ThayerAvenue.com

News has broken that AFI is showing Night of the Living Dead on Saturday, November 1 – the day after Halloween. As per the recommendations of Silver Spring, Singular, among others, I think this would be a prime time for our Zombie Walk (as opposed the original Halloween night plan).

The plan, of course, would be to gather at a predetermined location, walk a (loosely) predetermined route (with detours for smoothies, whisky, brains, etc., as needed), and eventually end up at the 10:30pm showing of Night of the Living Dead at the AFI SIlver Theatre.

I have attempted to take advantage of my membership status at AFI and emailed them to see if we can do something more than an unorganized arrival of hordes of undead at the theatre, so if anything comes back, you all will be the first to know. And if you have any ideas for the event, please feel free to post them here.

The initial thoughts include:

1. Meet at Ellsworth and Spring (at the east end of the garage) to assemble and coordinate.
2. Walk up Ellsworth through The Promenade.
3. Paths for undead groups should include Borders, City Place, McGinty’s, and any unsuspecting victims whose brains appear to be tasty.
4. Weave around various, yet undecided streets, including Georgia, Colesville, Bonifant and (of course) Thayer Avenue.
5. Stop by Quarry House for a beer. Or two.
6. Head over to AFI for the 10:30 showing of Night of the Living Dead. Bring any new zombies along with.
7. After the movie, go back to the Quarry House for a beer. Or two.

And VERY lucky for us, Chip Py has offered to photograph the event. We’ll assume his First Amendment Rights aren’t questioned as we walk down Ellsworth. We’re still discussing online forums for coordination, but in the meantime, I’ve created a Facebook group to get people involved. Feel free to log in and give your two cents.

They use radar. Evidently, to find my basement.

Found this little guy in the rafters of my basement. Oddly enough, there was a bathouse on the table right below him that I’ve been meaning to put up for some time. And yes, this was a capture and release mission. Hopefully he’s eating some of the thousands of mosquitoes in the backyard as I type this. Cute little bugger, huh?

From the Good-Fences-Make-Good-Neighbors Department…

Looks like we’re in for a long winter of digging, dust, and beeping from contruction equipment. Where on earth will the emo kids go? I anticipate a lot more density on The Promenade without this space available.

Got Your Costume Yet?
I’m once again frightened by the fact that local grocery stores already have Halloween candy on the shelves. It’s not even Labor Day. But thanks to a recent post from Singular, I think everyone – and I mean EVERYONE – should dress up as zombies and go downtown on Halloween. It’s one of the simplest costumes you can have, and the photo ops would be priceless.

It’s been non-August-like weather outside, and I haven’t been able to bring myself to sit in front of the computer any longer than is necessary. But news continues its end-of-summer trickle.

The Rah-Rah Safeway
This my new name for the Thayer Avenue Safeway. I will also accept “The Nice People Safeway” or “The No-Quimby’s-For-You Safeway.” But the rah-rah comes from the rousing chorus of emotional support recently on the listserv. To which I respond: Blah blah.

After repeated tries, they couldn’t annex Quimby’s for an expansion project (which, as a loyal Volvo owner, I’m happy about), so they’re redoing the interior. For the time being, half the inventory is on wire shelves and it’s good to see things getting cleaned up. Yes, the people are nice. Yes, it’s convenient. And of course it’s less expensive than Whole Paycheck. But all this doesn’t belie the fact that it’s a bit grungy, the produce seems to goes bad inordinately fast once I get it home, and the lines all too often remind me of the Soviet Safeway in the city. Yes, I’ll still shop there, but only in between trips to see part of Falkland Chase get razed for my beloved Harris Teeter.

Best of Silver Spring – Extended Edition
No, this is not the better, subversive version seen here. Silver Spring Center has extended the voting on their site through the end of August. I wonder if it was because of lack of response or because of the great answers I know they’ve been getting (and are perhaps hoping for some more reasonable responses to balance those out).

Speed Cameras on Wayne
Silver Spring, Singular touched on revenue generation from speed cameras in Chevy Chase, and I, too, would like to know how much the MoCoPoPo are pulling in from the one on Wayne Avenue. More importantly, I was struck by a story in the Washington Post about a couple got clocked doing 100mph in their Toyota Echo during rush hour going uphill 1/4 mile after the stoplight at Sligo Creek Parkway. Luckly, traffic enforcement admitted the mistake, chalked it up to human error for not checking things properly, and the $40 the couple paid will be refunded. Don’t take anything for granted, folks. MoCo *really* wants your money.

In Less-Stellar Police News…
The cops in Prince George’s County still won’t really admit fault or offer an apology directly to the family they violated during a recent drug raid in Prince George’s County. I know it’s not in our neighborhood, but I encourage you to read the press coverage and try not to be pissed off. They busted down the door (with what could have been an improper warrant to do so) and then shot the two black labs. Unbelievable. The Department of Justice has been called in to investigate, and my prediction is that this is far from over.

For all you people who scoff at the chainification of DTSS, I present the newly-opened Living Ruff.

We went in there a couple of days ago, and the place looks great. With the amount of dogs I see down on The Promenade (happy, Sligo?), I hope this place sticks around. I spoke with the proprietors,  Jessica and Ron, and frankly I’m kinda jealous. This is something they wanted to do and they took the risk and did it. My ideal business model would involve beer and tater tots, and I think we know that niche has been taken.

Also nice to see that even a “pet boutique” can get in on election year fodder. While mostly focused on canines, there’s plenty of stuff for my man Otis the Cat, and the foot traffic at 7:30pm four days after opening without any real announcement was impressive. Next step is to see if we can get my toddler hopped up on catnip. Scientific study results should be forthcoming.

The “official” grand opening is set for September 6. For more information, visit www.livingruff.com.

I went into the Montgomery County Liquor store on Colesville Road last weekend, and much to my surprise and dismay, the shelves were barren of my beloved Maker’s Mark. Thanks to the arcane liquor control we still have in place in MoCo, I assumed it was the fault of someone in an office in Rockville somewhere. When I asked why, the clerk at the store told me there had been a fire at the distillery. I almost cried.

Luckily, we have the series of tubes known as the Internets. After some simple searches (and thanks to my status as a Maker’s Mark Ambassador), I found a blog post from Mr. Maker’s Mark himself, Bill Samuels, saying they started toying with inventory management to head off a potential shortage. The efforts seem to have gone awry:

Back about six months ago when it became apparent that maturing barrel stocks of Maker’s would likely not be sufficient to meet growing U.S. demand we thought it would be possible to create demand/supply alignment by implementing some inventory management. Our confidence was bolstered by the fact that a modest wave of additional barrel inventory (from our distillery expansion six years ago) would be coming available later this month, thus eliminating the problem for at least the next two to three years.

Inventories have been brought down to their lowest levels in 30 years and still we have not been able to prevent an out of stock situation in some restaurants, bars and stores across the country. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that restocking the pipeline will begin in earnest late next week and should continue until this potentially aggravating situation has been rectified. So, if you notice any out of stock situations with Maker’s Mark, hang in there.

So why would MoCo liquors scare me like that? If you happen to go to the liquor store anytime soon, please reiterate that there has been no fire, and since this message was posted back in mid-July, they should get off their happy asses and put the good stuff back on the shelf.

In the meantime, Woodford Reserve will serve as a less-than-adequate substitute.