10.22 - vroom vroom
what’s going on in washington d.c.?
D.C.’s newest museum, Planet Word, opens today in the restored Franklin School building (13th and K St. NW). The focus of the museum is interactive language and the facility also offers a stunning design and plenty of interactive exhibits. Tickets are free, but need to be reserved in advance.
If you have access to a car, North Star Stables in Virginia is hosting a “trot or treat” on Sunday. Drive through to see horses dolled up in Halloween costumes.
Celebrate Day of the Dead by painting a ceramic skull at HalfSmoke in Shaw on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Tickets are $25 and include a complimentary drink.
let’s talk food and drinks
14th St’s Compass Rose is introducing a weekend bakery - La Bodega. La Bodega will serve a variety of pastries, including babka, cheesecake, and egg tarts.
Want a perfectly Instagrammable milk tea? Head to SecreTea in West End for some spooky pumpkin or taro-flavored milk teas.
Mmm sandwiches. Find out about 12 new sandwich options in Washington City Paper, ranging from a Ham & Mustard option at Capitol Hill’s Fight Club to a vegetarian Mexican option at Shaw’s Taqueria Xochi
look good advocating
With election day right around the corner (280 hours to be exact), a friend launched a powerful advocacy project - Stamp Out Fascism. Stamp Out Fascism is raising money for Indivisible by selling custom designed t-shirts. Check out their website to order.
what’s on our minds?
After popping up seemingly overnight in 2017, electric scooters are now a fairly ubiquitous site around the city. While the scooters can be fun, they’re also a bit of a lightning rod for controversy - with some dangerous driving behaviors, lawsuits stemming from alleged maintenance failures, and “scooter litter” injuring or nearly injuring pedestrians. The D.C. Council and scooter operators have gone back and forth in the past few years regarding regulations, primarily around operating speeds and number of licenses. The latest? The number of licenses for scooters/e-bikes will increase from 11,000 to 20,000 until 2023, but scooters will now be required to be locked to racks that maintain at least three feet of unobstructed walkway.
If you haven’t yet, enroll in D.C.’s Bluetooth-based COVID tracing system. If you have contact with another individual who tests positive (and has opted in), the system will notify you. On iPhones, it’s easy to turn on by going to Settings, then “exposure notifications.”
Quick links to other weekly #goodreads:
The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League–Obsessed Parents - per The Atlantic, “Where the desperation of late-stage meritocracy is so strong, you can smell it…There is a name for the youth athlete who has too many coaches, too much training, and who treats sports as a full-time job: the overserved athlete. And many of the players in this category are suffering physically and emotionally.”
The 8th Wonder of the World - per The Verge, “In 2017, President Donald Trump and the Wisconsin GOP struck a deal with Foxconn that promised to turn Southeastern Wisconsin into a tech manufacturing powerhouse. In exchange for billions in tax subsidies, Foxconn was supposed to build an enormous LCD factory in the tiny village of Mount Pleasant, creating 13,000 jobs. Three years later, the factory — and the jobs — don’t exist, and they probably never will.”
How America Invented the White Woman Who Just Loves Fall - per Jezebel, “You know her even if you don’t know her: long hair tucked underneath a premature beanie, swimming in an oversized, off-the-shoulder cozy sweater, knee-high brown suede boots she’s been dying to break in all summer. Maybe she’s taking a selfie with a dreaded Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, or staging a photo shoot at an apple orchard on a still sweltering October Saturday that she’ll perfect on VSCO hours later, accentuating all the right orange and red tones.”
what are we watching/reading?
Want a (seemingly) definitive answer on the scariest movie? U.K.-based Broadband Choices ran a study to find out which horror movies increase viewers’ heartrates the most. The winner? Sinister, during which viewers registered an average heart rate 32% higher than their resting rate. (h/t to Reza Zomorrodian for the find)
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‘til next time -courtney