Good morning, City Desk readers! Not only is it Freedom Friday (again)—it’s also pay day for yours truly, which means I’m going to blow a wad on Listerine and Slim Jims later tonight. And now, the news:

• I know, I know: podcasts are so 2006. But the good folks at Bureaucrash have posted one containing an interview with Robert R. Arthur, during which he discusses his book You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos. If you only listen to one podcast today, let it be this one. It’s that good.
• Not Larry Sabato, blogging wunderkind and nancy-pantsed nanny-stater, is covering the forthcoming Virginia restaurant smoking ban with a bloodhound’s nose. Yesterday he posted an update from Sen. Ralph S. Northam, who said, “I just wanted to jump on and update you on the progress of the restaurant smoking ban bill that I am sponsoring. We had a major breakthrough yesterday evening, and this morning Governor Kaine and I, along with a number of other Democrats and Republicans, announced compromise that would allow a version of the bill to pass the House General Laws Committee.” The only exceptions to the law will be private clubs and cigar bars, which says that Virginia lawmakers “don’t care about [rich old white] people[‘s health].” It also means I will have to drive that much further to patronize a restaurant where I can take puffs from a cigarette in between bites of bbq.
• Greater Greater Washington has the rundown on the residents of C St. NE, who are tired of drivers speeding through their neighborhood: “Instead of waiting for a streetscape project from DDOT, residents are proactively designing a better C Street. Resident Ken Granata created a blog for the street that explores potential redesigns. Granata, who also maintains the Rosedale Citizens’ Alliance neighborhood site, advocates removing one lane between 16th and 22nd Streets. On this stretch, C is a divided highway of three lanes in each direction. Heading west on C, the road divides at 16th, with C continuing west as a narrower road and North Carolina Avenue heading southwest to Lincoln Park. This creates a bottleneck around 16th.”
• Lastly, I’m thinking about buying one of these shirts. Is it too edgy? Too post-ironic? What do y’all think?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Leonid Mamchenkov