Archive

Lawsuit pending in dispute over rights to Jack’s Boathouse

The dispute over Jack’s Boathouse has entered a new phase as owner Paul Simkin has prepared to file a lawsuit against the National Park Service over its attempt to revoke his right to operate on the property. Simkin’s attorney Charles Camp confirmed that the lawsuit is ready and will likely be filed within the next few days.

By Rhiannon Greene January 31, 2013

Applicants outnumber available spots on Alternative Spring Break trips

From March 2 to March 9, Georgetown students will travel around the country to take part in the week-long Alternative Spring Break program, engaging in community service and social justice issues under the banner of Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice. In recent years the number of applications for the program has more than doubled. Despite an increase in scholarship funding, the CSJ is unable to offer every applicant a spot, as it balances bureaucratic and financial concerns with the challenge of having a positive and lasting impact.

By Lucia He January 31, 2013

WMATA proposes to bring Metro stop to Georgetown

Last week, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) released a broad-reaching, ambitious strategic plan to modernize and renovate the Metro system over the next several decades. Dubbed Momentum, the 49-page plan aims to address the major strains that have plagued the system for the past several years by widening accessibility, improving physical conditions of trains and stations, and easing congestion. The plan includes a proposal to build a new alignment of the Blue Line from Rosslyn that will run under the Potomac to Georgetown and extend under M St. to reach Thomas Circle.

By Claire Zeng January 31, 2013

Union Jack: Labor under attack (as usual)

Last week, organized labor was dealt a major blow on the federal level, when a federal appeals court ruled that President Barack Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board last January were invalid. The decision, handed down by three Reagan appointees on a D.C. Circuit Appellate Court, which breaks with over 150 years of precedent on recess appointments from Republican and Democratic presidents alike, could invalidate all decisions going back to when the three board members in question were appointed.

By Cole Stangler January 31, 2013

Resolved: Energy Kitchen proves burgers can be healthy

Hamburgers are my kryptonite. During my senior year in high school, I vowed that I would not eat red meat. But, lo and behold one day at a family picnic, I stumbled upon a juicy hamburger and caved. So of course when I heard about the opening of Foggy Bottom’s new burger joint, Energy Kitchen, my heart skipped a few beats.

By Natalie Magioncalda January 31, 2013

Quartet overcomes off-key moments

The feel-good movie about retirees making the most of their twilight years has practically become a genre in itself, one that has seemed to reach an apex recently with the release of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Hope Springs, that Meryl Streep flick involving a week of old-age marriage counseling and its accompanying awkwardness. Though sure crowd-pleasers for the senior contingent, these films rely a little too heavily on predictable carpe diem tropes to pass the test of time for younger generations. Quartet, Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut, however, manages to avoid such pitfalls.

By Theresa Wrzesinski January 31, 2013

Wake and First Bake

Of the few things worthy of a 7 a.m. wake-up, the new bakery and coffee shop First Bake at parent restaurant Farmers Fishers Bakers is one. I discovered the shop one sleepy, misty morning walking down to the harbor for some coffee and a quiet study spot.

By Liana Mehring January 31, 2013

Smithsonian’s Nam June Paik puts the “vision” in television

There’s something to be said about the guy who coined the term “Electronic Superhighway” before Facebook was around to help you keep you in contact with your roommate.

By Dayana Morales Gomez January 31, 2013

Critical Voices: Tegan and Sara, Heartthrob

An indie act’s transition into the mainstream is often fraught with risk, the familiar accusation of “selling out” typically bubbling to the surface before you can say, “radio single.” Treading this pop-laden path deftly is a daunting task, one that Canadian twins Tegan and Sara, unfortunately, fail to achieve as they make a deliberate effort to infuse more pop and electronic influences into their sound.

By Dzarif Wan January 31, 2013

Critical Voices: Ducktails, The Flower Lane

Albums seldom take the form of a holistic work—from the cover art to the music—in a culture geared toward chart-topping singles. This idea of a whole product at times proves detrimental if treated as an end in itself. Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile’s solo project Ducktails, for instance, delivers a fourth studio album with a clear focus on unity of the LP without the benefits that often accompany such strategies. In spite of solid production and an aura best described as pleasant, The Flower Lane falls short of memorable.

By Kirill Makarenko January 31, 2013

Paper View: Hardly a trivial pursuit

As a young child, I can fondly remember rushing to finish my dinner and guzzle down my glass of milk to get in front of the TV. “Finish your veggies, Keaton,” my mom would say as I shied away from the mound of asparagus, “and then you can go watch television.” But unlike other seven-year-olds eager to catch the latest episode of Even Stevens or Hey Arnold!, I was stoked about my half-hour daily trivia session with Alex Trebek on Jeopardy!.

By Keaton Hoffman January 31, 2013

Loose Cannon: Beer is good, people are crazy

After the physical stress of 11 days of straight boozing that is add/drop week, my body was in some serious pain. I had clearly had around 15 too many Hot Chicks and not nearly enough sleep. I knew that the only thing that could make me feel like a human being again was a serious detox, but I wanted my detox to be something cool, trendy and obviously not something anyone else had done before. (Because if anyone else had ever done it, I would be just like every other unimaginative soulless pre-professional Barbour coat-wearing Georgetown student.)

By Hamilton Steve January 31, 2013

Editorials

MPD’s sexual assault record condemned

According to a report published by Human Rights Watch last week, sexual assault survivors cannot expect anything more than skepticism, dismissal, and victim-blaming when reporting an assault to the District’s Metropolitan Police Department. The report clearly exposes MPD’s mistreatment of survivors as well as their mishandling of sexual assault cases.

By the Editorial Board January 31, 2013

Editorials

Non-English speakers face discrimination

This past week, the all-Republican Board of Commissioners in Carroll County, Md. voted unanimously to make English the official language of government business. The ordinance follows in the footsteps of Frederick County and Queen Anne’s County, making Carroll the third county in Maryland to declare an official language.

By the Editorial Board January 31, 2013

Editorials

DoD’s women in combat decision inadequate

In an announcement last Thursday, outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta declared that the Pentagon will lift its official ban on women in combat that has been in place since 1994. According to the Department of Defense, this means that the approximately 237,000 positions which women were previously barred from holding will be going under review.

By the Editorial Board January 31, 2013

Carrying On: In search of lost experience

What I am about to say may shock you and shake your morality down to its very core, so brace yourself: We, as members of the Georgetown student body, are an extremely privileged bunch. I’m not talking about the privilege they hammer into our heads from day one, the kind addressed in the convocation speech.

By Leigh Finnegan January 31, 2013

In the developing world, contraceptives save lives

I used to consider myself “transiently pro-choice,” mainly because I didn’t know enough about the issue to restrict anyone’s rights, but I certainly wasn’t comfortable with abortion. Then things started to change as I came to college and, through my studies, came to some startling realizations about women’s health.

By Kat Kelley January 31, 2013

Evading etymology eschews the excitement of English

During Senior Disorientation 2.0 the other weekend, I found myself at McFadden’s. As I sipped a rail drink in the roped off, Georgetown-only section of D.C.’s “douchiest” bar, I wondered if my roommates might accompany me to the main area to be among the “hoi polloi,” as I jokingly put it. “The what?” one shot back. While I explained the meaning of the phrase (Greek for “the many” or “the masses”), I was aware that this type of interaction had happened before.

By Julia von Turk January 31, 2013

Scandalous Italian politics must become a thing of the past

We Italians studying in the U.S. are emigrants who have left our country with no fixed date of return. We left looking for a better education and a fresh outlook on life. Unavoidably though, the heart still pounds to the beat of the noise of scooters in the street, the smell of good coffee, and the warmth of our customs. We are not nationalists—we are cultural patriots. Yet, we will probably not be able to vote in the 2013 Italian general election, which will take place starting on Feb. 24, after a dramatic decade of poor administrations and economic stagnation.

By Nicolo Dona Dalle Rose January 31, 2013

Features

Creative Expression at Georgetown Still Fiction

In preparation for its imminent arrival at Georgetown, last year’s incoming freshman class was required to read the novel How to Read the Air for the Marino Family International Writer’s Workshop. Grounded in the author’s Ethiopian heritage, the book is linguistically elegant and uses a melancholy, poetic lyricism to tell the tale of a young man struggling to overcome his family’s troubled past.

By Katie Mitchell January 24, 2013

A meal fit for schmiels

DGS Delicatessen aims to bring classic Jewish cooking to Dupont Circle. Advertising itself as a “Restaurant, Sandwich Shop, and Bar,” the deli takes a modern approach to Jewish cooking. While such an approach may seem refreshing, however, it renders the word “delicatessen” almost arbitrary.

By Alexandra Golway January 24, 2013

Ballin’ at the Inauguration, or, Stevie for president

At first, when I woke up the morning after the Inaugural Ball, I thought the cheeky bloggers over at Buzzfeed had stolen my angle for this Lez’hur. There it was at the top of my morning Twitter feed: “The Inaugural Ball Was Just Like Prom.”

By Gavin Bade January 24, 2013

Renwick: Gallery of the 21st century

It’s not often that yarn sculptures foretell the future of art, but the Smithsonian’s latest exhibit hardly meets one’s traditional expectations of craftsmanship. The 40 under 40: Craft Futures exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery arrives to D.C. 40 years after the museum’s founding in 1972, showcasing a vast range of craft art made post-9/11, when the “20th century effectively ended.” The exhibit effectively demonstrates to viewers the new directions of art in the 21st century, combining every medium from ceramics and metalwork to industrial design and installation art.

By Dayana Morales Gomez January 24, 2013