C A P I C O S T I A

by Mel Dyer Time-travel! Of all the great super-powers I can dream of waking up with, THAT is the one that I would find most useful, ..for awhile. If only I could turn back time... If I could turn back time, every time I was about to eat something sweet, buttery, fried or fatty, ..I would just pop myself back there and knock it out of my pudgy, little hands! If only I could go back in time ..and avert the cosmic disaster of my ever becoming  fat. Seriously, ..no slice of cheesecake (my favorite), pile of Doritos, cup of coffee (my second religion), steak, ribs, Mama's spaghetti, Daddy's Dungeness crabs, a pizza, an enchilada, soul food (ALL of it) - none of it is worth the crapload of misery that comes from touching these things. I would send every morsel back to the kitchens. If you're feeding your kids this stuff, before they even know what a good life, in a fit, attractive body, has to offer them, may God have mercy on your souls... Especially, if you're f...

It seems I'm always bummed about the abysmal retail options in Penn Branch and the rest of Capicostia. Is it just nostalgia for the Capicostia of yesteryear, ..a place with movie theatres [Yes...theatres!], restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, pet shops and hardware stores? Business improvement in neighborhoods, like Atlas, Near Southeast, No'Ma, Georgia-Petworth, Anacostia  and U Street seems to be the order of the day,  in D.C. The question our new poll asks is this: Why is commercial development or 'business improvement' so important to a neighborhood? 1. "Tax revenue from retail and leasing make communities more compettitive for city resources and services." It's the old game of keeping dollars in the neighborhood -shops, schools, restaurants. 2. "High retail/residential/leasing areas are safer, get better policing." Look at H Street or Barracks Row! Business owners demand competent policing for their communities ..and usually get it. 3. ...

In her National Review Online column, Michelle Malkin says, "...Mrs. Obama leveraged her hubby’s Senate victory to snag a lucrative seat on the corporate board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. despite having zero experience in the industry...", among oth ... er accusations. Most people, who sit on these boards (including myself) have little or no prior experience in whatever business their board oversees. Just the same, Michelle Malkin thinks we should ignore that and hate Mrs. Obama for it..and for anything that marks her as successful, upper class or otherwise extraordinary. [A U.S. president's wife is automatically 'upper class', even without a billion dollars. Sorry?] Political ideology aside, what I reject is the suggestion in Malkin's column and past scribblings that the Obamas weren't already successful and extraordinary,  before they moved into the White House -Malkin's subtextual cues that they don't belong there..and are stealing f...

(People.com) "It's baby no. 2 for Jessica Alba and Cash Warren. The actress announced on her Facebook page and Twitter account Wednesday that she and her husband are expecting their second child. "I thought I'd drop by to let you all in on some exciting news – Honor is going to be a Big Sister!" Alba, 29, wrote. "Cash and I are thrilled and wanted to share the news directly with you so you didn't..." Full story here Since the ethnicity of this gorgeous couple seems to pre-occupy some of us, I'll try to simplify things for you, here. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cash Warren are, like yours truly, Americans of Mexican descent--Jessica, with a Mexican American dad, and Cash, with a Mexican American mom. To keep things interesting, you may also like to know that Jessica's mom is of Danish and French Canadian heritage, and Cash's dad is Emmy-nominated star of the classic TV cop drama, Hill Street Blues , and, also like yours truly, is Afro-Americ...

*He-Man knows how to handle a few barbarians at the gate, and so does Penn Branch. I hope. The delay in development at our delightfully decrepit Penn Branch Center, at the corner of Pennsylvania and Branch Avenues, is very frustrating to me. Though, in mere days, it will have been an entire year since construction was to begin on our shopping center, nothing resembling upgrades and infusions of new, dynamic retail has been initiated. Check the websites of the Penn Branch Civic Association website (on your left) and of ICG Properties , and you will not find news of any significant developments for PBC. We have THREE gateway areas developing in the River East area, each fully-loaded with upscale condos and retail, and I worry Penn Branch, virtually unchanged since the 80s, will soon fall behind in how efficiently the city delivers vital services. With the explosion of commercial and residential development on Martin Luther King Avenue, Howard Road and coming soon to Barry Farm,...

With a garden store on the way, could Caribou Coffee be far behind? I have just reopened the featured polls and want very much to hear your opinions about the changes in Penn Branch and the surrounding areas. So far, the Deanwood-Burroughs Avenue area and the MLK Avenue-Uniontown area of Anacostia are the River East neighborhoods that people are saying need the most commercial development. In another poll, people are saying the Fairfax Village-Fort Davis and Uniontown neighborhoods have the most potential. And I agree . Being a large condominium community , Fairfax Village is more transient than the rest of Fort Davis. Should the cost of renting and owning a condo in the Village dramatically increase, the population of the area could change in kind. It is not at all impossible to imagine that garden stores and coffeehouses wouldn't be far behind. As when Fairfax Village went from being a fashionably upscale roost for junior congressmen and Capitol Hill staffers in the 197...

Landon Donovan at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (Photo from Wikipedia ) Ending a second valiant effort to establish American supremacy at the FIFA World Cup, with unbelievably skilled playing by Clint Dempsey (the first American to appear in a European final) and Landon Donovan, Ghana's Black Stars run off with a 2-1 victory over the U.S. Soccer Team. After a 1-0 win over Algeria, American soccer fans were celebrating what many of us hoped would be the conquest of the 'other football', but, it seems Ghana's renowned toughness may have put that dream on ice, at least for a while, with today's match . This is the Yanks' second trip to the FIFA Cup. We will be back. Mel Dyer

Above: President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, looking a little like my late papa here. I was one of the people, who was not at all surprised, when Mexican president, Felipe Calderon , told a joint session of Congress that eighty percent of the seventy-five thousand guns seized by Mexican law enforcement, over the last three years, have been traced right here to the United States of America. According to the Associated Press , Calderon, after urging U.S. legislators to strengthen gun laws, warned that over ninety percent of the guns used by [Mexican] drug traffickers come from north of Mexico's border. I was not surprised because I know what "guns used by drug traffickers" means, and you probably do, too. Even if you think you don't. Don't get caught up in the political crap-storm brewing over the ninety percent part. The guns being used by the drug traffickers President Calderon spoke of are small arms-- handguns --the same our local papers tell us are being...