Ficke

"There’s no Journey here. No one’s throwing their hands in the air.”

And now we can never go to Marvin again:

Those taking an evening off from the darts-and-Dockers bar scenes in Georgetown or Adams Morgan say it feels more than a few Metro stops away from their usual haunts.

Also:

Outside, a sweeping roof deck framed by lanterns and gathered curtains was so packed that Tino Fletcher barely had enough room to spin around to show off his leather blazer and alligator boots.

“This place is cool enough for someone as cool as me,” said Mr. Fletcher, 37.

Yeah. We tried to go up on the roof deck to enjoy the warm night on Thursday (11pm on a Thursday! Don't these people have jobs?) and couldn't even get past the doorway to the deck because of the crowd. I guess a lot of people just really like those moules frites.

This reminds me that I've been meaning to endorse the Emily- and Ezra-approved plan for more porch-type gatherings for our summertime drinking.

And best of all, there's time now to watch them!

I forget where I first saw this linked, but CBS is streaming a bunch of the early seasons of Star Trek: TOS and The Twilight Zone* up on their website for free. For those who've never watched The Twilight Zone before, a bunch of old Simpsons episodes are about to make a lot more sense.

William Shatner appeared in three of the five shows they have posted (though not necessarily in the seasons currently up now). I find his omnipresence oddly reassuring.

*Also MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, and, uh, Melrose Place, if that's your thing.

Target Opens

The Target is open! Ahead of schedule, too. I stopped by tonight to check the place out, and it's not bad. For the most part, just a bog-standard Target, though they do have a Starbucks and a decently stocked groceries section (though they don't carry produce). Of course the Park Rd. Giant is only a block away, so I don't think many people will be doing their main food shopping at Target, but it's a nice supplement.

Disappointing discovery: despite what the Washingtonian reported, I didn't see any beer or wine for sale inside. Did I just miss it?

Also, Columbia Heights has now joined the elite ranks of those neighborhoods with two separate Starbucks across the street from each other. Be proud, fellow residents, for we have arrived.

All in all, I'm happy with the new place. The creeping suburbanization of the neighborhood (particularly the big parking garage that's accompanying the shopping center) is not totally ideal, but it's nice to not need to trek out to Maryland for shopping trips. Now if only we can get that REI...

Pwned by HBO

I admit it: I caved. I wanted to wait until Sunday to watch the series finale of The Wire, I really did. But I'm leaving for Costa Rica on Saturday, and I don't have a lot of confidence in HBO's Central American market penetration.

So I fired up the old On Demand, selected episode 60, and settled in. This is what I saw:

Sheeeeeeeeeeeiiiiit. Nobody better spoil it for me before I get back.

This Is Getting Annoying

Via Kos, the Clinton campaign has decided that Texas doesn't count after all now that Obama is looking more and more likely to win the state next week because of their commitment to the democratic process in Michigan and Florida. Clinton:

I’d love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee. Florida and Michigan are.

She follows up with some talk about how the agreement signed by the Democratic contenders last year didn't address whether the delegates would be seated, only whether any of the candidates would campaign there. This is, of course, a completely tendentious mischaracterization of the agreement.

Her interpretation doesn't even make any sense: Florida and Michigan ought to be punished for monkeying with the primary calendar, not by having their delegates barred from the convention, but by denying them the ability to see campaign ads? The horror!

For context, here is the Clinton campaign's statement last September in support of the DNC's decision:

"We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process.

And we believe the DNC’s rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role.

Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC approved nominating calendar."

I know it's the job of a campaign to frame the issues in a way that benefits the candidate, but this is ridiculous. Knock it off.

Borrowed Words

The Obama "plagiarism" scandal is a pretty uninteresting non-story, but Hendrik Hertzberg's post on the subject did introduce me to this bit of trivia about one of JFK's more famous lines:

And when J.F.K. ... was in prep school, his headmaster was fond of exhorting his charges to ask “not what Choate can do for you, but what you can do for Choate.”

I give Kennedy credit for turning a caricature of upper-crust privilege into a legitimately inspirational sentiment. Which is the whole point, I suppose.

Cry, Cry, Campaign, Cry

With uncertainty still remaining in the Democratic primary contest, the stock market continuing to plummet, and Tom Brady having his ass handed to him this past Sunday, it's nice to know some things are still constant and dependable in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours. Here's what was on the front page of the Washington Times this morning:

At least someone is breaking the big story that Democrats are all a bunch of crying sissies.

(the above fuzzy camera phone picture brought to you by me being too cheap to spend one of my hard-earned quarters)

WOOBAMA

O hai internets. Miss me?

I can't help but be giddy as a schoolgirl about Obama's victory in Iowa tonight--particularly with his 57% of the under-30 vote. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command, indeed (oh, and I totally called the order of the Democratic race--just ask Beutler. So who wants to hire me?)

Even more so, though, I'm beyond pleased with Edwards's showing in the caucus. Though he only narrowly placed second in the contest, his and Obama's combined success seem to demonstrate strong support for the progressive agenda among the Democratic base. Only time will tell what will happen in New Hampshire and beyond, but I'm optimistic.

And I am personally getting kind of juiced up. I'd like to do something, to get involved.  Along those lines, does anyone have any suggestions? I am in fact quitting my job tomorrow (to focus on finally finishing up this damnable undergraduate degree of mine), so I'll have pretty much the entire summer to do as I please.  I haven't worked a campaign since 2004, and I want to get back in the game. How can I best spend a couple of months a ways out from the election to help with the cause?

(Title stolen from Becks)

Back On The Grid

Apologies to anyone who has tried to get in touch with me via text message in the last month and a half; I haven't been ignoring you. AT&T helpfully decided that I didn't need to get any of these messages, and refused to yield even in the face of my protestations to the contrary. But they finally saw reason and reactivated SMS on my account, so I'm now back in action. Text away.

Comparison Shopping

Whenever the subject of air travel comes up, particularly its rather high cost, I often joke that one could just ship oneself in a crate for a lot less money.

I was about to make such a comment in regard to a certain upcoming event, when I realized that I had never actually checked out whether it was true. Is it really cheaper to FedEx yourself cross-country than to buy a plane ticket? Time to do some research.

The first thing to consider is the container itself. Since shipping a live (or otherwise, I suppose) human is probably illegal and/or against FedEx policies, you would need to conceal the true contents. Thus, a wooden crate should be used, to hide any suspicious sagging and squishiness. As for the size, using my own dimensions as a guide and compensating for supplies and the weight of the crate, I arrived at a 200 lb. box measuring 74x24x24 inches.

Next is the issue of time-in-transit. Since there isn't a whole lot of leg room (or any other kind of room, for that matter) in a shipping crate, it is important to minimize the amount of time spent in-box. An overnight, morning delivery shipment should involve no more that 18 hours or so door-to-door. Any more than that is probably unreasonable.

To test the relative prices of each journey, I compared a round trip ticket between San Jose International Airport and National Airport for December 29th to January 2nd with a 1-Day FedEx Freight shipment from Gaithersburg to Santa Clara, California (a town adjacent to San Jose, so chosen because one of the contractors I frequently ship things to is located there, and the address was easily found in our FedEx account history).

The results?

• US Airways: $356 (round trip)

• FedEx: $964.78 (one way!)

So there you have it. Oddly enough, shipping yourself in a crate turns out to be the poorer choice not only from a comfort perspective, but from a financial one as well.

The one caveat here is that you can drastically cut down on shipping costs if you're willing to take three or four days to get to your destination, swinging the advantage (in terms of cost, at least) to FedEx. Do so at your own risk, of course.