K Street Blues

Halftime at The Emirates

2009-12-27T18:05:00.001-05:00

I tried this before and I don't think it worked. Maybe it'll be a double post.

Anyway, I'm at The Emirates watching Arsenal take on Aston Villa. Scoreless at the half. I should get the action on my end in second half.

Arsenal are controlling the game but can't seem to finish. They're a bit sloppy today.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Credit where it’s due

2009-12-23T10:13:00.000-05:00

I just realised that I haven’t given British Airways their proper due on this blog. Last week, as you K Streeters will know, I gave a daily hammering to the airline and its cabin crew union to work out their differences and avert a strike that would have severely disrupted Christmas travel.

I even threatened never to fly British Airways again.

Well, as we learned last Thursday, the strike is off and Christmas is saved. But I didn’t say what has happened since then.

Friday night, while I was waiting for a Metro train to take me to the Quarry House Tavern (the Happiest Place On Earth), I got an e-mail from British Airways:

Dear Mr Hoover,

Thank you for your patience and support.

We would like to thank you for your patience and continued support during the recent period of uncertainty caused by the threat of industrial action. We understand the anxiety this may have caused you, especially given the time of year.

As an Executive Club member you are very important to us, and we hope 10,000 bonus BA Miles will go some way to show our appreciation for your support & loyalty during this difficult time. There is nothing you need to do to claim these bonus miles, they will be automatically added to your account after you have taken your flights.

Please accept these BA Miles as a gesture of goodwill.

We hope you have a very happy holiday and New Year.

Yours faithfully,

James Hillier
Executive Club Manager

Now that’s a nice touch, and a good customer service gesture from BA.

But wait! There’s more!

After receiving the e-mail, I tweeted about it. About 15 minutes later, @BritishAirways sent me a direct message over Twitter: “You’re welcome. Happy holidays.”

Well played, BA. Well played.

Whew!

2009-12-22T09:06:00.002-05:00

Well, we all survived Snowpocalypse 2009, or perhaps it was Snowmageddon. I’m not sure.

I can tell you that the Washington area got nearly 20 inches of snow on Saturday. I left my favourite watering hole, the Quarry House Tavern, just after 1 a.m. Saturday and it had already accumulated. It wasn’t snowing when I entered the joint.

It didn’t stop after that until very late Saturday night. Chaos ensued. Well, not really — I just stayed inside and watched football, watched “Lost,” sat around. Our Choral Arts concert was thankfully cancelled for the Saturday; I wouldn’t have been able to make it to the Kennedy Center.

This was the view out my window at around 4:30 Saturday afternoon. Note that behind that tree is a car completely buried in snow:

We went for it on Sunday, the concert that is, which was fine, although it took me two hours to get home after the show. (It wasn’t the snow and ice that did it — it was Metro’s utter failure. How hard is it to run underground trains in the snow? There’s no snow down there! I waited 25 minutes at Foggy Bottom and another 25 a Metro Center. Utter fail.)

Hopefully we’re done with the winter weather for the time being, or at least until 10 p.m. Thursday, which is an hour after I’ll have taken off for London.

It's gonna snow!

2009-12-18T09:31:00.003-05:00

Rowhouses
Originally uploaded by Ed Hoover

The Washington area is under a winter storm warning, which means we can expect anywhere from seven to 14 inches of snow over the next few days.

Whee! Winter wonderland!

(N.B. This photo is from 2006.)

I’m sure that’ll wreak havoc on my ability to get to the Kennedy Center for our concert tomorrow. Then again, I’m taking the train, so that probably will be the fastest way. Provided Metro gets its ice-removing trains out on the tracks in due time for those long above-ground stretches.

The Post’s “Capital Weather Gang” says there is a 100 percent chance of snow tomorrow; my AccuWeather app tells me it will be snowing pretty much nonstop from about 2 a.m. until about 2 a.m. Sunday.

I’m glad this is hitting now and not, say, next Thursday, when I’m scheduled to fly out to London. (Apparently it’s snowing there, too, a rarity; I’m sure it’ll be gone by the time I arrive.)

Christmas is saved!

2009-12-17T11:01:00.002-05:00

Leaving out any judgments on whether this was the right thing with regard to labour disputes, I’m glad to know that my flights will go on as scheduled:

A strike by British Airways cabin crew planned for Christmas has been declared illegal in a High Court ruling.

The court agreed with BA that the cabin crew’s union, Unite, had not correctly balloted its members on the strike action.

London, here I come!

An open letter to British Airways and Unite

2009-12-17T08:59:00.001-05:00

Still awaiting the fate of my flights to London. The High Court is set to rule on BA’s request for an injunction any hour now. That request is based on the fact that around 800 of the flight attendants who voted in the strike ballot probably shouldn’t have since they took volunteer redundancy or already no longer worked for the airline. That certainly wouldn’t change the outcome (more than 90 percent of around 11,000 voted in favour of the strike), but I can’t imagine the law would care about that.

Perhaps more interesting — and certainly more interesting than the news that one of Unite’s leaders lives half her life in a £400,000 home in Los Angeles — is that union members didn’t know two basic pieces of information when they voted: when the strike would take place and how long it would last. From The Independent:

Union leaders waited until they had secured a 92 per cent majority for industrial action before announcing when and for how long the strike would be held. Many of those who voted expected to be out for three days at a time, starting in January, rather than for 12 days over Christmas.

Are you kidding me? I’d think that would be about the minimum amount of information I’d want before voting on industrial action.

You know, my default position in these cases is to err on the side of labour. I reserved judgment on this story because it directly affects me (I want the strike to end, full stop, I don’t care how, really) but also because I didn’t know a lot about the issues at play.

But this news is something that has swung me over to BA’s side of things, I think. And it looks like some Unite members are having second thoughts:

British Airways cabin crew facing the grim prospect of taking part in a highly unpopular 12-day strike over Christmas have begun questioning the tactics of their union leaders.

The planned stoppage is more drastic than anything they expected when they voted to take action against what they saw as high-handed behaviour by BA’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, and his management team. …

… The first signs of misgivings among loyal union members showed up yesterday on an internet chat room accessible only to members of the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardessess Association (Bassa), a section of the trade union Unite.

One wrote: “I understand the need to act now and show our resolve asap, but I and many others I have spoken to today really believe the Christmas dates are not doing us any favours for the cause. I am seriously thinking January would have been better.

“The public backlash is already enormous and, like it or not, Walsh will play on that [but] many crew will listen to what’s on TV and start thinking the same. This will be my third time on strike and I am always with the union, but I have a horrible feeling they may have got this one wrong. I will strike regardless, of course.”

You’ve got that right. The Christmas dates are doing you absolutely no favours.

But, ultimately, I side with myself and my fellow passengers in this dispute. If my plans get screwed because of you — and I’m talking to both sides here, union and management — I’m never flying British Airways again. You hear that? Ever.

And I won’t be the only one. I just have friends to see, a play to attend and a massively awesome Arsenal vs. Aston Villa at The Emirates match to go to. Yeah, I’ll be pissed, but not like students in an American high school marching band who worked their asses off to travel to London to march in a Christmas parade. Or a mother who won’t be able to visit her 42-year-old son in America for her first Christmas with him. Or the couple who are scheduled to be married in New York over the holidays.

Fix it!

Wednesday news

2009-12-16T09:47:00.002-05:00

Right now, the High Court is hearing British Airways’ case for an injunction. Then, at 10 a.m. Eastern (3 p.m. London time), the airline and the union will sit down for talks.

These talks will be high-stakes, I reckon. A lot of analysts say the strike, if it goes through, could spell the beginning of the end for the venerable airline. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is “worried” and has asked the union to call off the strike. Unite has seen a severe backlash on Facebook and Twitter over its strike plans.

So, yeah, I’m keeping my eye on today. In other non-Ed-travel-related news:

I’m surprised this hasn’t happened yet. A man in Leytonstone, in the United Kingdom, successfully delivered his child after realising they wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time. He Googled how to do it on his BlackBerry.
An 8-year-old in Taunton, Mass., was suspended and sent to counseling after drawing a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross, with X’s for eyes. Apparently he drew the sketch “after his teacher asked the children to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas.”
Maybe that kid got the notion because of this abomination of a ~~Christmas~~ “CHRIST-mas” tree. Let’s see: a Christmas tree with an ancient torture device shoved inside. Happy holidays! Pass the cookies and egg nog!
I just want you to know I will not be doing any countdown lists of the best this or worst that of the year, decade or century thus far. That is all.
One of my favourite museums, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Gallery, has plans to erect an inflatable balloon-thingy twice a year over (and in) its doughnut-shaped building. This is cool, this is very cool, they should do it and I can’t wait to photograph it.
The District of Columbia passed legislation yesterday to legalise gay marriage. Congratulations to them for doing the right thing. Normally, that would mean a governor-type person would sign it into law. But because District residents have about the same rights as citizens of Puerto Rico, it will be sent to the U.S. Congress for a 30-day review. Where, I am sure, some right-wing nutjobs, who normally blather on about states’ rights and keeping the federal government out of things, will promptly do everything they can to interfere with the political decisions of people to whom they are unaccountable. Ah, American democracy!

No word from London yet. Bated breath here, mates!

No real strike news

2009-12-15T13:09:00.001-05:00

I’m still waiting on the British Airways strike. Apparently, the airline is now attempting to get a court to block the strike action:

British Airways today started legal proceedings against the Unite union over a 12-day Christmas strike by cabin crew, as the airline prepares to block a crippling walkout in the courts.

BA is seeking an injunction to prevent the strike going ahead between 22 December and 2 January due to alleged irregularities in the ballot. Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, said: “We are absolutely determined to do whatever we can to protect our customers from this appalling, unjustified decision from Unite. We do not want to see a million Christmases ruined.”

Taking a hardline stance with Unite, Walsh accused the union of “cynically” proceeding with the action despite knowing that it might be blocked. “It cynically went ahead with an extreme, highly publicised threat to our customers and our business in the knowledge that it might not be able to carry it out.”

The premise of the complaint is supposed voting irregularities or other problems with the ballot process.

BA, for its part, says its “managers have been establishing which cabin crew might wish to work normally during the strike period.”

I’m not sure I like the antagonistic stance BA is taking. The airline’s CEO, ~~Willy Wonka~~ Willie Walsh, released a strongly worded letter yesterday chastising the union. I would hope that management and labour can come to a compromise, but it looks like now I’ll have to hope a British judge decides to save my Christmas.

Then again, the flight attendants’ union might be acting unreasonably. As I said yesterday, I’m not familiar enough with the dispute to take sides or make a judgment call. But I did hear a BA pilots’ union representative union on the BBC this morning who seemed to think Unite were being a bit dickish.

I’m just sayin’, is all.

British Airways cabin crews may strike

2009-12-14T14:18:00.002-05:00

I started off the day today with the wonderful news that my holiday travel plans might be thrown into a swirling abyss of suck. My boss alerted me to the news that the union representing British Airways’ cabin crews voted yesterday to strike between Dec. 22 and Jan. 2 if they can’t reach an agreement with company management in the next week.

British Airways cabin crew will strike over Christmas, their union said Monday, throwing the plans of thousands of holiday travelers into uncertainty at one of the busiest times of the year.

Strikes are to begin Dec. 22 and run for a dozen days until Jan. 2, said Len McCluskey, the assistant general secretary for Britain’s Unite union. McCluskey said 92.5 percent of workers voted in favor of the action.

“You don’t often get ballot results like this unless there is a deep-rooted sense of anxiety, concern and anger,” McCluskey said at a news conference.

The struggling carrier has announced sweeping changes as part of its bid to cut costs, including axing 1,700 jobs, freezing pay for current staff and offering lower wages for new employees. The airline has suffered along with the rest of the industry due to lower demand for travel during the global recession.

Yeah, I’m scheduled to leave Dec. 24 and return on Dec. 29. Without commenting on the nature of the argument between the airline and the union — I don’t know enough about it — I’ll say that this could suck.

I’ve been monitoring the situation and it looks like there is still time for the company and Unite to work out a deal. I have to think that British Airways will do everything it possibly can to prevent an industrial action over one of the biggest travel periods of the year.

They’ve already had a horrible financial year, and such an action could cost the airline around £50 million according to some estimates. Not to mention the severe damage to its reputation — people won’t blame the union, they’ll blame British Airways.

Apparently, if my flight is cancelled British Airways will find me a flight on another airline. Hopefully, those aren’t all booked up. The last time BA faced a strike, in 1997, when there was a three-day action, the airline cancelled domestic flights first, knowing that travellers in the UK could find alternate transportation. Also, there are some non-unionised workers, so there might be people available for a crew. But I have to think that the percentage of non-unionised workers at BA is pretty small.

We remain hopeful…

Here we go

2009-12-11T14:16:00.001-05:00

Orange
Originally uploaded by Ed Hoover

Two weeks to Christmas, kids. Yes, two weeks exactly. And I’ve no idea what I’m getting anyone.

I do know, however, that a fortnight from today I’ll be stone-cold chillin’ in Olde London Town, which rules. I love me some London, and I’ll get to see some great friends. And quite in itinerary, too. We’re going to see a staging of Molière’s “The Misanthrope,” starring Keira Knightley; we’re going to The Emirates to see Arsenal take on Aston Villa; and we’re going ice skating at a giant outdoor rink.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

This week will be all about Christmas. We have a final orchestra rehearsal tomorrow morning for our Choral Arts Society Christmas concerts (tickets still available, click here), and the first of our performances on Monday night. I suppose I’ll do my shopping later that week, too.

Last night, I went to the Longview Gallery for the launch party for ReadySetDC, a new blog for all things creative and artistic in Washington. It was a cool show, with photography curated by my friend and photog extraordinaire Tracy Clayton. The photo above is one I took on my iPhone of an amplifier.

I need to get out and shoot some more, but it’s so damn cold. Hm.

On Nobels and war

2009-12-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

President Obama today had the odd and perhaps unenviable task of accepting a Nobel Peace Prize a little over a week after he announced he was escalating the war in Afghanistan. I didn’t watch the speech, since it took place as I was commuting, but I have read the full text, and it’s quite compelling. Here is a small part:

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago — “Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak -nothing passive — nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

I raise this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter the cause. At times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world’s sole military superpower.

Yet the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions — not just treaties and declarations — that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest — because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if other peoples’ children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.

So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet this truth must coexist with another — that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. The soldier’s courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause and to comrades in arms. But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such.

I’m undecided about the Afghanistan decision. To be honest, I haven’t paid as much attention to it as I probably should have. I don’t know if it’s the right way to go, and I’m not sure anyone does. I do take comfort in the fact that we have a thoughtful president who didn’t make this decision lightly or in a vacuum. That his was a deliberative, considered approach based on the advice of his top military advisers.

So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly irreconcilable truths — that war is sometimes necessary, and war is at some level an expression of human feelings. Concretely, we must direct our effort to the task that President Kennedy called for long ago. “Let us focus,” he said, “on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions.”

We have to trust and hope that that is where we’re headed.

Lost: Season 3

2009-12-08T09:27:00.004-05:00

Lost: Season 3

Hi everyone, I’m back. I was in New York on Sunday and yesterday for a client, so I’m back in action here in D.C. Between some good train time and a Sunday night hotel stay, I was able to finish my re-watch of Season Three of “Lost.” Huzzah!

So here are my observations about that season. It’s a good one.

The season premiere is still one of the best this show has to offer. We’re totally fooled by the beginning, wondering who this woman is and what this book club is all about. We see this scene of perfect suburban tranquility — until we learn that she’s Juliet, an Other who lives on our Island.
In the second episode, when Sawyer and Kate are sent by the Others to break rocks at the quarry, they are actually building a runway. We learn in the last season that it’s the runway that Ajira 316 will land on. Did the Others know that this would happen? Were they building it for another purpose?(Later in the season, Juliet jokes to Sawyer that the runway is being built for “the aliens,” and admits that she doesn’t know what it’s for.)
“Every Man for Himself” is the first time, I think, that we see Ben in full-on badass mode. He beats the shit out of Sawyer in the cage and then he sadistically freaks out a bunny, among other things. He’s decidedly creepy in this episode, the creepiest we’d seen that far.
In “The Cost of Living,” which is Eko’s flashback episode, he awakes from being passed out after the hatch explosion by a vision of his brother, Yemi, who appears in the tent where Sayid and the others have placed him to recover. Yemi tells Eko to wake up because “it is time to be judged.” At the end of the episode, Eko has an encounter with the Smoke Monster — who appears as Yemi — which then kills Eko. Eerie similarities to Ben in season five, when he summons the Smoke Monster in order “to be judged.”*
Also in that episode, when Locke is questioning Eko about seeing the Monster, he tells Eko that he saw something, too — a “very bright light. It was beautiful.” This matches what he said last season, when he “looked into the eye” of the Island “and it was beautiful.” But we’ve assumed he saw the Monster, which is decidedly not that (as Eko says, “That is not what I saw.”). After all, the Monster is definitely not a “very bright light.” What did Locke see? Or is he lying?
Yemi is another disappearing corpse. Eko looks for him in the Beechcraft, but doesn’t find him. Yet Yemi appears to Eko throughout the episode. Christian Shephard’s corpse was missing from the casket when Jack found it in Season One, and he’s traipsing around everywhere. Yet Locke, in Season Five, has a corpse and a doppelganger. So which is it? Are you ever resurrected on the Island?
In “Par Avion,” Mikhail starts speaking about Locke as if he knows him, saying, “But you, John Locke, you I might have a fleeting memory of. But I must be confused, because the John Locke I know was perhap—”** before Rousseau cuts him off in order to point out the sonic fence to the others. Locke gives him a funny look. Mikhail does this after explaining how the one who brought him and his comrades to the Island — ostensibly Jacob — is “a magnificent man.” Is this an early reference to the Man In Black?
You know what? Nikki and Paolo didn’t bother me at all on second viewing. Perhaps it was because I knew they’d die soon, but in retrospect, they don’t seem to be as big a deal as they were at the time. They were barely in the show to begin with, and then they had an episode to themselves that killed them off because of the fan-hate.
When Desmond, Charlie, Jin and Hurley follow Desmond’s vision about the cable coming out of the sea, Desmond believes it is Penny who has bailed out of the helicopter. His vision includes Charlie’s dying by an arrow through the throat. Desmond wants to recreate the vision exactly, to ensure, he says, that the outcome remains as he saw it. But in the last second, he saves Charlie’s life. When they unmask the bailed-out person, it’s not Penny but Naomi, who is one of the freighter folks. Weird quantum-type question: If Desmond hadn’t saved Charlie, would the person they rescued have turned out to be Penny?
Desmond tells Ruth, his ex-fiancée, that he got scared about marrying her, got pissed and passed out in the middle of the street. A man with a “rope tied round his waist” helped him, and Desmond knew he was supposed to follow the man, and he ended up at the monastery. We assume he’s talking about Brother Campbell (who, mysteriously, has a picture of himself with Mrs. Hawking on his desk) and the rope-belt we’ve seen on monks before. Someone on a podcast said ~~this, so I can’t confirm, but they said~~ that the man in black also wears a rope belt. Perhaps this is what he’s referring to? (Update: I can confirm it. Take a look at this screen capture.)
I love how they telegraphed that Charlie was going to die, and the entire episode of “Greatest Hits” you’re expecting him to die. But then he doesn’t — at least, not in that episode. I’d seen it all before, of course, but I forgot until the very end of watching it this time before I remembered that he actually dies in the finale.
I’m still not sure what to make of Charlie’s death. It seems pretty pointless to me. He didn’t have to die. He could have run out of the radio room and shut the door behind him; Desmond was fetching SCUBA gear while Charlie was talking to Penny, so it’s not like they couldn’t have swum to the surface. Perhaps he felt he had to die since Desmond told him he had to in order for Claire to be safe.
It’s also strange that, at Comic-Con this year, Dominic Monaghan came out on stage and held up his hand to the audience. Written on it was the words “Am I alive?” Hm.
The season finale is still one of the best. The mind-blow with Jack’s story being a flash forward instead of a flashback was inspired. It’s fun to watch it again knowing from the start that it’s a flash forward — you can look for clues. There aren’t many (Jack’s mobile phone is about it, it’s a newer model than one he’d be able to have before the crash), and there are plenty of misdirecting details, such as people calling him a hero (you assume it’s because he saved that woman from the car crash, but it’s not only that but also his Oceanic Six-ness) and his telling the new chief of surgery to “Get my father down here, and if I’m drunker than he is ...” You assume it’s in the past, but you know that he’s just hopped up on goofballs and seeing Ghost Dad walking around, so he’s seriously confused.

Only two mini-seasons left until I finish with the re-watch. Whew!

______
* It’s also interesting that, right after we see Yemi in the tent telling Eko that he needs to be judged, we cut to Sayid and Charlie outside. One of them says, “Do you smell smoke?” It’s because the tent Eko is in is on fire, but it’s an odd statement anyway, particularly since I paused the playback to write that bullet above and that line was the first thing I heard when I resumed.
** Lostpedia says he is about to say “paralysed,” a reference to Locke’s off-island handicap, but it sounds like “perhaps” to me. I wonder if people are thrown off by his accent.

World AIDS Day

2009-12-01T09:10:00.002-05:00

Today is World AIDS Day.

It’s been nearly three decades since this disease became known, and there is still no cure. There have been a lot of advances, so much so that contracting HIV is no longer considered a death sentence. Perhaps that’s one reason there’s a lot of complacency about the disease, and how there are still so many myths.

Get educated. Get tested. And do something to help others.

And we’re back

2009-11-30T15:11:00.001-05:00

I hope all you K Streeters had a great Thanksgiving holiday. You non-American K Streeters can join in on the fun, too; we’re big tent here.

I did what you’re supposed to do — eat a lot, watch a lot of football and hang out with the family. I went to Texas, where the weather was sunny and in the low 70s for most of the time. So tossing the football around in the back yard was awesome, and even a bit warm.

I actually didn’t eat that much, at least I didn’t overdo it. A family walk to the park after dinner was a good call. I got to see my 13-month-old niece, who is ridiculously cute and sweet, and although my 13-year-old nephew who isn’t taller than me, he’s quite close. And his voice is deeper. Scary.

The A&M/Texas game was one of the most entertaining football games I’ve ever seen. I’m not upset that we lost. I didn’t expect to win anyway (although I did entertain the hope of an upset), but I was glad to see Jerrod Johnson match Colt McCoy shot for shot. If you like college football and you like seeing good quarterback play, that was a game for you.

McCoy: 24 of 40 with 304 yards, 4 touchdowns and no INTs. Oh, and 190 rushing yards on 18 carries.
Johnson: 26 of 33 with 342 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 INT. And 126 yards rushing on 14 carries.

I swear, if A&M had a defence of any kind we’d be unstoppable. Imagine putting this offence with one of the Wrecking Crew D’s, say from 1998.

Anyway, it’s a rainy Monday back in Washington and I just got back from the dentist. A new dentist to me, one recommended by my friend Rachel. He seems cool so far. It was strange, all we did was X-rays and then he looked around for a bit and made notes. I go back for an actual cleaning in two weeks. I’ve never had that split out before.

But he did tell me that I’m “very boring dentally,” which I suppose is a good thing. Oh, and that I should floss more. Which is what they always say.

Oh, and it turns out that I’m his second patient with the name David Hoover.* So now I want to know who this other imposter is. Especially if he’s a long-lost uncle who is prepared to leave me millions of dollars some day.

* Edward is my middle name, if you didn’t know or can’t figure that out contextually.

T-week

2009-11-23T10:17:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving week. It crept up on me a little bit this time around. I’m heading to Texas to see the family, which should be fun.

My nephew is now 13 years old somehow; I saw him last Christmas, but I’m bracing myself for the possibility that he is now taller than me, or that his voice has changed, or that he’s applying for Social Security or something.

And I’ll get to see my niece, who is just over one year old. I’ve only met her once (also last Christmas), when she was about two months old. She’s probably a bit more eventful these days.

I’m flying out tomorrow and coming back on Saturday, which is my way of minimising the utter pain in the ass that is flying on Thanksgiving. I hate it. Every Thanksgiving it’s amateur hour at our nation’s airports, as countless thousands of people who don’t fly with any regularity take to the skies. They clog up the security lines, don’t know to take off their shoes or coats, leave dozens of metal objects in their pockets as they go through the metal detector, don’t take their laptops out, have screaming children, and are slow, slow, slow.

Leaving on Tuesday is my best chance for avoiding as much of that hassle as I can.

By the way, go see “Pirate Radio.” Great cast, great music, fun story. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant, as usual, and Bill Nighy is up to his usual greatness.

Thursday roundup

2009-11-19T13:52:00.003-05:00

There is a tree in Farragut Square that is perfectly yellow. All the other trees are green or have no leaves. This iPhone picture doesn’t do it justice, but the leaves are a vivid yellow, particularly those that litter the ground below. It’s quite lovely.

Earlier today I was watching a hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, for a client. It was about the Stimulus. The Republicans on the committee kept getting their knickers in a twist about the job numbers that were being reported, repeatedly calling it “propaganda” by the Obama administration. A laughable enough charge by congressional Republicans, given everything they’ve been a part of in the last nine years.

Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) even went so far as to read us all the definition of the word from the dictionary. Literally — he even stated that it was a “noun.” Isn’t that, like, the laziest, most moronic way to articulate your point? What is he, an eighth-grader turning in a book report? “Webster’s dictionary defines ‘juxtaposition’ as ‘the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side.’ That is precisely what Charles Dickens does in…”

Anyway, as the Republican Party climbs deeper into their alternate-universe cave, we have bigger fish to fry. Namely, your (abbreviated) Thursday Roundup!

The French national team qualified for the World Cup yesterday, albeit after a) a weak showing in qualifying and b) a probably unintentional but no less dastardly hand ball by Thierry Henry. We break this down over at Four Guys, One Cup. There must be a lot of pissed off Irish people today.
Uh oh. I think it’s official. “The Simpsons” have now jumped the shark. What the bloody hell is this?
Does anyone know of any good plays currently running in London? I’m looking for recommendations. I’ll be there for Christmas.
You know, I’ve seen the rash of Top 10 lists that are chronicling the last decade. And it only recently sunk in for me that the decade is ending. And we didn’t even come up with a name for it! The “aughts”? The “naughties”? They’re all lame. Worst yet, what will we call the next? The “tens”? That sucks, too.

Speaking of London, I’m also looking into ticket prices for Premiere League matches. There are some good one while I’m there: Fulham vs. Tottenham, Arsenal vs. Aston Villa and Chelsea vs. Fulham. Problem is, they’re ass expensive. (Someone on eBay wants $265 per ticket for the Arsenal/Villa game.) Anyone have any hookups?

SCOTUS hates the Native American

2009-11-16T11:28:00.002-05:00

Well, lookee here. Ye Olde Supreme Court(e) of the United States (est. 1789) has decided not to hear a case regarding the racist nickname for the local professional football concern (est. 1932), essentially letting them get away with having an epithet as their mascot.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive a lawsuit on behalf of Native American activists who claimed that the Washington Redskins’ team name is so offensive that it does not deserve trademark protection.

The court without comment refused to get involved in the long-running dispute. The decision essentially lets stand a lower court ruling that the activists waited too long to bring the challenge.

The team has been known as the Redskins since 1933, when the name was changed from the Boston Braves. It became the Washington Redskins in 1937, when the team moved south.

The lawsuit was filed in 1992, when seven activists challenged a Redskins trademark issued in 1967. They won seven years later in a decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which said the name could be interpreted as offensive to Native Americans. The case is Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc.

Trademark law prohibits registration of a name that “may disparage … persons, living or dead, … or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.”

You see, the team originally were the Braves, which is only slightly less offensive, but decided “when the team moved south” that they could get away with the more blatant slur of “Redskins.” You know, because of the south.

I’m still waiting for the Falcons to change their name to the Darkies, because that would be pretty much on par with “Redskins.”

However, I think everyone can agree that Dan Snyder should do the honorable thing here, which is take a flying leap off the Washington Monument dressed like Chief Zee.

Lost: Season 2

2009-11-13T09:58:00.001-05:00

To the Ocean
Originally uploaded by Ed Hoover

Whew! I have now completed my re-watch of the second season of “Lost.” That one was a bit tough, because the show tended to drag a bit that year, at least for me. I didn’t care much for the tail section group, particularly Ana Lucia. That’s not quite true — I did like their story and I did like the device the producers used to introduce them and bring them together with the protagonists we began with. But it got a bit tedious there for a bit.

(I suppose that the third season got a bit tedious, too. That was the “Kate and Sawyer spend eight episodes in zoo cages” thing, but I do remember loving the season premiere and the mind-blowing “we’re on a different island!” thing.)

In the last episode, “Live Together, Die Alone,” we get to see Charles Widmore and Penny Widmore for the first time. Little do we know what’s going to happen with them — that Charles was on the island in the ’50s, that he has been spending money and time to try to return, that he will help John Locke after Locke turns the frozen donkey wheel and ends up in Tunisia.

Or that Penny and Desmond — who heretofore had been in only about three or four episodes — would have one of the most compelling moments in the entire series when they have their phone conversation in “The Constant.”

(Speaking of Desmond, this picture is from my trip to Oahu last year. It’s the place where Desmond followed Kelvin to, when Desmond discovered Kelvin had been fixing up Desmond’s boat to escape.)

We also didn’t know, although there were hints, that the Others weren’t exactly what they seemed. We didn’t know that they lived in a nice, civilised village with kitchens and book clubs and a rec room.

Some observations:

Although Michael is missing for most of Season Two, fear not, for we do not lack an annoying character. Ana Lucia fits that bill perfectly. I want to slap her in virtually every scene she’s in. Her smug pouts, her obstinacy, her terrible leadership skills.
The show is immediately improved by the presence of Michael Emerson as “Henry Gale,” a.k.a. Ben Linus. It was good before, but it bumps up to excellent when he enters the scene. Emerson takes this show to 11. It’s hard to think he was originally supposed to be in only three or four episodes.
By the way, if you want a laugh, here’s a video of Michael Emerson in a Federal Bureau of Prisons training video from what must be the early ’90s. It’s hilarious — production values, seeing shades of Ben in his character. But best is his hair, which must have served as the model for his hairdo in the flashbacks on “Dead Is Dead.”
Back to “Lost.” At one stage, Hurley and Sayid are on the beach trying to get a signal on the radio Bernard gave to Hurley. They come across a radio broadcast of some Glen Miller music, and Sayid explains that radio waves at that frequency can travel thousands of miles, so the source of the broadcast could be “anywhere.” Hurley says, “Or any time ... just kidding, dude.” That line raised eyebrows at the time, but we had no idea how right he was. (Apparently the producers have confirmed that this radio broadcast was indeed due to time travel.)
The episode “Dave,” which is all about Hurley’s imaginary friend, is still a mindfuck. The story sets us up to think that perhaps this entire thing is just a figment of Hurley’s imagination, that he’s lying in a bed in Santa Rosa Mental Hospital dreaming the entire series up. Then Libby convinces Hurley (and us) otherwise (“I’m real. This is real”). But then she gets a dastardly look on her face as they walk away from the cliff, and then in flashbacks we see her as a patient in Santa Rosa. Hm.
Speaking of Libby, we still don’t know her full background. We know she was in Santa Rosa, although we don’t know why she was there. We know she owned a boat, Elizabeth, which her husband had owned and named after her before he died. We know she met Desmond by chance (or fate) in a coffee shop when she bought him a drink because he didn’t have any American money. We know she was once married. But that’s it.
Why did Sayid completely forget about Nadia while he was on the island? He was told by the CIA that Nadia was safe and alive and living in Los Angeles, and he was on his way there to see her when Flight 815 crashed. But on the island, he easily falls in love with Shannon. Seems strange.

Here are some questions I have, too.

What was the Dharma Initiative really doing? Specifically, what was up with having two people sit in a station entering numbers, and then having other people observe them (in the Pearl) and record their observations, then putting their findings in pneumatic tubes that end up in a pile in the middle of a field?
Why does Gerald DeGroot look just like Peter Jackson?

I’m working on a longer list of questions I want answered by the end of Season Six. That is, some I want answered but won’t necessarily be heartbroken if they’re not answered, as well as three or four deal-breaker questions that I must have answers to when everything is said and done.

I’m not sure when I’ll post that. Perhaps it’ll be after I’m finished with the re-watching and before next seasons starts.

An open letter to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

2009-11-06T09:19:00.003-05:00

Dear Metro,

We need to talk.

I know, every day you probably get a thousand e-mails and calls and in-person complaints from people who are angry, upset and frustrated at your service. Hell, even I’ve fired off an angry e-mail or two while stuck on a train. I sent you six tweets last night.* But I have to add my voice to the mix in a more reasoned environment.

Look, I love Metro. It’s an invaluable service to the citizens and visitors of our fair city. It’s clean, mostly efficient and still quite safe despite recent events. It’s one of the best systems in the country. I’m an avid cheerleader for public transit — I think we should double Metro’s reach and do more to convert drivers to transit users. Congress should give you piles of cash.

And I realise that cash flow is at the root of a lot of your problems. I recognise that you have severe budget shortfalls, and that your entire funding mechanism is a screwy, multi-jurisdictional fustercluck that results in decreased service, an inability to keep up with an aging and growing system, and pretty much any other problem you can point to.

I appreciate that you have to deal with asshats on Capitol Hill, dickwads like Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (Republican, naturally), whose constituents wouldn’t know a subway train if it ran over them. I know that Coburn has placed holds on legislation that would alleviate many of these problems for unfathomable reasons — perhaps he wants a subway in Enid? Whatever. He’s a typical Republican hack who hates it when money goes to communist gay stuff like public transit. I get that.

But here’s the thing, Metro: You can’t blame everything on a lack of funding or on douchenozzles like Tom Coburn. There are some things you can fix without a single additional penny in funding.

I’m talking about communicating with your riders.

Last night, I was heading home from Georgetown to Silver Spring. That’s a long trek, particularly when you consider the trains don’t go to Georgetown. But I was making good time; the bus came straight away, breezed to Farragut North and the transfer was seamless. Too good to be true.

At Takoma, we stopped. And sat. And sat with the doors open for five minutes without anyone telling us what was going on. All we got was a vague “Customers, we’ll be moving momentarily” from the conductor. A few minutes passed. It was 10:45 p.m. on a Thursday. I just wanted to go home and go to bed. Work in the morning, you know.

More minutes passed. Nothing. No announcements. We’re still sitting there, doors open, the cold night air rushing in. Finally, after at least five minutes, we’re told that the train will be taken out of service. Wait, what? So we all disembark and stand on the chilly platform. Nobody tells us when another train might be coming.

Nothing.

Here’s where I’m going to give you some free PR advice, Metro. You don’t have to take it from me. It’s not like I do this for a living or anything.

Oh wait. I do.

The train that was behind us ended up coming within four minutes. But we didn’t know that. It came on the opposite platform, because our train still hadn’t budged. We didn’t know that, either. For all we knew, we were going to have to be standing there, out in the cold, for 30 minutes or so.

You see, this frustrates us and makes us angry. When we don’t have the information.

Oh, sure, I got a tweet from your Red Line feed* that said there was a sick passenger at Takoma, but that was after I was on the new train and underway. And I only got that because I have an iPhone and I use Twitter and I’ve signed up for that service, which is geared mostly for the people who are about to get on the train somewhere else.

But what about all those poor saps actually on the affected train? Those hundreds of people standing on the Takoma platform in 39-degree weather? Who’s talking to them?

You see, when we don’t have information, we passengers get testy. There’s science on this. And the solution is simple: Just pick up the microphone and tell us what’s happening.

It’s like when you’re at a restaurant and your waiter is busy. He hasn’t come by to take your drink orders yet. But he does say, “I’ll be with you in one moment” and you feel better. You know he knows you’re there. Your blood pressure goes down and you don’t hate his guts so much. Those seven words diffuse the situation.

So just tell us what’s going on, Metro. We can handle it; we’re big people. We understand that things happen.

You’ve had a shitty year, Metro. I know. I feel for you, particularly for your PR team, who must wake up every morning and think, “Please, God, don’t let there be another catastrophic failure on the trains today. I don’t have the will to face an angry public and media today.” (Give Lisa Farbstein a raise while you’re at it. And maybe a vacation to the Bahamas.)

And we’ve stuck with you, by and large. But you’ve got to help us out. Because when you come to us, hat in hand, and ask for a fare increase, we’re going to be a hell of a lot more likely to go along with it if we don’t hate your guts. And it’s hard to hate someone’s guts when they talk to you and tell you what’s going on.

Hugs and kisses,
Ed

__________
* And I’ve since learned that that Twitter feed isn’t even an official WMATA thing. Some blessed soul started it on his own. Hey, Metro, using Twitter is free. It’s another way you can communicate with customers. (And sorry for the barrage of nasty tweets, Jeff.)

Hm

2009-11-05T09:24:00.000-05:00

It’s Thursday. Last night, I went to see the ~~Bullets~~ Wizards fail miserably at basketball. They made it competitive for a period or two, but then sunk back to their usual suckiness.

Speaking of basketball, the college season is starting up. Your Aggies have an “exhibition game” against Texas A&M-Commerce tonight. I’m guessing that’s not televised.
Apparently, some athletic club from the Bronx won a baseballing contest last night, which makes them champions of a world that includes only the United States and one city in Canada.
Poor Malia Obama, whose dad went on the teevee yesterday and told everyone about that one time when she got a C on a science test. She needs to get some geeks from NASA to help her exact revenge.
This man is a genius. The French sure don’t screw around when there’s wine to be drunk. My kind of people.
I haven’t seen “V” yet. Has anyone? I missed its premiere, and will be precluded from watching it live because I have chorus rehearsals every Tuesday night. Is it good? It’s got the yummy Elizabeth Mitchell, so I’ll tune in just for that if I have to.
Three-quarters of Americans who are eligible for military service are too fat, too sick and too dumb to serve. Huzzah.
God bless Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for Metro. I hope she hasn’t developed a bad drinking habit, because her job has got to suck.

I want a breakfast taco.

Already?

2009-11-04T10:07:00.001-05:00

I just went for a midmorning coffee run over at Firehook, and as I was paying the stereo system in the shop played “Greensleeves.”

Now, I know that this piece wasn’t originally a Christmas piece — it didn’t get its “What Child Is This” lyrics until 300 years after the tune was written — but it’s got Christmas connotations now. And I don’t think Firehook is going 16th century English on us.

So yeah, it’s starting. I saw a Christmas tree and a Menorah outside the Barnes & Noble in Bethesda the other day. A coworker has spotted Walmart Christmas ads on television.

Why do we have to skip over Thanksgiving? That’s my favourite holiday. You get a four-day weekend and you get to spend your entire Thursday eating, drinking and watching football. What’s not to love?

One year back

2009-11-02T13:09:00.002-05:00

On year ago today I landed back in these United States after a two-year stint of living in Sydney, Australia. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I’ve returned. But at this time last year I was trading early spring for early winter, Daylight Saving Time for Standard Time, left-side driving for right-side driving — and got back just in time to see Barack Obama elected president.

That was worth the trip.

That day last year I went from the comfort and quiet of the upper-deck business class Qantas flight — all 14 hours of it, with its lie-flat bed and its hot flight attendant referring to me as “Mr. Hoover” and its free booze and its free food — to the uncomfortable indignity of American Airlines coach class from Los Angeles to Washington. Which is a bit like going from a night in the Ritz Carlton to a night in a Motel 6.

When I landed at Dulles, at 5 p.m., it was already dark. And I had forgotten how far away that airport is from downtown Washington.

What’s weirdest to me is how I remember my time in Australia. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before — it’s possible I did a few months after returning — but my two years Down Under at once feel like 10 years and two weeks. When I think back on it, I think, “My god, did I really live there for two years? No way was it that long.” But at the same time, it feels like that time flew by.

I’m already feeling like I need to get back down there, if only for the fact that it’s now spring there and it’s starting to get cold (and dark) here. I may still try to get down there for Christmas. That would be nice.

So how about some observations about America after one year back? I haven’t really thought about this, so here’s a scattershot approach:

Every now and then, I still look the wrong way when crossing the street. I’m not sure how “traffic comes from the right” got so ingrained after only two years (compared to 31 years of the opposite), but somehow it stuck.
Habit I picked up in Australia that I continue: drinking lattes as opposed to brewed coffee.
Habit I picked up in Australia that I do not continue: drinking beer every night. (That’s probably a good thing.)
American politics has really started to bug the shit out of me. OK, it’s Republicans who bug the shit out of me. See, when I left, they were obstinate douchebags, but now they obstinate douchebags who are interested in nothing more than trying to make President Obama fail. They have no ideas of their own, they don’t particularly care about the country or how to make it better. They just want to see him fail. It’s hard to play a game when one team refuses to take to the field.
It’s nice to have real bars. Sydney’s bars suck, as most Australians know (for real bars, go to Melbourne), so it’s nice to have the real deal. I do miss the pubs, though.
Speaking of which, I miss the following things: a good, inexpensive pub steak, a steak sandwich, and Cooper’s beer. (Oh, wait, I can get that cheaper here than I could in Australia. Ha!)

That’s about all I can think of at the moment. I’m sure I’ll come up with some others. But happy move-back-to-Americaversary to me!

NY weekend

2009-10-26T11:39:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend I stole away from Washington and headed north to New York for a little two-day getaway. It was fun. I have a ton of pictures from the Big Apple, which I’ll sort through tonight. I hope I got some good stuff.

Let me say that the trees are in full effect here in the Northeast. All the way up on the train Saturday morning we got to see some of the most colourful foliage passing by outside our windows. It made up for the crappy weather.

The trees in the city didn’t disappoint, either. Central Park was full of colour — reds and yellows and greens and oranges. Everyone was out yesterday enjoying the scene, since the weather shaped up to sunny and warm.

Which is nice, since apparently it rained here all weekend. Ha!

Saturday night I went to a DVD release party for Sufjan Stevens’ “The BQE,” which is a film and orchestral composition celebrating the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It was at 92Y Tribeca, a new performance space/art gallery/café that was surprisingly intimate. I got a front-row seat to the festivities, which featured fellow Asthmatic Kitty artists DM Stith (fantastic) and Osso, who are a string quartet that played versions of songs from Stevens’ album “Enjoy Your Rabbit.”

Stevens emceed the event, but sadly did not perform as I expected he would. We did get to see the “BQE” film, though, and that was good.

Coming back to life

2009-10-23T11:23:00.002-04:00

Yeah, so I didn’t blog this week. I have an excuse: I had SARS.*

Or something. I have no idea what it was, because I never went to the doctor. Mind you, I tried, but I was foiled. Not by our shitty U.S. health care system, as you might think, but by AT&T.

I got ill last Friday. I felt pretty achy at work, but it was toward the end of the day and I toughed it out. But I went home that night and did nothing. And proceeded to do nothing all weekend. Really, I picked the right weekend to do that, because it was raining and in the lower 40s on Saturday and Sunday. Really crappy weather.

By Sunday, I was well enough to head to the movies (I saw “Where the Wild Things Are,” which, while good, didn’t excite me as much as I wanted or expected it to) and then to meet some friends for dinner. Nothing tasted good, as was the case all weekend. Everything was bland. I ate one-third of everything I prepared or bought all weekend.

On Monday, I felt well enough to go into the office, although I probably should have stayed home. I called to get a doctor’s appointment, and they said they’d call me back. They never did.

Or so I thought. I called back on Wednesday, because by then I had felt good but then took a turn for the worse. Apparently the doctor’s office had left me a voice mail on Monday, telling me to take some over-the-counter stuff and to come in on Wednesday if I wasn’t feeling any better. Uh, I never got that message. When I hung up with them, I tried calling my cell phone, the number the doctor had used, and it took me four attempts before my phone actually made noises and pictures like it was getting an incoming call.

Bloody AT&T.

Anyway, I’m feeling much better now, thank you very much, although I have a lingering cough. But it’s not slowing me down anymore. I finally feel human again.

* I know: You were expecting a swine flu joke here. No, see, that’s too obvious. Besides, I’m like the Midwest of diseases: 10 years behind the latest fad.

Heather Graham is your public option

2009-10-21T12:28:00.000-04:00

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.