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.

Get Out! It's the H Street Festival (Can You Guess Where It Is? Hint: What's the Street that Comes After G St NE?)

 by Peggy Robin

Washington City Paper's Best of DC & Washingtonian Magazine agree: H Street Festival is the best festival in town!

Spanning 12 blocks of H Street NE and featuring multiple staging areas and more than 200 businesses, restaurants, community organizations and vendors. Come down to enjoy great food, drinks, music, contests, kids’ activities and more! H St Fest is one of the largest outdoor festival in the city and it is FREE for everyone to attend. As we always say, best kept secret in town!  

Whether you are blues, jazz, gospel, rock, ska or go go fan, we have it all! H Street Festival has the largest band line up in the city for a one day festival. You can even showcase your talent on the spot on our Karaoke stage!

Not a fan of live music? No problem. We have fashion, culture, dance, theatrical arts, kids activities, eating contest, drag, hair show and all sorts of other happenings all day long. With over 200 exhibitors & over 80 food & beverage vendors, not to mention tons of outdoor adult beverage gardens. there is something for everybody!

Please visit hstreetfestival.org

DATE: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 21st, 2024

TIME: 12PM - 7PM

VENUE: 3RD ST NE TO 15TH ST NE

Admission is FREE

Entertainment lineup/schedule: https://www.hstreetfestival.org/entertainment

IT IS A PET FRIENDLY EVENT.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

RSVP - FREE TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2024-h-street-festival-tickets-987833294977?aff=oddtdtcreator

Preview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bfh2Y08PCLY

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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: Art Part Night

by Peggy Robin 

Let me be clear: I ❤️ Art All Night. Such a fun way to celebrate the work of artists and artisans of DC in neighborhoods all across the city¹. 

This year it's on Friday and Saturday nights, September 27th & 28th. This is the 13th year of this event -- long may it flourish! 

But what's with the inaccurate name? In what universe is a 10 or 11pm closing time considered "all night"? To any night owl worth a hoot, that's when the party's just getting started! I took a quick look at ten of the neighborhoods hosting an Art All Night event and found that four of them folded at 11pm and another four closed even earlier than that, at 10pm. I saw just two, the DowntownDC Art All Night and the near-downtown Shaw event, that came anywhere close to a reasonable person's definition of "all night" with the closing bell ringing at 3am². 

Like so many of my linguistic crusades³ , this one's quixotic at best, and hopeless at worst. Even so, in my imagination I can see people from all over our great city gathering in front of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, linking arms, chanting with one voice: "10 PM IS NOT ALL NIGHT / GO TILL DAWN & MAKE IT RIGHT!" and "We demand Truth in ART-VERTISING!" 

So what do I think would be a more accurate but still snappy title? 

How about....?

Art Till the End of the Day

Art in the Dark

Art Under the Stars

Art Till the Clock Strikes 12 (this would entail moving the closing time of the neighborhood Art All Night events to midnight)

Art DC 6-12 (same for this one) 

But perhaps the simplest solution: just lose the "ALL" for a quick, 2-word title, ART NIGHT 

Any other bright ideas?

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Endnotes:

(1) Cleveland Park's Art All Night is on Friday, Sept 28 from 5 - 10pm.

(2) Here are ten AAN locations that I checked for times: Anacostia 6-11pm; Cleveland Park 5-10pm; Downtown 7pm - 3am (2 nights); Dupont 6-11pm; Georgetown 6-11pm; Glover Park 5- Midnight; Lower Georgia Ave 3-7pm; (yes, really!); Mount Pleasant 5-10pm; Shaw 7pm – 3am; Tenleytown 7-10pm; U Street 6-11pm

(3) Here are 4 of my past grammatical/linguistic crusades: 1. How to pronounce years beginning in 20 https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2011/12/still-life-with-robin-say-it-with-me.html; 2. Down with D-M-V https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2013/03/still-life-with-robin-down-with-d-m-v.html, 3. Stop typing two spacing after a period https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2024/06/still-life-with-robin-when-one-is-much.html and 4. Against the overuse of ellipsis: https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2021/12/still-life-with-robin-my-war-against.html 

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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 Celebrate Petworth Day on Saturday, September 14, 11am - 5pm

 

Celebrate Petworth Day

A Neighborhood Celebration

Saturday, September 14, 2024 from 11am - 5pm

Celebrate Petworth is a free neighborhood festival organized by and for the residents of Petworth—celebrating the creativity, diversity, culture, and people of Petworth and its surrounding neighborhoods.

More infor: https://www.celebratepetworth.com/

Main Stage Music & Performers

Our Main Stage features live music all day.

Kids’ Zone

A full day of programming, just for kids! Music, movement, theater, arts & crafts, and more. View the program.

Dog Show
The annual Dog Show is always a top hit! Register now.

50+ Artisans & Exhibitors
50+ local DC artisans and exhibitors.

Petworth Main Street | 

4618 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20011
info@petworthmainstreet.org

https://www.petworthmainstreet.org/

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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: The "Compostable" K-Cup Conundrum

 by Peggy Robin

Every morning I make one cup of coffee in a single-cup Keurig coffeemaker. I like the perfect consistency of the coffee that comes from a sealed, pre-measured pod, using the same amount of water each time. Never too strong or too watery.

In previous decades, I made coffee with a French press, a Mr. Coffee machine, a single drip pour-over device, and probably a half dozen other types of coffee makers from past brewing eras....but I've settled on K-cups and I'm sticking with them.

There's one and only one downside that I can see: they're environmentally irresponsible. Every time I make a cup of coffee, I'm throwing away a bit of plastic that the earth could -- and should -- do without. 

I do cut off the foil top, throw it away, and scoop all the wet grounds into my compost bucket. But then I toss that plastic K-cup a trash can, and it ends up in a landfill, leaching toxic chemicals into the earth. forever more. And I do feel guilty about that.

So the last time I ordered K-cups, I went for these:

San Francisco Bay Compostable Coffee Pods - Variety Pack Dark Roast (80 Ct) K Cup Compatible including Keurig 2.0, French, Espresso, Fog, Extra Dark Italian

https://www.amazon.com/Francisco-OneCup-Variety-Single-Coffee/dp/B00HS6FQRQ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

You can see that the coffee is encased in a paper mesh filtering bowl. I guessed (correctly) that the top is some sort of coated paper, and when torn off, it is too small to go in the big recycling bin -- so that part  still needs to be thrown away. 

But now we come to the part where I was fooled. The pod has a rigid ring. I just assumed it would be made of bamboo or some kind of stiff but recyclable material like a modified cardboard....but it seems I assumed too much. The problem was my lack of understanding of that bit of verbiage printed on the box that said: "Certified Commercially Compostable".  There's an explanation of what that means -- but I needed to go to the company's FAQ page to find it:

What does “commercially compostable” mean?
Commercially compostable products require a commercial/industrial composting facility for breakdown, whereas home compostable products will appropriately degrade in your home compost pile.

https://sfbaycoffee.com/pages/compostable-faqs#

Unfortunately, I did so only after receiving my purchase. And now I find myself every morning taking on the annoying little task of separating the used grounds in the paper mesh pouch from the plant-based-but-not-residentially-compostable plastic ring, which still has to go in the trash -- as does the coated paper top.

Not only that, but because the coffee is enclosed in a paper pouch, it's not in an air-tight container and so does not have a long storage life before begins to lose flavor. To take advantage of a discount for buying more than one, I bought 3 boxes. Oh, am I sorry now!

And yet I still hold out hope for becoming a more environmentally responsible coffee consumer. The company holds out a tantalizing prospect: residentially-compostable k-cup rings are just around the corner. Here's what they tell you:

Are your pods home compostable?

Our pods our BPI® certified commercially compostable, which means they can be composted at an industrial composting facility. However, we are actively working on our home compostable certification, so stay tuned!

Well, now that I've got myself a 3-pack of 80 pods per pack, I've got almost 8 months to wait until I go looking for K-cups again. Will this company be offering home-compostable K-cups by then? I'll tell you if and when that happens, so stay tuned! (But don't hold your breath!)

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