Latest News

Georgetowner • September 15, 2014

Turbokick Kickboxing at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library

September 11th, 2014 at 07:00 PM | Free | Erika.Rydberg@dc.gov | Tel: 202-727-0232 | Event Website](http://dclibrary.org/georgetown)

Want to kick-start your fall with a great workout? Join Stanli Montgomery, a professional fitness instructor, as she teaches Turbokick, a high-energy cardio kickboxing class, at the library in this one time class. We will take the first 30 people that register for this fitness class, but we will also have a waitlist. To register please email Erika.Rydberg@dc.gov at least 48 hours prior to the class.
Address

3260 R Street NW Washington, DC 20007

Brighter Futures Breakfast

September 12th, 2014 at 08:00 AM | kdugan@DoorwaysVA.org | Tel: 703-504-9289 | [Event Website](http://www.doorwaysva.org/)

Doorways has been serving the Arlington community for over 36 years, and creates pathways out of domestic violence and homelessness, leading to safe and stable lives. The Breakfast will highlight Doorways’ empowering programs and services that have helped thousands of men, women and children build safer, more independent and fulfilling lives. During this one-hour event, a continental breakfast will be provided, followed by clients sharing their incredible journeys out of crisis.

Address

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association; 4301 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22203

Galleries on Book Hill – Fall Art Walk

September 12th, 2014 at 06:00 PM | Free | neptunebrowngalleries@gmail.com | Tel: 2023380353 | [Event Website](http://georgetowngalleries.com/)

The Georgetown Galleries on Book Hill invite you to our FALL ART WALK: Friday, September 12 from 6 – 8 pm. Nine galleries will host an evening stroll and launch their fine art exhibitions in the most beautiful part of Washington, DC. Add to your collection and please join us for a night of art, fun, and refreshments.

Address

1662 33rd St. NW

Opening Reception: The Light that She Loves, Literary Paintings and Drawings by Maud Taber-Thomas

September 12th, 2014 at 06:00 PM | FREE | gallery@callowayart.com | Tel: 202-965-4601 | [Event Website](http://www.callowayart.com/)

Maud Taber-Thomas creates luminous drawings and paintings that embody a loving conversation between several different art forms. Her paintings tell the stories that she discovers in Victorian and Medieval literature, capture the vibrant light and color of far-off places and distant time periods, and weave together symbols in compositions reminiscent of polyphonic music.

Address

Susan Calloway Fine Arts; 1643 Wisconsin Ave NW

Taste Of Georgetown

September 13th, 2014 at 12:00 PM | Tel: 202-298-9222 | Event Website](http://www.tasteofgeorgetown.com/)

The annual Taste of Georgetown, celebrates its 21st year on Saturday, September 13, 2014 from 12 noon-5pm with creative tastes from more than 35 of the neighborhood’s best restaurants, as well as an expansive Craft Beer and Wine Pavilion and live entertainment. For the first time in the event’s history, the Taste will move from Wisconsin Avenue to K Street.

The Taste of Georgetown has become the premier food and wine festival of D.C. and benefits Georgetown Ministry Center’s.

Address

K Street NW adjacent Georgetown Waterfront Park between Wisconsin Avenue and Thomas Jefferson Street.

12th Annual Alexandria King Street Art Festival.

September 13th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | free | info@artfestival.com | Tel: 561-746-6615 | [Event Website](http://www.artfestival.com/)

Art lovers and collectors converge on King Street in beautiful Alexandria to meet local and national artists from 30 different states who will showcase their works including glass, mixed media, paintings, jewelry, and pottery. A unique blend of contemporary, original works at affordable prices. Saturday 10:00 am to 7:00 pm & Sunday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. www.ArtFestival.com – 561-746-6615. All ages welcome. Free.

Address

480 King St.; Alexandria, VA 22314

Family Day

September 13th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | Free | LincolnsCottage@savingplaces.org | Tel: 202-829-0436 | Event Website](http://lincolncottage.org/familyday2014/)

Celebrate Family Day at President Lincoln’s Cottage and enjoy the Soldiers’ Home grounds as the Lincoln family once did. Family members of all ages will enjoy the live entertainment and activities inspired by the Lincoln family and their life at the Soldiers’ Home. Activities include: pony rides, petting zoo, Civil War military encampment, US Army Brass Quintet, DIY top hats, picnicking grounds, Civil War-era games.

Address

140 Rock Creek Church Road, NW

Civil War Georgetown Tours

September 13th, 2014 at 10:30 AM | 8.00-15.00 | info@tudorplace.org | Tel: 202-965-0400 | [Event Website](http://www.tudorplace.org/event/house-walking-tours-tudor-place-and-the-civil-war-home-front/2014-09-13/)

Civil War meant uncertain times for Tudor Place and surrounding Georgetown. Learn in a unique house tour how owner Britannia Kennon saved her family home by boarding Union officers. After breaking for lunch on your own, return for an expert guided tour of historic Georgetown. See in person relics of the war’s turmoil including a Union hospital, grave sites of Confederate spies, and a mansion at the heart of the tragic slave escape ship, The Pearl.

Address

1644 31st street NW

Star-Spangled Spectacular: the 200th Anniversary of our National Anthem Celebration

September 13th, 2014 at 06:00 PM

Observe the bicentennial of the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the spot that endured the British bombardment, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write what became our National Anthem. This evening program commemorates that historic event through patriotic music by the United States Marine Band “The President’s Own,” the Morgan State University Choir and others.

Address

Fort McHenry; 2400 E Fort Ave, Baltimore, MD 21230

Contemplation & communion, 5pm Sundays, Grace Church

September 14th, 2014 at 05:00 PM | Free | assistant@gracedc.org | Tel: 202-333-7100 | [Event Website](http://www.gracedc.org/)

Grace Episcopal Church (www.gracedc.org) invites you to join them on Sundays at 5pm for a meditative service, an hour of contemplation and communion. Serene, historic Grace Church is located at 1041 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Georgetown. Come join us! Refreshments afterwards.

Address

1041 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007

Burl-eoke! Loves the Troops!

September 14th, 2014 at 06:30 PM | $10-$15 | 1viciousbunny@gmail.com | Tel: 4433158289 | [Event Website](https://www.facebook.com/events/557849404318965/)

The audience decides who wins in this game show that teams up karaoke singers and burlesque performers to compete for prizes!
We have finally made the move down I95 and we’re celebrating by honoring our nations service members!
Join Bunny Vicious and Lunchbox Lauren for the Capitol premier of the most fun burlesque show in the world!

Address

The Bier Baron Tavern; 1523 22nd St NW

RiRa Georgetown Charity Golf Tournament

September 17th, 2014 at 12:00 PM | [Event Website]http://rira.5.golfreg.com/ng/index.cfm/a62673/regPages/pages/?p=38880

Next Wednesday the 17th, RiRa Georgetown will host its first Charity Golf Tournament. All proceeds will be donated to the Salute Military Golf Association.

You can enter a team or enter as a single and join a team on the day. Event starts at 12pm.

Address

Westfield Golf Club; 13940 Balmoral Greens Ave, Clifton, VA 20124

Support a Cause on The Rooftop at The Embassy Row

September 17th, 2014 at 05:00 PM

The Rooftop at The Embassy Row Hotel is excited announce the launch of our “Support a Cause” series. $1 from every draft beer and glass of wine ordered will be donated to the chosen non-profit. The first event in the series, organized by Travel Channel’s Kathleen Rellihan will support The Runaway Bridesmaids Race to raise awareness and funds to fight human trafficking. Enjoy drinks for a great cause, raffled goodies, and a beautiful view of the DC skyline.

Address

The Rooftop at The Embassy Row Hotel; 2015 Massachusetts Ave NW

Robert Devaney • September 10, 2014

Love locks, which have been showing up on the railing of Key Bridge that links Georgetown and Arlington, will be cut off the structure Thursday by the District Department of Transportation, the agency says.

While Washington, D.C., may not want to look like it is anti-romantic, the padlocks are seen as damaging to the bridge over the long term.

“We are all about love—a nice bridge is love, a working bridge is love—but we are going to have to take them down,” DDOT spokesperson Reggie Sanders told WJLA. “It is an aesthetic problem as well.”

While love locks have been around for a long time, love locks on bridges gained major popularity in Europe within the past 10 years. Locks are put on railings or fences with a special inscription for the two lovers. Locks have also been cluttering up the Brooklyn Bridge. In June, the love-famed Pont des Arts footbridge in Paris near the Louvre lost part of its fencing which collapsed under the weight of so many locks.

Sanders further argued to WTOP: “Locks are being removed because we don’t want to establish a precedence where our structures could become polluted with these types of campaigns. Also, it could jeopardize the functionality of the railings.”

Robert Devaney •

Besides the dumpsters and service vehicles lined up for house renovations across Georgetown, major projects have gotten underway that involve schools, parkland and an old theater.

Duke Ellington School of the Arts is closed until September 2016 for redesign, renovation and additions. It is surrounded by a painted plywood barrier. The $82-million project will expand the historic school — built in 1898 and originally known as Western High School — to 294,900 square feet. The interior of the school will contain an atrium and a new 850-seat theater. The rooftop will have a classroom along with limited-use space. The school’s main portico will be preserved.

Work on the addition for Hyde-Addison Elementary Public School is being set up. Here is what the D.C. Department of General Services has said, in part: “This project involves the construction of an addition to Hyde Elementary that will consist of approximately 9,500 feet of additional space as well as a Phase 1 modernization of the existing Hyde school. It is contemplated that the addition will house a ‘Gymatorium,’ a media center and building service space (i.e., additional bathrooms, custodial and circulation space). This project will NOT include interior renovations of the Addison building. Site work will be directed at conserving the existing parking availability, preserving existing playground areas and circulation management. Due to the historic significance of the school and surrounding neighborhood, this project requires presentation of the proposed design to the Old Georgetown Board, the Commission on Fine Arts and State Office of Historic Preservation.”

Part of Rose Park at 26th and O Streets is closed for reconstruction “until sometime in November,” says the D.C. Parks & Recreation Department and D.C. Department of General Services. The playground, tot lot, basketball court and recreation center, including restrooms, are closed. The tennis courts remain open as does the ball field along P Street. The tennis courts will close in late September for two weeks of resurfacing. For more details, contact David Abrams of the Friends of Rose Park at jake.chase@juno.com.

Demolition and rehab work has begun on the old Georgetown Theater property with its iconic “Georgetown” neon vertical sign. Owner and architect Robert Bell contacted the Georgetowner concerning the upcoming reconstruction on the building at 1351 Wisconsin Ave., NW: “I will be removing the old sign and having it rebuilt by the original manufacturer — Jack Stone Signs — who still has all the templates and parts. I expect to have it removed in September and returned renovated in October, during which time I will be removing the faux stone and stuccoing the front façade to return it to the 1940 design.”

Robert Devaney •

The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation released the Outdoor Aquatic Facilities Closure Schedule for the 2014 summer season. DPR will implement the first phase of Outdoor Pool closures starting on Sunday, August 10. Below is information received from DPR.

• All Outdoor Pools will close in waves beginning on Sunday, August 10. Pools will close for the season at 6 pm on their respective Sundays.

• All Children’s Pools will close for the season at 6 pm on Sunday, August 17.

• All Spray Parks will close for the season at 7 pm on Labor Day, Monday, September 1. Please note that select spray parks will undergo renovations after September 1.

• East Potomac Outdoor Pool will close for the season at 6 pm on Sunday, October 19.

Below is the comprehensive closure schedule for the 2014 season. Pools are listed by type (Outdoor, Children’s and Spray Park) and then by date. Please call DPR’s Aquatics office at 202-671-1289 should you have additional questions or need further assistance.

2014 OUTDOOR AND CHILDREN’S POOLS CLOSURE SCHEDULE

– Closed August 10 for the season:

• Ward 5: Langdon Park Pool (2860 Mills Ave., NE)

• Ward 7: Kelly Miller Pool (4900 Brooks St., NE)

• Ward 8: Douglass Pool (1921 Fredrick Douglass Ct., SE)

– Closing at 6 pm on Sunday, August 17 for the season:

• Ward 1: Park View Children’s Pool (693 Otis Pl., NW)

Happy Hollow Children’s Pool (2200 Champlain St., NW)

• Ward 5: Harry Thomas Sr. Pool (1743 Lincoln Rd., NE)

• Ward 6: Lincoln Capper Children’s Pool (555 L St., SE)

Watkins Children’s Pool (420 12th St., SE)

• Ward 7: Benning Park Pool (5100 Southern Ave., SE)

– Closing at 6 pm on Sunday, August 24 for the season:

• Ward 2: Jelleff Pool (3265 S St., NW)

Volta Park Pool (1555 34th St., NW)

• Ward 5: Theodore Hagans Jr. Pool (3201 Fort Lincoln Dr., NE)

• Ward 6: Randall Pool (25 I St., SW)

• Ward 7: Fort Dupont Pool (830 Ridge Rd., SE)

• Ward 8: Anacostia Pool (1800 Anacostia Dr., SE)
Fort Stanton Pool (1800 Erie St., SE)

– Closing at 6 pm on Monday, September 1 for the season:

• Ward 1: Banneker Pool (2500 Georgia Ave., NW)

• Ward 2: Francis Pool (2435 N St., NW)

• Ward 4: Upshur Pool (4300 Arkansas Ave., NW)

• Ward 6: Rosedale Pool (1701 Gales St., NE)

• Ward 8: Oxon Run Pool (501 Mississippi Ave., SE)

– Closing at 6 pm on Sunday, October 19 for the season:

• Ward 2: East Potomac Pool (972 Ohio Dr., SW)

SPRAY PARKS CLOSURE SCHEDULE

– Closing at 7 pm on Monday, September 1 for the season:

• Ward 1: 14th & Girard Street Spray Park (14th & Girard Sts., NW)

14th & Park Road Spray Park (14th St. & Park Rd., NW)

Columbia Heights Spray Park (1480 Girard St., NW)

Harrison Spray Park (1330 V St., NW)

• Ward 3: Chevy Chase Rec. Ctr. Spray Park (5500 41st St., NW)

Friendship Spray Park (4500 Van Ness St., NW)

Macomb Spray Park (3409 Macomb St., NW)

Palisades Spray Park (5200 Sherier Pl., NW)

• Ward 4: Fort Stevens Spray Park (1327 Van Buren St., NW)

Lafayette Spray Park (5900 33rd St., NW)

Petworth Spray Park (801 Taylor St., NW)

Riggs LaSalle Spray Park (501 Riggs Rd., NE)

Takoma Spray Park (300 Van Buren St., NW)

• Ward 5: Joseph H. Cole Spray Park (1299 Neal St., NE)

Turkey Thicket Spray Park (1100 Michigan Ave., NW)

• Ward 6: Kennedy Spray Park (1401 7th St., NW)

• Ward 7: Fort Davis Spray Park (1400 41st St., SE)

Hillcrest Spray Park (3100 Denver St., NW)

• Ward 8: Fort Greble Spray Park (ML King Jr. Ave. & Elmira St., SW)

To contact DPR Aquatics Division, call 202-671-1289 or online at DPR Aquatics Activities or DPR Aquatics Facilities.

Robert Devaney •

The lively and delicious restaurant, Neyla, at 3206 N Street, next to Billy Martin’s Tavern, has lost its lease and will suspend operations on Sunday night, Aug. 17. Those involved with Neyla say they hope to find a new location.

Neyla is part of Capital Restaurant Concepts., Ltd. which owns nearby Paolo’s and its original place, J. Paul’s, on M Street as well as Old Glory and other spots.

Neyla — which means “fulfilled wish” — said this about itself: “the Mediterranean spirit of prosperity, abundance and success, is present in this urban caravanserai.” With its Lebanese and Near Eastern menus, Neyla was a welcoming spot for a simple meal or a VIP celebratory dinner.

The restaurant issued a statement on its website last week:

“Dear Neyla Friends and Family,

Thank you for letting us serve you over the past 15 years. Our lease at this location has come to an end. Our last day of business will be August 17, 2014.
Many of you are not just guests but friends and neighbors, and we will miss you.

It has been our please to serve each and every one of you our authentic Mediterranean cuisine.

We are actively looking a new location for Neyla. Let’s stay connected via Facebook, Twitter and our website for the news about Neyla.”

Georgetowner •

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has issued new guidelines today that will allow unlicensed websites and smartphone applications to provide alcohol services in the District.

The following is from the board:

The Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) recently reviewed several technology businesses that partner with liquor-licensed retailers to provide alcohol order and delivery services. ABRA informed companies Drizly and Klink today that the board did not find their business models in violation of District law.

The board advises technology companies facilitating the sale of alcohol through websites and apps to limit their operations to:

• Connecting consumers over the Internet to District retailers, such as liquor and grocery stores; and/or

• Promoting a retailer’s alcoholic products.

Technology companies are restricted from:

• Soliciting, selling and shipping orders for alcoholic beverages;

• Storing alcoholic beverages for sale to consumers; and

• Collecting any money, fees or transacting any credit or debit cards for the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Any credit or debit card information provided to a website or app would need to be transferred to a liquor-licensed retailer in order to complete the transaction. The licensee would also need to retain the discretion to process or deny any order. Complete details are available in the Board’s “ABC Board Advisory Opinion – Online Service Providers” and online, the ABC Quick Guide.
“We encourage businesses that facilitate the sale of alcoholic beverages to contact the agency before starting any new operations in the District,” said ABRA Director Fred Moosally. “This will allow us to ensure operations are compliant with the law before they begin.”

A technology company that violates D.C. law could be subject to criminal and civil penalties as well as an order to cease operations in the District. A licensed retailer that violates the law could face fines and possible suspension or revocation of its license.

Businesses that have questions can contact ABRA by email or call 202-442-4423. Complete District alcoholic beverage laws and regulations are available on ABRA’s website — www.ABRA.DC.gov.

Gary Tischler •

If cats have nine lives—and there was always something feline about her–Lauren Bacall had at least several in her life of legend.

Chapters in her early years can be boiled down to: before Bogey, with Bogey and right after Bogey. The rest involved a dwindling movie career, a resoundingly spectacular Broadway stage career with a cluster of roles that gave her diva status and a stately, always long-legged, glide into legend, an idea which she didn’t much cotton to.

As there always is, there was the last act, her death: at age 89 of a stroke Aug. 12 at the Dakota on the Upper West Side of New York City, where she lived for many years. It resurrected all in all of the venues of communications that comprise the forever industry and followed on the heels of the horribly sad loss of Robin Williams, who took his own life.

Hers was quite a life, if not quite a wonderful life, seeing as she began as a nice Jewish girl, named Betty Joan Perske. The name Lauren was chosen for her by director Howard Hawks—a man’s man director if there ever was one—who thought it sounded classy. She was not one of those stars who necessarily answered to her movie star name—she always preferred to be called Betty by her friends.

Hawks saw a 1943 cover that she did as a teen model in Harper’s Bazaar, all smoke and mirrors and sultry, and cast her in “To Have and Have Not,” a Warner Brothers classic tough-guy hero picture based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway, the ultimate tough guy writer, until Norman Mailer came along, and starring the premier Hollywood and American tough guy of deep cynicism and wise cracks, Humphrey Bogart. Into this booze-scented mélange of testosterone walked (and slithered and shimmied and even sang) Lauren/Betty, all of 19 years old, and Bogart—just watch the scenes sometime—looked like the 45-year-old-guy who’s forgotten how old he is. It didn’t happen in a second, but it was pretty fast for a time that didn’t have speed dating.

Bacall and Bogart made four movies together—“To Have and Have Not,” “The Big Sleep,” “Key Largo” and “Dark Passage,” the first three classics of the Hollywood black-and-white golden age of noir.

Bacall may have been 19 years old, and in youth astonishingly beautiful, but she looked and acted like an adult. She was in your face and imagination and mind even (and one time, especially, when she was walking away.) Movie buffs know all the lines from that movie (“To Have and Have Not”) and moments—she’s seen in a doorway, kind of posing, pulls out a cigarette and asks, “Anybody got a light?” Bogey, after some thought, throws her a book of matches, which she catches like a slick con woman. She lights up, starts to walk, turns around and says, “Thanks.” This single word hit Bogey like a paragraph. Or “You know how To whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.” Or after a kiss, “It’s even better when you help,” and after yet another kiss, “And if you shave, maybe we could do it again.”

No wonder they got married, after so much smooching.

In the 1950s, when live drama was in vogue on television, they appeared together in a Producer’s Showcase production of “The Petrified Forest,” with Bogey, noticeably gaunt, reprising his role of the gangster Duke Mantee from the 1930s. Bacall took on the Bette Davis role, and Henry Fonda played the idealistic writer, originally performed by Leslie Howard.

Bacall said she didn’t care about the age difference and considered it a plus—she was 19, Bogey was 45, when she taught us how to whistle. It’s fair to say there were occasions of disparity and discomfort, nothing that could harm a relationship which endured mostly happy until his death from throat cancer.

Those years with Bogart spanned the last years and legends of studio-made Hollywood and made Bacall one of the last surviving members, a bigger than life figure, partly because of Bogart, and the other men in her life—an odd grouping of a caddish Frank Sinatra, a roaringly-drunk but gifted Jason Robards, and even Adlai Stevenson, the cerebral man who would be but never was president.

Her movies tended to be a uneven array—a splashy fashion romance with Gregory Peck called “Designing Woman,” a high society femme fatale who almost undoes the jazz gift of Kirk Douglas, in the China seas with John Wayne in “Blood Alley,” sparkling and outstanding alongside Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell (she’s the thin one) in “How To Marry A Millionaire,” being stalked by Michael Biehn and loved by James Garner in “The Fan,” a widow-lady in John Wayne’s last western, “The Shootist,” and being nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the Barbra Streisand weeper, “The Mirror Has Two Faces,” in 1996.

Perhaps because of Robards, who was considered American theater’s most brilliant interpreter of Eugene O’Neill—and a pretty good movie actor, too—she found herself on Broadway, not with O’Neill but with lighter, diva-like fare, sharp comedies like “Goodbye Charlie” and “Cactus Flower.” To cap it all off, two Tony Awards for “Applause,” which was based on “All About Eve” (she had the Bette Davis part), and “Woman of the Year,” in which she played a woman journalist opposite Harry Guardino. It’s no surprise that the part was originated by Katharine Hepburn, or that she was a good pal of the marvelous Kate. Two of a kind, if you ask anybody.

In the end, Bacall became what she didn’t want to become: legendary, for all the right reasons, the best people and the best of times in Hollywood. Here’s looking at her, the kid.

Gary Tischler •

If you watch the news in this town and our towns across the country, you’re bound to have been saddened, bewildered and not a little agitated over the furor and fury that has erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed young black man was shot by a white police officer. This horrible, tragic event was followed by demonstrations, clashes between the police and demonstrators as well as looters, fire and tear gas in the night almost every night, in ways that we have seen before throughout our troubled and often violent racial history.

Nothing has really been settled yet. Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis with a predominantly black population and an overwhelmingly white police force, remains a cauldron of outrage, uncertainty, seething and explosive emotions, and conflicting and confusing accounts of what actually happened. The local police—heavily armed with high tech, military-style weapons—along side the county police and the highway patrol, and soon to be joined by the National Guard—have repeatedly clashed with demonstrators, many of whom have protested with their arms held high in the traditional “don’t-shoot” stance. The FBI is investigating the shooting and everything surrounding it. A video showing of the shooting victim, Michael Brown, and a friend allegedly stealing boxes of cigars from a convenience star was released several days later by the Ferguson sheriff’s department to outrage in the community. There have been at least two autopsies done on Brown’s body. The officer who shot Brown has been identified. The parents of Brown are demanding the arrest of the officer.

Ferguson has become a flash point for anger, another reminder that the racial divide in America appears in this case as wide and deep as ever. The situation was not new. The volatility of relations between the police force and the residents of Ferguson bubbled over with the shooting, but it’s also a part of a process which we have seen locally when Prince Georges County became a majority black county, even as the police force remained predominantly white. The same was true for Washington, D.C., in the wake of the coming of home rule until Marion Barry became mayor.

The echo of some of the imagery we’ve seen—the protesters in the streets, the heavily armed police force, acting very much like a military force, and the presence of familiar civil rights leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said, “Ferguson is the defining moment today in America”—reminded people of other times and other places—the shooting of Trevon Martin and Selma, to some.

Ferguson was a news story that became something way beyond itself. It was a reference story to the ongoing, often violent saga of race relations in this country and delivered its quota of tragedy, metaphors and memories.

Other things happened, of course. Ukraine remained a tinderbox, deaths from Ebola remained on the rise in West Africa, the truce in Gaza appeared to be holding amid the ruins and great tension. The United States — in a limited, but effective, way — helped slow the momentum of ISIS in Iraq with fighter and drone attacks.

We caught up with an old movie, “Dead Poet’s Society,” Peter Weir’s elegiac, lovely piece about the price of non-conformity at a 1950s prep school, where actor Robin Williams presided over and inspired a group of young students with “Carpe Diem.” It was a quiet, touching movie, every bit as memorable as Williams’s more manic efforts or the creepy “One Hour Photo.” It was also emblematic of the gifts of Weir, who gave us “Witness” and “The Year of Living Dangerously.” Williams’s suicide Aug. 11 and its manner touched cinematic tribal memories for anyone who watched television, laughed out loud often or went to the movies. It became a loss, like that of some never-forgotten friend from a distant land.

We also saw the new movie, based on a classic old tome of a novel: Lois Lowry’s 1993 novel for young people, “The Giver,” a book that found its way into many middle-school and high school curriculums as a thought-provoking work that let youngsters think about the kind of world which was best to live in.

Many years in the making—which, for what it was, did a respectable $12.8 million at the box office this weekend—it was an approximation of the book (which I gulped down over the weekend). It seemed almost hip and trendy in the sense that it caught the tail wind of two other movie version of teen books about heroes and heroines in a dystopian world, “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent,” helping to make the word “dystopian” very cool itself.

“The Giver”—which was helped into existence by the persistence of actor Jeff Bridges who has the title role—is about a world and a society, which has survived an unexplained catastrophe, called the ruins. In this brave new world, there are no emotions. There is nothing called death except the euphemistic “release” of the elderly and rule breakers. There is no music, no colors and no books. There is no conflict, racial or otherwise. There’s no unemployment, no war, no starvation, no unnecessary excitement, no love or hate. It’s all controlled by a ruling class, called the elders, and every one in it knows their place.

There is also the giver, the one person who holds all the memories of events, feelings, feelings, creativity and such that existed. He is there as a kind of wise man in waiting, who has the answers for any questions that might come up. In this society, everyone is given an assignment—and young Jonas, age 16 (he’s 12 in the book), is about to get his. He will become the new giver, a process by which the Giver himself fills him with all the memories that he has inside him.

Jonas soon s finds himself in conflict with the “community,” his family and his friends, not to mention a watchful head elder, played by Meryl Streep in the film.

This is, of course, a movie and it must have its heroics and action, but it is also a highly affecting work. I’m not sure why but the daily lives of Jonas, his family and friends and his adventures are a potent emotional brew.

We left the theater in Georgetown and wandered by the water fountain at Percy Plaza in Georgetown Waterfront Park, past the new restaurants at Washington Harbour. We saw the birds of the river and the family of man, chaotic, warm, energetic, enjoy the day and seizing it for its quality of gentleness and sunshine, the citizens of this town and our town, enjoying the fruits of whatever labor there is. I would not have been surprised to see a spry Walt Whitman singing the multitudes.

There were as yet no signs of ruins, only a pirate ship and two impressively sized yachts and dogs at play—these everyday things, far from Ferguson for now.

Robert Devaney •

A woman riding a moped died Aug. 15 after being hit by a truck on the 4900 block of Connecticut Avenue, NW, in the District, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

The accident occurred in front of Engine Company 31 around 8:30 Friday morning at Fessenden Street NW. D.C. Fire & EMS spokesman Tim Wilson told WTOP, “A witness came in and alerted the members that were inside. Immediately, the rest of the members of the fire house … ran out and assessed the situation and provided some medical care to the patient.”

The moped driver — 36-year-old Nadia Sophie Seiler of Wheaton, Md. — was taken to a local hospital, where she later died.
An MPD spokeswoman said that the truck driver stayed on the scene and that the incident was under investigation.

Robert Devaney •

Another Georgetown classic is about to vanish.

Mr. Smith’s — “the friendliest saloon in town” at 3104 M St., NW, since 1965 — will close within weeks, probably by Sept. 1, its general manager Juan Andino told several media outlets.

Andino told ABC 7 News and others that the Boston-based landlord is raising the rent to levels his business cannot afford. He also said that he hoped to relocate the restaurant elsewhere in Georgetown, just as those who ran the closed Neyla, due to a lost lease, have indicated.

Said local advisory neighborhood commissioner Bill Starrels: “Mr. Smith’s, a fixture on M Street since 1965, was one of Georgetown’s enduring establishments. It added a nice flavor to the scene, and its piano bar will be missed.”

Mr. Smith’s with its piano bar and sing-alongs amid vintage furnishings is known to many Washingtonians as a spot where they had some of their first dates. As the restaurant wrote on its website: “One customer summed up Mr. Smith’s quite nicely a few years ago when he said, ‘…with its faded Victorian elegance, Mr. Smith’s is the place to go for good food and great fun!’ ”