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KLMNO POSTLOCAL Talk to us. Talk to newsmakers. Talk to each other. Join the conversation at
postlocal.com Police on the hunt for HOV violators JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
Can’t we all learn to be less annoying?
W
hen I was in Manhattan a few weeks ago, the buzz on the streets was about some pranksters who had painted a
white line down a Fifth Avenue sidewalk and then stenciled “New Yorkers” on one side and “Tourists” on the other. As a tourist, I was, of course, offended. And then I went and printed a column like Monday’s, in which I promulgated nine “rules” for tourists who are visiting Washington. I never said I wasn’t a hypocrite. A handful of readers thought I was being mean. Arlington County’s Sean Smith had a more specific complaint, about the part of the column where I implored tourists to dress appropriately when visiting our hallowed sites. “Yes, there is such a thing as inappropriate clothing for tourists at Arlington Cemetery and the war memorials,” Sean wrote. “But please do not include the House and Senate in any sentence including those revered places. Maybe, historically, the House and Senate are sacred places, but in my lifetime they are a disgrace and have no right to even be visited, let alone considered worthy of respect.” Ouch!
GERALD MARTINEAU FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
A Virginia State Police officer tickets a driver who violated high-occupancy vehicle restrictions Wednesday morning on Interstate 66 near the West Falls Church Metro station. Law enforcement agencies fanned out across the area to crack down on violators. Some drivers say HOV rules are not uniformly enforced. In Northern Virginia, fines run from $125 for a first offense to $1,000 for a fourth.
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But most of the readers I heard from were adamantly — militantly — supportive, with a few suggesting that the rules be laminated and posted on hotel room doors. Some had their own additions. For example, one reader wrote, “There is no eating/drinking on Metro or inside the stations, including children.” I assume that “including children” means
What it takes
Chris Samuels is retiring after 10 years with the Redskins and six trips to the Pro Bowl. In an interview with The Post’s Avis Thomas-Lester for our online On Success feature, he discusses the side effects of fame, his past and his future.
Chris Samuels on fame’s side effects
A price of success: The physical stress on his body. “You can make a lot of money and walk away, but you can still have problems that will hinder you for the rest of your life,” Samuels said. “I don’t have any cartilage in my right knee right now. It bothers me from time to time now. What about when I reach 50, 60? What is it going to be like then?”
The toughest part of fame: Changing relationships. “You always want to stay the same person, and it’s kind of hard because a lot of people feel like you’ve changed,” he said. “So you want to keep it real with your boys, but it’s a fine line because you have to guard yourself a whole lot more now.”
What you need: When faced with success, “someone who can come in and really keep you grounded,” he said. “I had to go through some heartaches with people who I thought were in my corner, got taken advantage of financially by trusting the wrong people. But now I’ve pretty much got it down.”
What lies ahead: Coaching. “The thing I’m trying to figure out now is whether it will be high school, college or pro. . . . At this point in my life, I’m not chasing the money. I just want to coach the game and teach football,” he said. “[W]herever the good Lord puts me, that’s where I will go.”
Conversations
Metro’s moving stairs have made news with their chronic outages. The transit agency has hired a new consultant, and a union says it should revert to contractors, instead of in-house repairmen. Readers sound off on why the escalators so often are not going up.
Going up?
wassavi: “90 [percent] working escalators is a misleading number even if accurate because the key question is WHICH escalators. If the short ones in locations that no one goes are working but those that are longer and/or in heavy traffic areas are always broken then based on volume/reliance the percentage that actually matters is much lower.”
InTheMiddle: “I have never once been in a big shopping mall and seen an escalator out of service, even though they are in constant use. There is something wrong here — and possibly something corrupt.”
carias_m: “Metro’s excuse that they cannot work during rush hour is bull — because I use the system during the day as well and no one is ever working on them.”
nocando: “Whoever thought that taking some of mass transit’s longest escalators, exposing them to the elements, and running them constantly was a great plan was obviously in need of some ‘consulting services.’ Good thing the new ‘consultant’ is sure to take all of these things into account, and then recommend fixes that Metro can’t or won’t implement.”
Habco07122010: “Doing a better job will cost more money if we use the same people doing the same tasks in the same way. . . . We either need a LOT more money or we need new people doing things in a new way.”
rme465: “Metro needs to convert the platform escalators and other short escalators into stairs. . . . They need to focus on the long escalators that need to be in service.”
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Read the rest of this interview at
washingtonpost.com/onsuccess and meet our panel of success experts.
THE DAILY QUIZ
What neighborhood in the D.C. suburbs has provided design inspiration to Dan Bishop, the production designer on Mad Men?
EARN 5 POINTS: Find the answer, then go to
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that children are not allowed to eat on Metro, not that riders aren’t allowed to eat children. (Which, of course, they aren’t — at least not on Metro property.) John Meier of Vienna thought tourists should be reminded to pay their taxes, writing: “We understand this is a sensitive subject for you, but you came here to enjoy the ‘free’ museums, the ‘free’ architecture and the ‘free’ scenery. We enjoy them, as well, and all year long! If it were not for responsible, tax-paying citizens like you, we would have to take up the slack. So, keep those tax dollars flowing. We thank you — and so does the IRS.”
I agree, of course, but reminding visitors that
their taxes pay for our free stuff just makes them feel justified in lording it over us. Better to remind them that D.C. residents pay taxes (well, except for Marion Barry) but aren’t fully represented in Congress. Skip Jordan said he was trying to walk up the
escalator at the Branch Avenue Metro station recently when a woman from Texas refused his gentle request that she move to the right and let him past. How does he know she was from Texas? Because he said that during rush hour, people might not be as polite as he, and she replied: “Well, I’m from Texas. You don’t mess with Texas!” An Arlington reader wondered whether we need something catchy when approaching folks from behind. “It would be nice to have some simple sayings to nudge others, so I hope you can help,” she wrote. Can you? College Park’s Dan Michau was not alone in
MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST
Contract workers Chris Remsburg, left, and Chad Livingston make repairs on an escalator at the Gallery Place Metro station.
jiji1: “You continue to ignore the fact that when Metro reports one or two escalators out of service, the true number is likely to be three or four. Please stop this slavish worship of Metro’s own statistics and learn the truth: Metro Lies.”
Dr. Gridlock offers free consultations at
washingtonpost.com/drgridlock.
Today on
POSTLOCAL.com
“Most major changes begin with people losing fear.”
— Reader mayasurig, commenting on a story about young illegal immigrants, many of whom barely remember their native countries, “outing” themselves in front of the White House to advocate for legislation that could give them a path to legal residency.
Share your thoughts on local news, sports and more at
postlocal.com.
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POINTS & REWARDS Kettler
suggesting that residents could benefit from following the rules as well. “The various ‘sins’ you mention aren’t committed solely by tourists,” he wrote. “Note the front-page article today by Ann Scott Tyson about Metro ‘seat hogs.’ ” Nor are the subway, the bus, the monuments and the museums the only places where infractions are committed. Some people can barely push a shopping cart through the Giant without causing all sorts of drama. I’m not suggesting that we should go through life cringing in fear of giving offense, just that when we’re in public, we should ask ourselves a question: Am I doing something that a reasonable person could find annoying? For despite our Kindles and our iPods, despite the uninterruptible solitude that our Androids and our BlackBerrys seem to provide, we are not alone.
Send a Kid to Camp You know what’s always considerate?
Supporting Camp Moss Hollow, the summer camp for needy kids. Make a tax-deductible gift by mailing a check or money order, payable to “Send a Kid to Camp,” to P.O. Box 96237, Washington, D.C. 20090-6237. Or contribute online by going to
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kellyj@washpost.com
Let’s talk about touristical and non-touristical behavior Friday at noon
during my online chat. Go to
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Have you toured The Millennium at Metropolitan Park, a new 18-story luxury apartment building in Arlington? See
kettler.com.
Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show. Coming to DC November 13-14, this event will feature live cooking demonstrations by famous chefs, exhibits and celebrity appearances. Details at
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THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2010
JOHNATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
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