C A P I C O S T I A

  by Edgar Miraculous Dyer Ward Seven and the Pennsylvania Avenue East Corridor (region between Capitol Hill and Anacostia) needs an off-ramp, from Interstate 295 South onto East Capitol Street East. Presently, folks travelling on 295 South, heading (or returning) to our Corridor neighborhoods, have TWO wasteful, environmentally destructive options. One: get off 295 and take pothole-ridden East Capitol, over the Anacostia River, a mile around RFK Stadium and  back  over the river, to get to a tiny loop that spits you out, a block from Minnesota Avenue, ..in Fort Dupont. The other: stay on 295 South and ride it [God help you, in rush hour traffic!], all the way, nearly  two, potholey miles,  ..down to Pennsylvania Ave. The resulting air pollution, clutter of traffic, wasted time, commuter stress and wear and tear on East Capitol Street (East and West) and that mile-plus on 295 South ..is utterly ridiculous. It's an environmentally wasteful, mile-plus ha...

By Edgar Miraculous Dyer The  NY PIZZA GRILL of CAPITOL HILL has one of the largest and most diverse menus of any restaurant, full service or takeaway, in all of Washington, ..and y ou are hungry. You are very hungry. You've got to start somewhere...choose something, but this is not a problem  here . Everything on NYPG's menu is very, very GOOD. Take the GRILLED CHICKEN CAESAR WRAP... Basically, a lightly warmed BURRITO, ..it's exceptionally loaded with the best balance of fresh, REAL Halal chicken, lettuce and a magnificently crafted, flavorful Caesar vinaigrette dressing. As it has no equal between the Hill and the Maryland state line, NYPG is your last stop for GREAT FOOD like this, before you hit South I-295 or the Beltway. As wraps and other deli classics are not hot, trendy fare in DC, right now, a good Caesar wrap is hard to find, ..you really must try this. And you must try it here ..at NY PIZZA GRILL of CAPITOL HILL! Come! Call now for quick pickup or delivery! Bu...

  The gentlemen of 'East Washington Heights', had big plans for the land between the Hill and Anacostia. [Photo from PennAveEast.com] If I had a nickel for every time someone in the blogosphere outright dismissed the authenticity of this blog's title,  Capicostia,  ..or asked me what the hell it pointed to in Washington, D.C. - well, I wouldn't be publishing an obscure blog on a Friday night, let me tell you... Ha. In the 1980s, at Jefferson Junior High School in DC's Southwest Waterfront District, ..if your East-of-the-Anacostia-River home's close proximity to the John Philip Sousa Bridge, the Anacostia River beneath it or Capitol Hill on the other side of that bridge ..confused you enough to think you actually  lived on  Capitol Hill...no worries! If you said it out loud in a classroom, after being told that by sympathetic elders, hoping to give your or their egos, a  boost,  ..there was always someone happy to correct you - tp talk you down..."...

  by Edgar Miraculous Dyer COYOTES are loose in Southeast Washington, D.C. ..and ANC-7B, most specifically! We're surrounded by deep, unspoiled, picturesque woodlands in  Fort Davis, Dupont Park, Penn Branch, Randle Highlands, Pope Branch Park, Hillcrest  and  Westover!  That's charming...even comforting to some of us, ..but these areas also offer shelter and food resources - Nature's  supermarkets  - to our resident wildlife. So let's be careful, out there, coming home or taking out our garbage after dark. No, amigo--that's NOT the neighbor's COLLIE. Where'd Mr. Paul's Collie go? Lassie...? Oh, no. (Original photo from  Wikipedia ) Do you know how long I've been telling my Fairfax Village neighbors that we've got coyotes passing through, along our patios, back doors, parking lots and back walkways? They have been sniffing around and foraging from our trash, since at least 2012, ..and spotted as far Southeast as Savannah Terrace, just off of Stan...

by Edgar Miraculous Dyer Who  do  we  think  we are? There are perfectly sensible people living along Pennsylvania Avenue, between the Sousa Bridge and the Southern Avenue D.C. State Line - in Naylor Dupont, ANC-7B - who think that they live in as colorful a scattering of socially and politically diverse neighborhoods, as to be found, anywhere else in Washington. They  think  they live in neighborhoods, called  Greenway, Penn Branch, Fairfax Village, Hillcrest  and  Skyland , ..in spite of the fact that so many Washingtonians, west of the Anacostia River, persist in dismissively referring to these neighborhoods, as .. 'Anacostia'. There are people living on exclusive  Westover Drive,  secluded in the emerald majesty of historic Fort Davis Park, where Ohio Representative, Dennis Kusinich, presently resides, who are so removed from the fabled, urban grit of Southeast Washington...they might think they're ...

by Edgar Miraculous Dyer Jamaican American journalist, ANDREW RICKETTS, recently wrote an article, presently featured on MSN.com - HOW MANY DARK WOMEN SHOULD I DATE TO CURE MY COLORISM? I have a BIG problem with the question posed in that title. I will try to be sensitive in addressing my problem with the titular question. I will try to court clarity and eloquence in my exposition on it, ..but bear with me. A wide berth below will be appreciated, where you can intellectually afford it. Thank you in advance. I am an unremarkably orangish-looking (but proud) American man of Afro-American, Mexican and Near Eastern ancestry - light-skinned, but not the lightest - and I have dated more than a few women of almost any color, you can think of. My maternal grandmother was a regal, brown-skinned, Afro-American woman, whose gentle beauty, just yesterday, was compared to a Disney princess's...by me. [Ha'ha.] Her daughter, my mother, was a brass-toned beauty, alternately compared to Halle B...

by Edgar Miraculous Dyer COYOTES are loose in Southeast Washington, D.C. ..and ANC-7B, most specifically! We're surrounded by deep, unspoiled, picturesque woodlands in Fort Davis, Dupont Park, Penn Branch, Randle Highlands, Pope Branch Park, Hillcrest and Westover! That's charming...even comforting to some of us, ..but these areas also offer shelter and food resources - Nature's supermarkets - to our resident wildlife. So let's be careful, out there, coming home or taking out our garbage after dark. No, amigo--that's NOT the neighbor's COLLIE. Where'd Mr. Paul's Collie go? Lassie...? Oh, no. (Original photo from Wikipedia ) Do you know how long I've been telling my Fairfax Village neighbors that we've got coyotes passing through, along our patios, back doors, parking lots and back walkways? They have been sniffing around and foraging from our trash, since at least 2012, ..and spotted as far Southeast as Savannah Terrace, just off of Stanton Roa...

The gentlemen of 'East Washington Heights', had big plans for the land between the Hill and Anacostia. [Photo from PennAveEast.com] If I had a nickel for every time someone in the blogosphere outright dismissed the authenticity of this blog's title, Capicostia, ..or asked me what the hell it pointed to in Washington, D.C. - well, I wouldn't be publishing an obscure blog on a Friday night, let me tell you... Ha. In the 1980s, at Jefferson Junior High School in DC's Southwest Waterfront District, ..if your East-of-the-Anacostia-River home's close proximity to the John Philip Sousa Bridge, the Anacostia River beneath it or Capitol Hill on the other side of that bridge ..confused you enough to think you actually  lived on Capitol Hill...no worries! If you said it out loud in a classroom, after being told that by sympathetic elders, hoping to give your or their egos, a boost,  ..there was always someone happy to correct you - tp talk you down..."Nau-uuw, son. ...

The Poowe Brothers, Hubble and Kirby, patrolling historic Peace Landing in happier times. [Photo, Mel Dyer collection.] by Edgar Miraculous Dyer SNOWSTORM...this one, forecast to be one of the worst our region has ever seen. The following shares some thoughts I recently shared on Facebook: Thinking about it coming here, to Washington, D.C. and the foot and a half of snow, local news says it will dump on us, ..depresses me, greatly. Our cottage in Penn Branch has been a difficult place to be in storms, like this, ..because we are on the backstreet of a side street, off of Pennsylvania Avenue and a good hike from Capitol Hill. DC Government has historically been slow in servicing/clearing our streets, which, in spite of our BEST individual efforts to prepare to be ready for the WORST outcomes, ..leaves us trapped on our hill and cut off from speedy response by emergency services and resources. I cannot watch the local TV news coverage of the storm, anymore. It's simply too much to ke...