John Kelly's Washington Live
John Kelly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 04, 2005; 1:00 p.m. ET
John Kelly writes five times a week about the joys and annoyances of living in Washington. He aims to show readers the Washington (and Silver Spring, Alexandria, Manassas, Bowie ...) that they know and take them places they don't know. He wants to make them see familiar things in unfamiliar ways and unfamiliar things in familiar ways. ("We may occasionally end up seeing unfamiliar things in unfamiliar ways," John says, "but such are the risks of the job.") His columns take a cockeyed view of the place the rest of the planet knows as the Capital of the Free World but that we all call home. John rides the Metro for fun and once kidnapped an Irishman to see what made him tick.
Fridays at 1 p.m. ET John is online to chat about his columns and mull over anything that's on your mind.
Submit your questions or comments before or during the show.
This week's columns:
A License to Ask Silly Questions (Post, March 4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2693-2005Mar2.html (Post, March 3)
Stepping Up for Those Who Fall Down (Post, March 2)
Laid Low by the Virtual Storm (Post, March 1)
Answer Man: Ignoring Signs of Trouble on the Street (Post, Feb. 28)
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
John Kelly: Some reasons to be happy: It's Friday. It hasn't snowed in a few days. Our Washington Nationals are undefeated.
Some reasons to be unhappy: It's only three days till Monday. There's mercury everywhere (the heavy metal, not the planet or the gussied-up Ford). I just ate the wettest tuna salad wrap in my life. (Every time I squeezed it liquid shot out, like an oyster spitting at Popeye.)
Before I forget: Have you entered my Baseball Poem contest? Welcome our Nats to DC with a bit of poesy and you may win lunch on me. Send your entries to kellyj@washpost.com.
Hokay, what'd we do this week? Monday Answer Man told you what those lights on top of cabs that say "Call 911" mean. (They mean you should call 911.) Tuesday I wrote about our virtual snowstorm. Wednesday was about two people who fell down, one of whom was helped up. Thursday was my poem plea and a report on a bipartisan dinner party. And today I have some Tales From the DMV.
Now it's your turn....
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Alexandria, Va.:
Just a funny ID story: I moved to VA right after they started giving out the vertical drivers liscenses to people under 21 (in opposed to the horizontal liscenses everyone else has).
On many occasions I would recieve odd looks from bouncers in DC, MD and VA. My usual response was, "If I was trying to make a fake ID would I make it look that stupid?" Then they would let me in. John Kelly: I remember one acquaintance from Europe who was able to scam his way into a bar by saying that in Italy they put the date of conception on the ID, not the date of birth. It still doesn't make sense to me, since that would appear to make him younger. But perhaps he was just trying to confuse the bouncer enough to gain entry.
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Middletown, N.J.:
I'm sure you'll get lots of US geography anecdotes today. My favorite? A college-educated colleague's response when I said I was "heading down to D.C. for Easter". "Down" he said, "you mean up." Since we were in Princeton, NJ, I was perplexed. After responding no, that I really meant down as in south, he told me I was wrong that Washington D.C. was in New York state and thus I was heading north! John Kelly: See, this is why DC will never become a state. The rest of the country JUST DOESN'T CARE. While some of our fellow citizens might be outraged when they learn that Washingtonians don't enjoy the same rights as other Americans, the majority won't give a flying fig. (Plus, 51 stars on the US flat would just look weird.)
As for your Princetonian friend, I think that might work in England. Don't they always say they're "going up to London," even if they're traveling from Scotland?
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Alexandria, Va.:
Hey Mr. Answerman! A question for you!
Four vehicles are approaching an intersection that is a "four way" stop sign intersection. All vehicles stop at the same time. After the vehicles have come to a complete stop, which vehicle has the "right of way" to move first?
John Kelly: The one on the right. Didn't you learn this?
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Gaithersburg, Md.:
So Metro says "Just Stand", huh? I can't wait to ride from Shady Grove to Metro station standing up while the driver jerks the train forward and slams on the brakes. What's are they going to do with the bums that sprawls out across the seats and sleeps for a hour or two? John Kelly: Now let's not overreact. Metro isn't saying you should just stand just yet. First they're going install cameras to study how people move about the train cars. Then they will consider removing some seats to make it easier for people to get on and off, and to accommodate more riders. Let's say they do remove some seats and you have to stand, so what? You do know how to stand, right? The idea of public transportation is to transport the public, not coddle them during their journey. Yeah it's a drag to stand but you can always sit down when you get to work or when you get home.
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washingtonpost.com:
Metro to Monitor Seating Patterns
John Kelly: Here's the story....
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washingtonpost.com:
https://subscription.washpost.com/subserve200/dc/faq.jsp John Kelly: Here's the poop.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
As a proponent of regularly subscribing to the paper, how do think the paper should balance trying to get new customers and keeping the current ones happy? I'm asking since this week I received a letter from the Post, addressed to me, offering me 10 weeks of the Post for $10. This would be great, except I'm already a daily + Sunday subscriber and I'm not eligible. I've received 2-3 similar offers from the Post in the past year. These marketing efforts don't make me feel that my 5+ years of subscribing at this address are valued. Obviously no screening is done before these mass mailings are sent out, and the only people who get discounts are new or irregular subscribers.
How about some rewards for the loyal customers? There could be a discount for buying a paper for a year at a time, for referring a friend, or maybe we could get a couple of months free after a certain number of years. Or you could find out who has the longest-running subscription to the Post and write a profile on that person. It must be cheaper to keep a current subscriber than to find a new one.
John Kelly: You shouldn't be getting those letters. We try to prune our marketing lists of any existing subscribers, but you apparently have slipped through the cracks. As for the other issue, a lot of companies do special things to lure new customers. We mean no disrespect to existing customers, but we've got to reach out to new people somehow. Our marketing folks suggest you consider the PostRewards card, a discount program open only to home subscribers that gets you 25 percent off at various local restaurants.
I assure you I am not getting a cut of any of this, nor do I get a commission for each new subscription sold.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
There's a Joe Jackson song called "Down to London."
John Kelly: I like his song "Sunday Paper," for obvious reasons.
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Anonymous:
"First they're going install cameras to study how people move about the train cars."
Oh, great! So now, not only will I be uncomfortable, sweaty, and standing entirely too close to some stranger, there will be people watching me stnad there!
John Kelly: "Don't stand, don't stand so, don't stand so close to me."
How did we end up on '80s pop?
Look, in the future there will be cameras EVERYWHERE.
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Gaithersburg, Md.:
Mr. Kelly,
Your column today about the geographically impaired is scary. The bouncer in NYC who did not know what/where Washington, D.C. is, I can kinda forgive. He was not hired for his mental prowess. All he really needs to know is the correct year that will make a person of legal drinking age. The club probably writes it for him on the palm of his hand each day.
The DMV clerk in Mew Mexico is of more concern. No wonder we have terrorists getting phony ID, etc. Apparently the average bureaucrat is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. This lack of geographical knowledge is pervasive. What do our schools teach these days? John Kelly: What do they teach in school? They teach how to prepare for The Test.
But really, shouldn't we be glad that some of these people at least know that "Mexico" is a country? That's something, isn't it?
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Silver Spring, Md:
Where is the best place to watch the Maryland basketball game tomorrow other than College ParK? John Kelly: Some place in Blacksburg? I don't know. Recommendations, chatters?
I'd stay away from College Park unless you want to get caught up in a riot.
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Germantown, Md.:
To the person upset about standing: Maybe you could get a pair of gravity boots and hook them over the bar, and just dangle. Make sure you don't have any loose change in your pockets though.
I would applaud any effort metro comes up with to get more people on the trains, and make it easier to get on and off, short of cattle prods.
John Kelly: Short of cattle prods? Oh, you're no fun. Isn't that what they use in Japan?
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Crystal City, Va.:
Good article on the 911 taxi signs. Do you remember what Bobby Wheeler did on the show Taxi when he was held by gunpoint in his cab? He stuck the barrel of his smaller gun into the would be robber's gun. Please pass this useful tip to any cabbies you might know. John Kelly: I'm sure they'll appreciate that. I was talking with a cabbie Wednesday about the Call 911 lights. He said another problem is that tourists see the signs and think that if they want a cab, they should call 911.
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Alexandria, Va.:
Why is Metro spending money on cameras to record something so painfully obvious? Just when I cross my fingers and hope that Metro finally "gets it", they don't. Any one who Rides metro can explain what the problem.
Oh yeah, Rockviller, if you're getting on at Shady Grove, you know darn well you'll have your butt firmly planted in a seat before anybody else gets on. Boo hoo if you have to stand for a few stops on your return trip until things clear out a bit. If it bothers you so much, just drive, that will save more space for everybody else. It's not Metro's job to be your chauffered Cadillac to and from work everyday.
John Kelly: No, don't drive! Don't drive! A couple of times in the last few weeks I've found myself on the outer loop of the Beltway between College Park and Bethesda in the morning. It's awful. It just sludges along. And of course most of the cars have one person in them. I think they should take one lane, paint a stripe down the middle and make two skinny lanes. Then they should make people who drive solo to and from work use motorcycles or skinny little cars.
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Penn Quarter, D.C.:
Forgive my dredging up a previous topic, but the mercury spill at a certain school last week brings it up.
Why do so many people pronounce Cardozo "car-DOH-za"? It is to the point where I have seen a Metrobus on Rt. 98 with the actual word CARDOZA on the side. I have also seen a school-closing notice on Channel 7 that is also misspelled.
Also, how do you pronounce a certain deaf university -- GALL-you-det, GAL-you-det, or GAL-yuh-det? John Kelly: Yes, "Cardozo" gets mangled all the time, both the school and the U Street Metro stop. I think it's just harder to say it right than it is to say it wrong. Your mouth is making that "ohhhh" sound for the second syllable and it's too much of a whiplash to then go "ahhhh."
We just called Gallaudet and they said "Gall-uh-dett." I don't know what it is in sign language, probably " ."
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Gaithersburg, Md.:
Not everyone sits at work. We're not all chair-warming gossip journalists.
John Kelly: Hang on, let me check the temperature of my chair. Whoops! I sat on the thermometer, and now there's mercury everywhere! I can feel my brain cells dying one by one (they make a sort of popping sound).
No, you're right. If you're a short order cook or a waiter you may be standing all day. But, again, I don't think Metro's raison d'etre is to be some sort of mechanized hayride, where we can all be comfy. If you're healthy you ought to be able to stand. It's what humans did before the La-Z-Boy was invented.
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washingtonpost.com:
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05061/465204.stm
John Kelly: By the way, I provide this link for anyone who remembers my column last week about the stolen goat. It's about a goat who wasn't quite so lucky.
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Alexandria, Va.:
I have another question about DC cab lights that has bothered me since I moved here from Chicago. Why don't cabbies here actually use the lights to signal whether or not they are available? It makes hailing a cab much easier, especially at night, when you can actually tell from a distance whether or not they are already taken. Cabbies in DC seem to just think the lights should be on all the time because they're pretty.
John Kelly: I think what you'll encounter more often is cabs that don't have their lights on when they're actually available. The law is that cabbies may not refuse a fare. They have to pick you up. Many of the cabbies I spoke with said they're afraid of getting robbed and shot and so at night will keep their lights off. That makes it look like they're off duty and they won't stop for people who creep them out. Discriminatory? Probably, but they say they're too afraid to do otherwise. I was amazed when I learned that cabbies have the highest homicide rate of any occupation, including police officers.
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Arlington, Va.:
True story: I work with someone who doles out passports for travelers, and she had someone insisting that they needed a visa to go to New Mexico. She very graciously let them know they could use their Visa Card in New Mexico, but they did not need a visa to get in and it actually worked.
John Kelly: These stories sound apocryphal, don't they? Yet the New Mexicans I've spoken with insist they're true. Do you think people in New England have the same problem?
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University Park, Md.:
Ups and downs--Actually, in England you go down to London and up to Oxford or Cambridge to attend university. If a student is expelled, he or she is simply "sent down."
John Kelly: Ah, thank you. And as the Bangles once said, you also go down to Liverpool...to do nothing.
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Bethesda, Md:
First thing in the morning (very bleery eyed) I looked at WP.com and saw the headline "Bush Picks Jenna for EPA."
Fortunetly, it was really "Bush Picks Johnson for EPA."
John Kelly: Hey if Michael Powell can head the FCC and Dick Cheney's daughter can be a bigwig at the State Department, who's to say Jenna can't head the EPA? I heard she was holding out for Commerce, though.
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Alexandria, Va.:
How dumb are we with geography? You can reference your own paper. This article's map clearly shows Arlington labeled as DC. And it's been posted on the website since MONDAY.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58357-2005Feb27.html
John Kelly: Whoops. Looks like our "DC" slid a little south there. Well, it USED to be part of Washington.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
Leaf Guy. Missed last week's chat, wanted to make a couple of points:
"Who is your Dear Husband? He's not the guy from Silver Spring who thinks God is out to get him, is he?"
No, the lady with the Dear Husband is not Mrs. Leaf Guy. Alas, there is at present no "Mrs. Leaf Guy."
I would also point out that it was YOU who first suggested that God hates me.
"So, how's the Latin going Johannes? Remember, 'Gallia es provincia.'"
I hope this was a typo for "est,", and that the poster was not actually saying "Gaul, you are a province."
Carry on.
John Kelly: Zoile, quod solium subluto perdis,
spurcius ut fiat, Zoile, merge caput.
I'm sorry, I just copied that out of a book of Martial epigrams. I won't be able to actually translate it for another five years.
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Arlington, Va.:
Hi, John -
I am a long-time reader of and subscriber to the Post. We are moving to Canada (yes, really, but it is just a coincidence), and I wonder if there is any foreign subscription possibilities? Yes, I know, love, and read washingtonpost.com; however, there is something about the Paper Post that I don't want to lose. We may have a News Stand option for the next day, but are moving to Newfoundland, so that may not be a real expectation.
Any suggestions?
John Kelly: The National Weekly is an edited paper version of The Post. Because it's weekly, it's not the place for breaking news, but it has op-ed columns, feature stories, editorial cartoons, science coverage, stories from The Magazine, etc., etc. Enjoy Canada. That's north of here, right?
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washingtonpost.com:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/post/natweekly/
John Kelly: Here's info on the National Weekly. (Or interNational Weekly, in your case.)
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Silver Spring, Md.:
A 4th option for the VA DMV form:
I can't read this form
P.S. It's Marcia's reponse tautological: if
someone chooses option #3, they KNOW they
aren't safe to drive, so why does DMV need to
ratify that?
John Kelly: Here's what I thought the fourth option should be:
[] I don't need glasses or lenses to drive, but I wear them anyway because they make me look cool.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
WTOP reporters yesterday breathlessly reported on the first exhibition game of the "Nats," saying it was a moment "we all" had anxiously waited for. A bit of hyperbole? How much money are people spending on merchandise and tickets that could go to better purposes? It won't take us back to a simpler time and place when baseball really was the national pasttime. All in all, it's still a boring, slow sport to watch. If a reporter is super excited about the Nationals, great (many will get free tickets, anyway); just don't assume everyone sees this as a super important event.
John Kelly: I confess my heart soared when I saw that front page photo the other day of the Nationals taking the field, the sun shining, their uniforms gleaming. I am pretty ignorant about baseball, especially compared to people who aren't. But I like going to an occasional game and I'm excited about this season. Part of it may be that I'm tired of this frigid winter and thinking about baseball means thinking about warmth.
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Gaithersburg, Md.:
If, eventually, Metro does make us stand for the full 35 minutes it takes for me to ride to work, at the very least could they give us some overhead straps to hang onto instead of that single pole ratched to the ceiling?
John Kelly: You're not the only one who feels this way...
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Arlington, Va.:
What worries me more about pulling those seats out is how the heck I'm going to hang on. I'm only 5 feet tall and no way can I reach the bars on the ceiling. I need the poles or the grab bars on the seats.
But, of course, the Metro board members are, what, all men and over six feet tall? And they don't ride anyway. That's why they need the cameras.
John Kelly: I think they should have one wall covered with cargo netting. Short people could just hang on to the rope.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
John, is it true that you submitted this question to yourself the night before the chat?
John Kelly: A message from the past! Time travel is possible!
Yes, it's true.
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Washington, D.C.:
John, I'm going to be gone during your chat hour, but here's a shout out for you:
Woo-hoo! Go John! You're the man!
John Kelly: I did not submit this one.
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Crystal City, Va.:
Is there a poll out that measures the rest of the world's knowledge on U.S. geography. I'd bet that the majority of people out there think that New York City is our capital.
John Kelly: I'm sure there is a poll. There's a poll for everything. But I'll bet most furreners know about Washington, since that name is used interchangeably with America's government, as in "Washington yesterday decided to lower its squid quotas."
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Anonymous:
My day: This morning I chewed out my Ride-On driver for crossing a double yellow line on a two-lane upper-MoCo road approaching a hill to get around the car in front of him. His reasoning: "That car was trying to make me hit him, and I'm not going to do that." I expressed my opinion of his explanation with a single unacceptable word. He remained unconvinced, as did I.
But now I have squid in my lunch. Squid rules. If a squid ever runs for president, I'm voting for him. (Her. It.)
John Kelly: Unless squid is born in the United States, it will not be able to run for president. It's the only thing that's keeping us from the mollusk-bound Ah-nuld.
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Washington, D.C.:
"He said another problem is that tourists see the signs and think that if they want a cab, they should call 911."
Please tell me you're kidding, John. Or that the cabbie was kidding.
John Kelly: I'm not kidding. And neither was he. (Thanks to Mr. Divine Apreku, Yellow Cab #265.)
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Washington, D.C.:
John, I'm posting this from next Monday. It snowed
12 inches today. Please put bread, milk, and toilet
paper in a brown paper bag and leave it at the corner
of Wisconsin Avenue and Columbia Road, N.E.
John Kelly: We finally have time travel technology and what do we do with it? Go back and stop Pearl Harbor? No, send toilet paper into the future.
By the way, in the present there is no Wisconsin and Columbia, northEAST. Maybe things are different next week.
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Arlington, Va.:
Ah HA! Now I've got it! In your new picture for this chat, I just realized you look like John Denver in "Oh God!". Whew. Now I can get back to work (and also explain to my coworkers why I have been staring at you picture for 45 mins).
John Kelly: It is now officially time to change the picture. John Denver?
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Arlington, Va.:
Seems like the Washington area school superintendents, once again, are a collective laughing stock. My family in far upstate NY can't believe my kids were out of school due to just the threat of snow. This really is ridiculous. How can we save face? Offer a cherry blossom in peace to our northern countrymen? This is one of the unique characteristics of living in Washington...We do live in a temperate zone that gets snow and ice almost every winter. WHEN WILL PEOPLE GET OVER THE FEAR?
John Kelly: I have a theory on this that I briefly mentioned in Tuesday's column but which I hope to develop for a future column. One of my theses involves the bromide about how we can't drive in the snow. But the people who say this never admit that THEY'RE the ones who can't drive in the snow. That is, if Washingtonians (or recent transplants to DC) are bad drivers, shouldn't some of them admit to it? Shouldn't some of them say, "Yup, I suck in the snow. I'm a menace to my fellow driver." Instead, everyone says that it's everybody ELSE who can't drive in the snow.
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Tenleytown:
John: A few years ago, one of my suite-mates had a visitor from the state of Washington. When he left, a meter maid was in the process of giving him a ticket for not having an inspection sticker. He told the meter maid that Washington state does not require inspections. The meter maid said that if you are from Washington, you must have an inspection sticker. The guy tried using logis: look at the license plate. It has mountains in the background; there are no mountains in Washington, DC. The meter maid was not moved by this plea and gave him the ticket.
John Kelly: That's bad, but not as bad as something I dimly remember from a while back, which was DC meter maids giving tickets because they thought that DC registrations were wrong, when in fact they had just changed the design or something.
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Rosslyn, Va.:
Metro: Have they started instituting the recommendations the outside advisory board suggested? The reason I am asking is because for the past three straight days, the metro (at least the Orange line) has reduced the number of trains (instead of every four to five minutes during rush hour they are coming every ten to twelve minutes). Therefore, the trains are packed like cattle cars. Some people are not able to get on or off, and the conductors are continuing to try to close the doors before people are even off the train! What gives???
John Kelly: My assistant, Julie, just got off the phone from Metro and they said there has been no change on the Orange Line this week. It sounds like that doesn't mesh with your experience.
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Washington, D.C.:
re: Americans' geographic ignorance
Exhibit 1: Pita House Lebanese restaurant in Alexandria last Saturday evening. I'm there with a Canadian friend; we were journalists in the Middle East together years ago. Customer at the next table asks the waitress, "where exactly is Lebanon?"
Exhibit 2: Years ago in San Francisco. DC visitor is asked to produce his driver's license to cash a traveler's check. At the time the DC licenses said "District of Columbia" across the top. Clerk studies it and asks me, "is that in Canada?"
True stories. (sigh)
John Kelly: Don't ever ask a Dane how things are in Stockholm. Trust me on this one.
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National Zoo, D.C.:
what's your take on the Nationals cancelled post-game fireworks? how come i feel it's more than the issue of 'noise & smoke'?
John Kelly: I didn't see what the big deal was with doing it once, when the season first started. But I also enjoyed that car race they had out there at RFK a couple years ago. I like loud noises. It may be a legacy of playing the drums in a very loud rock band.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
John,
Thanks so much for jumping on the "nobody knows how to drive in the snow" nonsense. I am sooooo
tired of hearing that crap. I'm from Buffalo and I spend a lot time in Alaska. Guess what, I get in accident's too, so I guess I "just don't know how to drive in the snow". I think I'll just stay home and complain. Would you mind stopping by my house with some Bushmills and smoked salmon on your way home?
Thanks in advance (time travel, y'now)
JIm preston
John Kelly: Hey Jim. Stop smoking that salmon right now.
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Washington, D.C.:
Another subtle geography lesson: When I lived in Akron, Ohio, people there talked of "going down to Cleveland" although Cleveland is 35 miles north of Akron.
Turns out they said "going down" because Cleveland's elevation is lower than Akron's.
John Kelly: Oxford, Cambridge, Cleveland. As they would say on "Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the others.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
On ID's and DMV's:
In 1979, I spent the summer working on a railroad crew outside of Fairbury, Nebraska (bullet holes from Ma Barker's gang in the county courthouse, etc). I had previously relinquished my driver's license from New York state under circumstances that I would prefer not to discuss, and I decided during the summer that I would like to get a new driver's license. I borrowed the car of a young fellow that I had met in the local tavern (a basket of gizzards, please), drove the car down to the courthouse, wrote down my name, took a driving test, and walked out with a new picture ID Nebraska license, without ever having shown anyone any personal documentation of any kind. At the time of signing in, I had thought about changing my identity, but I figured all of the good names like Kinky Friedman and John Kelly were already taken.
John Kelly: Just try doing that today.
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Downtown, D.C.:
Signs that the HOV state’s scorched earth policy is on track and progressing nicely.
1. Virginia builds a new water intake in the middle of the Potomac.
2. Metro to Dulles is planned.
3. Slow growth defeated in court to the tune of 50,000 new homes.
4. Dulles Greenway expanded.
5. New river crossing.
6. Outer Beltway.
Bet me that 5 and 6 aren’t just around the corner.
John Kelly: This is because we try to apply yesterday's solutions to tomorrow's problems. (Sorry, I sound like some management consultant.) Building more roads only brings more cars. We need to fundamentally change the way we arrange our lives if we're going to escape from under this avalanche of traffic and pollution. People will have to get used to the idea of car-pooling. Public transportation will have to get better. Employers will have to be better about telecommuting. Or we could all move to western Loudoun County.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
"That's bad, but not as bad as something I dimly remember from a while back, which was DC meter maids giving tickets because they thought that DC registrations were wrong, when in fact they had just changed the design or something."
They switched from stickers on the plate to window decals. So many people got tickets that they finally issued a sticker for the plate that says, in so many words, look at the window, dummy.
John Kelly: That's right. I think I was living in DC then. Or was I in Nebraska?
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Southern Maryland::
Re: needing glasses to drive -- True Story -- I never took drivers ed in school (it wasn't required back in my school days). I moved to DC and worked a couple years, finally decided to take driving lessons to get a license at age 23. I called good old "Easy Method" driving school, used to be up on Connecticut Avenue. I had to get a vision test to get a learner's permit. I failed the vision test outright. I was devastated. Never knew I needed glasses. We were too poor to vision checkups, my last name is at the beginning of the alphabet so I always sat in the front row in class. I had no idea a person was supposed to be able to see across the room! I had been walking around legally blind for most of my life and never knew it. I'm forever grateful for the vision requirement before getting a driver's license.
John Kelly: I heard a wonderful story on This American Life about a public school in a poor part of Chicago (which is in Illinois, west of here). The principal had every kid take a vision test and she found that something like half the kids needed glasses. She was able to get them glasses, or move them closer to the board, and their grades shot up.
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Springfield, Va.:
John - I just wanted to say that you make me laugh every week. Your humor and wit make you attractive so stop worrying about your picture (though it's a nice picture).
Signed,
A fan (not a relative and not a stalker)
John Kelly: "Your humor and wit make you attractive."
Now I regret all those girls to whom I said "You have a nice personality."
But thank you, really.
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Anonymous:
re: wash,dc -natl weekly edition/taxies: thanks for the info on the natl weekly edition of the post. i used to get it several years ago and really liked it. although, i get the dail version i am going to subscribe to the weekly addition again.
i am a black woman and at night it is very difficult to get a taxie that is not already waiting at a metro station or hotel. it is equally difficult down town (15th and G st) as well at Eastern Market.
John Kelly: Yeah, that stinks. Most of the cab drivers are African American too, but many are just too scared to go into certain neighborhoods that they associate with crime. And that often translates into bypassing entire types of potential customers. One driver told me that he heard Metro was considering eliminating certain bus routes because their bus drivers were beign assaulted regularly. He wondered how they could do that, when he could get in trouble for not taking fares to certain destinations.
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Crystal City, Va.:
John, I'm not calling you or Terrie Alvarez a liar, but I almost find the "Drawing a Line" story unbelievable. Are we to expect that a transit officer would actualy stand at his imaginary jurisdiction line and watch somebody on the ground, possibly dying and not call for help because it's not his area? Maybe if he at least called and ordered flowers, the delivery guy could have helped.
John Kelly: Well, the second guy, an Amtrak cop, did not accompany her to the gentleman. It was the first guy, a private security officer, who stopped as if he'd reached an invisible fence. Terrie Alvarez seemed trustworthy and as far as I know, the guy didn't die.
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Anonymous::
Re. Geographically-challenged people: The Post's travel section many years ago had a hilarious article by someone who had once worked in airlines sales.
A lady called and wanted a ticket to Hippopotamus, NY. When informed there was no such airport or town by that name, she said - well, it's some animal. Turned out she wanted a ticket to Buffalo, NY.
John Kelly: Just think of all those people who want a cruise on the Rhino River.
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Gaithersburg, Md.:
Well, if Metro takes the seats out, I'm gonna sit anyways.......
John Kelly: That's the spirit! Isn't that what our forefathers and foremothers did on their conestoga wagons.
Thanks for joining us today. Lots of great questions and comments, many more than I had a chance to post. Let's do this again next week. I'll see you on Monday. Have a nice weekend and remember that my in box is always open: kellyj@washpost.com.
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