A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.
Foiled Again: Several days ago, a member of the Shepherd Park email list claimed to observe “soil stealing” from a nearby elementary school. But another member of the list cleared up the suspicious activity: “In response to the post-er who complained about two women stealing soil, I do believe they were members of the PTA’s ‘Green Team’ who had asked permission to take some soil. The PTA had purchased many, many bags of soil for the April 30 gardening day (a rousing success), but we also got a donation of loose soil. Since we couldn’t use all of it—not even on our May 22 gardening day—we’re trying to figure out a way what to do with it so that it’s not an eyesore. Any suggestions?”
When I Was Your Age: The Georgetown Metropolitan has an extensive rundown of just what’s going on as DDOT crews begin to remove old streetcar tracks in the neighborhood. But from a commenter comes an additional history lesson: “More reflections on Georgetown streetcars: Back in 1976, when Metro first opened, The Post interviewed one of the new motormen/train drivers. He was a veteran Metro/DC Transit/Capital Transit employee whose first job with the system was as a ‘pit boy’ at Wisconsin and Q Streets. That was where the conduits ended, and the streetcars picked up the overhead cable. The motorman would stop the car over this guy’s pit, under the intersection, and his job was to unhitch the clamp that held the car to the cable for northbound cars, or to hitch it up for ones coming downhill into Georgetown. Meanwhile, the motorman would release the catenary by a spring mechanism, and fit it around the overhead wire, or haul it down and secure it to the car roof. After this maneuver was completed, the car would continue up (or down) Wisconsin Avenue. Here endeth the lesson.”
Department of Critical Thinking: From the writer behind BaancBlog, which covers Blagden Alley and Naylor Court, comes this observation, likely spurred by recent scandals in local politics: “Just when we stop color coding our terror levels, DC starts color coding its scandals: Gray, Orange, Greene, and Brown. Many Browns. At least it simplifies things. On another note: If you look at the Ward 6 map in the previous post and squint your eyes a bit, it looks a PacMan about to devour Ward 2. OK. Maybe one must be of a certain age.”
Cleveland Park, ISO: As always, the Cleveland Park email list is full of good questions. Yesterday, one member asked, “I am looking for a bunion surgeon. Does anyone have a good recommendation, someone you recommend enthusiastically? Thank you very much for your help!”