DC Lagniappe

Have you tried the Circulator Bus? It is clean and comfortable with friendly, helpful drivers. You can get all the way uptown from the Waterfront in 10 minutes and it's the fastest way from Union Station to Georgetown (and points in between). They recently added a third line that circles the mall and hits all the museums and federal buildings. It goes everywhere you need to go for a dollar a day, plus it's clean and uncrowded.

DC Lagniappe: A Delicious Way to Help
DCist: A Culinary Fundraiser for New Orleans Refugees

Here's our rallying cry:
"PO' BOY POWER, Dress New Orleans Again!"

Acadiana Restaurant, a Louisiana-style fish house that opened in September in the heart of the nation's capital, wants to become the po'boy headquarters of the fund-raising effort.

At any New Orleans po'boy joint, you order your oyster or roast beef sandwich "dressed" - with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and hot sauce. Our goal is to raise money, not just to revive the city, but to bring it back as good as it can possibly be - "dressed."

On Tuesday, November 1, hoping to repeat the success of the September 12 fundraiser, Chef Jeff Tunks and his chef colleagues will have brown bag carry-out po'boys (meat and seafood) all day for a donation of $25 each.

Get'em and go!

CITY SPARKLE: Here Comes the Hotstepper
Entertainment Guide: High Heel Races

Traditionally held on the Tuesday before Halloween, this annual neighborhood event features elaborately costumed drag queens racing down 17th Street (from Q to Church streets) and attracts a large crowd eager to cheer them on.

The race begins at 9, but the real fun takes place before the main event, as the contestants parade up and down the race course showing off their outfits.

To get a street-side seat at an on-course cafe like JR's or the Fox & Hounds, stake out your spot by 6. (There's plenty of space along the sidewalk, though crowds often block the view.) The informal block party continues long after the last Mary Jane (size 13 EE) crosses the finish line.

Care for Kids Holiday Shopping Program

Calling all serious shoppers - we have something VERY special for you that can save you TONS while doing your holiday shopping - The Care for Kids Card benefiting Children's Hospital. Here’s how it works. You purchase the Care for Kids holiday shopping card for just $50. The card then entitles you to a 20% discount on all regularly priced merchandise at more than 200 high quality stores in our area during the week of October 29 - November 6, 2005.

Buy those things that rarely, if ever, go on sale — cosmetics, linens, personalized stationery, furniture, hardware, luggage, eye glasses, toys, jewelry, etc. Buy holiday, birthday, wedding, baby, anniversary, thank you, or graduation presents well in advance with a 20% discount!

Many of your favorite stores are participating in the shopping week including: The Container Store, Gucci, Waterworks, Sur la Table, The Papery, Tree Top Toys, Smith & Hawken, Strosniders Hardware, April Cornell, Lacoste, Anthropologie, Rizik Brothers, Gap, Sharper Image, Baldaquin, J. CREW and Sassanova. Please check out the web site for the complete list of this area’s finest retail merchants.

This is HUGE! Here is the best part of all. The full $50 purchase price of every card sold goes directly to Children’s National Medical Center.

Dog Names | Puppy Names | Cat Names | Kitten Names

This page has over 6000 dog and cat names. They are organized into specific lists and categories, including breed, color and foreign names. Check it out, and find the perfect name for your new companion.

Dogster :: For the love of dog. Site to post and share dog photos and facts. Let every canine and pooch have a webpage.

Too cute! If you have a dog, this is a great way to post pictures and document your dogs life.

The Coffeehouse Soapbox: Chinatown Bus From HELL

If this account is typical, I think the Chinatown bus (aka Apex Bus or Today's Bus) is more bust than bargain.

Panda Cam
Animal Web Cams at the National Zoo - National Zoo| FONZ

You can go to the National Zoo web site and see Butterstick on the web cam! They have several other web cams throughout the Zoo, too. Check it out!

National Novel Writing Month Home Page

From the official site:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2004, we had over 42,000 participants. Nearly 6000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from your novel at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2005. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Frequently Asked Questions - BugMeNot.com

Sallying writes:

This is a great service for getting around "Registration Required" news sites. You just save the "bookmarklet" to your links bar and click it when you land on a page that requires registration- a handy pop-up gives you a login and password, and you can continue surfing with minimum interruption.

Is this ethical? You decide. But it is certainly expedient.

http://www.writeastory.org

Joyce Hackett writes,

"WWASD is my attempt to do something that scares me[a la' Eleanor Roosevelt]; to help people who have a story to tell do something that scares them; to bring the resources of the literary community to people who don't always benefit from them; to map the city via narrative; and to open a conversation between Washingtonians about their experience of public space and of each other."

DC Theatre Reviews � Here�s the Upshot

Jimbo.Info: your taxicab zone map sucks

Opie Boat Race Classic VI


From the Official Opie Boat Race Classic Website:

Five years ago a powerful force gripped the nation.
More exciting than greyhound racing, more distasteful
than the XFL, more corrupt than international figure
skating and more taxing than bowling, Flip Cup was a
phenomenon the sporting scene had never known and it
quickly grew to epic proportions. At any given party,
on any given day a Flip Cup game was liable to erupt.
Fold out tables, once the bastion of family picnic
furniture, were packed into SUVs and strapped onto
hatchbacks "just in case!"

From California to Maine groups of men and women tried
to claim that they were the nation's finest. It wasn't
until a group of young upstarts from Washington, D.C.
set out to create the tournament to end all
tournaments that the best of the best were finally
revealed. And so was born the Opie Boat Race Classic.

This October 8th, 2005, you are invited to participate
in an event as historic as the Olympics, held in an
arena as hallowed as Churchill Downs. This is not for
the sportsman who is faint of heart; this is for the
athlete that has the courage, the commitment... the
stomach... to call themselves a player.

When: Saturday, October 8th, 2005,
2:00 Registration Starts
Where: McFadden's, Washington, DC

Bag Borrow Or Steal �
A cool new discovery for Fall! It's like Netflix for handbags. You pay monthly fee and get to keep the bag until you're tired of it. Then just send it back, and get a new one!

They carry the luxury must-have brands, like Chanel, Coach, Betsey Johnson, DKNY, Dooney and Burke, Hermes, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, and dozens more.


There are three levels- Trendsetter ($19.95/month), Princess($49.95/month), and Diva ($99.95/month) for an unlimited number of handbags per month. You can even upgrade and borrow two at a time!

I know many of you spend twice this much on purses every year- and you know who you are. This service is tailor-made for gals like you!

Cub Naming Contest Comes to an End


Scientists Spy on Panda Sex Habits

Restaurants for Relief: National Dine Around to Provide Hunger Relief for The Victims of Hurricane Katrina

Helping those in need never tasted so good!

Join Share Our Strength, OpenTable.com and Windows of Hope in our effort to provide hunger relief to those in need as a result of Hurricane Katrina through a national "dine around."

On Tuesday, September 27th, restaurants across the nation will donate a portion of their dinner sales to Share Our Strength's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. There are 64 restaurants in the DC area are participating, ranging from Bistro Bis and Vidalia to several Cosi locations and Ben & Jerry's.

You can use Open Table to make a reservation right from their site.

Have a fabulous dinner and do your part to help!

DCist: A Culinary Fundraiser for New Orleans Refugees

Here's our rallying cry: "PO' BOY POWER, Dress New Orleans Again!"

At any New Orleans po'boy joint, you order your oyster or roast beef sandwich "dressed" - with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and hot sauce. Our goal is to raise money, not just to revive the city, but to bring it back as good as it can possibly be - "dressed."

Acadiana Restaurant, a Louisiana-style fish house opening September 12th in the heart of the nation's capital, will become the po'boy headquarters of the fund-raising effort. On opening day, Chef Jeff Tunks and his chef friends Robert Wiedmaier, Michel Richard, Roberto Donna, and Cesare Lanfranconi, to name a few, will make brown bag carry-out po'boys (meat and seafood) all day for a donation of $25 each. Get'em and go!

I'll post this again on the 12th, and I'll be one of the first lining up for a Po' Boy. Yum!

Network for Good has links to all of the charities who have rallied to the rescue of New Orleans, so choose one or more and please give generously to those in need.

Today has been designated Blog for Relief Day, sponsored by Truth Laid Bear. Sallying Forth has chosen Noah's Wish as our charity, but there are many good options for giving.

Also, here's a first hand account from a friend's blog that everyone should read. Crazy Jon: Katrina First Hand

Couldn't resist- this picture is too cute!



Wriggling Panda Cub Submits to 4th Physical

You should designate an emergency contact person in your cell phone directory.

You simply list it under the name "ICE" in your Address Book or Contacts List.

ICE stands for "In Case of Emergency", and paramedics know to look for it immediately.

ICE your phone NOW- it only takes a second.

A Public Service Announcement from Sallying Forth Promotions.
Special Thanks to Kelly Ann Collins for the tip.

For More Information:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9008543/

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/i/ice.htm

Don't you hate standing in the corner of a bar, texting all your friends about where you are and where you're going? You should be enjoying yourself, but you do want your friends to find you, too.

Dodgeball.com solves this problem. You tell Dodgeball where you are, and all your friends get a text message at the same time. You can "check in" as many times and at as many locations as you like. It saves you the trouble of contacting everyone individually, and you can get on with your evening.

The web site is set up a little like friendster, but the interaction is phone-to-phone, not on the web. You also want to be a little judicious about who you add as a "friend"- you don't want everyone you've ever met stalking you all night.

It sounds complicated, but it's not. Try it, you'll be hooked!

DailyCandy - Capitol Thrill

I love Daily Candy- if you haven't signed up, do so immediately! Of course, we here at Lagniappe will be quoting liberally from this site, but we are still committed to giving you the inside scoop!