12.10 - let it snow?
what’s going on in d.c.
CityCenter’s 150,000-pound ice maze is back this weekend, winding through The Park at City Center. Plan to get there early, as lines were very long in the past.
The Georgetown ice rink is teaming with the Swiss embassy today from 2-6 pm for a pop-up ice skating event featuring complimentary hot chocolate and cookies.
The beautiful Victura Park at the Kennedy Center is hosting a holiday market throughout the weekend with vendors and seasons drinks/food. The National Arboretum is also hosting Christmas tree vendors and a “procrastinator’s holiday market” this weekend.
If you missed the Wharf’s boat parade last weekend and/or are looking for more, the famous Annapolis boat/yacht parade is on Saturday from 6-8 p.m. Expect tons of festive boats and large crowds.
On Sunday, N.E. D.C.’s Cultivate the City is sponsoring a class on DIY holiday farm wreath making. For $25, you can learn how to make your own wreath with materials from urban farms.
If you’d rather get a quick 5K in on Sunday morning, join Pacers Running at 9 a.m. in Navy Yard for a run followed by a free coffee and pastry.
Catch some holiday light displays around the D.C. area, including the Festival of Lights at Watkins Regional Park or Navy Yard’s Light Yards.
let’s talk food and drinks
my weekly best bite: salt + pepper shrimp at H St.’s Copycat
There’s a peppermint mocha latte competition in National Landing on Sunday, with free holiday drink samples and a live DJ.
Could be a good weekend to try one of Eater’s best restaurants of 2021 or their hottest new restaurants - Daru and Ilili are high on my list.
looking ahead: the owners of Mi Vida, the popular Wharf restaurants, are planning to open a second location downtown in the spot that formerly housed Rosa Mexicano.
what’s on our minds?
Pre-pandemic, about 200k federal employees commuted into D.C. every weekday, with only 3% of feds teleworking daily. In 2020, that percentage of daily teleworkers surged to 59%. With increasingly permanent telework arrangements, the D.C. government is struggling to adapt to an emptier downtown, with businesses designed to serve office workers closing. The trend is unlikely to slow, with the General Services Administration planning to downsize office space between 20-50% post-pandemic.
Quick links to other weekly #goodreads:
Up all night with a Twitch millionaire: The loneliness and rage of the Internet’s new rock stars - per The Washington Post, “Ten hours a day, streamers are broadcasting lives of obsession and wealth for an unforgiving crowd. How long can any of them last?”
Truth Is Elusive in Attack on a French Soccer Star - per The New York Times, “The assault of a top women’s player made headlines, with masked men, a metal bar and the arrest of a teammate. But weeks later, new details suggest the original story might have been wrong.”
The Abortion I Didn’t Have - per The New York Times Magazine, “I never thought about ending my pregnancy. Instead, at 19, I erased the future I had imagined for myself.”
what are we watching/reading?
Netflix’s holiday movies - generally pretty cheesy - still might have some hidden gems. NYT ranked this year’s batch and the terrible review of Father Christmas is Back (8% on Rotten Tomatoes) got me thinking - what are the worst holiday movies? Rotten Tomatoes ranked them if you’re looking for something particularly cringey (or to see if your fav was robbed -a.k.a. Jingle All The Way)
Alamo Drafthouse’s first D.C. location opens today (!) with showings of West Side Story, Don’t Look Up, Enanto, Being the Ricardos, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.