mb palaver

WinePalaver: Calvert Woodley's Fall 2008 Wine Sale

The annual Calvert Woodley fall wine sale is in progress now through December 6.  As I've mentioned in previous years, this is a great chance to get deals on nice bottles of wine to have at the ready for holiday parties.  Or stock up on champagne for next Tuesday, if you're confident of victory (and not superstitious).

You can download a user friendly version of their catalog online (see the bookmarks and thumbnails on the left side of the catalog).   Or call (202-966-0445) or email ([email protected]) if you'd prefer to receive the glossy version in the mail.  The last page of the catalog (whether electronic or print) is an order form you can fill out and fax or email in and either have the wine delivered (for a hefty sum, I presume) or pick it up at the store.

Calvert Woodley
4339 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC  20008
(202) 966-4400
wineline:  (202) 966-0445

TravelPalaver: Prisoner's Dilemma at the Baggage Claim

Air travel is stressful.  You rush to the airport; get stuck behind someone in the security line with lace-up boots; and then window-seat guy insists that you stand up immediately upon landing so he can get out, even though there's no room in the aisle so you both just stand there for seven minutes with your necks parallel to the floor.

But the most maddening thing to me is the anti-social behavior around the baggage claim.  This is particularly annoying on international flights, when people are often traveling in groups with enough luggage to make Lisa Douglas proud.  Instead of standing several feet back from the conveyor belt so that, when someone sees his luggage coming he can step forward, devil-may-care, and grasp it, people (and their Smarte Cartes) hunker down right up against the contraption, so that you wind up running around trying to find an opening to get to your suitcase before it passes by, feeling like someone in a movie  running along a railroad track waving goodbye to her sweetheart as the train carries him off to war.  It makes no sense.  If everyone would cooperate and stay back, everyone would benefit.  But as soon as one fool bellies up to the belt everyone else seems to feel they have to stake their ground there as well. It's sort of a variation of the prisoner's dilemma.

I was telling my older brother Dubliner that the solution to this would be for the airport authority to put a line around the perimeter of the conveyor belt and a sign reading STAND BEHIND THIS LINE.  Sure some scofflaws will ignore it, but just having the sign might appeal to enough travelers' better natures to keep the hovering to a minimum.

Dubliner proposed a slight modification, which my youngest brother, ColumbusBedhead, has illustrated below.  My third brother is an engineer, so if any airports are interested I'm sure he can work something up.  (I am a lawyer so if anyone makes a million dollars off this idea I will see you in court.)

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DCPalaver: 2008 Dupont Circle House Tour

   

If you're looking for an urban hike and a chance to take a peek into how the other half lives as the economy crashes down around us, you can check out the annual Dupont Circle House tour on Sunday, October 19, from 12 to 5.  According to The Washington Post, this year's tour "focuses on the Strivers' Section neighborhood of Dupont that was once home to Washington's African American elite, including poet Langston Hughes and civil rights attorney Charles Houston."  You can read about the Strivers' Section neighborhood on Wikipedia.

The tour starts at the Belmont Mansion, at 1618 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.  You can get advance tickets for $25 at various local businesses or online through Saturday night, and for $30 at the event.  All the details can be found at the Dupont Circle Citizens Association website.

While wandering around Dupont, check out the man-on-man sculpture (above) on 20th Street in front of the Sprenger & Lang law firm.  I don't know how long this sculpture --  Stack of Men, by Thomas Mullany -- has been there, but I fear I've walked by it a hundred times without noticing it.