Still Life with Robin: Enough with the Spook-tacular Halloweens!

by Peggy Robin

Halloween has been one of my favorite holidays since I was a little kid (even though it scared me then!). I still decorate the house with pumpkin lights, flying bats, and spiders, and I rush to the door to greet each little trick-or-treater with candy and effusive praise of their costumes -- even those I can't make head or tails of. I love them all.

And you know what else I love? Complaining! And if there's anything to find fault with about this holiday, I'm on it. So here's my pet peeve for this coming Halloween: too many over-used monikers. If I see one more Halloween party called "Spook-tacular" I will scream! Well, screaming is what you are supposed to do for Halloween, isn't it? So on top of the scream, let me add a Bronx cheer.

Are pets involved in the party? I guess it must be called Howl-o-ween. But really, can't anyone come up with anything else?

Having the kids over to decorate pumpkins? So you must be having a Pumpkin-Palooza -- but wouldn't it seem more special if you could come up with a fun, new name?

I could go on, but you get the idea. Everyone in America by now has gotten the idea. I'm by no means the first to point out how overworked these terms are. In such an august publication as The Atlantic, a journalist took the matter seriously enough to seek out the earliest appearance in print of "spook-tacular"...and he came up with a venerable date: 1897. That's several decades before the term "trick-or-treating" came into common use (1927). Read it for yourself:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/10/spooktacular-etymology-halloween-linguistics/505385/

Want even more useless facts about Halloween words and customs? Here's an up-to-the-minute piece (10/1/2024) from the marketing blog, DriveResearch, about what's popular this Halloween and how it compares to Halloweens past: 15+ Fun-Sized Halloween Statistics [2024]

https://www.driveresearch.com/market-research-company-blog/2022-fun-sized-halloween-statistics/

Here are a few of the more intriguing factoids from the article:

• Up to 97% of Americans will be giving out Halloween candy. 
• Up to 94% of Americans are planning to celebrate Halloween in 2024
• 47% of people wear costumes to celebrate the day
• Spending for Halloween 2024 is expected to reach $11.6 billion dollars.
• Spirit Halloween will open 1,525 new locations this fall.  

About that last statistic... If you don't already know, Spirit Halloween is the largest of the seasonal stores that pop-up about six weeks before October 31st and vanish as if by magic in the first week of November. It's one of the fastest growing businesses in America, usually found in one of the otherwise vacant spaces that once was a big-box stores, bringing the location back to life, if only for a while. For a deep dive -- and an entertaining and seasonally appropriate one -- into the world of Spirit Halloween, I recommend the latest episode of the podcast 99 Percent Invisible, all about Spirit Halloween explosion:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/600-spirit-halloween/

Definitely worth a listen. Added bonus: If there's ever a vote on who has the greatest voice in radio, the winner by rights should be the 99% Invisible host Roman Mars (and he should win some kind of award for the magnificent name, too!)

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.

Sat Oct 26: Dupont Circle for Halloween Fun by Day, Cleveland Park Halloween Bar Crawl by Night!

by Peggy Robin

Pre-Halloween fun by day (family friendly) and evening (21+) this Saturday, October 26th

Dupont Fall Festival and Bluegrass Jamboree on Saturday, 1-5pm

Dupont Circle's Fall Festival is back for a third year! Live bluegrass, free pumpkin decorating, and a costume contest with prizes await!

After the resounding success of last year’s First Annual Fall Festival and Bluegrass Jamboree, the Dupont Circle Business Improvement District is excited to announce that it will be bringing the festival back for a third year- this time with a festive Halloween spin!

The event will take place on Saturday, October 26th from 1:00-5:00 p.m. in Dupont Circle Park.

Fall, family-friendly activities will include pumpkin and gourd painting, bluegrass music, and for the first time, a costume contest! We will be hosting three costume contests: one for pets, one for kids, and one for adults. Complete with judges and prizes for first, second, and third place of each contest, make sure you arrive in your (or your pet's) best costume for a chance at winning big! While this is going on, pick up a pumpkin around the park (while supplies last) and decorate it how you like with our provided art supplies! Enjoy the sounds of regionally renowned bluegrass band, Shannon Leigh and the Good Bygones, whom will be performing live on the main stage.

Games like cornhole around the Circle, live bluegrass music, free pumpkin decorating, and the chance to win prizes for dressing up in your best costume are all part of why Dupont Circle's Fall Festival and Bluegrass Jamboree will be the most family-friendly fall and Halloween fun you'll have all month! See you there in Dupont Circle Park, convenient to the Dupont Circle metro stop.

General Admission: Free!

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🎃 Cleveland Park Halloween Bar Crawl Specials - Sat, Oct 26th Starting at 6:30pm - Costumes Encouraged 

Get your tickets today for the Cleveland Park Main Street Halloween Bar Crawl on Saturday, October 26th. Costumes are highly encouraged!  To purchase tickets ($20), please visit: https://districtbridges.org/events/halloween-bar-crawl-cleveland-park-main-street/ Schedule 6:30pm Nanny O’Briens - $1.00 off all Seasonal Beers and Specials 7:30pm Fat Pete’s - Halloween Blood Themed Cocktail or Mocktalk 8:30 Cleveland Park Bar & Grill - TBD 9:30pm Thai Love Dance Party -  Maithai Isaan Classic ------------------- The "Get Out" event of the week is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Thursdays.

Still Life with Robin: Read this story on some "inside baseball" news of DC Little League + Tip of the day: Create a Throwaway Email Address

by Peggy Robin

I want to pass along a highly readable though kind of tabloid-y article on the on-and-off-the-field conflict among some of the adults involved in Little League play in DC.

The article is in a blog called The Defector, which describes itself in these words: "Defector is an employee-owned sports and culture website. We write about sports, politics, TV, movies, science, weird shit that happens on the internet, and anything else that catches our attention," 

Someone sent me a link to read the article because of its juicy bits about the DC Little League dust-ups, and not having a dog in this fight --that is, a player age 12 or under in the house-- I found it amusing (otherwise, I would have found it maddening). It's basically a gossipy/snarky account of the over-the-top actions of some of DC's more litigious and entitled parents. If this is your kind of thing, here's the link: https://defector.com/a-very-ugly-year-in-the-life-of-a-d-c-little-league

Here's how the article starts:

A Very Ugly Year In The Life Of A D.C. Little League

By Dave McKenna

9:02 AM EDT on October 4, 2024

On July 8, an all-star team from the Northwest Washington Little League (NWLL) faced off against Mamie Johnson Little League to open the D.C. city championship tournament, the first round in the global annual tournament for ballplayers 12 years old and under that ends with the Little League World Series. The game came to a halt in the middle of the sixth and final inning, when the NWLL first baseman picked up the game ball on his way to his position, prompting the home plate umpire to loudly declare that the first baseman now had to pitch. With NWLL up 6-0 and three outs away from advancing, manager Mike Klisch walked onto the field and spent several minutes conferring with the umpire. The first baseman had already pitched the first four innings before being relieved, so he was likely ineligible to return to the mound. It took a phone call from the ump to Little League headquarters to untangle the rules. 

“Is there a 24-hour line to answer questions about rules?” an NWLL mother in the crowd asked as the game resumed.

“Yeah,” responded an NWLL dad, “for rules … and lawsuits.” 

"A communal groan came from the NWLL side of the grandstand. It was a reaction brought on by the events of the previous year, the worst in NWLL history. As is usually the case in Little League debacles, the season from hell had nothing to do with the kids or anything that happened on the field. The grownups and a seemingly bottomless supply of spite—allegations of cheating and fraud, cries of racism and classism, secret recordings, plus so many lawyers making threats of lawsuits followed by actual lawsuits—are to blame....."

It's a long article, so all you get is that teaser of the first four paragraphs. While it's not behind a paywall, to read the rest, you do need to create a log-in. You must register your email address with The Defector and create a password. 

Don't want to give them your email address? I can well understand that. I don't like to do that, either. So I have a number of throwaway email addresses to use when I find myself wanting to see something or subscribe temporarily to a blog or learn more about a product without being spammed to death by whatever site has piqued my curiosity. (OK, technically, if you sign up to view an article or a product, and they start emailing you, it's not spam exactly, because you've contacted them first and theoretically, at least, agreed to let them email you. So the stuff that they send you is called "BACN" (pronounced "bacon"), not SPAM.

And sure, you can un-subscribe, but it usually takes a little time and effort on your part to do so. It's never as easy to get them to stop as it is to get them to start. And plenty of times unsubscribing doesn't work.

So here's what I recommend: Create an email address at any free email service (I prefer Gmail) and give it a name that lets you remember what it's for -- like bacnmailoct2024. Then you can check that inbox on the web as much or as little as you like-- or not at all.

If you don't want to bother checking a separate inbox, you can set it up to forward to your main email address, and then set up a filtering rule so that it's collected in a separate folder. That way, you can skim that folder's subject lines from time to time, and delete them all at once when you're done.

It's very handy, helps you manage email overload, and if that throwaway address starts getting filled up with junk, just delete the whole thing -- it's no big deal. You can always start another one, whenever you need it.

It's perfect for subscribing to blogs you're not sure you'll want to keep reading -- like The Defector.

I haven't yet decided whether I want to keep my access to The Defector but it's nice to know there's no pressing reason for me to think about it now.

Is this a lot more than you'd like to do to read this one article? In that case, I've posted some of the "Whoa, Nellie" bits for you below:

"The NWLL’s uncivil war ... made the league a national laughingstock and [made it] look like another safe haven for adults who can’t help but ruin youth sports. The mood around Turtle Park, the home field of NWLL located in D.C’s tony AU Park neighborhood, has been dark ever since."

The reporter of the article, Dave McKenna, finds himself personally involved in the story he's covering:

"After reaching out to Sweeney and Klisch [LL parents who are also the attorneys behind the lawsuits] one last time on Sept. 16, I received an email from Megan L. Meier, a D.C. attorney. Meier said she was representing Klisch and Sweeney in a defamation lawsuit they filed on Sept. 4 against other NWLL parents, and that she intended to subpoena me in that suit. The letter, in which Meier pointed out that she’d successfully sued Fox News on behalf of Dominion Voting Systems (and got a $787.5 million settlement), also threatened litigation against me and Defector."

"About a week before Klisch was to be officially named all-star manager, another league parent informed Coniglio that he wanted to apply for that job. According to emails obtained by Defector, Klisch had reported that same parent to the board last year for what Klisch described at the time as that parent’s “racial coding” while heckling a black 9-year-old NWLL player during a game."

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The Defector is available at https://defector.com/

https://defector.com/a-very-ugly-year-in-the-life-of-a-d-c-little-league

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.

Get Out! Pick Out Your Pumpkins at the Halloween Pumpkin Patch This Sat at Rosedale / Links to DPR Halloween Events

by Peggy Robin

The Fall Pumpkin Patch is this Saturday, October 19th, 11am - 3pm

Come to Rosedale and spend the day celebrating Fall - pick out your perfect pumpkin (or bring your own) at John Eaton Elementary’s pumpkin patch school fundraiser. Join us in transforming the pumpkins into spooktacular Halloween decorations. 

Rosedale will provide carving utensils, stencils, and disposal of pumpkin waste. 

• Rosedale will provide apple cider, water, and light snacks.
  
• We will also have a face painter and glitter tattoo artist on-site.
  
• Please leave furry friends at home.
  
• Rain date is Sunday, Oct. 20th, same time.
  

The Rosedale Conservancy

Newark & 36th St NW

Washington, DC 20008

 info@rosedaleconservancy.org [info @ rosedaleconservancy dot org]

https://www.rosedaleconservancy.org/

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At this time of year, everywhere you look there's a Halloween party! The full list of parties at DC Rec Centers is here: https://dprhalloween.splashthat.com/

No such thing as too many Halloween parties -- that's the Listserv's motto of the month!

We want more, more, we're still not satisfied!!! 😈 So send us the news of any and all Halloween parties taking place between now and October 31 (must be free and open to all). Happy to help you round up more little goblins and ghoulies.

List members, post your announcements directly to clevelandpark@groups.io. Non-list-members, send them to me at clevelandpark+owner@groups.io and if I get a bunch of them, I'll post a compilation.

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The Get Out! event of the week is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Thursdays.

Still Life with Robin: Best Show in Town!

by Peggy Robin

Today's print edition of the Washington Post had the best quote from a DC resident who saw nature's awesome light show in the skies over our area on Thursday night: 

Laurel Whitman said, "“Bucket list item, checked! This is so wonderful. I went to Iceland twice to try and see them, and should’ve looked in my own backyard”

Laurel echoes just what I've heard from everyone I know who's ever booked a budget-busting trip to Norway, or Yellowknife or some lonely outpost at the arctic circle in Alaska. Clouds and more clouds, all night long. 

But last Thursday night, you just had to heed the command of Lindsay @TheLindsayM on the SiFKATwit (that's my acronym for the "Site Formerly Known As Twitter)":

"DC GO OUTSIDE NOW"

https://x.com/TheLindsayM/status/1844519425099132970

Here's the auroral glow over the National Cathedral right here in the neighborhood!

Photo by Andrew Leyden @PenguinSix - 10:30pm ⁦

https://x.com/PenguinSix/status/1844571141299417217

https://x.com/PenguinSix/status/1844563409599103425/photo/1

You'd see even brighter colors if you were able to get away from the city's lights - like Dave Lyons, 

@insiteimage, who posted the photo below:

Last night's Aurora Borealis / Northern Lights at Shenandoah. 10:02pm. So many dancing light pillars

https://x.com/insiteimage/status/1844764050405609650 

One of my favorite Capital Weather Gang photographers is Kevin Ambrose (best known for his photos of our favorite cherry tree, Stumpy), who had the good fortune to be in West Virginia, where he took these four shots:

My favorite of all the pics is by Heather Goss @heathermg

https://x.com/heathermg/status/1844531243238519004/photo/1

Aurora in DC!  8:11 PM · Oct 10, 2024

I wish I had the bandwidth to post a few dozen more pix of of the aurora in our region -- but fortunately, the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post has compiled an album of 36 photos & videos:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/10/11/dc-maryland-virginia-northern-lights-aurora/

If you missed it in real life, you may get more chances. Scientists predict that there will be more such episodes coming in 2024 and continuing through 2025 due to frequently and intense geomagnetic solar storms -- see https://escales.ponant.com/us/2024-and-2025-exceptional-years-for-the-northern-lights/

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Still Life with Robin is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.

Get Out! And Talk DC Transportation with the head of WMATA, Randy Clarke

 by Peggy Robin

This one's not your usual "Get Out!" event. Not a fun fair, a concert, an art exhibition, or a garden show. At this event you will get to talk to one of the region's most powerful people -- and maybe offer up an idea that could make a real change in the way you get to work!

It's the Metro Brew: Meet and Greet with Randy Clarke, WMATA’s GM

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 from 5 - 7:30pm

At metrobar

640 Rhode Island Avenue NE Washington, DC 20002

Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/p41HaKnBCGRoF4Lg8

WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke will be hosting a meet and greet at metrobar where he’ll answer some questions and get some feedback.

You must register to attend -- limited space available! 

FREE! (but your drinks are on you....)

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The "Get Out" event of the week is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Thursdays.

Still Life with Robin: Commander Salamander

 by Peggy Robin

Just to let you know that our esteemed DC Council cares about our City --from the grand halls of power to the slippery undersides of rocks in Rock Creek -- I am here to tell you of an action recently taken that fits squarely on the latter side of the political spectrum.

DC Council has passed a bill called the Red-Backed Salamander Official State Amphibian Designation Act (Bill-25-811), which designates the Red-Backed Salamander the Official State Amphibian of the District of Columbia. The students at Powell Elementary school – who studied the Red-backed Salamander in class – were the proponents of this legislation. 

Here's how our Council Member Matt Frumin put it in his most recent constituent e-newsletter (October 3, 2024):

"Thanks to students at Powell Elementary School, the Council moved legislation to designate the Red-Backed Salamander as the official state amphibian of the District of Columbia. As one Powell student testified, if we are going to be a state, we are going to need a state amphibian. I was pleased to join my colleagues in voting for the legislation. The deciding factor for me, and several other Councilmembers, was that the salamanders help to control our mosquito population by eating mosquito larvae."

(Somehow, I suspect if the kids had selected a salamander that has no particular utility in the war against mosquitoes, CM Frumin still would have supported their choice. But it does help to have a practical rationale.)

Take a look at our little amphibian friend, up close and in action [you can skip the commercial]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMLJkqWtjeY

DC now enjoys a nearly full panoply of state symbols: DC's state symbols:

Amphibian: Red-Backed Salamander

Bird: Wood Thrush

Crustacean: Hay's Spring Amphipod

Dinosaur: Capitalsaurus 

Fish: American Shad

Flower: American Beauty Rose

Fruit: Cherry 

Mammal: Little Brown Bat

Rock: Potomac Bluestone

Tree: Scarlet Oak

Nearly full? Do you know what's missing? A State Insect! official insect 

Are you connected with a DC elementary school that needs a good project? Selecting and presenting a State Insect to the Council could be it! If you undertake this momentous task, please get in touch and I'll give your campaign a boost in some future "Still Life with Robin" column!

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Still Life with Robin is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.

Get Out! It's the Takoma Park Street Festival on Sunday from 10am-5pm

 by Peggy Robin

The popular Takoma Park Street Festival returns for its 43rd year of music, vendors, food and fun in Takoma Park. This year’s festival takes place on Sunday, October 6, 2024 from 10:00 am-5:00 pm on Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park, MD to Carroll Street, NW in Takoma, DC. Festival goers will enjoy the day exploring over 185 vendor booths, live music from 18 local bands, food trucks and more. Takoma’s unique shops, restaurants and cafes are all open and welcoming visitors. Event is rain or shine.

Date & Time

Sunday, October 6, 2024

10:00am - 5:00pm

Rain or Shine

Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hv5nXcdxybncXYpt6 

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The "Get Out" event of the week is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local, usually on Thursdays, but occasionally, a day late.

Still Life with Robin: A Farewell to Tupperware

by Peggy Robin

Here's the headline: Tupperware, Food Container Pioneer, Files for Bankruptcy (NYT September 18 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/business/tupperware-bankruptcy.html

Reading that, I felt like the Wallace Shawn character in The Princess Bride: "Inconceivable!"

A world without Tupperware? What next? A world without Brillo? Saran Wrap?? Kleenex???!!

After getting over the initial shock, I realized, of course, food storage containers will always be with us. It's just that I call ALL food storage containers TUPPERWARE, including Rubbermaid, ZipLoc, Gladware, SnapWare, IKEA brand containers, and even those round, shiny black Chinese takeout containers with the snap-tight lids that have replaced those once-ubiquitous, iconic fold-up paper containers*. 

To me, any plastic container with a strong lid is Tupperware, and the downfall of the company is not going to change that -- at least not for me. 

While I'm at it, I will cop a plea to calling CVS "People's Drugstore" on occasion, and always referring to DCA as National Airport, even going so far as to correct others who call it "Reagan" by muttering, "It's still National to the people who live here" -- and calling all copiers "Xerox machines" (not that anyone still uses that antiquated office machine from the previous century).

Let me absolve myself of the charge of being a total stick-in-the-mud about names. I'm happy to discard ones with dishonorable associations -- so good riddance to all the Confederacy-loving tributes to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. And "Jackson-Reed" High School rolls off my tongue with pleasure. 

I've long been a big advocate for dumping insulting names such as "Redsk**ns".

But the demise of Tupperware is a case of the exact opposite in action: By hanging on to "Tupperware" for all plastic storage containers, we continue to honor the legacy of Earl Silas Tupper, who turned an industrial waste product into these endlessly useful and resealable containers. So here's to Tupper, a name that will live forever in my refrigerator as long as I have leftovers to store!

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* You know, the white ones with a red pagoda on the sides and thin wire handles that always leaked the sauce all over the inside of the brown paper bag that carried the whole order. Ever forget to remove the wire handle before putting the container in the microwave? That's a mistake you will never make twice!

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.

Get Out! It's ART ALL NIGHT Sept 27 & 28...or more precisely, ART TWO EVENINGS

 by Peggy Robin

I've already complained on the Listserv that events from 5-10pm are hardly ALL NIGHT (see "Art Part Night," posted Saturday, September 14) - but that was really just a semantic quibble; it does not dampen my enthusiasm for the event itself -- and I hope it won't dampen yours.

The only thing that could dampen the event (literally) is the expected rainfall - the far-flung outer bands of Hurricane Helene. 

But rain or shine, Art All Night is ON! There will be tents or indoor venues and maybe some rescheduling. Check each venue's website for schedule changes. 

Cleveland Park ART ALL NIGHT is Sept 27, 5-10 PM. More details at:

https://districtbridges.org/events/cleveland-park-curiosities-art-all-night-2024/

Tenleytown Art ALL Night is Sept 28, 4-9 PM. More details at:

https://tenleytownmainstreet.org/event/art-all-night-2024-1719093628

For all the ART ALL NIGHTS happenings all over town, both on Friday and on Saturday, go to:

https://www.dcartallnight.org/neighborhoods and click on the neighborhood of interest.

And do a reverse rain-dance to wish for clear skies!

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The Get Out! event of the week is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Thursdays.

Still Life with Robin: The Domino-ator, Part 2 (As Promised)

 by Peggy Robin

My Still Life with Robin column on July 20 was about the hands-down, greatest-ever exhibition at the National Building Museum: the work of the domino artist Lily Hevesh -- and if you missed it, you can get a good idea of her kinetic art in this article+video from Smithsonian Magazine:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/100000-dominoes-topple-at-the-national-building-museum-in-dc-180984764/ 

What is NOT in the Smithsonian link is the grand finale of the Lily Hevesh show, and this is the toppling of the world's tallest tower of dominoes (33 feet!). At the end of my July 30 column, I said I would post a video of the Great Tower Tumble as soon as I found it online. And then I promptly forgot about it....until a few days ago (Sept 18), when the video below showed up on the Site Formerly Known As Twitter (SiFoKat, pronounced "suffocate").

So I 've kept my promise by presenting it today. (NOTE: The image below is static. To see the 1-minute video, click go to this link: https://x.com/Hevesh5/status/1836404820183519545)

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.