The Georgetowner: March 25, 2020 Issue

SINCE 1954

VOLUME 66 NUMBER 12

GEORGETOWNER.COM

MARCH 25 - APRIL 7, 2020

C O V I D -19 R E D A L E RT

IN THIS ISSUE IN THIS ISSUE

ABOUT THE COVER

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,” wrote Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s Founding Fathers and the fellow portrayed on the $100 bill — an apt quotation for our time. Design by Troy Riemer.

NOTE · 4

A Powerful Message for Trying Times

NEWS · 5 - 7 Town Topics

EDITORIAL/OPINION · 8 Editorial Letter to the Editor

ELECTION 2020 · 8 - 9 Jack Evans Withdraws Ward 2 Campaigns Go Online

D.C. HUNKERS DOWN DURING CHERRY BLOSSOM SEASON

COVER · 10 - 12

A sign outside the National Portrait Gallery announces the museum’s temporary closure.

Photo by Jeff Malet.

DOWNTOWNER · 13 Downtown News

BUSINESS · 13

COOK ON A WHIM: TRIPLE BERRY CRÈME FRAÎCHE SCONES

Ins & Outs

ARTS · 14

BY AN ITA PAR R IS SOU L E

Art in the Time of Contagion

Photo by Anita Parris Soule. Courtesy Cook on a Whim.

IN COUNTRY · 15 Touring Egypt

FOOD & WINE · 16 Gunpowder Potatoes

‘CELIA AND FIDEL’ AT ARENA

BY STEPH AN IE GR EEN

CLASSIFIEDS · 17 Service Directory

Andhy Méndez as Fidel Castro in Arena Stage’s “Celia and Fidel.” Courtesy Arena Stage.

BOOK CLUB · 18

Kitty Kelley Book Club

Social Scene

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robert Devaney

FEATURES EDITORS COPY EDITOR Ari Post Richard Selden Gary Tischler SENIOR FASHION & BEAUTY CORRESPONDENT DIRECTOR Peggy Sands Lauretta McCoy CONTRIBUTORS GRAPHIC DESIGN Mary Bird Troy Riemer Susan Bodiker Allyson Burkhardt PHOTOGRAPHERS Evan Caplan Philip Bermingham Didi Cutler Jeff Malet Donna Evers Michelle Galler ADVERTISING & Stephanie Green MARKETING Amos Gelb Kate Sprague Wally Greeves Richard Selden Kitty Kelley Kelly Sullivan Rebekah Kelley Jody Kurash Shelia Moses Kate Oczypok Linda Roth Alison Schafer Mary Ann Treger

BY JEFF M AL ET

Coronavirus Updates

GOOD WORKS & GOOD TIMES · 19

PUBLISHER Sonya Bernhardt

1050 30th Street, NW Washington, DC 20007 Phone: (202) 338-4833 Fax: (202) 338-4834 www.georgetowner.com The Georgetowner is published every other Wednesday. The opinions of our writers and columnists do not necessarily reflect the editorial and corporate opinions of The Georgetowner newspaper. The Georgetowner accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. The Georgetowner reserves the right to edit, rewrite or refuse material and is not responsible for errors or omissions. Copyright 2020.

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Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin on March 19, 2020. Photo by Jeff Malet.

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A POWERFUL MESSAGE FOR TRYING TIMES

What is the coronavirus crisis really teaching us?

I’m a strong believer that there is a spiritual purpose behind everything that happens, whether that is what we perceive as being good or being bad. As I meditate upon this, I want to share with you what I feel the coronavirus is really doing to us.

• It is reminding us that we are all equal, regardless of our culture, religion, occupation, financial situation or how famous we are. This disease treats us all equally; perhaps we should too. If you don’t believe me, just ask Tom Hanks.

• It is reminding us that we are all connected and something that affects one person has an effect on another. It is reminding us that the false borders that we have put up have little value, as this virus does not need a passport. It is reminding us, by oppressing us for a short time, of those in this world whose whole life is spent in oppression.

• It is reminding us of how precious our health is and how we have moved to neglect it through eating nutrient-poor

manufactured food and drinking water that is contaminated with chemicals upon chemicals. If we don’t look after our health, we will, of course, get sick.

• It is reminding us of the shortness of life and of what is most important for us to do, which is to help each other, especially those who are old or sick. Our purpose is not to buy toilet roll.

• It is reminding us of how materialistic our society has become and how, when in times of difficulty, we remember that it’s the essentials that we need (food, water, medicine) as opposed to the luxuries that we sometimes unnecessarily give value to.

other and to be of benefit to one another.

• It is reminding us to keep our egos in check. It is reminding us that no matter how great we think we are or how great others think we are, a virus can bring our world to a standstill.

• It is reminding us that the power of free will is in our hands. We can choose to cooperate and help each other — to share, to give, to help and to support each other — or we can choose to be selfish, to hoard, to look after only ourself. Indeed, it is difficulties that bring out our true colors.

• It is reminding us of how important our family and homelife are and how much we have neglected them. It is forcing us back into our houses so we can rebuild them into our homes and strengthen our family unit.

• It is reminding us that we can be patient, or we can panic. We can either understand that this type of situation has happened many times before in history and will pass, or we can panic and see it as the end of the world and, consequently, cause ourselves more harm than good.

• It is reminding us that our true work is not our job, that is what we do, not what we were created to do. Our true work is to look after each other, to protect each

• It is reminding us that this can either be an end or a new beginning. This can be a time of reflection and understanding, where we learn from our mistakes,

or it can be the start of a cycle which will continue until we finally learn the lesson we are meant to.

• It is reminding us that this earth is sick.

It is reminding us that we need to look at the rate of deforestation just as urgently as we look at the speed at which toilet rolls are disappearing off of shelves. We are sick because our home is sick.

• It is reminding us that after every difficulty, there is always ease. Life is cyclical, and this is just a phase in this great cycle. We do not need to panic; this too shall pass.

Whereas many see the coronavirus crisis as a great disaster, I prefer to see it as a great corrector. It is sent to remind us of the important lessons that we seem to have forgotten and it is up to us if we will learn them or not.

Ed. note: A version of this message has been circulating recently on social media.

Though not by Bill Gates, as claimed, it contains advice that readers may find of value.

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TOWN TOPICS

NEWS

All Things COVID: Closures, Changes, Coping C OMPILED BY SUSA N B O D I K E R

PUBLIC SERVICES

The Metropolitan Police Department remains open but is transitioning to email for non-emergency situations. Quick links: • General MPD inquiries and contacts: mpdc.dc.gov/node/205152 • Anonymous tips: text 50411 or mpdc. dc.gov/service/text-police-50411 • CAG Public Security Program: cagtown. org/publicsafety The Department of Motor Vehicles is operational, but in-person centers are closed until April 27. All driver licenses, registrations and inspections scheduled to expire will be granted a waiver without penalty until it reopens at full capacity. All tickets will remain in their current status until May 15 and no additional penalties will be assessed during this period. Check dmv. dc.gov for info and late-breaking details.

Lyft activated its LyftUp initiative, which will offer free rides for essential transportation. Free rides will be provided to doctors, nurses, low-income seniors, families with children and those needing non-emergency medical transportation.

For details, visit lyft.com/blog/posts/ supporting-our-community.

For the latest Metro schedule information, visit wmata.com/about/news/weekendservice-reductions.cfm.

The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs remains operational, but the in-person Permit, Business License, Residential Center and Home Owner Center will be unavailable to the general public beginning Wednesday, March 25. In-person operations are set to resume on April 27.

Until then, visit dcra.dc.gov.

In-person services at the District Department of Transportation’s Public Space Regulation Division are unavailable to the public effective March 25. Residents can use DDOT’s Transportation Online Permitting Service at tops.ddot.dc.gov to apply for and renew public space permits.

The extended tax deadline for taxpayers to file and pay their 2019 District of Columbia individual and fiduciary income tax returns (D-40, D-41 and D-40B), partnership tax returns (D-65) and franchise tax returns (D-20 and D-30) is July 15.

All Department of Parks and Recreation playgrounds, parks and athletic fields are closed until April 27.

Unemployment claims can be filed at does.dcnetworks.org/ initialclaims/?Lang=en-US. Meals for seniors: If you or someone you know is 60+ years old and needs a meal,

call the Aging and Disability Resource Center at 202-724-5626. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Information on food shopping for seniors and immunocompromised individuals is available at coronavirus.dc.gov/food.

GEORGETOWN EVENTS AND MUSEUMS

The Georgetown House Tour and Parish Tea, scheduled for April 25, has been canceled. The Georgetown Garden Tour, scheduled for May 9, has been canceled. Dumbarton House Museum is closed through March 30. Dumbarton Oaks is closed, with public events canceled through the end of May. Tudor Place is closed through April 30.

RESTAURANTS

For the latest information on Georgetown restaurants offering takeout, including alcohol, visit georgetowndc.com. To donate to the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington worker relief fund, visit ramw.org/educated-eats.

STAYING SANE

Suggested ways of feeling better by doing good may be found at washingtonpost. com/nation/2020/03/21/how-you-can-helpduring-coronavirus.

Museums and performance venues may be closed but you can find solace through culture online. A partial list: • DC Public Library book club: dclibrary. org/dcreads • Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens: hillwoodmuseum.org • National Gallery’s Facebook Live tours: facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart • Museum of Modern Art (classes, exhibits, etc.): moma.org • Metropolitan Museum: metmuseum.org • Phillips Collection: phillipscollection. org/about/stay-connected • Smithsonian Learning Lab: learninglab. si.edu Resources and programming for artists are provided at transformerdc.org.

Miss your workout? Gyms and exercise studios are offering free fitness classes to members. Check with your facility to learn more. If you’re not a member, YouTube is your friend.

Alternatively, you can get out and walk — six feet apart. It’s an easy way to get your steps in. But stay away from the Tidal Basin! (View the blossoms at nationalmall. org/bloomcam.)

Mayor Bowser at one of many COVID-19 press conferences. Photo by Jeff Malet.

D.C. Extends Closures to April 25

BY R OBERT D EVAN EY Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on March 20 that the District of Columbia government will extend its “modified operating status until April 27, including the adjusted D.C. government operating posture and distance learning at the District’s public schools.”

The first death in Washington, D.C., due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported earlier that day by the D.C. Department of Health, which added, “The patient, a 59-year-old male, was admitted to a local hospital last week, presenting with symptoms of fever and cough as well as other underlying medical conditions.

He later tested positive and was included among the District’s reporting data.”

Said Mayor Bowser: “It is with great sadness that we announce a tragic death and, on behalf of our residents, I share our love and condolences with the patient’s family and friends. As a community, we

must continue to support one another during these uncertain times. Everyone must do their part so that we can blunt the spread and protect our families, friends and neighbors.”

She also extended the prohibition on mass gatherings (50 or more) during a public health emergency until April 25. That means bars, restaurants, theaters, gyms and spas can open on the last Saturday of April, if no new extensions are issued.

“The D.C. government will operate under an agency-specific telework schedule, continuing to deliver essential services and keep critical systems and services operating,” Bowser said. “Some government operations will be performed fully remotely, while other services will continue to be performed at public buildings, but under modified operations.”

As of March 19, there were 71 reported cases of COVID-19 in D.C.

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MARCH 25, 2020

5

TOWN TOPICS

We’re All Teachers Now NAVIGATING THE UNCHARTED TERRITORIES OF HOMESCHOOLING IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS

BY CH L OE K A P L AN “It’s recess time!” shouts 6-year-old Annabelle, as she sets down her iPad, removes her headphones and steps out onto her back patio. Her brother Henry follows suit, closing his book and grabbing his scooter to do laps around a small table.

A few blocks away, Charlotte is just beginning her math lesson for the day: a baking project with her father. She sets aside three cups of flour, two eggs and small teaspoons of spices. Her father displays the recipe before them on his laptop.

Jonnie, around the corner, is in the middle of a tele-tutoring session with his writing coach. He holds his recently completed assignment up to the screen as his tutor leans in closer to view it from her own home. “Great work!” she says. “Let’s move on. Can you hold up the following activity so I can see?”

As we all know, this is not a scene from a Ray Bradbury story. This is us handling the new normal, a week into quarantine, balancing busy lives from within the confines of our own homes — all while trying to keep our children engaged and entertained.

With DC Public Schools operating via

distance-learning through April 24, and local private schools on similar schedules, the responsibility is falling on families to keep children up to speed with their learning.

One scroll through your Instagram feed will show you the ways different families are handling this, some with daily agendas to keep a routine in place. For most, this is truly uncharted territory, and whether families are navigating it instinctually or heeding advice from pros is up to their own discretion. But one thing seems to be unanimous: Go easy on yourself.

Molly Tartaglia, a teacher at Horace Mann Elementary, advises that a laid-back approach is best for everyone. “The first thing to remember is to give yourself grace.

Set a couple of times for learning each day, but don’t feel like you have to schedule the entire day. Leave time for play, bend the rules on screen time and go outside. It’s a tough job to teach your own child and emotions may run high. If frustrations are starting to peak, take a break. Just make sure to do something every day to make the day we return to school, and we will (!), easier for your child.”

What’s on today’s homeschool agenda? Courtesy Chloe Kaplan.

Christina Cuomo Diver, a lawyer with no teaching experience and two small children, says she would be lost without the classroom schedule her son’s teachers sent her so she could adapt it for use at home. “It’s been helpful to have some guidelines on how to break up the day into manageable chunks,” she says. “Even if you get sidetracked and get off schedule, it’s there as a roadmap to help you get reoriented.”

The bottom line is we are all doing the best we can in this unprecedented time, and we are in it together. The most important

thing we can do is to make sure our children continue to be inspired and to love learning in whatever unique shapes it takes in the coming weeks. At the end of the day — or at the end of the quarantine, perhaps! — this has the potential to be an unforgettable learning experience for all.

A former DC Public Schools teacher, Chloe Kaplan is the founder of Amore Learning, a Georgetown-based boutique education business that offers enrichment classes in more than a dozen D.C. schools.

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Who Was That Masked Shopper?

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BY SU S A N BODIKE R Food shopping at 6 a.m. is a disorienting experience. People in gloves, eyes filled with anxiety above their masks. I headed straight for the paper aisle. “One package of toilet paper per customer,” the sign read.

There was one package left. I took it.

Cat litter is still a precious commodity and chicken breasts are as rare as, well, chicken’s teeth. I learned you cannot buy wine before

8 a.m. Since I couldn’t get all my ingredients, that was no great loss. I put the bottle back.

The store was very quiet. Even the Muzak was muted. But everyone was very polite as we kept our six-foot distance. The store associates are performing yeoman’s duty.

As I walked home, dragging my granny cart, I took pleasure in the birds and the brightening sky.

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MARCH 25, 2020

7

EDITORIAL

A Letter From the Editor in Chief Send Your Feedback, Questions or Concerns, Tips and Suggestions to editorial@georgetowner.com or call 202-338-4833

We Are All in This Together Georgetown residents have been at the center of history the past two weeks as the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the District turned out to be the Rev. Tim Cole, rector of Christ Church at 31st and O Streets.

In our March 11 issue, The Georgetowner praised our community’s response. Father Tim immediately informed more than 500 parishioners of his illness and their possible exposure, and Georgetowners took the news calmly. Some 200 parish members selfquarantined themselves at home for two weeks; others reached out to help with grocery shopping and pet and child care.

Two weeks later, there is good news.

Father Tim is getting better and expected home soon. His wife and son tested negative for the virus. Only five members of the church tested positive, including organist Tom Smith, who has now been released from quarantine.

But the number of positive cases among Washingtonians of all ages grows daily.

There have been two deaths in the District as of this writing. Almost every day, Mayor Muriel Bowser has increased restrictions: first schools and colleges, then eateries, commerce and transportation. On Sunday, going to see the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin was actively discouraged.

Fear may be growing. The daily increase of deaths in northern Italy and stories of hospitals running out of beds and supplies in the wealthiest area of that unprepared nation is a lesson — hopefully not a prediction — for the United States.

We Americans learn quickly. Even a child can understand the concept of “flattening the curve,” that is, lowering the number of severe cases that need hospitalization at the same time. If that means staying at home and shutting down schools and business for a few weeks, we’re on it.

But as we watch our businesses collapse and jobs disappear, and face the curtailment of even such basic pleasures as walking along the Potomac, we all know there is a limit — if unclear at present.

What we can’t do is allow panic to take over. Sooner or later, when the dimensions of the crisis are more fully grasped, the cost-benefit of shutting down the entire economy for a long period of time will have to be determined.

Americans will make great sacrifices when it is necessary. We expect public officials to be honest and transparent about the virus’s impact, the damage to our economy and citizenry and what needs to be done in response. We are all in this together.

Letter to the Editor Coronavirus Hits Home On March 11, Mayor Bowser declared a state of emergency in D.C. to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. All D.C. schools are closed until April 1 and we are being asked to self-quarantine and work from home if possible. [Ed. note: At press time, the D.C. closures had been extended until April 25.]

I applaud the efforts to curb the spread of infection. So naturally I was surprised to see landscapers using leaf blowers during this quarantine period. Not only are they deafeningly loud for people working at

home, but they spew harmful particulates into the air that we breathe.

I’ve read that COVID-19 particularly affects the lungs and breathing, so certainly the use of leaf blowers is a health hazard to people in the neighborhood and especially to those who operate them. I believe their use should be banned during this quarantine period and other garden tools be used instead.

— Denise Paolella, 49th Street NW

How do you think the coronavirus crisis will change America?

YOUR OPINION MATTERS. Post your response.

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SEND US YOUR STORIES In the beginning, this leap year — the happily numbered 2020 — offered much to be excited about: campaigns, elections, the Olympics, tech innovations and a Mars mission, the cherry blossoms, a reopened Washington Monument ... and “Wonder Woman 1984.” We imagined a Roaring Twenties redo with a smiley face.

How wrong could we be?

All this seems forgotten, or at least set aside, during the coronavirus crisis. The scourge is affecting all aspects of life — including this newspaper, which is losing by the hour the ad revenue that sustains it.

We are looking for new ways to work and profit. It will not easy, but The Georgetowner is determined to continue and succeed. We have been doing so since 1954.

We want to hear the stories — practical,

humorous, spiritual — of how your life has been changed (or slammed) by COVID-19 and the constraints put in place to “flatten the curve.” Write your heart out, alone or with family or friends, while social distancing, then email your story to editorial@georgetowner.com for possible publication.

We know that many of you care about The Georgetowner as much as we do.

Please share your feelings and thoughts with us.

If ever there were a time to be together, now is the time. We need each other to find our way to that place where the virus has been contained and our sense of confidence restored.

Robert A. Devaney

Jack Evans Withdraws From Special Election

BY PEGGY SAN D S Former Council member Jack Evans decided on Wednesday, March 18, the deadline day, not to turn in the signatures he had collected to compete in the June 16 special election to fill the Ward 2 Council seat for the remaining six months of the term. Evans resigned that seat, which he had held for almost 30 years, in January.

But Evans said he would unquestionably stay in the race for the new four-year term, to be decided in the Nov. 3 general election.

The Democratic primary is set to be held on June 2.

“I have decided it is best to not seek to run for the position which I resigned from in January and instead focus on a new start for the next four years,” Evans told The Georgetowner, repeating the statement he had made to the Washington Post on Wednesday. “Not running in the special is also a way of showing my sincere regret for the mistakes I made.”

Evans’s many achievements in developing the District’s business base and fiscal stability are readily acknowledged by many in Georgetown. He lives close by Wisconsin Avenue and P Street and raised triplets here after the early death of his wife from cancer. But several ethics investigations — focusing on his alleged use of the privilege of office to benefit private clients — and then his decision to run for office again just

10 days after he resigned his seat, has drawn much criticism.

Candidates for the seat in the special election include John Fanning, Jordan Grossman, Patrick Kennedy, Kishan Putta, Brooke Pinto, Katherine Venice and Yilin Zhang. Their campaigns have moved to phones, social media and the internet. As of this writing, no virtual debate has been planned.

There are nine candidates, including Evans and Daniel Hernandez, running for the seat in the general election. Most are a generation younger than Evans and represent a greater diversity of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and even national heritage backgrounds than does the current Council.

ELECTION 2020

Ward 2 Council Campaigns Go Online

BY PEGGY SA NDS In less than 10 weeks, the District’s primary election will take place on Tuesday, June 2.

Of particular interest to Georgetowners is the race to fill the Ward 2 Council seat, with nine candidates competing.

The seat has been vacant since January, when Georgetown resident Jack Evans, the longest-serving Council member in D.C. history, resigned and is currently running for re-election. Now, however, the candidates face a new challenge, just as they were planning vigorous personal campaigns. All the face-to-face debates, town hall meetings, house parties, talks to community organizations and appearances at events have had to be canceled because of the threat of coronavirus contagion.

“We’ve switched from door-knocking to phone calls,” Burleith resident and Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Kishan Putta told The Georgetowner. “It’s fine, really. People are picking up their phones. They seem to want to talk. I can hear kids in the background.”

Putta, who served as a commissioner on the Dupont Circle ANC (2B), feels he is in a special position to run during this treacherous time for public health and small businesses since he worked for over five years as a community and small business liaison for DC Health Link.

Candidates Yilin Zhang and Jordon Grossman also work in the health field.

Zhang is a business development executive with an integrated health care delivery system and sits on the board of the D.C.-area chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives. “I’ve worked in health care for my entire career, and think it’s important for people to know different options,” Zhang said. Grossman worked for a District agency that is making it easier for residents to enroll in programs like Medicaid, housing and homeless services. He also worked for President Obama, for a federal judge in D.C. and on Capitol Hill. Born in the District, Grossman is a fifth-generation D.C. resident; he grew up in Potomac, Maryland, and moved back to D.C. in 2008.

Like Putta, candidates John Fanning and Patrick Kennedy are advisory neighborhood commissioners. Kennedy is vice chairperson of the Foggy Bottom-West End ANC (2A).

He served as one of the co-chairmen of Evans’s 2016 campaign. Fanning is the current chairperson of the Logan Circle ANC (2F), first elected in 1990. He lost to Evans in a run for the Ward 2 Council seat in 2000. The mayoral liaison for Marion Barry, Anthony Williams, Adrian Fenty, Vincent Gray and Muriel Bowser, Fanning also worked in the Department of Small and

Local Business as a compliance officer.

The three other candidates come from backgrounds outside government. Dupont Circle resident Daniel Hernandez served in the Marine Corps and now works for Microsoft. Among his planned areas of focus are housing and homelessness, small businesses, senior citizens and LGBTQ residents.

Two women candidates are latecomers to the race. Brooke Pinto has been in the District about five years and worked for D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, who actively supports her. (At 27, she was impressive at the March 5 debate.) She did not sign up for public funds, depending instead on spring fundraisers that have now been canceled.

The sole Republican in the race is Katherine Venice, an international institutional investor and government economic advisor raised mainly in England.

Speaking with a soft voice (which seemed to annoy debate moderator Tom Sherwood to no end on March 5), she nevertheless advocates for supplying the “cognitive diversity” that “the DC Council sorely lacks in order to solve its intractable problems.”

She asks in her brochures: “Why vote for me?” The answer: “Because I give a damn!”

The Georgetowner will be following this highly diverse group of candidates over the

next eight months. Nobody knows how this multifaceted race will end in the tumultuous atmosphere of the pandemic, but almost all the candidates, including Evans, can name reasons why they believe they can win the primary.

The question, then, is will the same candidate win the June 16 special election to fill the seat from June through January?

And, if not, how will that complicate the general election on Nov. 3?

BROOKE PINTO

DANIEL HERNANDEZ

JOHN FANNING

JACK EVANS

KATHERINE VENICE

KISHAN PUTTA

PATRICK KENNEDY

YILIN ZHANG

JORDAN GROSSMAN

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MARCH 25, 2020

9

The Tidal Basin last week. Photo by Jeff Malet.

Georgetown Is Coping — With Grace

BY PEGGY SA NDS What are you seeing in Georgetown as the D.C. government begins to restrict businesses, postpones and cancels public events and temporarily closes the District’s day care programs, schools and universities because of the coronavirus? Are you seeing any panicking? Hysteria? Hoarding? Or are you seeing healthy behavior and acts of kindness?

Those were the questions Georgetowner reporters were asking as we covered the town in recent days. It appears there is a lot of the latter.

For instance, the 6 p.m. Friendly Wave, first suggested by Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Elizabeth Miller, is spreading throughout Georgetown. On the first night, March 18, neighbors up and down Q Street came out on their porches and waved. Then one brought out her accordion and two played their horns; others showed off their spring puppies.

“A Friendly Wave can go a long way to keeping us sane,” Miller told The Georgetowner. It’s also a way to check on each other — especially our more mature neighbors — and make sure we have what we need and are staying healthy.”

“I am so impressed with the number of calls from Georgetown neighbors asking how they can help,” said Lynn GolubRofrano, executive director of Georgetown Village, a nonprofit that provides services to enable seniors to age in place. “People who are not members and who have never volunteered are calling to say they are available to make calls, deliver groceries, help out seniors in need. In addition, we’ve put many of our programs, including chats with medical professionals, online.”

Georgetowners seem to be exercising a lot. The tennis courts at Rose Park and Volta Park are full of players practicing the perfect social-distancing sport with friends, even as

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they are able to take out their frustrations on the ball. “Rock Creek Park pathways and exercise areas are full of runners and people of all ages,” said Fred Gibbons, a Hyde-Addison kindergarten teacher and the son of ANC 2E Commissioner Joe Gibbons.

Circulator fares are free again. Though most Georgetowners don’t go directly to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms — in full early bloom last weekend — many are walking there along the river from the Georgetown waterfront. It’s a unique experience: no crowds.

“I am not hearing of anyone panicking,” said Rick Murphy, who chairs the Georgetown-Burleith ANC. “The calls I am getting are mostly from people upset about not knowing how long all the restrictions will last. So far, I haven’t heard anything official about an extension beyond March 31.” [Ed. note: At press time, the D.C. closures had been extended until April 25.]

“The D.C. public school system also officially states the restrictions are through March 31,” teacher Gibbons confirmed.

“However, DCPS is preparing three weeks of prepared take-home lesson assignments and plans for teachers and students for online classes beginning next week. That takes us well into April after discounting this past week [March 16-20] as the rescheduled spring break.”

That is perhaps the biggest challenge for Georgetown’s surging number of residents with children. While playdates and sports matches are restricted, children riding their scooters and bikes in the park with a parent is a common sight. But most of their time will be confined to home. Teachers and parents will have to get creative, said Gibbons.

Grocery store hours are changing as well.

Trader Joe’s has reduced shopping hours to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Georgetown’s “social” Safeway remains open 24 hours, with

seniors-only shopping from 7 to 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays (though this doesn’t seem to be highly monitored to date). The Tenleytown Whole Foods is offering seniorsonly shopping from 7 to 8 a.m. daily.

Many of Georgetown’s favorite restaurants are geared up for phone orders and takeout. Martin’s Tavern — consistently voted the neighborhood’s most popular eatery in the annual Business Improvement District survey — is offering a 25-percent

discount for preordered takeout. Lines of cars with their flashers on were parked along N Street on the evening of March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, when The Georgetowner picked up the tavern’s traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner, along with the newly minted 2020 St. Patrick’s Day button.

“This too shall pass,” said Commissioner Gibbons. “In the meantime, order and buy as much as you can from our Georgetown retailers.”

The Georgetown Wave on Q Street NW last week. Courtesy Elizabeth Miller.

COVER

Christ Church in Georgetown.

Rev. Timothy Cole of Christ Church.

Christ Church Rises to Challenges

BY STEP HANIE GREE N Amid illness and uncertainty, the parishioners at Christ Church, Georgetown, rally around their leader, the Rev. Timothy Cole, and cling to their faith in each other.

“It has been just amazing to see how kind, loving and caring this community is over these last hard few weeks,” Cole told The Georgetowner, via email from his hospital room at Georgetown University Hospital.

Cole was the first D.C. patient diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, on March 7, after being admitted with pneumonia on March 5. He has been isolated ever since.

“I am feeling much better now, and may well be home by the time this is published,” he said.

He must have two negative test results and no fever before he can be released.

Cole, 59, a native of Scotland, became rector of Christ Church in 2016. An Episcopalian priest since the 1980s, he also served as a chaplain in the Royal Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was named an honorary chaplain to Queen Elizabeth in 2014.

His wife and son have been inundated with cards, gifts and grocery provisions at the church rectory, where Lorraine Cole, a real estate agent with Long & Foster Christie’s International, and Tim Jr., a student at Marymount University, immediately hunkered down after Cole’s diagnosis — likely the first family in our city to practice the new phenomenon of social distancing.

“Lorraine and I are grateful and overwhelmed by people’s affection,” Cole

added in his comments to us.

During her quarantine, Lorraine Cole was able to chat with visitors through her front window, and has been staying in touch with her husband on FaceTime when he’s strong enough to speak.

Brodie, the Cole family’s Labradoodle, sits at the same window, perched on a chair looking out on O Street, awaiting his master’s return. Lorraine Cole told us the first thing she did after leaving her house on March 21 — for the first time in two weeks — was take Brodie for a walk to their favorite park.

In the nascent days of a new spring, they pass by the bouquet of flowers left at the front steps of Christ Church, a simple reminder of the love that has showered their family and their wider church family.

After the Rev. Cole, organist and choirmaster Thomas Smith and four other churchgoers were diagnosed with the virus, more bad news arrived last week: Christ Church’s Easter Sunday services, usually packed-house affairs attended by Christians from around the area, would be canceled, as would gatherings at all churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington through May 16.

Other Georgetown houses of worship, like Kesher Israel, Holy Trinity and Georgetown Presbyterian, announced similar plans.

“I’m sad,” admitted Molly Peacock, a parishioner for decades and a former member of the vestry. “I think we will rise above the closures and celebrate Easter with

greater appreciation of the past.” She said she plans to drive by the church on April 12 to keep it close to her heart.

Others can tune into virtual services during Holy Week, but, for most, it just won’t be the same. The want of music, flowers and neighborly spirit — the hallmarks that have kept Christ Church a Georgetown institution since its founding

by Francis Scott Key in 1818 — will cast a heavy shadow on the year.

“I’ve found a great deal of comfort in listening to music the choir was scheduled to sing these past few weeks,” said Smith, who was released from isolation on March 19. “Since I’ve had so much time on my hands, it’s become a goal of mine to share this music through posts on social media.”

The church is one of the few fortunate enough to support a fully professional choir, which performs a classical repertoire in keeping with the church’s traditional liturgical aesthetic.

Thanks to the “Grace under Quarantine” blog started by Assistant to the Rector Crystal Hardin, Smith’s musical inspirations,

as well as much needed solace and levity, can be part of the church’s virtual ministry.

“These are the times that faith is for,” explains the Rev. Hardin on the blog, which features prayers, updates and even a diary of cooped-up canines like Brodie. “Not too shabby,” reads the caption on a photo of a Christ Churcher’s dog surrounded by toilet paper. “Plenty of tissues to eat.”

Hardin said her heart sank when she learned of the Easter cancelation, but added that “the Good News is still good news: Easter will come. And we are called to walk the way of the cross. Our connection to this truth might be made even more apparent this year, as we celebrate in a profoundly different way.”

Hardin has been holding the fort and the faithful flock in Cole’s absence during her first Lenten season at Christ Church.

“I’ve never felt closer to the people of Christ Church,” she said from her home, where she’s also looking after her children.

“They have shown up in so many ways for me and for one another — even without our beloved building.”

COVID-19 Tips From Georgetown Village

BY STEPH AN IE GR EEN The silver lining to the pandemic is seeing Americans step up to help their friends and neighbors, especially their elderly ones. But this kindness can be tricky, as we don’t want to compromise our health or the well-being of others.

For advice, we checked in with someone who does this for a living: Lynn Golub-Rofrano, executive director of Georgetown Village, a nonprofit organization established by local residents to assist the aged in their own community and homes.

She trains her team of volunteers to drive their members, deliver their prescriptions and get groceries — the things that we can do right now to help our aged — within COVID-19 safety parameters.

“The best way to assist your grandparents and friends is to ask them what they need,” says Golub-Rofrano.

Staying in touch — by phone, email or drop-in — is crucial, as many older people may get even more anxious and

isolated during quarantine. Use the extra time on your hands to phone or send a card to that elderly aunt or family friend who may need some affection.

When visiting an elderly neighbor, Golub-Rofrano cautions to “not assume they can’t do something. And be extra careful when helping them physically.”

She says it’s fine to offer to take a walk with them, “but stand six feet apart.” If they can’t stroll without holding your arm, it’s best they stay at home.

As a gift to the community, Georgetown Village loans wheelchairs, crutches and canes to neighbors free of charge. Take advantage of this service to help someone in your circle who may need it.

It’s a great idea to wheel your neighbor around the block to get some fresh air.

Check with the aged person’s family or health care provider before taking them out.

Georgetown Village also is offering a link to COVID-19 resources on its website at georgetown-village.org.

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Coronavirus Report: Vietnam

BY JOD Y KU R ASH , SOU TH EAST ASIA CO RRESPO NDENT

Tour guide in Vietnam.

Hand sanitizers are always outside a supermarket for customers.

Now in quarantine, Paul Gianni on holiday in central Vietnam. Photos by Jody Kurash.

Living abroad, I read the news about coronavirus hysteria in the U.S. with a feeling of separation. Reports of toilet paper hoarding, fights over bread in supermarkets, withering medical supplies and even deaths are the opposite of the life I’m leading now, as a teacher in Vietnam.

Vietnam was one of the first countries to be infected. It started in January and topped at 16. The government reacted swiftly, shutting down schools and restricting flights from infected countries. An entire town, one where I used to live, was quarantined.

Tourism was stifled. Le Thi Lien Trinh, a guide from Hue, said her company, Brother’s Travels, had 50 percent of its bookings canceled.

Then a small miracle happened. On Feb. 28, Al Jazeera reported that all 16 cases were cured.

In March, round two started. A Vietnamese heiress went shopping in Milan and infected others on her flight. Her street in Hanoi was quarantined. Neighbors were tested, treated and brought daily food rations.

Other infected passengers scattered across Vietnam, disseminating the illness.

On March 22, the number of cases reached 100, including many foreigners.

The government acted swiftly again.

They stopped issuing travel visas on March 16. A few days later, they started quarantining arrivals.

Paul Gianni, an American who has called Vietnam home since 2018, was sent into

quarantine when he returned from vacation on March 19. He’s bored, but describes it as “relaxing … three hots [meals] and a cot rent free.” He was lucky to make it back. Vietnam is now banning foreigners from entry.

However, day-to-day life is quite normal, although we’re required to wear masks in public and stores have bottles of hand sanitizer outside to use before entering.

Food, toilet paper, face masks and hand sanitizers are readily available.

A sense of community had taken over.

Restaurants are open, but quiet. Some are offering discounts to lure customers. My landlord, who knows I’m unemployed, has reduced my rent and informed me that I don’t have to pay until schools reopen.

I have faith in the health care system.

I’ve heard no news about medical supply shortages and Vietnamese researchers are making advances. Plus, they have a proven track record. In 2003, the World Health Organization declared Vietnam the first nation to contain and eliminate SARS. I don’t know how long the pandemic will last, but I plan to wait it out here. If my street should become quarantined, I’m confident that the government will provide, as they have for others. With a population of 95 million, the fact that there are so few cases and no deaths is far more reassuring than anything a bumbling president could say to me. With borders closed, I feel that it is only a matter of time until the virus is contained again here.

Restaurant Survival in the Time of COVID-19

BY LIN DA ROT H Resourceful and creative, restaurateurs define what it means to be a survivor.

Having survived the 1987 stock market crash, 9/11, the burst of the tech bubble and snowmageddon, they are prepared to demonstrate their resilience once more in the face of COVID-19.

Ris Lacoste’s eponymous restaurant, Ris, a West End culinary landmark for over 10 years, believes restaurants have always been pioneers in taking the first steps to find solutions. As inherent risk-takers, restaurant people step in to act quickly. The first thing she did was organize the walk-in, to determine what she could prepare with what she had in stock.

There was lots of flour to bake bread, and vegetables to make soups and pot pies. “You take control of what you can to survive. This is a new landscape,” Lacoste points out. You negotiate with your landlord, and vendors.

She is personally delivering lunch and dinner meals — bringing them up to the door when someone isn’t able to make it to the curb. Any tips go to her staff.

Catastrophic events such as this are great equalizers. They affect the kitchen worker, the restaurant owner, the landlord, the bank and ultimately the government. “We are all in this together,” Lacoste points out.

Christianne Ricchi, owner of i Ricchi in Dupont Circle, instituted i Ricchi Food Club, offering prepaid pickup food service with a variety of preset four-course menus for up to 8 people. It’s a revenue boost, 12 MARCH 25, 2020

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as it’s based on ordering multiple times a week — carryout 2.0 with a dash of virtual travel to Italy.

“When people subscribe to the Food Club, it allows us to focus on one weekly menu that helps us reduce our purchasing and labor costs so we are more efficient, which also allows us to maintain some of our staff,” Ricchi points out. “In times of uncertainty, food can trigger comforting memories that remind us of better times and help us cope.”

Can extended carryout help restaurants survive? “We are now offering lunch and dinner to go, utilizing every delivery service as well as curbside delivery,” says Sanjay Mandhaiya, owner of Pappe, a restaurant near Logan Circle specializing in dishes from northern India. “There are a lot of residents nearby that are limiting their outside visits, so ordering many dishes to last over several days.”

“We have the advantage of a large patio and public space by the Georgetown waterfront,” says Greg Casten of Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place. Along with offering kitchen-prepped carryout meals, the restaurant grills hamburgers and hot dogs on the outdoor patio grill for pickup.

Acting quickly is the key to survival, a lesson Casten learned in 2011, when the floodgates did not protect the waterfront and a record-breaking flood destroyed everything at his three restaurants. He paid employees then to clean up. He’s also paying them now to clean and sanitize all

surfaces at Tony and Joe’s, Nick’s Riverside Grill and Ivy City Smokehouse, which also offers carryout.

Casten expects that, when restaurants are allowed to reopen (as of now, in late April), there will likely be more stringent regulations, such as increased spacing between tables, leading to less revenue for many smaller operators. “The dynamic will likely change, so even when a restaurant is full, there is less in gross sales.”

Bill Thomas, who owns and operates Jack Rose Dining Saloon and the Imperial in Adams Morgan, is selling bottles at Jack Rose of his rare and hard-to-find “whisk(e)y” that he spent years collecting.

On Friday, March 20, the first day of the sale, there was a line around the block, with aficionados waiting nearly seven hours. His staff has been kept busy not only cleaning, but taking inventory on all 3,000 bottles and price-tagging them. His chef is budgeting a livable salary for all employees to meet their food and medical needs.

Thomas has D.C. restaurant DNA. His family opened their first restaurant, Harrigan’s Bar & Grill, in the Southwest waterfront area in 1885. “I think long-term.

Not only years or decades. I plan for 100 years out,” he says.

Chef Edward Lee, Jason Berry and Michael Reginbogin of Knead Hospitality offer a more direct solution for the devastation caused by this pandemic and related restaurant closures. Their Succotash

restaurant in Penn Quarter is now a restaurant-worker relief center, offering free-to-go meals, fresh produce and overthe-counter medical supplies for laid-off and pay-reduced restaurant workers who show an ID and a pay stub.

In the spirit of the “Buy War Bonds” campaigns of World War I and World War II, restaurants are encouraging consumers to buy gift cards for future dining using the #BuyRestaurantBonds hashtag. There are a variety of GoFundMe platforms created to help the thousands of restaurant workers who have been laid off.

The District of Columbia’s 54,400 restaurant jobs represent the majority of the District’s total restaurant and food service workforce of 65,200 jobs, with the remainder being non-restaurant food service positions.

There are 2,233 restaurants in Washington, D.C. The National Restaurant Association states that 15.6 million people work (or worked) across one million restaurants in the U.S. Seventy-eight percent of the nation’s restaurants are independently owned and operated, and the industry was on track to grow this year, expecting annual sales of $899 billion. Now, sales are expected to decline by $225 billion during the next three months. Between five and seven million hospitality service workers are expected to lose their jobs in the next three months.

BUSINESS

DOWNTOWNER

INS & OUTS

BY R OBERT D EVAN EY

Due to the coronavirus crisis, most retailers have temporarily closed or limited their services. For details, check with individual stores directly or visit georgetowner.com.

IN: ANOTHER CHOCOLATIER, L.A. BURDICK

The Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park has closed.

L.A. Burdick, a fancy chocolate candy shop founded in New York, has opened at 1319 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Long anticipated, the shop offers high-end chocolates as well as pastries and drinking chocolate. This is the company’s sixth location; others are in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where it is headquartered.

IN: ALLBIRDS LANDS ON M

BY KATE OCZ Y P OK

UPTOWN THEATER CLOSES

The historic Cleveland Park movie joint the Uptown Theater has closed. Built by Warner Bros. in the 1930s during Hollywood’s Golden Age, the theater, on Connecticut Avenue, was the site of popular ’90s movie premieres like “Dances with Wolves,” “Dick Tracy” and “Jurassic Park.” The last film shown at the Uptown was Pixar’s “Onward.”

MYSTICS OWNER EYES TRUMP HOTEL

Sheila Johnson, owner of the WNBA team the Washington Mystics, is one of the bidders currently trying to acquire the lease to the Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Interested bidders typically have signed nondisclosure agreements and Johnson told the Washington Post she does not want to comment right now.

SERVICE WORKERS STRUGGLING

Service workers like bartenders, restaurant servers and hotel staff are facing shutdowns due to the coronavirus crisis and many have been laid off. The Washington Post said Ali Moore, 34, who worked at Madam’s Organ in Adams Morgan, was at one point making $400 a night in tips and is now at $0. Some relief has come in recent days from a Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington fund and the DC Virtual Tip Jar.

GYMS, YOGA STUDIOS STREAM CLASSES

Area gyms and yoga studios are currently closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Many around the D.C. area have had to stream their workouts online. Centers like Bluebird Sky Yoga, Haus Yoga, the Bar Method and CorePower have virtual offerings.

METRO RIDERSHIP TANKS

Metro ridership fell by a whopping 84 percent on Wednesday, March 18, NBC Washington reported. The drop in ridership happened after Metro announced that residents should use public transportation only for essential rides. Metro tweeted out that it was a “good day for responsibility, social distancing, the common good and shared sacrifice.”

Mystics owner Sheila Johnson is interested in the Trump Hotel.

COUNCIL MEMBER GROSSO ALLEGES ABUSE

D.C. Council member David Grosso said he was the victim of sexual abuse

by Scott Asalone, 63, former rector at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Purcellville, Virginia. Asalone was later a management consultant and bookstore owner in New Jersey until he was arrested, the Independent reported. Grosso said the investigation was one of the main reasons he did not seek another term.

San Francisco-based Allbirds opened its first D.C. store on Feb. 27 at 3135 M St. NW, site of the shuttered Ben & Jerry’s. The new store — which says it is “known for its super comfortable, unisex shoes (and now socks!) made from sustainable materials” — takes over part of the building once occupied by Georgetown Electric Company, still the property owner. (About 30 years ago, the production office of The Georgetowner was upstairs.)

Added the shoe supplier: “Every Allbirds store has its own color pop, for the D.C. store the color pop is white, inspired by the architectural monuments of the city … Each Allbirds store has its own unique three lace colors … In the D.C. store the colors are: Mumbo Sauce Orange, Logan Circle Green, and Georgetown Grey. The D.C. store will feature a limited-edition D.C. only pair of shoes inspired by the area’s famous Cherry Blossoms.”

IN: GEORGETOWN BUTCHER ON GRACE ST.

Taking Neopol Savory Smokery’s spot, Georgetown Butcher is bringing “humanely raised meats” to the Grace Street Collective

at 3210 Grace St. NW, where the cool eateries are. The new business owner, Wendell Allsbrook, arrives from the Organic Butcher of McLean, according to Washingtonian. He offers premier beef, ham and poultry along with cheeses and seafood.

IN: SARAH FLINT POPPING UP MARCH 20

Meanwhile, Georgetown is getting another shoe shop, a pop-up — with celebrity fans that include Jessica Alba, Amal Clooney and Meghan Markle. The hip Sarah Flint will open March 20 at 1259 Wisconsin Ave. NW, offering complimentary cobbler services. Customers are asked to drop off gently worn shoes (Sarah Flint or any other brand) for donation to Soles4Souls.

COMING: BLU DOT, FROM MINNEAPOLIS

A mod, Minnesota-based furniture retailer based is coming to 3333 M St. NW, filling the large showroom space vacated by the North Face clothing company. “We design everything we make,” says Blu Dot furniture, started in 1997 by three friends after college. The sleek chairs, drawers, beds and shelves occupy a practical midrange position in the home goods sector. The M Street store will be Blu Dot’s second store on the East Coast.

OUT: CIAO, MASSIMO DUTTI!

Massimo Dutti, the luxury men’s and women’s clothing brand located at 1220 Wisconsin Ave. NW, has left town. Its Italian name notwithstanding, Massimo Dutti is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, with more than 780 stores.

MASTODON SKELETON INSTALLED AT (CLOSED) ART MUSEUM

Dug out of an upstate New York bog over 200 years ago, a 14,000-year-old mastodon skeleton is back on American land. The skeleton, shown being excavated in an 1806 painting by Charles Willson Peale, is on loan from a German museum as the centerpiece of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition on naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Unfortunately, all Smithsonian museums are closed as a public health precaution.

Allbirds opens at 3135 M St. NW.

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ARTS

Art in the Time of Contagion

BY ARI P OS T Art is only relevant up to a certain point, isn’t it?

We are fighting an international pandemic that is collapsing global hospital systems.

Cities across the country are on lockdown and food rationing is being discussed.

Congress may send hard cash to millions of citizens to help cover basic living expenses.

Meanwhile, people are getting very sick and our health care system can’t handle it. I know people here in Washington who have been told by doctors to stay at home unless they think they are dying.

And here I am, ostensibly writing about a Degas exhibition at the National Gallery of Art that you can’t even see because the museum is indefinitely closed.

Mind you, so is every other museum in the city, and most in the country. So are schools and universities, theaters, libraries, restaurants, gyms, rec centers, markets — the flesh of our civilization.

I was at the National Gallery of Art on Friday, March 13, the last day it was open to the public for the foreseeable future. It

was ecstatic and somber. The monumental Calder mobile floated slowly about the East Wing atrium, unbound by its scale in the absence of spectators.

In some measure, it was an exercise in preserving my own sanity. Official word on the growing pandemic was still muddled and visiting a museum was my defiant act of normalcy. It was also an assignment. I was there to see “Degas at the Opéra.”

But the reason I went on that particular day probably has something to do with the capacity for beauty to uplift me in times of darkness. And there are many beautiful and deeply felt aspects of “Degas at the Opéra” (which sadly is set to close on July 5, possibly before the museum reopens).

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) became a kind of brush-wielding Phantom of the Opera in the Paris of the 1860s. His myriad works from inside the opera house encompassed the full spectrum of its machinations. He explored the physical space as well as the players: the dancers and instructors, the musicians and the gentlemen “subscribers,” season-

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“The Curtain, c. 1880. Edgar Degas. National Gallery of Art. ticket holders who were afforded backstage access, where they took advantage of the vulnerable, poor, young dancers.

The exhibition is laudable, but as it may never open to the public again it seems futile and self-serving to dive into its particularities.

So, let’s try something different. I will relate the most beguiling historical details revealed to me in this exhibition — facts that will surely delight an appreciative audience should we ever have cocktail parties again — and try to leave you with the impression the exhibition left on me.

First, the facts.

One: While his paintings of dance rehearsals are among his most iconic works, Degas never actually saw one, as rehearsal rooms were off-limits to outsiders.

Two: Degas’s eyesight began to fail in his later years, which caused a dramatic shift in his style. Details grew coarse and the relationships between figures and backgrounds became blurred and ambiguous, which is especially evident in his late paintings of dancers onstage.

Incidentally, I’ve always thought these among his greatest works.

Three: Marie van Goethem, the subject of Degas’s most famous work, “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,” probably met a tragic end.

A year after the sculpture was exhibited in 1881, she was fired from the Opéra for repeatedly missing class, and the last known records cite her regular presence at “disreputable establishments.”

Four: Degas hated the Palais Garnier, the opera house that replaced the Salle Le Petelier in 1875. He found the Garnier extravagant and overly decorated, and instead of ever depicting it in his work he drew from his memories of the Peletier for the remainder of his career.

Degas is an artist whose deft hand can make you sick with longing. The way he expressed the glimmer and warmth of a theater, its pockets of light in a sea of shadows, is so emotionally authentic that you can feel the vibration of the orchestra tuning and the creaking spring of felt seats.

Sadly, this is a feeling that none of us are likely to experience in the coming months.

People across the world are suffering. Though the ramifications are taking a devastating toll on cultural institutions, now doesn’t seem like the right time to lament this particular misfortune. We will stay inside and hope that the beacons of our civilization still exist when it becomes safe enough to reemerge.

Artists and craftsmen are going to hurt right now, and for a while to come. In times of economic distress, the arts are the first “greater good” sacrificed; in times of recovery, they are the last resuscitated. More than half of all art galleries in Washington permanently shuttered during the 2009 financial recession. As of this moment, I already know of two that have fallen victim to the economic events set in motion by the coronavirus pandemic. More will follow.

There is no pithy little aphorism up my sleeve about art and illness, or about creative inspiration in the time of socioeconomic decline. A generation after Degas, Gustav Klimt was killed by the Spanish flu, along with many great artists of his generation and about 50 million others.

This is a moment where art must lie low while the world soldiers through a crisis.

It is part of art’s life cycle. It has done this many times before. And it will be reborn.

The National Gallery of Art is closed to the public until further notice. All public events are canceled through Sunday, May 31.

IN COUNTRY

Touring Egypt: From the Sublime to the Surreal

BY M ARY BIRD For the first two weeks of March, my main concerns were whether I was brave enough to ride a camel (no) and wondering out the window of an air-conditioned coach how anyone survived Cairo traffic.

I was blissfully in Egypt with a former State Department colleague on a Road Scholar trip, “Beyond the Pharaohs: Egypt Past and Present.” An expert Egyptologist took some 20 of us under his wing. His passion for his country was compelling. He spoke of his 18 days protesting in Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring as the best of his life.

Throughout our time, we had excellent lectures by scholars on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Egypt and the Nile to Islam, Egyptian social life and restoration work at Luxor.

Upon our arrival in Cairo, we were driven to Giza, where from our balcony we could see the new Grand Egyptian Museum, scheduled to open late this year, and the

C AT E S B Y

Middleburg, Virginia • $9,950,000

Giza Necropolis, with the Great Pyramid at its center. The following morning’s tour included the Sphinx of the Giza Plateau, first glimpsed in my sixth-grade history class. The optional camel ride concluded the morning tour.

After three days, we went by coach to Alexandria, site of the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the Great Library of Alexandria. The Alexandria National Museum was amazing.

Our two days in Cairo included the Egyptian Museum and the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, where we were besieged by overeager merchants. Our hotel on the Nile was a fairyland of night lights, recalling Paris.

We then flew to Luxor and toured the Karnak Temple Complex and the Luxor Temple before boarding the Steinberger Legacy for a four-night Nile River cruise.

We explored the Valley of the Kings and King Tut’s Tomb and went by horse-drawn buggies to the Horus Temple at Edfu.

FIDELIO

The Plains, Virginia • $8,750,000

The author with dromedaries. Courtesy Mary Bird.

The last two days of our itinerary were complicated by a sandstorm in southern Egypt and flooding in Cairo. Nonetheless, we succeeded in visiting the Abu Simbel Temple Complex, considered the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World.

Reality set in following President Trump’s announcement of travel restrictions, without stating if Americans would be included. We arrived back in Cairo very late on our last night, only to learn that our Lufthansa flight

AQ U I N N A H

Rectortown, Virginia • $4,850,000

Gracious Georgian Manor home, 11,000 sf, built in 1930 | 7 BR, 7 1/2 BA, 7 FP | High ceilings, formal gardens & private setting | Stable w/30 stalls & 2 apartments | 4 BR guest house/entertainment complex, 4-car garage w/office | 4 tenant houses, skeet range, pool & tennis court | 241 acres | Land mostly open & rolling w/ bold mountain views, numerous ponds & vineyard

Prime Fauquier County location minutes from Middleburg | Unbelievable finishes throughout | Antique floors and mantels, vaulted ceilings | 6 BR, 5 full, 2 half BA | 6 FP, gourmet kitchen | Improvements include office/studio, stone cottage with office, spa, guest house, pool and lighted tennis court | Landscaped grounds with stream, waterfalls, boxwood and special plantings | 61 acres

Residence circa 1850 has been completely updated | 7 bedrooms, 7 1/2 baths, 6 fireplaces | Mountain views | Gourmet kitchen | Master suite with balcony | Indoor heated pool, attached gym, par terre garden, greenhouse, tennis courts | Separate building office or guest house | New 8 stall center aisle barn with office and tack room | Riding ring, new fencing, 200 degree mountain views with unbelievable sunsets

Paul MacMahon

Paul MacMahon

Paul MacMahon

(703) 609-1905

M AYA P P L E FA R M

Middleburg, Virginia • $3,400,000

Original portion of house built in 1790 in Preston City, CT | House was dismantled and rebuilt at current site | Detail of work is museum quality | Log wing moved to site from Western Virginia circa 1830 | 4 BR, 4 full BA, 2 half BA, 9 FP & detached 2-car garage | Historic stone bank barn and log shed moved from Leesburg, VA | Private, minutes from town | Frontage on Goose Creek | 37.65 acres

Paul MacMahon

(703) 609-1905

info@sheridanmacmahon.com www.sheridanmacmahon.com

(703) 609-1905

(703) 609-1905

H A L C YO N H I L L

O L D A L D I E R E C TO R Y

17 acres of rolling pasture land in the village of Rectortown | Convenient to both Routes 50 & 66 | Newly renovated | Private setting with magnificent mountain views | 4 bedrooms, 4 full baths, 1 half bath, 2 fireplaces | Heated pool & spa | 2 bedroom guest house | Large shed & 2-car garage

Historic home circa 1803 | Originally a parsonage, part of land surveyed by George Washington | Four bedrooms, two full and one half bath, six fireplaces and old wood floors | Front and rear porches, garden, inground pool, hot tub, entertainment area, gazebo, walkways and patios | Large studio or office | Conservation easement | B & B potential

Paul MacMahon Helen MacMahon

Paul MacMahon Helen MacMahon

Rectortown, Virginia • $2,250,000

(703) 609-1905 (540) 454-1930

(540) 687-5588

Aldie, Virginia • $1,200,000

(703) 609-1905 (540) 454-1930

via Munich had been canceled. We were placed on Turkish Air to Istanbul and then transferred to a nonstop flight to Dulles.

It was a seemingly endless but uneventful return.

Dulles at night was crowded, and we needed a medical clearance, but it was far better than the photos of chaos at O’Hare.

With pictures of pharaohs dancing in our heads, we had reentered an unknown world of “social distancing.” Thanks for the memories.

SPRING GLADE

Middleburg, Virginia • $3,900,000

French Country home, recent renovations | 4 BR, 5 full & 2 half BA, 5 FP, hardwood floors, flagstone terrace | Beautiful drive to hilltop setting overlooking lake & mountains | Improvements include pool, 2-car garage, 2 BR guest house & apartment | Lovely boxwood gardens | 79.89 acres

Paul MacMahon Helen MacMahon

(703) 609-1905 (540) 454-1930

E L M O R E FA R M

Markham, Virginia • $725,000

Elmore Farm c. 1820’s on 40 acres bound by Goose Creek | Gracious old home with original floors and stone fireplaces, high ceilings and huge back porch | 4+ bedrooms and in-law suite | Bright kitchen with family room addition for today’s living | Great views and open pasture & pond | True old Virginia home

Helen MacMahon

(540) 454-1930

110 East Washington Street Middleburg, Virginia 20117

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MARCH 25, 2020

15

FOOD & WINE

Dining Guide

Gunpowder Potatoes: Comfort Food With a Bang

WASHINGTON DC’S FINEST RESTAURANTS

THE OCEANAIRE SEAFOOD ROOM 1201 F ST., NW 202–347–2277 | theoceanaire.com

The Oceanaire blends a sophisticated atmosphere with simple, seasonal and regionally-inspired cuisine – the result is “the ultra-fresh seafood experience”. From our wines and cocktails to our seafood, steak and desserts, our commitment to sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients is apparent in everything we do. Reserve your table today for an extraordinary dining experience.

ENO WINE BAR

2810 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW 202–295–2826 | enowinerooms.com HAPPY HOUR: Offered nightly Tuesday - Thursday from 5 - 7 PM & Sunday from 4 - 7 PM. Enjoy select $7 wines on tap. Join us on Wednesday’s for College Nights from 9 - 11 PM and Sunday’s for 30% off bottles. Our delightful wines are best enjoyed with local charcuterie, cheese and small plates.

FILOMENA RISTORANTE

CAFE BONAPARTE

1522 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202–333–8830 | cafebonaparte.com Captivating customers since 2003, Cafe Bonaparte has been dubbed the “quintessential” European café, featuring award-winning crepes and arguably the “best” coffee in D.C.! Other can't-miss attractions are the famous weekend brunch every Saturday and Sunday until 3 p.m. and our late-night weekend hours serving sweet and savory crepes until 1 a.m.

1063 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202–338–8800 | filomena.com A Georgetown landmark for over 30 years featuring styles and recipes passed through generations. Balanced cuttingedge culinary creations of modern Italy using the fresh ingredients and made-from-scratch sauces and pastas.

Seen on The Travel Channel, Award-winning Filomena is a favorite of U.S. Presidents, celebrities, sports legends, political leaders. “Don’t miss their bakery’s incredible desserts” - Best in D.C.

BY SON YA BER N H AR D T The plan was to be in London celebrating my niece’s 21st birthday at one of her favorite restaurants, Dishoom. Instead, I received a beautifully written cancelation notice. Like most plans around the world, the special outing was called off.

In these days of quarantine, finding something fun and practical is a must.

Cooking is my creative outlet. Out came the cookbooks, and — lo and behold — I have Dishoom’s “From Bombay with Love.”

I felt like comfort food was called for, and I happened to have most of the ingredients for this recipe. Truly delicious and comforting, yet the final toss of fresh herbs and spices make this dish a winner.

INGREDIENTS 500g baby new potatoes ½ tsp cumin seeds ½ tsp coriander seeds ½ tsp fennel seeds 1 tbsp vegetable oil for brushing 25g butter, melted 6 spring onions, finely chopped 5g fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped 3 green chillies, finely chopped ½ tsp sea salt flakes 2 tbsp lime juice 1-2 tsp kebab masala

1 Boil a large pan of salted water. Add the potatoes and cook until just tender – 12-15 minutes.

2 Meanwhile, toast all the seeds in a hot dry frying pan for 2 minutes until fragrant. Crush them in a pestle and mortar, then set aside.

3 Drain the potatoes and steam dry in the colander for a minute.

4 Heat the grill to high. Put the potatoes on a baking tray. Brush with oil and grill until

crispy and browned – 5-7 minutes. Turn the potatoes over and repeat to crisp and colour the other side.

5 Put the crushed spices in a large bowl with the melted butter, spring onions, coriander and chillies.

6 Remove the potatoes from the grill and divide each one in half, using a metal spoon so

This original location has served barbecue since 1990.

We now have more space for you to sit down with family and friends at our new dining room Driving or walking up Wisconsin Avenue, you ask “mmmm, what’s that aroma??”

That’s pork, beef and chicken coming out of our wood-only smoker, falling off the bone and ready for a dousing with our Original Barbeque Sauce.

7 Add the sea salt, lime juice and kebab masala, adjusting them to taste, then serve.

2418 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202-333-2558 | rocklands.com

JOIN THE DINING GUIDE! EMAIL ADVERTISE@ GEORGETOWNER.COM OR CALL 202-338-4833

16 MARCH 25, 2020

ROCKLANDS BARBEQUE

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you create rough edges. Put the potatoes straight into the spice bowl and toss until well combined.

All gone!

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MARCH 25, 2020

17

KITTY KELLEY BOOK CLUB

‘In the Land of Men: A Memoir’ AN EDITOR REFLECTS ON HER TIME SPENT AT ESQUIRE — AND IN THRALL TO DAVID FOSTER WALLACE R EVIEWE D BY KIT T Y K E LLE Y Adrienne Miller does not mince words when she dictates the duty of book reviewers: “The reviewer’s job is to evaluate the book on its own terms and to determine how well the book succeeds — or doesn’t — within those terms.”

So informed, I cautiously offer what will become obvious while reading “In the Land of Men”: Miller, 47, writes with daunting authority and suffers no lack of self-confidence.

Growing up in Marysville, Ohio, the only child of “permissive” parents, she writes that as a youngster she was extolled for “my quiet intelligence.” Academically gifted, she recalls her “Jamesian moment” (I presume that’s Henry, not Jesse) as seeing “Amadeus” eight times when she was 13. That Milos Forman film, plus an “enduring obsession” with Thomas Jefferson, formed the landscape of her adolescence: “I was an odd child.”

Following a move to Akron when she was 9, college “at a Midwestern no-name university” and a couple of years as a gofer at GQ, her “quiet intelligence” made noise. She put herself forward to become the literary editor of Esquire at the age of 25. “It’s not as if one can earn a Ph.D. in ‘literary editor.’ Instinct, taste and judgment can’t be taught. And I knew I had instinct, taste and judgment. I was my own first choice, and that’s all that mattered,” she writes.

She held the job for eight years, beguiled

by Esquire as “the chief platform for American short fiction from the forties through the seventies: Norman Mailer, Raymond Carver, Saul Bellow, William Faulkner, Tim O’Brien, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dylan Thomas and Ernest Hemingway.”

Not a woman in the bunch; hence the title “In the Land of Men.” Her publisher is positioning her memoir as a feminist wail from the male trenches.

But while Miller blasts some unnamed men for sexual assaults, her book is actually a knee-bending homage to one particular man who dominates every page: the writer David Foster Wallace. Destroyed by his demons, he committed suicide in 2008 at age 46. “[H]is artistic triumph in the face of such tremendous psychological and emotional odds was a miracle for which we all must be forever grateful,” writes Miller. She reveres Wallace for writing “Infinite Jest,” which Time listed as one of the 100 best Englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005.

18 MARCH 25, 2020

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Miller sanctifies his thousand-plus-page book as the novel “that had changed the world … [and] changed our language.” She ranks it alongside the universe-bending genius of the pyramids, Beethoven’s Ninth and Chartres Cathedral.

Besotted by Wallace, Miller edited four of his short stories for Esquire. She moved quickly from being his editor to his lover, noting “the relationship fast-trackiness” of their affair: “There was a sense that David, more than any other living writer, was read compulsively, his sui-generis-ness unbearable to all … [It] is true that I regarded David not merely as a great writer but as one of the greatest and most uncompromising artists of all time.”

She rhapsodizes about “so radically name-y a name: David Foster Wallace.”

She recalls every item he carried in his canvas bag and all they discussed over their first lunch. She relates detail after detail of their decades-old telephone conversations — whether preserved in a diary, tape recordings or fevered memory, she doesn’t say.

“I looked at David. David looked at me. His eyes were a rich chestnut flecked with gold.” Oh, dear. A bit too Barbara Cartland-y here, but it’s a rare lapse in an otherwise literary-soaked tribute to one man’s memory.

“David was Augustinian,” Miller writes, which may send you to Google to try to figure out the connection between the fifth-century bishop of Hippo, whose prolific writings influenced all of Western Christianity, and Wallace, who wrote two novels, three collections of short stories, two books of essays and several magazine articles.

“In the Land of Men” proves that Miller has read widely and deeply. She cites Tate, celebrates Nabokov, quotes Pindar, genuflects to Mozart and even begins a dialectic on the virtuosic talent of John Barth.

She commands an astonishing vocabulary, too: “the rhizomatic conversations,” “an anvilesque collection,” “a self-serving sockdolager of rage.” Throughout the book, she employs an eccentric style that would give Strunk and White the bends, adding “y” to words for no fathomable purpose: “workshop-y,” “science-y,” “kind of date-y,” “magazines were so interminably magazine-y,” “a self-help-y version,” “ugly and rape-y.”

For the most part, though, she makes magic on the page. She describes the 24/7 “Jackie deathwatch” outside Kennedy Onassis’s Fifth Avenue apartment as “a stream of people united in one brow of woe.” Some of Miller’s literary references sent me scrambling to the internet, such as when she was once made to wait at a stage door for Wallace and “felt preposterously like the Person of Consequence in Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’: Do you know to whom you are speaking?”

Minutes later, she sees “some Fanilowtype people were waiting for him on the sidewalk.” (If you’re a child of the seventies, you’ll know she’s referring to the fans of Barry Manilow. If not, you’ll run to the Urban Dictionary.)

If you’re a devotee of David Foster Wallace, you’ll devour this memoir with

pleasure. If not, you may enjoy the cultural scavenger hunt and appreciate how much Adrienne Miller makes you stretch. After all, as Robert Browning wrote, “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,/Or what’s a heaven for?”

Georgetown resident Kitty Kelley has written several number-one New York Times best-sellers, including “The Family: The Real Story Behind the Bush Dynasty.”

Her most recent books include “Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the Kennedys” and “Let Freedom Ring: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the March on Washington.”

GOOD WORKS & GOOD TIMES

Shaun Kelly, vice chairman of the Ireland Funds America, gala chair Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, honoree and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, gala chair Susan Davis, honoree Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and gala chair Mark Tuohey. Photo by Erika Layne.

David Cronin, president & CEO of the Ireland Funds America, the evening’s honoree House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Shaun Kelly, vice chairman of the Ireland Funds America. Photo by Erika Layne.

Evening of Smiling Eyes, Good Will Honors Nancy Pelosi

BY CH RIST INE WA RNK E A bipartisan group of Washington political leaders gathered March 11 with Irish brethren to pay tribute to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Matthew Shay and Rep. Peter King at the 28th Annual Ireland Funds Gala. Emerald green lighting glowed through the National Building Museum. An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Prime Minister of Ireland, addressed guests as part of his multi-stop St. Patrick’s Day visit to the U.S. The gala’s theme was “A Celebration of Irish America’s Commitment to Peace and Reconciliation.”

Meridian’s Ambassador Stuart Holliday with Natalie Shanklin, author of the Meridian Center history book, “Grounds of Diplomacy: A History, A Place, A Mission.”

Lots of Stouts in the house: Lyn Stout, Carder Stout, Jennie Jones Stout, Sebastian Stout, Maxine Stout and Carder Armstrong Stout.

Stout’s Book Party Celebrates Redemption, Family

BY RO BE RT DEVA NEY One of “the last parties” (on March 12) feted Carder Stout’s new book, “Lost in Ghost Town: A Memoir of Addiction, Redemption and Hope in Unlikely Places” at the Kalorama home of Kay Kendall and Jack Davies. The author grew up in Georgetown.

Coby Loessburg, Theresa Furman, Celeste Brown and Dan Brown at the anniversary party.

Meridian Hits 60 Hostess Kay Kendall with Simon Godwin, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Meridian celebrated its 60th anniversary with an evening of drinks, music and reflecting on the last six decades of incredible work on Feb. 27. To commemorate this milestone year, Meridian also launched an elegant coffee table book, “Grounds of Diplomacy: A History, A Place, A Mission.” Since 1960, Meridian has served as a place where global leaders gather, future leaders are found and collaboration thrives.

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MARCH 25, 2020

19

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