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

To Bark at a Mockingbird: On the Takoma email list, a member reports an unpleasant encounter in explicit detail: “Very aggressive angry mockingbird at the corner of 8th and Elder. Seems to have taken all 4 corners into its nest territory. Lucky for me, it attacks my dog Facey instead of me, even though she is on a 6 ft leash, which would make my head the high point. What is funny is the dog ignores it, like it were some large buzzing fly rather than an angry bird armed with claws and a beak. Even when it hits her in the backside above the tail. And she refuses to speed up on the walk to avoid it, even when it has me ducking and running. Today, it swooped on her 5 times in the time it took us to walk at normal pace to the corner, across the street and up the other block. Facey stopped twice, once just to sniff, while the bird was swooping and chirping furiously. On its last swoop, more than half a block from where I believe the nest is, it dug its little claws into but at the base of her tail, a sensitive spot, as dog owners and, apparently, mockingbirds know. Only then did Facey break into a trot.” Though the poster’s dog has encountered mockingbirds before, they believe this one is the worst. One member advises, “It is at that corner every year about this time of the year. It will stop in about 7-10 days. Very annoying,” while  another suggests, “I thought maybe it was the one from Takoma Village that was screeching all night. I think people were throwing shoes at it.”

Lanier > Graham: In response to Councilmember Jim Graham‘s caps-locked message regarding the redistricting of police service areas, one member of the Petworth email list disagrees. “I am no less than disappointed with Councilmember Jim Graham’s thoughts on redistricting. He is out of touch with the basic needs of the community and amiss from the very reasoning that the Chief if realigning boundaries is to be able to provide better service to all the community. Not just some. This realignment is a necessity and should be done without hesitation. Additionally, if our elected officials can’t seem to understand, and approve such community policing initiatives then perhaps it is time they consider doing something different,” they write.

Stimulus: It’s not often that new retail along the northeastern end of Rhode Island Avenue is heralded. But, Flip-It Bakery, on the corner of 16th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NE, seems to have earned some neighborly love. On a post by Rhode Island Insider, a commenter writes “The space is beautifully designed and decorated. My daughter and I ate there last week. The food was mediocre, but they absolutely made up for that with the space. I’m hoping that they decided to offer Wifi. Right now they have a locked network. We’ll definitely visit again!” And on the Brookland email list, a member says, “I had the pleasure of stopping into the new Flip-It Bakery location on the corner of Rhode Island ave and 16th street. It looks amazing inside! I actually frequent the Georgia ave and Michigan ave locations. I am happy they have expanded into Brookland! It is so much more than just a bakery. They offer an array of breakfast, lunch food, smoothies and more. They have a lot of seating and even an outside patio and private banquet room 🙂 Please take the time to stop in and check it out!”

Cleveland Park, For Sale: Among the many things priced for sale advertised on the Cleveland Park email list are a “beautiful hand-made rosewood (shisham) bar” and “typewriter fonts to put onto an electric IBM typewriter. I have 7 of them.”