B2
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KLMNO POSTLOCAL Staying upbeat
The Post’s Avis Thomas-Lester recently caught up with a past source: Rhonda Nelson, 53, of Greenbelt, a nonprofits administrator who has been unemployed since April 2008.
Long without work, how to stay positive?
On frustration: “I’m not panicking. That’s not my nature. I have my moments, though. Last week, I was kind of depressed. I cried. Then I asked God for forgiveness for crying. I still believe I will find something. It’s just a matter of when.”
On job hunting: “At the lower-paying jobs, they say, ‘You’re overqualified for this. You would be bored. You wouldn’t be challenged.’ The management-level jobs, people always start talking about qualifications. Even though it is very apparent that I am qualified with my background, experience, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, they still talk about qualifications.”
On considering food stamps: “Some of my neighbors who have also been laid off are getting them. I’ll be in the grocery store buying essentials, and they’re buying fresh pineapple. It would be nice to have fresh fruit on a regular basis again.”
Have a suggestion for Rhonda? Send her your thoughts, read more about her efforts to get back to work and learn more about paths to career success at
washingtonpost.com/onsuccess.
Can you stump us? Trivia smackdown Think you know all the ins and outs of the D.C.
area? Test your mettle by matching wits with Local Enterprise Editor Marc Fisher, reporter Sari Hor- witz, columnists John Kelly and Eugene Robinson, and the host, Local Editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz. The curtain rises at 2 p.m. today. The participant who submits our panelists’ favorite trivia question will win lunch with John Kelly.
What’s Washingtology? Visit our new feature and discover things you never knew were here at
washingtonpost.com/washingtology.
Talk back
In his Dr. Gridlock blog, Post transportation columnist Robert Thomson reflected on the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board panel regarding the deadly June 2009 Red Line crash (see article on Page A1). Read his piece, below, and share your thoughts online at
PostLocal.com.
On Metro’s ‘safety culture’
Deborah A.P. Hersman, the chairman of the
National Transportation Safety Board, said the panel’s recommendations regarding the Red Line crash are not an indictment of any individual, but they come pretty close to saying it was everybody’s fault. The findings and recommendations are a withering rebuke of those collectively responsible for operating the nation’s second-busiest subway system. The track circuits failed, causing a train to disappear from the monitoring system so that a following train was launched toward it, the NTSB found. The crash could have occurred at any time after new equipment was installed on June 19, 2009. Hundreds of trains had crossed over the vulnerable site before conditions were just right for the crash on June 22. But the safety board went back further than that, back to the 2005 near-crash in the Rosslyn tunnel when safety equipment failed to slow trains. There was no “safety culture” in place that would have led to effective corrective action, the NTSB said. And the safety panel went further, making its conclusions unmistakably clear: The Metro board has not done its job as a safety monitor. It has been passive on safety. It has not demanded the information it needs from the staff to fulfill its responsibilities for passenger and staff safety. The last line of defense, the Tri-State Oversight Committee, is no defense, because it doesn’t have the clout or the expertise to carry out its assignment. People and systems failed at every level. And it
will take years to fix this. Meanwhile, either people will be riding on old rail cars that the nation’s leading safety panel says are unsafe in a crash, or, should the board decide to take those cars out of service before they can be replaced, the passengers will be guaranteed an intolerably crowded ride. And at least for many months to come, they will continue to ride under the restrictions — including manual control of the trains — imposed to compensate for years of failed oversight.
Reader responses from the Dr. Gridlock blog:
mika_england: “It cost lives to get this far.” sabine12: “I find it incomprehensible that these are the two options: unsafe or uncomfortable.” lucl74: “My car is looking better every day.”
Add your voice to the discussion at
washingtonpost.com/drgridlock.
THE DAILY QUIZ
What’s the name of the new raw food restaurant in Washington?
(Hint: The answer is on the front of today’s Food section.)
EARN 5 POINTS: Find the answer, then go to
washingtonpost.com/postpoints and click on “Quizzes” to enter the correct response.
Contest!
This week’s Facebook fan contest: Share your five favorite summertime songs on The Post’s page, and our Click Track pop-music bloggers will review their favorite. Here are a few of the songs already submitted by Post Facebook fans:
Favorite summer tunes Tony Dixon: “Here Comes the Sun,” The Beatles
Marguerite Drogo Carroll: “Summer Wind,” as performed by Frank Sinatra Alfred Outtara: “Summertime,” Will Smith
April Siobhan: “Grazing in the Grass,” Hugh Masekela
Kathy Swoyer: “Boys of Summer,” Don Henley
Enter the contest by sharing your songs at
facebook.com/washingtonpost, then go read Click Track at
washingtonpost.com/clicktrack.
Talk to us. Talk to newsmakers. Talk to each other. Join the conversation at
postlocal.com Tell us your story
Coffeehouse stories T
here’s a truism in journalism that says stories are every- where. Today, seven Post reporters will be setting up in area coffeehouses to test that concept. You can find them
at the locations listed here. Their assignment is to find a story that tells us something about the way we live. You can follow their progress today at the Story Lab blog at
washingtonpost.com/storylab. Or you can use the Twitter hash tag #storylab. This evening, all of their stories will be posted on the blog. After a vote, the one you select will run in Friday’s newspaper.
Find the reporters’ updates, follow their progress and — later today — read and comment on their work and vote at
PostLocal.com.
1. Christian Davenport not pictured, but he’ll be there.
IN THE DISTRICT 1. Christian Davenport Ebenezers Coffeehouse 201 F St. NE
2. Theresa Vargas Big Chair Coffee 2122 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE
IN MARYLAND 3. J. Freedom du Lac The Coffee Bar 1203 Stamp Student Union, University of Maryland, College Park
4. Kevin Sieff Starbucks 121 Market St., Kentlands, Gaithersburg
IN VIRGINIA 5. Steve Hendrix St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub 2300 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
6. Michael S. Rosenwald The Java Shack 2507 N. Franklin Rd., Arlington
7. Ian Shapira Caribou Coffee 11947 Grand Commons Ave., Fairfax
THE WASHINGTON POST
Kayla Day, 11, in Northwest with grandmother Margaret Walker.
JOHN KELLY/ JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
Longing for a needed dose of the outdoors
K
ayla Day always chooses the bottom bunk when she goes to camp. “I’m afraid I’m going to fall,” explains
the 11-year-old from Southeast Washington. She likes telling scary stories in the hour
between when the campers go to bed and when they’re supposed to be asleep. There’s one about Old Man Clutch. “Old Man Clutch was in the Civil War,” Kayla says. “He kissed a lady he wasn’t supposed to, and he had to run away to a cabin.” The cabin caught fire, and Old Man Clutch — well, you get the idea. Kayla understands
that some kids don’t like scary stories, so when they complain, the campers switch to “good” stories. Those are better to end with, anyway. “We just make up the
good stories,” she says. She likes the food at
camp. “It’s good, like homemade,” she says before giving it the highest accolade an 11-year-old can bestow:
“It’s better than McDonald’s.” Kayla has a nickname at camp: Pumpkin.
She’s pretty sure she likes it. Kayla’s favorite subject at Chamberlain Elementary School is science. “I want to be a fashion designer,” she says.
“I’m already doing stuff now. My father taught me how to sew. And my mother, too. It’s easy.” Kayla lives with her father, but she spends a lot of the summer at the home of her grandmother, Margaret Walker, in Northwest. It was Ms. Walker who first sent Kayla to camp three years ago.
“She worries me to death,” Ms. Walker says of
her granddaughter’s reminders as summer approaches: Grandma, did you call about camp yet? Grandma, don’t forget. Grandma never forgets. “Kayla is the sort of child who’s mostly to
herself,” Grandma says. “She’s content to be in the house with the computer. The camp gives her the reality of what’s outside of the house.” “This year, I learned how to swim,” Kayla
says. “I didn’t want to get in at first. I was scared I was going to drown. Sam [the lifeguard and instructor] showed me how to push myself in the water. He showed me how to lay on my back and float and then how to lay on my stomach and float. He told me if I know how to float, I know how to swim.”
On the last night of camp, every camper
gathers a stick, and when their cabin is called, they walk forward and add it to the raging campfire. “The first time when somebody comes to camp, they say they want to go back home,” Kayla says. “I tell them as the days go by, they’ll want to stay.” And on that last night, when the sticks of a hundred children rise as sparks in the night sky and the woods echo with the sounds of the Camp Moss Hollow song, something happens. “Everybody cries,” says Kayla. Even her.
Send a Kid to Camp
This is the final week of our fundraising drive for Camp Moss Hollow. Readers have donated an impressive $325,272.13, but we need even more if we’re to reach our $500,000 goal by Friday. You can double the impact of your gift, thanks to a generous donor who has offered to match donations during the campaign’s final week, up to a total of $100,000. What’s more, if you donate $150 before
Today on
POSTLOCAL.com
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POINTS EVENTS Remember Your Card!
Don’t leave home without your PostPoints membership card. Over 100 merchants in the DC area award PostPoints with your purchase. Check
washingtonpost.com/postpoints for a complete list of PostPoints Spots. And if you’ve misplaced your card, just log in to your account at
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“
Friday, you will receive a $25 gift certificate for Clyde’s restaurants and Old Ebbitt Grill. Donate $250 or more, and you will receive a $50 gift certificate. Or why not head to Clyde’s or Old Ebbitt on
“I’ll bet the Chesapeake Bay was really something to behold 500 years ago.”
— Reader TooManyPeople, commenting on Petula Dvorak’s column about a study suggesting that “In some places after it’s rained, the Chesapeake Bay is six times dirtier than the unflushed john.”
Read more of Petula’s columns at
washingtonpost.com/dvorak and send her your
comments and ideas.
POINTS & REWARDS Comcast
Wednesday and order from the expanded Send a Kid to Camp menu: Virginia tomato salad, any pasta with tomatoes, the scrumptious BLT, the Alaska wild salmon or any berry dessert. Proceeds from all these items benefit Camp Moss Hollow. Please 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
www.washingtonpost.com/camp and clicking on the donation link. To use MasterCard or Visa by phone, call 202-334-5100 and follow the instructions on our taped message.
kellyj@washpost.com
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washingtonpost.com/johnkelly
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DARCARS Top makes and models at super prices are waiting for you at DARCARS dealerships throughout the DC area. See
darcars.com.
Long Windows
Buy your replacement windows locally and enjoy the savings. See
longwindows.com.
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010
APPLE CORPS LTD
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