recommending are hotels. We visit museums, dine at restaurants, stroll through neighborhoods, and a myriad of other things that give each city its own feel. What we don't do, is stay at our local hotels.

Well, that's not entirely true. I do stay at hotels, but I do it with large tour groups, and the determining factor has more to do with the ability to feed 97 eighth-graders breakfast and park several giant buses than the details you might find important in a visit here. So, on that note, I will endeavor from time to time to evaluate some local hotels with an eye to help our out of town visitors find a place to stay.

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Weekly Washington: Meridians and Monuments

photo by NCinDCWAMU Metro Connection's program this week, "In the Middle", featured me discussing the history of Washington's Prime Meridian, and the last remnant of that day: Meridian Hill Park. Obviously, I'm fascinating, but some of the other segments caught my attention as well. They catch local historian Paul Dickson taking in the midterms at one of my favorite Hill bars; Hawk 'n' Dove, and talking a little about our history of election watching.

The National Park Service is exploring options for moving the visitors screening facility underground. All of them seem to require some sort of subterranean facility to screen folks. This is a touchy issue, and many folks, including myself are confused as to the need for what will end up being an incredibly expensive and quite possibly intrusive measure. The Monument is already protected from car bombs, and the damage a potential bomber could do would be no worse than in any other crowded public space. Either way, the Park Service had a public meeting this way, and seemed stubbornly resistant to engaging the actual public on this issue. (WCP, WaPo)

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Weekly Washington: But the dank, Moe? The dank!

photo uploaded to flickr by QuickLunarCopJ. Freedom du Lac, besides having one of the best names in journalism, had a good write up of the tour guide license lawsuit. Constitutional scholars are mixed on the merits of the case, which, of course, is why Constitutional scholars have jobs. My favorite part: plantiff in the case and Segs in the City co-owner Tonia Edwards refers to the Old Post Office as "the second-tallest building in Washington."  Except, it's not.

It's WAY too detailed to go into here, but DC has split the baby in half in the long running debate as to whether it's Meridian Hill or Malcolm X Park. Whatever, don't sweat it, but go check it out if you're in town. It's one of the city's great urban parks. (Prince of Petworth)

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Weekly Washington: Elephants Now and Then!

photo uploaded to flickr by the Smithsonian InstitutionSo when my wife asks me what I did today, I honestly have no idea. Probably because I've spent way too much time pouring over the photos of old DC landmarks the Smithsonian released this week. (Smithsonian)

The big local news this week, of course, was the short-lived hostage crisis at the Discovery Channel Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, just outside DC. Fortunately, no one was harmed except for the poor crazy bastard who was responsible for the whole thing. (TBD)

And oh no! My absolute favorite Smithsonian exhibit will be dragged into modern times, kicking and screaming. Western Cultures, 2nd floor of the Natural History Museum, will be closed starting September 26th. The exhibit, which was delightfully dated, was originally designed in 1978, and is looking increasingly out of place as the Museum rapidly upgrades around it. Fine, I guess. Minister Cox and I will just have to find somewhere else to hang out. (WaPo)

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