The Murphy Code

It was a dark, rainy afternoon in Bamberg, Germany, but Fr. G. Ronald Murphy wasn’t about to let inclement weather thwart his quest. The Jesuit priest, a professor in Georgetown University’s German Department and scholar of medieval literature, was not looking for an obscure manuscript or a quiet refuge in which to spend his sabbatical. Rather, he was seeking the single object that has had the power to capture the imaginations of men and women for centuries, a relic which has inspired works of art ranging from the Arthurian legend and The Da Vinci Code to Indiana Jones and Monty Python. He was looking for the Holy Grail.

Prof attempts Malaysian takeover

Malaysia has entered a period of political turmoil and transformation as Anwar Ibrahim, a former Georgetown professor, seeks to take control of the government. Ibrahim, who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Malaysia in the 1990s, announced that he has secured the support of enough members of Parliament to remove the ruling National Coalition from power. If this transfer of support comes to fruition, Ibrahim will become the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

City on a Hill: D.C. and the Series of Tubes

After years of serving District residents with a truly subpar website, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer is nearing completion of an across-the-board overhall of the entire DC.gov portal. And while OCTO’s plans sound promising—the words “social networking” and “Web 2.0” came up a lot in an e-mail from OCTO’s spokesperson Annaya Smith, and her office seems to have gotten wind of a trendy little thing called Facebook—OCTO and the city need to proactively reach out to residents in order to make the new website the “virtual public square” OCTO wants it to be.

Townhouse Transformation

Georgetown University is turning the 1400 block of 36th street into a collection of Living and Learning communities called Magis Row. About 40 students attended an informational meeting about the new community on Tuesday.

Coming (kind of) soon: Bloomingdale’s

A three-story Bloomingdale’s department store will be opening at the Shops at Georgetown Park in August 2011, according to a Macy’s Inc. press release announced last week.

Bloomberg: economy in crisis

In the middle of a week that has seen stocks tumble precipitously, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had the economy on his mind. Speaking to a packed Gaston Hall yesterday, he told the audience that the government is not addressing fundamental issues at the heart of the downturn.

It’s GUSA time again

“Welcome to the world of politics,” Brett Nadrich (SFS `12) said.

Hoping to represent Village C West’s Y-Wing, Nadrich is one of 73 students running for the 36 Georgetown University Student Assembly Senate seats. The candidates began their campaigns on Tuesday with a flurry of flyers, posters, and Facebook groups.

Avedon: power and politics in portraiture

“Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power,” a comprehensive collection of 200 images of iconic figures of the past and present spanning five decades, presents interesting ideas about who qualifies as a political figure, and what constitutes a person in power.

Burn After Reading: very un-Dude

Who didn’t see this one coming? In their twenty-four years of screenwriting and directing, Joel and Ethan Coen have bounced between dark plunges into a killer’s abysmal psyche and zany tales of boneheaded crime schemes gone awry. After last year’s bloodthirsty adaptation, No Country for Old Men, the brothers’ oeuvre seemed ripe for a few giggles, and Burn After Reading presumes to deliver the goods.

D.C.: Drab City

This past Sunday, New York Times photojournalist Bill Cunningham chronicled the close of Fashion Week with a study on the shoes about town. While hanging out on 5th Avenue taking pictures for his weekly “On the Street” feature, Mr. Cunningham ran across studded stilettos and snakeskin stacked heels paired with super-high hemlines. Three hundred miles south, I observed a very different scene in Columbia Heights.