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Getting to the Heart of the Georgetown House Tour
May 17, 2012
•If you’re one of those persons who’ve been on a few Georgetown House Tours, you begin to get a notion about some of the things the tour might be about.
The tour is about history, for sure—about the homes being shown, about the people who have lived in them and live in them now, about change in Georgetown and change in how people live. For all the historic, stately qualities of Georgetown, it’s a remarkably fluid place, and you can see that in the homes that are being shown. Those houses, acting like official greeters, may show a part of the past, and a part of the present to visitors all at the same time
Georgetown is after all a historic district where wholesale physical change is difficult to achieve—but things are often going on inside that speak to the modern and to the future, as well as individual style and taste.
People flock to the Georgetown House Tour with expectations that they will see a portion of the lives and looks of the persons who occupy and own these houses and that they will reflect the village of people with residents who know how to live with style and grace. They also expect to see the living breath of history—the occasional antique piece of eye-popping furniture, paintings, gardens, the work of fabulous interior decorator, the timeless touch of the history of the homes themselves. To visitors, Georgetown can seem like Brigadoon, separate from its surroundings.
All of these elements come together in the annual spring Georgetown House Tour, sponsored by historic St. John’s Episcopal Church and benefits many of its long-time charitable activities. Like many “festive” or “tour” events in the city, it has grown and branched out over the years, adding social occasions—the Patrons’ Party, for instance—and mini-events on the day of the tours like the hugely popular afternoon tea at St. John’s.
And every year, there are people who gather together to lend their resources, talents, time and efforts to ensure the event’s success. There are volunteers, quasi-docents, ticket-takers, information providers and so on. There are corporate sponsors, such as Washington Fine Properties, and there are the folks who lend their name and their time and effort as the co-chairs and the kind folks who open their homes.
This year, the co-chairs — Frank Randolph, a renowned interior designer and Stephanie Bothwell, who heads her own business called Urban and Landscape Design — combine with Frida Burling, long the soul and inspiration of the Georgetown House Tour, to bring together themes of history, interior and exterior designs, i.e., how we live in our homes and communities and share the best of those qualities with each other and the world.
Randolph, known for his enchanting interior designs, is ideally suited for his role as co-chair: He is, without a doubt, one of the village’s most unabashed boosters, a native son, born and raised in Georgetown, a student at Western High before it became Duke Ellington School for the Arts. Bothwell is a relative newcomer to Georgetown, having lived here with her family for 12 years, but she brims with a passion for the village and ideas about achieving ideal and workable designs for urban living.
Burling, who for years with an energy that surprises people to this day, made sure that the tour would come off every year—by marketing, by cajoling, persuading, charming, pushing and using her considerable contacts to make it happen. She became the face and voice of the tour, it’s most able, articulate promoter. In 2001, when Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn hosted the tour’s patrons’ party, the Georgetowner newspaper arrived at their N Street home to take a cover photo. An editor asked Bradlee why he was involved, and the Washington Post executive editor roared back: “Because Frida told me to.”
The combination of the three speaks the best of Georgetown, a sense of a community with historic offerings that presents a graceful face to the world and to itself, for that matter.
“It goes without saying, “ Randolph says. “One of the key components is the fact that all of us, the residents of Georgetown, get to visit each other at one time or another. It’s a community thing that way.”
Of course, Randolph combines the historic with designer know-how and appreciation as well as an articulate, busy knowledge of his favorite place. “I can think of only a few houses in Georgetown that I’ve not been in,” he says. “And, over the years, I’ve done the interior design for, I don’t know, 30 or 40 homes. Of course, that includes my own home.” It is on 34th Street near Dent Place and has a certain cache beyond his own ownership, which is no small thing either. “Henry Kissinger lived here for a few years,” he says. If you want cache, or just history chat, talk with Randolph. His father was a senator from West Virginia. Randolph was asked to redecorate the Vice President’s Residence when the Cheneys lived there. “I had a privileged upbringing, you could say, but not spoiled or extravagant,” he said. “I was and still am very appreciative of the opportunities.”
The world comes to tour the nine Georgetown homes on Saturday, April 28. It used to spread over two days on a spring weekend but has since been held on Saturday only. “Georgetown presents one of the better illustrations of livable urban design, I’m not talking about showing off a collection of solar panels or being green. It’s about ease of movement, access and connection,” Bothwell said.
“The house tour shows people the history here, sure, but I think it also shows how you can manage change in interior ways, what you can do with old homes to make them more contemporary while keeping the history and beauty,” she said. “We have a remarkable variety in housing stock here—it’s not all mansions and big properties, although we have plenty of that here. It’s livable, manageable homes, some quite small. And the homes are very deceptive from the outside; they give off the historic feeling without revealing their depth or size.”
Echoing that theme, Randolph said, “I absolutely love Georgetown. I have everything here I need. I can walk to the Safeway or Whole Foods and restaurants galore. We have the firemen at Dent Place nearby. It’s fluid, it changes and the people change. But it has tradition. It has history that’s permanent. And I think you can see that reflected on the tour. I’ve lived here most of my life, and I wouldn’t live anywhere else
Randolph, a Georgetowner par excellence, can tell you about the various schools—Hardy, Hyde, Western—and the people who have lived here. He knows lots of people and has a host of friends. “I live by myself,” he says. “I don’t even have a pet. I have a porcelain dog. He’s the perfect pet. You don’t have to walk or feed him, and he’s always there for you. But I share this place with my friends, this lovely village.”
Frida Burling can tell you a little about life in Georgetown herself, too. At 96, she’s seen and done a lot in her village. In a phone conversation, she tells you she’s slowing down—then rattles off a series of activities, meetings with relative, church, another meeting Sunday afternoon—that indicates she still keeps a busy schedule. She is the tour chair emerita and is hosting the Patron’s Party on April 25.
She recalls how she first got involved in the house tour, which had begun during the Depression as a small thing, probably with people in a bus going by houses. “My husband and I (the late Edward Burling, whom she still refers to as Eddie) used to go on weekends out to Middleburg, but that’s hunt country, and it’s not Georgetown. I got involved with St. John’s which is so much a center of all this with their many projects. Eventually, I got involved in the house tour, because that’s a way to support those charitable projects like the Georgetown Ministry.”
No question about it, she propelled the house tour into its next incarnation to the point where it has become an institution, a must-do event and an integral part of the community’s traditions. She did it by example—her energy became legendary as she got older. She remembers asking best-selling author and biographer Kitty Kelley, a Georgetowner to the bone, to host the first patrons’ party in the late 1990s. The patron’s parties were a Burling innovation, and it enlarged the image of the tour, created a higher profile.
“I think it’s one of the oldest house tours in the country,” she said. “I know it sets an example. And, simply by being who she is, so does Frida Burling.
The 2012 Georgetown House Tour at a Glance:
From the east side to the west side, from 28th Street to 35th Street and from N Street to Q Street, the Georgetown House Tour spreads its welcome mat over Washington’s most historic neighborhood, Saturday, April 28, 11 a.m to 5 p.m. For the price of $40 ($45 after April 20), visitors and residents may walk through nine homes and the home’s grounds. It is a chance to glimpse some history, to get some decorating and home improvement ideas and to feel the ease of city living. Who would open their doors to strangers? Try at least three architects, an artist, a designer, a real estate developer and agent, a financial manager, a high-tech manager, a college dean, a lawyer and another lawyer who happens to represent Georgetown as the Ward 2 councilmember.
The following have opened their homes on behalf of the tour and deserve a big thank you from the community: Cherry and Peter Baumbusch; Kristin and John Cecchi; Pat Dixon; Michele and Jack Evans; Hugh Newell Jacobsen; Kristin and Greg Muhlner; Dale and Melissa Overmyer; Alice Hall and Peter Starr; Christian Zapatka.
There is a tea at St. John’s Church parish hall (O and Potomac Street), 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 28, the day of the tour. The Patron’s Party is on April 25 at Frida Burling’s house on 29th Street.
For more information, visit GeorgetownHouseTour.com or call 202-338-1796. [gallery ids="100717,120652,120618,120644,120626,120639,120633" nav="thumbs"]
Space Shuttle Discovery Retires to Air & Space Museum
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The Space Shuttle Discovery was officially received by the Smithsonian Institution April 19 and placed on permanent display, replacing the shuttle Enterprise at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, next to Dulles Airport. The two crafts met nose-to-nose at a sunlit ceremony that celebrated the space program’s achievements with calls for greater education and for most space exploration.
With music by the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps and Marine Corps Color Guard, the “Star-Spangled Banner” was sung by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Participants included 14 of Discovery’s 31 living commanders. Speakers included NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough, National Air and Space Museum Director J.R. “Jack” Dailey, former astronaut and Senator John Glenn and chair of the Smithsonian board of regents France Córdova.
Discovery moves into the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar, and the Enterprise will move to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on the Hudson River in New York City. [gallery ids="100751,122274,122266,122245,122260,122254" nav="thumbs"]
John Edwards: Far From Georgetown Today
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For John Edwards, former senator from North Carolina and John Kerry’s vice presidential candidate, and for Georgetown, eight years ago was a heady time. That summer’s campaign saw not one but two Georgetowners running for national office against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Kerry, who still lives on the 3300 block of O Street with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, had found a running mate exactly one block north on P Street.
Here’s how a September 2004 article in the Los Angeles Times put it:
“For the first time in American history, both members of the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket live in Georgetown — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in the 3300 block of O Street in a $4.7-million home owned in the 19th century by the minister to the Russian czar; North Carolina Sen. John Edwards in the 3300 block of P Street in a $3.8-mansion with a 20th century pedigree for the society entertaining that characterized the Kennedy era.
‘This promises to be 1960 all over again,’ cooed the Georgetowner, a must-read throwaway for area residents, in an editorial after presidential hopeful Kerry named Edwards as his running mate. ‘And if the dynamic duo should happen to win, well, if you were waiting for real-estate prices to come down in Georgetown, forgeddaboutit.’ ”
Well, the president got re-elected, and Edwards began preparations for his 2008 campaign to seek the presidency a second time. A star in his party, he seemed blessed with people skills, good looks, an easy-going speaking style and a common touch. He sold his P Street house — bought in 2002 for $3.8 million — in December 2006 for $5.2 million and left Georgetown and D.C.
That stately P Street home has its tales to tell: a 19th-century home to a relative of Francis Scott Key, John J. Key of Kentucky, it is best known for its parties and events by Polly Fritchey, a major arts patroness and influencer along with her friends Katharine Graham, Lorraine Cooper, Pamela Harriman, Evangeline Bruce, Polly Kraft and Susan Mary Alsop. Fritchey died ten years ago.
That was then, and today John Edwards is on trial in Greensboro, N.C., for alleged illegal campaign contributions. Almost one million dollars were supposedly used to cover up his affair and support his mistress and illegitimate child, while his wife suffered (and later died) from cancer.
The state capital’s Raleigh News & Observer views the story of its former senator from North Carolina and trial lawyer known for his malpractice cases as a modern-day Greek tragedy:
“John Edwards, the former Democratic U.S. senator and presidential candidate whose descent from the heights of politics was faster and deeper than his quick ascent, is at the center of a criminal trial that will follow a story of sex, political conniving, vast wealth and personal betrayals.”
Edwards is being castigated for lying, philandering and worse; he is also being prosecuted under campaign-finance laws that some argue do not require a clear quid-pro-quo connection.
“It was hard to find the right buyer,” W. Ted Gossett, the Edwards’ real estate agent, told the Washington Post at the time of the P Street house sale in 2006. And it is hard to find that once promising candidate for those who supported Edwards betrayed by the false one today.
Edwards waved to well-wishers as he walked down the steps of his P Street home on a sunny, July day. While he and we did not know it, he was at his zenith as a man in the public eye. The summer of 2004 in Georgetown seems so long ago and far away.
D.C. Schools Celebrate the Henderson Effect
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It has been a noteworthy week for D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson. She outlined a comprehensive plan for public schools, received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Georgetown University, and had six of her schools chosen to receive $4.5 million dollars over three years from Target to improve literacy.
With Mayor Vincent Gray, Henderson announced on April 18 a five-year, five-point plan to make public schools better or, as they put it, “to rebuild the District’s traditional public schools into a high-quality, vibrant system that earns the confidence of the entire community.” It is “an effort to dramatically increase student achievement, graduation rates, enrollment and student satisfaction.”
“This plan will move us into the District’s next phase of school reform, building on our recent successes and capitalizing on the dramatic population and economic growth our city has seen in recent years,” Gray said. The initiatives are part of D.C. Public Schools’ Five-Year Strategic Plan. Called “A Capital Commitment,” the plan helps guide spending and programmatic decisions through 2017.
“These commitments support our goals for the next five years and the promises we have made to the District of Columbia, to our families and our students, and to all our stakeholders to provide the students of this city with a world-class education,” Henderson said. “Behind each of these goals are real, specific financial commitments that will help us build on the momentum we have seen over the past five years and move forward aggressively toward dramatic improvements.”
Over the next five years, D.C. Public Schools has committed to the following five goals:
— Increase District-wide math and reading proficiency to 70 percent, while doubling the number of students who score at advanced levels of proficiency;
— Improve the proficiency rates for our 40 lowest-performing schools by 40 percentage points;
— Increase our high school graduation rate from 52 percent to 75 percent;
— Ensure that 90 percent of DCPS students like the school they attend; and
— Increase overall DCPS enrollment.
At Georgetown University on April 23, Henderson, who graduated from its School of Foreign Service in 1992, was in Gaston Hall to get her Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, in front of some teachers from her elementary school as well as family and friends and those from DCPS, Georgetown, Teach For America and the New Teacher Project.
“I stand on this stage today only because of the people sitting here in this room,” she said. “Each and every one of you has directly or indirectly made an indelible impression on my life.”
“The piece of the world that Kaya has chosen to affect is fundamental to the strength, progress, prosperity of our city, country and our interconnected global society,” said John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. “It’s nearly impossible to speak with Kaya about education without understanding that her work is motivated by a deep sense of personal purpose and a clear, poignant set of values.”
Last November, Forbes magazine named Henderson one of the “World’s 7 Most Powerful Educators.” [gallery ids="100755,122613" nav="thumbs"]
Cherry Hill Lane Revives 1950s’ Tradition
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This newspaper receives many invitations and requests for coverage from around town, the city and elsewhere. But the folks at Cherry Hill Lane and Cecil Place, close to the Georgetowner’s office, sent us an e-mail that grabbed our attention:
“On April 28, 1955, the Georgetowner ran a story entitled ‘The passing of Georgetown’s Last Slum: Cherry Hill Rises from the Ashes…’ It talks about the Cherry Hill neighborhood’s history and mentions that there is going to be a party on May 14, 1955, to celebrate the repeal of the Alley Dwelling Act and the paving of Cherry Hill Lane. The Cherry Hill neighborhood has recently been going through a similar revival, and neighbors felt it was time for another party. So, on May 12, from 6 to 9, we’re throwing a block party with square dancing like they did back in 1955.”
The people who live around Cherry Hill and Cecil held their May 12 block party and celebrated their history and their latest improvements. Between the C&O Canal and the Potomac River, the little streets and homes were saved for today’s owners. “In 1955, they were celebrating the repeal of the alley act and paving Cherry Hill Lane for the first time,” said Michele Jacobson, who led the event planning. “Now, in 2012, 57 years later, we’re celebrating the repeal of the alley act (or the rowhouses on Cecil and Cherry Hill would have been torn down), the regrading of Cecil Place to stop the flooding of houses” and several public transportation and landscaping projects. Jacobson and party-goers were happy to applaud the assistance of Colleen Hawkinson, Olusegun Olaore, Meg Hardon, Rahmat Rasson and Lydia Dickens along with the public library’s Jerry McCoy for providing historical information, Tom Birch from ANC, Ray Kukulski of CAG, Betsy Emes of Trees for Georgetown, some of whom got gifts during the May 12 party. Jacobsen and organizers also thanked Jack Evans Ruth Werner, Bill Starrels, Ron Lewis and others.
The party illustrated the best of classic Georgetown: a sense of history (That old “Cherry Hill gang was tough and so were the prostitutes.”), a sense of community (help from the D.C government and a neighboring condo group and nearby business) and a sense of fun (square-dance calling by Jim Wass) — all to make living here better.
The Georgetowner also reported about that 1955 event in 1961 and 2002. Of course, we had to be there again. So, let’s add this one to [gallery ids="102452,121105" nav="thumbs"]
Council Discusses Budget Priorities; Send in Your Opinions, Too
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Beginning on May 9, the council members got together around one table to discuss our budget priorities and contrast those with the items included in the Mayor Gray’s budget. First, a note on the process: this type of discussion has historically been very helpful, as it is a rare opportunity for the full council to get together and speak more candidly than they often feel they are able to in a more formal meeting setting. In the interest of open government, we have now brought television cameras and microphones into the room. While it is great that members of the public can now witness these discussions, I have found unfortunately that the addition of the public eye leads to political posturing and grandstanding, which can reduce the quantity of productive dialogue.
One of the high points of Wednesday’s discussion was regarding the restoration of funding for the Housing Production Trust Fund, which is a program I created the legislative authority for with then-council member Adrian Fenty. I am a big supporter of this program because it actually works to create affordable housing for those who need it. When I created the program, I also instituted a dedicated funding source from the deed and recordation tax revenue so that it would always have the resources it needed. Unfortunately, my colleagues have raided this money repeatedly, using it instead for the Rent Supplement Program. This program is supposed to help working families make rent payments by supplementing the amount of rent they are able to pay. Its predecessor program was eventually done away with when it was discovered that landlords would simply raise rents by the amount of the government supplement payment, thus resulting in a windfall for landlords who could have afforded the lower rents they had in place prior to the supplement, while providing no additional benefit to the working families. If my colleagues want to fund the Rent Supplement Program, they should look for strategic cuts within the social services and education budgets, which have grown without accountability, rather than taking money from programs that work.
Another topic of discussion was the proliferation of traffic enforcement cameras contemplated in the mayor’s budget. I have been skeptical of the idea of attempting to balance the budget on the basis of increased fees charged to residents, and it sounds like we may consider lowering the fees associated with certain moving violations to compensate for the idea of the extra enforcement, under the principal that a lower ticket value is needed to deter traffic violations if the certainty of enforcement is higher. We also discussed the proper allocation of new revenues from parking pilot areas. I think these funds should remain within our local neighborhoods where they are generated, as the mayor proposed. Councilmember Cheh has subsequently recommended, in contrast, that the funds be taken and spent in other parts of the city.
I am not yet sure what the final budget proposal by the council chairman will look like, but I am hopeful that we will fund priorities of mine, such as libraries and parks, arts and humanities as well as the repeal of the confusing tax on out-of-state municipal bonds. I would appreciate your support and ask that you contact me and my colleagues over the next week with your views.
White House Correspondents’ Dinner: Like Flies to Honey
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In a little-known Aesop’s fable, a number of flies are attracted to a jar of honey that is overturned in a housekeeper’s room. Placing their feet in the spilled honey, they eat greedily, happily gorging themselves. Their feet, however, become so smeared with the honey that they cannot use their wings, nor release themselves … and they slowly suffocate.
It was this fable that came to mind as I watched the garish coverage of the White House Correspondents’ dinner a few weeks ago pop up on entertainment shows, newspapers, blogs and social media sites. As an annual event, Hollywood celebrities flood to the nation’s capital for a three-day period of pre-dinner receptions and post-dinner parties at mansions in Georgetown, hotels or museums downtown and embassies around Massachusetts Avenue that are often more lavish than the dinner itself. Journalists, politicos and celebrities flock to each party and each reception … like flies to honey.
As star-struck reporters trip over themselves to gain often lop-sided, fuzzy iPhone photos with Kim Kardashian, George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon and Uggie the Dog to post on their Facebook pages, all journalistic pretense is gone for those three days or more, surrounding the last Saturday in April.
It’s become known, euphemistically, as the “Nerd Prom.” Begun in 1920, the ostensible purpose of the dinner is to “acknowledge award-winners, present scholarships and give the press and president an evening of friendly appreciation.” To outside observers (we, the uninvited masses), however, the White House Correspondents Association dinner is anything but. Instead, the event has become the most obvious symbol of a mainstream media that has abdicated its responsibility to the people, for a chance to preen and rub elbows with Hollywood and political elites.
The criticisms of the dinner as spectacle of sorts are not new. After the 2007 dinner, then-New York Times columnist Frank Rich characterized the event as “a crystallization of the press’s failures in the post-9/11 era…[because it] illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows.” A few Sundays ago, Tom Brokaw appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and remarked, “Look, I think George Clooney is a great guy, I’d like to meet Charlize Theron, but I don’t think the big press event in Washington should be that kind of glittering event, where the whole talk is Cristal champagne … who had the best party, who got to meet the most people.” Brokaw went on to say, “That’s another separation between what we’re supposed to be doing and what the people expect us to be doing, and I think that the Washington press corps has to look at that … It’s gone beyond what it used to be.”
After the festivities, we’re expected to believe that the press and White House will go back to their business-as-usual adversarial relationship, like Ralph E. Wolfs and Sam Sheepdogs, punching their time clock in the famous Looney Tunes cartoon.
Don’t get me wrong: the same issue exists with the White House’s official state dinners, where Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Steven Spielberg are provided open access to the White House’s compound along with media figures like Katie Couric, PBS’s Charlie Rose, Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart. As the nation’s gentry gather, many members of the press have proven more than willing to assimilate themselves into exclusive affairs without regard to perceptions from the outside world.
During his tenure, WHCA President Steve Scully countered the critics by saying, “An evening of civility does not mean we are selling out … [and] if people want to criticize the dinner, then don’t come.” Scully, of course, had little to be concerned about. The rest of us—the uninvited “everyman”—never do.
So, Aesop’s story about the flies and the honey jar represents a cautionary tale for the press and for all of us. The fable itself concludes, as the flies are expiring from their foolish escapade, with their collective lament: “O, foolish creatures that we are, for the sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves.”
Ins & Outs 5.16.12
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MIKE ISABELLA’S BANDOLERO SET TO OPEN MAY 24
It is official: Bandolero, the long-anticipated restaurant at 3241 M Street, where Hook once stood, will open May 24, proclaims its website. And it adds, “Bandolero is a modern Mexican restaurant in the heart of Georgetown. Chef Mike Isabella is the chef/partner behind the taco-centric, margarita-laden menu. Bandolero is owned by Pure Hospitality LLC, including veteran restauranteur, Jonathan Umbel. The two-story, 5,000-square-foot, high-energy space reflects a Day of the Dead motif, and plenty of bar space to imbibe. The menu showcases classic Mexican dishes with untraditional flavor profiles, including dips served with housemade chicharones and masa crisps, tacos, taquitos, enchiladas, empanadas, albondigas and carbons.”
LIGNE ROSET RE-OPENS IN GLOVER PARK
Just up Wisconsin Avenue, the contemporary furniture store Ligne Roset has re-opened in a shiny, hip locale, close to Whole Foods and Vice President Joe Biden’s back gate. The French company held a May 3 grand opening reception, which was headlined by its own executive vice president, Antoine Roset, of Roset USA Corp. at the new retail showroom at 2201 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., along with new business partners in designers David Zein and Olivier Valette. DZein Studio is along the same ground-level space as well. The exclusive, freestanding Ligne Roset showroom features items from the company’s extensive catalog. One thing is for sure: architect Christy Schlesinger wants that red sofa.
‘MAD MAN’ DINNER PARTY AT PEACOCK CAFE
Peacock Café and Fashiontographer will hold a one-night-only dinner event, May 23, featuring entrées from the “Mad Men” era to benefit the Shoot for Change Scholarship at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre. The theme for the event is 1950s, 1960s or “Mad Men” inspired. For $60, Peacock Café and chef Maziar Farivar will offer a three-course menu, inspired by the “Mad Men” era, that includes Oysters Rockefeller, classic Beef Wellington and homemade cannoli. Fashiontographer’s executive editor, Walter Grio, will be taking photos of guests for the online fashion editorial, “District of Fashion.” Photos will be featured on fashiontographer.com. The after party will be at L2.
JP’S NIGHT CLUB RETURNS TO STRIP
According to Hyperlocal Glover Park: The new owners of JP’s Night Club (2412 Wisconsin Ave.) intend to return nude dancing to the club’s long-vacant former home. Paul Kadlick, a representative of the ownership group, discussed the group’s plans at the May meeting of ANC 3B. JP’s operated as a strip club from 1986 through January 2008, when a fire destroyed its original building. In the intervening years, the building has been replaced and the business sold. A group of neighbors and the ANC opposed the dormant club’s liquor license renewal last year. Though the license was renewed, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board did impose new limits on the club in the process, forbidding it from offering live entertainment before 5 p.m. [gallery ids="100795,124379" nav="thumbs"]
President’s Gay Decision Waits for the Rest of America
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President Barack Obama finally did it.
He maxed out on his evolution on the issue of gay marriage. He’s for it, without equivocation.
This came right as the president revved up his startup activities for his re-election campaign. The announcement–” I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married”–didn’t leave a whole lot of wriggle room.
Whatever the reason for the announcement and decision–Joe “Loose Lips” Biden’s rather casual statement of support for gay marriage on “Meet the Press,” no less, or supporter dissatisfaction with Obama’s slow evolution– it was a historic move, and one bound to affect the presidential campaign.
Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney was quick to respond that he believed that marriage was defined as being between “one man and one woman,” and that’s probably not his last word on the subject, one way or another, or another.
Gay and lesbian rights activists–who cheered the president’s long anticipated and hoped-for announcement– hope that these are not the Obama’s last words on the subject and that words will lead to some sort of action.
What that might be is unclear. Will he provide actual leadership–moral, rhetorical, executive or whatever–on the issue? Obama has said that he prefers the process winds itself out on the state level, where the issue presents itself in confusing fashion. North Carolina, only days before, held
a vote in which voters banned not only gay marriage but civil unions as well. More than 30 states have passed laws banning gay marriage, while only a handful passed laws allowing gay marriage. On the other, national polls indicate that Americans are divided on the issue, on a 50-50 level.
The opposition to gay marriage tends to be conservative, evangelical, religious and skews older, while support for gay marriage skews younger.
It’s not difficult to understand why many otherwise reasonable people might not support gay marriage on theological grounds. The president’s support–the first by an American president ever–is important for its historical nature, but it does not clarify the conflict. Gay and lesbian rights represents a kind of last frontier on the issue of the role and identity of the other in American society, a last line in
the sand on opponents.
The president’s decision, arrived at perhaps sooner than he would have liked in terms of the election campaign, appears to have been based on experience and perception, with the opinion of his children weighing strongly in the decision. I suspect that’s the kind of thinking that also weighs strongly
in the opinions of most reasonable Americans. A majority of Americans, I suspect, do not oppose civil or partnership rights–inheritance, property, wills and other legal matters–but balk when it comes to marriage, and issues of family and children. I suspect that, beyond issues of religious beliefs, that
opposition is not entirely rational, that it’s grounded in fear of the other and a kind of primitive reaction when it comes to sexual matters.
The idea that family–a mother, a father, children–are the ideal and traditional social, cultural and moral norm in the United State is a belief that is clung to almost fanatically and is belied strongly by the statistical facts of an over 50-percent divorce rate, a high number of children raised by
single parents, and so on. I suspect, too, that the idea of gay people marrying and creating family units is a process that brings gays into the American mainstream as opposed to leaving them exiled on the fringes of societal norms. It’s an idea difficult to accept for large parts of American society which may have never encountered a gay person except on television or in movies.
I suspect until most Americans can expand the idea of what an American family may and can look like and accept it, the issue of gay marriage will remain volatile, intense and divisive.
One thing you can tell politically from President Obama’s tortured evolution to a decision point and to
the muted GOP reply–Romney called the issue “a very tender and sensitive topic”– is that the issue is like the fellow or the gal without a date at the prom. Everyone is reluctant to dance with them, but sooner or later, they’re going to be playing their song. President Obama, in his announcement,
appears to have heard the music.
Get the Potomac Off This List
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Saturday evening we stood out at the terrace of the Kennedy Center and watched canoes and boats move serenely on the Potomac River, the spires of Georgetown University and the lights of Washington Harbor in the near distance.
It was a bucolic, beautiful scene, one which inspired admiration for the river if you were inclined to think about matters like that. One thing you weren’t thinking was that the Potomac–the “Nation’s River”–was in serious trouble.
But according to American Rivers, a non-profit organization that helps protect America’s rivers and which yearly lists and issues a report on the country’s ten most endangered rivers, the Potomac River is the Most Endangered River for 2012. The causes: urban and agricultural pollution.
It’s not that the river hasn’t been maintained properly or that the Potomac isn’t cleaner than it was before. It’s because it’s the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act this year, which may be in danger of having Congress roll back critical water safeguards. American Rivers is of course a group, as its president, Bob Irvin, said, that will try to “get decision-makers do the right thing”, which would be to preserve all possible safeguards.
We concur. The Potomac, our river here in Washington, and the nation’s river, will keep right on rolling. It needs to do that without being in danger of more pollution. Let’s get the Potomac off the Most Endangered List