/staff/articles/john+kelly/2009-11-24T13:00:18Z2009-11-24T13:00:18Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-24:/commons/2009/11/meat_is_murder_tasty_tasty_mur.html?wprss=rss_blog

I love the various streetboxes that pop up around Washington for dispensing various publications. Some of those publications are well-known rags like The Washington Post or New York Times. Others are thick real estate guides. I've seen ones for something called "Prison Art" and others for cultish groups like the Falun Gong. And then there's this one I spotted yesterday at 15th and L NW: I didn't actually take a copy of the "vegetarian starter kit" inside, but I did wonder if PETA had chosen the right poster child for its cause: Isn't Joaquin Phoenix currently one of Hollywood's most wacked-out stars? I'm not saying sticking to a diet of celery and tofu makes people go mental, just that there must have been better to choices to stick on a streetbox.

2009-11-24T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-24:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112302165.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

Television lights burned brightly Monday morning in the room at the National Press Club where the Consumer Federation of America was holding a press conference on holiday spending. Outside the room where something called the 2010 Hunger Report was about to be released, the juice-and-muffin table was swarmed.

2009-11-23T12:15:45Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-23:/commons/2009/11/photo_flashback_georgia_avenue.html?wprss=rss_blog

Here's a photo from July 18, 1951, that I found in The Post's "Highways: Construction" file: The caption: Here's a pictorial progress report from the Maryland State Roads Commission on the conversion of Georgia Avenue, from Silver Spring to Glenmont, in Montgomery County, into a wide, divided highway that should serve the traffic needs of the area for years to come. As the photo shows, pavement has been laid on the right-hand half of the highway while traffic uses the old road. When this portion is ready for use the pattern will be reversed and vehicles will use the new pavement while the other half of the road is rebuilt. The Wilmoth Paving Company were low bidders on all three of the contracts into which the project was divided. The first section, from Colesville Road to Seminary Avenue, part of which is shown in the photo, is about 40 per

2009-11-23T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-23:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/22/AR2009112201684.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

Lauren Ruffin knew that Mateo, her 4 1/2 -year-old Spanish mastiff, was not the world's healthiest dog, but it was still a shock when she woke up Nov. 11 to find him dead in their Petworth home.

2009-11-22T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-22:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/21/AR2009112101761.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

Last week in this space, Answer Man asked parenthetically (and somewhat rhetorically), "What is it with these mills?" He should know better than to think there's such a thing as a rhetorical question.

2009-11-20T14:15:54Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-20:/commons/2009/11/italian_lessons_citizen_journa.html?wprss=rss_blog

BritNews RoundUp will return next week. Instead, I bring you this Italian video. It was produced by RAI, Italy's public television station, on the occasion of Wednesday's launch of its new Citizen Report citizen journalism Web site. Since citizen journalism is what I studied during my boondoggle year in Oxford, they asked me to comment on the new project. Anyone out there speak Italian and can tell me what I said? The folks who interviewed me (via Skype, over my Web cam!) are young and full of energy. And if the pace of that video is any indication, full of double espressos, too. Ciao!

2009-11-19T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-19:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/18/AR2009111803767.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

The Redskins beat Denver. The FedEx Field sign ban was overturned. All is right with the world.

2009-11-18T14:15:32Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-18:/commons/2009/11/blood_on_the_tracks_csi_on_my.html?wprss=rss_blog

The blood was on the footpath, three red splotches evenly spaced across the asphalt. At first I thought it was juice, the contents of a sippee cup scattered on this popular suburban path by a toddler in a jogging stroller. But it was too red, a bright crimson. Then I noticed some to the right of path, down a bank and ending at Sligo Creek, red splotches every few feet in the leaves. My eyes traveled across the creek to the other side. There was blood there, too. It must be an animal, I thought--a fairly big one given how much blood there was, each splotch the size of my hand. There's a golf course across Sligo Creek Parkway and the deer are numerous. But what if it wasn't a deer? What if it was a person? Injured, shot, fallen off his bike, confused and stumbling through the woods? I

2009-11-18T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-18:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/17/AR2009111703871.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

It should tell you something about Dr. Julia Finkel that when I asked if she had one of those charts used for ranking pain -- you know: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it hurt? -- she had to think for a moment before getting up from her chair and retrieving a tiny laminated card . . . from the trash can.

2009-11-17T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-17:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111603520.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

The mistakenly switched suitcase used to be a staple of the movies, a handy plot device in films as varied as "What's Up, Doc?" and "El Mariachi." Opening the wrong Samsonite and finding bricks of China white heroin or a mini-arsenal of automatic weapons is all very entertaining when it happens to someone else, but what about when it happens to you?

2009-11-16T12:30:16Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-16:/commons/2009/11/photo_flashback_youve_got_mail.html?wprss=rss_blog

Today: Delivering the mail through the ages. These images from The Post's photo archives show various advances in mail-delivery technology. This photo, by the Harris & Ewing studio, is captioned: "Motorcycle postman (1912)." That looks like it's a Washington street, but which one? The date is missing from this photo but from the car in the background I peg it at late 1920s, early 1930s. According to a handwritten note on the back, it's a railroad mailcar in Chesapeake Beach, Md. Note the carving on the building: Seat Pleasant Bank. This International News Photo is from 1956. The caption: Arlington, Virginia...Under a new vehicle program, the Post Office Department is purchasing 1,000 scooters; 6,000 golf caddy-type carts and 2,000 more bicycles to speed mail carriers on their appointed rounds. Mailman Joseph Adams wheels an 85-pound load on one of the caddy-type carts designed to take the load off the carrier's

2009-11-16T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-16:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/15/AR2009111502279.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

Noble Tousha Jr. thought his 5-year-old son would like the "Transformers" movie and see in its high-tech, shape-shifting characters a little of himself.

2009-11-15T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-15:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111402346.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

Here's a question prompted by President Obama's visit to Viers Mill Elementary School in Montgomery County. Why is the name of the school spelled "Viers" when the street is called "Veirs Mill Road" and the founder of the mill was Samuel Veirs?

2009-11-13T17:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-13:/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/11/06/DI2009110602353.html?nav=rss_liveonline

Post Metro columnist John Kelly was online Friday, Nov. 13, at Noon ET to chat about the people and stories that don't make the front pages, plus his latest columns.

2009-11-13T14:28:39Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-13:/commons/2009/11/britnews_roundup_dont_sleep_in.html?wprss=rss_blog

Of all the problems our Metro system has had, here's one we haven't experienced: X-rated moans and groans broadcast over the PA system. That's what happened recently at an Underground station in London. According to the Daily Mail, "Transport for London confirmed that a broadcast of 'sexual noises' was heard through the speakers. It said the sounds had nothing to do with any of its staff and came from outside Tube property." Said one commuter: "It was definitely a couple doing it there and then. He was grunting loudly and she sounded like she was having a great time. The driver must have heard it too, as the doors stayed open longer than usual." Officials think their loudspeaker system must have inadvertently picked up audio from a pornographic film someone was watching near the station. (Of course, this could happen on Metro but the PA is so awful, we'd never

2009-11-12T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-12:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111126344.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

There are few pleasures greater than coming back to your car after you know your meter has expired and finding that you don't have a parking ticket. It's like getting away with murder.

2009-11-11T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-11:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111018054.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

They met at a fair in Atlanta, their home town. He was a soldier who'd joined the Army at 16. She was the daughter of a policeman who ran background checks on her boyfriends. He was the first one who passed muster.

2009-11-10T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-10:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR2009110903090.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

A deer that jumped a wall at the National Zoo was fatally injured by two lions Sunday as dozens of startled spectators looked on.

2009-11-09T18:23:53Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-09:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR2009110901883.html?nav=rss_metro/columnists

A deer that jumped a wall at the National Zoo was fatally injured by two lions Sunday as dozens of startled spectators looked on.

2009-11-09T12:21:32Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-09:/commons/2009/11/photo_flashback_beltway_breezi.html?wprss=rss_blog

The next time you're stuck in a backup on the Beltway--which will probably be this afternoon--think back to Aug. 13, 1964. That's when this photo of a blissfully traffic-free Beltway was taken: The photo was taken by a Post staffer named McNamee. The caption info on the back reads: Neil Moyer, 17, and Jimmie Hoffsinger, 17, pedal along the Capital beltway near a railroad overpass west of the Wash-Balt parkway. Official cars, construction workers and many bicycle riders are the only vehicles allowed on the road prior to its official opening. The Beltway was officially opened four days later. There was a traffic jam.