After the Party, It’s the Hotel Lobby: Nothing goes together quite as well as luxury hotel suites and jumbo slices of pizza. Which is why the District is considering giving $46 million in tax abatements to the developers of a new Ian Schrager/Marriott partnership that would build a hotel at Columbia Road and Champlain Street NW, in Adams Morgan. Opponents of the deal have now taken to the Internet to air their grievances. What might ensure the plan goes through, though, is news that it would require Washington City Paper to move so our office could become either a swimming pool or a parking garage (or, if the architects are creative, both)—anything that inconveniences us, the D.C. Council is likely to at least consider! +1

Deck the Subway: Public transit meets Christmas spirit—a flash mob of carolers will sing along the Red Line during the evening rush hour. The stunt will give Metro officials with exactly the gift they were hoping for this year: Something to blame train delays on besides equipment failures or single-tracking! Even if the singing doesn’t stay on key, it’ll still be better than getting stabbed in the neck, which is the seasonal activity of choice along the Green Line. +2

Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Nightlife: Owners of DC9 aren’t wasting any time now that the city has given them the okay to reopen—the club at 9th and U streets NW will be back in business Wednesday, the first date permitted after a suspension related to the death of Ali Mohammed. Don’t expect this news to calm any of the tension over the incident in which Mohammed died, but do expect to see a level of security at the club that may make you think you’re boarding an airplane. +1

FedEx Follies: In professional football, no play is considered quite as difficult to pull off successfully as the point after touchdown. Week in and week out, around the National Football League, teams struggle to convert the extra point after scoring. It’s nearly impossible to manage such a feat. Or at least, that’s the impression you’d get after watching the Redskins lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 17-16, in a driving rain that perfectly matched the team’s general uselessness on Sunday afternoon. The deciding play came when punter Hunter Smith let the snap on a PAT fly through his hands. Millions of Redskins fans around town watching must have thought to themselves, “Gee, I could have done better.” And this time, they were probably right. -2

Friday’s Needle rating: 51 Today’s score: +2 Today’s Needle rating: 53