The Daily Trash: The Story Told By Rubbish

I wrote a while ago about my new hobby of picking up trash when I walk the dog in the morning. While not as glamorous as collecting cars or as interesting as beekeeping, it does have its moments. And it keeps the couple blocks around where I live looking pretty clean, which is nice.

But while some people read tea-leaves or speak to mediums to understand their world and predict the future, I look to my trash. It is a bellweather of the world around me, a sign of the times. Through trash, some mysteries of the universe can be revealed, if only slightly, while at the same time, the trash puts forth new questions daily. Such as, how did that 5 foot long section of someone's bathroom wall end up on the corner of 10th and Spring?

This week, occurring in greater frequency are rubber gloves. I have picked up at least three of them since Monday. This can only mean one thing: swine flu paranoia. I have not yet found a respirator on the ground. You know, those things people wear while sanding drywall which probably have absolutely no benefit versus airborne contagions. But I expect I will see them soon as H1N1 fear grips the nation.

Several days ago, the normal tranquility of Columbia Heights was disturbed by paramedics on my street. By normal tranquility, I mean police helicopters, gunshots, and drunken yelling. This is not the first time I've seen such things, but as we watched a stretcher emerge from our neighors' home, we wondered if things were not more serious this time.

The funeral procession observed yesterday afternoon by N. confirmed this. This morning's trash was a solemn reminder of the passing of a man whom I knew mostly by the clinking of his spoon against his cereal bowl as he ate his morning breakfast on the front porch. That sound from a few doors away, which had become a familiar part of my morning ritual last summer as I enjoyed a cup of coffee on my own porch, has been silenced. Rest in peace.

The final piece of trash will close this post on a lighter note. Outside "The Asylum," a DC outpatient mental health clinic near my home, I found this blister pack on the ground. Excited by the discovery of what I thought might be actual drugs, I peered purposefully at the pill pack. What would it be? Antibiotics? Antidepressants? A mystery drug which I would have to eat, identity unknown, like Alice and her mushrooms, in order to determine its true purpose? Would I take the blue bill??

No - it was ExtenZe. You know, the natural supplement for male enhancement you see relentlessly adertised by that smiling nerdy guy who gets wayyy more play than his much-better-looking buddies. Who says size doesn't matter... big is back!

Geeky sidenote: Am I the only person who has noticed the similarity between the "ExtenZe" logo and the logo for "ExistenZe," the creepy David Cronenburg flick from 1999 which is almost identically named? I made this connection the first time I saw one of those ExtenZe advertisements on cable TV but never dug further into this important matter.

It appears that I am not alone. A blogger answers the question we have all been wondering: eXistenZ vs. ExtenZe: Which is Better? Click through for the shocking conclusion.

What's Good In The Hood?

A few happenings in the NoCo/SoPet area lately, mostly good.

The best: Thai Tanic II, in The Allegro building at 14th and Meridian. While one must question the wisdom of naming your business after the ship that infamously sank on its first voyage, I have to say, this is some of the best Thai I've had in DC.

I've never eaten at Thai Tanic I, the original vessel of spicy deliciousness, and honestly, I can't believe what I've been missing. Every since the demise of Thai Town in Woodley Park many years ago, it's been next to impossible to find any Thai in DC that didn't cater to the bland. But TT II does not hold back on the heat.

Praise the stars. I'm not saying this will be like really authentic Thai on the west coast or anything, but it's damn good and the flame is on. Beyond the fact that they aren't afraid to put a little hot pepper in there, the menu is a lot more interesting than the typical Thai place, with lots of inventive dishes I've never seen before. I've beeen twice so far and had the Bird Nest on Fire (stir-fried chicken with chili & garlic paste, topped with red pepper & surrounded by crispy kale) and the Nua Ka Ting (beef slices marinated with wine, stir fried in Thai garlic chili sauce, topped with deep fried basil leaves). Actually, I just ate leftovers of the latter for lunch. Delicious.

Park Place at Petworth Metro is finally showing signs of being finished, meaning that walking and/or driving around the Petworth/Georgia Avenue Metro is no longer a giant pain in the butt as the sidewalk obstructions have finally been removed. It looks fantastic and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first-floor retail that's planned there, to include a new restaurant from check Gillian Clark of the now-defunct Colorado Kitchen.

The New Plaza at 14th and Park - this thing is just so cool. Every time I've walked by it, there have been at least a half-dozen people hanging out on the grass or the seat-border, playing in the fountian, or just taking a breather. It's a really cool little space and I think the design came out wonderfully. Nice work.

Went to Social just up the street from Thai Tanic a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, they were hosting some kind of event that evening and we couldn't even get to the bar to get a drink - it was packed. I hope this is a good sign for the place, because a lot of what I've been reading elsewhere is a little hit or miss. But I blame the mediocre reviews more on the classlessness of the reviewers, than on Social.

Without having tried their food or beverage yet, I hope they succeed. The space is definitely interesting and takes a different direction than most places in Columbia Heights, which tend toward the casual. Social is certainly not stuffy, but it's pricey and you just get a vibe that says "Smith Point" a lot more than "Wonderland." But quite honestly, while I'm not a huge fan of Georgetown-style pretension, there is absolutely nothing bad about having businesses that attract a higher paycheck of customer than the ones I generally frequent around here.

Because that can have only one consequence: In 20 years I will sell my house for three million dollars, and be able live out the rest of my days in Bali with a staff of three to prepare my pureed peas and change my diapers.

So keep 'em coming, and dammit, spend lots of money at Social.

New 4-Way Stop at 13th & Taylor Streets NW. I bet you didn't know about that one, did you? Well you have to get up pretty early in the morning to sneak one past this guy.

This intersection used to be controlled only by a stop-sign on Taylor Street. 13th
Street traffic did not stop. As I live nearby, I must drive through this intersection frequently. It is interesting that this happened, because I had become convinced that there was a home for people who are smart enough to get a driver's license, but too stupid to drive, somwehre nearby. More than any other place in DC, people attempting to cross 13th Street from Taylor never seemed to be able to comprehend that 13th Street traffic did not stop. I have had to slam on my brakes many times because of this. Apparently the idea of a two-way stop is mind-boggling to some DC drivers.

Anyway, my theory is that with all the new development in Columbia Heights, the resulting influx of population finally put enough pressure here that someone noticed and decided a 4-way stop was in order. I think it's a good idea. Taylor Street is the principal route into Rock Creek Park and points west from hereabouts, and there are so many other stop signs on 13th Street already down here, what's one more. It makes it easier to turn left onto Taylor into the park (especially in the morning during rush hour, with heavy southbound traffic), and it eliminates the possibility of some moron thinking you're going to stop even though you don't have a stop sign.

For the record I am not in favor of traffic signs that are installed to deal with the fact that some people are morons. In this situation, though, it was warranted. All hail the new stop sign. Cyclists: no worries, like every other traffic control device, it won't affect you in any way.

Would The Law-Abiding Cyclist Please Come Forward?

I have, against my better judgment, engaged in debates with members of DC's cycling community on local blogs. From time to time. These discussions are usually sparked by an accident between a cyclist and a car, and generally without any solid details on the actual circumstances surrounding said accident, a bunch of people will immediately rail against the driver. They will call for inquisitions, hangings, and protests. The assumption is, without exception, that the motorist is at fault.

The problem is, cyclists break laws all the time. But in the course of these discussions, these avid defenders of the impossibility of a cyclist being at fault in an accident refuse to admit this. Rather, they claim that the cyclist-scofflaws are the "exception," the bad eggs that give the vast majority if the cycling community a bad name.

Anyone who leaves their house more than once a year knows this is, simply, a crock. The reality is quite the opposite: cyclists who actually stop at stop signs and red lights are the exception.

Today, I spent about 15 minutes at the corner of 14th and Park in Columbia Heights taking videos of cyclists.

Not a single cyclist waited for the light to change before proceeding.

NOT. ONE. CYCLIST.

The reason I chose this intersection is because it's unquestionably not safe. There is construction going on. It's a complex intersection where Kenyon, Park, and 14th all converge in a mayhem of traffic lights. There is tons of pedestrian traffic. I also included one shot I took last week in Adams Morgan, where I was initially inspired to conduct this little video collage by the shocking frequency of light-runners I saw.

Spend two minutes watching the video as every single cyclist blows through the light, despite the presence of construction equipment, cars coming from all angles, pedestrian traffic, and cops directing traffic. I apologize for the awful quality. Cell phone video technology leaves a lot to be desired. But even so you can clearly see all the cyclists ignoring the light while pedestrians wait on the corner.

In a couple of the shots, you will see traffic coming northbound (on my side of the street) while a cyclist goes south. They are still running the light - those cars are coming from Park Road. You can't easily tell in the crappy video but the light is always red when you see a cyclist crossing Park.

Also note pedestrians rarely cross against the light while every cyclist does, and further that there's actually a traffic cop standing on the opposite corner of 14th and Park throughout the whole time.

So, cyclists, would you care to explain how these people are merely the rare exceptions to an otherwise law-abiding group of citizens? Would you like to explain why even the pedestrians generally saw fit to wait for the lights to change at an intersection that is clearly unsafe, but not one cyclist did?

Sorry suckers. Credibility: gone.

Fix For Bosch Range Door Closing Problem

This is going to be one of those posts that most of you should skip, now, unless you happen to have a Bosch range on which the oven door doesn't close properly.

I have a Bosch HDI7282U 30" slide-in range which I bought new about two years ago. A few months ago the oven door stopped closing all the way, preventing a good seal. This caused a lot of problems, not the least of which is half the heat goes into the kitchen instead of staying in the range. Uneven cooking and verrrry long preheats was a consequence. While the range is probably still under warranty, my online research into this problem told me that I was far from alone. At least it's a common enough problem that others had discussed it in a few online forums. Unfortunately there was no good resolution that I could find, and those who had dealt with Bosch's service (even under warranty) did not get satisfaction. Can't say I'm excited to hear about that since I own three Bosch appliances. But I finally got around to trying to figure this out myself, and came up with a good solution that is simple and takes about 15 minutes.

Remove The Range Door

Start by taking off the range door. To do this, open the door all the way and flip the hinge-locks toward the door all the way. The two pictures below show the hinge in the normal position (left), and the locked position (right) needed to remove the door. Complete instructions are on Page 48 of the manual. You can also download the whole manual here -- I assure you it is a riveting read.

Once the hinge is in the locked position, you can basically just lift the door up an pull it out. The hinges have a little slot on the bottom and are cantilevered against a pin on the top. So you raise it up about 1/4" to clear the slot, and pull it straight out.






Below is a picture of my oven door with the hinge in the locked postion.



You must tilt the door to a 45 degree angle with the hinge locked before removing it. Do not try to close the door all the way with the hinge locked. From this position, just raise the door vertically about 1/4", then pull it horizontally awayfrom the oven.




Remove the door hinges

To do this you need two torx wrenches, a T10 and a T20. There are four screws holding the inside of the door to the outside, and three screws holding each hinge onto the door interior, for a total of 10 screws. Their approximate positions are circled in the photo of my door below. Yeah, it's pretty gross, and that's AFTER I cleaned it. Remove all the screws. When you take off the two at the top, be aware that the handle will no longer be attached to the door.




After all the screws are out, lift the door interior away from the exterior. The hinges are just loose now, they look like this:



You're not going to do much now except put everything back together, with one minor adjustment. I'm not quite sure exactly what's causing the change in dynamics here resulting in the door not closing - either the hinge isn't quite right any more, or the pin inside the range itself that the hinge cantilevers against moved slightly. I saw no evidence of anything bent on the hinge itself so I am guessing it's the pin. Accessing this looks like a big hassle, even if it could be adjusted, so I went for a different solution.

To correct the problem, all you need to do is change the dynamics of the door so when the hinge is in it's "closed" position, the door once again is shut all the way. The simplest way to do this is to add some space between the back of the hinge and the door at the top of the hinge. In th picture above, you may be able to make out a couple little washers on the counter behind the hinge. Re-attach the hinge to the door interior, but put a couple washers between the large screw and the hinge itself. I used two washers on each side like the ones above, adding a little less than 1/8" of space. This results in a significantly bigger difference at the top of the door, and was just right to cause my door to close snugly.

Put It Back Together

After you've re-attached the hinges with your spacer, completely attach it using the two small screws for each. Put the door interior back over the door exterior, being sure to line everything up correctly. There are three tabs on the bottom that should go inside the interior, and make sure the handle is correctly positioned before tightening the two screws at the top.

After it's completely reassembled, simply put it back on the range, open it all the way, and return the hinge locks to the open postion. You're done.

Have Fun At Work Next Week, Suckers

I'm taking the week off for reflection and personal improvement.

Ah, who am I kidding, I just feel like it!! Bwahaha. And I need to get a lot of home projects done.

I have been meaning to post some links to a few of my favorite things on the internets. Some of these belong to people I know and some do not, but go check all of them out.

Shit my dad says: Really, this is the only thing that makes twitter worthwhile. Possibly the funniest thing on the internet.


Disaffected scanner jockey - my friend Shannon's blog just reached it's seventh year and 500th post this week. Awesome. I mean really, I don't even think I'd heard of a blog until about 3 years ago. But this woman who still thinks cassette tapes are "pretty neat," and has a hotmail account, has been doing it for 7! Despite her pepetual luddism, her eye never fails to find humor and charm in the mundane. Or sometimes in the truly awful. You will never look at life quite the same way.

Bike Snob NYC: One of the few non-local blogs I read. I like to carp about cyclists from time to time, and that is the raison d'etre for this blog. This guy is a brilliant writer, and the blog is immensely popular among bike enthusiasts, as well as haters. The author is both, but he scathingly cuts to the core of the hypocrisy, idiocy, and importance of all manner of issues related to urban cycling. Absolutely relevant if you are a cyclist (or a biker-hater) and hilarious no matter what.

Sorry I Missed Your Party (occasionally NSFW): Pictures from other people's flickr. The name says it all, this is just too funny.

why.i.hate.dc - This is a popular, venerable blog that started years ago as a snarky DC hate-fest, typically at the hands of some suburban transplant. It was sometimes funny, and mostly harmless. But it's something different now. While at this moment in time this blog is still finding it's new identity, one thing is clear: the current holder of the reins, Dave Stroup, is the first person to write under this placard who is actually lives, thinks, and cares about DC. It's not the same blog any more and some readers resent that, but the quality of writing and reporting are among the best of any local politics/watchdog blog in the city.

Its new incarnation is some part news roundup, some part investigative reporting, some part humor. I think it's working. Dave seems committed to the cause and he is obviously putting a lot of effort into his work. Whatever happens with why.i.hate.dc, it is really refreshing to see a new voice in the local politics. There are so few people who are willing to hold our local officials' feet to the fire, and do the legwork needed to clear away the smoke that seems to surround just about everything going on in DC. Dave's doing that. So far he's probably below most people's radar, but I bet that will change soon.


And speaking of local politics, in this age of blogs, people seem to forget about mailing lists. They still exist, and themail@dcwatch is still the only place you will hear from the hardcore, old-school DC government watchdogs. This list, which has been around since 1995, is where the rubber meets the road. The editor Gary Imhoff and a handful of other names that you'll recognize from newspaper editorials (and probably city council meeting witness lists) frequently post in this twice-weekly public list. Whenever the Post publishes some Fenty love-fest, themail is there to pull back the curtain and let you know what REALLY went on. This is essential if you care about local politics.

The Rest?

Well, this isn't meant to be a comprehensive list, or even a top-five list of my favorite things. And it's certainly not in any kind of order. It's just stuff that came to my mind.

I don't want to repeat everything in my blogroll on the right. Those are some personal, some local, some random, all worth reading. Shannon, you got special attention because it's official "feed Shannon's ego week." Everyone else who I know and didn't mention, um, better luck next time.

That's all. Have a great weekend. I'll be back in 10 days.

Things I've Seen Lately

A cell-phone photo journal of slightly strange things afoot in Columbia Heights and thereabouts in the last couple weeks.

Hashers in Crystal City. Yeah, it's raining too.



For these guys, it's ALWAYS halloween. Or maybe they went to Wesleyan.



Seriously, what's up with the creepy paint jobs?



Cyclist running red light on 16th Street. Okay, not that weird. At least he's in the sidewalk.



Cyclist not running a red light. Now THAT'S weird.



People hangin' at the new Plaza in Columbia Heights. Cool.

Note to World: You Have A Brain. Use It.

On The Causes Of DC's Drop In Crime, And Traffic Fatalities

You know what really grinds my gears? Cause and effect. Or, more specifically, when someone says "because thing X was done, and thing Y happened afterwards, thing X must have caused thing Y."

The problem is, this doesn't take into account things A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and sometimes thing I, which also had something to do with thing Y.

It's especially irritating when the people who do this are suppposedly smart and experienced. And most importantly, it's their f?!king job to understand this.

I wish that every single person could escape from the educational institutions of this country with a healthy dose of skepticism for this kind of shysterism. It's not like it's uncommon. Whenever something good happens in your city, the politicians are quick to claim credit for it. Never mind the fact that your tiny local intiative is insignificant compared to things like, oh, say, the economy. But that's just common-or-garden politicking. It's annoying but it will never go away.

But when you see actual reporters and educators parroting the same crap, it's downright distrubing. It's their job to point out blatant manipulation (or in many cases, complete ignorance) of statistics, to think about what they are about to eat before swallowing it whole. It makes me wonder if anyone out there still has a brain, or at the very least is still interested in facts rather than fantasy.

A Tale Of Two Tall Tales

This came up not once but twice today in two separate pieces I read. The first has to do with crime in DC. It's gone down this year. That is a fact. Naturally, our earnest police chief Cathy Lanier has loudly trumpeted this fact, because obviously, it's proof that her questionable policies have been effective. Never mind the fact that crime's down nationwide. Did your policies somehow work in Chicago too, through osmosis, I presume?

Actually, nobody really knows why crime's gone down. The New York Times wrote in August about this curious national phenomenon.

So I was especially surprised to read in The Washington City Paper blog today this love-fest for MPD Chief Cathy Lanier entitled, without a hint of irony, "Chief Lanier Deserves Credit For Drop In Homicides."

While we have come to expect the Washington Post to mindlessly repeat the party line from Fenty's office, The City Paper, while not always on point, as a general rule has avoided simply swallowing the propoganda hook, line and sinker. But apparently, the new management there has instructed their reporters that the public would rather hear warm, fuzzy things than be told the truth. Either that or the lead in our water supply has lowered the IQs of their reporters by 20 or 30 points over the last couple years. Because this article might as well have been written by the DC Government's public relations office.

The fact is, there has been a great deal of research done by thinking people over the last couple decades about reasons for crime trends. They are complex, and generally, big changes in crime have been attributed to social factors much more often than local policing efforts. But all this means nothing, I suppose, when Chief Lanier is on the podium trumpeting her success.

I am not going to say what she's done has not had an effect. While I am highly skeptical (for reasons in my previous post about MPD, linked above), I just don't know. Because I don't know how crime in DC has compared to crime in other cities.

Why don't I know that? Because:

• Nobody has bothered to actually compare those two things
  
• DC doesn't think it's worth using the same standards as the FBI for categorizing crimes, sometimes resulting in "apples and oranges" data compared to other cities
  
• I have very little confidence that crimes other than homicides are reported accurately, since there are many, many documented cases of police discouraging crime victims to file a report
  

The latter two things are not in anyone's direct control, really. But at the very least if you are going to not just write about the crime rate in DC, but give credit to Lanier for the reduction, shouldn't you bother even mentioning that crime's down everywhere?

(Drinking And) Driving The Point Home

The other incident comes from another City Paper blog item about the Amethyst Initiative. This is a coalition of college and university presidents who want the legal drinking age lowered to 18.

Many people, reasonably, think that this is a bad idea on first blush. But when you look at the issue thoughtfully, it's far from simple. Binge drinking makes the news a lot these days. We all know that nearly everyone drinks before they turn 21, and personally, I think it's absurd that we should recoginize citizens as adults in every other way (such as, being tried for crimes as an adult, and killing people in foreign lands), but not permit them to drink legally. But the members of this coalition also believe that the law does more harm than good and does nothing to improve public safety -- in fact, it may harm it.

In the DC area, there's mixed support for it from our institutions of higher learning. But George Washington University President Steven Knapp, who opposes it, has this to say:

“A lower drinking age would mean more traffic fatalities and, frankly, a rise in the overall consumption of alcohol.”

This is, at best, a completely unsubstantiated statement.

One thing is true: traffic fatalities have gone down nearly every year over roughly the same period of time that the drinking age has been 21 in most states.

What is an absolute failure of logic is to attribute that effect to the drinking age. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spouts this as conclusive evidence that the drinking age saves lives, but unfortunately, whoever put together this "study" at NHTSA must have been drunk during their introductory statistics class.

They don't look at anything other than the big number: traffic deaths. When other people have looked at the data state-by-state, it has been found that in many cases, there was actually little or no change following the reduction in drinking age, and further, even when there was am improvement, it vanished after a couple years.

Beyond that, there's the big white elephant in the room that NHTSA avoids mentioning in their so-called study: The drinking age is not, actually, the only thing that has to do with traffic deaths.

• There have been dramatic improvements in autombile safety.
  
• The national speed limit went from 70 to 55 during the same period of time.
  
• There have been massive national education campaigns during the same period of time. The term "designated driver" didn't exist 30 years ago. Nor did MADD.
  
• Living in urban areas and public transit have experienced dramatic increases in popularity, giving more people alternatives to driving.
  

I could probably think of a half-dozen other possible factors, and I'm far from an expert. Shouldn't someone for whom this issue is pretty important -- the president of a college -- do as much? Apparently not - since he mutely believes what he's been shoveled by the NHTSA. God help me for linking to Forbes, but in this article they say much the same thing, and refer to a study by (gasp) a Harvard University economics professor who also came to the same conclusion: the drinking age don't do crap.

The bottom line is, I expect politicians to make up all kinds of stuff to make themselves look good or defend some position. I don't like it, but I don't like beets either and there's nothing I can do about either one. But reporters and academics can and should do better.

Power Tools

Apropos of power tools, I just read This post over at DC Rowhouse about their acquistion of some new guy toys. I have been in the middle of some crazy home improvement projects, largely predicated on the impending (yet never seeming to be arriving) winter, and the post inspired me to write about my own recent power tool happenings.

When I had the floors redone in Petworth (pictures on Prince of Petworth), I took the radiator out of the smallest bedroom. This picture shows the room just after the floors had been redone, with the radiator out. It used to be on the left, where you can see pipes protruding from the floor. There were two problems. First, this room is small. With the radiator in that corner, you really couldn't fit anything other than a twin bed in there in any practical way. The other problem is, someone had taken a bad thing and made it even worse by moving the radiator around the corner from where the pipes were, and hooking it up with a very frankenstein-like system of copper and steel pipes above the floor. It looks like the radiator had to be replaced at some point, since the current one is not sized to fit where the original holes in the floor were. So rather than getting a correctly sized radiator, or moving the pipes, they had done the most awful kind of MacGyvering to hook up the new one. While perhaps suitable for post apocalyptic emergency heating, it was unacceptable for my palatial Petworth property.

The way we prioritize projects in the home improvement game is on a "need to do" basis. That means, when there's a ton of other crap that needs doing, and/or is more fun than other things, stuff like "having the heat work in June" does not fall high on the list. So, the radiator sat where you see it, attached to nothing, for several months.

Come October, that list gets reorganized a little bit. When the weatherman is predicting lows of 38 degrees and the furnace has been idle for six months, what seemed rather unimportant suddenly becomes urgent. So I spent the majority of my free time in the last week or so getting this bad boy re-installed in a place that made a lot more sense. Actually, it ended up exactly where you see it in the picture, except it's now hooked into the hot-water heating system instead of just hangin' out cruisin' chicks. This was the result of a great deal of ceiling-smashing, pipe cutting, wrench twisting, and cursing, but it went well and everything now works. Yay!

Anyhoo, whenever I do a big project myself, I justify the purchase of an expensive new power tool with all the money I saved by not paying someone. It's a great system, see, I still spend a lot less than if I hadn't done it myself, and I get a great new toy.

This time around it was a DeWalt 18 volt three-speed hammer drill with XRP lithium ion battery technology. It's pretty goddamn awesome, I have to say. I already have a hammer drill (a Bosch, great tool) but this one is cordless and once you've been un-wired it's hard to want to plug in those old-timey corded tools again. They have their place and time, but that place is gathering dust in the basement, and that time is when you can't find the cordless one or your batteries are all dead.

I also had the opportunity to test out DeWalt's warranty service. DeWalt makes pretty good tools. Their power drills are very well respected by professionals. My regular 18v cordless drill, which I've had for at least three years and have treated worse than a red-haired stepchild, is my favorite tool, ever. It is perfectly balanced, relatively lightweight, and has enough torque to sprain your wrist if you aren't careful. Picture: me with my trusty drill in the background. It still works like new.

So I was surprised and disappointed when the right-angle drill I had bought less than six months before went all Ford on me and started making awful grinding noises at the same time as no longer working. And I had barely used it. This was a while ago, and I kind of forgot about it until this weekend when I found myself considering the purchase of another tool. The experience didn't turn me off to DeWalt because I own at least a half-dozen of their products with few if any problems. But I did want to get it fixed, and noticed while I was at home depot that it had a 3 year warranty.

So I got by butt to the nearest service center in Capitol Heights, Maryland on Monday. Not especially convenient, I must say, but my experience there was pleasant. They took the drill without so much as a question (like, "did you, in fact, use this drill to winch your car out of a ditch?") and they didn't even want a receipt. It has been almost a year since I bought it and their warranty is 100% coverage to a year, and then I think only parts or something. So I was surprised they didn't want proof of purchase date. They said it will be ready in a week, the whole drop-off took less than five minutes. Couldn't have been easier. So at this point, I am impressed with their warrantee service as well.

The DeWalt company has not provided me with any compensation for this shill. However, I will accept any and all donations of cash and/or power tools from DeWalt, or any maker of quality power tools, and will gladly provide completely biased reviews in exchange for said items.

A year goes by so quickly...

If you are reading this in google reader, the captions look screwy. Click through.

One year ago today. Presumably, before and after:







Nine months ago:








Six months ago:









Three months ago:








One month ago:

DC Cabs To Stop Picking Up People Who Need Cabs

The informal coalition of cab drivers in DC has once again decided to step up and let the public know that they will no longer tolerate the free market system. Long oppressed by the evil Capitalist notion that providing a valuable product or service at a fair price results in profits, some cabbies will be taking a stand by refusing to pick up people late at night in Adams Morgan.

Curiously, this protest comes on the heels of Councilmember Jim Graham's right-hand man being arrested on charges of accepting bribes in exchange for promoting legislation that would artificially limit the number of cabs in DC. It's not clear who would have benefited from this. Certainly not the people trying to get cabs. If you were a cab driver with a medallion, then it would work in your favor, but then who decides who gets a medallion, and at what cost? Anyway, some cab drivers opposed it.

The sequence of events as I understand it is this:

• Loza accepts a bribe from someone with an interest in limiting the number of cabs.
  
• Loza's boss, Jim Graham, puts forward legislation for a "medallion" system, meaning every cab must bear a "medallion" to operate legally, and there are a limited number of these available.
  
• Some cab drivers speak out against this legislation, presumably the ones who aren't in bed with whoever wanted the legislation
  
• Loza is arrested.
  
• Jim Graham pulls the legislation (even though he claims it had nothing to do with Loza)
  
• For reasons that are not at all obvious, after legislation is pulled, cab drivers organize a protest against said legislation that is no longer on the table that they opposed anyway

Huh?!? From the article:

"The city wants to take the right of ownership from us, and we want to get people's attention and let people know that this is our livelihood," said Ali Tahmaseb, chairman of the Dominion of Cab Drivers.

The protest organizers said that on Saturday and Sunday between 1 and 4 a.m., taxis will not pick up customers north of U Street NW, east of Connecticut Avenue NW, south of Harvard Street NW or west of 16th Street NW.

So the idea behind this protest is to, er, force drunk people to find another way home? Such as... driving? People who more likely than not live in Arlington anyway, and therefore don't vote in DC? Classy. And stupid.

One thing is astoundingly clear to me. There are very few people who live in DC who are even remotely sympathetic to taxicab drivers. First, they seem to spend more time protesting than driving cabs. Who do they think this move will influence to take action in their favor? The people who couldn't get a cab??

You must be joking. Unlike New York City, which would become paralyzed without cabs, in DC, they are a convenience. Most people get around with cars and public transit. The reality is, you can't get a damn cab in this city half the time anyway! And even when you can actually get a cab to stop, tricking you into thinking he might take you home for a larger-than-expected fee, half the time they scurry off, leaving you standing on the curb.

Why is this? Because they frequently decide that "Columbia Heights," "Shaw," "Some Other Place Where Black People Live," or "Some Place Where I Might Not Get A Fare After Dropping You Off" is not one of the places they've ever heard of or are willing to drive to.

As a result of the difficulty in getting a cab even when they aren't on strike, very few people really depend on cabs. So even if a taxicab strike was organized well enough that most people participated, I doubt anyone would even notice or care.

So, the inevitable consequences of this latest "strike" are obvious.

1) Other cab drivers, who actively embrace working for a living, will fill show up to fill the void, and
2) You won't be able to get a cab, which you are already used to anyway, and
3) ...That's it.

This eater of farm fresh meat believes that #1 is almost certainly going to be the result anyway. The reports following most past taxicab strikes have pretty much echoed this sentiment... "there was a strike?" Yes, there are enough cabs who actually believe that earning a living is more important than trying to game the system.

Seriously, cabbies, you need to work on your PR campaign. Because what you're doing is not working.

If there are actually problems with the current cab system, then let's discuss them. But so far it is not at all clear exactly what the cabs want except, perhaps, a handout. Though they fought the meters tooth and nail, everyone else loves them, and the rate structure is one of the most beneficial for city cabs in the entire country. They have the highest drop fee anywhere, and all these other surcharges like rush hour and extra passengers that don't exist elsewhere.

Frankly, though not perfect, I think things are better than they've ever been since the meter switchover. I personally have spent much more on cabs than I ever did before, because, astoundingly, the meter system means you pay for the amount of service you receive. Whereas I used to walk miles through DMZ-like neighborhoods to avoid taking a cab, I happily will try to find one when circumstances warrant now. And I have found the demeanor and quality of service has improved too.

So I guess I'm still not sure what they want, or what their argument is for wanting whatever it is they want. On that note, I will sum all this up by saying please shut up and drive.