Mark Leventhal started a weight loss service for lawyers (WARNING: mildly intoxicating/annoying music plays when you open this link).

Why, I wondered after reading a press release about said service, do lawyers need their own weight loss service? This deserved a phone call.

It takes a lawyer to understand lawyers, Leventhal said - to know how to harness and work with the being that is Lawyer and make that Lawyer lose weight. For example, a lot of weight loss plans involve group meetings. But lawyers, it seems, don’t like to admit to weakness in public, so this program has no group meetings - instead, lawyers check in with Leventhal every day to talk one-on-one. But lawyers are also very rules oriented - more so than regular people. Leventhal can tell lawyers they have to keep detailed food diaries, and unlike regular people who say ok and then don’t, the lawyers will actually do it.

Plus, there’s the lifestyle stuff - like that lawyers go to lots of dinner meetings - and Leventhal’s program takes these lifestyle things into account. So when a lawyer is going to a dinner meeting, Leventhal calls the restaurant ahead of time to find out from the chef what on the menu isn’t too fatty. That way the lawyer knows what to order, and won’t be embarrassed in public by having to ask the waiter for low cal recommendations - but also won’t sabotage his (Leventhal’s lawyers are mostly men) weight loss goals.

As soon I was starting to come around - maybe lawyers really do need their own weight loss programs? - Leventhal let slip the most delightful thing that has set my mind a-reeling for the last few hours. Read the rest of this entry »

The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club’s endorsements are usually noteworthy for no other reason than the fact they happen so damn early in the election cycle. This time though, there was plenty of drama on offer at the club’s meeting tonight at the John A. Wilson Building aside from the timing.

The big scoop: Eugene Dewitt Kinlow took the Stein Club event as an opportunity to drop out of a shadow senator race he’d entered little more than 72 hours prior. That race was shaping up to be a civil war of sorts between Kinlow, outreach director for DC Vote, and Paul Strauss, shadow senator since 1994 and an old friend of Kinlow’s. LL was super-excited about the prospect of another contested race and had hyped it up in a Friday blog post.

Strauss, sources tell LL, raised concerns to folks in the voting-rights crowd about the fact that a paid employee of the District’s best-funded voting-rights advocacy group would run for his unpaid seat. Asked his feelings on the matter, Strauss demurred: “I hope none of us in the movement would do things do divide the movement when we need to unite the movement.” He says he met with Kinlow privately after learning of his run.

Kinlow says he “reevaluated what it is I do seven days a week,” explaining that he didn’t want to drive an unpaid volunteer out of the voting-rights-activism ranks; he insists “it was a personal decision” his employer had nothing to do with.

Even his extremely short run, Kinlow says, had its accomplishments: “Since Friday, there’s been a tremendous amount of interest in this position,” he says. “Even by thinking about running I became a catalyst in recruiting more soldier” to the voting-rights cause.

The next big surprise: Ward 8 civil-rights activist/man-of-all-seasons Phil Pannell stepped into the void after he heard of Kinlow’s decision. Pannell, who is gay and a longtime Stein Club member, had a home-field advantage and forced a runoff vote with Strauss, which he won. But because the vote was so close, 26 votes to 21, no endorsement was made.

Says Strauss: “I was very gratified to win the first ballot, which is the one I think that indicates the true support.”

Kinlow made no endorsement, but his wife, D.C. Public Schools ombudsman Tonya Vidal Kinlow rose before the group in support of Pannell. Says her spouse: “She’s a smart woman. She’s a smarter person than I am.”

Other big drama:

• OK, no huge drama in the Ward 2 endorsements. Incumbent Jack Evans was squarely on home turf. He outflanked challenger Cary Silverman by playing up his record on issues close to the gay community over his four terms. (He held up to the crowed a framed ad run in 1992 by then Whitman-Walker Clinic Director Jim Graham touting Evans as the gay community’s “advocate.” Asked how long he’s been toting that ad to Stein Club endorsement meetings, Evans said, “No comment.”)

  Silverman did score some points with his full-time-councilmember pledge and his response to a question on liquor-license voluntary agreements, but then proceeded to blow it while answering a testy question from Pannell on how the gay community hasn’t been able to get a meeting with the Washington Nationals. Silverman tried to to make a point about a bad stadium deal: “We gave away the store….I don’t know what we can do. I look forward to Councilmember Evans’ answer,” he said.

  Well, Evans promised the Stein Club a meeting with Nats President Stan Kasten, to wild applause. Evans won the endorsement (and a $500 campaign contribution), 54-5, with 3 abstentions.

• One of the last uncommitted superdelegates in the District’s Democratic delegation has made up her mind: Anita Bonds, chair of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, had long said it was her job to remain neutral while her group assembled the delegation. Now, with that job complete, Bonds says she’s “leaning heavily” toward Barack Obama, pending a meeting with the Illinois senator.

  Bonds says she hopes the meeting with Obama will happen soon—”I don’t want to have to go to West Virginia”—and she says she hopes to meet with Clinton, too. Asked if Clinton could say anything to change her mind at this point, Bonds says, “I don’t think so.”

• Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s congressional delegate, won the club’s endorsement by acclamation after one of her trademark rambles. Incumbent shadow rep Mike Panetta also won an endorsement without a vote. Lots of other big names came out for the festivities. Besides the combatants, Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser showed, as did Ward 8’s Marion Barry. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray also made a brief appearance, and At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown was in the house.
• As far as verbal fireworks, the highlight of the evening was certainly Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander’s questioning from Rick Rosendall and Bob Summersgill of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance. Alexander’s speech was pretty darn anodyne, pushing her advocacy for getting rid of discriminatory practices in health insurance during her time as a District insurance examiner and her hard-line stance against sex harassment in a Ward 7 firehouse.

  Summersgill, though, brought up Alexander’s decision during her last election campaign to support civil unions but not marriage for gays and lesbians in the District. After citing her “devout Catholic” beliefs, Alexander said she was “willing to look at those options,” but initially was unwilling to commit to marriage. “That’s still a no!” Summersgill said repeatedly. Rosendall leapt in: “In this town, if you don’t support gay marriage, you don’t deserve to be on the council.” Alexander finally said, “I guess I’m in support of it; I’m in support of equal rights.”

  That wasn’t all, though: Rosendall then went after Alexander for her support of Ward 5 colleague Harry Thomas Jr. on his efforts to keep gay strip clubs displaced by the baseball stadium out of his ward. Alexander said she tends to defer to the home-ward councilmember in such situations, but Rosendall blew a gasket at that line of reasoning: “She betrayed us on that bill!…You didn’t care about us!” he shouted, while other club members groaned. Said Rosendall, “If you’re more mad at me than at her, then there’s something wrong with you.”

  Alexander won the endorsement by a show of hands, 36-3, with an abstention.

Alas, Dan Snyder’s movie moguling won’t lead him to abandon DC and the Redskins anytime soon. The release of “Valkyrie,” the Hitler movie Snyder executive produced with Tom Cruise, has been delayed for a second time, and won’t be screened commercially until next year.

If ever, that is.

Apparently those who’ve seen the rough cuts have been left wanting to jump off buildings, not on couches. Could Snyder be knock, knock, knockin’ on “Heaven’s Gate?”

Murky fans everywhere (well, mostly in Capitol Hill) will be happy to know that, after a lengthy process, coffee-bean buff and former Murky manager Ryan Jensen has scored the lease for the now-vacant storefront.

Barista doyen Nick Cho—who, as you undoubtedly recall, operated Murky out of the 7th Street space until the unfortunate raid of the D.C. tax office prompted by an even more unfortunate $427,000 in unpaid sales taxes—speculates that landlords Stanton Development may have selected Jensen because “they want to carry over the good things about Murky without the bad.” (The good ostensibly being serving excellent coffee, the bad, getting seized.)

Jensen, who spent three years managing Murky’s D.C. location, currently works for Counter Culture Coffee, a company that supplies beans to a number of area cafes—including Cho’s Arlington shop, which has, so far, escaped the consequences of his recent tax troubles.

Jensen is getting set to abandon his current occupational digs in order to run his new cafe, Peregrine Espresso.

“It means wanderer or pilgrim,” says the congenial 28-year-old. “It’s a word I came across a few years back. I wrote it down and have been slightly obsessed with it every since.”

Jensen says he doesn’t exactly know when the place will be up and running; there are some minor changes he’d like to make to the space, but he hopes to open by the end of summer.

Jensen and his wife, Jill Jensen—who will co-own the business—are serious coffee-lovers and felt strong connections to the Murky Coffee on Capitol Hill. Actually, they met there in the summer of 2003 and married two years later. “It’s where our romance blossomed,” Jensen says.

When the place closed down, they feared someone disinterested—or maybe someone who doesn’t love coffee as much as they do or did not meet and fall in love there—might snag the shop.

So they went for it, along with numerous other entrepreneurs, hoping to grab the valuable commercial space. When Jensen got word last week his bid was accepted, he contacted Cho before the rumor mill could. Cho and Jensen are not only former employer and employee, they’re friends.

Cho isn’t dwelling on how things turned out. He says that, for the most part, he’s ready to move on. “The more we talk about it the more misunderstandings there are,” he contends.

As City Desk reported last month, Murky’s equipment is also ready to move on—to soon-to-open Big Chair Coffee in Anacostia.

—Rend Smith

photo by peregrine espresso

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released a “study” last week arguing, essentially, that teenage pot smoking causes mental illness. The NDCP seems to trot out one of these reports every year or so, often citing data showing an increased risk of mental illness among youth who smoked reefer. I called bullshit on that alleged causal link last week. My argument is better made in a new study from the British Home Office, cautioning against the temptation to draw find a cause and effect relationship between cannabis use and increased risk of mental illness.

“An association between cannabis use and the subsequent development of a psychotic illness does not necessarily indicate a causal relationship in either individuals or populations. The onset of schizophrenia usually occurs in the late teens or early twenties; and it is at this age that cannabis use is most prevalent. A temporal association – which may not necessarily be a causal one – is therefore almost inevitable”

The authors note later that other factors might be at play, “such as a common predisposition to schizophrenia and also to cannabis use.” Meaning, people destined to develop schizophrenia may also be the kind of people who smoke pot in high school. Not so hard to believe. As for the potential impact of the mental health menace that is marijuana, the study notes that very few young pot smokers (in the UK anyway) will go on to develop a psychotic illness. According to their research, “around 5,000 young men, or 20,000 young women, would need to be prevented from using cannabis to avoid one person developing schizophrenia.”

1. Big Changes for Style? by Erik Wemple

2. Summer Muggin’ by Ruth Samuelson

3. The Region Strikes Again by Mike DeBonis

4. Earthquake, Anybody? by Dave McKenna

5. Mystery Solved! Kind of. by Arin Greenwood

6. Kids in the Hall Crush Update: Waning by Amanda Hess

7. Buffets: When a Bowl of Lettuce Just Won’t Do… by Ruth Samuelson

8. Which Country’s Sex Profile Do You Sex Sex Sex? by Amanda Hess

9. Marx Cafe: You Are So Not Cool by Jason Cherkis

10. Should I See a Doctor? by Mike DeBonis

Photo by DCMetblogger

In Saturday’s Post, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray’s office said that the controversial lottery contract wouldn’t be placed on the agenda for tomorrow’s council meeting, drawing criticism from the representatives of the contractors, Intralot and W2Tech, who said the council was short-circuiting a fair process.

Well, looks like they made their point: The lottery contract, “Contract No. CFOPD-7-C-053, On-line Gaming System and Related Services Approval Resolution of 2008″, PR 17-0429,” is back on the agenda posted this afternoon on the council Web site.

Gray spokesperson Doxie McCoy confirms that her boss made the move, but she makes the point that any councilmember could have moved the contract onto the council agenda.

Today, Mayor Fenty announced that the city had finally figured out what to do with the old convention center site: sell it to a giant luxury hotel for out-of-towners.

For a long time, as many readers know, a great debate raged about using the space to build a new central library. This library would essentially replace the historic MLK library. We wrote about the debate in a super cover story [which I can’t seem to find] and we ranted about the libary back in the day. Oh how the civic discourse flourished!

Well, not really. While this city desperately needs a new library, hearts and minds shifted towards retail! Yeah! Other cities have used a new library as a cultural hub. Instead, we will be stuck with MLK Memorial Library forever. I’m fine with keeping the hunk of modernism. But it would have been cool to actually get a real up-to-date library.

Of course, the new hotel will have retail on the first floor. And the city gets final say on which chain will get to move in (Ruby Tuesday or Five Guys? Fedex/Kinko’s or CVS?). It would have been a nice move if city officials went with the greater civic good instead of a luxury hotel.

The hotel benefits none of us. (Except for the 10.6 jobs given to District residents).

Fenty was in full hype mode when discussing the project. The Post reported: “It is time we start calling this place what it is, our City Center,” Fenty (D) said in a statement. “CityCenter DC is going to be a true retail and entertainment destination — the heart and soul of our dynamic new downtown.”

Say what you want about Mayor Anthony Williams‘ tenure. But at least he had the guts to propose a new central library. How can the soul of our new downtown be a luxury hotel?

Learning! We rarely do it. That’s why I was excited for last Saturday’s “Learn-A-Palooza,” an entire day dedicated to the task. Last week, I made up a schedule (from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.) of the self-help workshops and skill tutorials from which I hoped to learn. Then I highlighted it, because highlighting schedules aids in learning.

Here’s what I learned:

10 a.m. “Everything you wanted to know about Giant Pandas”: Asleep.
What I learned: N/A

11 a.m. “Do you own your life?”: Asleep.
What I learned: N/A

1 p.m. “How to get out of a speeding ticket”: Awake! Not exactly out of bed.
What I learned: I sure am sleepy!

3 p.m. “Learn to shoot pool”: Attended! At Bedrock Billiards, a pool pro by the name of Ben Kao taught a room full of wannabe sharks how to finesse a “dead ball,” a “feather shot,” and a “left English.” The trim, bun-haired master also let drop that in the middle of his life, he took a 20-year hiatus from pool, prompting the question–POW, Navy SEAL, or cryogenic vacation?
What I learned: I am not very good at pool.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Alphabetical Order, District four-piece and subject of CP’s very first What’s Your Problem? feature, has decided to split up. The reason? Their problem–inability to hold on to a drummer—proved unsolvable. “Remember when you wrote that story on us way back, about how we couldn’t keep a drummer?” writes Order guitarist Gavin Dunaway in an e-mail. “Another one quit, and we just didn’t have the energy to train another person.”

My god—could this be the beginning of a rash of What’s Your Problem?-related artistic mishaps, in which the local artists featured in the column are systematically ruined by order of publication date? Only time will tell. Watch out Dan Amitai, Ivan Khilko, and Adrian Parsons—your dubstep happy hour could be next. (My money’s on the 9/11 theorists).

While we’re waiting to see if the theory pans out, catch the Dismantling of The Alphabetical Order this Saturday at IOTA. Or, send me your own problems (artistic only, please) at problem@washingtoncitypaper.com.

There’s more to Woodley Park than feuding Indian restaurants. Who knew? While wandering around in the rain yesterday, I found one of the neighborhood’s new assets: the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery in what used to be a nasty little restaurant, Thai Town. (”Trust me,” says Stanford in Washington’s program cooridinator Janine Chen, “you should have seen the kitchen.”)

The building was built in the early 1900s and included a grocery store front, which has been partially restored, says Chen. It also includes Stanford U’s program, where students work at internships during the day and live in the building the rest of the time. The gallery space at 2655 Connecticut Ave. NW opened in October and is currently showing its third and most popular exhibit, “Leadership: Oliphant Cartoons & Sculpture from the Bush Years.”

Pat Oliphant, a classic and fantastic skewerist, lets loose on Bush and Cheney, of couse, with fine contributions to the Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Gonzales canons. One of his most brilliant works, though, concerns the Clintons‘ departure. Both are shown walking out of the White House gates loaded down with lamps, rugs, artwork—a lambast on B.C.’s obsession with his legacy and the prospect of H.C.’s return down the road. For a native Australian, Oliphant’s pretty prescient about U.S. politics.

But the exhibit’s greatest highlight, by my estimation anyway, was Oliphant’s description of a speech he gave to a D.C. room lousy with Republicans, including the sitting president at the time, Gerald R. Ford. Oliphant always drew Ford with a Band-Aid across his head, a comment on the late prez’s trademark clumsiness. Following Oliphant’s speech, the artist walked over to Ford and actually drew said Band-Aid on the man’s actual head. Ford, with his also-trademark good humor, sat perfectly still and grinned the whole time. A secret service agent, while also grinning, let Oliphant know that he would not be drawing on the president ever again. Later and as a tribute, Oliphant drew a panel with a laughing , handsome Ford—sans Band-Aid.

The traveling exhibit will be up through July 11.

photo by dbking

I used to work with a libertarian. I mention his political philosophy only because he always wanted to talk about libertarianism—how if anyone looked inside of themselves, really looked inside of themselves, they’d find that they, too, were predisposed toward libertarianism. If you’ve worked with a libertarian, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

One day he displayed his commitment to personal liberty by walking around Bryant Park without his shirt on. I’m sorry, it’s weird to see someone from your office shirtless, especially if you’re just trying to eat your lunch and he has unusually prominent nipples and every time you’re in a meeting with him afterward you can’t get the words “party hats…party hats” out of your brain.

So via the “Blog Log” in today’s Express, let me second this rant from B(ridge) and T(unnel) Crowd about men in D.C. jogging without shirts. I see this behavior a lot anytime it’s a nice day on the Rock Creek Park or Mount Vernon Trails. (Guys who run with their shirts off don’t run on days when weather would compel them to cover up.)

The post’s author is absolutely correct: Get something that wicks and spare us the sight of your heaving man-flesh. Oh, and while we’re on the topic, dude with his shirt off, sunglasses on his head, talking on his cell and walking slowly down the middle of the trail? Can’t you do that somewhere else?

Photo by kroo2u

“I don’t think you get us at all, Esquire,” Kim Gooden wrote last month in a post about the magazine’s “Best Bars” list.

For three years now, this monthly has been updating its collection of the country’s greatest watering holes. Well, another D.C. establishment has been added to the list, which is augmented in the just-released June issue. However Kim, I’m sorry to say I don’t think you will be pleased.

This year’s D.C. best is…The Bar at the Mayflower Hotel. “Here spies have spied on spies. Mayors have smoked crack. Interns have been interrogated. And assignations by the score. Many involving Kennedys. Spitzer padded right by this dark bar on the way upstairs to end his career,” writes Mark Warren. Previous Best Bar D.C. selections have been: Hawk ‘n’ Dove and The Tune Inn.

Well, Mr. Warren, perhaps next year you should check out the city’s Best Biker Bar, Best Bar to Hear Yourself Think, Best Pickup Bar, Best Place to Escape Adams Morgan in Adams Morgan, or D.C.’s establishments with the Best Beer List, Best Cocktail Menu, and Best Wine List…even though we all know you’ll end up picking some other lounge where politicos rub elbows.

There is one clear benefit to Hillary Clinton dropping out of the Democratic Primary race: We won’t have to see/hear/watch Terry McAuliffe anymore.

He’s become Hillary’s master hype man. Before and after every primary, he pops up on TV to scrub facts, chase away scary numbers, and airbrush Hillary’s latest gaffs. While he hasn’t quite earned any Swift Boat merit badges, he knows how to bullshit better than anyone else.

The man has probably been on TV a billion times since last fall. So it’s understandable if the man has started running out of things to say. As his performance yesterday on “Meet the Press” proved, McAuliffe has finally hit a wall.

McAuliffe argued that Michigan should be counted because, well, Obama chose to take his name off the ballot. So why hurt Hillary for what was clearly Obama’s decision? And then he went on to evoke the Buffalo Bills—a Russert obsession—and compared the team to Hillary’s chances for the nomination. Not a good move:

“OK, but well, I’ll just say it’s not impossible. Did you count the Buffalo Bills out in 1993 when the Houston Oilers were beating them by 32 points in the third quarter?,” McAuliffe asked.

And then later, McAuliffe moves on to declare that Russert’s father would basically want Hillary to continue.

“But it’s not impossible for Hillary Clinton to win. A lot of people have said that. Big Russ, if he were sitting here today, nothing’s impossible. Jack McAuliffe, if he were with us today, they both–they’re probably both in heaven right now, Tim, probably having a scotch, looking down and saying, you know what, this fight goes on. It’s good for the Democratic Party. Millions of people coming out to vote. It’s exciting.”

I know Hillary does well with seniors. But this is ridiculous. Now she has the dead people vote? What’s next? Will we see ads with a CGI-enhanced John Lennon endorsing Hillary?

Umbrellas: Useless. A good one might, at best, keep your hair dry. Assuming there’s no wind. Just saying.