Washington DC : Once upon a time, there was a Post Office on Irving, along the corridor between 16th and 14th.  After years of neglect it was shuttered, upon the discovery that rats had been gnawing away at the mail.  Now, years later, the city has finally gotten around to rehabilitating the space.  Curiously, it doesn't look much like a Post Office, and there are all these signs announcing the arrival of massive chain stores.  We're honestly a little confused, but we detect a pattern of sorts:  Calls for privatization after the collapse of a major bridge in the midwest, the dismantling and charter-ization of the New Orleans public school system after Katrina... Big-box stores and Ruby Tuesday's on 14th to (according to The Today Show) "Redeem [Dr. Martin Luther] King's dream" (40 years after his murder, when the man at the helm of a "war without end" can publicly invoke his example, with a straight face).  We smell a rat, frankly.  And it's devouring more than the family xmas card.

Nonetheless, people seem to want to celebrate.  And we've been invited by our friends at Sticky Fingers Bakery to glad-hand at the Dog Parade they're doing this weekend with the Washington Humane Society.  So, we will indeed be outside the bakery at 1370 Park Rd. NW (across from the Giant supermarket), Saturday morning, from 10am till about noon.  Come say hi.  Honestly, come by and treat yourself to the best coffee this side of Capitol Hill, if nothing else. 

Joshua