ThayerAvenue.com

I’m not sure if it’s actually new, but I was rudely alerted to the fact that there’s a box speed camera in the 9000 block of Georgia Avenue at the southwest corner of Woodside Parkway targeting drivers in the northbound lanes.

Of course, MoCo kindly posts the location of all speed cameras on its web site, but I haven’t really paid attention. Now being $40 poorer, I think I’ll start checking occasionally. All too easy to get up a good head of steam going through there – which I assume is why they put it there. That, and to get people to slow the hell down.

But really, considering some of the driving I’ve seen around Silver Spring, someone should make an idiot camera. It would certainly help the budget issues in the county. Consider yourself warned.

Some have been around longer and some have come and gone, but on 4/20 (!) four years ago, this blog started with a meager little post. We’ve had our ups and downs, but from correcting blatant grammatical errors to engaging county leaders through social media, we done a lotta good. Thanks to all who have stuck around, and here’s to many more years to come.

I know – it’s been a while since the last update. Seems to go in fits and spurts when things get busy, but not for lack of things going on. For example:

Save the Date: Zombie Walk 2011

There will be much more to come on this, but we’re in the initial stages of planning for this year’s Zombie Walk, set for Saturday, October 22, 2011. Mark your calendars. This gets bigger every year, and this year should prove to be no exception. Movie selection is being finalized, and other updates will be coming over the next few months. Gonna be a great one, but I wanted to get the date out there before you went planning some other silly event.

Fro-Zen-Yo

While we’re fortunate to now have a crêperie right around the corner (dutifully covered by SoCo Eats and Silver Spring, Singular), I’m really looking forward to the opening of the Fro-Zen-Yo in the old Cakelove spot next to Lebanese Taverna. My family has been singing its praises to me, and I wasn’t a real believer until I tried it for myself. Especially when I was given yogurt topped with Cap’n Crunch cereal. It may change your life.

FSM Returns!

Sadly, once again, not the pastafarians. One of my favorite fixtures of DTSS, Fenton Street Market, is back on April 30. And according to reports, it’ll be “supersized” for it’s inaugural 2011 outing.

Direct Wine Shipments

Thanks to Heather Mizeur, Tom Hucker, and many others for helping give Maryland a first step into realistic alcohol control laws. You can now have wine shipped directly to your home in Maryland. As I understand it, you can order and ship from wineries but not large InterWeb-type retailers. But whatever. It’s a start, and I can ship the other stuff to another location for the time being.

And so it begins.

Just a quick note to follow up from the Montgomery County Council committee hearing today, courtesy of Councilmember George Leventhal:

The latest news: the County Council’s Health & Human Services and Planning, Housing & Economic Development Committees met jointly to discuss Council President Ervin’s resolution to authorize a bridge over Wayne Avenue.  Consistent with his vote for the bridge in 2009, Councilmember Leventhal moved the resolution (Ervin is not a member of either committee) but it failed for a lack of a second. Councilmembers Rice, Navarro, Floreen and Elrich were present but none seconded the motion.  So there is no committee recommendation. It remains to be seen whether Council President Ervin will now bring the matter before the full Council without a committee recommendation.

Well, that’s that. For now.

In Other Devastating News…
This afternoon, someone on the ESSCA listserv posted this. I was going to summarize, but I think verbatim is best:

Dear Neighbors,

If you called the Weather (301-936-1212) this week, you heard that Verizon is discontinuing this service in June 2011.  In Wednesday’s Post, John Kelly’s Washington column in the Metro section concerned the planned discontinuation of the weather and time services of Verizon.

If you would like to protest the cessation of weather and time reports by telephone, please email verizonweatherofdc@… (incomplete email in listserv post) and call Verizon @1-800-VERIZON.  If you don’t want the service to end, please forward this email to your friends and neighbors on other listserves to spread the word.

Maybe Verizon will reverse this decision.

Really? Last time I called a phone number for weather and time, I was 9 years old. I wonder how many people called that number on a daily basis. I certainly don’t see a problem with the lowest common denominator being “Traffic and Weather together on the 8s” on WTOP, but that’s ESSCA in all its glory.

I may start writing my own version of Goodnight, Moon with the two aforementioned items.

A moment of silence, anyone?

A while back I extolled the virtues of a local underground dining establishment here in Silver Spring. After a full schedule of test runs, they’re open and ready for business. “Dining Under the Table” is a simple concept: One table, two cooks, 6 guests. These are popping up more and more with their rise in popularity and press.

According the their web site, they’ll continue to “highlight dishes inspired by the Mediterranean region, with ingredients sourced from sustainable farms and from local vendors.”

Host an Event at Sidebar

Jackie’s venerable Sidebar has started hosting events, mainly for non-profit groups, where Sidebar will donate a nice portion of the proceeds from food and drink to whatever cause you’re supporting. Stop by and talk to Gordon or Jackie, or contact them through their web site.

So long, TBD folks

Yesterday saw huge cuts in TBD staff in preparation of a wholesale reorganization of the outfit. Sadly, this affected some of my favorite local news tweeps from @TBD, including @elahelzadi, @lisatella, and @bydanielvictor (even though he’s a Phillies fan). I hope they’ll stay on Twitter, but I wish them well wherever they go. Good luck, folks.

…plus c’est la même chose.

I took this photo last month and posted it to Twitter, but I think it deserves its own post here. The escalators, by the way, are still under construction. For those of you who haven’t seen this sign, it currently sits in the ambulance bay of Fire Station 1 (the *actual* fire station – not the restaurant). Thankfully, it’s out where people can see it – not buried in someone’s basement with a lot of other “historical” stuff that no one will see without buying a stupid book.

Also…
Some City Paper bozo decided to badmouth Columbia Heights and Silver Spring by comparing them to each other. People are up in arms in both places, of course, but I really feel like the best solution is to not pay him any attention. Come on, people. Have you not learned anything? We all know it’s one idiot writing incendiary crap. (Pay no attention to the man behind this curtain.) That’s why I’m not linking to it here. No doubt someone else will.

Puppy Bowl Marred By Tragic Spinal Injury

SILVER SPRING, MD—Puppy Bowl VII, puppy football’s biggest annual event, came to a complete standstill Sunday when Alvin, a 3-month-old schnauzer mix, suffered a freak spinal injury while chasing down a loose squeaky football.

The injury, which occurred only minutes before the Kitty Halftime Show, followed a routine midfield burst of play. Slow-motion footage from the sideline and water-dish cameras show Alvin romping flat out down the sidelines before taking a risky crossing route to come at the football from an angle, at which point two larger puppies, Amy, a golden retriever, and Big Red, a 13-week-old shepherd mix, laid a massive hit on Alvin, who responded with a shrill yelp that was suddenly and ominously cut off.

“I heard something snap and I knew immediately something was wrong,” said play-by-play announcer Jeff Bordner, who watched as a team of veterinarians attended to Alvin, who lay motionless on Animal Planet Stadium’s turf. “We applauded when he was carried off the field, but it didn’t look good. The replay shows his neck twisting at almost a right angle.”

Sources at Silver Spring Animal Hospital, where Alvin was rushed after the injury, said that the pup has no feeling in his paws, and that even if he lives he will more than likely never frolic on his own again.

Click here for the full story.

After having good ribs at both Fire Station 1 and Babes recently, I think we need to start planning for spring: when the weather is warmer, the beer tastes colder, and the barbecues start firing up. Between those two restaurants, *whatever* comes out of Diana Davila-Boldin’s kitchen at Jackie’s, and the plethora of other Silver Spring restaurants that serve good ribs (and other barbecue, for that matter), it’s high time we find a parking lot, bring in some trucks, and have an honest competition.

Of course, we don’t have to limit it to ribs, but we’d have to have plenty of categories to allow for pork, beef, and all their various incarnations. I’m sure we could get enough takers. We’d just need a place, some sponsors, and participants. I think Veteran’s Plaza would be a prime location. As for sponsors, this would be a great opportunity for AOL to drop some money and promote their local Patch news network. And I’m sure we could get Downtown Silver Spring (Peterson Cos), the Chamber of Commerce, the Silver Spring Regional Center, and a number of other secondary and tertiary sponsors (Hook & Ladder, anyone?). Attendees, of course, are a no-brainer.

Most important: the participants. I’ve named my top three, but start adding to the list and let’s see where this thing goes. These are some of my ribs from the backyard this summer (above), so know that I’m serious about this.

And if we’re lucky, maybe Billy Zane could use a gig and be the emcee.

Continuing our venerable year-end wrap up from yesterday, here’s my choice for the final five downers from 2010.

5. Skateboarding is Not a Crime

Pushing for a skate park in DTSS is one thing, and I’m all for civic engagement of the youth in the community. But hijacking the Kojo show at the civic building and making us sound like the banana republic of the greater DC region is something else entirely. The kids that were there seemed well-spoken and respectful, but in the words of a great philosopher, sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. There were much larger, more important issues to be discussed, but many of those weren’t addressed because of the amount of time given to this apparently overarching issue. Thankfully, we can now move on and ice skate under the flying V canopy at Veterans Plaza.

4. Hook & Ladder Pulling Out of the Old Fire Station

Hopes ran so high on this one. Potential for on-site brewing, growlers to go – the possibilities were endless. They even opened up offices on Fenton to manage things locally. I’m going to have to blame MoCo on this one. My understanding was that, among other factors, county regulations were so much of a pain in the ass that it just got to be too much.

Thankfully, others stepped in for what has proved to be a great place to go. Fire Station 1 continues to be a good place to go, and they do their best to keep at least half of their taps streaming with Maryland-made beers. It took me much to long to start going there on a regular basis, but now it’s up to us to keep it alive and well.

3. PEPCO

Given the multitudes who have suffered from the lack of power over the past 12 months, this doesn’t need much explanation. We were dark for 4 days this summer in the sweltering heat, losing hundreds of dollars via contents of our refrigerators and freezers. One loyal Silver Spring resident even started the site www.pepcosucks.com, logging all the twitter activity tagged with the words #pepcosucks, #pepco, and in an effort at parity, #pepcorocks. Classic.

2. Drivers on Dale

It was as if the traffic calming devices just went up overnight and no one saw them coming. I believe the word I used at the time was “schadenfreude.” The sentiment still stands.

1. This

In particular, the fact that it was rectified much too quickly.

Thanks for another spectacular year, folks.
Travel and general busy-ness has kept me from the Interwebs over the past few weeks, but I look forward to more mockery and frivolity in 2011. Happy New Year!