SINCE 1954
VOLUME 64 NUMBER 20
GEORGETOWNER.COM
JULY 25-AUGUST 7, 2018
LETTERS
K St. Bike Lanes
READ ERS W RIT E IN
HOME
Real Estate
F EAT U RED P RO P ERT IES
FOOD
Georgetown’s
D AS ET H IO P IAN T H E L AT EST D ISH
TYCELY WILLIAMS & The New Junior League
PLUS
HOMELESSNESS; TRAFFIC FINES KITTY KELLEY BOOK CLUB & SUMMER READING PICKS
IN THIS ISSUE IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS · 5-7,9
The new president of the Junior League of Washington, Tycely Williams, represents a new Junior League and says she loves “helping our communities and building and training our increasingly diverse membership.” Photo by Philip Bermingham.
EDITORIAL/OPINION · 8 Editorials Jack Evans Report
BUSINESS · 10, 11 Ins & Outs Business Profile
REAL ESTATE · 11
COVER · 12-13
NEW PRESIDENT AT D.C.’S D.C.’S JUNIOR LEAGUE
DOWNTOWNER · 14 FOOD & WINE · 15 Dining Guide Das Ethiopian The Latest Dish
ARTS · 16-17
Georg Baselitz at the Hirshhorn Glimmerglass: Summer Opera in Cooperstown
INCOUNTRY · 18-19
The Sport, The Magic of Polo
HAUTE & COOL· 20 Sailing into Summer
BODY & SOUL · 20 Glamsquad on the Move
BOOK CLUB · 22
Kitty Kelley Book Club
GOOD WORKS & GOOD TIMES · 23 Social Scene Events
2
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robert Devaney
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Charlene Louis
COPY EDITOR Richard Selden
FEATURES EDITORS Ari Post Gary Tischler
Up & Coming Town Topics Community Calendar The Village
Featured Property Commercial Property
PUBLISHER Sonya Bernhardt
‘Mr. Brexit’ Speaks at GW BY STEPH AN IE GR EEN
Former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage was at George Washington University on July 23, encouraging young conservatives to be “happy warriors.” Nigel Farage.
A Sports Town, Seemingly Overnight BY GARY TISC H L ER
Of a sudden: the Stanley Cup, the All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby and Audi Field, a spanking-new, $400-million pro soccer stadium that came complete with a major star in the person of Wayne Rooney. Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals at bat at the 89th All-Star Game. Photo by Bill Starrels.
Giffin’s Latest Novel Takes a Serious Turn BY KATE OC ZYPOK
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Aidah Fontenot FASHION & BEAUTY DIRECTOR Lauretta McCoy GRAPHIC DESIGN Angie Myers PHOTOGRAPHERS Philip Bermingham Jeff Malet Neshan Naltchayan Patrick G. Ryan ADVERTISING Evelyn Keyes Richard Selden Kelly Sullivan
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT Peggy Sands CONTRIBUTORS Mary Bird Allyson Burkhardt Evan Caplan Jack Evans Donna Evers Michelle Galler Stephanie Green Amos Gelb Wally Greeves Kitty Kelley Rebekah Kelley Selma Khenissi Jody Kurash Travis Mitchell Shelia Moses Stacy Murphy Kate Oczypok Linda Roth Alison Schafer
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 2018.
Please send submissions of opinions for consideration to: editorial@georgetowner.com For advertising inquiries email advertising@georgetowner.com or call (202) 338-4833
“The Newspaper Whose Influence Far Exceeds Its Size” — Pierre Cardin
The relevance of Emily Giffin’s “All We Ever Wanted,” particularly in the #MeToo era, makes it a must-read. The Georgetowner is a Certified Business Enterprise
Photo of the Week
To submit your photos tag #thegeorgetowner on Instagram! “@dara_khader: Finally a super tasty Falafel in the United States! Have you ever tried Falafel Inc in Georgetown ???? @falafeldc”
Please recycle.
your number-one source for everything georgetown subscribe to our newsletter georgetowner.com
Half a Century of Iconic Neighborhoods Bringing more luxury buyers and sellers together in the Capital Region.
Georgetown | $5,700,000 2900 K St. NW #607 4 BR | 5 BA
Forest Hills | $1,722,000 2935 Chesapeake St. NW 5 BR | 5.5 BA
Glover Park | $959,000 3538 W Place NW 4 BR | 2 BA
Ghada Barakat 703-623-1100
Aiman Stuckart 202-361-5273
Kornelia Stuphan “The K Team” 202-669-5555
West End | $740,000 2425 L St. NW #428 2 BR | 1 BA
Georgetown | $440,000 2500 Q St. NW #504 1 BR | 1 BA
Georgetown | $259,000 2527 Q St. NW #206 0 BR | 1 BA
Terri Robinson 202-607-7737
Salley Widmayer 202-215-6174
Salley Widmayer 202-215-6174
Long & Foster | Christie’s International Real Estate Georgetown 1680 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20007 | 202.944.8400 LongandFoster.com GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
3
UP & COMING
July
Events Calendar
‘LES COMPAGNONS’ FRENCH MEETUP
AUGUST 2
United Church hosts a Thursday evening happy hour at which participants can speak French in a pleasant atmosphere with a glass of wine. The meetup is open to all levels, from beginners to native fluency. Tickets are $5. Dinner after the happy hour is optional. For details, visit meetup. com. 1920 G St. NW.
JULY 28
GEORGETOWN NIGHTLIFE WALKING TOUR White Ford.
JULY 26
WHITTLE SCHOOL PARENT INFORMATION EVENT Area parents are invited to meet staff and hear about the vision for the Whittle School & Studios, a global K-12 school that will open a Washington, D.C., campus in the fall of 2019. The Whittle School’s modern approach includes language immersion, cross-cultural education and off-campus opportunities in the world’s most influential cities. For details, visit whittle0718.splashthat.com. 5300 Wisconsin Ave. NW.
REAL LIVE JAZZ QUARTET AT GLEN ECHO Led by Bob Boguslaw, former pianist of the “President’s Own” Marine Band, the Real Live Jazz Quartet will give a free performance of jazz, blues, R&B and show tunes in Glen Echo Park’s Bumper Car Pavilion. The Praline café and the Dentzel Carousel ($1.25 per ride) will be open. For details, visit glenechopark. org. 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, Maryland.
In 1962, President Kennedy signed a bill that made it legal for the first time since 1917 to sell hard liquor to patrons standing at D.C. bars. Shortly thereafter, bars such as Clyde’s, Mr. Smith’s, Mr. Henry’s, Chadwick’s, the Cellar Door, the Bayou, Blues Alley, Champions and Martin’s Tavern opened. Dwane Starlin will lead this tour of Georgetown nightlife, past and present. Tickets are $20. For details, visit dumbartonhouse.org. 2715 Q St. NW.
JERRY GARCIA’S BIRTHDAY WITH CRIS JACOBS After a decade as principal songwriter and front man for beloved Baltimore-based band the Bridge, Cris Jacobs has embarked on a solo career. He will celebrate Jerry Garcia’s birthday — actually Aug. 1 — by performing the music of the Grateful Dead with friends. Tickets are $16 (plus fees if purchased the day of the show). For details, visit gypsysallys.com. Gypsy Sally’s, 3401 K St. NW.
AUGUST 4
WHITE FORD BRONCO AT 9:30 CLUB Since 2008, five-member ensemble White Ford Bronco has been sparking bouts of flannelladen, slap-bracelet-snapping, pog-playing nostalgia across the Washington area. Tickets for the all-’90s band’s appearance at the 9:30 Club are $22. For details, visit 930.com. 815 V
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS, VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM
LASER HAIR REMOVAL
START NOW FOR NEXT YEAR’S
SUMMER SKIN
SPECIAL 30% OFF LASER HAIR REMOVAL
Our Mission is to provide quality laser, skincare, filler and Botox treatments for all skin tones by a highly trained and experienced Nurse Practitioner. — Suzy French, MS, CRNP
Let us help you look your best! www.helioslasercenter.com | 202.450.2230 4900 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 320 | Washington, DC 20016
4
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
IT’S THE DOG DAYS OF
SUMMER
SEND US YOUR PHOTOS DOES YOUR DOG HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO PASS THE AUCTION AND BE INCLUDED THE AUGUST 8TH ISSUE OF THE GEORGETOWNER? SUBMIT PHOTOS OF YOUR SPECIAL CANINE TO EDITORIAL@GEORGETOWNER.COM AND TELL US WHAT MAKES YOUR PUP SO SPECIAL AND WHAT IT LOVES BEST ABOUT GEORGETOWN AND WASHINGTON, D.C. (DEADLINE: AUGUST 2.) Anatoli, Christine Warnke’s Anatolian Shepherd. Photo by Neshan H. Naltchayan.
TOWN TOPICS
NEWS BY P EG GY S A N D S
Burleith Split on Historic Designation
Eric Langenbacher, president of Burleith Citizens Association. Photo by Robert Devaney. It’s been a hot topic since 2016. Should the Northwest D.C. neighborhood of Burleith — bordered by Reservoir Road, 35th Street, Whitehaven Parkway and 39th Street — be designated a historic area? There have been panel discussions, community meetings, opinion pieces and surveys arguing the various sides. All the pros, cons and nuances of the argument have been laid out in pamphlets and on the Burleith Citizens Association website. There are historic perspectives, ideological considerations and arguments practical, political and commercial. The big question that must be answered by residents and homeowners is if historic designation will protect the distinctive look and perimeters of the neighborhood or prevent it from modernizing, growing and prospering. Now it’s all coming down to an online survey open to residents and nonresident owners. The survey opened June 3 and runs through Sept. 3. The question to be voted on, yes or no: Do you want historic designation for Burleith? “It’s a complicated issue, and there are good reasons to both favor and oppose the designation,” BCA President Eric Langenbacher told The Georgetowner at the annual Burleith picnic, held on June 16. “We just concluded our series of meetings on managing change in Burleith. On May 3, we held an open forum on the merits of historic designation for Burleith. After summations of the arguments for and against historic designation, provided by me and Walter Hillabrant, a longtime resident, approximately 25 neighbors shared their perspectives.” Meanwhile, some real estate agents have chimed in. Lenore Rubino, a past BCA president, supports the historic designation. Real estate agent Nancy Itteilag finds the survey itself “flawed and unreliable” and said: “There is no way in this day and age
to audit the credibility of an online survey or stop someone from creating fake emails potentially claiming they represent a property owner. There should only be one response per property. Why should a single person, widow or widower be discriminated against?” “The only people to respond should be property owners, not renters,” Itteilag said. “Because a property owner chooses to put a property in a family trust or LLC for privacy reasons — such as people going through divorces with stalkers as ex-spouses, highprofile clients for security reasons or other reasons — does not mean nor should it ever be interpreted that these owners be discriminated against.” Itteilag added: “As a longtime homeowner in both Georgetown and Burleith, I can say with a high degree of knowledge that historic designation is not appropriate for the Burleith neighborhood. We have sent out a petition at the request of a number of longtime homeowners in Burleith who are definitely opposed to this. There is simply no benefit to the neighborhood. More importantly, the homeowners who have renovated and enlarged their homes have improved the value of the entire neighborhood.” In early July, Itteilag said that her petition has garnered more than 200 signatures and expected more to come. “If ultimately, from all the surveys, discussions and comments this summer, the community is in favor of pursuing historic designation, the BCA will submit an application to the D.C. Historic Preservation Office,” said Langenbacher, who added that he personally opposes the designation. If the office determines that the application meets the criteria, Burleith homeowners will have 60 days to comment. There will also be a final hearing at which opinions can be expressed before the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board makes its decision.
Christian Broder Dies of Gun Wound Christian Broder, 34, a former general manager of Millie’s Restaurant in Spring Valley and, before that, the George Town Club, died on July 20, two weeks after he was shot in Atlanta. Broder was leaving a country club wedding when he and three others were confronted by the gunman. After surrendering their valuables, Broder reportedly approached the gunman. He was then shot in the stomach, rushed to a local hospital and airlifted to D.C. for further treatment, including several surgeries supported by a GoFundMe campaign. Fox 5 reported that police arrested and charged Jayden Myrick, 17. Broder was “a mellow, thoughtful, amazing guy,” said restaurateur Bo Blair, Broder’s brother-inlaw. He is survived by his wife Molly, a prekindergarten teacher, and nine-month-old daughter Frances.
Christian Broder, general manager of The George Town Club in 2015. Photo by Robert Devaney.
Hinckley Hinckley Hinckley Pottery Pottery Pottery
"Potteryisis the the new to the "Pottery newyoga! yoga!Here's Here's to the "Pottery is the new yoga! Here's to the mind-clearing benefits clay." -- Vogue mind-clearing benefitsof clay." -- Vogue mind-clearing benefits ofofclay." -- Vogue
Classes Classes
Classesteens & children wheel wheel for for all all levels levels –– adults, adults, teens & children
wheel for all levels – adults, teens & children Memberships Memberships
monthly studio monthlyMemberships studio access access –– wheel wheel && handbuilding handbuilding
monthly studio Gift access –Shop wheel & handbuilding Gift Shop
pottery, tools && merchandise pottery, tools Shop merchandise Gift
pottery, tools & merchandise
Join us for Breakfast*, Lunch, and Dinner! *Brunch all day Saturday and Sundays
3132 3132 Blues Blues Alley Alley NW NW Georgetown Georgetown DC DC
202-745-7055 3132 Blues Alley NW 202-745-7055 www.hinckleypottery.com Georgetown DC www.hinckleypottery.com
@hinckleypottery @hinckleypottery 202-745-7055
www.hinckleypottery.com @hinckleypottery
202.333.8232 1310KITCHENDC.COM
1310 Wisconsin Ave. NW Washington DC 20007 Located on Wisconsin in the Georgetown Inn GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
5
NEVER MISS AN ISSUE VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM
TOWN TOPICS
Fonda: ‘Initiative 77 Cuts Sexual Abuse in Half’
Actress and activist Jane Fonda in October 2017. Courtesy Restaurant Opportunities Center. “Initiative 77 cuts sexual abuse in half and allows women and other restaurant workers to be less vulnerable,” said Academy Awardwinning actress and longtime political activist Jane Fonda on the steps of the John A. Wilson District Building on July 13. Fonda came to “stand with working women” and to speak in support of the “One Fair Wage DC” proposal that voters passed in the June 19 primary election. Earlier in the week, a majority of the District Council introduced legislation to repeal the measure. In addition, the U.S. Congress entertained a proposal to
Georgetown’s Only Comprehensive Financial Planning & Investment Management Firm We believe in providing a uniquely personalized client experience to residents in our community—helping you to optimize your money to optimize your life. Financial independence starts with a conversation. Call or visit us online today to schedule the most important conversation you’ve never had.
(240) 482-4000 | CapitalAMG.com Independent, Objective and Comprehensive Financial Planning.
John E. Girouard, CFP®, CLU,ChFC, CFS Founder & CEO, The GeorgeTowner Contributing Columnist Securities licensed associates of Capital Asset Management Group Inc. are registered representatives offering securities through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. a Broker/Dealer. Member FINRA/SIPC. Licensed administrative associates do not offer securities. Investment advisory licensed associates of Capital Asset Management Group Inc. are investment advisor representatives offering advisory services through Capital Investment Advisors, Inc. a registered investment advisor. Capital Asset Management Group/ Capital Investment Advisors and the Institute for Financial Independence are not affiliated with Cambridge.
6
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
prohibit D.C. from funding it. If funded, Initiative 77 would guarantee the same minimum wage for all D.C. employees — including tipped waitstaff and bartenders — by 2026. Without the new law taking effect, the minimum wage for non-tipped employees of $13.25 is set to rise to $15 an hour in 2020; the minimum hourly wage for tipped employees, now $3.33, would increase to $5. Current “tip credit” regulations require employers to make up any difference between the minimum wage for tipped employees, supplemented by tips as indicated on creditcard receipts, and the minimum wage for nontipped-employees. This requirement would be gradually rescinded under Initiative 77. But Fonda pitched it as a woman’s issue. “Women are more likely to face scrutiny and hostility on the job, making them more susceptible to not being tipped,” she said.
Fonda and other supporters of the initiative, sponsored by advocacy group Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, claimed at the noon rally that many of those who voted in favor of the measure are working-class minorities struggling to make ends meet. “I’ve been working with Restaurant Opportunities Centers for a number of years,” said Fonda. “When I heard two days ago [that the Council was seeking to void the favorable vote], I was stunned. I was here last fall also talking to them. I was sure that they would support the voice of the people. I really believed that.” “This fight is about who gets to decide what women of color make in the District — the big business lobby or constituents of D.C.,” said Diana Ramirez, executive director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of D.C. “It’s not even about whether you support One Fair Wage and lifting workers out of poverty anymore. This is about respecting the Democratic process and the will of the people.” Opponents of Initiative 77 claim that the proposal would eventually end tipping in the District, with significant consequences. To continue to earn tips, workers could leave D.C. positions for jobs in Maryland and Virginia. Many restaurants would be forced to raise their prices or add a supplement, they predict. Some would be forced to close, and new ones discouraged from opening in the District. Fonda disagreed. “That’s just bull. The National Restaurant Association — the other NRA — is trying to persuade the city council to not support the voice of the people in D.C. by claiming tips and restaurants will disappear. It’s not true,” the 80-year-old Fonda said to the fewer than 100 people gathered on the steps of the Wilson Building.
Bill Pending on Parking, Speeding Fines A bill that would reduce the penalties for failing to pay parking and speeding tickets and allow the payment of fines through community service was approved unanimously by the D.C. Council earlier this month. Under current D.C. law, parking and speeding fines double if left unpaid for 30 days. If enacted, the proposed amendment to the 1978 District of Columbia Traffic Adjudication Act would institute a 60-day period before the fines increase. The bill would further end the suspension of driver’s licenses due to unpaid tickets or missed court hearings and would establish a Community Service Debt Repayment Program. A report written by the Council’s Transportation Committee found that current traffic “adjudication laws [arguably] amount to a debt-trap for low-income individuals.” However, the committee found that the amendment, first proposed in March of 2017, would reduce D.C.’s traffic fine and penalty revenue by nearly $125 million over four years, while increasing costs for the government by nearly $700,000 over the same period.
Parking tickets, the bane of D.C. motorists. Photo by Peggy Sands. At press time, Mayor Muriel Bowser had yet to sign or veto the bill. Given the support of all 13 members, the Council could vote to override a veto.
TOWN TOPICS
ANC’s Monica Roaché Won’t Seek Reelection
Cyclist Killed in West End
Monica Roaché, a Georgetown advisory neighborhood commissioner whose district runs from P Street at Rock Creek to Whitehaven Parkway, will not seek reelection, she announced July 11. An educator and fifthgeneration Washingtonian, Roaché was recently elected as at-large committeewoman on the D.C. Democratic State Commission. Ballot applications for advisory neighborhood commissioners are due Aug. 8. Roaché has endorsed Elizabeth Miller to replace her as ANC 2E07 commissioner. The following is part of Roaché’s announcement: “It has truly been a pleasure serving my community as an ANC Commissioner. Over the last three plus years, I have gained a wealth of knowledge about D.C. governance and Georgetown. However, it is with a heavy heart that I announce that I will not be running again for re-election on the ANC. This is a very difficult decision for me. “However, with my new position on the DC Democratic Committee, I think it’s best. My term as the DC Democratic At-Large Committeewoman is four years. As we approach the next presidential election, my responsibilities and time commitment will increase in this role. I want to give my full attention and energy in helping to select the best leaders locally and in throughout the country. Thanks to everyone who voted for me on June 19.
The District Department of Transportation announced changes to an intersection in the West End where a cyclist was killed in a traffic collision earlier this month. The cyclist, 36-year-old Jeffery Hammond Long, was hit on Saturday, July 10, and died the next day. The Metropolitan Police Department’s initial investigation found that Long was struck when a truck attempted to make a right turn from M Street onto New Hampshire Avenue NW, passing through the M Street bike lane. On July 16, just days after cyclists took to M Street in a memorial ride for Long, DDOT said on Twitter that the agency had removed four parking spaces from the intersection in a bid to “improve visibility” near the scene of the incident. “Additional bike lane upgrades” — including extending the M Street sidewalk and shifting the bike lane’s position next to Duke Ellington Park — were also announced. The memorial bike ride, organized on Facebook, attracted some 100 cyclists, according to the Washington Post. On the event page, the ride’s organizer described the bike lane on M Street as “chaotic at best for experienced cyclists on a quiet day.” Later that week, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association hosted a rally, billed as Rally for Streets That Don’t Kill People, at the John A. Wilson District Building, reporting an attendance of more than 120
“Don’t worry, I am still the ANC 2E07 commissioner until Dec. 31. After January, I will still remain active in the community and I hope to continue to serve where needed on a committee Monica Roaché or task force. I do have hopes for one candidate who is running for my position. Please look out for the name Elizabeth Miller. I am endorsing her campaign and believe greatly she will be a hard worker and dedicated to our Georgetown village. I may call on some of you to sign her petition so she can qualify to be on the ballot in November.” ANC 2E chair Joe Gibbons offered high praise for Roaché, citing her work for the Jackson Art Center lease extension, Montrose Park reinvigoration, safe streets and more. “Monica has always taken the lead when it comes to representing the traditions and heritage of Georgetown,” Gibbons said. “Monica has been a superb vice chair of ANC2E handling many behind-the-scenes issues that allow our ANC2E to function properly and work with the D.C. agencies for the benefit of our community.”
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Spring Valley Break-Ins BY ELI S A B AY OUMI A rash of burglaries in Spring Valley, including Foxhall Road, prompted a June 5 Community Crime Meeting that brought concerned homeowners together with D.C. Council member Mary Cheh and Metropolitan Police Department officers. Victims started reporting the break-ins about a year ago on Nextdoor, a neighborhood social network community. Since then, the organized break-ins of homes and especially automobiles have escalated. Many of the incidents involve victims waking up in the morning to find visible signs of a break-in, including broken car windows or items from the car strewn onto the street and sidewalk. Other self-reported incidents suggest that the perpetrators are using a keypad or a garage opener from a robbed car to attempt to enter the garage of a home. Further research indicates that criminals may be using devices to remotely open a car or a garage by connecting with the valet key or a garage door opener. Some break-ins have no indication of forced entry. Chief of Police Peter Newsham commented that many of the perpetrators of these crimes seem to be repeat offenders in their late teens and early 20s. He said that most perpetrators are professionals who are well known to the police. These professionals use Military Road as their access point, but unfortunately, he explained, catching them is not as easy as knowing this information.
Due to D.C.’s ban on “hot pursuits” by police in a vehicle, MPD must catch perpetrators in the act of stealing cars. Newsham further detailed the difficult process of arresting perpetrators well known to the police, as many are not incarcerated for any length of time by the court system. During the Community Crime Meeting, the officer in charge of Police Service Area 205 was notified that a person responsible for 11 thefts in the area had been arrested, but would likely be back on the street in 24 hours. The Community Crime Meeting concluded with a series of recommendations to protect homes and cars. The suggestions included: • Locking your house at all times, including the door to the garage and the access gate to the backyard. • Locking your cars at all times, including during quick trips in and out of your house. • Locking the garage door if you are to be away for a long period of time. • Removing valet keys from vehicles and keeping them in your house, possibly in a metal box to prevent remote activation. According to PSA statistics, there has only been a six-percent increase in auto theft. However, certain areas, such as Spring Valley and Friendship Heights, have been targeted more than others. In Spring Valley, for example, theft from automobiles is up as much as 72 percent from last year. Statistics also show that high-end vehicles, particularly Audis, are the preferred targets.
BY C AM ER ON H IL L
Bicyclist memorial at M Street and New Hampshire Avenue NW. Photo by Marina Shallcross. people. In 2015, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Vision Zero, a plan to eliminate road deaths in the city by 2024. However, according to the Washington Post, traffic deaths have increased in the past two years. Long is the second cyclist killed while biking in the city in the past two months. Malik Habib, 19, died after being struck by a charter bus in the H Street NE corridor in June.
UNRIVALED CRAFTSMANSHIP, COMFORT AND STYLE IN MEN’S
FASHION
Our story began in Havana, Cuba, where Ike Behar’s father, Samuel, was a respected tailor who owned a shop called La Confianza (the Confidence). The store was something of a second home for Ike, who spent countless hours observing his father’s work, while learning as much as possible about the trade. Before long, Ike was experimenting with his own designs and producing hand-crafted custom shirts to compliment his father’s luxury suits. IKE BEHAR GEORGETOWN 202.808.8715 2900 M Street NW Washington D.C.
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
7
EDITORIAL
OPINION
Jack Evans Report
A Sustainable Future BY JAC K EVAN S Send Your Feedback, Questions or Concerns, Tips and Suggestions to editorial@georgetowner.com or call 202-338-4833
Rising Homeless Presence Requires New Focus With the warm weather, the tents of presumably homeless people are increasingly visible along the river walkways, in the new bikeways and under the freeways and bridges of Georgetown. Their belongings often are spread out along the sidewalk; needles and drug paraphernalia sometimes can be seen. Some of the occupants, who are mainly white men, panhandle. Mostly they sleep. Pedestrians gingerly walk around them or cross the street to avoid going by. Their presence makes many residents and visitors uncomfortable. Some nervously consider the homeless to be a potential source of danger. Large numbers of homeless living on the streets of Georgetown is not a new problem. Those Georgetowners who have been dealing with it for years have varying opinions about the increase in recent years. The core question, as always, is: What can be done that hasn’t already been tried? In fact, dealing with homelessness is a work in progress. In 2016, a report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors concluded that Washington, D.C., had the highest rate of homelessness of any U.S. metropolitan area. For every 10,000 people in the District, there were 124 without a home. Mayor Muriel Bowser vowed to make homelessness in D.C. “rare, brief and nonrecurring.” The District instituted a Housing First policy for the chronically homeless that prioritized finding housing for applicants without demanding sobriety or treatment as a prerequisite. The idea was that housing would give them safety and some stability, ideally putting them in a better mental condition to confront their problems. A report published May 9 by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that, for every 10,000 D.C. residents, 99 are homeless — a 20-percent decrease. On June 13, Mayor
Bowser allocated $103 million to produce and preserve housing for 1,700 more street dwellers. In addition, Georgetown Ministry Center has expanded its vital programs, which provide weekly meals, overnight housing, showers, clothing and even computers at the Grace Church location and at other churches and Georgetown community organizations. But this obviously is not enough to help the many mentally challenged members of Georgetown’s homeless community. Like so many other heartbreaking social issues in America (gun violence, domestic and child abuse, suicide, etc.), the mental health factor is key. The new focus in helping the homeless in Georgetown needs to be on dealing frankly and vigorously with this underlying issue.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25
TUESDAY, AUGUST 14
The Georgetown Business Association will hold its monthly networking meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the City Tavern Club, 3206 M St. NW. For details, visit georgtownbusiness.org.
This is the filing deadline for the Sept. 6 Old Georgetown Board meeting. For details, visit cfa.gov/upcoming-meetings/ogb.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2 DDOT PUBLIC SPACE MEETING
This meeting will take place at 9 a.m. at 1100 4th St. NW, on the second floor of the District Department of Transportation Permit Office. For details, visit ddot.dc.gov.
8
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
straws by 2019 in the U.K. and is testing alternatives in some U.S. locations. Hyatt said it would provide straws only on request. Since its introduction, many people have expressed their support for this legislation. I’ve also heard from people within the disability community about how this legislation will affect them; straws allow them the ability to drink independently. I value input from constituents and look forward to a public hearing on the bill and to considering possible alternatives. In August of 2017, Washington was certified as the first city in the world to receive LEED Platinum status. The city has committed to building a sustainable future through a 2011 Sustainable D.C. building plan, by continuing to abide by the Paris Climate Accord and by adopting Climate Ready D.C. to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Banning non-compostable straws and stirrers reinforces our commitment to leading the next generation of sustainability. We can do more to protect our environment and waterways. The Council is continuing this discussion, and I encourage Ward 2 residents to send their thoughts. Jack Evans is the District Council member for Ward 2, representing Georgetown and other neighborhoods since 1991.
Homeless on K Street.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR GBA NETWORKING MEETING
At the last legislative session, I introduced a ban on non-compostable plastic straws and stirrers in the District with Council member Mary Cheh and Chairman Phil Mendelson. The Council has declared this the Year of the Anacostia River, and D.C. needs to reinforce its commitment to clean waterways and our greater connected ecosystem. Plastic straws and stirrers are small and slip through recycling systems, can take more than 400 years to biodegrade, end up clogging ponds, rivers and the oceans, can be eaten by unsuspecting sea life and cost the Department of Public Works significant sums to handle and clean up. A 2018 study showed that 8.1 percent of all plastic waste comes from straws and stirrers. They can be replaced with sustainable alternatives. This has led cities such as Miami and Seattle to ban single-use plastic straws. New York City, California and Hawaii are considering similar bans. McDonalds, Hyatt, Starbucks and most recently Cava, the Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant, have made public commitments to move away from plastic straws. Starbucks committed to phasing out plastic straws by 2020. McDonalds is phasing out
OLD GEORGETOWN BOARD DEADLINE
Send your community event listing to editorial@georgetowner.com or call 202-338-4833.
Yes, Reading Is Fundamental With this issue focusing on books and reading, The Georgetowner asked non-profit RIF to explain its mission and work. Twenty-five million children in the United States can’t read proficiently, and that’s a crisis of epic proportions. Reading Is Fundamental’s mission is to create a literate America by inspiring a passion for reading among all children, providing quality content and engaging communities in the solution to give every child the fundamental building blocks for success. Every child deserves the opportunity to own books and to learn how to read. As the nation’s largest nonprofit organization for children’s literacy for 50-plus years, RIF has provided more than 415 million books, impacting the lives of 40 million kids in all 50 states. Thirty-four percent of children entering kindergarten lack the basic language skills
needed to learn how to read, and 71 percent of fourth graders in Washington, D.C., aren’t reading on grade level. We see the possibilities and the impact of our work in the children we help. Elisha Demaria is one of those success stories. She recalls, “Reading was my getaway during a tough childhood. My family never had money to buy books from the school book fairs, but I was able to receive books from RIF.” Elisha credits RIF with her future success and her current career as a textbook manager at New York University. Reading is the foundation for everything — for knowledge, for discovery, for education, for careers of any kind, as well as for selfesteem and happiness. Literacy opens doors to life, and RIF will continue our work until every child can read. To learn how you can help, visit rif.org.
Have you noticed an increase of homeless in Georgetown? YOUR OPINION MATTERS.
Post your response to Facebook.com/TheGeorgetowner
THE VILLAGE
LET TERS TO THE EDITOR
K Street Bike Lanes Running from 34th to 30th Streets, the newly installed, protected bicycle lanes on K Street have reconfigured the way traffic flows — and altered the mix of bicycles, cars and pedestrians — with an accompanying loss of parking spaces. Some like the new arrangement; others do not. The bike lanes are a sixmonth project by the District Department of Transportation, we are told. On this page are reprinted the responses received at press time by The Georgetowner (more to come, no doubt). We welcome your comments.
Bibyblist in K Street traffic. Georgetowner photo.
— Robert Devaney
The K Street Bike Lanes are a misguided disaster for those of us who live and work in the area. PLEASE do all you can to restore the road to it’s original form. Why? -- Because the traffic congestion is avoidable and unsustainable. -- Bad for business, bad for quality of life. -- Drivers are frustrated and do dumb things as a result. -- There is a huge park with all kinds of paths adjacent to the road. -- There are no viable alternatives for cars. -- On balance few cyclists, but many many frustrated drivers who are trying to cross town, work, live, patronize nd conduct businesses in the city. Please restore common sense. (This reminds me of the misbegotton move to close a traffic lane on Wisconsin Avenue thru Glover Park.) Please, let’s come to our senses. Thank you. Tom DiGiovanni
LOST critical Palmer to blame
Parking-Lisa
As others have noted, there has been a bike lane right through the park! Only the morning rush hours do we “see” bikes in the Bike Lane.. rest of the time, bike lane EMPTY! Loss of critical Parking spots, and traffic is jammed up --Georgetown Business is *hurt* because customers can’t get parking. Thank all this to [Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner] Lisa Palmer.
Dear Georgetowner: I love your publication but found your coverage of the K Street bike lanes somewhat slanted in the July 11-24 issue as the new lanes have not been in place long enough to get the full attention of area bicyclists.I discovered them last weekend on a ride and thought, The automobile “game changer.” traffic and uncertainty from parked cars pulling in and pulling out make traversing the section of K Street along the waterfront extremely difficult and extremely unsafe, particularly on the weekends. For those of us who ride the trail and then have to travel K St to connect to go to other trails, the new bike lanes will protect cyclists and are a huge improvement. To print a quote saying there was gridlock on K St on a weekend is ridiculous (and implicitly attribute it to the new bike lanes) is ridiculous. That is akin to saying it is hot in DC in July and that it is because of the new bike lanes. Again, love the publication but didn’t think you covered this issue in an even-handed way. Mike Boyd
There is a lot of traffic on K st here. There is no reason to mess it all up for bike lanes. I take morning walks down there quite often, and all of the bikers ride on the sidewalk inside the park!!! Although I do not like that, that is what they do. Further, these bikers are coming from MD. Why screw up Georgetown streets for MD bikers? We already have our fill of traffic problems!! Bob Carr 1236 27th st, NW
As a longtime Georgetown resident who gets around by bicycle, car and public transportation, I welcome and strongly support the new Water/K Street bikelane. The new bikelane configuration under the Whitehurst Freeway addresses what was a major gap and safety hazard in the city’s network of bikeways. It ensures a safe connection for cyclists traveling between the Capital Crescent Trail (which serves upwards of 50,000 cyclists during a typical non-winter month*), and the recreational/ commuter bike routes into downtown and along Rock Creek and the Potomac River. Separating bicycle and vehicular traffic in this busy area makes sense, and benefits all users of the Georgetown waterfront -- residents, visitors, commuters and businesses alike. This is an important step forward in making Georgetown integrally part of a more accessible, bikable and livable city. Willem Brakel 3416 Reservoir Rd NW
I would like to complain about the new bike lane on K Street & Water Street. It has taken me 30minutes to exit the parking garage & get onto K street. The intersection of Wisconsin and K street is becoming congested a stand still point. Removi ng one driving lane between Wiscon sin avenue and 31st street has also made traffic a nightmare after work. I can only image how much worse it will get after summer when more people are on the road. The parked car lanes being in the middle of the road is very confusing during rush hour, I have witnessed cars getting behind the parked cars thinking it is a driving lane. This also adds to the congestion. There was already a bike lane and a sidewalk for bikers & pedestrians to use that is removed from the street under the Whitehu rst along the Waterfront. This system protected the bikers from the street. Why do the bikers need another bike lane at the expense of the drivers? The parked cars will now need to be on alert when opening their doors so that they will not injure a biker. Not only has this new arrangement made traffic horrendous, but it also seems unsafe to the bikers and completely unnecessary. Please revert back to the old system so that us drivers are able to exit Georgetown with the same ease that the bikers have. Thank you, Eleni Vakalopoulos CORE, 1010 Wisconsin Ave NW
Thanks for your coverage of the issues about the new bike lanes. I am writing to express my strong frustrat ion and concern about them. This past Saturday, at about 4 pm, I tried to drive from the Safeway in upper Georget own to Washington Harbou r. Underst andably, on a beautiful weekend day, I expected some auto traffic congest ion, especial ly with greater pedestr ian traffic. However, traffic was gridlocked as I approached M Street and it took 4 traffic light cycles to simply get through the intersection onto the lower part of Wisconsin Avenue. Getting down Wiscon sin and then making a left onto K Street was extremely slow and challenging, and then cars crept eastward on K. I saw only 2 bicyclists in the new lanes. As others have pointed out, there is a bike path all along the park so the new lanes seem unnecessary. During daily rush hours, auto traffic has become even more congested along Water/K St, and it wasn’t great before the bike lanes. For motorists who are entering or exiting spots along K Street like the Washing ton Harbour garage, it is very challenging to look for bicyclists in two directions before turning; it is not a natural tendency to expect bicycle traffic moving opposite the direction of cars. I hope bicyclists are being extra careful when they traverse this area in case all drivers are not paying full attention to the possibility of unexpected opposite-travelling bikes. Given the excessive traffic congest ion and the potential danger, this cannot be the best solution to making our community more bike-friendly. I hope the City officials re-evaluate this design. Marie Schram
In the last block before the merge onto the parkway, bike riders stay on the street, not following the clear markings that direct riders OFF the PBL to the path on the park. As usual, the riders want it both ways-to use the PBL AND the road. Ridiculous. Danita Murray
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
9
BUSINESS
Back: Anthropologie
INS & OUTS
Popular retailer Anthropologie & Co. relaunched on July 12 at 3222 M St. NW in a 15,000-square-foot space. Self-styled as an “omnichannel lifestyle brand,” the company — which started in 1992 and operates 227 stores — is known for fun and quirky clothes, accessories and gifts with reasonable price points. Its expanded Georgetown location is an upgrade from the original (2005) layout. A third floor was added and there is a broader selection of merchandise. At the new store: a furniture showroom, beauty and wellness products and even a sweet shop, Anthropologie’s first.
BY ST EP H A N I E G R EE N
In: 90 Second Pizza In food news, more pizza options are on the way, especially for Georgetowners on the go. 90 Second Pizza has appeared at 1077 Wisconsin Ave. NW, offering Neapolitanstyle pizza within (you guessed it) 90 seconds. Better yet, the shop will remain open until 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays and until 10 p.m. throughout the week. Vegan and vegetarian options are available for those abiding by a swimsuit-season diet.
Courtesy Anthropologie.
In: The Tavern (from Sweetgreen)
In: Aritzia on M St. The old BCBG space at 3210 M St. NW is soon to become another women’s clothier. In a lease agreement with EastBanc, Aritzia, a Canadian brand that began in a Vancouver department store, will open its first D.C. location in early August.
In: Reformation Reformation, a company that makes women’s clothes “from super sustainable materials, rescued deadstock fabrics, and repurposed vintage clothing,” will move into the old Diesel space at 3035 M St. NW next month.
Courtesy Aritzia.
Courtesy Sweet Green.
Sweetgreen’s original shop at 3333 M St. NW will come back to life later this summer as “The Tavern,” a market focusing on the “best produce from local farms,” according to a company representative. (The new name is actually an old one — the restored, historically significant building was part of a D.C. hamburger chain, the Little Tavern.) Also available: Sweetflow frozen yogurt, affectionately known as “fro-yo.” No salad line will be available, though. That’s for Sweetgreen’s other Georgetown spot at 1044 Wisconsin Ave. NW.
In: Indian Eatery Bharati CONTACT US
Send your business news, anniversaries and ideas to editorial@georgetowner.com
An Indian restaurant — Bharati — is being set up at the former Dolcezza coffee and gelato shop at 1560 Wisconsin Ave. NW. No opening date has been disclosed, but work at the location seems to be moving right along.
Moving: Patagonia Per the Washington Business Journal (like the Reformation item): Patagonia will be moving from its M Street location to 3205 K St. NW, where Mr. Smith’s restaurant used to be.
THOMAS LANDSCAPES 202.322.2322 | www.thomaslandscapes.com
Design with Excellence
Derek Thomas / Principal - Certified Professional Horticulturist, Master Gardener
Member of the MD Nursery and Landscape Association & the Association of Professional Landscape Designers
10
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
BUSINESS
The Avery Hotel: European Design in Georgetown
REAL ESTATE
Featured Property 1616 33rd Street NW This gracious four-bedroom, Federal-style home is located on a quiet Georgetown street. The living room has gleaming wood floors, a wood-burning fireplace and French doors leading to a private patio and garden. There are four and a half baths, including an en suite bath off the master bedroom, which also features a walk-in closet. The gourmet kitchen has stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and an island that opens into the dining room. Offered at $1,550,000 (new price) Long & Foster Real Estate Samuel Davis 202-256-7039 305-968-8522
Samantha and Justin Schneck with Avery and Margot. Photo by Patrick G. Ryan.
BY S EL MA K HENISS I On a day with heavy rain, the Avery Georgetown, a boutique hotel on P Street, is the kind of place where you want to stay for a while. Its outdoor lighting and its yellow lettering give the place a kind of inviting glow, suffused against the hotel’s graydominated walls. Going to the Avery on a recent Tuesday afternoon meant entering a quiet place, where guests checking in were invited to have a conversation. Interacting with a Francophone couple, owner Justin Schneck compared the importance of the World Cup to that of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, which took place that night. The details surrounding the interior decor, especially when it comes to the guest rooms, are worth noticing. The color scheme of king rooms emphasizes yellow and blue, while the queen rooms have a color scheme of gray and pink. The chosen fabrics and wallpaper are from London, the carpets are from Finland, the lighting is from Spain and the sliding doors in the bathrooms are from Italy. “We use a lot of European designers,” Schneck said. Attention to detail is a trait that has served him well, both in current times and when he was trying to get his idea for a hotel off the ground. In addition to needing to acquire the two buildings that now form the Avery, there was a need for planning, getting permits and doing construction.
Before Schneck acquired the two pieces of property, early in 2015, the buildings were part of a law office. The decision to open a hotel was inspired by Schneck’s renovation of his home in the Palisades — and by the lack of a hotel in the East Village section of Georgetown. “The village needed an alternative to the Four Seasons Georgetown,” he said. The hotel, named after daughter Avery, which opened in June 2016 and has a staff of six. Though it hasn’t been around for a long time, the Avery was ranked number six out of 142 D.C. hotels on TripAdvisor, according to Schneck. Yet he believes that there is room for improvement. “I think we should be five,” he said. Schneck also believes in the importance of exceeding every customer’s expectations, which he considers a challenge. “It’s tough being in the top,” he said. The standard for which Schneck is aiming is for guests to feel that he and the rest of the staff “are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen in a relaxed setting.” He added: “My goal is to make the guestroom product comfortable, yet luxurious.” Though Schneck, who used to work at a private equity firm called Thayer Lodging Group, had never developed property before, he plans to open another Avery hotel. With his wife Samantha, a real estate lawyer, and their two daughters, aged 5 and 2, this 37-year-old is just getting started.
The Genau Group is hiring commercial and residential leaders. Please call 202-735-5382 or email getpromoted@thegenaugroup.com for a private interview.
Commercial Property 4235 Wisconsin Avenue NW This property, near the Tenleytown-AU Metro station, is ideally situated within one of D.C.’s most sought-after and stable communities. It is central to the retail core with easy access to affluent and diverse demographics, American University and the Tenleytown office corridor. Average Daily Traffic for Wisconsin Avenue is over 31,000 directly in front of the property.
Offered at $2,472,000 Property Type: Retail Property Subtype: Restaurant Building Class: C Gross Leasable Area: 1,628 square feet Calkain Urban Investment Advisors Rick Fernand 703-787-4732
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
11
100
Years
New President at
D.C.’s Junior League
Time-Tested Volunteer Organization Stays Involved, Keeps Evolving BY PEGGY SAN D S
Tycely Williams is the new president of the Junior League of Washington, a 106-year-old branch of the Junior League — now the Association of Junior Leagues International — which was founded a dozen years earlier in New York. She represents the dynamism of the organization, the mission of which is to develop the potential of women and improve communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Williams is totally committed to JLW’s values and goals. “But I am also pretty much everything Junior League presidents in the past were not,” she says with a smile. The walls of the league’s elegant headquarters at 3039 M St. NW are almost completely covered by portraits of past presidents. “But I am the first brown girl on these walls,” Williams said. “I am also among the first JLW presidents who is divorced, doesn’t have children, has a master’s degree and is still involved in an almost 20-year-long career.” Williams’s skills and background perfectly fit the evolving Junior League.
“People used to think of Junior Leaguers as society women who played bridge, wore pearls and put on fancy parties for themselves and their circle of influential citizens,” Williams said. “Well, yes, I like jewelry and pearls. But what I love most is helping our communities and building and training our increasingly diverse membership.” Williams joined the Junior League in 2006, after finishing her master’s degree at Georgetown University and settling into a management career with the American Red Cross, the YMCA and then the YWCA. Her inspiration came from civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou, who was her English teacher at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. “Miss Angelou continually told me, Miss Williams, about the importance of courage and joy and to be involved in others’ lives,” she said. “Miss Williams” found the Junior League of Washington to be the perfect place for her desires for service and connection.
Booming Membership Selected by Lottery With more than 2,350 members, the Junior League of Washington is one of the 10 largest leagues, out of some 300. Its membership is increasing every year, both in size and in diversity. Traditionally, Junior Leaguers were married (often to businessmen and other community leaders) and between the ages of 20 and 40. They generally had small children, did not work and wanted to spend some hours outside the home in social and community activities. Today, JLW gets hundreds of membership applications each year from women in their 20s who want to join soon after college, at the beginning of their careers. There is no age limit nor social profile to be a Junior League provisional member, and then to move up to active and sustaining status, as there used to be — although some chapters still limit actives to age 45 or so. Christakos dates the JLW membership boom to the year 2000, when — under the stewardship of Georgetowner Frida Burling 12
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
— its historic headquarters was completely refurbished into a two-story home with beautiful, high-tech meeting rooms, parlors, kitchens and patios. But the boom must also be attributed to Tycely Williams, whose goal is to increase membership diversity of all kinds. (She’s not sure if they’re ready for men members as yet, despite some inquiries.) “We’re now seeing over 500 applications a year for provisional classes of up to 350,” said Christakos. “We’re now hosting many open houses, so that potential members can visit and ask questions before applying. And while legacy applicants get some priority, all applications now are selected by lottery.” Increasingly, Junior League members look upon their volunteer experience as a way to enhance their professional resumes while improving their communities. The evolving Junior League of Washington, with diverse leadership from women like Tycely Williams, is on the edge of that wave.
Photo by Philip Bermingham.
National BookFestival Is Sept. 1
Courtesy LOC.
Photo by Philip Bermingham.
“What I love most is helping our communities and building and training our increasingly diverse membership.” Literacy and the National Book Fair Each chapter can choose its own focus. The only strict requirement at JLW is that active members pledge to be involved in partnership projects for at least seven years. That includes participating in extensive hands-on development and training workshops, a leadership institute and a “get on board” training. Almost 33 percent of the members end up actively serving on nonprofit boards throughout D.C. “Until the 1980s, Junior League projects mainly dealt with women and children,” said Constance Christakos, a past president, 30-year member and high-profile leader in Georgetown. “It was then that we did a breakthrough project called ‘Boarder Children’ to help small children and mothers with HIV. From that, league volunteers became well-known as proficient board members and event organizers for a wide range of projects.” Currently, the Junior League of Washington members focus their financial and volunteer resources on adult, child and cultural literacy. The branch is a major supporter of the National Book Fair every fall, supplying not only some 600 volunteers during the days of the show, but also for
months before, putting their skills in event management to good use. “In 2003, when I was JLW president, I decided to make a cold call to the White House to see if we could help with the second year of first lady Laura Bush’s National Book Fair on the Mall,” said Christakos. They said yes, and I marched in with my Junior League event planner, including fund raising, budgeting and volunteer logistics. We have been welcomed ever since.” In 2017-18, JLW awarded some $125,000 to programs focused on child and adult literacy and workforce development. It is a major supporter of the Meg Graham Scholarship and of Resolution Read. League volunteers spent almost 5,000 hours of volunteer time last year reading to children through the District. In addition, JLW convenes community roundtables year-round to address specific pressing issues in D.C. In 201617, roundtables were held on STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and math — education and on how cultural and community organizations can collaborate.
BY EL ISA BAYOU MI AND CHEYENNE CURLEY As the first of September brings beach season and summer reading to a close, the Junior League of Washington will be helping to put on the 18th Library of Congress National Book Festival. The one-day festival — running from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 1, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center — will attract best-selling authors and bookworms alike to participate in talks, panel discussions, signings and other activities that celebrate books and reading. Among the prominent individuals who will appear at 2018’s preeminent literary event in the nation’s capital will be Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, discussing her new children’s book “Turning Pages: My Life Story,” and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, discussing her New York Times best-seller “Fascism: A Warning.” E. Annie Proulx, author of “The Shipping News” and “Brokeback Mountain” and winner of the 2018 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, will speak on the fiction stage. Meanwhile, on the poetry and prose stage, Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will converse with former Poet Laureate Robert Hass on the making of poetry. The children’s stage will feature Matt de la Peña and Loren Long,
discussing their new book “Love,” and Jacqueline Woodson, the library’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, who will talk about two new books in the works. Other authors, Illustrators and poets — including mystery writer Louise Penny, historian Jon Meacham and biographer Ron Chernow — will present on specific topics and genres. A full list of participating authors can be found online at loc.gov/bookfest/. In addition, the expo floor will host family-friendly activities such as storytime and a fun hunt for Waldo, making the festival an enjoyable experience that encourages families to share a love of reading. The National Book Festival, first held on Sept. 8, 2001, was born from the efforts of Laura Bush and thenLibrarian of Congress James H. Billington. As first lady of Texas, Bush had created the Texas Book Festival. In her new role as first lady of the nation, she proposed a similar celebration of books on a national scale, serving as honorary chair until 2008. Today, the festival remains funded through private donors who embrace the library’s commitment to reading and literacy, including the Junior League. The Junior League has supported the National Book Festival for more than 15 years, last year sending some 400 volunteers to help out.
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
13
FEATURE
DOWNTOWNER
‘Devil Wears Prada’ Author Signs Her Latest
BY KATE OC ZYPOK
Air Force defeated Army in the All-Star Armed Services Classic. Photo by Mike Kaplan.
Air Force Wins All-Star Armed Services Classic
BY PEGGY SA NDS
F
ew of the book-related events that Georgetowners can choose to attend offer as much to do as did the June 9 “Girls Day Out” at Bethesda Row with “Devil Wears Prada” author Lauren Weisberger, who signed copies of her latest novel, “When Life Gives You Lululemons.” The event began with an hour-long yoga session. Each participant was given a bright yellow yoga mat and a shoulder bag. Then it was on to brunch, hosted by Mon Ami Gabi, with champagne, mimosas, bloody Marys, quiches, bite-sized croquet-monsieurs and waffle bites with whipped cream. Bethesda Row retailers offered participants store discounts and gave each a large glittery gold or silver swag bag filled with a largebrimmed sun hat, dark glasses and a copy of Weisberger’s book. In between signing copies, the vivacious author chatted and took selfies with her fans during the last hour of the event. “When Life Gives You Lululemons” is labeled “A Devil Wears Prada Novel.” It picks up on the life of the now married but still edgy and ambitious Emily Charlton. It’s 10 years after she was the infamous first secretary of fearsome and powerful fashion-magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep in the movie adaptation. Why did Weisberger choose to follow Charlton in her new book and not the two main characters of “Devil” — Priestly or “smart but fat” (size 4) new assistant Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway? “Because Emily was my favorite character in the book,” Weisberger told The Georgetowner with a grin. The movie turned her into a snappy British girl because actress Emily Blunt had a 14
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
British accent. “But she was perfect for the part,” said the author. Weisberger grew up in Pennsylvania — Scranton, then Allentown — and attended Cornell University. There, she relates in her bio, “she focused her energy on securing a steady stream of fake IDs and dating boys from the right fraternities.” After graduation and months of travel in Europe and the Middle and Far East, she moved to Manhattan and became assistant to Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour (after whom, it seems evident, she modeled Priestly). At Vogue, Weisberger writes, she “became proficient in the language of stilettos and Starbucks before moving to Departures magazine, where she wrote 100-word reviews by day and took writing classes at night.” The success of the 2003 book and, three years later, the film changed her life. “I basically can do anything I want,” she shrugged. What she wants to do is to keep on writing and reflecting the places she lives and the life she experiences. “Lululemons” takes place in Greenwich, Connecticut, where Weisberger now lives. The characters juggle sophisticated lives of motherhood, formerly high-powered careers, striving husbands and at times vicious competition. Weisberger writes about it with snappy wit and constantly moving drama. “Let’s be clear,” begins the new book. “Emily Charlton does not do the suburbs. After leaving Miranda Priestly, she’s been working in Hollywood as an image consultant to the stars, but recently, Emily’s lost a few clients. She’s hopeless with social media. The new guard is nipping at her heels. She needs a big opportunity, and she needs it now.”
A new event ahead of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the All-Star Armed Services Classic, brought many fans out to Nationals Park earlier this month. The finalists in the co-ed softball tournament, Air Force and Army, played July 13. Air Force defeated Army, 9-3. Air Force coach Michael Curcio said it was a win 10 years in the making, the length of time he has been coaching the team.
D.C. Is 51st in Energy Costs Washington, D.C., ranked 51st in energy costs in the nation, according to WalletHub, which compared the average monthly energy bills in all 50 states and D.C. using a formula involving types of energy like electricity, motor fuel and home heating oil. The average monthly energy bill is $203 for the District, lower than any state. The District ranks 22nd in electricity price, natural gas price and natural gas consumption per consumer.
American City Diner Closes After 30 Years Popular Connecticut Avenue restaurant American City Diner has closed its doors after 30 years. Former owner Jeffrey Gildenhorn opened the restaurant in 1988. After he choked on a piece of food at the Palm in D.C. last year, the restaurant struggled financially. Earlier this month, Washingtonian magazine reported that Kramerbooks and Ted’s Bulletin owner Steve Salis had acquired the space, suggesting that it may become a Ted’s Bulletin.
‘Boil Water Advisory’ Issued On July 12 and 13, parts of Northwest and Northeast D.C. were under a “boil water advisory,” causing many area restaurants to close or not serve water-based beverages. Some summer camps in the advisory zone closed early due to lack of water. There were originally 35,000 customers in the zone, but within a day the number was lowered to 7,000 customers. Officials reported that coliform bacteria were detected when a water sample was tested. However, there were no reports of any illnesses.
Police Identify Suspect in Judiciary Square Shooting D.C. police identified a man sought in a shooting death near Judiciary Square, according to the Washington Post. Reginald Johnson, 37, was charged with first-degree murder while armed. Johnson shot William Mayo, 34, of Southeast D.C. The shooting occurred on July 2 around 5:30 p.m. in the 400 block of Second Street NW — only two blocks from Metropolitan Police headquarters.
High School Graduation Bill Vetoed In her first-ever veto, Mayor Muriel Bowser blocked legislation that would have allowed high school seniors who miss more than six weeks of school to graduate. Bowser said the bill would undermine the city’s attendance efforts. The D.C. Council passed the legislation 12-1 earlier this summer, around the same time DC Public Schools stopped disregarding attendance records of would-be graduates due to public criticism.
WASHINGTON DC’S FINEST RESTAURANTS
ENO WINE BAR
CLYDE’S OF GEORGETOWN
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.
This animated tavern, in the heart of Georgetown, popularized saloon food and practically invented Sunday brunch. Clyde’s is the People’s Choice for bacon cheeseburgers, steaks, fresh seafood, grilled chicken salads, fresh pastas and desserts.
2810 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW 202–295–2826 | enowinerooms.com
3236 M ST., NW 202-333-9180 | clydes.com
Das Gets Its TV Moment THE OCEANAIRE SEAFOOD ROOM
TOWN HALL
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.
Situated just north of Georgetown on Wisconsin Ave, Town Hall has been a neighborhood mainstay in Glover Park since 2005. Whether you’re popping in for dinner, drinks, or weekend brunch, Town Hall is the spot you’ll want to call home to Gulp, Gather & Grub. Free parking is available nightly after 7 p.m., and, our outdoor courtyard is one of DC’s best kept secrets.
1201 F ST., NW 202–347–2277 | theoceanaire.com
2340 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202-333-5640 | townhalldc.com
Chef Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster Harlem, Ginny’s Supper Club, Marcus at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club in Bermuda, Norda Bar & Grill in Gothenburg, Sweden, and more) will be focusing on Washington’s Ethiopian cuisine in his Aug. 14 episode of “No Passport Required,” now on PBS. Outside of Ethiopia, Washington, D.C., has the largest population of Ethiopians in the world. The Ethopian-born and Swedish-raised Samuelsson was also a guest chef at the White House. He filmed part of the episode in June at Das Ethiopian restaurant at 1201 28th St. NW — shown at right with Das’s Elizabeth Wossen and Sileshi Alifom. Photo by Bill Starrels.
The Latest Dish BY LINDA ROTH
MALMAISON
FILOMENA RISTORANTE
Malmaison opened in June 2013 and features elegant French dining in Washington D.C’s historic Georgetown waterfront. Housed in a majestically refurbished industrial warehouse reminiscent of NYC’s Meatpacking District, the modern restaurant, pastry shop and event lounge features the culinary talents of legendary 2 Michelin Starred French Chef Gerard Pangaud and Pastry Chef Serge Torres (Le Cirque NYC).
A Georgetown landmark for over 30 years featuring styles and recipes passed through generations. Balanced cutting-edge culinary creations of modern Italy using the fresh ingredients and made-from-scratch sauces and pastas. Seen on The Travel Channel, Awardwinning 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.
3401 K ST., NW 202-817-3340 | malmaisondc.com
1063 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202–338–8800 | filomena.com
MARTIN’S TAVERN
CAFE BONAPARTE
Fifth generation Lauren Martin learns the family business from her dad, Billy Martin, Jr. Since 1933, the warm atmosphere of Martin’s Tavern has welcomed neighbors and travelers looking for great food, service and years of history within it’s walls. Fourth generation owner Billy Martin. Jr. continues the tradition of Washington’s oldest family-owned restaurant.
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.
1264 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202-333-7370 | martinstavern.com
1522 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202–333–8830 | cafebonaparte.com
ROCKLANDS BARBEQUE
2418 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202-333-2558 | rocklands.com 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.
Chef & GM Update: Michelle Gueydan is the new GM at 1310 Kitchen & Bar by Jenn Crovato. She was previously GM and sommelier at Bywater American Bistro in New Orleans. Before she took off for New Orleans, Gueydan was sommelier at The Inn at Little Washington … Jay Caputo is the new head chef at Ivy City Smokehouse and Tavern. He was previously chef-owner at Espuma in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Next door at City Winery DC, Brandon Ingentio was named executive chef. Earlier, he was at Potomac Point Winery, overseeing Le Grand Cru Bistro and all banquets, weddings and receptions. The good news is that Andy Shallal will keep Busboys and Poets in Mount Vernon Triangle. He was one of the pioneers in that part of D.C. It will move into the space where L’Hommage Bistro Français used to be — across the street from the original location at City Vista. The new site is expected to open in September. The bonus? The ability to create a glass-enclosed private dining space (which could also accommodate overflow) in the lower-level dining room. Shallal, who currently has six restaurants in his empire, plans to open another Busboys and Poets in Anacostia by the end of the fourth quarter. Union Kitchen Grocery will open its third D.C. location in Shaw, in the space formerly occupied by Glen’s Garden Market at 1924 Eighth St. NW. It’s already got the bones for its grocery, fast-casual café and beer bar. It should open by the end of the third quarter. An additional location is planned in Franklin Square. Fox Restaurant Concepts will open two of its concepts, North Italia and Flower Child, at 2112 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, an
Jenn Crovato and Michelle Gueydan. 11-story mixed-use project that includes a big law firm tenant. North Italia, an upscale modern Italian restaurant, has locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Texas. Flower Child, which features a menu of organic, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan items, has locations in Arizona, California, Las Vegas and Texas. A late fourth-quarter or early first-quarter (of 2019) opening is planned. Quick Hits: Bluestone Lane has signed a lease to open in a new project in Capitol Riverfront, joining Circa and Open Road … Connecticut-based Maggie McFly’s will open its second restaurant in Northern Virginia, in the Springfield Center space formerly occupied by Wood Ranch BBQ. Linda Roth is president of Linda Roth Associates, a public relations and marketing firm that specializes in the hospitality industry. Reach her at lindarothpr.com.
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
15
VISUAL ARTS
Georg Baselitz at the Hirshhorn BY ARI POST
I
n the wake of World War II, Germany was in ruins. What remained was a vast landscape of bombed-out cities and scorched countryside, and a generation of lost families, ashamed in their despair, silently mourning the death of millions of their people while trying to keep from starving. For the children born into this nightmare, it must have left profound and indelible marks. Over the next 15 years, tensions flared between democratic Western Europe and the communist Eastern Bloc. Germany’s capital city of Berlin became the arena for a high-stakes standoff between the two global forces that had delivered its defeat. The Berlin Wall went up in 1961, inking the scars of a country torn apart and delineating a global ideological crisis that would continue into the end of the century. But artistic traditions found their way. The children of the war were now young adults, and their view from the ravaged epicenter of modern Western conflict produced startling results that remain troubling and transfixing today. The painter Georg Baselitz, whose work came to maturity in 1960s Berlin, is one of the leading figures to emerge from postwar Germany. His lifework fights to reaffirm the triumph of individual artistic freedom over mass ideologies and dogmas. Bringing paintings and sculptures together with works on paper and archival materials, “Baselitz: Six Decades,” on view at the Hirshhorn Museum through Sept. 16, traces Baselitz’s career from his early work excavating the postwar German condition to his somber, meditative self-portraits of the past few years. Saying this might be taboo, but war is good for art. Baselitz was well set up to produce works of sociocultural import. Faced with the arduous task of confronting their traumatic past, artists in postwar Germany underwent something like a dystopian Renaissance, creating some of the most distinctive
how I could ever have become a painter in California.” Countless artistic movements were born out of Cold War Germany, many of them hugely influential: Fluxus, social sculpture, Neo-Expressionism, the New Leipzig School, the Dusseldorf School, Capitalist Realism. German painters like Baselitz, born in wartime, revisited the traditions of German Expressionism, an atmospheric, deeply personal, often whimsically grotesque style practiced in the World War I era by artists like George Grosz and Otto Dix. Rooted in classical traditions of observational painting, its model functioned as an aesthetic and philosophical alternative to the conceptual and minimalist art that was dominating the West by the 1970s. One can imagine that Baselitz, who was kicked out of East Berlin’s academy of fine arts in 1957 for not complying with its state-sanctioned art form of “social realism,” might have thirsted for a more explicit and corporeal purpose to his work than minimalist abstraction could offer. His work from the early ’60s is visceral and grisly: bodies that are at once bloated and emaciated, bruise-tender and green with rot, all organs, erections, shorn hair and scabs. Anatomy is distorted and rearranged, hands and feet are swollen. The surrounding spaces are dark, bare, but confined, with low horizon lines that evoke claustrophobia. The paintings are aggressively priapic, but their subjects display no awareness of sexual sensation. They emit only a dull ache, an unremitting low-level shame and suffering. There are hints of Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and Frank Auerbach in these paintings, but without the thin, vague membrane of attractiveness that those artists could never quite divest. Among Baselitz and his German contemporaries like Markus Lüpertz and Anselm Keifer, the aesthetic persistence
“The Brücke Chorus (Der Brückechor),” 1983. © Georg Baselitz 2018. Private collection. © 2014 Christie’s Images Limited. and experimental art of the 20th century. of the grotesque runs deep. Judging from this exhibition, As Baselitz himself noted in a 2017 interview: “I’ve no idea Baselitz has hacked, scratched, slashed, smeared and raked his 16
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
“Orangenesser IX (Orange Eater IX),” 1981. © Georg Baselitz 2018. Skarstedt, New York. Photo by Friedrich Rosenstiel.
canvases (as well as wood sculptures and woodblock prints) for the past 60 years. This isn’t to say his work his static. The iterations and effects he produces are endless and often ineffable. He has moved through contemplations of metaphorical and material landscapes, intimate portraits of friends and family, industrial complexes and nudes. He has even inverted his canvases to question perceived relationships of the painting to the “image.” However, a subtle but remarkable transition seems to have occurred in the 1970s. Working with his canvases flipped upside down, and having spent at least a decade exploring the gruesome physical and psychological nature of his country, Baselitz’s paintings suddenly became remarkably beautiful. His colors unmuddied and lightened, the faces of his subjects softened and their bodies returned to recognizable anatomy. Trees grew leaves, spaces and shapes became expressive with life. It was as if the rotation of the canvas upended his perspective and something soft and naturalistic took over. Paintings like “Nude – Elke” (a portrait of his wife) and “Finger Painting – Apple Tree” reveal an intimate world of hidden beauty amidst a country ostensibly in turmoil. Remember, this is 1970s Germany at the height of the Cold War. These paintings almost give hope to such bleak conditions, and they certainly offer beauty as a remedy. By the 1980s, however, the soft oranges and deep frosted blues turned to alarming neons, and By the 1980s, however, the soft oranges and deep frosted blues turned to alarming neons, and the tonal grayscales reverted to silty clay and black. Baselitz had grown accustomed to the new perspective, I suppose, and trauma will always find ways to resurface.
A RTS P RE VIE W
PERFORMANCE
Glimmerglass:
VISUAL ARTS
BY
Summer Opera in Cooperstown RALPH STEADMAN: A RETROSPECTIVE
SUMMER
BY G ARY T IS CHL ER
ISN’T OVER
American University Museum at th June 16 – August 12
The upcoming Ralph Steadman retrosp American University Museum will off into the beautiful, twisted mind of most acclaimed illustrators, cartoonist The exhibition will journey through prolific career, from the sketches he student in the 1950s to the present d will be works from Steadman’s co with gonzo journalist Hunter S. Tho illustrated literary classics, the inve he authored — such as “I Leonardo,” Am” and children’s books “No Room Cat” and “That’s My Dad” — plus ar his travels with Oddbins Wine Merch packaging for Flying Dog Brew
CHECK OUT
THE ARTS PREVIEW
ONLINE
The Alice Busch Opera Theater at the Glimmerglass Festival. Courtesy Glimmerglass.
E
ven with the presence of the open-air performance treasure house of Wolf Trap, and various summer offerings from Washington area theaters — the new musical “Dave” at Arena Stage, for instance — things have gotten a little quieter in Washington, at least on the music and theater front. For a change of pace, there’s still time to take in this year’s Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, in upstate New York, which runs through Aug. 25. The village is at the southern tip of eight-mile long Otsego Lake, which author James Fenimore Cooper called “Glimmerglass.” The Glimmerglass Festival, with Washington National Opera’s Francesca Zambello as director, has been presenting opera in this still bucolic setting since 1975. (Induction weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is July 27 to 30, by the way. The 2018 class is Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Allan Trammel, Jack Morris, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome.) Glimmerglass continues to grow and present a top-drawer combination of operas, often in conjunction with other companies, and a variety of other events (see below). “I believe the festival is a catalyst for great conversation,” Zambello said leading up to this year’s festival. “In 2017, we made a commitment to explore the themes of home and homeland and this will continue in this year’s festival with productions that spark discussions on relevant topics.” In this year in which the music world is celebrating the centenary of Leonard Bernstein, it’s no surprise that key portions of the festival involve the multi-talented composer-conductor. There are ongoing performances of “West Side Story,” the gang-war musical version of “Romeo and Juliet” that made its Broadway debut in 1958 with music by Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and astonishing, electric choreography by Jerome Robbins. You may have trouble finding tickets for “West Side Story,” directed by Zambello, which is reportedly sold out for most of its performances. An extra performance has been on Aug. 16. However, there’s no shortage of Bernstein at Glimmerglass, what with performances of “Trouble in Tahiti,” his one-act opera on the
American dream and suburban angst, running Aug. 7 to 20. Plus, there’s a concert of Bernstein music and a “Showtalk” conversation with his daughter Jamie on Aug. 4. Through Aug. 25, Zambello is also staging a fresh, Italian-language and very comedic version of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” with Glimmerglass Music Director Joseph Colaneri conducting and former Glimmerglass Young Artist Joshua Hopkins starring as Figaro. Hopkins was in the recent WNO production of “Figaro” as Count Almaviva. In a very different and more contemporary vein, through Aug. 23, Glimmerglass is presenting the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera “Silent Night” by Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell. The opera is based on the 2005 film “Joyeux Noël,” which concerned events on the Western front during World War I, when Scottish, French and German soldiers put down their weapons on Christmas Day and shared an impromptu and all-too-brief truce. Then there’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” by Leoš Janáček, making its Glimmerglass debut in a new English language translation (from Czech) by Kelley Rourke. “Vixen,” running through Aug. 25, is a woodland fable concerning a forester, played by Eric Owens, who finds a fox cub and takes her home with him. Heidi Stober is the vixen. “Odyssey,” with music by Ben Moore and a libretto by Kelley Rourke, a retelling of Homer’s epic with the Glimmerglass Youth Chorus and the Young Artists Program, runs from July 31 to Aug. 9. Other “Showtalk” events include “The Economics of Art,” on Aug. 18, with New York Times and New Yorker writer James B. Stewart and performances by Young Artists, and an Aug. 25 conversation by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson with Faith Gay on putting together a new opera. Single-performance highlights of the season include: “Gospel Concert: Comin’ for to Carry Me Home,” featuring festival artists, on Aug. 12; a performance of music from the Jewish diaspora by Big Galut(e) on Aug. 14; and “Beyond Liberty,” an exploration of the theme of freedom by baritone Thomas Hampson via the American songbook on Aug. 19.
ASmithsonian RT S Associates P RE VPresents IE W VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM
A Berkshires Cultural VISUALSampler ARTS
B Y A RI P O S T
Sun., July 29 –Thurs., August 2
RALPH STEADMAN:
A RETROSPECTIVE for a Join Richard Selden, the cultural editor of The Georgetowner Museum at theVisit Katzen splendid sampling of cultural attractionsAmerican in theUniversity Berkshire Hills. June 16 – August 12 Edith Wharton’s Lenox estate, attend aThe concert Music Mountain, upcoming at Ralph Steadman retrospective at the American University Museum will offer a glimpse explore Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, see a performance at the into the beautiful, twisted mind of one of our most acclaimed illustrators, and artists. Tony-Award winning Williamstown Theater, and muchcartoonists more, then on The exhibition will journey through Steadman’s prolific career, from the sketches he created as a the return trip visit Yale University Museum. student in the 1950s to the present day. On view
For more information call 202 633-3030 or SmithsonianAssociates.org willvisit be works from Steadman’s collaborations with gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, his illustrated literary classics, the inventive books he authored — such as “I Leonardo,” “The Big I Am” and children’s books “No Room to Swing a Cat” and “That’s My Dad” — plus artworks from his travels with Oddbins Wine Merchants and his packaging for Flying Dog Brewery.
“Ships in Distress o
WATER, W F
During the 17th c transport, commerc warships traversed navigated inland a economic and nava enjoyment. Drawn l exhibition will feat and ship models, ex
Smithsonian Associates Presents
A Berkshires Cultural Sampler Sun., July 29 –Thurs., August 2
Join Richard Selden, the cultural editor of The Georgetowner for a splendid sampling of cultural attractions in the Berkshire Hills. Visit Edith Wharton’s Lenox estate, attend a concert at Music Mountain, explore Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, see a performance at the Tony-Award winning Williamstown Theater, and much more, then on the return trip visit Yale University Museum. For more information call 202 633-3030 or visit SmithsonianAssociates.org
12
MAY 16, 2018
GMG, INC.
GMG, INC. 12
MAY 16, 2018
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
17
INCOUNTRY
THE SPORT, THE MAGIC OF
POLO B Y C O N S TA N C E C H AT FIEL D - TAYL OR
As a kid, horses were my life. They provided my income throughout high school and paid for college. Title IX was passed when I was a senior in high school, but until that time there were no sports available in public schools for women. None. I did what I knew, and that was ride: made up teams and competed against other schools, did United States Equestrian Team clinics, broke and sold horses, taught riding. But it was all left behind when I got married. Years later, there I was, in the middle of a divorce, two kids, no husband, horrible depression. “Give polo a try,” a friend said. “10 o’clock.” He gave me the address. “I don’t know,” I said.
I drove toward Potomac, Maryland, following directions, as a soft rain was falling. I found the barn. Someone pulled up. “It’s canceled,” they said. “Come back next week.” I sat in the car, windshield wipers going. I cried. It rained harder, the wipers slapping back and forth. I cried some more. But I went back the next week, apprehensive. Depressed. “This isn’t going to work,” I thought. There were three or four persons standing around, looking at each other. A few minutes later, a devastatingly attractive guy in a long Australian duster and cowboy hat swept through the misty morning into the middle aisle. “I’m Charlie,” he said. “Let’s go have some fun.”
FIDELIO
OLD GOOSE CREEK FARM
Prime Fauquier County location minutes from Middleburg • Unbelievable finishes throughout • Antique floors and mantels, vaulted ceilings • 6 bedrooms, 5 full, 2 half baths • 6 fireplaces, 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. Paul MacMahon (703) 609-1905
Pristine equestrian property in turnkey condition • Exceptional location • Stone home expanded to approx. 7,000 sf. includes 4 main level suites • Lovely gardens, pool, garage apartment & pond • Blackburn designed 6 stall stable w/70x210 indoor arena includes observation deck, tack room, 2 wash stalls & office • Additional 4 stall barn • Entire property is fenced and cross fenced on 26 acres & 8 paddocks Helen MacMahon (540) 454-1930
The Plains, Virginia • $9,500,000
WAVERLY
The Plains, Virginia • $2,950,000
Circa 1755, prime Fauquier County location, between Middleburg and The Plains • Additions in early 1800's & 1943 • Home recently restored • 62 gently rolling acres in Orange County Hunt • 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, 6 fireplaces • Improvements include salt water pool, pool house, large party house/studio, 2 tenant houses, stone walls and pond Paul MacMahon
(703) 609-1905
info@sheridanmacmahon.com www.sheridanmacmahon.com
18
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
Middleburg, Virginia • $4,500,000
GAME CREEK
Middleburg, Virginia • $2,985,000
A remarkable property located within a private enclave just minutes from town • Stone and stucco manor house with main level master suite • 7 additional bedrooms • 5 stone fireplaces • Beautiful gardens, terraces, salt water pool, cabana, carriage house & stable w 2 paddocks • Lovely finishes throughout & sweeping lawn to private trails to Goose Creek • 31 acres- Private, elegant & convenient. Helen MacMahon (540) 454-1930
(540) 687-5588
Great Meadow Twilight Polo in The Plains, Virginia. Photo by Chris Weber Studios. That first day, in the muddy arena, we were taught some basic rules: “line of the ball” (sacred, don’t ever cross), how to hold the mallet, how to hit, the positions (in the arena, 1 plays up, 3 plays back, 2 in the middle) and then, and then — how to “ride somebody off,” or “bump.” That pretty much did it for me. All those years of riding, of never, ever coming into contact with another rider or, God forbid, a horse. “Ride up next to me. This is the last thing we’re going to learn today. You have the ball,” Charlie said, tapping it in front of me. “Now, I’m playing defense, the ball’s up there. So
CREST HILL
Hume, Virginia • $3,600,000
203 acres in Fauquier w/nearly 1 mile of Rappahannock river frontage • Elegant stone & clapboard house • 5 BR, 4 full & 3 1/2 BA • 4 FP • Wood floors • Gourmet kitchen • Gunnite pool w/stunning views overlooking Blue Ridge Mtns and private pond • Situated amongst protected properties • 5 stall Jim Fletcher barn w/pristinely maintained paddocks, pasture and gdns • 2 car garage w/in-law suite • Old Dominion Hunt territory • VOF Easement Alix Coolidge (703) 625-1724
BELVEDERE
Middleburg, Virginia • $1,950,000
Gracious home with 5 BRs • Gourmet kitchen • Two story floor-to-ceiling window display of the Blue Ridge Mountains • 3 FPs, coffered ceilings, random width rustic cherry floors • Large home office, gym, rec room, multiple porches and patios • Three finished stories, approx. 10,000 sf. • Carriage house • Garage • 27 acres Helen MacMahon (540) 454-1930 Margaret Carroll (540) 454-0650
I’m going to place my horse’s shoulder against yours, slightly in front. I’m going to lean my horse against your horse. I’m going to lean against you. I’m going to ride you off and take the ball,” he said, as he did it at a walk. “Now, you and I are going to do that a bit faster,” Charlie said, dropping his head a bit and looking at me with an oh-so-sweet smile, “straight down the center line. I’m going to try to ride you off. You’re going to try to hold me off and keep the ball.” We galloped down the center line. Mud and stirrups flying, I lost my watch, was covered in mud and wet from the mist, sweaty through and through, riding as hard as I could and laughing,
MAYAPPLE FARM
Middleburg, Virginia • $3,400,000
“Mayapple Farm,” purist delight • 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
OLD FOX DEN FARM
The Plains, Virginia • $1,750,000
Restored 3 bedroom 1830’s farmhouse on 65 acres • Multiple porches & fireplaces, lots of charm • Lovely pool, shared pond, 4 stall barn, workshop • Expansive mountain views, rolling open pasture & fully fenced elevated land • Gorgeous setting in the protected valley between Middleburg and The Plains • Conservation easement permits 2 more homes to complete the compound Helen MacMahon (540) 454-1930
110 East Washington Street Middleburg, Virginia 20117
INCOUNTRY
WHERE TO ... McEwen Hardy. Photo by Mark Crislip.
watch
saddle up
VIRGINIA VENUES
FOR PLAYING AND LEARNING POLO
Great for families with activities for the kids and dance parties after the games: Banbury Cross Polo Club 23156 Carters Farm Lane, Middleburg Swinging the mallet in The Plains.
Great Meadow Twilight Polo 5089 Old Tavern Road, The Plains Constance Chattfield-Taylor. Photo by Douglas Lees.
Polo at the Park (Morven Park) 17195 Southern Planter Lane, Leesburg
MARYLAND VENUES trying to stay on my horse, pushing back as hard as I could. Wait … was that me? Laughing? And I’ve never looked back. Because I grew up riding, I didn’t have to learn that part. But I did have to learn the handeye, the swing, hitting it at just the right time at speed. There are lots of different shots: off side fore, off side back, near side fore, near side back (reaching over the horse’s neck and hitting front and back), neck shot, tail open, tail back. Communication — with your teammates, with your horse — is key, as are playing as good defense as offense and knowing the rules. Polo is, they say, “hockey on horses.” The rules are mostly about safety, as it is fast. There are varying degrees of play; a player is ranked from a minus-2 to a 10 goaler, minus-2 being a beginner. There are very few 10 goalers in the world, and they are a delight to watch. If you’re in a 4-goal game, the total handicap of the players adds up to four.
Over the years, it’s also been about the people, about the community. I travel a lot for business and was able to take clients out to “stick and ball” when in Dubai, which turned into drinks in the clubhouse with other players. One of my sons started playing at 16, and over the years we have played in Argentina, Chile, Spain and Costa Rica, and even had an offer of a game in Morocco. It’s something with which I’m comfortable, a “rotary club” of sorts, that enables me to connect with locals and see a country from a different viewpoint. Many times there will be an asado afterwards with the players and their families, usually steak cooked over a wood fire in the barn area, and a chance to share stories and watch the sun set. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I feel better after I play than before. In most cases, after playing, I am hot, sweaty and dirty. It’s the smells of the barn, the tack, the horses. It’s the beauty of a huge, wide open field in front of you
Congressional Polo Club 14660 Hughes Road, Poolesville Seneca Polo Club 20760 Whites Ferry Road, Poolesville
PACK YOUR BAGS
Summerhill Polo Charlie Muldoon Poolesville, Maryland Willow Run Polo German Noguera, manager-owner 540-454-3168 Germannoguera10@icloud.com Willowrunpolo.com The Plains, Virginia Mountain View Polo Owner-instructor, Laura Goddard Mountainviewpolo.com Charles Town, West Virginia
Fill your bag with goodies from our Summer Clearance 60% off select items 15% off Hickey Freem Made-to-Measure
Polo is, they say, “hockey on horses.”
Surrounding the Washington area, you will commonly see 4- and 8-goal games, and sometimes a 10-goal game, meaning there are some great players on the team. Very rarely you will see a 20-goal game. That is worth going out of your way to see. There is something about a good, fast game, no matter what the level. I think people find it in anything that takes full concentration physically and mentally, of any kind. It’s the kind of rush when you’re galloping and listening to your teammates and focusing on the ball — and when you hit it just right and follow it up and you’re still in the clear because you have that incredibly fast and handy horse. There is something about that feeling that lets you leave everything else behind, that puts a smile on your face, that feels right.
that seems endless. It’s the magic of working with a team. It’s the sounds of the hooves when someone is gaining on you from behind to steal your shot. It’s the thrill of asking for a bit more as you pull in front and get the shot off. And, if you’re lucky, and you keep your head down and hit it just right, sometimes the ball goes through the goal. It’s the people I’ve met in the last 20 years, the Chilean and Argentine culture and closeness, the guys that I believe would be there for me if I needed them to be. And, yes, there’s the fashion. At the end of a weekend, I have a pile of dirty white jeans. Sweaty, dirty white jeans. The larger the pile, the dirtier the jeans, the better the weekend. And that’s my fashion tip. Alterations done on premises 202-298-7464 | EVERARDSCLOTHING.COM 1802 WISCONSIN AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20007
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
19
HAUTE & COOL
L'AGENCE Brea Jacket $550 Barneys New York CAROLINE CONSTAS Peplum Top $395 Farfetch
Sailing Through
Summer
DRAPER JAMES Sailor Pants $175 Rent the Runway KENDRA SCOTT Emmet Earrings $95 Kendra Scott Stores BIENEN-DAVIS Leather Clutch $1,595 Intermix
BY AL LY S ON BURK H A R D T
GAP Block Heel Mules $79
Independence Day has passed, but we are still showcasing our red, white and blue. What better way to keep cool than in nauticalinspired clothing? It’s time to get on board the warm-weather trend … with a little French twist.
DAVID YURMAN Sapphire Necklace $800 Saks Fifth Avenue ---------------------
VIEW MORE ONLINE
Let the romance of the Riviera inspire you. You can be a boating beauty in Breton stripes, flared pants and gold button trimmings. Keep it fresh with graphic pieces and bold silhouettes. We are sailing through summer in a crisp, clean look that stands the test of time. Anchors Away!
GEORGETOWNER.COM
Allyson Burkhardt is founder of Let’s Get Dressed! Image & Style Services. Visit her on the web at letsgetdresseddc.com.
BODY & SOUL
GLAMSQUAD B Y S T EPH AN IE GR EEN Cosmetic services app Glamsquad has acquired its D.C. competitor, Veluxe. The merger will take effect this summer. Known as the Uber of the beauty industry, Glamsquad allows users to make appointments for beauty professionals to come to their homes and offices in just a few swipes. This type of service has taken off in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, where women on the go need a mini “glam squad” to ready them for special events. In 2017 alone, Glamsquad provided some 200,000 hair and makeup appointments nationwide. CEO Amy Shecter explained that, when her company moved into the D.C. market last year, she was impressed with the “high touch” services offered by local app Veluxe and by the “social community” cultivated by Veluxe’s founder, Susanna Quinn. The two companies are already working on combining their user bases and making the app transition easy for Veluxe’s clients. Quinn will remain an advisor and ambassador for Glamsquad. Just in time for the dog days, here are some summer beauty and hair trends from Glamsquad’s artistic directors, Giovanni Vaccaro and Kelli J. Bartlett. 20
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
Is on the Move The Wavy Pony
“As seen on celebs like Shay Mitchell and Hailee Steinfeld, this style is simple, chic and will only take you a few minutes.” “Create a middle part and brush your hair back into a low ponytail about an inch above the nape of the neck. Use pomade and a toothbrush to smooth out any flyaways or frizzy hair around the hairline.” “Once the hair is secure in the ponytail, create soft waves using a 1½-inch curling iron.” “To hide the elastic, take a small section of hair and wrap it around the elastic and then pin to secure.”
Glossy Skin and Lips
“Maximize your summer skin by adding a sheer, light-reflecting highlight to your cheekbones. I love using your favorite clear lip gloss, tapped onto the tops of cheekbones. While you have the gloss, mix a drop or two with your favorite red lipstick and press onto your lips to create a diaphanous color.”
CLASSIFIEDS / SERVICE DIRECTORY
TENNIS LESSONS www.thomaslandscapes.com H O M202.322.2322 A S |Lwww.thomaslandscapes.com A202.322.2322 N D S C| A P E $25 S for a private, 1-hour lesson in Foggy 202.322.2322 | www.thomaslandscapes.com
202.322.2322 | www.thomaslandscapes.com Design with Excellence
Bottom and Georgetown. Excellent with beginners, intermediate, and children. Mark 202-333-3484
Design with
SERVICE
LEASE/RENT
LESSONS
THOMAS LANDSCAPES THOMAS LANDSCAPES
NAIS’S CLEANING SERVICES
GEORGETOWN GEM 2018 COMPLETE RENOVATION
Studio, murphy bed, custom built-ins, furnished. Huge private outdoor patio. Hardwood & marble floors. 4 Blks from Dupont Metro. 24hr Concierge Building, $2100 includes utilities 202-957-4965.
House cleaning service. Experience reliable and professional with excellent references. We clean bi-weekly monthly or seasonal. Call Nais today to request a customized quote according to your needs. 703 992 3907
Derek Thomas / Principal - Certified Professional Horticulturist, Master Gardener
Member of the MD Nursery and Landscape Association & the Association of Professional Landscape Designers
Excellence
SEALED BID OFFERING NOW ACCEPTING BIDS!
Former CIA Director William J. Casey’s Long Island Compound For Sale — N.Y.
FOR RENT
$2,150/MONTH One year lease available 6/18 ICONIC Georgetown available June 1st/2018 1 BR/1BATH 900sq/ft. Perfect condition, W/D, walk-in closet, built in bookcases Easy to see call or text 202-386-1719
THOMAS LANDSCAPES 202.322.2322 www.thomaslandscapes.com THOMA S L A| N DSCAPES | www.thomaslandscapes.com T H O M A202.322.2322 S LAN DSCAPES FOR RENT-GARDEN COTTAGE Thomas / Principal - Certified Professional Horticulturist, Master Gardener The stunning 8.2-acre property known as ”Mayknoll” overlooks Hempstead Bay in Roslyn Harbor, NY in the iconic North Shores area of Long Island. This magnificent retreat encompasses an impeccably maintained manor house and three guest cottages with waterfront access and less than an hour from mid-town Manhattan.
GARDEN, LAWN, AND HANDYMAN SERVICE
Expertise include home repairs, hauling, painting, carpentry, and firewood for all your house hold needs. For a free estimate, call Robert at 240 477 2158 or 301 987 1277.
The property’s unique proximity to New York City via train or
FOR SALE
major commuter arteries is attractive to executives, professional organizations and embassies Thomas / Principal who want privacy andDesigners security. Potential to acquire the property’s furnishings in whole or in part 202.322.2322 | www.thomaslandscapes.com D Nursery and Derek Landscape Association & the Association of Professional Landscape and to subdivide is available.
Writer’s retreat/artist studio Warrenton virginia Fully equipped with patio Design Association Asking price has not been set and the property will be sold in a sealed bid format, with the Member of theof MD Nursery andLandscape Landscape & the Association of Professional Landscape Designers And private. $1,500 per month Member the MD Nursery and Association seller entertaining all viable offers from qualified bidders. Bids are now being accepted on the property and qualified buyers will be able to tour the property by appointment only. & the Association of Professional Landscape Designers One person/ one year lease Design with For more information email request to info@hollywoodres.com or call Call or text: 202 256-2787 1 (855) 811-3737 Summit Commercial Real Estate LLC in cooperation with Hollywood Real Estate Services L.L.C. and Helmsley Spear LLC. Design with Excellence judithtart49@gmail.com Certifed Professional Horticulturist, Master-Gardener Derek Thomas / Principal Certified
with
Excellence
Professional Horticulturist, Master Gardener
You may text James Connelly, of Summit Commercial Real Estate at 202-491-5300.
BLACK RANGE ROVER SPORT 2012 Great Condition 60K Miles Located In Georgetown For Price Call or Text 202-640-9135
Excellence THOMAS AND TALBOT REAL ESTATE Derek Thomas / Principal - Certified Professional Horticulturist, Master Gardener
ANDDesigners ESTATE AGENTS Member of the MD Nursery and Landscape Association & the Association of ProfessionalLAND Landscape Derek Thomas / Principal - Certified Professional Horticulturist, Master Gardener SINCE 1967
THE POWER OF LOCAL.
Member of the MD Nursery and Landscape Association & the Association of Professional Landscape Designers
ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION 2C MONTHLY MEETING
Derek Thomas / Principal - Certified Professional Horticulturist, Master Gardener
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018 AT 6:30 P.M.
Member of the MDThe Nursery and Landscape Association & the Association Georgetowner is mailed to all of Professional Landscape Designers
7,700 RESIDENTS & BUSINESS in Georgetown.
BUY THREE ADVERTISEMENTS, GET ONE FREE CALL TO LEARN MORE 202-338-4833
No. 2 South Madison Street Middleburg, Virginia 20118 (540) 687-6500
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Room G 9 Washington DC
THOMAS-TALBOT.com A Sales Record of Historic Proportion
A Cleaning Service Inc Since 1985
Residential & Commercial Insured, Bonded, Licenced - Serving DC, VA, MD
703.892.8648 - www.acleaningserviceinc.com
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
21
KITTY KELLEY BOOK CLUB
KITTY’S SUMMER BOOK PICK IS “BEAUTIFUL RUINS” BY JESS WALTER.
‘Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World’ R EVIEWE D BY KIT T Y K E LLE Y Eunice Kennedy Shriver — the subject of Eileen McNamara’s “Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World” — longed to be Daddy’s little girl. “You are advising everyone else in that house on their careers, so why not me?” she wrote to her father. Joseph P. Kennedy did not ignore his daughter, but he directed his fiercest attention to his sons, determined to invest his millions in making one of them the first Irish Catholic president of the U.S. He accomplished his life goal in 1961 with the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Still, “puny Eunie,” as her brothers called their gawky, skinny, sickly, big-toothed sister, refused to be ignored. With determination and persistence, she finally forced out her father’s admiration: “If that girl had been born with balls, she would have been a hell of a politician.” Some might dispute any such lack. Eunice Kennedy Shriver - who died in 2009 - barged into a man’s world and grabbed her rightful place alongside men, although she sometimes considered them to be her betters. In this fine biography, McNamara, a Pulitzer Prize winner who chairs the journalism program at Brandeis University, writes with grace, elegance and diplomacy, never making moral judgments on harsh facts. She describes, for example, how Eunice used her father’s vast connections and immense fortune to her best advantage. Eunice got admitted to Stanford University because Joe Kennedy asked his friend Herbert Hoover to make it possible. And, through her father, she landed a job in the Justice Department as a special assistant to U.S. Attorney General Tom C. Clark. “Joe Kennedy had secured Eunice’s job the same way he had engineered a U.S. House seat for Jack,” McNamara writes, “with good connections and cold cash.” During that time, Eunice and her brother Jack lived together in Georgetown, where they had an Irish cook and numerous friends, including
Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and Congressman Richard M. Nixon of California. In her unpaid position, she developed interest and expertise in juvenile delinquency and appealed to her father for help in setting up a scholarship program. Joe responded that the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, established to honor his firstborn, killed in World War II, “would be glad to defray any expenses … in Boston.” Perceptively, McNamara notes “the random nature and mixed motives of the Kennedy Foundation’s early philanthropy. Solving social problems did not preclude advancing his children’s careers.” Within a few years, Eunice commandeered the foundation and directed its resources into the field of mental retardation, perhaps in expiation for the plight of her sister Rosemary, the family’s special-needs child. (Most famously, in 1968, Eunice founded Special Olympics, now a global movement.) In 1941, having recognized Rosemary’s severe disabilities, Joe Kennedy decided his daughter should undergo the experimental psychosurgery of a prefrontal lobotomy. It went horribly wrong, rendering Rosemary unable to function on her own. Afraid that the stigma of mental retardation might affect the political ambitions he had for his sons, Kennedy sent Rosemary to be cared for by the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi at St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Her absence was not mentioned by her parents or her siblings for 30 years, until Eunice began “reintegrating her sister into the family that abandoned her.” Eunice, like her mother Rose, was a zealous Catholic who accepted all the tenets of her church, including the sanctity of marriage and the abomination of abortion. Yet, as McNamara recounts, she turned a blind eye to the marital infidelities of her father and her brothers. In 1980, when Gloria Swanson published an autobiography and revealed her long affair with
Summer Picks
‘THE SQUARE AND THE TOWER’
REV IE W ED BY PAT R I C K G . RYA N
R E VIEWED BY R OBERT D EVAN EY
“The Best of Richard Matheson” is a great collection of horror/scifi short stories from the author of the 1954 novel “I Am Legend.” Matheson wrote many “Twilight Zone” episodes, including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” which starred a young William Shatner. The original story is included here. A blurb on the back cover from Stephen King credits Matheson “as the author who influenced me most as a writer.”
In “The Square and the Tower, “with its subtitle, “Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook,” author Niall Ferguson takes the reader on an informative, fun ride, from the first years of the printing press to today, the time of the internet. Ferguson analyzes political and cultural relationships — whether formal hierarchies (“the Tower”) or loose networks (“the Square”). In the mix are Gutenberg, Pizarro and Luther, as well as British generals and spies, the Rothschilds, the Jesuits, Nixon, Davos man and Twitter.
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.
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.”
BO O K S E LE CTIO NS BY TH E GEORGETOWNER
‘THE BEST OF R I C H A R D M AT H E S O N ’
22
Joe Kennedy, who took the Hollywood actress on family vacations with his wife and children, Eunice took umbrage. She fired off a blistering letter to the editor of the Washington Post, which McNamara does not mention. Extolling her mother as “a saint” and her father as “a great man,” Shriver lambasted Swanson’s revelation as “warmed-over, 50 year old gossip that accuses the dead [my father] and insults the living [my mother] … The closeness [my father] shared with my mother and her obvious devotion to him inspired his children to revere the values of home and family as well as public service and dedication to others.” By that time, the sexual romping of the Kennedy men — father and sons — had become proven fact. The only marriage of Rose and Joe Kennedy’s nine children which still seemed intact was that of their fifth child, who adored the Blessed Virgin Mary and wanted to become a nun before she was persuaded, after a sevenyear courtship, to marry R. Sargent Shriver. That 1953 wedding was as grand as a coronation, with Francis Cardinal Spellman celebrating the nuptial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, assisted by three bishops, four monsignors and nine priests. The
32-year-old bride wore a white Christian Dior gown made in Paris. On the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria, 1,700 guests danced to a 15-piece orchestra. But the wedding might not have occurred without the intervention of Theodore Hesburgh, the charismatic young priest from the University of Notre Dame, who was prevailed upon by Joe Kennedy to persuade Eunice not to enter the convent, which Joe felt would be detrimental to JFK’s political career. Because of Father Hesburgh’s high esteem for Sargent Shriver, he agreed to be Joe Kennedy’s heat-seeking missile, summoning Eunice for “a frank and honest exchange.” He told her that her vocation was not the convent but to marry Shriver, have his children and continue the work she was doing with the mentally challenged. Hesburgh later told McNamara that the groom “was the best, the very best of the bunch. I knew her not as well as I knew him, but she was a great gal. There are a lot of Kennedys. They come in all shapes and sizes. But who did the work she did? Who cared for Rosemary as she did? It took a lot of strength, I will tell you that. The men tend to outrank the women in that family, but she had as much or more to offer as any of them
‘ J AW S ’ R EVIEWED BY STEPHANIE G REEN
‘THE BOY CRISIS: WHY OUR BOYS ARE S T R U G G L I N G A N D W H AT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT’ REVIEWED BY PEG G Y SANDS
Summer is the perfect time to catch up on those literary classics that never made it onto your high school or college syllabus. For me, that classic was “Jaws,” which I devoured after checking it out from my favorite Tenleytown Public Library last month. Peter Benchley’s terrifying storytelling has you hooked from the first few pages — and there’s a love affair that didn’t make the 1975 movie version. It’s a real page-turner, but maybe not the best beach read.
In “The Boy Crisis,” Warren Farrell and John Gray examine how boys in America are facing catastrophe: dropping out of school more, attending college less (40 percent of the total) and being raised without fathers (30 percent or more), male teachers and, increasingly, without loving paternal grandparents. The result: anger and despair leading to increasing violence, incarceration and suicide. Farrell and Gray urge two solutions: more male school teachers and “disputable assumption” divorce nationwide, requiring equal mom/dad coparenting.
GOOD WORKS & GOOD TIMES
Washington Opera Society Presents ‘Carmen’ at French Embassy BY MARY BIRD
Alex Lok and Hui Min Toh. Photo by Denisse Photography.
The sold-out June 23 production of “Carmen” featured five leading artists, all of whom have sung at the Met or other major opera houses alongside a full orchestra conducted by Maestro Julien Benichou, a children’s chorus and an adult chorus with a cast of some 70 singers and musicians. Premium subscribers enjoyed an elegant post-performance seated dinner. The Washington Opera Society produces some rarely produced works, abbreviated operas and operettas in intimate salon settings. WOS will soon offer scholarships to young singers at universities as it works with other non-profits to help raise money for the arts in the nation’s capital.
Joy Kingsley-Ibeh and Azam Mirza.
Capitol File’s Nautical Fete BY S T EP HANIE GRE E N PHO TOS B Y DA NIEL S C H WA RT Z Capitol File Magazine editor in chief Michael Clements hosted a waterfront soirée at Fiola Mare July 11 to salute its latest edition — and thank readers. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos graces the glossy mag’s “Billion Dollar District” issue, which focuses on the billionaires living in and influencing our city from Elon Musk to Laurene Powell. In posh style, guests, like President Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway, were treated to Washington Harbour dockside boat tours and al fresco cocktail bars.
D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton performs in Will on the Hill 2018. Photo by Kevin Allen.
Youth Is Never Wasted on the Young
Former Rep. Jeff Miller, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., former Rep. Jim Moran, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., backstage preparing for Will on the Hill. Photo by Kevin Allen.
BY C H R ISTIN E WAR N KE
The annual Will on the Hill event held at the Harman Shakespeare Theatre June 12 embodied Shakespeare’s quote that we all have some salt of our youth in ourselves. Young, energetic performers who kicked off the show brought the house down by their acting agility followed by devoted group of Members of Congress and other Washington luminaries who perform every year for the theater’s educational foundation fundraising effort.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Bob Cusack, editor in chief of the Hill Newspaper, on stage. Photo by Kevin Allen.
Kellyanne Conway, Ray Bialek and Thy Parra.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS & EVENTS ONLINE AT GEORGETOWNER.COM HAPPENING NOW:
Tyler Gordy and Zarah Burstein.
GMG, INC.
JULY 25, 2018
23
202.944.5000
WFP.COM
BETHESDA, MARYLAND One of the most beautiful homes you will ever see! The finest finishes. Park-like estate setting w/private pool/spa surrounded by acres of parkland. Ideally located near I-495, C&O Canal. Whitman. $7,500,000 Anne Killeen 301-706-0067
GREAT FALLS, VIRGINIA Unparalleled gated estate on five private acres. Pool, gorgeous gardens & patio. Master Suite w/ 2 walkins, spa like bath. LL rec room w/ BR & FBA. $5,900,000 Penny Yerks Piper Yerks 703-760-0744
OLD TOWN, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA Historically significant detached brick residence. Recently renovated & on two lots with 6BR, 4.5BA, 2+ car parking and beautiful gardens. $4,495,000 Eileen McGrath 202-253-2226 Mark McFadden 703-216-1333
FOXHALL, WASHINGTON, DC NEW LISTING! Be the first to live in this incredible Mediterranean villa on private lot bordering parkland. No detail overlooked. 5BR/4.55BA. $3,995,000 Robert Hryniewicki Christopher R. Leary 202-243-1620
GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON, DC 5BR, 6.5BA, ample parking, private garden and pool! Entry level with high ceilings & skylights, LR, FR & large kitchen leading to deck overlooking garden. LL rec room and in-law suite. $3,800,000 Jamie Peva 202-258-5050
WORMLEYROW,GEORGETOWN,WASHINGTON,DC Premiere luxury condo. Dramatic 11+ foot ceilings, large eat-in gourmet kitchen, dramatic extra-large windows. Gas fireplace in open living room/dining room. 2 garage parking spaces. $3,200,000 Mark McFadden 703-216-1333
MCLEAN, VIRGINIA Cutting edge, contemporary home by AV Architects + Builders. 8,200+SF of lux living. Dramatic foyer. European style cabinets kit, outdoor covered patio w/FP. $2,999,000 Penny Yerks Piper Yerks 703-760-0744
MASS AVE HEIGHTS, WASHINGTON, DC Stately Georgian w/ 3 floors of renov. living space + great room addition. 5 BRs, 3 w/ en-suite BA. Generous public space for entertaining. Sought after location near Woodland Drive. $2,775,000 Jim Kaull 202-368-0010
GREAT FALLS, VIRGINIA Majestic home on 1.7 private ac w/ circular driveway, tennis court, outdoor kitchen, fireplaces, pool & landscaped gardens. +/- 10,000SF of living space. $2,750,000 Penny Yerks Piper Yerks 703-760-0744
OAKTON, VIRGINIA A masterpiece of architectural design, this gated estate provides a serene retreat just moments from Reston Town Center & Tysons. Meticulously curated grounds & sumptuous interiors. $2,399,000 Jason Mandel 202-498-0208
GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON, DC Beautiful TH in East Village offers 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. Spacious living areas, kitchen leads out to the large private patio. Family room on upper level is perfect for entertaining/relaxing. $2,349,000 Nancy Taylor Bubes 202-386-7813
WESLEY HEIGHTS, WASHINGTON, DC 2 bedroom + den, 2.5 bath aptartment with wrap around terrace at tree top level, renov. full service lux bldg, indoor pool, tennis, gym, 2 car prkg. $1,669,900 Eileen McGrath 202-253-2226 Kay McGrath 202-276-1235
MCLEAN, VIRGINIA An entertainer’s paradise! Gorgeous 3BR+ bonus room/3FB/2HB Contemporary on a 15,000 SF lot. In-ground pool, sundeck, screened porch. Updated gourmet kitchen + bright, open living spaces. $1,225,000 Susan Koehler 703-967-6789
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA Stunning Mid-Century Modern Goodman home w/ 3BR, 2.5BA. Pedini kit features Miele & Subzero appliances. Private master suite. Spacious family room w/ original flagstone floors & expansive deck. $1,050,000 Lenore G Rubino 202-262-1261
GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON, DC Sunny and cheerful 1,400 SF 2BR/2BA awash in sunlight. Tree top and garden views on quiet side with high ceilings, hardwood floors. Sunroom, washer/ dryer, and generous entry hall. $849,000 Eileen McGrath 202-253-2226
HUME, VIRGINIA Wind Whistle. Lovely 3BR brick house on 20 open & fenced acres in Old Dominion Hunt. Living room with fireplace & book shelves, hardwood floors though out. Good flow. Terrific views. In land use. $625,000 Kevin Keane 540-454-0905
THE PREMIER BROKERAGE FIRM REPRESENTING THE CAPITAL REGION
24
JULY 25, 2018
GMG, INC.