Month: October 2004

Brass Monkey – that funky Monkey

Brass Monkey junkie

That funky Monkey

There is a theme I sense. In the new issue of Budget Living has a recipe for Brass Monkey using that lovely ghetto drink Old English. The next time I actually see the brand in print is today’s Washington Post article on store owners up in arms about the ban on single beer can sales in Ward 4. Somewhere in Ward 4 there is a mom & pop store with a refridgerator filled with Old English “800”, along with Zima and the drink that seems to be popular around Shaw, Steel Reserve 211. With some stores selling 40% to 50% booze, they are up in arms.

I’d like to see how Councilmember Fenty’s experiment works out. Will it cut down on the litter? Will it cut down on the loitering? Well we will find out. If it does work I would love for it to come to Ward 5.

The Regal Theater at Gallery Place (fake) Chinatown will open this weekend. It is sorta open now. Currently they are running a $1 special. I don’t remember if it is just for today and yesterday only or what. I went out to dinner with a friend and everything but Harry Potter 3 was sold out. He bailed and for $1 sure I’ll watch Harry Potter, one less Netflix to bother with.

It’s a modern movie theater. Big chairs for the typical fat American lard butt (and I say this with love in my heart), theaters up high, parking down low (3 hours free then $7 an hour), several levels.

The thing that bothered me and my friend was you had to walk through what is essentially an alley to get to the theater. It’s a disneyfied alley, but an alley none the less. So far it is well lit. When you exit it is also well smoked. The alley is where the ciggys hang.

Anyway, the future looks bright for Gallery Place. It has many retail shops and gawdawfully expensive condos in the area. If it weren’t for all of us black people wandering around, I’d say it was turning into Bethesda, Woodmont Ave. I look forward to the opening of Miso Hungry, which sadly makes me think of a bad rap song’s lyrics. And there are other shops that will open in the future turning Gallery Place into a destination.

Foot traffic is so good over there, I was able to hail a cab. So maybe now after dancing I may get off at Gallery Place instead of Dupont to get a cab.

If you happen to work for the government you would have by now, if not in the very near future, received your Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) pledge card and catalog. If you haven’t filled it out already please consider some of the charities working right here in Shaw. You can give all at once or spread it out like I do, over the course of a year. Invest in your neighborhood, please give.

N Street Village, Inc (8281) Provides services to homeless women, addiction recovery, emergency housing and advocates for affordable housing, and daycare. I came to know N Street when I got lost looking for the Episcopal Church in the area and wound up at the Lutheran Church instead. When the tithes were being collected I had the option of earmarking my donation to N Street. I have been supporting them ever since.

Historical Society of Washington(9139) Oh they need your help. The city museum did not bring in the numbers they hoped for and so they need your support. They do, and did before their museum days, offer programs to assist you with historical research of things DC. It was in their archive I found photos from the 1940s of my street.

Shaw Eco Village (7606) They run the bike shop on 6th and R where I bought the crap bike (it’s a good bike, but it looks like crap) and had the good bike fixed. The bike shop and other programs that train and focus on the neighborhood youths.

Studio Theater (8619)- Your contribution would support reduced ticket and free programs for this P Street theater.

Manna, Inc (8847) Despite my occasional problems with this non-profit, I still think it is worthy of support. It advocates for and builds affordable (and market rate) housing. It provides home buying classes for first time homeowners and recently opened Maggie Moos, an ice cream shop on U Street.

Bread for the City (8219) Provide health services, food, clothing, and some legal aid to needy citizens. They have an office at 1525 Seventh Street, NW.

Africare (0303) Has their offices in Shaw on the 400 block of R in an historic building that used to be the Morse School. Their charitable work takes place in Africa.

Kingman Boys and Girls Club (8135) Provides activities for Shaw youth. I believe they are in charge of my neighbor’s pee wee football team.

Shiloh Family Life Center Foundation (8523) Supports the day care center and other activities at the Family Life Center on the 1500 block of 9th Street. It’s parent organization is the Shiloh Baptist Church, my aunts’ church.

Catholic Charities (8054) I really wanted to support St. Matthias Mulumba House on 621 Rhode Island Ave but it is part of a packaged deal. I occassionally run into D’Arcy the social worker there. He’s nice. I like D’Arcy.

There are other charities in Shaw, but these are a few that are close to my heart. Feel free to add others in the comments section.

According to a neighbor the DD at the Hess station on Rhode Island and New Jersey has good hot chocolate. The service is slow but if you wait you will be rewarded with rich rich chocolate. Other people tell me that chain has good coffee. Yes, the service is slow.

I bought Chris Rock’s book “Rock This” off of an underaged neighbor. I had planned to sell it on Half.com. Sadly there are too many crack related jokes AND Marion Barry jokes to let it go.

Like the house I have gotten less involved with certain tasks. The garden. My philosophy, it grows cool, it doesn’t oh well. That’s why I plant certain tomatoes, or why I stick with peppermint and thyme and tried growing some other plants. They work. I now know passion flower grows like crazy, I shall grow it again next year.

Arugula. Arugula is what grew in my yard despite my refusal to pay it much attention. Actually it grew in a pot. I threw a bunch of seeds in for mixed salad greens in the Spring. The red leaf was wimpy and didn’t survive, there was some other green that just tasted fowl and I ripped that out of the pot. So I’m tasting and ripping whatever I don’t like out of the pot. I get to this funky green that is okay at first but has a bit of a bite and it is the only thing to survive. The rains watered it, ’cause heavens know I didn’t. Anyway, come Fall I revisit the pot and notice that the arugula has gone crazy, there are big chunks of this plant in my little pot, just overflowing, like it is trying to escape from the pot. So I have all these tomatoes, I serve the arugula in a salad. Not half bad, but I am still not fond of the bite. I tried cooking it like spinach, it was fine, no bite and it was a little like spinach, but not. I think I’ll grow this next year.

Tomatoes. The tomatoes have been very good to me, and like the arugula, I’ve ignored them as well. I didn’t water them much. I did pick off the tomatoes, and put up strink to support the vines, but not much else. I grow yellow tomatoes as the red ones don’t seem to flourish in my yard.

The tarragon also, despite my best efforts of ignoring it, also seem to want to keep growing. Anyone need tarragon? I don’t seem to cook with it and yet it still grows. It dies back every year and the darned herb keeps growing back.

Peppermint is a weed. It will grow. It will grow where you don’t want it to grow.

Unlike my neighbors who baby their plants, I semi-ignore mine. I will water when they are on the verge of death. I don’t feed them fertilizer. So what’s growing in my yard are the baddest mf plants on the block. They are tough. They are the fittest.

From a Berry email.

Neighbors,

Below please find a public notice re. the next two meetings of ANC 5C.

Please share these data with your neighbors and make your best effort

to

attend.

Best,

Jim Berry

ANC 5C

GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION 5C

POST OFFICE BOX 77761

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20013

TELEPHONE: (202) 832-1965/1966

www.anc5c.org

PUBLIC MEETING NOTICES

Monthly Meeting

Invited guests include representatives from the following

organizations:

DC SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT COMMISSION

UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT

Where: All Nations Baptist Church

2001 North Capitol Street, N.E.

When: Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

Monthly Forum

Where: Paul Laurence Dunbar Sr. High School

1301 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.

When: Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

I stopped by my neighbor J&L’s house to drop off some extra tomatoes I’d had. Now I haven’t been inside their house for a good long while, over a year. J&L bought their house round about the same time as I bought mine, three years ago. They did much more work than I could ever do, the floors, the kitchen, the back, exposing brick, getting a working fireplace, etc…. Walking in I remarked about the difference since I last saw it, and J pointed out some things he and his wife did, and we looked at the hallway. There is more to do in the hallway, moulding and such. However it is on the back-back burner, just tired and not interested in doing more to the house. I’m gonna call it the 3rd year slump.

I’ve hit the 3rd year slump. My interest in doing more to the house myself is very low. I prefer, despite the pain to my finances, to pay someone to tear up the house and build it up again. My first year of home ownership was a flurry of DIY projects, now, my goal is to keep the house from falling apart. This morning the house was still standing, job done.

I’m still a DIY girl, just that it is now more reactive than proactive. Three years ago I built a stair railing, I repointed the brick in the basement, I overhauled the front yard and repaired the walkway. Year 2, I put in new fencing (had to hire for that), put the washer/dryer downstairs (also a hire job), actually I hired men to do a lot of work round the house last year. This and last year was the kitchen (before & 2 and after & 2). Now I just want to plan to pay people to tear up the rest of my house 2-3 years from now while I temporarly relocate to College Park, or Hyattsville (not silly enough to live through construction again, ever) in cheap student housing.

Well you just get tired. It’s great to do home improvement, but your energy and bank account get drained.

Well as I said. House still up as of this morning, all I gotta do is maintenance.

Extended deadline: October 20 Urgent: Preserve CRA in 1O minutes Please take a few minutes right now to write a brief e-mail comment and ask all your colleagues to write one to preserve the Community Reinvestment Act against a very serious threat. Comments are due October 20. Thank you to the 861 people who responded to our first Alert in September.  We need another big effort in the next week. Background Under current rules, small banks with assets under $250 million undergo a limited CRA exam that covers only some basic lending activities. Larger banks undergo a full CRA exam that covers lending, investments, and services. Now the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has proposed to allow all banks with assets under $1 billion to have the limited exam. Only 4% of FDIC-regulated banks would face a full CRA exam. This change would harm low- and moderate-income communities, and leave some states with no banks subject to a full CRA exam. The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) has already finalized a similar rule. The two other regulators, the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, are considering a similar change. Other changes could also follow. It is critical that including community organizations and the general public submit comments to the FDIC opposing the proposed change. The FDIC has already received a record 7,000 comments, but the majority are from small banks supporting the FDIC’s proposal. The Fed and the OCC are watching closely to see whether community groups care. This is an important moment for maintaining and expanding bank involvement in communities. How To Send a Comment It is really quick and easy. Just visit the target=”_blank” href=”http://lisc.org/cgi-bin/tr.pl?date=2004/oct/13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efdic%2Egov%2Fregulations%2Flaws%2Ffederal%2Fpropose%2Ehtml” >FDIC website and find “Community Reinvestment 12 CFR Part 345″. Click on “Submit Comment” and type in your comment. Your comment can be very simple. For example: “I oppose the FDIC’s proposal to allow banks with assets above $250 million to be examined as small banks under the Community Reinvestment Act. This policy would reduce lending, investments and services in low-income communities.” That’s all there is to it. Of course, feel free to write more if you wish. For more information on this issue, please go to target=”_blank” href=”http://lisc.org/cgi-bin/tr.pl?date=2004/oct/13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Encrc%2Eorg”>National Community Reinvestment Coalition or target=”_blank” href=”http://lisc.org/cgi-bin/tr.pl?date=2004/oct/13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Enaahl%2Eorg”>National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders. We also encourage you sign on to group letters that organizations may have, but that is no substitute for sending individual letters. THANK YOU.