sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

March 27, 2005


happy (belated) birthday
posted by soe 2:05 pm

Somehow yesterday slipped away from me without my getting to the blog, but I wanted to send a quick shout out to Dianna:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DI!!!!!!!

Dianna is the best officemate a sprite could ask for, and I miss her tremendously now that I’m not at Wes anymore. And, in addition to being a kick-ass officemate, she remains a wonderful friend and an inspiration for what someone can accomplish when she follows her bliss. If anyone can inspire me to put down the book and get off the couch, she can. Thanks, Di, for all you do and for being such a groovy chick!

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pizza! pizza! pizza!
posted by soe 1:58 pm

One of the things I miss most about Connecticut (aside from the obvious loved ones) is pizza. Yes, they sell something called pizza in D.C. — and some of it is even good — but it’s not actually pizza.

District friends have stopped asking me to join them for pizza, afraid to hear once again my treatise about the subject. My folks try to oblige us by having pizza whenever we visit them in the northern reaches of the state, but the Sicilians must have preferred to stay by the shore, because it’s just not the same.

But Friday, in our second annual Good Friday Pizza Dinner, the random duck and I managed to convince 7 friends still in the region to join us for our own version of a religious experience at Modern Apizza in New Haven.

For the uninitiated, New Haven has boasted some of the most famous pizzerias in the world since the 1930s. The Wooster Street eateries — Pepe’s and Sally’s, in particular — are the most well known and should be experienced periodically. But in my book (and, now, my blog), Modern on State Street is the best.

The lines are shorter. You can generally find parking without having to circle the block 12 times. And the pizza — oh, the pizza! The crust is dark, but not tooth-breaking (my biggest complaint with Pepe’s). And the sauce, mozzarella (pronounced moot-za-rell-(optional)a), and crust are all tasty. (Living in D.C. has really made me appreciate how underrated a good crust is.) And the pies are hot!

We ordered four pies for the table — cheese (the perfect, unadulterated pizza — to which all others everywhere are compared), pepperoni with half mushroom, bacon with half artichoke hearts, and the Veggie Bomb (which was laden with probably a dozen different vegetables) — as well as several salads, and garlic bread with cheese. No one left hungry and no one left slices behind (a sacrilege if ever I heard one).

The only downside to the night? It will probably be another long, long year before I make it to Modern again. But memories of an evening with great friends and great food will fuel me for quite a while.

Life is good.

Category: life -- uncategorized,travel. There is/are 1 Comment.

March 24, 2005


review: summerland
posted by soe 12:24 am

It’s been a long time since I experienced the dichotomy of wanting to hurry, hurry, hurry and finish a book while simultaneously wanting to slow down and have the book last forever. But Summerland, Michael Chabon’s baseball fantasy novel (as opposed to a fantasy baseball novel — a very different concept), gave me just that reaction. (more…)

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March 23, 2005


a new supermarket
posted by soe 1:46 am

Giant Food (which is essentially a Stop & Shop) announced today that they will step up to the plate and build a grocery store east of the Anacostia River.

For those of you from out of the area, DC is divided into eight wards, two of which lie east of the Anacostia (DC’s other river). Residents of Wards 7 and 8 are almost entirely African American and many of them are poor, and they regularly complain that they are the city’s forgotten. To be completely honest, they nearly are.

They have not had a full-service grocery store on the other side of the river in seven years, which means the city’s poorest families have to take some form of public transportation to the grocery store and then have to take the long ride back over the river while laden down with all their shopping.

Meanwhile, plans move ahead to convert an old roller-rink two miles from The Burrow into an upscale grocery store. That would make it the seventh grocery store within two miles of my mostly white, generally child-free neighborhood.

Cheers to Giant for finally taking the first step. May they finish the job quickly.

Click here for The Common Denominator’s complete story.

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March 21, 2005


civil connecticut
posted by soe 11:10 pm

I love my home state. Poised to become the first state to proactively enact a civil unions law, the Connecticut legislature’s Appropriations Committee will vote tomorrow on whether to send to the state senate floor a law giving marriage benefits (if not marriage itself) to its gay citizens.

The state senate could vote on the bill as early as April 6; members of the state house have said they will introduce the bill if it passes the senate. Governor Jodi Rell has not indicated whether she will sign the bill, but has claimed she is against discrimination.

Connecticut is one of only 7 states (including DC) without a Defense of Marriage Act.

A poll conducted by UConn in late 2004 showed civil union support was strong throughout the state with 74% of Connecticut voters backing some form of legislation legalizing the unions. And a plurality of Connecticut voters even narrowly approve of the idea of extending marriage benefits to gay couples.

Many in the last election decried the concept of activist judges — particularly those judges who promoted the shocking concept that law shouldn’t discriminate against certain segments of the population. They are angry with state courts in Vermont and in Massachusetts who informed their state legislatures to revise their state laws (or who just struck down discriminatory laws themselves — which they are legally obligated to do).

I attended several preliminary hearings on this issue when I still lived in Connecticut and was always amazed by how threatened social conservatives were by the idea of broadening a definition to include love in an institution dedicated to enshrining the sentiment. They tossed around the term “slippery slope” and foretold that allowing same-sex couples to marry would bring about the demise of modern society.

Well if that’s what going to happen, I am proud to hail from the state that is about to launch the death knell.

All hail Connecticut, champion of equality before the law and before love.

Category: gay rights,politics. There is/are 2 Comments.

March 20, 2005


welcome, spring!
posted by soe 8:40 pm

In honor of spring’s arrival and my lovely walk back from Georgetown, I found this poem by Mary Oliver. (more…)

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