Posts tagged as D.C.
D.C. is the New New York!
If you fall into Washington Life magazine, and why wouldn't you, you would know that not only was there recently the Bachelors and Spinsters Ball (which we presume was a feminist take-back of "spinster"? Right?) but there was also a party called The Young and the Guestlist. Which, wow! It's like Sex and the City 3: I Peed Myself Waiting for a Mojito up in D.C. these days! In part probably because the new administration actually now sometimes hires people of color, I think, as well as that peculiar old D.C. standby, the lantern-jawed white man, there's definitely a frisson of fun in our nation's capitol! Too bad they're probably all real estate brokers and far-right policy wonk suck-ups. (Still, that might be better than New York- an improvement over real estate brokers and commodities analysts, am I right?)
The Magna Cum Laude Recession
It's a funny thing, newspapering. Last Saturday, for example, the Washington Post carried a dour dispatch in its business pages announcing that the DC unemployment rate ticked up another half a percentage point in October. This was "its highest level in 34 years of record keeping," noted reporter V. Dion Haynes. While the 11.9% jobless rate is in line with that of other major cities, there's also a peculiar lag in the employment scene here; even though employers in metro DC have added 10,200 jobs in the more credentialed end of the service industries, such as education and health care, they make a poor match for the District's labor market. Citing the work of George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis, Haynes notes that "the District has a higher proportion of undereducated, low-skilled people who have been most vulnerable to job cuts," and so it stands to reason that "many of the new, higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs in the city are going to people in the suburbs" of Maryland and Virginia. Eagle-eyed readers of the Post business section might recall a similarly underplayed story from earlier this month, which found that DC's rarely functional government has been stoking this urban skills gap by failing to direct recipients of welfare assistance to programs upgrading job skills and offering counsel on job search strategies-even though such referrals are more or less mandatory under federal law. READ MORE
Marvel and NyQuil: Everything is Bad, Go to Sleep
In the wake of the Summer of Death and the colossally major news that Disney bought Marvel for $4 billion (a number that means "death" in Cantonese and is therefore avoided at all costs-not in enumerations of 4, obvs-in addresses, car license plates, cell phone numbers, etc., and, cue ominous, chongy music) and because Mr. Nasir "Nas" Jones says that sleep is the cousin of death, we must report the (in some circles, equally) important news that the soporific in Nyquil (doxylamine succinate) is found in much higher doses elsewhere. Namely Unisom (25 mg per pill vs. 6.25 mg in a 15 ml dose). READ MORE
Understanding The Press Event: Nick Jonas Is Against Diabetes
The month of August in Washington, D.C., is dominated by uneventful fare with the most noteworthy happenings going down outside of the beltway. Perfect timing, then, for an adorable celebri-teen to show up and maximize media exposure for his pet cause. The photogenic subject in question was Nick Jonas of the pop group the Jonas Brothers. This week, he took to a much smaller stage than he's used to at the National Press Club to promote awareness for Type I Diabetes. There, like out of some cruel joke, a soft, moist chocolate cake was present at each table. READ MORE
Have A Seat For Us At The WHCD?
If anyone has an extra seat at the White House Correspondent's Dinner itself for our D.C. correspondent, let us know! We will give you cupcakes. And editorial consideration. CONFUSING NEWFANGLED EMOTICON GOES HERE.
Marion Barry Has No Idea What He's Voting For, Asks For Do-Over
"D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) has now asked that the gay marriage bill be reconsidered. He didn't realize what he was voting on before."
