Woman Pulled From River Ruled a Suicide
• July 3, 2014

A woman discovered floating face down in the Potomac River near Georgetown Waterfront Park and Washington Harbour June 23 has died. One source familiar with the case called her death a suicide.

According to a D.C. Fire Department spokesman, “Witnesses reported talking to the woman not long before she was seen unconscious in the river. Land units from the water rescue assignment were able to get a line on the victim and brought her to shore … Fire boats 2 and 3 also initiated a grid search to assure there were no other victims.”

Found feet from shore, the woman — identified as 53-year-old Robyn McShay of Maryland — was given CPR at the scene and then transported to the hospital where she died.

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A Heartfelt Send-Off for Diana McLellan
• July 2, 2014

Washington writer, classy gossip columnist and Capitol Hill resident Diana McLellan was laid to rest in Congressional Cemetery June 28. McLellan’s life was celebrated at the cemetery chapel with friends and family reciting poetry and recalling perfect dinners with her.

Jokes flew about her being buried among such famous Washingtonians to get the real stories. At the burial, her spreading a little more dirt around was a quip. Also, as family members placed flowers on the wicket-basket coffin, daughter Fiona Weeks placed a tube of lipstick on the coffin.

The repast was at the Capitol Hill Mr. Henry’s, one of McLellan’s favorite hang-outs.

At the memorial service, Roy Forey, a neighbor of Diana McLellan, read a poem, entitled, “A Night at Diana’s Table.”

It is reprinted below, with the author’s permission:

A Night at Diana’s Table

I was lucky enough to dine at Diana’s table.

The invite offered in the most casual terms — “just neighbors and friends and a peasants’ meal” — but it was more than that.

Welcomed and introduced to everyone, no one could ever be on the fringes.
Plied with liquor and opening chatter we were ushered into the dining area.

With candles dribbling hot wax and flickering in the inebriated air, Diana and Dick held court at each end of the table.

Diana disappeared behind the curtains and like Merlin from King Arthur’s court conjured up tureens, filled with wonderful vegetables, beans, and tender meat in a sauce that was always delicious.

Quickly we transformed into a huge debating table, where participants fought for their point of view. Speakers’ corner on octane, Algonquin on Constitution Avenue.

Then, as the wine flowed and some took to liqueurs, others lit up, engulfing us all and sending us in a time machine to the fifties.

On occasion, Edith might be persuaded to play the “old Joanna” and those of us with bigger egos than voices sang the memories of old.

We left Diana’s table without a care.
We were in the moment, and only our beds beckoned.

Of all the tables I have been invited to, Diana’s was the best. Not by an inch–by a mile.
Yes, the guests were great, the diversity, the stories, but it was the master of ceremonies, the conductor, the Air Commodore’s daughter who shone the brightest and made an invitation to her table one you would never turn down.

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Obama Speaks at Georgetown Waterfront Park
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President Barack Obama brought his motorcade down K Street July 1 and delivered a speech at Georgetown Waterfront Park at 33rd Street, NW, about necessary infrastructure work across the U.S. and the Highway Trust Fund.

Using Key Bridge again as a backdrop, Obama accused Congress of not acting to get highway work rolling. “Middle-class families can’t wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff,” he said. Referring to House Speaker John Boehner’s lawsuit threat, Obama added sarcastically, “So sue me. As long as they’re doing nothing, I’m not going to apologize for trying to do something.”

The president made a similar speech in the same spot in November 2011.

Below is the text of his July 1 speech, as provided by the White House.

Remarks by the President on the Economy

Georgetown Waterfront,
Washington, D.C.

2:22 p.m. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Well, hello, everybody. Have a seat, have a seat. It’s hot. (Laughter.) It’s hot out — Anthony, take off your coat, man. (Laughter.) It is hot and Team USA takes the pitch in a couple hours, so we’ve got to get down to business. (Applause.) We don’t have time for a lot of small talk — am I right, Mr. Mayor? We’ve got to get going.

Behind me is one of the busiest bridges in Washington. And, with the 4th of July on Friday — also Malia’s birthday, for those of you who are interested, she will be 16, a little worrisome — I would note that this bridge is named for the man who wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner” –- Francis Scott Key.

Three years ago, I came here to this very spot, to the Key Bridge, to talk about how two of the five major bridges connecting D.C. and Virginia –- including this one -– were rated “structurally deficient.” And with almost 120,000 vehicles crossing them every day, I said it was important to fix them.

And today, that’s exactly what we’re doing. So, soon, construction workers will be on the job making the Key Bridge safer for commuters and for families, and even for members of Congress to cross. (Laughter.) This is made possible by something called the Highway Trust Fund, which Congress established back in the 1950s, and which helps states repair and rebuild our infrastructure all across the country. It’s an example of what can happen when Washington just functions the way it was supposed to.

Back then, you had Eisenhower, a Republican President; over time you would have Democratic Presidents, Democratic and Republican members of Congress all recognizing building bridges and roads and levees and ports and airports — that none of that is a partisan issue. That’s making sure that America continues to progress.

Now, here is the problem. Here is the reason we’re here in the heat. If this Congress does not act by the end of the summer, the Highway Trust Fund will run out. There won’t be any money there. All told, nearly 700,000 jobs could be at risk next year. That would be like Congress threatening to lay off the entire population of Denver, or Seattle, or Boston. That’s a lot of people. It would be a bad idea. Right now, there are more than 100,000 active projects across the country where workers are paving roads, and rebuilding bridges, and modernizing our transit systems. And soon, states may have to choose which projects to continue and which ones to put the brakes on because they’re running out of money. Some have already done just that, just because they’re worried that Congress will not get its act together in time.

Now, earlier this year, I put forward a plan not just to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, I put forward a plan to rebuild our transportation infrastructure across the country in a responsible way. And I want to thank Secretary Anthony Foxx, who is here today, for his hard work in putting this plan together. (Applause.) Because we are not spending enough on the things that help our economy grow, the things that help businesses move products, the thing that help workers get to the job, the things that help families get home to see their loved ones at night. We spend significantly less as a portion of our economy than China does, than Germany does, than just about every other advanced country. They know something that I guess we don’t, which is that’s the path to growth, that’s the path to competitiveness.

So the plan we put together would support millions of jobs. It would give cities, and states, and private investors the certainty they need to plan ahead. It would help small businesses ship their goods faster, help parents get home to their kids faster. And it wouldn’t add to the deficits –- because we’d pay for it in part by closing tax loopholes for companies that are shipping their profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Seems like a sensible thing to do. (Applause.)

It’s not crazy, it’s not socialism. (Laughter.) It’s not the imperial presidency — no laws are broken. We’re just building roads and bridges like we’ve been doing for the last, I don’t know, 50, 100 years. But so far, House Republicans have refused to act on this idea. I haven’t heard a good reason why they haven’t acted — it’s not like they’ve been busy with other stuff. (Laughter.) No, seriously. (Laughter.) I mean, they’re not doing anything. Why don’t they do this?

Now, Republican obstruction is not just some abstract political stunt; it has real and direct consequences for middle-class families all across the country.

We went through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we’ve climbed back. Since then, we’ve created 9.4 million new jobs over the past 51 months. Corporate profits are up, stock market is up, housing is improving. (Applause.) Unemployment is down. The deficits have been cut in half. We’re making progress, but we still have a situation where those at the top are doing as well as ever but middle-class families all across the country are still struggling to get by. There are people who are working hard, they believe in the American Dream — it feels sometimes like the system is rigged against them.

And they have good reason to think that way. So far this year, Republicans in Congress have blocked or voted down every serious idea to strengthen the middle class. Not ideas that are unique to me, they’re not — this isn’t Obama bridge. (Laughter.) It’s Key Bridge. But the Republicans have said no to raising the minimum wage, they’ve said no to fair pay, they’ve said no to extending unemployment insurance for over 3 million Americans looking for a new job.

And this obstruction keeps the system rigged for those who are doing fine at the top. It prevents us from helping more middle-class families. And as long as they insist on taking no action whatsoever that will help anybody, I’m going to keep on taking actions on my own that can help the middle class — like the actions I’ve already taken to speed up construction projects, and attract new manufacturing jobs, and lift workers’ wages, and help students pay off their loans. (Applause.)

And they criticize me for this. Boehner sued me for this. And I told him, I’d rather do things with you, pass some laws, make sure the Highway Trust Fund is funded so we don’t lay off hundreds of thousands of workers. It’s not that hard. Middle-class families can’t wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff. So sue me. (Laughter.) As long as they’re doing nothing, I’m not going to apologize for trying to do something. (Applause.)

And look, I just want to be clear — Republicans in Congress, they’re patriots, they love their country, they love their families. They just have a flawed theory of the economy that they can’t seem to get past. They believe that all we should be doing is giving more tax breaks to those at the top, eliminating regulations that stop big banks or polluters from doing what they want, cut the safety net for people trying to work their way into the middle class, and then somehow the economy is going to get stronger and jobs and prosperity trickle down to everybody. That’s their worldview. I’m sure they sincerely believe it. It’s just not accurate. It does not work.

We know from our history our economy doesn’t grow from the top down; it grows from the middle out. We do better when you’ve got some construction workers on the job. They then go to a restaurant and they buy a new car. That means the workers there start doing better. Everybody does better. And we could be doing so much more if Republicans in Congress were less interested in stacking the deck in favor of those at the top or trying to score political points, or purposely trying to gridlock Washington, and just tried to get some things done to grow the economy for everybody. We could do so much more if we just rallied around an economic patriotism, a sense that our job is to get things done as one nation and as one people.

Economic patriotism would say that instead of protecting corporations that are shipping jobs overseas, let’s make sure they’re paying their fair share of taxes, let’s reward American workers and businesses that hire them. Let’s put people to work rebuilding America. Let’s invest in manufacturing, so the next generation of good manufacturing jobs are right here, made in the USA. (Applause.) That would be something to celebrate on the 4th of July. (Applause.)

Economic patriotism says that instead of stacking the deck in the favor of folks just at the top, let’s harness the talents and ingenuity of every American and give every child access to quality education, and make sure that if your job was stamped obsolete or shipped overseas, you’re going to get retrained for an even better job. (Applause.)

Economic patriotism says that instead of making it tougher for middle-class families to get ahead, let’s reward hard work for every American. Let’s make sure women earn pay that’s equal to their efforts. (Applause.) Let’s make sure families can make ends meet if their child gets sick and they need to take a day off. Let’s make sure no American who works full-time ever has to live in poverty. (Applause.)

Let’s tell everybody they’re worth something. No matter who you are, no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love, if you work hard, if you’re responsible, you can make it here in America. That’s what this country was founded on, that idea. That’s why I ran for this office. I think sometimes about what we could be accomplishing, what we could have accomplished this past year, what we could have accomplished the year before that. And typically what gets reported on is just the politics — well, you know, they’re not doing this because they don’t want to give Obama a victory or oh, well, we don’t want to do this right now because maybe the midterm election is coming up and, oh, well, what’s happening with the polls. People don’t care about that. People just want to see some results. And objectively, if you look at the agenda I’m putting forward, the things that we’re trying to get done like just fixing bridges and roads, it really shouldn’t be controversial. It hasn’t been controversial in the past.

And so part of the reason that I’m going to be spending a lot of time over the next several weeks and months getting out there with ordinary folks is just to report to you it’s not as if I don’t know that you could use some help. I know. It’s not as if we don’t have good plans to put more people back to work and raise their incomes and improve the quality of education. We know how to do it. That’s not the reason it’s not happening. It’s not happening because of politics.

And the only folks that can fix that are going to be you — the American people and voters. Sometimes in our culture right now we just get cynical about stuff and we just assume things can’t change because nothing seems to change in this town. But that’s not true. It can change as long as everybody gets activated, as long as people still feel hopeful and we don’t fall prey to cynicism.

And so I just want everybody here to understand that as frustrating as it may be sometimes, as stuck as Congress may be sometimes, if the American people put pressure on this town to actually get something done and everybody is looking at some commonsense agenda items that we should be able to do because Democrats and Republicans were able to do them in the past, we can grow our economy, we can lift people’s incomes, we can make sure that people who are fighting hard can get into the middle class and stay there. But it’s going to take you. It’s going to take you. This is not going to happen on its own. And I’m confident if that’s what we do, if all of you are fighting alongside me every single day instead of just giving up on this place, then we’re going to make America better than ever. That’s a promise.

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. God bless America. Go Team USA! Let’s build some bridges!

END

2:37 p.m. EDT
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Hoyas’ Mascot, Jack, Jr., Turns 1
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Jack, Jr., the bulldog, celebrated his first birthday June 29. The mascot-in-training has taken over the job of Jack the retired bulldog, who still lives on campus. Jack, Jr., also stepped in, when another mascot-in-training could not cut the rigorous public duties at Georgetown University sporting events and other attention-grabbing gigs. Nicknamed “J.J.,” the lovable, little guy attended several birthday parties over the weekend.

ANC Report: D.C. Sold Part of Alley? BID, Dumpsters, Church Re-use
•

The Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E held its July meeting on June 30, discussing the Hyde School construction (coming very soon), the Taste of Georgetown (on Sept. 13 on K Street), BID five-year reauthorization (approved) and introducing new commissioner Dennis Quinn (for SMD 08).

The increasingly hot issue of dumpsters taking up space in the streets and staying in front of houses too long was raised and will be discussed in more length in the next ANC meeting, which will be in September.

One part of community comment was the surprising news of alley property sold by D.C. because of a tax lien which the new owner believes allows him to put up a fence around his property – blocking the alley that runs between Potomac Street and 33rd Street, NW. It is parallel to N Street. Homeowners were on hand to protest that idea.

Designs for the re-use of the Alexander Memorial Baptist Church property — to be turned into private residences – were shown by Sassan Gharai of SGA Companies. Neighbors on the 2700 block of N Street expressed their concerns. The rectory and church will be worked on first, while the proposed new house on an adjacent, empty lot has been tabled for now.

Taste of G’Town, Sept. 13
•

The Taste of Georgetown will return on Sept. 13 and will be held on K Street down near Georgetown Waterfront Park. K Street will be closed between Wisconsin Avenue and Thomas Jefferson Street for the annual restaurant sampling. It is the 21th year of the food-lovers’ event, which is run by the Georgetown Business Improvement District and benefits the Georgetown Ministry Center.

Now, Das Coffee We Love
•

Das Ethiopian Restaurant at 28th and M Streets held its Ethiopian coffee ceremony June 21 on the outside patio of the restaurant. Invited dinner guests sampled the Das Ethiopian Exclusive roasted Sidamo coffee, which was introduced to the group and is available for sale. Guests delighted in the unique coffee ceremony. After all, coffee originated in Ethiopia.

1914 Model T Pie Truck Takes Drive Through Georgetown
• June 30, 2014

Mike Copperthite, descendent of the founders of the Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Company, drove a restored 1914 Model T pie delivery truck into Georgetown from the Virginia suburbs June 22.

Cooperthite has revived the family’s pie business over the past few years and is selling pies in different locations or just donating them to various charitable events. He drove his pie truck — which caught everyone’s attention — around town from M Street and to Q Street and R Street.

Founded in 1888, the Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Company had locations in Georgetown and Capitol Hill. It not only was the biggest pie bakery in D.C. but was one of the biggest companies in D.C.

The Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Delivery Truck was restored a few months ago and is one of only 119 made in 1914 and was sold by the Ford Motor Company to the Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Company 100 years ago.

“Though intact and complete, she was in need of loving attention,” according to Copperthite. “The Henry Ford Museum folks gave a lending hand to Gary Cooper, a master craftsman, and the Model T Club of Southern Nevada in the restoration of Serial No.317233. Cooper and his team spent the last year putting her right.”

The story of the restoration of the pie truck will be told in July on the History Channel’s “Counting Cars.”

The truck will serve at special events, says Copperthite, “before heading to the Henry Ford Museum and the Model T National Museum to be exhibited before she goes into the Smithsonian Institution.”

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D.C. Capella Hotel Loses Chef Jakob Esko to Barcelona
• June 27, 2014

Just when things were humming along, executive chef Jakob Esko at the Washington Capella Hotel has announced that he is leaving the hotel July 1.

One should not surprised, however, as Esko — who is from Sweden and had his first job in Zurich — has been something of a globe-trotting chef. The company said Esko’s decision to depart was a personal one.

Esko runs the Capella’s Grill Room and Rye Bar. He has been at the Georgtown hotel — which made its debut in March 2013– about one-and-a-half years. Esko has worked at other Capella properties in Singapore, Mexico and Ireland. He also worked for the Ritz-Carlton in Barcelona between 2005 and 2008, where both of his sons were born. His wife Jodi is from Silver Spring, Md., and the couple met in Washington in 1994.

The 49-room boutique hotel on 31st Street next to the C&O Canal and its Grill Room and Rye Bar are a hit with visitors and neighbors alike. It regularly hosts culinary events with the community. Founded by former Ritz Carlton COO Horst Schulze, the company has other Capella hotels and resorts in Singapore, Dusseldorf, Ixtapa and Cabo San Lucas. The company has plans for hotel openings in such places as Bangkok and Russia.

Tony and Joe’s Fetes Tony on His 77th Birthday
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Tony Cibel celebrated his 77th birthday with a couple hundred of his closest friends June 5 at his waterfront restaurant at Washington Harbour, Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place, which marked its 25th year in 2012. Cibel is a native Washingtonian.

Tony Cibel founded Tony and Joe’s with Joe Rinaldi in October 1987 at the newly constructed Washington Harbour. His business projects have expanded since then. Cibel is the patriarch of the Oceanside Management Family of restaurants, which has included the Dancing Crab, Tony & Joe’s Seafood Place, Nick’s Riverside Grille, Kaufmann’s Tavern, Cabanas and the Rockfish. Tony and Joe’s survived the April 2011 flooding at the waterfront that damaged it and several other places. With a re-design, it emerged better than ever.

Party-goers were treated to oysters, shrimp, lamb chops, sauteed soft-shell crabs, split lobster, prime rib and drinks, of course — and, yes, there was dancing.
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