A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.

By the Sight of the Special-Order Bike Seat: “I had my storage room broken into 3 times this year. The family bicycles were stolen along with tools etc. Well today as I was heading to an event and I spotted 2 of my bicycles…as I was in shock out comes an employee of Fast Gourmet (located on the corner of 14th and W streets NW) he was adjusting my special order bike seat,” reports a member of the Columbia Heights email list. He continues, “I called the 3D detectives…within 3 minutes the police were on the scene and Detective Bruce stayed on the phone with me.  So the Officers went in the back door of Fast Gourmet and asked who owned the bikes, of course two guys came out claiming ownership. The Officers had them unchain the bikes and they turned them over and compared the serial numbers…and GAVE Me my bikes back. So the guys who bought my stolen property are still enjoying their day at work because according to the officer they want to catch the guy who sold the bikes to them! Now while I’m happy for the partial recovery, isn’t it against the law to BUY STOLEN Property too! Please advise…” Though another member suggests the Fast Gourmet guys might’ve bought the bikes on Craigslist and had no idea they were stolen, the original poster insists, “The guys indicated to the police that someone just walked up to them and asked if they wanted to buy the bikes…”

Weak Team, Weak Reception: After one member of the Shepherd Park email list complains that reportage of the game via Verizon Fios is less than optimal, other members chime in with similar anecdotes. “The same goes for the Nats on the radio. I can hardly pick them up on the radio in my kitchen. Any tips other than maybe to buy a better radio or were the Nats only able to get on the weaker reception stations?” writes one. Another poster offers this suggestion: “I have 2 Bose Wave radios on different floors of my house. Excellent AM & FM reception over the years. Also, my stereo receiver in the basement is hooked up to a very old roof top TV antenna; again, excellent FM reception. If you are connected to the Internet, download iTunes & you can listen to virtually any radio station through a laptop.”

Isn’t There an App for That? A member of the Cleveland Park email list posts this message: “I am new the area and just moved onto Macomb Street and tonight around 1:30 a.m., I heard a really weird animal noise, it sounds like half hooting and half howling. I’m thinking a bird maybe? The sound seemed to get louder and then die down, and then start up again. It probably went on for a good 20 minutes and now it seems like they are farther away and its really faint. It is a really strange noise that’s hard to describe, just wondering if anyone knows what this animal this is or if anyone else heard it?” Insofar, no one else has said they heard it.

The Other Height Act: A member of the Brookland email list is incensed by prominent speed humps on neighborhood streets. “These things are muffler killers. If you exceed 20 kpH over some of them, you could lose your muffler. Someone told me that these things were another Gift of Our Former Dear Revered Leader Kim il-Fenty. Without consulting any of the residents, His Exalted Supremacy decided that the neighbourhoods needed and wanted these things, thus he had them installed. In some cases, they are not bad, but in more than a few cases, they will ruin your muffler, or, worse, your catalytic converter. Catalytic comverters are pricey animals,” he writes. But in the pro-speed hump court is a poster that says the following: “My block signed a petition requesting humps because people insist on racing through, even though the street is very often lined with cars on both sides. We have more than two dozen children on one block. We have houses with no off-street parking (and cars getting sideswiped). We have houses with back-out driveways. We also have more than our share of drunk drivers, what with the bar on the corner of a residential street. I don’t know the ‘optimum’ height/breadth of a speed hump, but I like ours.