Falls Church News-Press - March 27, 2008 edition

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Index Editorial..................2 Letters................2, 6 Comment........10-13 Community News & Notes..............14-15 Business News & Notes...................16 Sports.............18-20 Roger Ebert....22-24 Press Pass..........25 Calendar.........26-27

Sodoku................29 Comics.................29 Crossword...........29 Restaurant Spotlight ............................30 Classified Ads......34 Business & Services Directory..............35 Weekly Focus .36-37 Critter Corner.......38 Business Listing..39

Capital improvements, projected for implementation over the next five years in the City of Falls Church, will press the City to its fiscal limits, Assistant City Manager Cindy Mester told the City Council Monday.

She said that a projected total of $68 million in expenditures on maintenance, renovation and construction of the City’s

infrastructure will increase the City’s debt to the maximum limit, allowed to retain its current bond rating, by 2013.

She added that contributions to the projects from the City’s operating budget will also lower the fund balance to the edge of its “safe zone” by the same year.

The report startled some Council members. Councilman Dan Sze called it, “daunting, if not downright frightening.”

Others were quick to indicate they may put some projected improvements on indefinite hold. Those would include a $16 million renovation of City Hall and $30 million for the construction of a new school.

They constitute $46 million of the total $68 million projected as needed during the next five year period.

Councilman Dan Maller,

It came as a startling revelation to some on the Falls Church City Council Monday that, despite prospects of raising the real estate tax rate from $1.01 to $1.04 to balance the coming fiscal year budget this spring, the result will be that homeowners in Falls Church will pay an average of $112 less in taxes.

That’s due to the fact that a sharp average drop in residential real estate values will more than offset the three-cent increase in the tax rate.

The Council will have a month, until its April 28 meeting, to deliberate and hold public hearings on the budget proposed

by City Manager Wyatt Shields earlier this month.

In its first action on the budget, the Council approved on “first reading” an ordinance to set the tax rate. By putting the $1.04 rate per $100 of assessed valuation, into the ordinance, the Council is now bound not to exceed that amount in its final budget. It can lower it, but not raise it.

Still, the $1.04 rate represents a far more modest impact on citizen pocketbooks in Falls Church than that in some surrounding jurisdictions, where the collapse in housing values is requiring a combination of draconian cuts in services and huge tax rate hikes. In Loudoun County, for example, a rate hike of as much as 22 cents is being contemplated.

Shields told the Council Monday that, for the second year in a row, the preliminary contribution of some of the new large-scale mixed-use projects recently completed or under

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March 27 - April 2, 2008



An Independent and Certified

• City of Falls Church ‘Busi

The referendum that has qualified for the May 6 ballot in the City of Falls Church will kill the economic development momentum that has already produced tax revenues sufficient to maintain the quality of the Falls Church school system, without a net increase in residential taxes.

It must be made plain: the referendum, if it passes, will grind to a halt the development process that has helped the City escape some of the worst consequences of the national housing crisis in ways that many of its neighboring jurisdictions have not.

The referendum calls for a charter change to limit the residential component of any new mixed-use project approved on the City’s commercially-zoned corridors to 40%.

To date, most of the projects that have been approved, including the completed Broadway, Byron and Read buildings, the nearly-completed Spectrum and Pearson Square projects, and the authorized Hekemian North Washington and Atlantic Realty City Center plans, involve a significantly higher residential component than 40%. In other words, had the referendum’s proposed charter change been in effect in 2000, not a single one of these projects would have been approved or built.

The reason is simple: the market did not, and does not, dictate the viability of more commercially-intensive projects.

There is a flaw in the thinking of many proponents of the referendum to the effect that the City can tell, or mandate, developers to build something that will not pass muster with investors, whose money they require. These citizens think it is just a matter of playing hardball with the developers, and they will come around, sooner or later.

They could not be more wrong. That was the prevailing thinking in Falls Church for decades, and the result was no new commercial development, period. It was not until wiser heads began to appreciate what goes into a major development that they moved to embrace new approaches to draw in the first new development in decades.

That development is pulling the City’s fiscal chestnuts out of the fire already, and will do so even more significantly in years to come.

But proponents of the referendum are not just those who are wrongheaded on how to get better development for the City. We suspect there are enough of them smart enough to realize that its passage will kill the development momentum altogether, and that’s what they want.

We can’t assume anyone’s motives for wanting this. But there are powerful interests across the City’s borders who look with great envy and covetousness upon the resources the City has, its water system and its prime location, who fancy they’d benefit mightily if the City could no longer afford to maintain its independence, so they could come in to run roughshod over it. Killing the development momentum in Falls Church would certainly be something they’d derive great benefit from.

Editor, My name is Nader Baroukh, and I am running for City Council.

Throughout my life, I have sought to serve the public, both personally and professionally. When I first moved to the City of Falls Church, I quickly learned that the City values its strong tradition of civic participation.

I decided to run as an independent candidate for City Council because I believe government works best when it welcomes new ideas and varied points of view. Serving on the City’s Major Design Team

for the City Center, I worked diligently to press upon Council the need to create a true city center and worked to improve the Atlantic Realty City Center project. Through these efforts, I realized that a majority of the Council and its leadership have lost their way.

There are now serious threats to maintaining what has made Falls Church a unique and great place to live.

The City is not headed in the right direction in its current development, fiscal, school, and management policies.

• The target for a healthy

city tax base is 50% commercial/50% residential. Despite mammoth new developerfriendly projects that threaten our neighborhoods and add significant new public service costs, commercial properties only make up approximately 25% of the City’s total tax assessments.

• The City’s residential tax burden is one of the highest in the state and higher than that of many surrounding jurisdictions.

• Our once top-rated schools have fallen in the national rankings and are increasingly overcrowded, but funding new facilities and staff will be very difficult for our small city.

• Last year, the City’s police department lost its state accreditation—accreditation is the best measure of a department’s compliance with professional law enforcement standards.

The only way to address these and other concerns now resonating throughout the community is to elect new leadership to City Council.

I will bring a much-needed alternative voice to the Council and have the experience required to regain a bright future for our City. My legal career has focused on public service. Presently, I am a senior attorney with management responsibilities at the Department of Homeland Security. I graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and have been nationally recognized for my leadership and commitment to public service with a Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

I believe we can achieve our City’s near and long-term goals through a development strategy that retains a sense More Letters on Page 6

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 3

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

“Is the proposed new F.C. City budget acceptable to you?”

• Yes • No Continued from Page 1

construction has made a major difference.

This year, the tax contribution from these sources has been roughly the equivalent of two cents on the tax rate, according to the City’s Chief Financial Officer John Tuohy. A penny on the real estate tax rate raises about $366,000 for the City’s operating expenses.

Last year, taxes on new construction covered about three cents on the tax rate, and in the coming years, as new projects are completed and occupied, the impact will be far greater.

Therefore, in a small jurisdiction the size of Falls Church, even the current level of new development has a disproportionately significant impact on the tax base, compared to larger surrounding jurisdictions.

The City is also relatively protected from major budget cuts at the state level, since its reliance on state funds for its schools and other programs is proportionately far less than

that of many other jurisdictions in the state, Tuohy pointed out Monday.

On the expenditure side of the proposed budget, there is zero growth in City operations costs and zero growth in school operations and administrative costs. The only increase has been in teacher salaries, designated to maintain the quality of the schools here by maintaining competitiveness.

“The school budget is incredibly prudent,” George Mason High School teacher Joel Block, president of the Falls Church Educators Association, told the City Council Monday. He was backed by more than a dozen teachers who sat quietly in the Council chambers.

“This year’s school budget was particularly difficult. The school board was extremely mindful of the changes in the real estate market, and used that information to make an extremely tight budget,” he said. As a result, the proposed budget, “has the smallest increase in over a decade.”

He added, “When you adjust for inflation, there is no growth in this year’s school budget.

To accomplish this while keeping the quality of our schools intact is impressive. Then to know they added programs like the Primary Years International Baccalaureate program by trading off other positions and costs is incredible. It is an incredibly frugal budget.”

He went on to note, “What is included for salaries is the minimum that is acceptable to our members without bad consequences. Many of the surrounding districts already pay more.”

Councilman David Chavern agreed. Holding the school budget down this year, “shows a lot of good work,” he said. “The school board did a fantastic job lowering the Superintendent’s proposed 7% increase to only 3%.” He noted the increase was only in teacher salaries, that personnel costs account for 80% of the total school budget. “Even that may not be enough to keep our schools competitive,” he added.

• Don’t know/Dont’ care

Vote on-line at www.FCNP.com

Results of Last Week’s Question: “Should Falls Church form a special ‘Arts & Culture” district?”

The FCNP On-Line polls are surveys, not scientific polls.

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

noting, “We are facing a serious situation,” remarked, “I would never go forward with (the City Hall and school projects) without being strongly persuaded by facilities studies.”

Vice Mayor Lindy Hockenberry agreed. “I concur,” she said. “I detest renovations. You never get enough out of them.”

Councilman David Snyder expressed concern for, “the long term fiscal sustainability of the City,” adding, “We need to get a read from the bond rating agencies about the implications.”

Ironically, Mester’s projection included a reduction in the estimate of the cost for the new school from $50 million to $30 million, even though the actual cost may be closer to $50 million by the time funds are needed to build it four years from now.

Page 5

The projection also does not include an array of transportation improvements that were to be funded through the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.

Since that funding mechanism was deemed unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court, all projects associated with it were pulled from the City’s Capital Improvement Plan. They will be put back in, contingent on whether the Virginia General Assembly achieves an alternative funding mechanism at its special session next month.

Major components of the five-year plan include maintenance and routine replacement of the City’s water and sewer lines, police department radio upgrades, storm water improvements (with 28 miles of pipe in the City, the plan calls for replacing a thousand feet per year), $6 million toward the City Center parking garage, athletic fields and Roberts Park upgrades, $800,000 for Big

Chimneys Park improvements, $500,000 for other parks in the City, and $175,000 for a new skate park in the Cavalier Trail Park.

By 2013, the bonding portion of the total $68 million will bring the City’s annual debt obligations to 12% of its total annual expenditures, the upper limit set by a City ordinance passed a decade ago that has helped secure the City’s firstrate bond rating.

The City’s on-going fund balance will also drop to 12% of annual expenditures, a low water mark also set as a limit

by City statute for the same reason.

Funding for the capital improvements, in addition to bonding and the use of fund balance, will be augmented by dedicating one-percent of the annual operating budget to them.

The Council will vote on whether to approve the City Manager’s proposed capital improvement plan in May.

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Drunkenness, 1000 blk. W Broad St., March 11, 12:42 p.m., police arrested a male, 49, of Centreville, MD for DIP. Destruction of Property, 300 blk.

James St., between March 10, 7:45 p.m. and March 11, 8:09 a.m., unknown person(s) broke the driver side turn signal on a vehicle.

Larceny from Vehicle, 500 blk. N West St., between March 10, 6:00 p.m. and March 11, 10:00 a.m., unknown person(s) stole a Garmin GPS from a vehicle.

Drunkenness, 700 blk. S Washington St., March 11, 7:22 p.m., police arrested a female, 45, of NO FIXED ADDRESS, for DIP. Drunkenness, 700 blk. S Washington St., March 11, 7:24 p.m., police arrested a male, 52, of Falls Church, VA for DIP. Larceny from Vehicle, 200 blk. N Maple Ave., between March 8, 1:30 p.m. and March 10, 12:00 p.m., unknown person(s) removed the hubcaps from a vehicle.

Destruction of Property, 500 blk. N Washington St., between February 28 and March 12, unknown person(s) damaged the front hood of a vehicle.

Drunkenness, 100 blk. Hillwood Ave., March 13, 6:09 p.m., police arrested a female, 45, of NO FIXED ADDRESS, for DIP. Driving under the Influence, 1100 blk.

W Broad St., March 13, 2:00 a.m., police arrested a male, 30, of NO FIXED ADDRESS, for DUI and driving without a license.

Drunkenness, 200 blk. W Broad St., March 14, 7:30 p.m., police arrested a male,

49, of Falls Church, VA for DIP. Urinating in Public, 6700 blk. Wilson Blvd., March 15, 1:31 a.m., police arrested a male, 26, of Herndon, VA for Urinating in Public.

Driving under the Influence, 1000 blk.

Roosevelt Blvd., March 15, 2:23 a.m., police arrested a male, 25, of Silver Spring, MD for DUI and Refusal.

Drunkenness, 1000 blk. Roosevelt Blvd., March 15, 2:45 a.m., police arrested a male, 19, of Olney, MD for DIP. Disorderly Conduct, Wallace St/ S Washington St., March 15, 3:26 p.m., police arrested a female, 45, of NO FIXED ADDRESS, for Disorderly Conduct.

Fraud, 400 blk. Sherrow Ave., between August 10, 2007 and February 20, 2008, unknown person(s) used victim’s credit card number to make unauthorized EBay/ PayPal purchases.

Larceny from Building, 400 blk. W Broad St., March 16, between 12:20 p.m. and 1:58 p.m., unknown person(s) stole a silver Rolex watch valued at $6,000.00.

Larceny from Building, 400 blk.

James Ct., March 16, 4:46 p.m., unknown person(s) stole two bicycles from the rear backyard of a resident.

Larceny, Hillwood Mart, 100 blk.

Hillwood Ave., March 17, 7:01 a.m., unknown person(s) pumped $61.52 worth of supreme gasoline and drove off without paying for it.

Motor Vehicle Theft, 1000 blk.

Hillwood Ave., March 17, 8:58 a.m., unknown person(s) stole a silver 2006 Honda Odyssey from victim’s driveway.

Incident to the case, the vehicle was recovered by the Metro Transit Police in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Larceny from Building, 100 blk.

S Washington St., between March 6 and March 17, unknown person(s) stole a cash box containing $100.00 from an

unlocked desk drawer.

Continued on Page 33

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

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Page 7

Connolly Cites 29 Endorsements by Officials Fairfax County Board Chair Gerry Connolly, seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 11th District seat being vacated this year by Rep. Tom Davis, issued a list of endorsements by 29 area elected officials yesterday. The list included Fairfax County Board colleagues Penny Gross, Linda Smyth, Sharon Bullova, Gerry Hyland, Jeff McKay, Cathy Hudgins and Dana Kauffman, along with Fairfax School Board members Ilryong Moon, Tina Hone, Phil Niedziekski and Brad Center. Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille, Arlington County Board members Walter Tejada and Jay Fisette, and County Clerk of the Court Paul Ferguson were also on the list. In the June 10 primary, Connolly, running for Congress for the first time, is matched against former U.S. Rep Leslie Byrne, as well as Doug Denneny and Lori Alexander.

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Education Foundation Wins Support from F.C. Council The Falls Church Education Foundation won the unanimous support of the Falls Church City Council for a grant of $30,000 out of the Council’s contingency fund Monday, and is hoping for the figure to be matched by the School Board to meet the non-profit’s budget needs for the coming year. FCEF Executive Director Donna Englander noted that the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year, its annual banquet set for April 18, is coming up. This year it will feature as its keynote speaker Dr. Gregory H. Williams, author of his best selling memoir, “Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black.� Williams taught at Falls Church’s George Mason High School in the 1960s. Corporate sponsors for the event include Moore Cadillac Hummer, Acacia Federal Savings Bank, Aladdin’s Lamp, Atlantic Realty, Clark Construction, Cox Communications, Creative Classics, Diener and Associates, Dominion, the Falls Church News-Press, Greenscape, H & R Mortgage, Harris Teeter, LaFave & Associates, Needham/ Mitnick & Pollack, Northern Virginia Tutoring Service, Original Pancake House, PNC Bank, Simply Success, Virzona Inc., Walter L. Psfhillips, Inc. and the Young Group.

GMHS Musical “Beauty and the Beast� Opens Next Week With performances next Thursday, April 3, through Saturday, George Mason High School’s drama department will present the musical, “Beauty and the Beast� at the GMHS auditorium, and advance reviews say it will be smashing. In a related development, the 75-member GMHS band received a “superior� rating from each of the four judges involved in a March 7 competition at the West Potomac High school.

It marked the ninth year in a row the GMHS symphonic band earned this distinction.

The band performed Symphony No. 1 from Lord of the Rings by Johan De Meij, the Pathfinder of Panama by Sousa and Symphonic Episodes by Brian Balmages. On April 10, 165 music students at GMHS will take three buses to perform in Myrtle Beach over three days. The symphonic and concert bands, jazz ensemble, two percussion ensembles, and the chorus will perform.

Affordable Housing Confab Set April 3 in F.C. With an introduction by Falls Church Mayor Robin Gardner, the Falls Church Housing Corporation and Homestretch, Inc. are co-hosting an information exchange entitled, “Putting a Falls Church Face on Affordable Housing,� next Thursday, April 3 at the Fellowship Hall of the Falls Church Presbyterian Church, 225 E. Broad St. “Affordable Housing: A Key Ingredient for New Urban Smart Growth� is the title of the keynote by Melissa Bondi, Housing Director of the Smarter Growth Coalition. “Local Schools: The Corollary Between Staff Retention and Lifestyle,� will be presented by Dan Gardner, president of the Falls Church Education Foundation and former mayor of Falls Church.

Mason District Patrol Nets 1 DWI Arrest Fairfax County Police conducted DWI-directed patrols in the Mason District on March 21 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Approximately 59 motorists were stopped and checked to assure their ability to drive had not been impaired by alcohol or drugs.

One arrest was made for DWI. Summons for miscellaneous traffic offenses were issued to 25, and two outstanding felony warrants were served as the result of a traffic stop. Eight officers and one auxiliary officer participated.

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

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March 27 - April 2 2008

falls_church

3/19/08

Page 9

1:23 PM

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Falls Church Housing Corporation & Homestretch, Inc. and our civic supporters in the Falls Church community including

Citzens for a Better City, Falls Church Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters, Village Preservation and Improvement Society and Falls Church News Press are proud to present

COMMUNITY INFORMATION EXCHANGE:

S E L L AT AUCTION IN NEW YORK

Putting a Falls Church Face on Affordable Housing

Thursday, April 3, 2008

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Falls Church Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall Doyle New York is currently evaluating works by the following artists to offer in our May 2008 Paintings auction.

ALMA THOMAS ANNE DEAN TRUITT BARNETT NEWMAN BRIDGET RILEY G E N E D AV I S HELEN FRANKENTHALER JO BAER JULES OLITSKI K E N N E T H N O L A N D ( see right) L A R RY P O O N S MORRIS LOUIS PA U L R E E D PETER HALLEY THOMAS DOWNING

225 East Broad Street (enter Hall from entrance facing Broad Street), Falls Church

Designed to help your opinions become better informed and specific to our own Falls Church community. Please come to learn more!

• Introduction - Robin Gardner, Mayor, City of Falls Church • Keynote Address - Affordable Housing: A key Ingredient for New Urban Smart Growth Melissa Bondi, Housing Director, Smarter Growth Coalition, and Arlington County Housing Commissioner

• Truth and Fiction about Affordable Housing in Falls Church - Michelle Krocker, Executive Director, Norther Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, Jeff Peterson, Village Preservation and Improvement Society

• The real Face of Homestretch Clients: Up Not Down - Christopher Fay, Excutive Director, Homestretch

• Falls Church Housing Losses and Needs - Dana Lewis, Senior Housing Specialist, City of Falls Church

• Local Schools: The Corollary Between Staff Retention and Lifestyle - Dan Gardner, President. Falls Church Education Foundation former City of Falls Church Mayor

Please call Reid Dunavant at 202-342-6100 or email DoyleDC@DoyleNewYork.com

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Page 10

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Hillary Clinton may not realize it yet, but she’s just endured one of the worst weeks of her campaign.

First, Barack Obama weathered the Rev. Jeremiah Wright affair without serious damage to his nomination prospects. Obama still holds a tiny lead among Democrats nationally in the Gallup tracking poll, just as he did before this whole affair blew up.

Second, Obama’s lawyers successfully prevented revotes in Florida and Michigan.

That means it would be virtually impossible for Clinton to take a lead in either elected delegates or total primary votes.

Third, as Noam Scheiber of The New Republic has reported, most superdelegates have accepted Nancy Pelosi’s judgment that the winner of the elected delegates should get the nomination.

Instead of lining up behind Clinton, they’re drifting away. Her lead among them has shrunk by about 60 in the past month, according to Avi Zenilman of Politico.com.

In short, Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects continue to dim. The door is closing. Night is coming. The end, however, is not near.

Last week, an important Clinton adviser told Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (also of Politico) that Clinton had no more than a 10 percent chance of getting the nomination. Now, she’s probably down to a 5 percent chance.

Five percent.

Let’s take a look at what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance: The Democratic Party is probably going to have to endure another three months of daily sniping.

For another three months, we’ll have the Carvilles likening the Obamaites to Judas and former generals accusing Clintonites of McCarthyism. For three months, we’ll have the daily round of resume padding and sulfurous conference calls. We’ll have campaign aides blurting “blue dress” and onlybecause-he’s-black references as they let slip their private contempt.

For three more months (maybe more!) the campaign will proceed along in its Verdun-like pattern.

There will be a steady rifle fire of character assassination from the underlings, interrupted by the occasional firestorm of artillery when the contest touches upon race, gender or patriotism. The policy debates between the two have been long exhausted,

so the only way to get the public really engaged is by poking some raw national wound.

For the sake of that 5 percent, this will be the sourest spring. About a fifth of Clinton and Obama supporters now say they wouldn’t vote for the other candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, on the other side, voters get an unobstructed view of the Republican nominee. John McCain’s approval ratings have soared 11 points. He is now viewed positively by 67 percent of Americans. A month ago, McCain was losing to Obama among independents by double digits in a general election matchup. Now McCain has a lead among this group.

For three more months, Clinton is likely to hurt Obama even more against McCain, without hurting him against herself. And all this is happening so she can preserve that 5 percent chance.

When you step back and think about it, she is amazing. She possesses the audacity of hopelessness.

Why does she go on like this? Does Clinton privately believe that Obama is so incompetent that only she can deliver the policies they both support?

Is she simply selfish, and willing to put her party through agony for the sake of her slender chance?

Are leading Democrats so narcissistic that they would create bitter stagnation even if they were granted one-party rule?

The better answer is that Clinton’s long rearguard action is the logical extension of her relentlessly political life.

For nearly 20 years, she has been encased in the apparatus of political celebrity. Look at her schedule as first lady and ever since. Think of the thousands of staged events, the tens of thousands of times she has pretended to be delighted to see someone she doesn’t know, the hundreds of thousands of times she has recited empty cliches and exhortatory banalities, the millions of photos she has posed for in which she is supposed to appear empathetic or tough, the billions of politically opportune halftruths that have bounced around her head.

No wonder the Clinton campaign feels impersonal. It’s like a machine for the production of politics. It plows ahead from event to event following its own iron logic. The only question is whether Clinton herself can step outside the apparatus long enough to turn it off and withdraw voluntarily or whether she will force the rest of her party to intervene and jam the gears.

If she does the former, she would surprise everybody with a display of self-sacrifice. Her campaign would cruise along at a lower register until North Carolina, then use that as an occasion to withdraw.

If she does not, she would soldier on doggedly, taking down as many allies as necessary.

WASHINGTON -- Back in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s worst days when he was grappling with the Vietnam quagmire and raucous anti-war protests at home, he said that in the big decisions about war and peace: “The people should be in on the take offs as well as the landings.”

Tell that to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who apparently could care less what Americans think -- except every four years at election time.

Cheney made that clear in an intriguing interview with ABC News on his recent Middle East trip. Despite the difficulties surrounding the unprovoked U.S. invasion of Iraq five years ago, Cheney insisted, “It was the right thing to do.”

When the interviewer told him that two-thirds of Americans say the war in Iraq is not worth

fighting, Cheney scoffed.

The administration would not be “blown off course by the fluctuations in public opinion polls,” he vowed.

Cheney went on to claim that Abraham Lincoln would never have succeeded in the Civil War if he had paid attention to polls.

White House press secretary Dana Perino later indicated that Bush was on the same page.

Asked about Cheney’s remarks to ABC, Perino said the Bush administration realizes its popularity polls are very low (30 percent) “but largely that’s because of people being unhappy about the war, about the fact that it has gone on five years. . .and we’re aware of that.”

She added that both Bush and Cheney have long believed the reason they are leaders is because they do “not chase popularity polls but. . . hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them. . .”

She went on to explain that the administration Continued on Page 38

We’re now in the midst of an epic financial crisis, which ought to be at the center of the election debate. But it isn’t.

I don’t expect presidential campaigns to have all the answers to our current crisis -- even financial experts are scrambling to keep up with events. But I think we’re entitled to more answers, and a clearer commitment to financial reform, than we’re getting so far.

In truth, I don’t expect much from John McCain, who has both admitted not knowing much about economics and denied having ever said that. Anyway, lately he’s been busy demonstrating that he doesn’t know much about the Middle East, either.

Yet the McCain campaign’s silence on the financial crisis has disappointed even my low expectations.

When McCain’s economic advisers do speak up about the economy’s problems, they don’t inspire confidence. For example, last week one McCain economic adviser -- Kevin Hassett, the co-author of “Dow 36,000” -- insisted that everything would have been fine if state and local governments hadn’t tried to limit suburban sprawl.

On the Democratic side, it’s somewhat disappointing that Barack Obama, whose campaign has understandably made a point of contrasting his early opposition to the Iraq war with Hillary Clinton’s initial support, has tried to score a twofer by suggesting that the war, in addition to all its other costs, is responsible for our economic troubles.

The war is indeed a grotesque waste of resources, which will place huge long-run burdens on the American public. But it’s just wrong to blame the war for our current economic mess: in the short run, wartime spending actually stimulates the economy. Remember, the lowest unemployment rate America has experienced over the last half-century came at the height of the Vietnam War. Hillary Clinton has not, as far as I can tell, made any comparably problematic economic claims. But she, like Obama, has been disappointingly quiet about the key issue: the need to reform our out-ofcontrol financial system.

America came out of the Great Depression with a pretty effective financial safety net, based on a fundamental quid pro quo: the government stood ready to rescue banks if they got in trouble, but only on the condition that those banks accept regulation of the risks they were allowed to take.

Over time, however, many of the roles traditionally filled by regulated banks were taken over by unregulated institutions -- the “shadow banking system,” which relied on complex financial arrangements to bypass those safety regulations.

Now, the shadow banking system is facing the 21st-century equivalent of the wave of bank runs that swept America in the early 1930s. And the government is rushing in to help, with hundreds of billions from the Federal Reserve, and hundreds of billions more from government-sponsored institutions like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

Given the risks to the economy if the financial system melts down, this rescue mission is justified. But you don’t have to be an economic radical, or even a vocal reformer like Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to see that what’s happening now is the quid without the quo.

Last week Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, declared that Frank is right about the need for expanded regulation. Rubin put it clearly: If Wall Street companies can count on being rescued like banks, then they need to be regulated like banks.

But will that logic prevail politically?

Not if McCain makes it to the White House. His chief economic adviser is former Sen. Phil Gramm, a fervent advocate of financial deregulation. In fact, I’d argue that aside from Alan Greenspan, nobody did as much as Gramm to make this crisis possible.

Both Democrats, by contrast, are running more or less populist campaigns. But at least so far, neither Democrat has made a clear commitment to financial reform.

Is that simply an omission? Or is it an ominous omen? Recent history offers reason to worry.

It’s clear that the Clinton administration went along too easily with deregulation of the financial industry. And it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that contributions from Wall Street helped that happen.

Last year, there was no question at all about the way Wall Street’s financial contributions to the new Democratic majority in Congress helped preserve, at least for now, the tax loophole that lets hedge fund managers pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries.

Now, the securities and investment industry is pouring money into both Obama’s and Clinton’s coffers. And these donors surely believe that they’re buying something in return.

Let’s hope they’re wrong.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

The continuing flap over Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, serves as a sobering reminder of the true state of affairs, when it comes to race and class differences, in our land. All of the platitudes and self-righteous disclaimers notwithstanding, America remains deeply divided, and whenever indisputable evidence of that bubbles to the surface, things get ugly.

Privileged white males like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and their ilk dominate the nation’s airwaves daily, fomenting racially-tinged outrage against targeted Hispanic and other “alien” populations with impunity. Sadly, Limbaugh was elevated by ESPN to status as a commentator on Sunday Night Countdown, until he made a racist remark that even his most sympathetic patrons in the media industry could not condone.

Yet when someone dishes back on behalf of the minority populations who are under relentless siege from the likes of Limbaugh, and it makes the national airwaves not for its content but for political advantage, they are vilified and disowned.

Our accepted state of affairs is that those who “disagree” with Limbaugh, Dobbs, Ann Coulter and their ilk must remain civil and polite even in the face of scathing demagoguery and hatemongering. If they get a little heated in the face of this, they’re accused of being the haters.

This calculus has defined the presidential campaign and what is on or off limits for the candidates. Most of the major media, owned and operated by arch-conservative white male businessmen, enforce these rules, and that’s what now has Obama over a barrel.

Common wisdom says that one should blame the Rev. Wright’s mouth for Obama’s new problem. That ignores the fact that Wright’s followers share his views, as do those in other black churches where the preaching is even more extreme. These are the millions of America’s underclass, who embrace such anger and frustration as reflected in the Rev. Wright’s words. Moreover, his views are shared by hundreds of millions, even more, around the globe.

The media, right-wing white male pundits and their admirers would have you believe such “extremism” is marginal to our society. It is not marginal, it is kept in the dark.

Look at the demographic makeup of the outrageous percentage of the U.S. population that is incarcerated. Look at the demographic makeup of wage, salary, education and employment statistics. Look at the residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans after Katrina, and the fact that whole sections of that City remain unreconstructed to this day.

It is a shame that the major political candidates have taken a “cut and run” approach to the revelations of Rev. Wright’s statements, and worse, some are beginning to use them to inflict damage on their opponents.

What would be so wrong with saying, “Hey, I don’t like it, but this is real and we have to come to grips with it!”

What would be so wrong with going to the roots of the kind of anger and frustration in the Rev. Wright’s sermons, and committing to begin the healing process there?

Back in the 1960s, a president who was never considered a “bleeding heart liberal,” Lyndon B. Johnson, launched a program known as the “War on Poverty.”

It was a sincere and modestly-effective attempt to go to the root of the racial and cultural divide in the nation and begin to heal.

But in the 1970s, the social ferment that helped fuel interest in such humanitarian efforts dissolved into an unparalleled resurgence of self-indulgence and personal excess. By the 1980s this was institutionalized by the Reagan presidency. Americans were praised and rewarded for their selfishness and greed, and the “War on Poverty” became the butt of cruel jokes and derision.

Meanwhile, “best management practices” have systematically driven down real wages and outsourced millions of jobs. Now, as the economic noose is tightened around us all, the nation’s elites are turning up the volume on their noise machines against those who protest, including by fueling growing white frustration against minorities.

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WASHINGTON -- While the cool cat’s away, the Hillary mice will play.

As Barack Obama was floating in the pool with his daughters the last few days in St. Thomas, some Clinton disciples were floating the idea of St. Hillary as his vice president.

She can’t win without him, said one Hillary adviser, and he can’t win without her.

They’re stuck with each other.

It’s one of my favorite movie formulas, driving the dynamics in such classics as “A Few Good Men,” “The Big Easy” and “Guys and Dolls”: Charming, glib guy spars and quarrels with no-nonsense, driven girl, until they team up in the last reel. He spices up her life, and she stiffens his spine. And soon they hear the pitter-patter of little superdelegate feet, who are thrilled not to be pulled in two directions anymore.

And everybody’s happy. Or are they?

A couple of weeks ago, when Hill and Bill mentioned the possibility of a joint ticket, it was an attempt to undermine Obama and urge voters and superdelegates to put Hillary on top; the implication was that this was the only way Democrats could have both their stars, and besides, it was her turn.

The precocious boy wonder had plenty of time.

But with the math not in her favor, her options running out, Bill Richardson running out and her filigreed narrative of dodging bullets in Bosnia and securing peace in Northern Ireland unraveling, could Hillary actually think the vice presidency is the best she’ll do?

One Hillary pal said she wouldn’t want to go back to a Senate full of lawmakers who’d abandoned her for Obama. And even if she could get to be majority leader, would it be much fun working with Nancy Pelosi, whose distaste for the Clintons has led her to subtly maneuver for Obama?

Maybe The Terminator is thinking: If she could just get her pump in the door. Dick Cheney, after all, was able to run the White House and the world from the vice president’s residence, calling every shot while serving under a less experienced and younger president. And Observatory Circle is just up the street from where Hillary now lives.

But, aside from Barack and Michelle Obama’s certain resistance, would it fly? Many Hillary voters are hardening against Obama, and more and more Obama fans are getting turned off by the idea of dragging down the Obama brand with Clinton dysfunction.

“No drama, vote Obama” placards and Tshirts are popping up at Obama rallies, and one

of his military advisers dubbed him “No Shock Barack.”

It’s hard to imagine that after spending her whole life playing second-fiddle to a superstar pol, Hillary wants to do it again.

She’s been vice president.

Could the veep talk be a red herring? A ploy designed to distract attention from the Clintons’ real endgame?

Even some Clinton loyalists are wondering aloud if the win-at-all-costs strategy of Hillary and Bill -- which continued Tuesday when Hillary tried to drag the Rev. Wright back into the spotlight -- is designed to rough up Obama so badly and leave the party so riven that Obama will lose in November to John McCain.

If McCain only served one term, Hillary would have one last shot. On Election Day in 2012, she’d be 65.

Why else would Hillary suggest that McCain would be a better commander in chief than Obama, and why else would Bill imply that Obama was less patriotic -- and attended by more static -- than McCain?

Why else would Phil Singer, a Hillary spokesman, say in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that Obama was trying to disenfranchise the voters of Florida and Michigan. “When it comes to voting, Senator Obama has turned the audacity of hope into the audacity of nope,” he said, adding, “There’s a basic reality here, which is we could have avoided the entire George W. Bush presidency if we had counted votes in Florida.” So is Singer making the case that Obama is as anti-democratic as W. was when he snatched Florida from Al Gore?

Some top Democrats are increasingly worried that the Clintons’ divide-and-conquer strategy is nihilistic: Hillary or no democrat.

(Or, as one Democrat described it to ABC’s Jake Tapper: Hillary is going for “the Tonya Harding option” -- kneecap your rival.)

After all, the Clintons think of themselves as The Democratic Party. When Bill and Dick Morris triangulated during the first term, it was what was best for him, not the party. In 1996, when Bill turned the White House into Motel 1600 for fundraisers, it was more about his re-election than the re-elections of his fellow Democrats in Congress; in 2000, the White House focused its energies more on Hillary’s Senate win than Al Gore’s presidential run.

And even Clinton supporters know that Bill does not want to be replaced as the first black president, especially by a black president with enough magic to possibly eclipse him in the history books.

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Since 1973, the once dreaded American Psychiatric Association has become an ally of gay and lesbian equality. They have consistently withstood outside pressure from right wing organizations and instead chose to do what was in the best interest of GLBT mental health. Most notably, they endorsed same-sex civil marriage in a groundbreaking 2005 position paper.

In 1997, the APA first addressed ex-gay (or reparative) therapy by stating, “The potential risks of ‘reparative therapy’ are great and include depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior…Further, APA calls on these organizations and individuals to do all that is possible to decrease the stigma related to homosexuality wherever and whenever it may occur.”

In 2000, the APA issued an even stronger statement and recommended “that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals sexual orientation, keeping in mind the medical dictum, to ‘first do no harm.’”

Unfortunately, a terribly misguided gay psychiatrist, Dr. David L. Scasta, is violating the spirit – if not the letter - of APA policy statements. In May, he will be part of a controversial symposium he organized. It includes ex-gay therapist, Dr. Warren Throckmorton, who is the Sultan of Stigma and a leading purveyor of religion-based shame therapy.

Writing in the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists’ newsletter, Scasta claims this forum will seek, “common ground” on “both sides of the religious divide.” He also urges that participants keep the symposium, “scientifically and rationally based” and hopes those on stage are committed to, “avoiding rhetoric.” Near the end of his article, Scasta claims his goal is to “ratchet down the forces of polarization.”

If the seminar’s mission is to let cooler heads prevail, inviting Throckmorton is a curious choice. An unlicensed psychologist who teaches at fundamentalist Grove City College, Throckmorton wrote an inflammatory paper for a right wing website titled, “Is Sexual Re-orientation Possible?”, that compared leaving homosexuality to quitting smoking.

In the same paper, Throckmorton claimed that he “healed” a gay client after teaching him “self-understanding and assertiveness.”

Even more bizarre, Throckmorton suggested taking anti-anxiety drugs might “cure” homosexuality.

Throckmorton also produced a defamatory ex-gay video entitled, “I Do Exist.” The movie’s opening scene was a wide shot of New York pornography shops that supposedly represent gay life.

Scasta’s having an extremist like Throckmorton talk about reconciliation between religion and the science is like inviting Louis Farrakhan to a seminar to discuss Mid East peace between the Jews and the Palestinians.

While Scasta may be well intentioned, he seems woefully ignorant of his guest’s dubious credentials. Scasta justifies offering Throckmorton a platform because the doctor has rebuked the infamous Dr. Paul Cameron. Big deal. Cameron had become so radioactive that even Focus on the Family admonished him as early as 1996 saying they do not “adhere to Cameron’s statistics.”

Scasta also points out that Throckmorton called bizarre ex-gay therapist Richard Cohen a “menace.” What he fails to say is that Throckmorton wholeheartedly supported Cohen up until the moment Cohen humiliated himself on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Similarly, in a desperate attempt at self-preservation, Throckmorton took “I Do Exist” off the shelf the very week one of his “changed” subjects seemed to back away from supporting ex-gay ministries. The good doctor appears to have a habit of altering the facts by omission.

Throckmorton tries to appear enlightened because he rejects traditional “reparative therapy” which blames parents for causing homosexuality. This has more to do, however, with his ongoing campaign to undermine his chief rival, reparative therapist, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.

Throckmorton’s goal is to supplant Nicolosi’s reparative therapy model with his own ex-gay therapy regimen, known as Sexual Identity Therapy (SIT). Instead of blaming parents, SIT urges clients to suffer in deep, closeted denial in order to please God. Finally, Throckmorton habitually downplays the harm done by ex-gay therapy, despite the increasing number of survivors who have come forward to discuss their negative experiences.

It is a mystery why Scasta would want to legitimize a fringe professor from a small anti-gay fundamentalist college. Instead of furthering understanding, Scasta is eroding his own standing and possibly that of the American Psychiatric Association. Scasta is placing science on the same plane as right wing sophistry – all at the expense of the mental health of GLBT people.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Since it was first enacted, the GI Bill of Rights has been wildly successful. It is thought to have helped stave off a second Great Depression as American soldiers returned home from WWII, most without jobs and unclear plans for the future. The GI Bill granted 7.8 million of these veterans a college education; it is largely credited with the establishment of an American middle class, which lifted millions out of poverty and continues to power our economy over 60 years later.

Part of the New Deal legacy, the GI Bill has been a great investment in the American people. For every dollar spent on the program for WWII vets, the government estimates that seven dollars were generated.

Leaders throughout government and in business have been educated under the GI Bill. Five current U.S. Senators were able to obtain a college degree via this program.

In the sixty plus years since its inception, this quintessential piece of veteran’s legislation has undergone numerous changes, reflecting both the demographics of peace and that of conflict. At different stages, Congress has had to tweak benefits to reflect both inflation and the influx of, or decrease in, the number of veterans.

With the Iraq War now entering its sixth year and 130,000 troops still on the ground, (including another 30,000 fighting in Afghanistan), the time for modernizing the GI Bill has come. We are fortu-

nate this go-round to have a true citizen-solider leading the cause, Virginia’s own Senator Jim Webb. Veterans could not have a better advocate on their side as the process of remaking the GI Bill to reflect the challenges faced in the 21st century begins.

The current “Montgomery GI Bill” was designed primarily for peacetime – not wartime service. It requires service members to pay $100 a month during their first year of enlistment, for which they will receive up to $1,075 a month toward an education, capping out at $38,700.

If you’ve paid college tuition recently, you know full well that $38,000 isn’t enough to cover a four year degree at a public university, let alone one at most private institutions.

In light of these growing costs and a veterans education benefit that lags with the times, Senator Webb has proposed a revamped GI Bill that, for the cost of keeping our troops in Iraq for just half a week, would give our soldiers a benefit in keeping with today’s college costs. While the bill makes many improvements to the current GI law, the single most important provision is that it makes every veteran (includ-

ing reservists and the National Guard) who served after 9/11 eligible to receive education benefits equal to the cost of attending the most expensive public institution in their state of residence, applicable to their school of choice.

For vets who may decide a private college or university best meets their educational needs and career goals, Sen. Webb’s bill also directs the government to match, dollar for dollar, any voluntary additional contributions by an institution whose tuition is more expensive than that of the most expensive public university in the state.

And unlike current law, Senator Webb’s plan gives veterans 15 rather than ten years to use their education benefit.

As a cosponsor of the House companion version of Sen. Webb’s bill, I whole-heartedly support efforts to provide our troops not only armor and bullets while in battle, but also educational training and medical care when they return home.

Between the horror stories at Walter Reed and the current GI Bill’s lackluster educational benefit, it’s clear a new way forward for a new generation of veterans must be charted.

Regardless of your position on the Iraq war -- which I have strongly opposed from day one -- we owe it to those willing to risk their lives in the service of their country. Sen. Webb’s 21st Century GI Bill is a key part of that new direction for our nation’s veterans, and I’m proud to support it.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Spring seems a little reluctant to arrive, but the bright yellow forsythia and the daffodils, especially those planted in the roadway medians, signal that warmer weather will soon be upon us. The crack of the baseball bat and the hum of lawn mowers will replace winds howling and ice being scraped from windshields. Spring also heralds a return to community activities, volunteering, and social interaction.

If you are a senior citizen who likes to sew, volunteers are needed at the Lincolnia Senior Center to craft dolls for hospitalized children. Each Tuesday, a group of older ladies meets at the center, 4710 North Chambliss Street in Lincolnia, from 10 a.m. until noon, to construct small stuffed dolls that offer comfort to children frightened by their hospitalization. The craft project needs your help in all the various steps to produce each doll: machine sewing of the cloth bodies, turning and stuffing, crocheting hair to attach to the head, and finishing details. The ladies even make tiny hospital gowns for the dolls, which are delivered to local hospitals for their small patients. If you would like to join this lively social group on Tuesday mornings, please call Avis Jarrett at 703/941-3469 for more information.

Saint Albans Episcopal Church, 6800 Columbia Pike in Annandale, will host a community clothing sale on Saturday, April 19, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Gently used clothing for men, women, and children will be reasonably priced and could provide basic needs for many area residents.

Dee Dee Payne, coordinator for the sale, advises that if any area residents are in a situation where

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they need financial assistance or are in emergency need of clothing items, St. Albans would like to donate these items to them. To make a donation, or to volunteer to set up, work during the event, or clean up after the sale, please contact Dee Dee at deedeepayne@cox. net. This also is a great opportunity for students to fulfill their community service hours.

The Lincoln at the Crossroads Alliance has been created to celebrate the historic importance of Bailey’s Crossroads and coordinate a re-enactment of the “Grand Review” by President Abraham Lincoln that occurred there in November of 1861. Approximately 70,000 Union troops marched at the Crossroads while 30,000 citizens from Washington cheered them on. Can you imagine the traffic jams that must have caused? It is said that the Review inspired Julia Ward Howe to write the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The re-enactment of the Review is scheduled for November of 2011, and the activity has been endorsed by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. The Alliance is looking for volunteers to help in planning this yearslong effort, so if you have an interest in history, Abraham Lincoln, or the Civil War, and have experience in public relations, grant-writing, fundraising, or newsletter writing, the Alliance wants to hear from you. Contact Maria Elena Schacknies at cultura@att.net for more information or to volunteer.

Supervisor Penny Gross may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov 

12 21

IS NOT THE NEW

Many children begin drinking as early as age 12. That’s two years before they’ve tried geometry. Research indicates that children are less likely to drink when their parents are involved in their lives and when they report feeling close to their parents. So next time you complain about how fast they’re growing up, consider that it might be in your power to slow them down.

For advice on talking with your children, visit stopalcoholabuse.gov or call 1-800-729-6686

Having left Richmond after approving the Budget, House and Senate members are planning to return to Richmond on April 23 for the annual

By Jim “Reconvened” or “Veto” session.

This year the April session is a week late because the regular session adjourned a week late.

Nevertheless it should be a short session. There are fewer bills for the Governor to consider after the adjournment of the regular session than I can remember.

The reason for the short agenda on April 23 is that the House in particular handled its bills more rapidly than usual. As a result the Senate also finished its work more quickly.

The Constitution requires that any bill considered in regular session and sent to the Governor more than seven days before the official end of the session must be acted upon by the Governor before the Assembly adjourns.

Therefore, several hundred bills normally reviewed by the Governor after adjournment were acted upon before we left Richmond.

Those bills included three bills vetoed by the Governor.

He vetoed bills allowing guns in restaurants (Senator Hanger) and in the glove compartment of one’s vehicle (Senator Vogel). In addition, he vetoed expansion of the death penalty.

The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote by each house to override a veto.

None of the Governor’s vetoes were overridden although the House did vote to override a veto death penalty expansion introduced by Delegate Gilbert of Shenandoah County. The other two bills did not reach the House because the Senate voted against overriding the two gun bills.

New rule For the first time, the House, on a party-line vote, limited the number of bills that can be introduced by any member to 15. The Senate did not adopt a similar limitation. While this year and last I introduced fewer than 15 bills, along with most Democrats, I voted against an arbitrary limit.

Remaining to consider

are bills to finance higher education classroom and research facilities in public colleges and universities.

The Governor suggested a six-year $1.5 billion generScott al obligation bond package to be voted on in November.

Delegate Hamilton of Newport News and Senator Colgan of Prince William County introduced bills incorporating the Governor’s recommendations.

Delegate Putney of Bedford introduced a bill calling for a similar amount of state funding without a referendum. George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College will benefit greatly from either package.

House and Senate Conferees are now at work to create a package agreeable to all parties. I am optimistic that the differences will be worked out That leaves transportation. The House and Senate Democrats are convinced that we should pass revenue packages large enough to address regional and statewide needs. House Republicans have been opposed to taxes to address Northern Virginia’s $750 million need for the foreseeable future. That need was made more crucial because of the recent announcement by Secretary Homer that VDOT’six-year plan will have to be cut by more than $1 billion to account for increasing maintenance costs and inflation.

The Governor is actively promoting a revenue package that would, for the first time in more than 20 years, result in enough funding to deal with inflation and adequately fund transit and road improvements. The major obstacle to overcome is House Republican opposition to any sustainable and substantial source(s) that will address rural needs as well as urban/suburban ones.

I am hopeful, but not confident, that agreement can be reached that will persuade 15-20 House Republicans of the 100 members to vote with the Governor and House and Senate Democrats.  Delegate Jim Scott may be emailed at deljscott@aol.com

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

Dr. Madeline Hidalgo Dental Health Q&A Dear Dr. Madeline,

Q: Why do my gums bleed while brushing and chewing?

A:

Usually gums bleed due to the deposition of tartar around and under the gums, which leads to Gingivitis (gum diseases). Bleeding gums can also arise due to some improper contact of the opposing teeth and in some cases it could indicate deficiency of Vitamin C. When Plaque accumulation exceeds tolerable levels, it hardens into a substance called Tartar (calculus) in as little as 24 hours. Tartar is so tightly bound to teeth that it can be removed only during a professional cleaning. That's why we advise all to have a professional cleaning done at least once a year.

Gingivitis and Periodontitis are the two main stages of gum disease.

Dr. Madeline Hidalgo, Cosmetic & Family Dentistry An expert in all phases of modern dentistry, including the perfect smiles.

Send your questions to: Dr. Madeline Hidalgo 6521 Arlington Boulevard #112 Falls Church, VA 22042 â&#x20AC;˘ 703-237-9025 drhidalgo@mysmileydentist.com â&#x20AC;˘ www.mysmileydentist.com

March 27 - April 2, 2008

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 17

GORGEOUS SPRING COLOR Enjoy A Cherry Blossom Festival In Your Landscape–

Largely unnoticed in America are the increasingly frequent electricity shortages developing around the world. Many of these are caused by shifting weather patterns that are leaving hydro-electric dams with insufficient water to produce at full capacity. While some aspects of global climate change are temporary, many, such as the melting of glaciers, seem destined to last for decades, or perhaps centuries, thereby depriving the world of some of the best sources of cheap, renewable electric energy.

Thermal power production across the globe is struggling to cope with high prices and shortages of coal, fuel oil and diesel.

Several poorer countries have shut down the bulk of their generation capacity as they are no longer able to pay the fuel bills to keep going.

Then there is the inexorable growth of the world’s population –- 77 million more of us each year. While not all the new born get instant access to the wondrous benefits of electric power, enough do to keep demand rising and rising. Of yet more significance is the rapid economic growth of China, the subcontinent, oil exporting states and lots of other places.

With new-found wealth comes the demand for more and more electricity for lights, appliances, heating, cooling and a myriad of power-consuming devices that we in America and the other OECD countries adopted decades ago. There simply is not enough investment in new plants and distribution networks to keep up with surging demand.

A few places in the world have active insurgencies. Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria immediately come to mind, for insurgents just love to blow up their local electric power infrastructure. There are very few things an insurgent can do that will get everybody mad at the government quicker than shutting off the power.

Energy shortages are now so frequent across the world there is a new web site, www. energyshortage.org, devoted to keeping track of them all. There are currently 96 different places in the world that have reported some form of energy shortages in recent months. These range from large areas of China,

through the sub continent to small South Pacific islands such as Saipan and the Marianas that have not been heard from much since World War II. Nearly every government in the world has announced plans for more electricity production.

Most would like nuclear power plants that would, in theory, free them from the vagaries of hydro power and the steadily increasing prices of fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, most of these plans have no foundation in reality, for unless the country is a wealthy one, the rapidly increasing prices of major proj-

ects such as oil refineries and power plants, particularly of the nuclear variety, are going to become prohibitively costly very soon. As for nuclear power stations, it is almost certain those few countries that have the capability to design and build them are going to be preoccupied for decades with building them for their domestic market or the ultra-rich oil exporters.

In addition to the many hardships that billions of people around the world are going to be facing in the next few years as load shedding (rolling blackouts) of lengthening duration become more common, are the numerous repercussions of this phenomenon in the developed counties where the lights are likely to stay on for a while longer.

Political instability is going to be at the head of the problem list. Despite the $5 billion the U.S. has spent to improve Iraq’s electric supply in recent years, a combination of increasing demand, insurgent attacks and regional hoarding has reduced the electric supply in Baghdad to a few hours a day.

In Pakistan, where power shortages have already shut down 70 percent of the textile factories, recent reporting suggests the availability of electric power will continue to decline.

For many decades now, hundreds of millions of people have been moving from rural areas into megacities where tens of millions have collected in hopes of a better life.

Keeping such massive collections of humanity functioning takes at last a modicum of electricity for the logistics of daily life. Megacities will soon be sorely tested.

A recent study points out that shortages of electricity are “dramatically” curbing world metal production. Aluminum, which requires massive amounts of electricity to produce, is at the top of the list with the likelihood that world production will be cut by 800,000 tons this year. South Africa, which produces much of the world’s precious metal supply, is facing many years of power shortages and has already lost considerable production.

There is more than speculation behind the recent run-up in commodity prices.

Another phenomenon that should concern us here in the richer countries is the rush to backup power as more and more of the world’s power grids are subjected to “rolling blackouts.” Even the poorest countries now have “modern sectors” of varying sizes where administrative and financial work is carried out in office buildings with computers. For these organizations, reliable electricity is essential.

Small, produce-it-yourself electricity generators are appearing around the world by the millions -- wherever they can be afforded.

In China and other betteroff countries, no self-respecting factory would be without the capability of generating its own electricity should there be blackouts on the national grids.

In some parts of the world, the din of these machines has become part of the background of life.

Besides the increasing noise and air pollution, the downside is that many of these are diesel powered, and there is a developing global shortage of diesel fuel. Generation of electric power with small internal combustion engines is expensive and highly inefficient. Until the fuel becomes too expensive or is no longer available, small generators are going to become increasing prevalent and will add significant new pressures on the world’s supply of liquid fuels.  Tom Whipple is a retired government analyst and has been following the peak oil issue for several years.

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Page 18

“Davidson beat Georgetown.

That’s all I have to say.” Those were the words of Davidson’s Max Paulhus Gosselin in Monday’s Washington Post.

Their implication is clear — an underdog toppled a titan.

While it may be a great story, it’s a hard one to swallow for Georgetown fans. The Hoyas, legitimate Final Four contenders for the second year in a row, were eliminated in the second round of the tournament by a double-digit seed after holding a 17-point lead in the second half. It was nothing short of a tragic end to the careers of Georgetown’s four seniors: Tyler Crawford, Jonathan Wallace, Roy Hibbert and Patrick Ewing, Jr. However, the foursome should find some solace in the fact that the upset was a huge story. After all, the sinking of the Titanic isn’t a legendary tale if the ship isn’t the Titanic in the first place. Before those seniors arrived, Georgetown’s ship was about as impressive as the S.S. Minnow.

Confused? Think about it this way.

Two years ago I wrote a column after the Hoyas stunned the then-No. 1 Duke Blue Devils at MCI Center. As throngs of Georgetown fans stormed the court, the Blue Devil fan standing next to me smiled, even as several gray-clad students sprinted past him and yelled “We beat Duke!”

The premise of his pose: Watching a storied program like Georgetown celebrate a win against you in maniacal fashion was a pretty good sign that, even though you lost, you were still at the top.

While Georgetown may not quite be in the mood to put on its happy face just yet, the loss ought to be put in perspective by one simple fact — Georgetown Basketball is at a very different place now than it was four years ago. Then, they were the ones with the sling shots. Sunday, they were the ones pursuing a return trip to the Final Four.

Goliath draws little pity for such defeats, even when David is armed with Stephen Curry’s nuclear three-point bombs, but in this case he should. Even as the 6-foot-3 sharpshooter enjoys his “star-is-born” moment, the careers of Georgetown’s fantastic foursome of seniors have ended in ignominy. That the legacy of the four seniors is at all in jeopardy is a tremendous shame.

When you think of Hibbert, will you think of him sitting on the bench with four fouls while the Hoyas’ lead evaporated? Or will you think of him squaring his shoulders at the top of the

March 27 - April 2, 2008

arc while you watched in disbelief as he set, bent and fired off that 7-foot-2 frame to beat Connecticut this season?

When you remember Jonathan Wallace, will you remember how he lagged on defense, just for onehalfsecond, as Curry drained a three-pointer to delight the Carolina crowd? Or will you remember a year earlier when a Wallace three from the elbow silenced those same bluebedecked fans in the Elite Eight?

Given their body of work, including two Big East regular season titles, last year’s Big East Tournament Crown and a 2007 Final Four berth, it would be difficult for me to see these seniors as anything but great.

One loss, even one in the second round the NCAA Tournament, does little to dampen their achievements. Four years ago, the NCAA Tournament was out of reach. Now, it’s an expectation.

That is no small consolation prize.

As was recently chronicled in the brilliantly written Sports Illustrated piece by Alexander Wolff, John Thompson III himself was once the focal point of a disappointing collapse. Facing rival Brown while playing at Princeton, Thompson, one of the top passing forwards in the school’s history, fired a stray inbounds pass from under his own basket with mere seconds remaining in a two-point game. A Brown player intercepted it and heaved the ball back into the air and through the hoop from 50 feet away, the game-winning shot almost landing back in Thompson’s hands.

The memory serves as one of the worst in Thompson’s history with the sport of basketball.

Sunday’s surprising loss to Curry and the Davidson Wildcats no doubt will hold a similar standing in the hearts of the Hoyas.

Except instead of one last-second dagger from halfcourt, this horror story endured for nearly a full 16 minutes while Georgetown fumbled away that 17-point lead. The collapse will no doubt haunt the Hoyas for weeks to come in the form of highlight films from the NCAA Tournament, and endure even longer in the movie theater of their mind’s eye.

But should these seniors ever feel the lingering disappointment from their final game, they ought to look back at what they have built. Look to the gray-packed stands at Verizon Center, and up to the banners in the rafters. Look there, and they will see their true legacy at Georgetown.

Let David have his moment in the sun. Far more impressive is the resurrection of Goliath. .

After four consecutive years of winning the Virginia state title, it was a reasonable expectation that the George Mason High School boys varsity tennis team would be favored to repeat as Bull Run District champions. But no one thought they’d be handed the crown before the season even started.

However, the Bull Run’s lone other tennis program, Clarke County, did not field enough players for a varsity team this season, leaving the Mustangs as the de facto District Champs before their first match.

With an automatic berth in the Region B tournament already secured, the Mustangs are using a different strategy under new head coach Matt Sowers. Through the team’s first three matches, Mason’s players have taken notes on their teammates’ performances, breaking down their matches into components to be analyzed later in practice.

“You try to simulate every

possible situation, so that when game time approaches there will be no surprises,” Sowers says, noting he adopted the approach from New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichik. “The goal is to take what we learn from each individual game, not the overall match score, and recreate those situations in practice each week.”

The emphasis on experience could prove a savvy approach considering the Mustangs will sport a youthful roster this season, with only one senior and only one returning member of last season’s top six players, sophomore Tim Goetz. Goetz inherits the spot at the top of Mason’s tennis ladder this season.

Joining Goetz in the Mustangs’ top tier will be juniors Brian Sham, Chris An, Johnny Vroom and Carlos Clark, and sophomore Thomas Burnett. The group has had a successful start to the season, prevailing against Park View (9-0) and Washington-Lee (72). In the latter match, the varsity gave way to the JV for

doubles play, after all six varsity singles players won their matches.

Mason’s lone loss on the season came at the hands of J.E.B. Stuart, whose No. 1 player, Justin Shane, is the topranked player for his age group in the state, and ranked 32nd nationally.

The Mustang varsity next faces Freedom High School at home, April 2 at 4:30 p.m., one of several AA squads Mason will face this season. Despite squaring off against schools with larger student bodies, the most challenging part of the Mason boys schedule may be the matches they don’t play.

With no district championship to compete in, the Mustangs will have a two-week layoff between their final match on April 28 at home against Briar Woods and the regional tournament.

“I do not view the two week time off as a negative,” Sowers said. “Our players will continue to practice situations and improve on their game strategy while players continue to challenge one another.”

Head Coach Adam Amerine may not have been too pleased with the plethora of errors that derailed otherwise solid efforts by his George Mason High School varsity baseball team during its series of spring games in Bradenton, Fla., but the Mustangs still returned from the Sunshine State looking at the sunny side.

“Our pitching is going to be our strength,” said Amerine, whose team squared off against local powers Oakton and Robinson, in addition to two out-of-state teams. “Mike Straub pitched like a number one, striking out 16 in his start down there.”

Some rusty glove work contributed to losses against

Oakton (10-3), Robinson (132) and Monsignor Farrell of Staten Island New York (7-0), the latter Amerine labeled the best team he’s seen in 15 years.

The Mustangs tied Wyomissing Area (Penn.) 2-2.

Falls Church High School will make the short trip up Route 7 to face the Mustangs this Friday at 4:30 p.m.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

The George Mason boys lacrosse program has begun its Spring ’08 campaign with a mission in mind: erase the memories of last year’s hardships.

The Mustangs ended last season 6-7, with a first round loss in the playoffs. Four of their losses came by either one or two goals. Some small changes and last year’s season could have looked quite different.

Mason Coach Rich Costello attributed the narrow losses to a laundry list of shortcomings including, “inability to clear the ball out of our defensive end, too many penalties and some poor catching, throwing and bad shot selection on the offensive end.”

After only losing three starters from last year, the Mustangs return the core of both their offensive and defensive units this year, and hope their experience can propel them further in the playoffs. Senior Ewan Oglethorpe and junior Tom Koning could “start for any team we play this year,” said Costello, who expects lead-

Page 19

ership to come from the two team captains, returning defensive starters Russ Intermaggio and Sean Mondragon. The Mustangs pride themselves on their defense, and Coach Costello expects the two captains to generate turnovers and to be efficient in clearing the ball.

One of the glaring weaknesses of last year’s team was the amount of minutes that the first midfield line ended up playing throughout the year.

Coach Costello expects junior Jake Schwind and sophomore Yates Jordan to provide some stability on the second midfield line, in order to give his starters some well deserved rest. The Mustangs will feature a fiveman rotation on attack, with seniors Graham Colton and Charlie Khaliq, and sophomores Mike Duning, Nick Kuipers and Caleb Barrett all expected to earn significant playing time throughout the season.

The season began for the Mustangs on March 13 against Trinity — Meadow View. After racing out to a 6-2 lead, the team began committing “needless penalties” in the third quar-

McLean Boys Lacrosse The Highlander Lacrosse team traveled to the West Springfield Invitationals last week, where they earned third place, losing against Hayfield, 11-4, on Tuesday, March 18, and picking up a win in overtime two days later against Mount Vernon. In the 12-11 overtime win against Mount Vernon, the Highlanders were led by senior attack George Arkwright, who scored three goals, including the game-winner in overtime, coupled with two assists, and junior attacker Brad Mason’s three goals and one assist.

George C. Marshall Girls Tennis The Lady Statesmen have begun their season with a hot start, with a victory over Madison in their regular season opener. The Lady Statesmen hope to keep the momentum rolling over their very busy next two weeks, when they play Woodson, Langley, Stone Bridge, McLean and Jefferson.

Falls Church Boys Lacrosse The Jaguars started their season off right with an 11-5 victory over Marshall on Thursday, March 13.

They hope to turn their victory into a win streak starting this Thursday night, as they travel to Stone Bridge

ter, allowing Trinity to score four quick goals to tie the game at six apiece. The Mustangs rallied together, scoring a fast break goal late in the fourth to escape with their first win of the season, 7-6. Oglethorpe made 21 saves, while Kuipers and Jordan led the team’s scoring.

A long spring break was just what the Mustangs ordered, as they returned from break and destroyed Park View by the score of 19-2. The majority of the Mustangs’ goals came on transition and fast breaks.

“Tim Koning and the rest of the defense did a nice job in shutting down Park View, but we still need to improve in our clearing and making better decisions on the offensive side,” said Coach Costello.

The Mustangs welcome Washington-Lee High School on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

With nine games in the next 27 days, Coach Costello believes, “April will be the true test of how much we’ve improved.”

Mason Girls Lacrosse The George Mason varsity girls lacrosse team has begun

for their second road game in as many games this season. The Jags get a chance to play at home on Monday, March 31, facing Wakefield.

George C. Marshall Softball The George C. Marshall girls softball team is off and running with a 4-1-1 record after starting their season on March 14 with a 20-0 drubbing of Falls Church. The Lady Statesmen traveled to Hayfield for a spring break tournament, where they dropped their first game against Jefferson, 4-3, only to win their next three games against Good Counsel, Chantilly and Edison. On the final day of the tournament, the girls tied host Hayfield 4-4. They officially begin their home season on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. against the girls of James Madison High School.

McLean Softball The Highlanders traveled to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina over their spring break for the Grand Strand Tournament. Through five games, the Lady Highlanders finished with a 3-2 record. The Highlanders only gave up six runs in all five games, with the last two games going into extra innings. The girls came back on Tuesday to face Yorktown on the road, where they gave up eight runs and lost 8-5.

the 2008 season with focus and motivation to improve on last year’s 8-7 season, and hopes to advance into the district tournament. The Lady Mustangs will focus on maintaining a settled attack, solid transition in the midfield, and man-on-man coverage on defense, according to Coach Megan Coulter.

This year’s iteration of the Lady Mustangs is led by senior

captains Allie Atkeson, Emily Perry, Hannah Baumgardner and junior captain Sally Blakemore.

The Lady Mustangs have begun their season on the same note as their male counterparts, kicking off the season with a scrimmage against Notre Dame Academy, which they won 11-8 on March 12. Following their success there, the girls began their regular season against Park View with an 18-5 blowout.

George C. Marshall Boys Soccer

McLean Boys Tennis

The Marshall boys soccer team is off to a 1-1 start in the regular season, thanks to a victory against WashingtonLee on Tuesday night, where they won 2-1 at home. Both Statesmen goals were scored by senior midfielder Gregory Goldbach, one on a penalty kick and the other with an assist credited to freshman striker Dylan Goodale. Earlier in the season, the Statesmen dropped a game 3-0 at home to Herndon, with coach Ricardo Silva attributing the loss to a “lack of attention on set pieces,” not lack of defensive posture. The Marshall boys will be visiting Falls Church this Friday at 7:15 p.m.

The McLean boys tennis team has started hot and traveled to Stone Bridge for their first Liberty District match. Despite cold, breezy conditions, McLean rolled out with a 72 victory. The number one singles player on the team is sophomore Anthony Bouche, who has won all three singles matches he has played so far. Bouche also won an 18-andunder boys tennis tournament last weekend, making him someone to watch out for. The Highlanders’ next match is against Thomas Jefferson on Friday.

J.E.B. Stuart Boys Soccer The Raiders’ first two games of the season both went into overtime.

Before spring break, the Raiders lost to Hayfield 3-1 after surrendering two late overtime goals. However, on Tuesday night, the Raiders righted their ship, coming from behind to tie T.C. Williams 3-3. Sophomore forward Alex Cavanagh scored two of the three Stuart goals, and first-year varsity sophomore Carlos Guerra tied the game with a great shot in the midst of a crowd. The combination of returning players and first-year varsity players give the Raider faithful a good deal of hope for the upcoming season. They travel to Washington-Lee tonight.

McLean Baseball The McLean baseball team is off to a fast start, racing out to a 4-1 record early on in the season. Over spring break, the Highlanders traveled to the Let’s Play Two Invitational in Prince William County, where they came in third place out of 12 teams. During that tournament, they beat Notre Dame Academy, last year’s private school Virginia state champion, 4-3 in the third place game.

Junior infielder Erik Payne (610, 5 RBI) and senior pitcher Quinn Pippin (2-0, 0.75 ERA, 9 strikeouts in 9.1 innings) were both named to the all-tournament team. McLean next faces Stone Bridge at home on Friday night.

Page 20

(Second in a two part series.)

Canadian Jeffrey Buttle, after winning the men’s World Figure Skating Championship in Sweden last weekend, noted in a TV interview that he’d come a long way since starting to skate at age two.

By his standard, Northern Virginia’s Parker Pennington, who has risen as high as sixth in the U.S. men’s figure skating ranks, got a late start. He didn’t hit the ice until he was three.

There seems to be a pattern of youngsters either seeing ice skating for the first time on TV, or trying it themselves and immediately resolved to make it their passion.

“I was three years old when I got onto the ice for the first time,” Pennington told the News-Press in an interview last week. Pennington is organizing a fundraising benefit ice show, in Connecticut on April 12, to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association (see story in last week’s edition).

“I went crazy. I was a wild monkey out there,” he said. “I felt free on the ice, like I could be me. I knew right away it was what I wanted to do.”

The 20 years since then has flown by, with Pennington racking up national titles at the juvenile, intermediate, novice and junior levels before entering the senior ranks in 2002, and competing for the National Men’s Championships for the last seven years. His best showings were sixth in 2003 and seventh in 2007.

Now, at the ripe old age of 23, he’s having to step back and reflect on where he wants to go from here. No doubt about it, he said last week, despite an 11th place finish at the U.S. Championships in January, he still wants to give it his best shot for a spot on the U.S. team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

But a lot of reflection has gone into this decision, which came in the weeks following the January competition, and the News-Press had the benefit of some of his latest thinking about evolving his approach to the sport.

“Figure skating is not like any other sport,” he said. “It is the only sport where there is no chance for redemption. If you do not hit all eight of your jumps flawlessly, you have no chance to win.” A big football

March 27 - April, 2008

and baseball fan, he reemphasized, “It is so different from any other sport.”

“When you are on the ice, you are thinking of taking one thing at a time, of being in the moment. If you let your mind wander, you can get ahead of yourself and trip up,” he said.

But, he added, while there has to be this “focused concentration,” the good skater must also allow a flow into his performance, and let his personality show. “You have to relax to do your stuff, but it is hard because everything is on the line. You cannot allow that to enter your mind.”

“What separates great skaters from others is mental,” he said. “They are consistently in the moment. I am still learning about this mental component.”

“You have to change it up and have fun, to go with the flow, while still being very precise.

Body language on the ice shows in the fluidity of movement and creativity. For the best skaters, they can be on the ice only 15 seconds and you are moved by them or not. They’ve got to have the ‘it’ factor that draws you to watch them, makes you want to watch them,” he said.

“I am still not there yet, but getting there,” he went on. “It’s about a presence that you command on the ice, a confidence.

People see you and can tell that you either have it or don’t. It is about finding your ‘it-ness.’ It comes from within and there is no faking it.”

Pennington said there’ve been “moments” when he’s had this quality on the ice, and that the older he has become the more he’s able to identify its importance to his skating.

“It involves an inner peace and relaxation, a love for self through ups and downs, and trust through change, since nothing stays the same,” he said.

“It’s a hard concept to grasp, but I am starting to see it as having control over my destiny, that it’s ultimately up to me and my state of mind.”

He added, “It’s a process of finding yourself, to explore what truly brings you happiness.

All different aspects of skating bring me happiness, from the choreography to the challenge of competition. I am starting to feel differently on the ice with this. My movements are looser, and I am bringing to my elements more content and attack.

There is not so much doubt. I trust things.”

He concluded, “It is impor-

tant to do it for the happiness, but I want results too. I want to be a champion.”

At the same time Pennington strives to be a champion on the ice, he’s becoming one in

life too, organizing his April 12 benefit in honor of his dad, Larry Pennington, a veterinarian in Connecticut who is a victim of muscular dystrophy, who has “sacrificed so much”

for young Parker’s career.

For more information on supporting the event, contact Pennington’s official web site at www.figureskatersonline. com/parkerpennington/.

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

National Student Art Month Celebration The Fairfax High pyramid will hold its annual Art Show and One Man Art Show at Fairfax High in celebration of National Student Art Month.

The show will be held Thursday, March 27, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and again from 5 to 7 p.m. Artwork from students at Fairfax High, Lanier Middle, Daniels Run Elementary, Eagle View Elementary, Fairfax Villa Elementary, Providence Elementary and Willow Springs Elementary will be on display in Fairfax High’s new atrium.

Artwork will include paintings, drawings, prints, mixed media, sculptures, photography and computer graphics. There will also be musical presentations and a make-and-take art table for children during the show’s evening hours. Art teachers from each school will be on hand to discuss student projects.

Students Learn Value of Saving Students and their families at Cameron Elementary are able to participate in two savings programs offered by Apple Federal Credit Union (AFCU).

The Johnny Appleseed Junior Ecology Club is designed to create interest in ecology and to encourage students ages 512 to save on a regular basis.

The other program is a student savings account that allows students to deposit money and earn a higher interest rate than a standard savings account.

This program is run by sixth grade students at Cameron who collect and record the deposits.

In addition to teaching students how to save money, the program offers an opportunity for students who may be interested in a career in banking or finance to get early on-the-job training.

Sixth Graders Initiate Energy Plan In an effort to think globally and act locally, a group of five sixth graders at Mantua Elementary discussed conserving electricity in their school and community. The group proposed installing sensors on schoolroom lights so they would turn off automatically if no one was in the room. After proposing their idea to Fairfax County Public Schools, the school system installed motion sensors in all the school’s rooms and approved funding in sup-

Page 21

port of the responsibility shown by the students toward the environment.

Stuart Sings, Plays Their Way to Victory The Stuart High Madrigal Chamber Singers received a superior rating at the District Choir Festival, the highest rating awarded. Also receiving superior ratings at their festivals were the school’s Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Wind Ensemble and Concert Band. Stuart’s band department received the Virginia Honor Band designation by the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association for the third consecutive year.

Student Wins Second in Art Contest Rosie Duvic, an eighth grade student at Thoreau Middle, was recently awarded second place in the 2008 Virginia Aviation Art Contest for students ages 10-13. Duvic, who is enrolled in Joyce Moses’ synergistics class at Thoreau, entered the contest, which was judged by members of the American Society of Aviation Artists. Her prize was a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

West Potomac Creates Webcast “The Fusion Show,” a musical variety radio show produced

by West Potomac Academy students in music and computer technology classes, in partnership with Fairfax Public Access, airs every Tuesday from 8:30 to 9 a.m. on cable Channel 37 and via webcast at http://www. fcac.org/webcasting/webcast. htm. Fusion showcases the musical compositions of the students and includes interviews from the school community and industry updates in the various genres of music.

driving, and to promote safe driving among teens, the sophomore class at West Potomac High School will see the documentary film, “Smashed: Toxic Tales of Teens and Alcohol,” at 12:45 p.m. on Thursday, April 3.

The film was created by HBO Family and includes live emergency room experiences and medical recoveries, as well as interviews with teenagers and their families that focus on the outcomes of drinking and driving.

Copies of the documentary and educational kits are available to high schools nationwide as part of a joint effort among partners including the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes Against Drunk Driving (RADD), National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), and HBO Family.

Distance Learning With Mrs. Washington Students from Springfield Estates and Wakefield Forest Elementary Schools were active participants in a distance learning program, “The Real Martha Washington,” which was broadcast live over the Fairfax Network from Mount Vernon’s Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center earlier this week.

fifth and Sixth grade area band students were selected to perform together at Falls Church High School. Poe Middle School student Jim Boryan, grade six, and Beech Tree Elementary student Samie Boryan, grade five, were both chosen to perform at the concert. (Photo: Courtesy Jonathan Boryan) The program, produced by Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Information Technology and George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, featured two different historical interpreters: Susan Zickel, who portrayed the young Martha Washington up to the American Revolution, and Mary Wiseman, who portrayed the older Martha Washington during the period following the Revolution to the time of her death.

Students were able to ask questions of both interpreters.

Additional questions submitted via e-mail from around the country were also asked of the two Marthas. The program was designed for students in grades 3-5.

Local Journalism Adviser Honored Journalism

adviser

at

Annandale High School Alan Weintraut is the recipient of the Southern Interscholastic Press Association’s (SIPA) Elizabeth B. Dickey Distinguished Service Award. Weintraut is adviser to Annandale’s awardwinning newspaper, the “ABlast.”

Weintraut was honored for working as a faculty adviser to student journalists, for encouraging students to practice cutting-edge journalism, for being involved with peer workshops across the country and for encouraging the use of technology in journalism.

The “A-Blast” appears in print and online at http:// www.thea-blast.org/index.php.

SIPA is a not-for-profit organization of public middle and high schools, and independent schools, that promotes professionalism in scholastic journalism and mass communication in the southeast.

Hayfield Bowls to Get Fit Students at Hayfield Elementary recently took part in Rolling Bowling to enhance their physical education unit on bowling. Students bowled on a working bowling lane, complete with pin setter and ball return, in the Bowl America bowling truck. Students in all grades were able to try out their bowling skills during Rolling Bowling.

Drunk Driving Reality Check for Teens As part of an ongoing effort to address underage drinking and

Mclean high school juniors Elizabeth Sullivan and Scott Richardson dance it out on the catwalk during the school’s prom preview fashion show. Prom attire seen in the show will be donated to the Fashion Exchange consignment shop, which will allow students to buy the gowns in late April. All proceeds will fund the Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry. (Photo: Courtesy Marion Phelan)

Page 22

March 27 - April 2, 2008

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 If the thrill of gambling were really about winning, there would be too few gamblers to support the multibillion-dollar Vegas gambling industry.

Everybody knows that the odds are predetermined to favor the house, and that people play the games for the rush, not the payoff. Bettors are many; winners are few. That’s what makes it a reliably profitable business.

Like insurance. The premiums for participating in the game outweigh the payouts the company makes as incentives to keep the players playing.

So, how exciting would it be if, say, somebody devised a system that used simple math

Ben Campbell........ Jim Sturgess Jill Taylor............. Kate Bosworth Cole Williams Laurence Fishburne Micky Rosa.......... Kevin Spacey Choi.............................Aaron Yoo Kianna........................ Liza Lapira Fisher........................ Jacob Pitts Miles............................ Josh Gad

Classified: PG-13 (for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity).

to give a blackjack player the edge over the dealer? “21” is “inspired by” the real-life story of the M.I.T. students who took Las Vegas casinos for millions, but has been reshaped to fit a simple movie template -- and it’s

nearly as much fun as watching an insurance professional compute actuarial tables.

In “21,” the worst thing a gamester can be accused of is gambling. “Don’t give in to your emotions,” M.I.T. professor Micky Rosa tells his blackjack students. “Play the system.”

Good advice for a card-counting scheme. Bad advice for a movie.

If you want to see how a formatted screenplay looks when it’s actually on the screen (you can just about count the page numbers as they flip by, and maybe measure the margins, too), “21” may provide a practical lesson: How to follow all the “rules” and end up with zero. It’s not unwatchable, but you could watch it with your eyeballs tied behind your back and enjoy it just as much.

Here’s another example of a good story turned into a purely generic one -- no doubt with the aid of a Bob McKee screenwriting seminar and textbook.

Act I: M.I.T. undergrad Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a smart-nerd Bostonian white guy working with his best friends (a fat guy and a Persian-American guy) on a project for a robotics competition. He really needs a $300,000 scholarship to get into Harvard Medical School, but he’s only one of 72 talented prospects. He’s recruited by professor Rosa (Kevin Spacey) to join a secret cabal of cardcounters with a scheme to hit Vegas on weekends and make a fortune. He resists. A Beautiful Girl (Kate Bosworth) attempts to woo him. He resists. OK, he really needs the money, so he joins up -- but just until he can get the money he needs for school. He learns the blackjack system in a montage sequence

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 23

least looks pretty in her throwaway role as the object of Peggâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affections. Rating: One and a half stars.

(Teresa Budasi)

S A balance of genuine charm and calculation. But if they start pushing CJ7 toys at retail and fast-food outlets, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to look more cynical than adorable. In Cantonese with English subtitles, so unless your kids already know a Chinese dialect, the people who would probably most appreciate this movie wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be old enough to read what the actors are saying. Rating: Three stars. (Jim Emerson)

B

top-Loss (Drama, R, 112 minutes).

Writer-director Kimberly Peirceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s uneven film about a young soldier home from Iraq (Ryan Phillippe) who is forced to rethink his ideas about heroism and patriotism when he is â&#x20AC;&#x153;stop-lossedâ&#x20AC;?: involuntarily assigned to another tour of duty.

The story is hampered by awkward construction and its charactersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; inarticulate attempts to describe what is going on, but no feature film can approach the visceral power of any of the hundreds of YouTube clips or superb documentaries that let the soldiers tell their own stories. Rating: Two stars.

(Nell Minow)

eaufort (Drama, not rated, 125 minutes). The first Israeli movie nominated for the best foreign film Oscar in 24 years is a meditation on the tragic ironies faced by soldiers ending an 18-year occupation of a medieval fortress in Lebanon.

Despite their valor, the soldiersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mission increasingly seems like an exercise in futility. A profound exploration of identity, meaning eeth (Comedy/horror, R, lawless (Crime thriller, and human struggles in all times 88 minutes). Dawn, a high PG-13, 105 minutes). A pair and places. Rating: Three and a Roland (Macaulay school abstinence cheerCulkin) (left), Mary (Jena Malone), of unlikely by and Cassandra (Eva Amurrithieves, ) in United Aplayed rtists' comedy half stars. (Nell Minow) leader, has a dental problem â&#x20AC;&#x153;down "SDemi aved!" Š 2004 - United Artists - All Rights Reserved Moore and Michael Caine, there.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called â&#x20AC;&#x153;vagina dentata,â&#x20AC;? go after the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest cache but Juno would probably just call it aramel (Comedy/drama, of diamonds in a heist thriller that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vaggie D.â&#x20AC;? Mitchell Lichtensteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PG, 96 minutes). Set in a will make you nostalgic for the teen horror-(of)-sex comedy stradBeirut beauty parlor, Nadine smart, classy caper films of the dles one line between earnestness Labakiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feature debut warmly 1960s. Rating: Three stars. (Mary and facetiousness, and another RD0800755A Job No.: observes the love lives of women Houlihan) between horror and satire, shifting of different ages. Lebanonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oscar Ad Size: 3.792â&#x20AC;?from x 6â&#x20AC;?

DC and pivoting one to the other.

Engagement City: WASHINGTON, entry for best foreign language film Most of the time his balance is just un Fatboy Run (Comedy, of 2007 sports an ensemble cast of ENTERTAINMENT Section: Media: right. Rating: Three stars. (Jim PG-13, 100 minutes). David non-professionals lead by Labaki, Emerson) Schwimmer, best known for playing the shopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s owner. Rating: Insertion Date(s): the TV sitcom â&#x20AC;&#x153;Friends,â&#x20AC;? makes his Three stars. (Bill Stamets) feature film directorial debut with this formulaic, unfunny and forJ7 (Comedy, PG, 86 mingettable romantic comedy starring WEENEY TODD: THE utes). This Cantonese homSimon Pegg (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hot Fuzz,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shaun of mentor, everything. Bummer.

DEMON BARBER OF age to Steven Spielbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Act III: Ben has one last â&#x20AC;&#x153;E.T.â&#x20AC;? (and Pokemon and Furby) the Deadâ&#x20AC;?) as a guy who dumped FLEET STREET (Musical, R, chance. He makes up with by actor-director Stephen Chow his pregnant wife at the altar and 117 m., 2007). Tim Burtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s macadecides five years later than sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Micky and Girl, and the team (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kung Fu Hustle,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shaolin the one for him after all. Hank bre, blood-soaked, brilliant film reunites for one last Big Score Soccerâ&#x20AC;?) concerns an impover- Azaria plays a nice guy who - version of Stephen Sondheimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hit Johnny Depp and Helena in Vegas. Everything works out ished father and son who are vis- - surprise! -- turns out to be not musical.

Bonham Carter do their own singited by a pet/toy from outer space. so nice, and Thandie Newton at exactly as the screenwriters have ing, and very effectively, too, as

F

T

CFELD ENTERTAINMENT R

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planned. The End. Meanwhile, British actor Sturgess (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Across the Universe,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Other Boleyn Girlâ&#x20AC;?) gets to play an American with traces of a peculiar accent (based on Jeff Ma, a Chinese-American who was called Kevin Lewis in the book); Spacey gets to alternate his slick good-cop schtick (â&#x20AC;&#x153;L.A. Confidentialâ&#x20AC;?) with his steely bad-cop schtick (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Swimming With Sharksâ&#x20AC;?); director Robert Luketic (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Legally Blonde,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Monsterin-Lawâ&#x20AC;?) gets to direct another picture; and Bosworth gets to wear some wigs.

Watch for the moment when somebody obviously pulls a punch. If you hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t figured out the rest of the movie by then, it gives away the whole thing.

S

the cut-throat barber and the landlady he supplies with fresh meat for her pies. With Alan Rickman as a vile judge and Timothy Spall as

Continued on Page 24

Š 2008 Feld Entertainment

or two and passes the test.

The Beautiful Girl rebuffs his advances in an attempt to maintain a strictly professional relationship.

Act II: The team goes to Vegas and they win. Another montage sequence? Maybe. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s getting a little fuzzy. But wait: A casino security guy named Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) starts to notice something -- and not a moment too soon because heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s losing all his business to high-tech biometric face-recognition software. Technology!

Drat! Card-counting isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t illegal, but the casinos want you to know that if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re caught doing it, they might take you down in the basement and beat the living craps out of you.

The Hard Rock Casino comps Beautiful Girl a suite in which she and Ben enjoy a brief, soft-focus sex-scene montage. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It seemed too good to be true,â&#x20AC;? Ben says in voice-over. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And it felt like it was never going to end.â&#x20AC;? It does. Ben is not the same guy he was back in Boston. He loses -- money, his friends, the Beautiful Girl, his

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Page 24

Continued from Page 23 his flunky. A dark look at London poverty and desperation, filmed with bizarre intensity. Rating: Four stars.

A

LVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS (Comedy, PG, 91 m., 2007). The story of how the Chipmunks become rock stars and almost get burned out on the rock circuit. Jason Lee stars as Dave Seville, who accidentally brings them home and is soon shouting “Alvin!” at the top of his lungs. David Cross is the rock promoter who wants them to lipsynch their concerts, and Alvin is the one with the big “A” on his red sweater. I admit I am not a fan of those squeaky little voices. If you are, you’ll have a whole different experience. Rating: Two stars.

T

HE KITE RUNNER (Drama, PG-13, 120 m., 2007).

Another magnificent film by Marc Forster (“Monster’s Ball”), based on the much-loved best seller about two boys in 1970s Afghanistan and the lives they go on to lead. Doesn’t depend on stars, effects or genres, but simply fascinates us with how it will turn out. Superimposes human faces and a historical context on the tragic images of war. One of the year’s best. Rating: Four stars.

A

TONEMENT (Drama, R, 122 m., 2007). An event on the lawn of an English country house is misinterpreted by a 13-year-old girl and leads her to a wicked lie that destroys all possibility of happiness for herself, her older sister (Keira Knightley) and her sister’s lover (James McAvoy).

Begins in sheer happiness, ventures through the horror of the war in France and London, ends in darkest irony. One of the year’s best films, a best picture nominee.

Rating: Four stars.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

revolutionary America populated apparently by characters with funny names. After I saw the first cut at Cannes 2006, I was dazed, confused, bewildered, bored, affronted and deafened by the boos all around me, at the most disastrous Cannes press screening since, yes, “The Brown Bunny.” But now here is the director’s cut, which is 20 minutes shorter, lops off a couple of characters and a few of the infinite subplots, and is even more of a mess. I recommend that director Richard Kelly keep right on cutting until he whittles it down to a ukulele pick. Rating: One star.

L

OVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA (Romantic drama, R, 138 m., 2007). The magic of the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel fails to translate into cinema; perhaps his light-footed prose resists being nailed down to specific actors and locations. The cast, led

by Javier Bardem, looks promising, but the 19th-century Colombian love story, spanning decades, plods when it should fly. Rating: One and a half stars.

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AM LEGEND (Sci-fi action, PG13, 114 m., 2007). Will Smith is the last healthy man on Manhattan, maybe on Earth, as a virus mutates humans into zombies. Kept company by his loyal dog, he is a scientist trying to find a cure for the plague, while barricaded inside a town house. Two more survivors turn up, played by Alice Braga and young Charlie Tahan; can he protect them? Awesome special effects of an abandoned Manhattan, dicey special effects of unconvincing zombies; works, despite raising lots of questions.

Rating: Three stars.

E

NCHANTED (Musical romance, PG, 108 m., 2007).

Amy Adams, Oscar-nominated for “Junebug,” is effortlessly charming as Giselle, a young girl from a fairy-tale world who is transported to modern New York City by a jealous queen (Susan Sarandon).

The film starts as animation, then becomes live action but still plays by fantasy rules, in a winning musical romance also starring Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden and Timothy Spall. Rating: Three stars.

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 25

Ladies and gentlemen! Children of all ages ... Let’s get ready to rummmbbbllleee!

Wait, wait, wait ... that’s not going to fit here. Yes, the combative title of songwriter Matthew Ryan’s latest album, Matthew Ryan Vs The Silver State, fits the billing of a Vegas prize fight, right down to Nevada’s nickname. Within the words on this album however, seldom do you find the glitz, the glamor, the excess that typifies title fights ... even metaphorical ones.

No, with tracks like “American Dirt,” “Could Have Been Worse” and “Drunk is Disappointed,” Ryan has set the scene for a scrap that may be better billed as a back alley brawl, with Ryan raising his dukes to defend what he believes in and protect those he loves.

“I liked the physicality of it,” Ryan says of the title. “I’ve got nothing against the State of Nevada. I wanted to use it as a symbol and I hope it works on both levels, as a primal name and a story.” Those stories found on the album relate some of the struggles Ryan and those close to him faced in their personal lives to a larger level, particularly regarding the country’s future. The sentiment that change is needed is more covert than overt, more Dylan than De La Rocha if you will, but the gritty portraits Ryan paints in each song add up to address the national picture.

“I think it’s pretty obvious

Photo: Bob Delevante

that there are a lot of things coming to a head, and we’re gambling if we don’t confront them.

So it has to get physical at some point.”

Ryan understands he can’t challenge every problem plaguing the present, but he knows he wants to contribute to the solution. He similarly knows in order to do that, he’s going to have to wade right into the fray and take a few punches.

Recently, Ryan urged the reservation of snap judgments, something of a cultural specialty these days. He posted on his MySpace page that people should refrain from entirely judging a person — in this case, Barack Obama’s embattled pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright — based on a few short sentences. The reprisal was rapid and, as anticipated, acidic.

“The people that agree with you don’t come on and say ‘Yeah, thanks for saying that man,’” Ryan jokingly laments. “You just get all the vitriol about how you’ve got it all wrong.”

Similar sentiments may color perceptions of Ryan’s lyrics as pessimistic. For example, “The bigger the dream / The bigger the trap / The bigger the black in disappointment / I crossed my fingers ‘til they were broke.” However, such a view would miss Ryan’s intent. By critiquing the current flaws, including those in his own life, he hopes to improve things one small struggle at a time.

“I think anyone that’s ever experienced anything that challenged them knows that you just can’t tackle everything at once,” he says. “ I think you’ve got to look at

how we want to be remembered as a generation, and I think that will change a lot of it.”

• For more on Matthew Ryan, visit www. myspace.com/matthewryan. Ryan will visit IOTA Club and Cafe this spring on May 6.

Page 26

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Send community event submissions to the News-Press by e-mail at calendar@fcnp.com; fax 703-532-3396; or by regular mail to 450 West Broad Street #321, Falls Church, VA 22046. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.

Community Events THURSDAY, MARCH 27

MONDAY, MARCH 31

Grace Notes Presents Kindermusik. Instruments, singing and stories for children ages one to six. Aladdin’s Lamp Children’s Bookstore (2499 N Harrison St. Arlington). 11 a.m.

703-241-8281.

Story Hour. Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. Mon. – Thurs. 10:30 a.m. 703-2485077 (TTY 711).

Northwest Arlington Lions Club Citrus Sale. Proceeds go to charitable projects in Arlington.

Overlee Pool lower parking lot (6030 Lee Hwy.). 8 a.m. 703243-7938.

Rotary Club Meeting. Kathy Allan will speak about the City of Falls Church Environmental Services, including Earth Watch.

Harvest Moon Restaurant (7260 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). $10. 6:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 28

Family Reading Festival. Hosted by the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia. James Lee Community Center (2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church). 9:30 a.m.- 3 p.m.

For more information, visit www. lcnv.org.

National Cherry Blossom Festival Family Day. Crafts for the whole family to start off cherry blossom season. National Building Museum (401 F St. NW, D.C.).

Free. 10 a.m.- 3:30 p.m. 202-5471500.

Smithsonian Kite Festival. 42nd annual tradition. The National Mall (Between the U.S Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, .D.C). Free. 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. 202357-3030.

Theater Classes. Free weekly theater classes for kids. Round House Theatre (8641 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, Md.). Free.

4-5 p.m. For more information, call 301-585-1225.

SUNDAY, MARCH 30

SATURDAY, MARCH 29 Farmers’ Market in Falls Church.

Falls Church City Hall (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). 9 a.m. – noon.

John Eaton. Pianist. St. Luke Catholic Church (7001 Georgetown Pike, McLean). $20. 4 p.m. 703-7595334.

Stories and Rhymes. Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). For 2-5 year olds. Free. 10:30 a.m.

For more information, call 703248-5030.

Mr. Skip. Kids’ music. Stacy’s Coffee Parlor (709 W. Broad St., Falls Church). $5. 10:30 a.m. For more information, call 703-5386266.

TUESDAY, APRIL 1 Stories and Rhymes. Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). For ages 18-36 months. Free. 10:30 a.m. For more information, call 703-248-5030.

“Grand Theft Jesus” Discussion and Signing. Author Robert McElvaine. Borders (18th and L Sts NW, D.C.). 6:30 p.m. 202466-4999.

Learn New Sewing Skills. Falls Church Sew and Go, an American Sewing Guild Community Group, will hold this workshop. G Street Fabrics Store (6250 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). Free. 7 – 8:45 p.m. 703-528-2040.

&

The Hostage. The Keegan Theatre presents this play about the controversial history of the Irish and English. Church Street Theater (1742 Church St. NW, D.C.). $30. 8 p.m. For more information, call 703-892-0202.

FRIDAY, MARCH 28

Doug Benson. Benson has appeared on “Last Comic Standing” and VH1’s “Best Week Ever.” Arlington Cinema ‘N’ Drafthouse (2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington). $20. 9:45 p.m.

For more information, call 703-486-2345.

Art Exhibit Reception.

and Opening Sensazione:

Awaken the Senses is the �ifth Falls Church Arts all-member show & sale. View more than 100 pieces of art and meet the 50 artists whose work is on display in this all media show.

Live music and refreshments. 7 - 9 pm. Don Beyer Volvo, 1231 W. Broad Street, Falls Church.

Free. For more information, www.FallsChurchArts.org

SATURDAY, MARCH 29

Happy Birthday, Wanda June!

American Century Theatre’s revival of this ridiculous comedy and playwright Kurt Vonnegut. Gunston Arts Center (2700 S. Lang St., Arlington). $23-$29. 8 p.m.- Wed-Sat. 2:30 Sat-Sun. For more information, call 703-998-4555.

Twilight Tales. A walk-in story hour for children ages 3-6. Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free.

7 p.m. For more information, call 703-248-5030.

THURSDAY, APRIL 3 Story Hour. Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. Mon. – Thurs. 10:30 a.m. For more information, call 703-2485077.

Rotary Club. Rotarian Dr. John Karickhoff will speak on “Rotary’s Gifts to me over 60 Years.”

Harvest Moon Restaurant (7260 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). $10. 6:30 p.m.

“Why Women Should Rule the World” Discussion and Signing.

Author Dee Dee Myers. Borders (18th and L Sts. NW, D.C.). 6:30 p.m. 202-466-4999.

T

Theater Fine Arts THURSDAY, MARCH 27

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2

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Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” SUNDAY, MARCH 30 Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Renowned show, labeled “The Greatest Show on Earth” in it’s 137th edition. Verizon Center (601 F St. NW, D.C.). $14-$95. 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6:60 p.m.

For more information, call 202-397-7328.

August Wilson’s 20th Century: Gem of the Ocean. Ninth out of ten plays about African American life in the 1900s.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2700 F St. NW, D.C.). $65. 2 p.m. For more information, call 202467-4600.

The Washington National Opera March 29 - April 13 Kennedy Center Opera House

W

hy am I not recommending the opening of the Nationals’ new stadium Sunday night, you ask? Isn’t it a no-brainer? Yeah it is, if you already have a ticket. There will be scalping for sure, but then again we’re talking uncharted territory here. What parking and everything else will be like is anyone’s guess right now. Then, it’s going to be a night game, and temperatures will drop well into the 40s. Not the best for baseball. Finally, I plugged a sports thing last week, and I don’t want to steer you that way overly much. “Rigoletto” is a true classic, the kind of dramatic and musically lush opera you can take a newbie to, who might actually enjoy it.

But if you want something entirely new, I suggest Gus Van Sant’s new “Paranoid Park” at the E Street Cinema.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 27

live_music&nightlife THURSDAY, MARCH 27 L��� J���. Sign of the Whale (7279 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). For more information, call 703-5731616.

D�� N������ ��� D����� S����.

Acoustic. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E Vienna). $15. 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 703-255-1566.

R���� C���� � T�� P����������. Alternative Pop Rock. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $13 in adance/$15 day of show. Doors open: 7 p.m. Showtime: 8:30 p.m. For more information, call 703-237-0300.

FRIDAY, MARCH 28 T�� K������� “B����� D�����” CD R������ S���. Acoustic/Pop. $18. 7:30 p.m. 703-255-1566.

V����� W�����. Funk/Jazz. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $25. Doors open: 7 p.m. Showtime: 9 p.m.

For more information, call 703237-0300.

S��� R��, B��� J����, H��� ��� D��, B��������� ��� S������ H����. Rock. Jammin’ Java (6355 Rolling Rd., Wet Springfield). $25 in advance/$28 day of show. 7:30 p.m. 703-569-5940.

SATURDAY, MARCH 29 K������ N����. Sign of the Whale (7279 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 10 p.m.- 1:30 a.m. For more information, call 703-5731616.

S������� A������, R�������� T�����, T�� B��������� ��� B��������. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E Vienna). $10. 9:30 p.m. 703-255-1566.

T�� S�����. Indie Rock. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $11 in advance/$13 day of show. Doors open: 8 p.m.

Showtime: 9 p.m. For more information, call 703-237-0300.

E�� S������’� F��� 2008. Rock. .

Jammin’ Java (6355 Rolling Rd., Wet Springfield). $13 in advance/$15 day of show. 1 p.m.

703-569-5940.

Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E Vienna). $12. 7 p.m. 703-2551566.

MONDAY, MARCH 31 O��� M��. Hosted by David Cotton.

Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E Vienna). Free. 7 p.m.

T���� �� P����. Jazz/Funk/ Rock/Soul. Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria). $49.50. 7:30 p.m.

O���-M�� P�����. Arrive early to get on the list. Bar Nun (1326 U St. NW, D.C.). $5. 9 p.m. For more information, call 202-6676680.

T�� E������� V������, B��������, T��� L���� ��� E�� C�������. Indie/Pop/Rock. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E Vienna). $10. 7 p.m. 703-255-1566.

B������ S������ ��� ����.

Rock. Jammin’ Java (6355 Rolling Rd., Wet Springfield). $10 in advance/$12 day of show. 11 p.m.

703-569-5940.

SUNDAY, MARCH 30 O��� J�� S������. With Sam Prather. Twins Jazz (1244 U St. NW, D.C.). 8 p.m. 202-234-0072.

R���� T������� “F������ O�” CD R������ S��� ��� T�� C���� T������� B���. Roots.

TUESDAY, APRIL 1 P����� �� P����� ��� J������ O��. Alternative/Rock. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E Vienna). $10. 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 703-255-1566.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2

703-569-5940.

K������ ��� ��������. Sign of the Whale (7279 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 10 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. For more information, call 703-5731616.

G��� P�������. Acoustic. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E Vienna). $22 in advance/$25 at the door.

8 p.m. For more information, call 703-255-1566.

THURSDAY, APRIL 3 L��� J���. Sign of the Whale (7279 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). For more information, call 703-5731616.

T�� W������� “L�����” CD R����� S��� ��� C������ C����� L���. Americana/Roots/ Country. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E Vienna). $15. 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 703-255-1566.

G��� L�����. Rock. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $22 in advance/$25 day of show. Doors open: 7 p.m. Showtime: 8:30 p.m. For more information, call 703-237-0300.

W��������� ��� ����. Rock.

Jammin’ Java (6355 Rolling Rd., Wet Springfield). $23 in advance/$25 day of show. 6 p.m.

P������� A����...

W

hile you could celebrate the opening of the 2008 baseball season this weekend by heading down to the National’s home opener in their new stadium, you could also do one better. Prior to the Nats debuting their new digs on Sunday, ArtInsights Gallery in Reston Town Center will be opening the new “Heroes of the Negro Leagues” art exhibit on Saturday. Featuring the original watercolor art used for the bestselling book of the same name, the “Heroes of the Negro League” exhibit will including images for display and sale of famed Negro League players Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck O’Neil and many more. Appearing at the opening on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. will be the book’s illustrator and DC Comics Art Editor Mark Chiarello, an award winning artist who has done illustrations for LucasFilm, Disney, Universal Pictures and others.

What: Heroes of the Negro Leagues Art Exhibit When: Saturday, March 29, 2 - 5 p.m.

Where: ArtInsights, 11921 Freedom Drive, Reston, VA 20190 See www.artinsights.com for more info

Sunday, April 20 — Earth Day on the Mall. Earth Day celebration including guest speakers, exhibits and live entertainment. The National Mall (Between the U.S Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, D.C.). Free. Noon.

Saturday, April 26 — Rock-n-Tot. A chance for parents to get away and enjoy themselves - with their children. Ultrabar (911 F St. NW, D.C.). $15 in advance/$18 at the door. The event runs from 2 - 5 p.m.

C������� S���������� Be sure to include time, location, cost of admission, contact person and any other pertinent information. Event listings will be edited for content and space limitations.

Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for the current week’s edition.

Email: calendar@fcnp.com Fax: 703-532-3396; Attn: FCNP Calendar Mail: 450 West Broad Street, #321, Falls Church, VA 22046

Page 28

One of my favorite wines from the Hudson Valley in upstate New York is a Seyval Blanc produced by Clinton Vineyards in Dutchess County, just north of New York City.

Clinton’s wines have been showcased at such events as the Democratic National Conventions in New York and Chicago and were served at the White House as well as at the 1995 summit meeting between President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin in nearby Hyde Park, N.Y. Obviously, Clinton owners Phyllis and Ben Feder, who established their operation 32 years ago in Clinton Corners, N.Y., and other members of the Hudson Valley Wine & Grape Association feel strongly about the Seyval Blanc grape as well.

The group of 20 wineries has selected it as the primary grape for wines that will qualify for the new “Hudson Heritage White” designation, with Vignoles, Vidal or Cayuga White allowed for blending.

Seyval Blanc grapes have a long reputation as a good coolclimate fruit. The French-American hybrid is the second most planted vine in England, behind Muller-Thurgau.

In the U.S., the regional appellations producing the most Seyval Blanc wines are both in New York -- the Hudson River Valley and the Finger Lakes.

The grape is an early ripener, usually mid to late September.

It is highly susceptible to botrytis bunch rot. Wine fanciers know that is not necessarily a bad thing, since it often helps concentrate the sugar in grapes and helps create a better wine.

Seyval Blanc wine is a pale yellow color, with a light but fragrant nose, usually with hints of lemon, pineapple and a bit of acidic apple on the finish.

Clinton Vineyards, not so incidentally, produces more than Seyval Blanc wine on its 15-acre layout.

In the face of growing competition in the state’s rapidly growing wine industry, the Feders have expanded their portfolio in recent years to include pure fruit dessert wines, made from locally grown produce, with such market-friendly names as Romance, Embrace and Desire.

How is that going? Notes Phyllis Feder, “Our Cassis is the only black currant wine made in the United States to win gold medals and Best of Class at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition.”

• If non-New Yorkers know anything about Staten Island, it usually involves the storied ferry service between back and forth to Manhattan, its former gigantic landfill, or wisecracks made about it on “The Sopranos.”

Lush vineyards don’t usually figure into the equation.

Now, however, the heavily-Italian-American enclave across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge from the Big Apple proper is about to make a change.

With a little help from its Italian sister city of Crespina, the borough is preparing to open the only large-scale and educational vineyard in the city. And its creators are looking forward to producing their very own nectar of the gods -- the “Super Staten Island Red.” The vineyard was the brainchild of several Staten Island businessmen who call themselves the Founders Group. The borough president’s office has committed $2 million to support the project. Last November, members of the Founders Group toured the Castellani vineyards in Crespina and consulted with viticulture experts from Cornell University and the University of Pisa to select a blend of grapes that would grow on their twoacre site in the Staten Island Botanical Garden.

What they ended up picking was varieties of merlot, sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon, which they hope to plant in the spring of 2009. It will take about four years before the soil is prepared for the vines and a crop of grapes can be transformed into wine, organizers say.

• Tasting Notes preview: Three new entries on my “Tasting Notes” site (dowdtastingnotes.com) cover a pair of cabernetbased bargains from the renowned South Eastern Australia region as well as a slightly pricier but still affordable pinot blanc from France’s historic Alsace region.

All that, plus notes on a tequila reposada with star power -- sort of. 

March 27 - April 2, 2008

I’m terrible at golf but I love the game with a passion.

Some golf instructors get overly technical and teach the mechanics of the ideal swing.

That approach didn’t work for me. So, I found a pro that didn’t insist that I learn Tiger’s swing.

He accepted my physical limitations and improved my game by focusing on the minimal golf skills that I have.

That same teaching approach applies to poker, too. That’s why the online instructional course that I designed for www.

PokerVT.com addresses the learning needs of both beginning and advanced players.

In golf, no one learns to hit a draw, a fade, or a cut shot until they’ve been taught how to hit the ball straight. Similarly, novice poker players need to learn how to “hit it straight” before taking on more difficult concepts.

While sophisticated plays can work in poker, if attempted by an inexperienced player, they’ll usually backfire. Elaborate bluffs and check-raises are best left to experienced players. It’s just like golf; don’t try to hit a tricky flop shot with that 25handicap of yours!

You see, poker players are not all created equal. Some learn faster than others because they have better people skills, card sense, or maybe they’re just downright smarter. But all players should learn the game from the bottom and work their way up. Don’t skip the valuable lessons that you’ll need to learn in order to improve your game.

A big mistake beginners make is that they jump ahead too quickly, looking for bigger, tougher games where they are simply outclassed. You have to pay your dues in poker. The game is just as much about bankroll management, ego, psychology, and emotional control as it is about learning starting hand requirements and basic probabilities.

In golf, some pros succeed because they can hit the ball a mile while others rely on their deadly putting skills. On the pro poker circuit, some players win because they are super-aggressive while others succeed by playing a more controlled game.

There are many paths to success. You just have to pick the one that works best for you.

I’m naturally aggressive so adopting an assertive poker style works best for me. That approach won’t work for everyone, though.

That’s okay. But whatever poker style you do adopt, you must learn how to adjust your game in response to different situations.

In golf terminology, use all of the clubs in your bag.

Here’s one important distinction between golf and poker.

In golf, it doesn’t really matter what your swing looks like as long as you get the ball in the hole. In poker, your style does matter. How you decide to play a hand greatly impacts the decisions that other players will make against you.

That’s because poker is a catand-mouse game. Your objective is to play to your comfort level while injecting enough deception to cause your opponents to make mistakes.

For example, if an opponent thinks I bluff excessively, I’ll make an adjustment and will bluff less. If another player believes that I’d never bluff on the river, well, you’d better watch out when I throw out that last big bet.

Golf and poker can be frustrating. Golfers can struggle because they lack basic physical skills that limit their ability to succeed. Poker players can face similar challenges on the felt.

You may never play poker like Doyle Brunson or golf like Tiger Woods but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to improve your game and have more fun.

Just find an instructor who will teach you a style of poker play that accentuates your strengths and de-emphasizes your shortcomings. 

Thai Restaurant and Bar Live Music

926 W. Broad St, Falls Church, VA, 22046 703-534-0095

Dinner: Tues-Sun: 5:00-10:00PM Fri & Sat 5:00-11:00PM Bar: Sun-Thurs 5:00-11:00PM Fri & Sat 5:00-1:30AM Live Music: Tues-Thu: 7:30-11:00PM Fri & Sat: 8:30-1:00AM, Sun: 7:00-10:30PM

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 29

Level: 1 3

2 4

SOLUTION TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE

3/30/08

© 2008 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

ACROSS 1. Prominent grocery chain 4. First name on stage at Woodstock 8. Sign of affection 14. “I pity the fool” speaker 15. “____ Story” (2007 Jenna Bush book) 16. Woman with a degree 17. What a bathroom scale measures whenever dad gets on it?

19. Force 20. Its last mission was #17 21. Not duped by 23. Allow 24. Corpus ____, Texas 26. Give a gratuity to a recent Nobel Peace Prize winner?

28. “Bad!” sounds 29. Medical research org.

31. Yesterday: Sp. 32. Eleanor’s successor 34. Autumn blooms 36. A duo greatly admired by a pro-choice film buff?

39. “Marvelous” Marvin of boxing 41. Home of Iowa State University 42. Ending with peek or bug 43. It’s no soft serve 44. They can be hot or cold 48. Derelict’s harvesting yield?

51. Its two orbiting satellites are nicknamed “Rock” and “Roll” 54. “This ____ test” 55. Writes on a cake 57. Moon of Jupiter 58. Soldier’s headgear 60. Exotic dancer ... or a hint to this puzzle’s theme 62. Do the Wright thing 63. Ja’s opposite 64. Lao-____ 65. Rip into 66. HS exams 67. Regular: Abbr.

Down 1. Affect 2. Sales meeting visual aids 3. On the job

THE QUIGMANS Buddy Hickerson

1

2

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© 2008 David Levinson Wilk

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk

crossword / By David Levinson Wilk

53

57 61

62

63

64

65

66

67

4. Establishments with bars 34. Drink suffix 5. Expensive bar 35. Yearbook div.

1. grocery chain 6. Prominent ____-jongg 36. “I” problem 4. name on stage at Woodstock 37. Voting group 7. First Analogist’s words 8. Sign They’re prickly 38. Ariz. neighbor 8. of affection 9. Thrown ____ 39. Living area 14.

"I pity thefor fool" speaker 10. It may give punch 40. Cruel 15. "____ Story" (2007 Jenna Bush book) punch 43. Galoot 16. with a degree 11.Woman Hired hand 44. Twist 17. a bathroom scale measures 45. whenever 12.What Villain, at times Takesdad ingets on it?

13.

Certain preservers 46.

Most edible, perhaps 19. Force 18.

Wallach and Whitney 47.

Did the Wright thing 20. Its last mission was #17 22. Advanced degree 49. Ranch rope 21. Not duped by 25. Learning ctr.

50. TV’s Brady family, e.g.

23.

27.Allow Madrid meower 52. Kind of badge 24. ____,Mizrahi Texas 30.Corpus Designer 53. Remains to be seen?

32.Give “____ Movie”to(2007 Figs. blue cards 26. a gratuity a recentaniNobel 56.

Peace Prizeon winner? mated film) 59. Pirate’s guffaw 28. "Bad!" sounds 33. Go astray 61. It’s in the bag Across

29. Medical research org.

Last 31. Yesterday: Sp. Thursday’s Puzzle Solved 32.

S Eleanor's A Y successor A H

E C O L E C H O I R T O H E L O I C A X E Z I T E T S S P R S P A I M I E N S P A T R N P R I T B E L A C D S

G R A S P S E A S

P A I M N C E G O S

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A L U M

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P E E R O H P A R P O R I O T S Y M C A O R O W D R E E L T M E N T O O A G E N D O D D A V

C U C K O O

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S H O W Y

P A L E

A L E C

T E X T

R E E O R S E R T

nick knack

© 2008 N. F. Benton

Page 30

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Anthony’s Restaurant 309 W. Broad St., Falls Church • 703-5320100 •Type of Food: Greek, American & Italian Cuisine • Features: Breakfast (Sat & Sun Only) • Hours: Mon-Thurs -10 am - 11 pm, Fri - 10 am -12 am, Sat - 8 am - 12 am, Sun - 8 am - 10 pm

Argia’s Restaurant 124 N. Washington St., Falls Church • 703-5341033 • www.argias.com • Type of Food: Italian • Washingtonian’s 100 Very Best Restaurants, Zagat Rated, Full Bar, No Reservations • Hours: Lunch: Mon - Sat 11:30 am - 5 pm; Dinner: Mon - Thur 5 - 9:30 pm, Fri & Sat 5 - 10:30 pm, Sun 5 - 9 pm.

Bubba’s BBQ & Catering 7810-F Lee Hwy, Falls Church • 703-560-8570 • Type of Food: American/Family, Salads w/ Meat & Ribs • Features: Best BBQ East of Mississippi • Hours: Mon-Sat- 11 am - 9pm

Celebrity delly 7263-A Arlington Blvd. (Loehmann’s Plaza), Falls Church • 703-573-9002 • Type of Food: Delicatessen • Features: Catering, Sandwiches, Submarines, Soups & Salads • Hours: Mon-Fri - 9 am - 9 pm, Sat - 8 am - 9 pm, Sun - 8 am - 4 pm

Chicken Corner 2816 Graham Rd., Falls Church (Next to Magruder's) • 703-573-0112 • Type of Food: Peruvian Pollo • Features: Rotisserie Chicken, subs, salads, fresh fish • Hours: Mon-Thu - 10:30 a.m. - 9 pm - 9 pm, Fri-Sat - 10 am - 930 pm.

Frozen Dairy Bar & Boardwalk Pizza 6641 Arlington Blvd. (Sleepy Hollow Shopping Center), Falls Church • 703-534-4200 • Type of Food: Ice Cream and Pizza Parlor • Features: Catering, Homemade Frozen Custard, Pizza Subs. • Hours: Sun-Thur - 11 am - 10 pm, Fri & Sat - 11 am - Midnight

Harvest Moon Restaurant and Lounge 7260 Arlington Blvd. (Graham Center across from Loehmann’s Plaza), Falls Church • 703573-6000 • www.harvestmoon.com • Type of Food: Chinese • Features: Lunch / dinner buffets, banquet facilities up to 700 people • Hours: 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily.

Hoang’s Grill and Sushi Bar 502 W. Broad St., Falls Church • 703-536-7777 • Type of Food: Pan-Asian • Features: Single and Mingle Thursday Nights. • Hours: MonThurs 11 am - 10 pm, Fri-Sat 11 am - 10:30 pm, Sun - 11:30 am - 9:30 pm

Ireland’s Four Provinces 105 W. Broad St., Falls Church • www.4psfallschurch.com • 703-534-8999 • Type of Food: Irish • Features: Full Bar, Live Entertainment, Sunday Brunch • Hours: Daily - 11 am – 2 am

Koi Koi 450 W. Broad St., Ste. 117, Falls Church • 703-237-0101 • Type of Food: Japanese • Features: Sushi, Sashimi, Grill BBQ, Party Platters • Hours: Mon.–Fri. - 11 am – 10 p.m.; Sat.-Sun.: Noon - 10 p.m.

Ledo Pizza Restaurant & Pub 7510 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church • 703-8475336 • Type of Food: Pizza & Pasta, American/ Family • Features: Full Bar, Wine Menu, 5 TV’s-Sports • Hours: Mon-Thur - 11 am-10 pm; Fri-Sat - 11 am-11 pm; Sun - 12-10 pm

The Original Pancake House 370 West Broad Street, Falls Church • 703891-0148 • www.originalpancakehouse.com • Type of Food: American/Family • Features: Breakfast, Weekday Specials - Breakfast & Lunch • Hours: 7 am - 3 pm Daily

Red Hot & Blue 169 Hillwood Ave., (Hillwood Square), Falls Church • 703-538-6466 • Type of Food: Memphis Style Bar-b-que • Features: Full Service Catering and Delivery • Hours: Sun. - Thu. 11 am - 9 pm, Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Robeks 1063 W. Broad St., (West End Plaza), Falls Church • 703-538-4111 • www.robeks.com • Type of Food: Smoothies, Juices, Wraps & Salads • Features: Catering • Hours: Mon. - Fri. 6 am - 9 pm, Sat. & Sun. 8 am - 9 pm.

Sign of the Whale 7279 Arlington Blvd. (Loehmann’s Plaza), Falls Church • 703-573-1616 • Type of Food: American • Features: Seafood Night and Steak Night • Hours: 11:30 am - 2 am, 7 days a week

Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant 6304 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church • 703-2373888; 2153 Chain Bridge Rd., Vienna • 703319-3888 • www.crystalsunflower.com • Type of Food: 99% vegan • Features: Japanese, Chinese, Continental • Hours: Mon-Sat 11:30 am - 10 pm; Sun 12 pm - 10 pm.

Sweet Rice Thai Restaurant 1113 W. Broad St. (next to Don Beyer Volvo), Falls Church • 703-241-8582 • Type of Food: Thai Cuisine • Features: Free delivery ($15 min., limited area) • Hours: Mon. - Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Dinner 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.; Fri. 11:30 am - 11 p.m.; Sat. Noon - 11 p.m.; Sun. Noon - 10 p.m.

Velocity Five 8111 Lee Hwy. (Merrifield Plaza, Lee Hwy. and Gallows Rd.), Falls Church • www.velocityfiverestaurant.com • 703-207-9464 • Type of Food: American Grille • Features: 50 HD TVs, Private Banquet Rooms, DJ after 9:30 p.m. • Hours: Sun-Mon - 11 a.m. - 2 a.m.

By Natalie Bedell Courtside Thai in Old Town Fairfax sets the bar high for its surrounding international cuisine competitors. While I'm an admitted newbie to the Thai food scene, I find it hard to believe that my naivete in regards to this particular menu selection was the reason for its lasting impression, one that made me want more.

I was greeted by an inviting outdoor seating section of well-kept patio space, complete with a stone birdbath, and greenery that I can imagine filled with blossoms come springtime. Weather permitting, this could have been a treat, but the wind coaxed me indoors. Monet-inspired landscapes on canvas decked the walls in coordination with the cherry wood tables, whose tops displayed similar floral scenes. Fresh lilies dressed up each table with the help of the romantic candlelight emitted from the intriguingly obscure looking glass-blown votive holders.

A selection of seafood is delivered fresh every Friday to this Old Town hot spot. My server was extremely informative about which fish was most popular this season, and immediately sold me on the Hoi Ob mussels ($6.95) as an appetizer.

Straight from Prince Edward’s Island, these mussels arrived steamed in Thai lemongrass, white onion and basil leaves. Served with small pitting forks and a lemon pepper dip, Courtside Thai successfully reinvented the dish with an absolutely irresistible flavor compared to a traditional, American presentation with the usual melted butter.

The Calamari Salad ($6.95) arrived shortly after the mussel shells were cleared.

Strips of this delicacy atop sliced cherry tomatoes, lemon chili peppers, onions and shallots were covered in a spicy Thai dressing. With a rating of just one out of three chili peppers to guide this dish’s spice factor, I’d still advise anyone to keep some water nearby for this one. Though, don’t let its subtle burn deter you from trying this dish out. The flavors of lemon and spice here were quite unique and rewarding.

My lack of Thai experience prompted me to do my homework before I dined, so I went with the popular Thai curry-based favorite Gaeng Masaman Chicken ($10.95). Stir-fry style chunks of white-meat chicken were served in a deep bowl of Thai peanuts floating in chili curry seasoned coconut milk with pieces of potatoes and onion peels. Most dishes, this one included, come with a side of white rice. The rice tasted especially good when drenched in the coconut milk and curry spice.

If I wasn’t completely stuffed, I would have tried the Mango Sticky Rice ($5.95) for dessert, but I am merely using this as an excuse to return in order to do some serious investigative reporting into the actual sweetness of this dish. Another good reason for my revisit will be Courtside Thai’s fully stocked bar, whose menu includes a list of about 10 specialty martinis — including a chocolate one I have my eye on — as well as a selection of white and red wines. Martinis and other mixed drinks will run you anywhere from around seven dollars and up, but if they’re anything like the food, there shouldn’t be any complaints.

As much as I would have liked to keep this place my own little secret, I feel others need to know where they too can get amazing Thai food in Old Town. It's a place where the service is always on top of things without hovering, the seafood’s fresh every Friday, and the extensive menu offers a built-in excuse to come back and try something new.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 31

VELOCITY FIVE SPORTS RESTAURANT & BAR

8111 LEE HIGHWAY FALLS CHURCH, VA 22042 MERRIFIELD PLAZA CORNER OF LEE HIGHWAY & GALLOWS RD 703-207-9464

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Private Banquet & VIP Rooms

50 FLAT SCREENS! Dinner Special Through April

Served six to a plate, dusted with powdered sugar and more pieces of praline sprinkled on top. We finish with a drizzle of Butterschotch syrup. How delicious and decadent?

Also weekdays: free Wi-Fi at selected locations and a new Senior Menu!

Open Daily 11:00 AM – 2:00 AM Lunch Dinner Daily Specials Late Night Menu

370 West Broad St. Falls Church,VA 703-891-0148

CRAB CAKES PLATTER ONLY $15.95!

Grand Opening Special!

FREE Appetizer with Purchase of Lunch or Dinner. $10 Value!

With This Coupon Only. Offer Expires April 30, 2008

Open House Sunday March 30, 2008 1:00 P..M. to 4:00 P.M.

Commercial office space in Falls Church City Old Brick House Square Professional Complex Excellent Business investment Price: 599,000

3 Level 1,680 Sq. Ft. brick commercial office townhouse in Falls Church City. 2 Private entrances, front and rear, could be divided into 2 business spaces. First floor reception area with 2 offices, 2nd level has 3 offices with powder room, 3rd level has 2 large offices with a full bath. Ample parking, new floors and roof in 2006. New windows to be installed in March, Fios and Lan in all offices. Close to EFC Metro and WFC Metro, 3 miles to Tyson’s. Close to shops and restaurants.

W Poole Michael W.

THE REVERSE MORTGAGE SPECIALIST©

From the intersection of Rt. 7 and I/66, Exit I/66 drive East ¾ of a mile on Rt. 7 (Broad St.), Old Brick House Square Professional complex and Rowell Court is on the right.

Edward A. Schmidt Cell#703-593-9962 Office#703-564-4000 Home#703-237-2674 ed.schmidt3@verizon.net

Page 32

Sensazione: Awaken the Senses Opening reception Friday, March 28 from 7 - 9 p.m. Don Beyer Volvo (1231 Broad St., Falls Church). After opening night, this show will be moved to the Falls Church Arts gallery in the back of Art and Frame (111 Park Ave, Falls Church. Gallery Hours: Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). The show will continue to run at Art and Frame from Monday, March 31 through Saturday, April 19.

This is Falls Church Arts’ biggest show of the year. The opening receptions at Don Beyer are typically packed to the gills with Falls Church City art patrons and elected city officials.

Youth Art Show: Middle and High School Students March 25 through April 8.

Reception Thursday, March 27, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

The show features works by McLean area middle and high school students, organized by Fairfax County Public School Art Teachers. The show will be held at the McLean Project for the Arts, on the second floor of the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean).

Gallery Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., and Saturdays, 1 - 5 p.m.

For more information, call 703-790-1953, or see www. mpaart.org. This show always seems to offer up several amazingly accomplished young artists.

Yuri’s Night Out 2008 Tickets now on sale for this April 12 event at the Art Whino Gallery (717 N. Saint Asaph St., Alexandria). Tickets are $20 in advance, and $25 at the door.

When the going gets wacky, nothing beats hanging out with a horde of artists blowing off steam. This one would certainly seem to qualify as such.

The premise for the celebration is that Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s April 12, 1961 voyage into space — the first human space flight — needs to be commemorated. What better way to do that than host the “most out-of-this-world” party you can think of? Of course Stoli Vodka will be there.

March 27 - April 2, 2008

A mix of a rave and performance art might be the best way to define this one. Doors open at 8 p.m. and, for those still able to hear the last call, will close at 2 a.m. There are enough events on this schedule that you’ll feel like you’ve been subjected to the Vulcan Mind Meld before it’s all over.

For starters, you’ll want to plot the trajectory on your celestial costume, as prizes for best orbital outfits will be awarded at midnight. Flight suit ... Check.

The Stoli sponsored (De-) Hydration Sequence runs from 8 - 10 p.m. featuring cosmic concoctions. Ticket price includes three tankfuls with a cash bar refueling station throughout the night. Rocket fuel ... Check.

Preflight Band Performance runs from 9 - 10 p.m. featuring Mr. Moccasin. Performance Orbit is scheduled to run from 10:30 p.m. - 1 a.m. featuring burlesque acts, Gilded Lily Troupe & L’il Dutch; Scenes from Landless Theatre Company’s Space Battles and starring Miss Saturn and her 40-plus Hula Hoop-derived Celestial Rings.

All of this is hosted by Master Uranus. Speak for your own planet pal. DJs will be launching tunes all night long.

Splashdown is 2 a.m. This is a 21 orbits and over event. Oh yeah ... there will also be 9,000 square feet of interstellar art on display.

Artist Opportunities

BRN-WARL N-8023_5-7x7-5_FCNP

 The Northern Virginia Art Beat is compiled by Kevin Mellema. See www.fcnp.com for photos and more. To e-mail submissions, send them to mulsane@ aol.com.

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March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 33

Continued from Page 5 Larceny from Vehicle, Craftsmen Auto, 113 Gordon Rd., between March 16, 6:00 p.m. and March 17, 7:00 a.m., unknown person(s) stole (4) Michelin Tires from a vehicle.

Larceny, 1100 blk. W Broad St., March 15, 4:00 p.m., unknown person(s) stole a TREK bicycle.

Drug/Narcotic Violation, 900 blk.

Ellison St., March 17, 7:32 p.m., police a male, 23, of Falls Church, VA for Possession of Marijuana.

Graffiti/Damage to Property, International Motors, 624 S Washington St., unknown person(s) spray-painted graffiti on a signage at the establishment.

Graffiti/Damage to Property, 900 S Washington St., March 18, 4:14 a.m., unknown person(s) spray-painted graffiti on the establishment.

Graffiti/Damage to Property, 7Eleven, 804 S Washington St., unknown person(s) spray-painted graffiti on the establishment dumpster.

Graffiti/Damage to Property, 600 blk. S Washington St., unknown person(s) spray-painted graffiti on the exterior of the establishment.

Destruction of Property, The Byron, 513 W Broad St., March 21, 10:17 a.m., unknown person(s) cut the elevator pad with a sharp object.

Larceny from Vehicle, 100 blk. S Virginia Ave., between March 20, 7:00 p.m. and March 21, 9:02 a.m., unknown person(s) stole the tires and wheels off a silver 2003 Honda Civic.

Drunkenness, 6700 blk. Wilson Blvd., March 21, 11:29 p.m., police arrested a male, 34, of Falls Church, VA for DIP. Larceny from Building, Park Ave Professional Building, 313 Park Ave., unknown person(s) removed copper tubes from the establishment.

Drunkenness, 900 blk. Ellison St., March 22, 6:44 p.m., police arrested a male, 54, of Falls Church, VA for DIP. Larceny from Building, Hollywood Video, 502 W Broad St., police arrested a male, 51, of Falls Church, VA for Hit and Run Attended Vehicle and Felony Larceny third or subsequent offense.

Robbery, 600 blk. S Oak St., March 23, 10:35 a.m., police arrested a male juvenile for armed robbery.

Burglary, Residential, 300 blk. S Oak St., between March 22, 2:00 p.m. and March 23, 3:00 p.m., unknown person(s) entered an unoccupied residence and stole a X-BOX 360, Sony Laptop, (2) remote game controllers, video game, and $400.00 (coins).

Destruction of Property, Stratford Motor Lodge, 300 W Broad St., between March 21, 11:33 p.m. and March 23, 7:01 a.m., unknown person(s) vandalized the interior of a rented room belonging to the establishment.

Stifel& Capra “Art & Ornament for your Wonderful Life”

Special Weekend hours!

Friday, April 4th from 5 to 8pm Saturday, April 5th from 10 am to 5pm Join us for new art, store specials, refreshments & Olivia’s Birthday cake!

Always: Mon – Sat 10am to 2pm 210 Little Falls Street, Falls Church

703-407-0770 www.StifelandCapra.com Local Art - Vintage Treasures-Artisan Jewelry-Unique Gifts-Home

Page 34

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Yard Sale MOVING SALE Saturday, March 29th 9:00am - 4:00pm. Idylwood Village West Apts. (off rt 7) 2228 Pimmit Run Ln Apt 4, Falls Church.

For Rent RENT Falls Church room, metro. $525 Dory - 703-7983448 -

ROOM FOR RENT

For Sale

Mature lady, no smoking. 571-216-7012.

SUPER SALE NEW- REBUILT COPIERS 50% Off List Price. Call 703-560-3900 Washington Photo Copy.

COMPUTER Free Internet Education Event! Set includes tutorials $199 703-212-9174

MULCH TOP SOIL WOOD CHIPS Free delivery. 703-623-0101

Building Lot For Sale Falls Church City 8,150 Sq. Ft. (’50x163’) Pennsylvania Ave. $495.000.00 703-451-9090 Help Wanted DRIVERS/ LOCAL CDL-A Career Training. Swift Transportation Trains and Employs! Dedicated, Regional & OTR Fleets.

Exp’d Drivers w/ Hazmat Needed. 800-397-2423

HELP WANTED Sheet Metal Mechanic or experienced helper.

Dixie Sheet Metal. 703/533 -1111.

PT PERSONAL ASSISTANT Highly organized women to work as a PA to a single professional woman for 3 hrs. each Monday and Friday beginning at 10 or 11AM. Elementary computer skills required. Good temperament a must. 11.00 per hr. Call Dr. L/’ Heureux 703 5340054

Services A&R HOME IMPROVEMENT Interior & Exterior Painting, Drywall Repairs and Installation, Wood Replacement, Bath Remodeling, Stone and Brick Patios, Pressure Washing, Outdoor Illumination. We are licensed and insured.

Call for free estimate - 703-992-7040 Cell: 571-436-3382

FAMILY DAY HOME Opening all ages - State Licensed - First Aid/CPR Trained - 9 years experience. Call Anjo 703-5775287

FIDDLE LESSONS Falls Church City, www.LarryRiceMusic.com/lessons.html for info. 703-869-1419

GEROGE’S SMALL ENGINE REPAIR Also lawn mower and tractor for sale. 571-2120712

GREAT CLEANING SERVICE great references, excellent job call Maria 703.277.1098/703.626.0665

CHILD CARE Experienced childcare provider provides quality care for your infant in F.C. home. (703) 241-0605.

HANDYMAN SERVICE Windows, doors, rotted wood, petdoors, lighting, fans, faucets, fences, bath, Flat screen TV installation and kitchen remodeling. Insured Free estimates. Call Doug (703) 556-4276 www.novahandyman.com

HONEY-DO HANDYMAN Cosmetic Home repairs and inspections.

Painting, plumbing, electrical service, carpentry. Bsmts and bathrooms finished. Problem solver with references. Gutter cleaning & repair.

Subpumps, drainage, snaking. Tree removal and expert landscape service by Certified Arborist. Decks, fencing, siding & roof repairs.

Service calls for appliances. 703-560-0799.

HOUSE CLEANING BY JAKELIN Licensed, Honest, Experienced, References. Call 703-863-3821

Excellent

HOUSE CLEANING SERVICE Available 7 days a week. Week, biweekly, monthly or one time. Good references in Falls Church City.

10 years experience. For further information call me at 703-848-8322. Senior discount, Ask: Susy.

HOUSE CLEANING SERVICE Low rates. Good references. Call Dolores 571/2321091.

JUST CALL JEFF Need a little help before you need a lot of help?

Call us for brick, stone and all types of repairs and installation. Powerwashing too. Jeff Cadle 703/698-1390

MARIAS HOUSE CLEANING Good References & experience, 703-395-5971 or 703-231-4135

MORALES LANDSCAPE & LAWN CARE Spring Clean - Up, Mulching, seeding & many others. Call David (o) 703-502-3990 or (c) 571-2214330 and renovations, reasonable rates, painting, drywall, carpentry, deck, fence, siding, tile, electrical, plumbing. FREE ESTIMATES. Please call 703655-2838.

REMODELING & HOME IMPROVEMENT We do: Bath Remodeling - Tile Repair - Ceramic Installation (Back Splash) - Drywall - Stone & Brick Patios - Power Washing. Free Estimate License & Insurance.

571-201-5046 or Luis_4uuu&hotmail.com

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Phone: 703-532-3267 • Fax: 703-532-3396 E-Mail: classads@fcnp.com Mail: 450 W. Broad St. #321, Falls Church, VA 22046 Please include payment (check or money order) with your ad or call us to arrange payment by credit card.

For public and legal notices, please email legalads@fcnp.com The Falls Church News-Press accepts no financial responsibility for typographical errors in advertisements. Advertising which has minor discrepancies such as misspelling or small type transposition, but which do not affect the ability of the reader to respond to the ad will be considered substantially correct and full payment is required. The Falls Church News-Press is not responsible if the original copy is not typewritten or legible and clear. The Falls Church News-Press is not responsible for copy changes made by telephone.

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

ABC LICENSE

PUBLIC NOTICE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

John Alfred Otterbeck trading as J.A.O Wine Imports LLC 2817-C Dorr Avenue, Fairfax,Va 22031-1511 Fairfax County is applying to the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for a wholesale license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages. John Alfred Otterbeck, Member.

ABC LICENSE RW& B Inc (DBA Red, White & Bleu Wine and Gourmet) is applying for a beer and wine license through the Virginia ABC. Our address will be 127 S. Washington Street in Falls Church, VA. Owners RW&B Inc, Contact Adam Roth 703-9273225.

CITY ELECTION The Falls Church City election will be held on May 6, 2008. On the ballot will be three City Council positions, three School Board positions, and a referendum question.

As is required by §24.2-416 of the Code of Virginia, registration books will close on April 7, 2008.

Registration applications will be accepted as timely if they are either received by the Voter Registration Office or postmarked by 5 PM on April 7, 2008.

Deborah Taylor, General Registrar City Of Falls Church 300 Park Ave. Falls Church, VA 22046 703-238-5085 Fax – 703-248-5204

PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARING On Monday, April 7, 2008 (Planning Commission) at 7:45 p.m. will hold a public hearing during their regularly scheduled meeting, in the City Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church Virginia 22046, on the following application: Resolution (TR8-17) Amending and Reenacting Resolution 200430 granting Special Exception Application SE04-0162, for an existing mixed use development, specifically the portion located at 400 S. Maple Avenue know as the Tax Analyst office building.

The Special Exception amendment is required to permit medical office or service uses to occupy a portion of the existing office building first floor commercial space reserved for retail uses.

Interested persons may appear and present their views on the proposed amendment. Information or copies of the plans are available in the City's Planning Division, at 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church VA., Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 703-248-5040

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS ON PROPOSED BUDGET BY THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the ordinances referenced below will be given first reading and a public hearing on Monday, March 24, 2008. The Public hearings will continue on April 14 and April 28, 2008, with second reading and final action scheduled for April 28, 2008 - all at 7:30 p.m., Official Time, or as soon thereafter as may be heard.

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(TO8-07) Ordinance Setting The Rate Of Tax Levy On Real Estate, Personal Property And Machinery And Tools, And All Other Property Segregated By Law For Local Taxation In The City Of Falls Church, Virginia, For The Tax Year 2008. [Tax rate of $1.04 per $100 of assessed value.]

GET NOTICED!

(TO8-08) Ordinance Fixing And Determining The Budget Of Expenditures And Revenues, Appropriating Funds For The Fiscal Year 20082009: General Fund; School Operating Fund; School Community Service Fund; And School Food Service Fund; Water Revenue Fund And Sewer Revenue Fund And Approval Of The Capital Improvement Plan

in the

News-Press!

CLASSADS@FCNP.COM

All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia.

Copies of legislation may be obtained from the City Clerk's office (703-248-5014) or at cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. This location is fully accessible to persons with physical disabilities.

Special services or assistance to persons with disabilities may be requested in advance. To speak at a public hearing, fill out a speaker slip and give it to the Clerk at the left front table. Speakers will be called forward by the Mayor at the appropriate time.

KATHLEEN CLARKEN BUSCHOW CITY CLERK

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 35

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Walsh & Assoc.

PC Attorneys

COMPUTER REPAIR

•Injury cases & Death cases •Medical/Legal malpractice •Breach of contract •Commerical/Insurance • Car accidents Free Consultation 703-448-0073 Hablamos Español 703-798-3448

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M.D. PAINTING AND DECORATING CO.

• Interior • Exterior • Dry Wall Repair • Wallpaper Removal and Paint• • Deck & Wood Pressure Wash and Sealant• • Reasonable Prices • Small and Big Jobs• • Good Quality • Painting and Finishing• • Licensed and Insured• Call for Free Estimate Cell: (703) 966-2954

HOME IMPROVEMENT James Roofing & Home Improvements Roof Replacements Rubber Roofs • Flat Roofs Leak Specialists • Roof Coatings Chimney • Repair Facia&Soffit Decks Built&Repaired • Coatings Wood Repair • Drywall Repair Gutters • Siding • Ext.&Int. Painting 24 hr. Emergency Service

Repair, Remodeling, New, 20 years experience For New and Remodeling Free Estimates Call

(571) 214-3006

MOTTERN MASONRY DESIGN Specializing in custom firplaces, patios, walkways, walls, driveways.

Small and large repairs.

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JOSEPH HOME IMPROVEMENT Drywall • Paint Exterior / Interior, Bath & Kitchen Remodeling, Basements, Handyman, Moving, Clean Garage, All kinds of hauling

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Licensed Work

Cell 703-507-5005 Tel 703-507-8300

Home Improvement

Benton & Potter, P.C. www.bentonpotter.com

Government contract law, all areas of business and corporate law.

In Falls Church 703-992-9255, in D.C. 202-416-1660

Kitchens & Bathrooms Tile • Hardwood Floors Wood Trim • Painting • Drywall

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NOTICED! in the News-Press

Free Estimates Call 703-503-0350 Licensed and Insured REMODELING & ADDITION, CERAMIC, TILE, FINISHED CARPENTRY, CROWN MOLDING, CHAIRS, DECK RAILS, STAIR, WINDOWS, DOORS, CONCRETE, SIDEWALKS, DRIVEWAYS, BRICK INSTALLED & REPAIRED

Phone # Cell Number

703-532-3267

TO ADVERTISE!

Psychic & Taro Card Reading Advise & Help with All Problems such as: Love, Business & Relationships See What the Future Holds for You All Readings $10.00

Call 301-317-7965

Make a Joyful Splash!

703-241-4990

Create unique art masterpieces using acrylics, water-based oils, pencils and an innovative variety of tools and brushes.

Spring Cleanup, mulching, mowing, edging, trimming.

Residential & Commercial Tree Service & Snow Removal

•Yard Cleanup •Mulching • Edging • Trimming • Pruning • Planting & Removal • Lawn Care • Power Washing • Deck • Siding • Painting • Hardscapes • Other repair services

Free Estimates

703-508-3976 or 703-323-9251

Weaver Enterprises

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Held at 111 Park Avenue Falls Church on Tuesday Evenings from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Cost: $90 On-going monthly enrollment Enroll on-line at www.creativecauldron.org Or call 571-239-5288

FOOD & DINING

Ledo Pizza Caterers Tysons Station • 7510 Leesburg Pike Falls Church, VA

(703) 847-5336

Pizza • Pasta • Wings • Subs • Salads • Desserts

www.FCNP.COM

703-848-8322 703-901-2431

703-532-3267

Miss Theresa

Seven Brothers Landscaping Service

Spring Special

703-868-5999

Shaun R. Murphy REALTOR®, Licensed in VA, MD & DC www.ShaunRMurphy.com Remax Allegiance

OTHER SERVICES

J. NINA PLUMBING

www.motternmasonry.com

HOT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY! Find out how you can take advantage of the current real estate market. Call Now!

Mike’s Carpet Cleaning 5 Rooms deep cleaned only $98 •Stretching•Mold Remediation •Oriental Rugs•Upholstery•Pet Problems • 24 Hour Emergency Water Damage We Clean the White House!

Call Mike 703-978-2270

Licensed Free Estimates 703-593-3383

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(703) 237-0222

CLEANING SERVICES

703-532-3267 Ask about our specials!

Ask about our specials!

Business & Service Directory 1 x 1” Ad 3 mo. = $220 • 6 mo. = $420 • 1 yr. = $770 1 x 1.5” Ad 3 mo. = $330 • 6 mo. = $630 • 1 yr. = $1155 1 x 2” Ad 3 mo. = $440 • 6 mo. = $840 • 1 yr. = $1540

1 x 2” ad 1 x 1.5” ad 1 x 1”

Page 36

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Mayor Robin S. Gardner . . . . . . . . . .

Vice Mayor M. R. Lindy Hockenberry . . . .

City Council David C. Chavern . . . . . . . . . .

Harold Lippman. . . . . . . . . . .

Daniel Maller . . . . . . . . . . . . .

David F. Snyder. . . . . . . . . . . .

Daniel X. Sze . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

City Manager Wyatt Shields. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Home Page <www.fallschurchva.gov>

The Week

703-534-8644 703-241-0934 703-538-2398 703-237-9089 703-731-8433 703-241-0419 703-538-5986 703-248-5004*

* Indicates TTY 711 Accessibility

provided as a public service by the city of falls church

Questions or Comments? City of Falls Church, Harry E.Wells Building, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church,VA 22046 703-248-5003 (TTY 711) The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act.This document will be made available in alternate format upon request. Call 703-248-5003 (TTY 711).

city calendar

MARCH 27 Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

28 Armchair Travel Group, 10:30 a.m.

29 Farmers Market, 9 a.m.-Noon 31 Yard Waste, Bundled Brush, & Special Collections

Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

City Council Work Session, 7:30 p.m.

APRIL 1

Second Quarter City Business License Tax Payment Due (If Eligible)

Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

Economic Development Authority, 6:30 p.m.

2

General District Court in Session

Falls Church Cable Access Board, 7 p.m.

Recreation & Parks Advisory Board, 7 p.m.

Story Hour, 7 p.m.

Architectural Advisory Board, 7:45 p.m.

3

Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

Book Discussion Group, 7:30 p.m.

City Council Work Session, 7:30 p.m.

4

FIRSTfriday Event

5

Farmers Market, 9 a.m.-Noon

7

Yard Waste, Bundled Brush, & Special Collections

Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

City Council Work Session, 7:30 p.m.

Planning Commission, 7:45 p.m.

8 Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court in Session

Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

Housing Commission, 7 p.m.

Kokolopori Art Contest Submission Deadline March 30 Would you like your artwork printed on notecards that are sold to raise money for our Sister City, Kokolopori? Entries must depict what you think life in the rainforest would be like in or around Kokolopori, our Sister City in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

All students between 5 and 18 years of age who live or attend school

in the City of Falls Church are eligible to enter. No more than one entry per person. Entries must be two-dimensional (any medium), no smaller than 3” x 5” and no larger than 11” x 17.” All submissions must be flat, not folded or rolled. For a complete list of rules, visit www.fallschurchva.gov, e-mail info@kokolopori-partnership.org, or call 703-534-4003.

Enter Your Masterpiece in the 4th Annual Falls Church City Art Show & Sale Calling all artists – now is the time to get creative! The Recreation & Parks Division will present its 4th Annual Art Show & Sale next month and City residents and employees of all ages are invited to submit original artwork to the show (limit two submissions per person).

Photography, paintings (watercolor, oil, or acrylic), and drawings (pencil or pastel) of any size will be accepted. Submissions can be framed or unframed.

All artwork may be submitted to the Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls St.) beginning Monday, April 21 and no later than noon on Friday, April 25. Artists must include their name, phone number, and selling price (if interested in selling the artwork) on the back of each entry. Submissions from children K-12 must include their grade and age.

For more information, call 703-2485077 (TTY 711).

An Egg-ceptional Time That’s what was had by all at the Annual Easter Egg Hunt last Saturday. Hundreds of area children scrambled for treats in Cherry Hill Park and visited with the Easter Bunny. Many thanks to the volunteers who helped City staff with this fun event.

School Board, 7:30 p.m.

9 General District Court in Session

Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation, 7 p.m.

Story Hour, 7 p.m.

10 Schools Third Quarter Ends

Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

City Council/School Board Work Session, 7:30 p.m.

Student Artwork Available for Pickup All artwork submitted to the 2007 Student Art Contest can be picked up from the Office of Communications in City Hall, 300 Park Ave., East Wing, third floor, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Register for the City’s Online Newsletter at www.fallschurchva.gov

Register to Receive Emergency Alerts

Police Department Offers Rape Aggression Defense Course The City’s Police Department is offering a FREE Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) program of realistic self-defense tactics and techniques for women, 12 years of age and older.

The course is offered in four, three-hour sessions. Classes will be held at St. James School (830 West Broad Street in Falls Church) on Tuesdays, Apr. 8 and 15 and Thursdays, Apr. 10 and 17 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The R.A.D. System is a comprehensive, women-only course that addresses awareness, prevention, risk reduction, risk avoidance, and the basics of hands-on self-defense training. R.A.D. is not a martial arts program. Nationally certified R.A.D. instructors from the City Police Department teach the course.

Participants are required to attend all four sessions. For more information and to register, e-mail jcarter@fallschurchva.gov or ksdempsey@verizon.net.

Become a Certified Emergency Volunteer Responder The City of Falls Church will offer its first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training course this April and May. Emergency responders will train residents and businesses in basic response skills, including disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations, search and rescue team organization, disaster psychology, and more.

CERT members are then integrated into the emergency response capability for the Falls Church City area.

Class schedule and registration information is available at www.fallschurchvfd.org. The course is free and open to persons ages 18 and up. The course takes approximately 30 hours to complete, and classes meet on a series of Wednesday evenings and a few Saturdays.

Registration is on a first-come, firstserved basis with initial preference given to Falls Church City residents.

FOR THE WEEK of

Classes and Events Homework and Organization I (ages 8 and older) Saturday, March 29, 10 a.m.-noon Learn how to organize your activities and environment,so that you can be more independent.Bring any issues that you may have with homework or organization and your hardest assignments. Fees: $14 residents; $24 non-residents. Call 703-2485077 (TTY 711) to register.

Bellobration Friday, April 4, 5 p.m. or Saturday, April 5, 1 p.m.

George Mason University Patriot Center (transportation provided from Community Center, bus leaves promptly at times listed above) Bring your family to see Bello,the daredevil clown, acrobats, elephants, horses, tigers and more!

Before the show, step onto the arena floor for an all-access pre-show with dancers, clowns and other stars of the show! Cost is $33 for Friday show and $23 for Saturday show. Registration ends March 29. Call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711).

Youth Classes

Classic Tales ‘n Tunes (ages 1 ½-4 with adult) Saturday, April 5, 9:30 or 10:30 a.m.; Wednesday, April 9, 9:15 or 10:15 a.m.

Community Center, 223 Little Falls St. Preview this outstanding theme-oriented program of stories, music, movement, and puppetry, enriched with Spanish and American Sign Language! FREE, but space is limited. To register, call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711).

Tiny Tunes (ages birth-17 months) Wednesday, April 9, 11:15 a.m. or noon Community Center, 223 Little Falls St. Beloved teacher Susan Hayes delights the tiniest learners with music, movement, puppetry, and sign language! Call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711) to reserve your spot.

City of Falls Church Farmers Market Every Saturday from 9 a.m. - Noon

Growing Green Proper Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Many types of household, automotive and lawn care products contain toxic or hazardous chemicals that require proper disposal. Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 10, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., for the City’s first Household Hazardous Waste Residential Collection Event. Falls Church City residents are invited to bring a wide array of hazardous and toxic products to the Falls Church Property Yard, 7100 Gordon Road (across from the Recycling Center) where a licensed contractor will collect your items for free and properly dispose of them according to local, state, and federal regulations.

Hazardous waste includes a wide array of items,such as floor care products,furniture polish, oven and drain cleaners, rug cleaners, mothballs, solvent-based glue, acid-based cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, nail polish remover, bug sprays, rodent poisons, flea spray, garden pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, paints and thinners, furniture strippers, stains, motor oil, brake fluid, antifreeze, button batteries, rechargeable batteries and auto batteries.

Falls Church residents are also invited to use the Fairfax County Hazardous Waste Facility at 4618 W. Ox Road, for free, year-round. The facility is open on Thursdays from 1-5 p.m., Fridays from 8 a.m.-noon, Saturdays from 8 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sundays from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Call 703-324-5068 (TTY 711) for a complete list of acceptable items.

Never throw hazardous waste in the regular trash, on the ground, down the drain, or into storm drains. Doing so may result in injury to sanitation workers; increased risk of accidental poisoning or injuries to children, pets, and wildlife; and degradation of the water, air, and soil.

Sign up for e-FOCUS Today!

HaveyoureceivedtheCity’s bi-monthlyonline newsletter, e-FOCUS? If not, you can check it out online at www.fallschurchva.gov.

The e-FOCUS highlights the City’s financial, environmental, transportation, economic development, public safety, and housing issues.

Anyone interested in receiving the e-FOCUS via e-mail should e-mail publicinfo@ fallschurchva.gov with“e-FOCUS Subscribe” in the Subject line.

For more information, call the Office of Communications at 703-248-5003 (TTY 711).

Falls Church Recreation & Parks Division 223 Little Falls Street Falls Church, VA 22046 703-248-5077* Phone Numbers Open Gym/Weather Hotline 703-248-5125* Special Events Hotline 703-248-5178* Fax 703-536-5125 Senior Center 703-248-5020*/21* Community Center Hours Monday-Thursday 8 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.

Friday 8 a.m. - Midnight Saturday 8:30 a.m. - Midnight Sunday Noon - 6 p.m.

Open Gym Hours Open Gym hours are updated on a bi-weekly basis and are also posted on the Open Gym Hotline, 703-248-5125*. All hours are subject to change. * Indicates TTY 711 Accessibility

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 37

ly Focus

Chairman: Craig Cheney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Vice Chairman: Ronald Peppe II . . . . . . . . . .

School Board Rosaura Aguerrebere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kathryn Chandler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Susan Kearney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kieran Sharpe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Joan Wodiska. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Superintendent: Dr. Lois Berlin . . . . . . . . . . .

government and the falls church city public schools

mArch 27-April 2 , 2008

For more news about the Falls Church City Public Schools visit: www.fccps.org

“Our victory at the regional competition was a significant milestone in the five years George Mason has fielded a robotics team,” teacher sponsor John Ballou said. “Our team was one of the smallest, and we were considered by most other competitors to be the ‘underdog’ in the competition. So our students are especially proud of their accomplishment, and are looking forward to doing their best to bring home a national trophy.”

forty-inch balls around a track to score points. Robots could knock balls from an overpass structure, move the balls around a track, or throw the balls over the overpass to score. The robots could score points during a fifteen-second period, operating from pre-programmed commands, and during a two-minute period where students manipulated the robots by remote control to accomplish scoring tasks. The Mason robot will be put to the test again in the national contest, which begins on April 17th.

Those who wish to make a contribution should make checks payable to George Mason High School with Robotics Team 1418 in the memo line. Checks should be sent to the school, c/o Edna Baldo, Finance Secretary, 7124 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22043.

The road to the national robotics competition actually started in January, when teams were given six weeks to design and build a robot from a kit. The rules required the robots to be able to work independently as well as to be controlled by human drivers to accomplish various tasks.

In this year’s challenge, the The George Mason High School robotics team poses robots had to manipulate with its creation following their 1st place finish in the FIRST Robotics regional competition.

FCC-TV Spotlight: Jazz Cardio Strength Stretch Tune in to Falls Church Community Television (FCC-TV) to watch Jazz Cardio Strength Stretch, a public access program produced by Jazzercise. This program gets your blood pumping through a cardio warm up, then moves on to muscle toning during the strength segment, and at the end of class lets you unwind with some cool-down stretches. Jazz Cardio Strength Stretch airs every weekday morning at 8:00 a.m.

FCC-TV airs on Cox Channel 12, Verizon Channel 35 and Starpower/RCN Channel 2. For a complete schedule of the variety of community programs on FCC-TV, visit www.fcctv.net.

BIE Partner of the Week Susan Pollack Needham, Mitnick and Pollack School involvement: Supports the Falls Church Education Foundation Annual Dinner with sponsorships and online silent auction donations; serves as Secretary of the Falls Church Education Foundation.

Why Susan is a BIE partner: “Having spent 13 years as an FCCPS parent, participating in the foundation is a natural progression of the volunteer involvement I’ve had over the years. It is a great way for parents of graduates to keep giving back to the schools that have meant so much to our families.”

For more information about sharing your expertise through the BIE Partnership, visit www. fccps.org or contact Marybeth Connelly at connellym@fccps.org.

School content published in The Weekly Focus is written and edited by the Falls Church City Public Schools. For more information, contact the Falls Church City Public Schools Communications Office. Phone: (703) 248-5699 Fax: (703) 248-5613.

The Falls Church City Public Schools and the Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School Social Studies Department are currently reviewing textbooks for the civics and economics curriculum. Among those under review is Civics Today: Citizenship, Economics and You, published by Glencoe Publishing.

The book encourages an appreciation for the American political system and fosters a willingness to take part in American democracy.

It contains two economics units to provide an understanding of the interrelationship between democracy and the free enterprise system.

As part of the review, the public is invited to provide comments for the department’s consideration.

The textbook is on display through April 8th at the Falls Church City

Civics Today: Citizenship, Economics and You Glencoe Publishing, 2008.

Public Schools Central Office, 803 W. Broad Street, in Suite 320.

Office hours are from 8:30 to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Kindergarten Orientation Class Scheduled Mount Daniel School is preparing for this summer’s exciting kindergarten orientation class. The eight day course, to be held July 7th – 17th, provides an introduction to Mount Daniel School for children entering kindergarten this fall.

Children will investigate different parts of the school, participate in learning activities and art projects, experience recess, enjoy various Mount Daniel traditions and meet the school’s mascot, Danny, the Purple Hippo.

Registration materials will arrive in the mail next week with the actual registration beginning on Monday,

April 7th. The cost of the eight-day session is $190. Pre-registration is not available and early tuition payments will not be accepted.

Parents can choose to send their child to morning classes from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or an afternoon session from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Kate Seche at 703-248-5616 or email her at sechek@fccps.org.

A minimum enrollment of seven (7) students per class is needed.

Space is limited to ten (10) students per session and, once open, registration will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Summer School Dates Announced

Mark your calendar! The Falls Church City Public Schools summer sessions have been scheduled for the following dates and times: Mount Daniel Elementary School • July 7 – July 31 (M-TH); 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon Thomas jefferson Elementary School • July 7 – August 1 (M-F); 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Mary Ellen henderson Middle School • July 7 – August 1 (M-F); 7:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. george Mason high School • July 7 – July 25 (M-F); 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

703-536-8638 703-536-7564 703-532-0321 703-536-3130 703-533-1248 703-248-5601*

* Indicates TTY 711 Accessibility

GMHS Robotics Seeks Funding New Social Studies for National Competition Textbook under Review On the heels of its incredible first place finish in the Chesapeake regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Annapolis, the George Mason High School robotics team is setting its sights on representing the school at the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia next month. In order to get there, they’ll need to raise about $15,000 to cover fees and travel expenses.

703-237-6931 703-534-4951

SCHOOL CALENDAR DATES ARE SubjEcT To chAngE March 27 6:00 p.m. Freedom/South Riding @ Mason (B Soccer) 7:30 p.m. Budget Work Session w/ City Council (City Hall – Training Room) 7:30 p.m. Mason @ Freedom/ South Riding (G Soccer) 28 4:30 p.m. Falls Church @ Mason (Baseball) 7:15 p.m. Mason @ Washington-Lee (G Lacrosse) 7:30 p.m. Washington-Lee @ Mason (B Lacrosse) 29 1:00 p.m. Alumni @ Mason (B Soccer) 2:00 p.m. Alumni Soccer Reception (GM) 6:00 p.m. Elementary Family Party (Community Center) 31- SELP Testing (All Schools) 4/25 31 6:00 p.m. Mason @ Briar Woods (Baseball/Softball) 7:00 p.m. Mason @ JEB Stuart (B Soccer) 7:15 p.m. Mason @ Loudoun Co. (G Lacrosse) 7:30 p.m. JEB Stuart @ Mason (G Soccer) April 1 7:00 p.m. School Board Work Session (MEH) 7:30 p.m. Loudoun Co. @ Mason (B Lacrosse) 2 4:30 p.m. Freedom @ Mason (B Tennis) 4:30 p.m. Mason @ Freedom (G Tennis) 5:00 p.m. Mason @ TC Williams (Softball) 7:30 p.m. PTSA (GM) 7:30 p.m. Washington-Lee @ Mason (G Soccer) 3 5:00 p.m. Manassas Park @ Mason (B/G Track) 7:30 p.m. Mason @ Park View (B Lacrosse) 7:30 p.m. Spring Play (GM) 4 7:30 p.m. Spring Play (GM) 5

7:30 p.m. Spring Play (GM)

(MD) Mt. Daniel Elementary (TJ) Thomas Jefferson Elementary (MEH) Mary Ellen Henderson Middle (GM) George Mason High Check the FCCPS Web site for more calendar information. www.fccps.org

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 38

BACK IN THE DAY dog. lazy ick qu The fox sly p e d j u m the over dog. lazy is the w No for all time cows od go me to to coaid of the pastheir Now ture.

15 s Yearo Ag

time is the all for cows good me to to coaid of the pastheir Now ture. time is the all for cows good me to to coaid of the their.

15 & 10 YEARS AGO Falls Church News-Press Vol II, No. 53 • March 25, 1993

Council Prepares to Commit Valuable City Land to Grad Center Plan Monday “The City Council will decide Monday night whether to support the proposal of the special task force and development team on bringing the UVA/VA Tech Graduate Center to West Falls Church.

“If the Council votes its support, the proposal will be submitted Wednesday, meeting the March 31st deadline specified in the universities...”

Helen Thomas Continued from Page 10

would like people to support the president’s decisions but that such a hope is “unrealistic” in time of war.

“And while we’re not able to change public opinion, we have to follow a principle,” she said, “and stand on principle.”

Reminded that she was saying, in effect, that the people had no say about the war, Perino replied that they have “input” every four years, adding: “And that’s the way our system is set up.”

As long as Congress cowers sheep-like and does not retrieve its constitutional power to declare war, an imperial Bush-style presidency will prevail.

The war against Iraq was built on falsehoods -weapons of mass destruction that did not exist and ties to al-Qaida that were a fantasy.

The administration used these phony rationales to scare the American people into fearing a threat from a third-world country.

Since the administration’s original propaganda has now been revealed to be bogus, Bush has resumed his claim that it was necessary to rid the world of a tyrant, Saddam Hussein -- a friend of the

IN THE

NEWS-P PREESS

Falls Church News-Press Vol VII, No. 54 • March 26, 1998

It is now the time for all good to go cows to aid of the p a s their ture . * * * Throw * * Pour it up. it up

CRITTER CORNER 10 Year s Ago

It is now the time for all good to go cows to aid of the p a s their ture . * * * * * Throw Pour it it up. up

George Mason Ranked First in Metro Area For ‘Challenging Studnets’ “George Mason High School ranks at the top of 124 Washington-area public high schools in terms of the academic challenge it offers students according to nationally recognized education expert Jay Mathews.

“After years of studying how high schools do or don’t encourage students to take the most academic courses offered in their curricula, Mathews devised his ‘Challenge Index’”...

U.S., incidentally, in earlier times.

His aides remain loyal to their chant that Iraq is “the central front in the war on terrorism.”

Any port in a storm seems to be the strategy of White House spin-masters.

Determined to ignore the reality that the war is a debacle and the killing will go on, Bush last year came up with the “surge” theory of dispatching 30,000 more troops to Iraq in hopes of bringing Iraqi submission.

There has been a lessening of violence in Iraq. Could it be that there are fewer attacks on American troops because we are paying huge sums of money to Sunni Iraqis to per-

suade them to stop attacking Americans and instead go after al-Qaida?

Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will leave Baghdad in May to report to Bush and Congress on the status of the war and talk about a timetable for a drawdown of more troops -or even propose a pause in withdrawals.

Next November, the American voters will decide on a new president. Before then, reporters will be remiss if they fail to nail the candidates on whether the views of the people on questions of war and peace will count with them. © 2008 Hearst Newspapers

NOT FUSSY, yet opinionated and possible to please. That is the only intriguing morsel of information accompanying this week’s fine example of Critterdom (TM). The image was emailed to us by a mysterious informant known only as "Sergio." We can only guess as to Sergio's motives, but if we had to guess, we 'd say Sergio is exposing a CIA plot. For anyone who has seen the History Channels expose of Stalin's efforts to breed a vicious ape army, this is chilling deja vu, and a reminder of the costs of liberty/cuteness.

If you would like to see your pet here, e-mail us at crittercorner@fcnp.com or send a picture and short description to Falls Church News-Press c/o Critter Corner, 450 W. Broad St., Suite 321, Falls Church, VA 22046.

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News•Photos•Online Polls•Sports and More

Contact Information: • Hours: 7:00 - 4:00, Monday - Saturday • Phone (703) 532-0169 • Fax (703) 532-2193 • Toll Free 1-877-321-1055

The Saturday Showcase Series: Ask a Pro All Saturdays, April-June: • Meet a Contractor • Learn Products • Cultivate Ideas Starts April 5 with: • Premier Paving

Coming April 4-5 Block Party Free Food • Free Advice • Meet the Sales Rep Tour the Mobile Showroom

Address: 7139 Lee Highway, Falls Church, VA 22046

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Page 39

The

Business Listing n

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Accounting

Diener & Associates, CPA. . . . . . . . . 241-8807 Demeo PLLC, CPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 931-0815 Eric C. Johnson, CPA, PC . . . . . . . . 538-2394 Mark Sullivan, CPA . . . . . . . . . . . 571-214-4511 Hahn & Associates, PC, CPAs . . . . . 533-3777

ANTIQUES & cOLLECTIBLES

Falls Church Antique Company . . . . 241-7074 Antique Annex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-9642

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Cleaning Services

Pressure Washing/Deck, Siding . . . . 980-0225 Maid Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823-1922 Carpets, Ducts, Windows . . . . . . . . . 823-1922

Clock repair

Falls Church Clockworks . . . . . . . . . . 536-6731

Computer services

Fast Teks On-Site Computer Srvcs . . 496-7807

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ASSisted living

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Construction

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Attorneys

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Counseling

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Sunrise of Falls Church . . . . . . . . . . . 534-2700 Mark F. Werblood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9300 Phillip J. Walsh & Associates, P.C. . . 448-0073 John A. Boneta & Associates . . . . . . 536-6166 Janine S. Benton, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . . .992-9255

Automotive

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Amsoil Dealer 526099 . . . . . . . . . 580-748-0055 VA Auto Repair (Wittstatts) . . . . . . . . 533-3000 Beyer Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5000

banking

Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. . . 519-1634 BB&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-3505 Acacia Federal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506-8100

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beauty

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book Binding

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Universal Beauty Supply & Salon . . . 534-7926 BCR Binders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9181

BUSINESS SERVICES

SS Business Brokerage . . . . . . . 703-830-9526 Jon Rizalvo, PAYCHEX . . . . . 698-6910 x27045

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carpet CLEANING

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catering

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B.D.G. Design Catering . . . . . . . . . . . 237-2964

chiropractor

Dr. Raymond Solano, drsolano.com . 536-4366

VA Outdoor Power Equipment . . . . . 207-2000 Ace Tool & Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 532-5600

Eyewear FLorists

physical therapy

home improvement

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Plumbing

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Political Parties

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real estate

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tailor

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therapy

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Travel

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Tutors

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Other Services

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Graphic design

jewelry

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lawn & garden

Nationwide/Bob Pierce Agency . . . . . 241-7847 State Farm Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5105 www.ofallthebeads.com . . . . . . . . . . . 901-3738 Weaver Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323-9351 Seven Brothers Landscaping . . . . . . 241-4990 Lawn Care Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . 691-2351

masonry

Mottern Masonry Design . . . . . . . 571-212-1711 Jeff L. Cadle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698-1390

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massage

Massage & Hair Removal . . . . . . . 571-282-4522 Healthy by Intention, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 534-1321 Sheraton Premiere Women’s Massage 403-9328

medical

Dr Gordon Theisz, Family Medicine . 533-7555 The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy . . . 536-4042

Stifel & Capra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407-0770 What Works Design Group, LLC . . . . 864-2303

NED Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-7457 James Roofing & Home Improvement 593-3383 Joseph Home Improvement . . . . . . . 507-5005 FC Heating & Air Service . . . . . . . . . 534-0630 M.D. Painting & Decorating Co. . . . . 966-2954 DAST Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898-8318 Shiner Roofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560-7663 J & S Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448-1171 The Vinyl Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793-3111

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Gifts

Human Touch Home Health . . . . . . . 531-0540

insurance

Art and Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-4202

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Miniatures from the Attic . . . . . . . . . . . 237-0066

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Bratt Decor Baby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448-6833 Antique & Contemporary Restoration 241-8255

Dog Trainer - Nicole Kibler . . . . . . . . 593-6340 Falls Church Animal Hospital . . . . . . . .532-6121

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Galleria Florist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536-0770 Falls Church Florist, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 533-1333

Furniture

pet services

home care

Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-6500

Framing

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Dentists

Equipment REntal/Sale

Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536-0140 Sacred Well Yoga and Healing . . . . . 989-8316

Hobbies & Collectibles

Carol S. Miller, LCSW . . . . . . . . . . . . 395-4980 George Coyne, LCSW . . . . . . . . . . . . 328-4112 Career/Life/Retirement Coach . . . . . 241-2620 Josette Millman, APRN . . . . . . . . . . . 855-0396 Drs. William Dougherty, Julie D. Tran 532-3300 Drs. Mark A. Miller, Melanie R. Love . . 241-2911 Dr. Mike McCombs, Orthodontist . . . . 820-1011 Dr. Nimisha V. Patel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-1993

Columbia Institute - Fine Arts . . . . . . 534-2508 Foxes Music Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-7393

health & FItness

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Alba Construction, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . 204-0733

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Mike’s Carpet Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . 978-2270

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Theracare Wellness Center . . . . . . . 560-4300 J. Nina Plumbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571-214-3006 Falls Church Democratic Committee 534-8644 Merelyn Kaye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .790-9090x218 www.helpfulmortgage.us . . . . . . . . . . 237-0222 www.RoadstoHome.com, Chris Rhodes 405-6800 Casey O’Neal - ReMax . . . . . . . . . . . 824-4196 Rosemary Hayes Jones . . . . . . . . . . .790-1990 H&R Mortgage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-0222 Leslie Hutchison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .675-2188 www.Mortgage1040.com . . . . . . . . . . 448-3508 The Young Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .356-8800 Shaun Murphy, Realtor . . . . . . . . . . 868-5999 www.TheJeffersonatBallston.com . . . 741-7562 Susan Fauber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395-8741 Tailor Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-8886 Neurofeedback Center of VA . . . . . . . 536-2690 All Travel & Cruises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970-4091 Your Computer Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204-2821 Huntington Learning Center . . . . . . . 379-8810 Miss Theresa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301-317-7955 Soo Young Lim Sewing Lessons . . . . . 300-1188

music

Academy of Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938-8054

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Page 40

March 27 - April 2, 2008

Just Reduced Open Sunday 1-4

Merelyn Kaye Selling Falls Church Since 1970

Life Member, NVAR TopProducer Member 20+ Million Dollar Sales Club Top 1/2% of all Agents Nationwide

Just Reduced in Falls Church Open Sunday 1-4 Sunny, three Bedroom, two Bath ( one nearly new) Pine Springs Contemporary in great location on beautifully landscaped private lot with drip irrigation for trees and shrubs. Spacious Living room with fireplace and beamed ceiling. Dining area has sliding glass door to deck and private rear yard screened with cypress. Updated kitchen, with maple cabinets and white appliances, has built-in china cabinet. Daylight Rec Room has glass block wall, fireplace and large storage closet. Hardwood floors, large storage/laundry/work room, garage, natural wood ceilings throughout, and more! $529,000 Dir: 7 Corners: W on Rt 7, L on Washington St, L on Fairmont, R on Woodberry, L on Pine Spring to 3008 Home 241-2577 Office 790-9090 X418 Mobile 362-1112

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1320 Old Chain Bridge Road McLean, Virginia 22101