News & Politics

Gary Tischler • May 3, 2012

One of the great literary stories is the relationship—sometimes strained, often competitive—between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Arguably America’s two greatest novelists when that sort of stature meant something.

Fitzgerald—literary posterity judges him to be the better writer in terms of after-life reputation—was a man fascinated by the lifestyles of the rich and famous and wrote the best book ever written about the American dream of money and success, “The Great Gatsby.”

According to the oft-told tale, Fitzgerald one day breathlessly announced to Hemingway his great discovery. “Ernie,” he was supposed to have said “the rich are different from you and me.”
“Yes,” Hemingway was supposed to have replied, “they have more money.”

But oh, how much more money. Even Hemingway might have been baffled and not a little awed by the chasm between the very rich and those with considerably less. Hemingway would no doubt retain his irreverent and realistic attitude about such matters. F. Scott, after downing a drink, might have sat down and written “The Great Gatsby.”
Or “The Great Ecclestone.”

One of the great contemporary mysteries, it seems to me, is the absolute worship of the super-rich and the great, rolling-in-profit corporations on the part of the lock-step GOP. The great negotiations or roll overs on raising the debt ceiling will result in a temporary lift of the ceiling, so as to avert an unimagined disaster, or a comprehensive settlement that President Obama and House Speaker John “Weeping Willow” Boehner, the golfing partners, are said to be working toward (probably not), or a default whose consequences people are starting to have nightmares about.

But all this is happening in a flattened economy that isn’t quite a depression but is depressing to average folks trying to pay their mortgage, find a job, or put gas in their tanks and food in their mouths. And yet, all the GOPs, the rank and filers, the leaders, most especially Mr. No-Way-But-My-Way-And-No-Taxes Eric “The Whip” Cantor, and even more especially, the lemmings of the tea party running toward the cliff with moral certitude insist, scream, shout it from the highest hills, that there will be no tax raises, especially on the rich or on corporations. And closing a loophole is: a tax increase. A tax break on private jets is: a tax increase.

But wait. There’s more. Mitch McConnell in the Senate calls such increases “job killers.” Silly us. We thought jobs were being killed in GE’s overseas banks, which allows that company to pay fewer taxes than I do. We thought outsourcing is a job killer practice. We thought targeting public employees for firing and layoffs was job killing. Nope. Regulating corporations with silly stuff like conforming to environmental rules or safe rules or foods safety, those are job killers.

Where do GOP rank and file members-some of them born in bosom of the American People without a silver spoon or any other utensil in their mouths are trying to sell us their belief that corporations and the very, very rich have the best interests of the American people in mind. Reagan thought so: he gave us trickle-down economics which conjured up a picture of millions of Americans waiting (in vain) for the financial leftovers from Wall Street to trickle down to Main Street.

As former President Bill Clinton noted recently, those days are long gone. American corporations are multi-nationals, beholden not to country, community or the American people, but only to profit and shareholders.

Sure, there are anomalies like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, American citizens and world citizens. But many are a lot like Petra Ecclestone, who, thanks to her billionaire dad bought Candy Spellings’ Hollywood mansion for$150 million after already owning a $90 million home in London. She got her money the old fashioned way—she asked Daddy for it and he gave it to her. I believe she is selling her own brand of bags to keep her hand in.

Think of those sums. They could keep Minnesota running for a few days, to say the least, save the lives of thousands starving in Somalia. You get the drift.
No trickle down here. Where is Madame Defarge when you need her?

Robert Devaney •

Ryuji Ueno and his wife, Sachiko Kuno, founders of Bethesda-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and S&R Technology Holdings, have purchased Evermay, for $22 million, 55 percent off its 2008 asking price of $49 million. The purchase price of the historic 3.5-acre estate on 28th Street, which borders Oak Hill Cemetery at R Street, is a record sale for D.C.

The names of the new Evermay owners were first reported in the Wall Street Journal on July 22 in its “Private Properties” section. The buyers’ representative Mark McFadden of Washington Fine Properties spoke with the Georgetowner and confirmed that, indeed, Ueno and Kuno are the new owners of the 12,000-square-foot house and grounds, adding that they will continue the preservation of the estate, founded by Samuel Davidson in 1792 and sold by the Belin family two weeks ago, through a limited-liability company, Evermay LLC. The listing agent was Jeanne Livingston of Long and Foster, a Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate, whose other big sale was Katharine Graham’s estate on R Street. Livingston said the new owners would be “good stewards” of Evermay, a property which was once rumored to have caught the interest of Oprah Winfrey.

While the Japanese-born drug researchers Ueno and Kuno – who own a house on P Street – are not well known to most Washingtonians, they are known in philanthropic circles, such as the Washington Opera and the Smithsonian. The couple founded the S&R Foundation in 2000, a non-profit whose mission is to encourage and stimulate scientific research and artistic endeavors among young individuals – and “to recognize talented young scientists and artists for their distinguished work in fields of science and fine arts, especially those who contribute to U.S.-Japanese understanding.” Their foundation awards the S&R Washington Award and the S&R Ueno Award.

Ueno and Kuno’s Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, focuses on the development and commercialization of medicines based on prostones. Ueno, who is also a medical doctor, discovered “the therapeutic potential of prostones, which are bio-lipids that occur naturally in the human body.” The company markets the drug Amitiza for gastrointestinal disorders. One of the couple’s first successes was Rescula eye drops, the first bioactive lipid used to treat glaucoma.

Together, the accomplished couple holds several degrees from universities in Japan and the U.S. and have other interests as well. A Class A race car driver, Ueno is a member of the Leica Historical Society of America, Ferrari Club of America and Miles River Yacht Club. Involved in fundraising for the Washington Opera, Kuno was also cited by the Washington Business Journal two years ago in its list, “Women Who Mean Business.” She even studied in the neighborhood at Georgetown University’s International Business Management Certificate Program. Add to their resumes: “Keepers of Evermay.”
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David Post •

Does the government spend too much? Probably.

Are taxes too low? Probably.

Is there an easy or quick fix? Absolutely not.

Tax receipts cover 60 percent of government spending. We borrow the rest, so an inability to borrow means there won’t be enough money to go around. Few households and businesses can cut their expenses 40 percent overnight. Neither can the federal government.

When households and businesses face cuts like that, they go bankrupt. They lose most of what they own and creditors don’t get paid. Their credit ratings drop. Their living standards decline. If they can borrow money, interest rates rise. Anyone with a credit problem knows recovery takes years. It’s not a pretty picture.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, who incidentally was appointed by George W. Bush, said it would be a “calamity.” It will affect everyone. A talking head should ask Congress if it will take a 40 percent pay cut and pay 40 percent of their health care.

Here’s the big picture showing federal government income and expenses last year and ten years ago:

Billions of dollars 2000 2010

Federal Receipts $ 2,025 $ 2,163

Federal Expenditures $1,789 $ 3,456

Surplus (DEFICIT) $ 216 ($ 1,293)

As percent of GDP

Federal Receipts 21 percent 15 percent

Federal Expenditures 18 percent 24 percent

Surplus (DEFICIT) 3 percent (9 percent)

Stop there, and the story is an easy one. Even though tax cuts reduced revenues, and the recession, two wars, and an expansion of Medicare increased spending, no one is discussing that. Instead, the screaming is about “no new taxes” and out of control spending.

Every mechanic knows what to do. Look under the hood and see what’s making the noise. And there it is: we’re getting older and old is expensive.

In the past ten years, Social security has almost doubled from $400 to $700 billion, and federal health care costs have more than doubled from $390 to over $920 billion and continues to rise much faster than inflation.

Yet, it’s going to get worse. Here come the baby boomers and they are a tsunami. Today, 40 million people in the U.S. are over age 65, of which, 19 million are over 75. Behind them stand 79 million people between 45 and 65, so about 79 million are going to replace 19 million in the retirement pool over the next 20 years.

Medicare covers the health care of those over 65 which cost $500 billion last year. Dedicated Medicare tax receipts covered $65 billion, about 13 percent, of those costs. Another $400 billion in federal health care costs were spent on the military, veterans, federal employees, and the poor with no tax source other than the taxpayer.

In 2010, total personal income tax receipts were about $900 billion, enough to cover the government’s health care tab, but that leaves nothing for other government function. No military, no highways, no courts, no environment, no national parks. No Congress! Next year, taxes may or may not increase depending upon the economy, but retirement and health care costs will increase, certainly more than tax revenues. That is a bad formula.

Imagine this Jeopardy question: If the retirement population doubles or triples over the next thirty years, how do we pay for social security and retiree health care? What is the winning answer?
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, proposed a plan. First, eliminate Medicare in ten years, give seniors an $8,000 voucher, and let them buy their own policy. (I’m 62 and can’t buy a policy for that amount now. Maybe costs will go down over the next three years.) Second, give the states block grants and let them figure out how to deal with rising health costs. (In other words, let states raise taxes or decline care for the poor.)

Public opinion is divided on whether to raise taxes, but otherwise, public opinion is very clear: reduce spending, don’t reduce social security and save Medicare. Figure out how to do that, and Washington is calling you.

The debate should be addressing health care costs and an aging population. Instead, Washington is playing political roulette with the public’s future.

Washington needs more kindergarten teachers and coaches, those special giants in our lives who taught us to share, to be fair, to give a little and get a little, to be nice, and that we either win or lose as a team, not as individuals. How much we forget as we get older!

Amos Gelb •

In the not-for-the-faint world of D.C., you do not exist politically if you are not loathed by at least one group. But David Frum is in an elite category – he is hated by both sides of the fence. A stalwart speechwriter of the W regime, no friends on the left. Then excommunicated by the right when he dared to suggest that Republicans were blowing it in their blind opposition to the healthcare bill, a posture he has maintained vociferously regarding the current Republican posture on the debt ceiling, “you don’t play chicken with default.”

“Yes, my views put me in a minority these days,” he admits bedecked in a blindingly white jacket befitting the tropics that have descended on D.C.

But what ATM was curious about is how Frum, lawyer-schooled-journalist-resumed-formerly-White-House-employed, turned being suddenly on the outside into something of a personal media empire. His website, Frum Forum, has become the voice of the less uncompromising (but not necessarily moderate) right, he is omnipresent as a political analyst for CNN, he gives about 20 speeches a year and he is finishing up his 7th book – this latest one a novel about D.C.

In the age of the new media, Frum has done what so many are trying unsuccessfully to do. He has created an identity on the web, attracted readers and kept people’s attention.

And he doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Media is the plural of medium. Medium is just the conduit. It is like wanting to talk about electricity – you want to talk about where it comes from and how; not about the poles and pylons. We are pylons.”

Instead, what Frum wants to talk about is his fear; his fear that well-meaning people in power are about to drive this nation off a cliff.

“Frum Forum is not about making money, it is not about me. It is about responsibility. My goal is to be heard. We have the responsibility to be heard. To be part of the conversation. And I think we are.”

For an hour, despite repeated determined ATM attempts to steer the conversation to his journalism pedigree (he worked as a freelance writer in Canada, as an editorial editor for the Wall Street Journal and is the son of one of Canada’s most famous journalists), Frum deflects the attention from himself to why he is doing all this media.

Each thrust at discussing his empire is parried into a guided tour of some of today’s most intransigent political issues adding shades of grey and the occasional primary color to the issues being hashed out in public in black and white. Global distribution of wealth is indeed skewing to the ultra-rich. That is wrong but just taxing the ultra rich will not work because they will always find a way around it. Rather than take away from one side let’s find a way to help the other – for example in the last 20 years we have reduced crime plaguing the poorest citizens. Today’s financial issues stem not from war but from the voracious leveraging a relatively few bad loans (multiple bets being made on the same few chips). Unfair to blame Obama for the economic woes even if you don’t like how he is handling them. The country is not as partisan as it seems – the current angry tone is rather the product of Congressional rule changing and gerrymandering. Our system of government cannot work if the “opposition” just exists to oppose. Party affiliation should play no role in local community politics; candidates should stand on their personal integrity.

For the self-made outsider (“I am still firmly a Republican”) who put the words into the mouth of a president so loathed by many, here was the surprisingly considered discourse that we all claim we pine for. In Frum’s world, those who disagree are not depicted as lepers to be despised or worse and hence banished to a desolate wilderness; rather their ideas might be viewed as wrong but not mean-spirited.

“Are you at least having fun?”

There is a pause on this. The thought of fun seems to have not occurred to Frum. A journalist turned pol who is now the journalist-pol, why wouldn’t this be fun? He has a website, a following, a voice that is being heard, if not always welcomed. The pause lasts a bit longer as he seems to search for something hidden in a corner.

“Our current situation is too perilous to be having fun.”

Frum seems to have forgotten that today’s evolving new media has reached a stage of the cult of personality where individual Twitter feeds, blogs and even by-lines are increasingly about the self. And his self has a higher profile today than ever before, partly because he seems to relish sticking his finger in so many eyes. Yes, that should be fun.

And yet there is the distinct sense that Frum would be just as happy, perhaps happier, if he didn’t think his voice was needed quite as much right now.

Gary Tischler •

People—famous, a little or a lot—sometimes die in bunches, if not in proximity. There are years of age, gifts either used fully or not, and lives either lived fully incompletely that separate a quartet of famous, not so famous and marginally famous people who passed away in the last few days. Here then, lost to us and in one case to herself, are a world-famous and outsized painter, a Polish immigrant who rose to the pinnacle of the military profession, a great beauty and cinematic near-star, and a 27-year-old rock-and-pop star and Grammy Award winner.

LUCIAN FREUD, 88

Freud, by all accounts, never stopped painting, and achieved living-artist fame and status with prices for his work that were once associated with a Picasso.

He shared avidity for live experience and younger women with the great Spanish cubist, although as artists, their work couldn’t be more different. Everything Picasso stripped down and turned into clean lines, Freud put back in: flesh defying gravity in epic terms, folds and rolls of skin mountains, roundness interrupted by defaults and fault lines, the colors and veins and bits of hair and caves of navels. Confronted by a Freud portrait, small or often large, there was a resistible urge, but urge nonetheless, to somehow make contact. He painted celebrities—Kate Moss and an expressively skin burdened Queen Elizabeth II—as well as fat men from behind, and women with pendulous breasts. Beautifully-ugly, ugly-beautiful were combo words that came up often in out-loud contemplation.

He was that other Freud’s grandson, which may have accounted for his own tendency to confront fleshly truths with bravura and thick paint strokes. He was also a fountain of fecundity, apparently, according to one obituary, fathering some 40 illegitimate children which gave full meaning to the idea that he understood flesh intimately.

His portraits—the New York Times obituary said he “redefined portraiture”—shocked some, awed others. His work was in a Phillips Collection exhibition of several seasons ago called “Paint Made Flesh,” which included a generous dollop of Freud and Francis Bacon, his mad peer, who took the concept of ugly-beautiful a little further than Freud.

Two of his works, a huge man, in folded flesh, sitting broadly naked (Freud always said “naked” not “nude”) and a Reubenesque nude (not naked) woman stretched out over layered sheets and canvasses, were characteristic, and astonishingly moving.

JOHN M SHALIKASHVILLI, 75

John M. Shalikasvilli was a native of Warsaw who survived all the harrowing dangers of World War II, emigrated with his family to the United States, joined the army as an enlisted man and in an astonishingly full career would eventually become the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Bill Clinton’s administration, the first enlisted man and foreigner to achieve that rank.

In pictures, he looked wiry and scholarly, but he was the kind of military man who didn’t need to put on a camouflage uniform to look soldier. He was a Universalist: in the “peacetime” post-Soviet-Union-collapse world, he oversaw U.S. participation in the Balkan conflicts that came after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. His interest lay in the use of military forces and resources to help assist huge numbers of people displaced by wars including the Kurds in the wake of the Gulf War.

That kind of effort came out of a general who understood—perhaps better than anyone—the wrenching effects of war, the vast displacements, the great suffering.

LINDA CHRISTIAN, 87

The life and death of Linda Christian, who died of colon cancer, says something about the ephemeral nature of fame, but also about its stubborn durability in the information age.

The headline on the Internet news read: “Linda Christian, TV’s First Bond Girl, Dies at 87.” This probably means that these days James Bond is certainly better known than Tyrone Power, who in his time (late 1930s to mid-1950s) was a mega-movie star, handsome and almost pretty, who played Zorro and other swashbucklers, Jesse James, and King Solomon almost (he died of a heart attack on set and was replaced by Yul Brunner).

He also married Linda Christian, a gorgeous Mexican beauty with minor acting chops but great cheekbones. They produced two beautiful children before divorcing in 1956.

She made a few unremarkable movies, including one I happened to see a very long time ago called “Slaves of Babylon,” an epic without epic moments in which I believe she played Jezebel. She was also in “The VIPs,” which starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Bond thing? Turned out it was an episode of the live television series called “Climax,” the first but not last version of “Casino Royale,” in which James Bond—played by Barry Nelson—was called Jimmy. There is a YouTube clip of a black-and-white scene from the show featuring Nelson, Christian and an actor named Michael Pate. I met Nelson once when he was doing “Forty Second Street” at the National Theater. He never mentioned that he had played James Bond. How strange.

AMY WINEHOUSE, 27

The first thing that should get you is number, 27.
Not because it’s part of some rock and roll curse which caused other big name, substance abusing icon rock icons like Jim Morrison, Jimmie Hendrix, Smells Like Teen Spirit Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin, to die at age 27.

The number is itself alone: dead at 27. Dead in her sleep. The difference between Winehouse and the other members of that club—and rockers die pretty much across the spectrum from puberty to the old age of Rolling Stones—is that she lived in this time where trouble-in-mind-and-body is naked and songs are see-through-reflections of a life on the world-wide web—which containeds a website called WhenWillAmyWinehouseDie.com.

Winehouse was a singular sensation with her eagle’s nest beehive, the sharp scars of her eyebrows and eye-liner, the burning dark eyes, the funky looking body, the tattoos up and down her arms. She could sing, no question. Her album “Rehab” unexpectedly won a number of Grammies which probably surprised hard-core rockers and gave her a certain amount of cred which she proceeded to flounder like Lindsay Lohan under house arrest.

Watching and listening to her sing “Rehab” or “Love is a Losing Game,” you hear and see her could-have-been-future, mixing jazz and soul with a tough yet vulnerable bluesy quality. But there was all that other stuff—the drugs, the booze, the addicted husband, the slurry comeback, and finally there is the end and flowers in front of her house.

She reminds me most of Joplin, who died of a heroin overdose, whose energy on stage and vinyl was undeniable and who always broke your and her heart with “Ball and Chain” then surged off to somewhere in the final, gurgling, blues sounds of “Bobby McGee.” Winehouse’s father said she was all about love. So was Joplin. Neither one seemed to think they deserved it.

Samantha Hungerford •

Ins

AllSaints Spitalfields
You may or may not have already seen the construction along M St. for this one, but it is well on its way. At 3235 M St. NW., AllSaints Spitalfields will open soon this summer. The British clothing retailer will be adding their international touch to Georgetown’s fashion with their signature bold and edgy pieces.

Babette
Babette, located in 3307 Cadys Aly NW, is a nationwide fashion boutique with a collection of original, handmade microfiber pieces, which were inspired by modernist architecture and industrial graphic design. For many Georgetowners, especially those who are always at work and on the move, Babette might be a retailer to take a look at. The clothing pieces are tailored to flatter all body shapes and sizes and to provide comfort and functionality.

Michael Kors
In addition to the many big name-brand stores and boutiques that run along M St. and Wisconsin Ave., Michael Kors will open a new location at 3103 M St. NW, replacing White House Black Market. Known to have spectacular fashion-forward pieces and the hottest looks, the new retail location will be sure to capture the attention of any shop-aholic.

Metro area’s Tallest Building
As one exits the city off of Key Bridge and drive toward the Rosslyn metro stop, you’ll notice some construction at 1812 N. Moore Street that’s been on-going since October 2010. At a whopping 35 stories, Monday Properties will have erected the tallest building in the metropolitan area by the end of 2013.

IMAX at Lowes
The Albert Einstein Planetarium at the Smithsonian isn’t the only place with IMAX. Loews Georgetown 14 (3111 K Street N.W) will soon add IMAX capabilities for those who are willing to pay the extra couple bucks to enjoy the more dramatic experience of movie-watching. No longer will Georgetowners, along with other DC residents too, need to waste gas and travel the distance to Virginia or Maryland for the same viewing. Watch it in Georgetown!

Outs

Aditi Restaurant
After 23 years of business, Aditi Restaurant at 3299 M St NW. will be replaced by Grill Kabob. Aditi was the go-to place for anyone with a savory or spicy pallet. Do not fret though, Aditi-lovers. There are multiple locations, so in the meantime, satisfy your curry craving, at Aditi Spice Depot in Vienna or Herndon, Va., or in the food court at Union Station.

Robert Devaney •

It’s not every day that one discovers a wallet belonging to a National Basketball Association player. Georgetown University student Ed Shehwen did just that last week on Prospect Street, where he found the wallet of the Detroit Pistons’ Greg Monroe. Shehwen’s friend, Chris Scribner who lives in one of the apartments at Halcyon House, tweeted the former Hoya Big East rookie of the year to come get his wallet. It took a few tries to convince Monroe, who is taking summer school classes at Georgetown University. The six-foot-11-inch tall basketball player pulled up in his BMW and thanked his fellow Hoyas for the find. Monroe (G_Monroe10 ) tweeted: huge s/o to @CScribs and his friends! #superclutch .

Samantha Hungerford •

After 102 years of operation, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center officially closed yesterday with a stirring ceremonial retiring of the hospital’s colors. The Medical Center, which provided care to present and former military members and their families, will relocate, splitting their operations between the newly renamed Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda and the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Fairfax by Sept. 15.

This Friday, Maj. Gen. Carla Hawley-Bowland, commander of the medical center, will transfer her position to Brig. Gen. Joseph Caravalho Jr.

According to an article by Meredith Somers for The Washington Times, the hospital’s former location, although it consisted of 72 buildings on 172 acres, did not have the space it needed to expand and accommodate the changing needs of its patients. The move has been planned since 2005, when the Medical Center received orders to close from the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

At the new site in Bethesda, construction projects have begun to alleviate traffic congestion outside the hospital as an estimated 2,500 additional workers are expected to be commuting to the area each day along with patients and visitors. According to the Chevy Chase Patch, the intersections at Connecticut Avenue and Jones Bridge Road, Rockville Pike and Cedar Lane, Rockville Pike and Jones Bridge Road and Old Georgetown Road and Cedar Lane are all scheduled to be improved.

Stephanie Shin •

It’s that time again! Well…almost. For those of you who have been waiting patiently, Washington D.C.’s Summer Restaurant Week is just a couple weeks away; however, if you’ve never participated in one of this city’s most highlighted events, then make sure you don’t miss out this time.

From Aug. 15 through 21, over 200 restaurants from the Metropolitan area invite friends, families, and even visitors to try the best eats of the area at the most unbeatable prices. Whether it is at 1789, a Georgetown restaurant where the Obamas recently dined, or at one of the 2011 RAMMY Award-winning restaurants like Wolfgang Puck’s The Source, lunch is priced at $20.11 and dinner is $35.11 for a fixed three-course menu.

In a recent press release, Lynne Breaux, president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington said, “The D.C. area restaurant scene is certainly hot. We have seen a great number of new restaurants open throughout the last year and many are participating in Summer Restaurant Week – offering guests the chance to enjoy, perhaps a place they’ve never been before or visit an old favorite at an excellent value.”

A full list of participating restaurants can be found at RestaurantWeekMetroDC.org. Check which fine dining or casual restaurants interest your taste buds and make a reservation online or by calling in. Hurry as seats fill quickly!

As you close summer 2011, make sure to keep D.C. Beer Week in mind too.

Coinciding with Restaurant Week, from Aug. 14 through 21, various breweries and taps will have a selection of beers and cocktails offered at special prices. The variety of events and deals will take place depending on the time, day, and location. To find more information about the participating bars, visit DCBeerWeek.net.

Robert Devaney •

Kate Michael, online magazine founder of K Street Kate, celebrated the fifth birthday of her D.C. lifestyle blog July 27 at the National Press Club ballroom with drinks and music, themed to “Livin’ La Vida Local.” The media entrepreneur thanked her staff and said she sees a bright future for hyperlocal websites. Friends and fans of the popular Michael, a former Miss D.C., congratulated her for hitting the anniversary whose traditional gift is one made of wood. Life is local and ironic, too.