News & Politics

Peter Murray • April 23, 2015

Peter Thiel, the multi-billionaire investor who founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies and played a key role in funding Facebook, SpaceX and LinkedIn, comes to Georgetown University on Tuesday, March 31, to deliver “Developing the Developed World,” as part of the Michael Jurist Memorial Lecture series.

The lecture is cosponsored by Georgetown Young Americans for Liberty, Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, and online publication Venture Capitol and will touch upon Thiel’s philosophy regarding technology and innovation, the focus of his new book “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build The Future.”

The event runs from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the ICC Auditorium and admission is free with a complimentary copy of “Zero to One” for the first 300 attendees. For any questions or concerns, contact Christopher Grillo at cfg32@georgetown.edu.

The Washington, D.C. office of Thiel’s company Palantir Technologies jumped from the suburbs to the city in January, when it moved from McLean to 1025 Thomas Jefferson St. in Georgetown between Baked & Wired and Washington Harbour.

Gary Tischler •

These days, St. Patrick’s Day, the American national holiday saluting this country’s Irish heritage, which holds multitudes, sneaks up on you.

There was and will be a parade, and there will be green beer and Guinness, in all the establishments calling themselves worthily or not Irish, and there will be singing and beer on the floor and bragging and the telling of tales, perhaps. It’s the cliché of it all.

Someone somewhere, whole slew of somebodies are reading one by one out loud “Ulysses” and the lads will be hoping that there’ll be a lass, like Molly in that same book saying “yes, yes, yes.”

But there is something about the Irish worth celebrating, and it has less to do with froth on a glass, than it does the way the Irish have made their presence felt in the world, here, for certain, aye, but also elsewhere wherever they showed up in numbers.

Our histories—that sea of Americans different from one another and the same—are intertwined, beginning with early immigrants and landowners, going on to the flood of migrants in the wake of the mighty, blighted potato famine which brought a flood of the Irish to these shores, some of them just in time for the Civil War.

There is something about the Irish—they came from a country beautiful, but hard in giving out its natural wealth. They come from a country full of tillers and priests and nuns and publicans and teachers and politicians and rebels and thinkers, and the men and women of words, words, words, and actors, poets and playwrights and the mighty mothers of them all.

Getting older makes wretched excesses of Irishism less appealing, but the song on songs linger, and the words remain strongly spoken and go on being written. I remember the celebrants, too: once, I went to a St. Patrick’s Day bar in San Francisco accompanied by a young lady named Margie O’Clair, black of hair and smart of whip-like wit and beauty, too. She asked me why I wore an orange jacket to an Irish bar and proceeded to tell me why I shouldn’t have. And yet, I survived, because the Irish, I guess, can tolerate a German’s stupidity. [Editor’s note: orange is the color for Irish Protestants, who also have been called Orangemen.]

In years gone by, I knew the local places here—some still surviving—the Dubliner and Kelly’s Irish Times, cheek to cheek near Union Station, Danny Coleman and Hugh Kelly, proprietors, respectively, and I heard a gentleman from the Irish Embassy, at three in the wee morning sing “Danny Boy” in the kitchen of the Irish times., red faced and white haired and in fine voice as he was.

Here in Washington, we always tell the tales of the Kennedys, the brothers, John, Robert and Ted, the father Joe, and the mother Rose, and the not-so-holy ghosts of their stories. Boston, no matter who lives there will always be an urban shrine to the Irish.

Washington always had a lively Irish music scene, and in the 1980s, there was the Irish Tradition, the closest thing to local Irish rock stars, with accordionist Billy McComiskey, guitarist Andy O’Brien and champion Irish fiddler Brendan Mulvihill, singing “The Wild Rover” in the Dubliner and Times.

It’s the music and the poets that survive and count for so much. The Chieftains were just in time, and the plays and playwrights always are—George Bernard Shaw, the greatest and smartest wit that ever lived, Oscar Wilde, the most sophisticated man who came to such a sad end, Brendan Behan, Samuel Beckett and a whole new generation of Irish Playwrights. And let me just list: Joyce Himself and Flann O’Brien and Yeats and Seamus Heaney and the American Eugene O’Neill.

In the wiki wonderland, there is a category called “List of Irish People”. Not all, but it seems so. And the longest list are made up of writers, actors and musicians, not generals or Wall Streeters. To with: actors: Stephen Boyd, Kenneth Branagh,Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, a number of Cusacks, including Sinead, wife to Peter O’Toole, Daniel Day Lewis, Colin Farrell, Barry Fitzgerald, whose horse knew the way in “The Quiet Man”, Fionnula Flanagan (ah, what a name), several Gleesons, including Brendan, Richard Harris, Micheal Mac Liammhoir (co-founder of the Gate Theatre), Colm Meaney, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Liam Neeson, Maureen O’Hara, Milo O’Shea, Niall Toibin, Fiona Shaw.

Towith: musicians: Chloe Agnew, Big Tom Of big Tom and the Mainliners, Enya, Sinead O’Connor, Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard, Liam, , Paddy, Tom and Willie Clancy, The Corrs, The Edge, Seamus Ennis , Uilleann piper, Angela Feeny opera singer, Rory Gallagher, blues/rock guitarist, and I could go on, but here’s one that sums it up: Finbart Furey, singer/songwriter, uillean piper, 5 string banjo player and actor.

Towith: writers: John Banville, Brendan Behan, Maeve Binchy, Patrick Bronte, Brian Coffey, Roddy Doyle, several Delaneys, Thomas Flanagan, Brien Friel, F. Scott Fitzgerald (says so here), Oliver Goldsmith, Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, Patrick Kavanagh, Benedict Akiel (Saoi of Aosdana) C.S. Lewis, Malachi Martin, horror writer, Frank McCourt, poet Nuala Nik Dhomhnaill, the glorious O’s, Edna O’Brien, Sean O’Casey, Frank O’Connor, Mairtin O Direain, Sean O’Faolain, George Bernard Shaw, Laurence Sterne, Bram Stoker, horror writer, John Millington Synge, Twenty Major, blogger, Oscar Wilde. And so on.

So many words, so many characters, so many songs.

So, I would suggest what we can all do for St. Patrick’s day. Say a word or two, sing a song, act a part. And, of course, say a prayer.

David Roffman •

All right, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has arrived. So, it’s time to make our 2015 NCAA predictions.

There are lots of ways to measure the performance of a team when preparing our 2015 NCAA predictions. Some examples, moving from least useful to most, are won-loss record, RPI rating, average margin of victory, NCAA tournament seed, and predictive power ratings. Yes, that’s correct: won-loss record is at the bottom of the list when it comes to making your NCAA predictions. Luck plays a large role in wins and losses, so margin of victory is a better predictor to use when making predictions for the 2015 NCAA tournament. Our power ratings combine margin of victory with information about who a team played, where they played them, and when they played the game. These are the most important factors when rating a team.

I must interject here that several teams in the select 64 simply do not deserve to be in the tournament. Texas and UCLA come to mind. They both have 13 losses on the season. Pathetic! Indiana doesn’t deserve to be in the tournament either.

I might also interject here that every sports pundit in America thinks Kentucky –including the President of the United States — will win it all, based on the fact that Kentucky has a purported five players who will go in the first round of the NBA draft this year. And they’re all freshmen. They may all make NBA teams in the first round, but they will not win this year’s NCAA Tournament. Stay tuned for my upset prediction.

Locally, it is impressive that Georgetown University, University of Maryland, University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University have all made the cut to the select 64. They will all win their first two games which will take them to the Sweet Sixteen, but only U.Va. will advance any further.

I am also impressed by the state of Iowa, which is fielding three teams in the tournament: Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa. All three are sleepers and could surprise a lot of people. Another powerful sleeper to watch is Wichita State. They got to the Final Four last year remember, and they come in with a solid team this year as well.

Here is the way I see the four divisions coming out: In the Midwest, Kentucky will make the final four by narrowly defeating a tough Notre Dame squad.

University of Virginia emerges out of the East defeating a super Louisville team.

In the West, I see Wisconsin and Arizona in a heated battle with Arizona coming out on top.

And in the Southwest, it will come down to Gonzaga and Duke, but the stronger team will be victorious, and that is Gonzaga.

Thus, my Final Four will be Arizona playing Kentucky, and Gonzaga meeting UVA. Two great games for sure. The upset of upsets will be Arizona beating Kentucky handily, and meeting Gonzaga in the Final game for the title. Arizona has a solid starting five, including a very hot three point shooting guard and a big, tough center. Gonzaga also is solid, with a 5th year senior at point guard and he too can knock down the threes with ease.

I predict Arizona will be victorious in the end. And it will be great for college basketball to see the all freshman Kentucky squad go down in defeat.

Although a few games have begun, there is a link to this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament brackets. Take a chance, fill them it and see whether you, I or President Obama is right.

NCAA.com

Caitlin Franz •

The seventh annual Potholepalooza will begin in Washington, D.C., April 1 and continues throughout the month.

Major evacuation routes and federal aid roads will receive priority repairs, according to the District Deparment of Transportation (DDOT).

However, Potholepalooza creates a month-long series of repairs directed by requests made to the city. In that time frame, the crews will work as quickly as possible, including on nights and weekends.

Pothole repairs are considered to be an effective temporary repair to extend the life of the driving surface before repaving takes place.

You can request pothole repair services by calling 311 or by completing a service request online through DDOT’s website. All you have to do is indicate the pothole location (i.e., address, intersection) and describe the severity of the problem (i.e., depth, width, number of potholes in one location). A service request will be put into the tracking system with a service request number.

It is DDOT’s standard to fix potholes within three business days of the time they are reported.

If the pothole hasn’t been repaired by the specified date of completion, you are encouraged to call 311 or 202-727-1000 with your service request number.

Linnea Kristiansson •

The trendy spin studio SoulCycle will take over a former Georgetown restaurant and hookah bar later this year. The company has been growing in and around D.C. over the past few months, most recently opening locations in the West End in 2014 and Bethesda earlier this year.

Two new locations are in the works for the Washington area this year, according to SoulCycle, and the company has signed a lease for 1024 Wisconsin Ave. NW, where the poorly regarded Prince Cafe closed last fall. The Georgetown SoulCycle will have a 56-bike studio to host its signature classes. SoulCycle’s classes combine spinning on stationary bikes with upper-body workouts. The new location will include a SoulCycle lifestyle boutique.

Linnea Kristiansson •

Few people know that the Williams sisters weren’t the first African American siblings to take tennis by storm. Before Venus and Serena, Margaret and Roumania Peters were an unbeatable pair in the Jim Crow tennis era of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Council member Jack Evans will ask the District Council to name Rose Park tennis courts at 26th & O Streets after the sisters.

Having begun playing tennis as young girls in Georgetown, the sisters were eventually offered tennis scholarships to Tuskegee University in Alabama. Due to segregation, the Peters sisters could play only in the all-black American Tennis Association. Established in 1916, ATA is the oldest black sports organization in the country.

During their time in Alabama and for a decade after leaving, the Peters sisters dominated the women’s game, winning 14 doubles titles between 1938 and 1941 and between 1944 and 1953. Roumania won ATA national singles titles in 1944 and 1946. Films of their ATA victories were shown at black movie theaters, including the Mott on 26th Street NW near P Street in Georgetown, where they were local heroes. The Peters also played matches in front of the British royalty on a trip to the Caribbean. Celebrities such as actor-dancer Gene Kelly practiced with them when he was in Washington.

Both Peters sisters earned master’s degrees in physical education from New York University and returned to Washington to work. The little-known predecessors of Althea Gibson, who, in 1956, became the first person of color to win a Grand Slam title (and went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals), their wider recognition is long overdue.

Robert Devaney •

“There will be no changes,” said Vanussa Mendes, who with her husband purchased Georgetown Hairstyling, the century-old barber shop business on 35th Street. Most of the staffers are women, who cut men’s hair only.

“It will be operated in the same way as before for our clients,” Mendes said. The men’s haircut spot has been a favorite of Georgetown residents and students for decades. Mendes bought the business from retired barber Rigo Landa, who sold it to his stepson Ed Lara a few years ago. The 55-year-old Lara died suddenly last June of a heart attack, leaving the future of the shop uncertain.

New owner Mendes takes over the barber shop with employees Veronica Corado, who has worked there for more than 20 years, Orathai Jaran and Nguyen Kha. Previously, Mendes worked at Aveda in Bethesda. She hails from Brazil and lives in Falls Church with her husband and 13-year-old daughter. [gallery ids="102054,134559" nav="thumbs"]

Caitlin Franz •

The Georgetown gas station at 2715 Pennsylvania Ave N.W. is under new management.

The former Lukoil/Georgetown Getty has become a Valero gas station.

Abe Sayyad, station manager, said the change took place at the beginning of April.

“We provide the lowest gas prices of any station in the area,” Sayyad said.

In addition to offering low price fuel and affordable automobile repair services, the gas station is working to bring more convenience store elements to the location, including snacks and drinks.

Valero is currently in the process of incorporating the store. The transition should be completed within the next few weeks, according to Sayyad.

“We’re happy to be in the area,” Sayyad said.

The D.C. council prohibited the sale of property containing a gas station for a use of any other kind without prior approval from the Gas Station Advisory Board.