*I don’t quite know what to make of this sort of fascinating, and yet sort of gossipy and pointless Washington Post story about Mayor Adrian Fenty‘s bicycle crash last week. The article relies on a totally unattributed account of the accident and claims that Fenty is so image-conscious, he refused an ambulance when one showed up at the scene of his fall. “Dang, Mayor Fenty you ride your bike the way you run the city,” says one commenter.

*And just in case you feel like gritting your teeth, here’s another article about the mismanagement of the D.C. summer youth employment program. “There are just so many facets to it. Kids who didn’t get paid…Kids who got paid who didn’t work. Kids who may not live in the city,” Gray said. “We have a program that was grossly mismanaged,” according to Ward 8 councilmember Marion Barry. Great, that’s just great.

*Slate’s Jody Rosen finds that a Texas alt-weekly has plagiarized from his story. Then, he discovers a certain writer plagiarizes a lot of stories, and he’s rather disappointed: “It was then that I realized, with a pang of regret, that Mark Williams is not my biggest fan—a reader so enraptured by Rosen’s prose stylings that he was driven to steal them.”

*Washingtonian collects menus for Restaurant Week, which starts monday. And restaurant critic Todd Kliman provides a very detailed set of directions about how to narrow down your options. He also makes a good point: you’re never just paying for the simple fixed menu cost. “That doesn’t include tip and tax, and it doesn’t include alcohol. Factor those things in, and dinner for two, plus two glasses of wine, tip and tax is probably going to add up to about $120.
Not cheap.”
Sigh. True.