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2011 Year in Review: Up in The Air
In transit at the Warsaw Airport. (October 2011) My friend Patrick Terpstra wrote this of his year: “2011 was like riding a tilt-a-hurl after eating seven corn dogs. But it sure beats watching from...
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A Fete For Draper at Kathleen Parker’s Posh Pad
I had already taken a big swig of the pervasive Washington culture cocktail of press+politicos at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner over the weekend, but at least 100 of those Washingtonians were...
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Liveblogging Jury Duty
Bunch of people sitting around to perform our civic duty. It’s my first time to be summoned for jury duty even though I’ve been a registered voter for the last 12 years. This is not going to be as fun...
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Finally Getting to Fly Nonstop from DCA to AUS (And Back)
Due to my status as a slumlord (we kept our Austin house) and because Texas friends are getting married and/or having babies that require in-person celebration, we’ve made three-to-four trips back to...
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Please Prepare The Fetus For Arrival: The DC Shower
The Fetus has yet to arrive, but he/she is pretty lucky to have so many aunties and uncles around. Not to be outdone by the Texas BBQ Shower, my old friends Sudeep, Beam, Fiscus and Andrew (some of...
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DIY Deck The Balls Party
The winner in the “Best Sweet Balls” category, Oreo Cookie Spheres by friends Matt and Bryan. The spouse and I have only been married for a couple of years, so we don’t really have any long running...
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Mango Tree: Now a Double Amputee
Jerry at Gingko Gardens shows us where we had to amputate mango tree to save him, again. I know I’m overly sentimental about this damned tree, but our mango tree is a survivor. Mango trees really...
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Ai Wei Wei Poses A Question I’ve Been Pondering About Journalism
The Ai WeiWei exhibit continues here in Washington through next month, so if you are going to be in town in the coming weeks, I really encourage you to see it. My artist-turned-diplomat Mom and I went...
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Inauguration Is Over. Now I Have a Brain Cloud.
The presidential motorcade as it headed to the Capitol for the swearing-in. The single best thing about living in DC is that people I love come into town frequently for one reason or another. Since...
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The Final Countdown Before The Bulldoze
Our current building, which won’t exist soon. (photo via Flickr) The hundreds of us who work at NPR are 51 days away from leaving our current crumbling edifice for a shiny, environmentally-friendly new...
View ArticleRecommended Reads: On Death and DC (Unrelated)
I’ve been reading a lot this summer but not curating these reads quite as much as I’d like. Two particular pieces I want to point you to: First, longtime political scribe Marc Ambinder on lessons he...
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Last Days in the Old NPR Building: Saying Goodbye With Clever Graffiti
Five furniture auction guys were outside as I pulled up to work today. This afternoon, NPR’s signature show, All Things Considered, will broadcast from our soon-to-be-bulldozed headquarters building...
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White House Correspondents Dinner Weekend: Jokes About A Town That Is One
“How do you write jokes about a town that already is one?” -Kevin Spacey, as his House of Cards character Frank Underwood, in the spoof video produced for the dinner I’ve never covered Hollywood, so...
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Neighborhood Pig Roast Featuring Many Small Fires
The calm before the fires. 2013 is halfway over and it’s been a riot so far. And sorta dangerous. Baby Eva keeps testing the bounds of her survival skills, rolling herself off furniture, squeezing...
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Mr. Zuckerberg Goes To Washington
The Atlantic editor James Bennet interviewed Mark Zuckerberg. The bazillionaire founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, paid a visit to the Hill today to press lawmakers on both sides of the...
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We Got Briefly Lost At The White House
Yeah, the briefing room totally looks like a TV set. After a really difficult couple of weeks at work (which I’ll get into someday), producer Nick Fountain and I took the two and half mile Uber ride to...
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The Long Goodbye From DC, Part One
When leaving town, why have one big final blowout in which you accidentally consume too much marijuana and find yourself throwing up the entire way to the airport the next day (I’m just saying...
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A Guide To My Washington D.C. Places, As I Depart
Private karaoke room goodbye at Wok ‘n Roll. Yes, it’s called Wok ‘n Roll. While my memories of my last hometown, Austin, are vivid, my memories of DC are sort of soft focus. I think this is because I...
View ArticleAcculturation
noun ac·cul·tur·a·tion \ə-ˌkəl-chə-ˈrā-shən, a-\ 1: cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture; also: a merging of cultures as a...
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First Time To Trump’s America
Friend Reeve meets baby Thomas, one of many babies born since I’ve been gone. My experiences during short bursts of time in the states are reliably memorable because they are so abbreviated, and...
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