Falls Church News-Press 12-3-09

December 3 - 9, 2009

FALLS CHURCH, VI R G I N I A • W W W. F C N P . C O M • FREE

FOUNDED 1991 • VO L . XIX N O . 40

FALLS CHURCH • TYSONS CORNER • MERRIFIELD • MCLEAN • NORTH ARLINGTON • BAILEY’S CROSSROADS

INSIDE THIS WEEK F.C. P����� I���������� S����� �� A��� T�����

The Falls Church Police Department is investigating a series of larcenies from vehicles and three stolen vehicles which have occurred throughout the City over the past few weeks. One arrest has been made, but more arrests are expected.

SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 7

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Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields and his wife Patty Shields are in Bogota, Columbia this week in the process of adopting two elementary school-aged children from an orphanage there.

SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 7

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President Obama insists that his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 more troops is not Vietnam all over again.

SEE PAGE 12

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George Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham, a “termination facilitator.” He fires people for a living. Directed by Jason Reitman who also brought you “Juno” and “Thank You for Smoking.”

SEE PAGE 26

‘The Little City’ Unveiled as New ‘Brand Name’ for Falls Church Smith-Gifford Reveals Result To Task Force

BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

In a stunning roll-out to the assembly of citizen task force at their offices on W. Jefferson St. last night, principles of the SmithGifford marketing firm presented the conclusion of their monthslong study and development efforts at a defining brand for the City of Falls Church.

“The Little City” was unveiled as the simple but powerful result.

A glowing Mayor Robin Gardner told the News-Press last night that the slogan and the logo accompanying it “is exciting. It

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

INDEX

Restaurant Spotlight ............................30 Comics, Sodoku & Crossword ..........33 Classified Ads .....34 Business & Services Directory .............35 Critter Corner......36 Business Listing .37 City Focus .....38-39

Continued on Page 4

THE LOGO REPRESENTING the City of Falls Church’s new brand, “The Little City,” as created by F.C.-marketing firm SmithGifford. The brand and logo were unveiled last night at a meeting of a citizen task force. (LOGO GRAPHIC: COURTESY SMITH-GIFFORD)

The Long, Somber March to F.C.’s Next Budget Underway

BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

Editorial.................2 Letters...............2, 6 Community News & Notes .............10-11 Comment .......12-15 Business News & Notes ..................16 Sports ............18-20 Calendar ........24-25 Roger Ebert ...26-28

captures the essence of the City of Falls Church. It is a tie that binds the City, its residents, its legacy, its innovation and creativity and its appeal to the surrounding region.”

The mayor was one of a small, select group of City leaders given an advance preview prior to last night’s meeting, and City resident Matt Smith of Smith-Gifford told the News-Press that he was heartened by her enthusiasm for the result of the work.

“The City of Falls Church is a small place on purpose,” SmithGifford’s Amanda Hurt said in her power-point presentation. “We are enthusiastically small. We are a small town oasis in the midst of a big city, and are happy to be that way. We’re a mere 2.2 square miles, but we are not trivial.”

She added, “We have the mindset of a big city – the thinking, culture, food, schools – without

The Falls Church City Council and School Board began a long, somber march toward the April adoption of the Fiscal Year 2011 Falls Church city budget with a joint work session at the Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School’s cafetorium Monday night.

The meeting marked the earliest starting point for an annual budget deliberation in Falls Church in the 50-plus year history of the City, and for good reason. The $7.5 million deficit, amounting to 11 percent of the $66.9 million size

of current anticipated costs, even with hiring and wage freezes for both City and school employees, means that some combination of hefty tax rate increases and service, including employee, cuts is inevitable.

Perhaps the worst news that came out of Monday’s meeting was the prognosis by Falls Church’s Chief Financial Officer John Touhy that the deficit could easily be $3 million higher than the $7.5 million currently projected. That’s because the City does not yet know how deep cuts in federal and state contributions to its budget will be, how much

health insurance and energy rates may go up, or how great the City’s obligation to state pension and retirement funds will be.

In addition, the City is counting on its annual $2.4 million “return on investment” transfer from its water system, but it does not yet know the outcome of a lawsuit against it from the Fairfax Water Authority challenging that practice.

The gloomy picture was exacerbated by Tuohy’s pronouncement that the following fiscal year’s budget “will not get any easier,” and that, assuming the beginnings of an economic recovery in 2010,

it will take five to seven years for it to be complete.

It was little comfort, but important to underscore, that Monday’s presentation included data showing surrounding jurisdictions and the state and nation, as a whole, facing similar grim prospects. The state faces a $1.5 billion deficit

by FY2012. Over 14 percent of U.S. mortgages are currently in arrears, and its getting even worse in the commercial real estate sector. Nationwide commercial rents are down 17 percent, Tuohy noted, and 50 percent in Manhattan. It’s so bad, he quipped, that Target has opened a store on Fifth Avenue.

Indeed, it is the collapse in the assessed value of commercial real estate in Falls Church that is the single greatest cause for the revenue shortfall in the projected budget. Assessments on the Continued on Page 5

Page 2

December 3 - 9, 2009

EDITORIAL

‘The Little City:’ Perfect!

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‘The Little City’ is spot on. Kudos to Falls Church’s own SmithGifford marketing firm for accepting the task, involving the entire community, and delivering on a first-rate “brand” for the mighty City of Falls Church, announced last night to the citizen task force assembled to review and assist in the months-long effort.

As Mayor Robin Gardner told the News-Press yesterday, sometimes what seems the most obvious and simple thing needs to be identified with a three-word phrase like ‘The Little City’ to create an ‘Aha!’ moment.

It’s a moment of realization that this well-thought out and crafted phrase is exactly the right, tight and succinct description of everything Falls Church represents to its citizens, to its business community, and to the wider world the City is hoping to better engage.

This is exactly what marketing firms get paid the big bucks to do.

In our consumer-oriented economy, we take so many slogans and logos for granted that we seldom think about the effort that goes into devising them. But any fan of the award-winning TV series, ‘Mad Men,’ knows, an awful lot goes into producing what may seem to most as a very simple turn of a phrase or stylish logo.

We are grateful to the City of Falls Church and its Economic Development Authority for deciding to put this task into the hands of true professionals, and we feel what was unveiled last night is proof of the value of the move. It’s something we’ve editorialized in favor of for years in this space, often to the chagrin of many at City Hall who were slow to pick up on the idea but something which has now born fruit.

Of course, it now remains to make this campaign work, to go out and sell the City to prospective new economic development opportunities so sorely needed in the current recession.

For example, there are three major corporations who have relocated their headquarters from sunny Southern California to the nearby Tysons Corner and greater Falls Church areas of Northern Virginia in the last year: Hilton Hotels, SAIC and the Computer Services Corporation.

So, someone in Falls Church needs to step up to the unsavory task of flying out to suffer some Southern California sunshine in order to approach the many smaller, feeder companies that sprung up to provide special services to these corporate giants. Those smaller feeder companies are exactly the size and style to fit into ‘The Little City.’

What we like about ‘The Little City’ as Falls Church’s new brand is the depth of meaning in each of the three words. ‘The’ is not ‘A.’ It claims ownership over everyone else: as in the way so many in Falls Church consider their community like no other. ‘Little’ is, well, reality, and something considered a plus by many living here. Finally, ‘City’ is exactly what Falls Church is, technically as well as in spirit. It is not a ‘village’ or ‘town,’ but increasingly cosmopolitan, up-to-date and forward-looking. Perfect! .

Letters to the Editor

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Editor,

Yes, it certainly was a keenly strategic “outflanking” maneuver by Mayor Gardner, refuting the claims of the “known activists” arguing for deliberation and reflection in the matter of the proposed move of the council election date from May to November.

If it hadn’t been utterly laughable, that is.

It’s not clear to me which is

worse: Mayor Gardner’s basic understanding of statistics, sampling, and common sense, or the News-Press’ uncritical reporting of her paper-thin rationale.

Even the News-Press takes care to point out that their weekly on-line polls are far from rigorously scientific; the respondents to the polls are self-selected and no demographic data is collected to ensure that any sort of valid

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www.FCNP.com cross-section of the City’s population is captured. But now comes Gardner, who offers as evidence in a debate on such a serious matter as the move of elections in the face of near unanimous opposition from physical, fleshand-blood citizens who have taken the time to attend a council meeting, that her extensive research shows near unanimous support in the other direction.

From whom, we wonder? Why, her Facebook friends! Yes, Mayor Gardner evidently set up a poll on her Facebook page, and among those who have “friended” her on Facebook, it seems that the vast majority agree with her!

This kind of willful blindness reminds me of the (possibly apoc-

ONLINE

ryphal) story about New York film critic Pauline Kael, whose reaction to Nixon’s 1972 landslide victory over McGovern was, “That’s impossible – none of my friends voted for Nixon!” Mayor Gardner takes the Kael blindness to a new level; not only does she survey her Facebook friends, and not only does she hearken to their opinion in preference to actual live voters standing in front of her, but she fails utterly to understand the lack any validity associated with such a survey.

Unless, of course, the mayor wishes to admit that her public policy is guided not by the good More Letters on Page 6

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 3

D L O

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Page 4

December 3 - 9, 2009

Falls Church Gets a Brand: It’s Now ‘The Little City’ Continued from Page 1

the crowding. It’s all the benefits of a big city, without the drawbacks. We have a metro, a performance venue, our own policy department and government, access to major highways, malls, and we are only a few minutes to downtown D.C., but we have minimal crime, noise, congestion and most of the other drawbacks that come with being a city. We’re an impressive 2.2 square miles.”

There are a lot of other cities that have the word, “city,” in their brand, including the Emerald City, the City of Lights, the Twin Cities, the Windy City and many others, she noted.

Now, Falls Church has stepped up to claim rights to being, “The Little City.”

The slogan captures, she said, the nuances of the city’s per-

sonality, which encompasses the features of being “convenient, neighborly, involved, vibrant, with lots going on, with small town values, down-to-earth, quirky, creative, human, warm, educated, fun, inclusive, welcoming, friendly and community-oriented.”

The branding project was initiated by the City of Falls Church’s economic development office and its Economic Development Authority for the purpose of “attracting more of the right kinds of businesses” to the city by “articulating an identity and personality that is appealing, and attracts non-residents to visit, while being a notion that residents will embrace.”

The power-point presentation last night included samples of the new brand, inclusive of the slogan and logo, in a variety of contexts, on business cards, let-

terhead, promotional materials (such as “Little City. Big Plan” and “Little City, Big Taste”), on the local bus system (“The Little City Bus”), and t-shirts.

As far as implementation was concerned, Smith and Hurt said it should involve “creating a sense of place with consistent signage, event banners, and welcome and thank you entrance and exit signage at the city’s borders.”

A marketing campaign could include the distribution of coupons to surrounding neighborhoods and ads in the News-Press with the listing of events.

Recruitment of new businesses could be better achieved with the new brand by communicating the personality of the city through business cards, letterhead, pamphlets and a consistent look and feel among all city publications and web site designs, they said.

What do you think of Falls Church’s new brand, ‘The Little City?’

• Love it

• Like it

• Hate it

• Whatever

Vote on-line at www.FCNP.com Last Week’s Question: If the F.C. Council moves the municipal election month, when should the change take effect?

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

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 5

$7.5 Million F.C. Shortfall Could Go Much Higher Continued from Page 1

City’s 519 commercial properties are down an average of 18 to 20 percent, a level of decline matched by nine multi-family apartment complexes.

The fact that 2,384 single family detached homes in the City are projected to decline in value by only three percent has prevented an even further revenue gap, though the value of residential condominiums is projected to drop by 12 percent.

The assessed value of new construction has ground to a complete halt for commercial properties after Assistant City Manager Cindy Mester told the Council and School Board members that alternative scenarios that are in play in the coming budget represent the parameters of the

options, ranging from increases in real estate tax rates from zero to 25 cents (with one cent equaling $300,000 in the budget). Expenditure cuts could range from $7.5 million (based on current projections) if no tax rate increase is added, to $226,018 in cuts if the tax rate is increased from its present $1.07 to $1.32.

The choices will clearly fall somewhere in between those two extremes.

Concerns raised at Monday’s meeting centered on whether cuts in the transfer to the School Fund will be based on a strict percentage, or will be based on some formula devised by the schools to deal with issues of, for example, expected enrollment growth.

School Board Chair Ron Peppe said he hoped there could

be “threshold funding” for the schools based on an “annual floor of funding based on per pupil costs, instead of “revenue sharing.”

Another issue pertained to the integration of the capital improvements (CIP) budget into the deliberations on the general fund budget. Council member Nader Baroukh argued that waiting until the operating budget is adopted before considering the CIP would skew chances at the best possible array of expenditures, and the Council agreed to integrate CIP discussions into an exhaustive schedule of hearings and work sessions slated for the next five months.

The schedule released Monday was two full pages of single space, highlighted by the dates of the Superintendent’s recommended budget presenta-

tion to the School Board (Jan. 12, 2010), the report on final real estate assessments (midFebruary), the City Manager’s recommended budget to the City Council (Mar. 8), the School Board’s budget adoption (Mar. 16), and the City Council’s final budget adoption (Apr. 26). In additon to a plethora of public hearings, work sessions and business meetings, two town hall meetings at the Community Center are included for Mar. 27 and Apr. 3.

Next week, on Dec. 9, City Manager Wyatt Shields will deliver budget guidance to department heads in the City government.

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December 3 - 9, 2009

Continued from Page 2

of the city, but solely by the opinion of her close friends. In that case, she’s on precisely the right track.

Rick Munoz Falls Church

Don’t Expose City Elections to Partisan One Editor, I write to express my strong concern regarding the City Council’s preemptive and ill considered vote to move the elections for City Council from May to November. The move has been characterized as an effort to ensure stronger voter turnout and presumably a more engaged and focused electorate in what is, we all agree, a most important election.

This rationale, while seemingly benign, puts the election of the City Council squarely in the season of partisan politics.

November’s elections are traditionally party-bound and while we note the Council’s language which seeks to disabuse residents of partisan motivation, a reasonable reading of this suggested move, and the haste in which the City

Council seeks to make that move, as a badly disguised rush to ensure that strong party lines are drawn and observed.

The timing of this suggested move and the enthusiasm of a portion of City Council members to remove this decision from the voters is troublesome. A decision of this importance should be put before the voters of Falls Church and, should a majority approve the move to November, the democratic process has worked as intended. May elections assure that Council Members will be held directly accountable for the decisions they make in April on the budget for the City and the Schools. A change to November elections will reduce accountability on important issues such as school funding.

I note that the informal poll reflected in the News-Press recently indicated 77% of respondents opposed the move to November.

If the City Council believes this move is in the best interests of this City and its residents (a notion which should daily inform the actions of City Council members), then allow the citizens to make this choice.

If the motivation behind this move is to draw partisan lines in what has been heretofore a nonpartisan process, then the issues on which we should be focused as a community are done a disservice.

Put Falls Church Citizens and their Charter first.

Johannah E. Barry Falls Church

An International Christmas

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A Classic Brass Christmas

Chorus w/guests The Classical Brass Quintet Saturday, Dec. 12th 7pm Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2701 Cameron Mills Rd., Alexandria and Sunday, Dec.13th, 7 pm Falls Church Presbyterian, 225 E. Broad St., Falls Church Tickets/info: www.choralis.org or 703 237-2499 Advance purchase recommended.

N-P Editorial ‘Brave,’ Backing Date Change

Says Catholics ‘Within Rights’ Vs. Gay Rights

Editor,

Editor, The column in the News-Press last week by Wayne Besen entitled “The Pope Problem” invites a response. Mr. Besen opposes Christians who developed the “Manhattan Declaration” which he interprets as discrimination against the “GLBT” community.

Mr. Besen invokes inflammatory language against these Christians in support of his opinion such as “implacable foe of …basic rights;” “This rambling manifesto;” “totalitarian religious activists and radical clerics;” “historical revisionism that promoted theocracy, encouraged anarchy;” and “An extreme manifesto.” Then, after being warmed up, he launched into an antiCatholic diatribe which leads to only one conclusion – Mr. Besen is an anti-Catholic bigot.

The great Americans who developed the Constitution and

The Falls Church News-Press’ editorial last week was brave to support the City Council election date change.

Voter turnout statistics, comparing May to November, cannot be refuted. However, another compelling statistic is missing from your coverage and the public debate: cost.

Elections are not free. While City registrar and voting machines are already paid for, the election judges, printed materials, vehicle fuel to get supplies, personnel to voting stations and everything else is not.

The wise move in these budget-constrained times is for the City of Falls Church to merge local elections into the fall schedule for the joint state/federal elections.

Donald E. White Falls Church

wrote the Federalist Papers to explain it, did their work based on the principles the founders espoused when they prepared the Declaration of Independence to separate from England. In the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence the founders appealed to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” If my memory serves me correctly, there was one Catholic among the many who pledged their lives and fortunes when they signed the Declaration. All of the others were Christians of other denominations and some Deists including Thomas Jefferson, the principal author. “Natural Law” is not “implacable,” “totalitarian,” or “an extreme manifesto.”

Sexual activity among same sex individuals is against the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Therefore, Christians and others who oppose changing laws to provide special rights or privileges for unnatural activity are well within their rights. Mr. Besen is wrong.

Richard C. LaVelle Falls Church

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 7

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F.C. City Manager, Wife Adopt 2 Columbian Children Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields and his wife Patty Shields are in Bogota, Columbia this week in the process of adopting two elementary school-aged children from an orphanage there. The children are named Carlos and Leidy. Mr. Shields is due back in Falls Church on Monday. Ms. Shields and the children are due back to their Falls Church home later in the month.

Apparent Suicide in F.C. Last Week A 38-year-old adult male is dead from an apparent suicide last week on West Cameron Road in the City of Falls Church officials confirmed to the News-Press this week. On Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 10:52 p.m., City of Falls Church police officers responded to the 200 block of W. Cameron Rd. after a report of a possible suicide. Upon arrival, officers discovered a male suffering from a single gunshot wound, who was declared deceased. The official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner. While City officials have not released the identity, the News-Press has confirmed that the deceased is Jeremy Persinger, 38, of Falls Church.

F.C. Police Investigate Series of Auto Thefts in City The Falls Church Police Department is investigating a series of larcenies from vehicles and three stolen vehicles which have occurred throughout the City over the past few weeks. One arrest has been made, but more arrests are expected. Similar crimes have been committed even after the initial arrest, and the Police investigation continues. Last month, there were 30 reported incidents in the City in which vehicles have been entered and items stolen from the interior. All of the vehicles in these cases had been unlocked. In the stolen car cases, keys were left inside each time. The vehicles victimized have been generally clustered around East and West Falls Church Metro Station neighborhoods.

F.C. Library Wins National Award For the second year in a row, the Mary Riley Styles Public Library in the City of Falls Church has been named one of the best public libraries in the U.S. by the Library Journal.

The F.C. library is one of only 258 top libraries out of 7,268 public libraries in the country to receive “star” ratings in a rating system similar to that used in the Michelin Guide. Once again, the Mary Riley Styles Public Library received a three-star rating; one of only three libraries in Virginia to receive stars, and one of only two in Virginia and 202 nationally to have won the award two years in a row.

Frady Reception Set Dec. 14 at City Hall A reception honoring Edna Frady as she moves out of the City of Falls Church to new digs at the Goodwyn House in Bailey’s Crossroads will be held Monday, Dec. 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Training Center at the F.C. City Hall.

FCNP Holiday Party Set Dec. 21 at New ArtSpace The 20th annual Falls Church News-Press Holiday Party is moving to the new ArtsSpace of Falls Church, 410 S. Maple St., this month. The party will be held Monday, Dec. 21, from 5:30 – 8 p.m.

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December 3 - 9, 2009

50 YEARS OF CBC: 2ND OF A 3-PART SERIES

Opposition to CBC & the Rise of FCCO Citizens for a Better City has been at the center of local political life in Falls Church for a half century. This article, second of three, is excerpted from a history of the organization prepared for CBC’s 50th anniversary celebration. It is based on an earlier CBC history by the late Wayne Dexter, updated by Betty Blystone.

Unable to win at the polls as the 1950s decade closed, CBC’s opposition – led by development interests – resorted to the courts.

After a hard fought campaign, voters approved a referendum in 1960 on a $1.2 million bond issue to enlarge George Mason High School, modernize Madison Elementary and improve storm drains and streets.

Alleging irregularities, the Falls Church Taxpayers League asked the Fairfax County Circuit Court to invalidate the result.

The court found the bond issue legal, a decision affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

Issues involving business development and zoning moved to the forefront. By the end of the decade, these focused on the proposed development of the First Virginia Bank property at the intersection of Broad and Washington streets, opposite Brown’s Hardware.

The bank proposed to construct an office building that exceeded the city’s seven story height limit. Many residents feared this project would open Falls Church to high rise development similar to that of Rosslyn. Others saw the bank’s proposal as key to the long-sought creation of a central business district. They were willing to raise the height limit to achieve this goal. The controversy divided CBC as well as citizens generally.

Following protracted nego-

I

high rise buildings just outside the city, in the Seven Corners area.

CBC Loses Council Majority In the 1969 council campaign, a major effort by real estate interests and dissension within CBC over the bank issue resulted in CBC’s loss of a council majority.

An immediate after effect was another zoning issue, as divisive as the strip zoning of Broad Street in the 1950s and the First

n 1988, CBC faced opposition for the first time from a new party, the Falls Church Citizens Organization.

tiations, the bank proposed a building within the height limitation, which was approved by the planning commission. Later, however, the bank withdrew its proposal. The bank gave no public explanation, but it may have been responding to a recently enacted state law that would have limited branch operations in Arlington and Fairfax counties had the bank remained headquartered in the city.

The bank later constructed two

Virginia Bank’s proposal.

The council adopted a Planned Unit Development ordinance which was supported by CBC members as a useful device for planning and development of the commercial areas of the city. The PUD ordinance did not control density; this was to be done by assigning Land Use Intensity ratings (LUIs) to various areas.

The night it was passed, after most of the audience had gone home, without public notice

or hearing, the council majority adopted a resolution which assigned interim LUIs for most of the city, residential as well as business. The effect would have been to open certain areas to highly intensive development.

For example, maximum ratings were assigned to Tyler Gardens (now Winter Hill) and the tract now occupied by the Oakwood Apartments.

Public outrage forced the council to modify these actions and was largely responsible for CBC regaining its council majority in the 1974 election. Political strife then eased markedly. In the four elections from 1980 through 1986 council candidates supported by CBC were uncontested.

The party continued to function. Membership drives were conducted, funds solicited, literature prepared and distributed, and the campaign organization maintained. CBC nominees campaigned actively, helping inform citizens of the organization’s principles, activities and goals.

Interest in local politics revived dramatically after the 1986 election. In 1988, CBC faced opposition for the first time from a new party, the Falls Church Citizens Organization (FCCO.) Preceding its organization, several issues of an anonymously written broadside entitled “Blur� were distributed. It attacked not only CBC council persons but also the schools and the city’s professional staff. This disturbing development violated the city’s tradition of open political debate.

The new party campaigned vigorously, charging that CBC policies had resulted in “runaway taxes.� The three candidates supported by CBC were defeated, but four elected in 1986 remained in office. In the next two years,

political debate was warm and often rancorous. CBC won all four of the contested seats in 1990 and all three in 1992.

The 1998 election resulted in the loss of a CBC-supported council majority for the second time in the organization’s history: the new council consisted of four FCCO representatives and three CBC representatives and the mayor and vice mayor were from FCCO. For the next two years, FCCO initiatives prevailed. However, the base of the FCCO organization was growing smaller and in 2000 three CBC candidates defeated three FCCO/Independent candidates.

FCCO as an organization died out, and in subsequent elections opposition candidates ran as independents. In 2006, four CBC candidates faced no opposition, but in 2008, three CBC candidates faced opposition from four independents, one of whom was elected. CBC candidates for School Board have faced opposition from FCCO or independent candidates only three times since 1994.

For twelve years, from 1991 to 2003, City residents could find weekly columns in the Falls Church News-Press, in the PointCounter Point column, written by representatives of each nonpartisan party, CBC and FCCO. The contrast between CBC and FCCO columns could often be noted. In March 1991, for example, the first CBC column focused on outreach to business, while the FCCO column topic was sustaining the village atmosphere.

Phased out in February 2003, the columns had provoked interest and provided visibility for both parties. ď ľ Next week: Changing views on development.

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For Week of November 24 - 30, 2009 Larceny from Vehicle, 100 blk.

Tollgate Way, between November 23, 9:36 a.m. and November 24, 7:36 a.m., unknown person(s) entered and ransacked two unsecured vehicles parked in a driveway, stealing men socks, men boxers, and $1.00 in change.

Destruction of Property, 800 blk.

Ridge Pl., between November 23, 7:00 p.m. and November 24, 8:24 a.m., unknown person(s) entered and ransacked an unsecured vehicle, damaging a DVD player.

Tampering with Auto, 800 blk. Ridge Pl., between November 23, 6:30 p.m. and November 24, 8:41 a.m., unknown person(s) unknown person(s) entered and ransacked a vehicle.

Larceny from Vehicle, 100 blk. Rolling Trace, between November 23, 8:00 p.m. and November 24, 9:05 a.m., unknown person(s) entered and ransacked an unsecured vehicle, stealing $5.00 in change.

Larceny from Vehicle, 100 blk. Tollgate Way, November 24, between 4:00 a.m. and 6:15 a.m., unknown person(s) entered and ransacked an unsecured vehicle, stealing a Garmin GPS and $4.00 in change.

Larceny from Vehicle, 100 blk.

N Fairfax St., between November 23, 7:00 p.m. and November 25, 9:00 a.m., unknown person(s) entered an unsecured vehicle and stole $5.00 in change.

Drunkenness, 800 blk. W Broad St., November 25, 4:33 p.m., police arrested a male, 27, of NO FIXED ADDRESS, for DIP. Larceny from Vehicle, 1000 blk.

Hillwood Ave., between November 23, 11:00 p.m., and November 24, 8:00 a.m., unknown person(s) entered an unsecured vehicle and stole a credit card. Incident to the case, the card was used numerous times to make unauthorized transactions.

Drunkenness, 300 blk. Shadow Walk, November 28, 2:53 a.m., police arrested a male, 21, of Gainesville, VA for DIP. Larceny from Vehicle, 500 blk. N

Oak St., between November 27, 10:21 p.m. and November 28, 9:21 a.m., unknown person(s) entered and ransacked an unsecured vehicle, stealing a Garmin GPS and approximately $5.00 in change.

Larceny from Vehicle, 100 blk.

N Fairfax St., between November 23, 9:30 p.m. and November 24, 7:00 a.m., unknown person(s) entered and ransacked an unsecured vehicle, stealing $40.00 in cash.

Larceny from Building, 600 blk.

Oakhaven Dr., November 28, between 12:30 p.m. and 1:23 p.m., unknown person(s) stole victim’s purse off shoulder. The purse contained a Military ID, Social Security Card, $40.00 cash, checks, leather wallet, and a credit card.

Larceny, BP Service Station, 6701 Wilson Blvd., November 28, 1:14 p.m., unknown person(s) pumped 45.23 worth of unleaded gasoline and drove off without paying for it.

Tampering with Auto, 200 blk. Cleave Dr., between November 22 and November 28, unknown person(s) entered a vehicle and rummage through it.

Tampering with Auto, 500 blk.

Greenwich St., November 28, unknown person(s) entered a vehicle and rummage through it.

Drunkenness, 6700 blk. Wilson Blvd., November 28, 10:07 p.m., police arrested a male, 57, of NO FIXED ADDRESS, for DIP. Drug/Narcotic Violation, 400 blk.

James Ct/S Virginia Ave., November 29, 4:04 a.m., police arrested a male, 19, of Falls Church, VA for Underage Possession of Alcohol and Possession of Marijuana.

Drunkenness, 400 blk. James Ct/S Virginia Ave., November 29, 4:05 a.m., police arrested a male, 20, of., Falls Church, VA; and a male, 19, of Falls Church, VA for DIP. Larceny, 100 blk. Hillwood Ave., November 29, between 1:00 p.m., and 1:30 p.m., unknown person(s) stole a deck of unattended Yugioh Playing Cards valued at $400.00.

Driving under the Influence, 400 blk. Roosevelt Blvd., November 30, 12:47 a.m., police arrested a male, 20, of Hyattsville, MD for DUI. Drunkenness, 6700 blk. Wilson Blvd., November 30, 1:22 a.m., police arrested a male, 46, of Falls Church, VA for DIP.

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December 3 - 9, 2009

Falls Church Decks the Halls with Craft Show The City of Falls Church will help residents deck the halls for the holidays with special gifts at the 17th Annual Holiday Craft Show. Over 60 crafters will be selling a variety of handmade items and baked goods on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 6 from 11 a.m.

– 4 p.m. The show will take place at the Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls St., Falls Church). Admission costs $1.

Lunch is sold each day of the show and children are invited to a breakfast with Santa, a puppet show and a craft corner. Children can also visit the Children’s Holiday Shoppe on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Cherry Hill Farmhouse (312 Park Ave., Falls Church) to purchase inexpensive gifts for $5 and under. Reservations are required for children’s activities. For more information, call 703-248-5001.

McLean Marches in WinterFest Parade McLean invites the community to participate in McLean WinterFest, the 2nd annual holiday parade on Sunday, Dec. 6 from 4 – 6 p.m. The parade will start at the Sun Trust Bank (1301 Chain Bridge Rd., McLean) and proceed to the traffic island at Rocco’s Family Restaurant, where

the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce will light the community holiday tree. To sign up for this event, visit www.mcleanwinterfest.com.

VSA of F.C. Participates in FIRSTfriday In celebration of FIRSTfriday, the Falls Church Chapter of the Victorian Society in America (VSA) will present its latest tea blends and cookbook, Afternoon Tea in the Victorian Tradition on Friday, Dec. 4 at the Art of Frame of Falls Church (111 Park Ave., Falls Church). All are invited to come and pick up these unique tea blends as Christmas presents.

After the book signing, the VSA will go caroling through downtown Falls Church. For a full listing of FIRSTfriday events, visit www.firstfridayoffallschurch.com.

‘Christmas Cabin of Carnaween’ Premieres On Saturday, Dec. 5, Creative Cauldron’s Learning Theater will premiere “Christmas Cabin of Carnaween,” a play based on an Irish folktale about a young girl’s desire for a place to call her own. The story is adapted for the stage, incorporating music, storytelling and dance.

The production is a tribute to the late Cay Wiant, an awardwinning Falls Church City educa-

tor and Creative Cauldron teaching artist. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. The show will continue through Sunday, Dec. 20. Tickets cost $10. To make a reservation, call 571-239-5288.

ArtSpace will also open “Christmas Wishes,” an exhibit featuring two-dimensional works by members of the Falls Church Arts that reflect themes in the play. The gallery opening will kick off with an artist reception on Friday, Dec. 4 from 6 – 8 p.m. The exhibit will be open before and between performances. Admission to the exhibit is free. The play and exhibit will both take place at the ArtSpace Falls Church (410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church). For more information, visit www.fall- BOY SCOUT TROOP 861 will be having a Christmas Tree Sale churcharts.org. through Wednesday, Dec. 23 in the parking lot of St. James School (830 W. Broad St., Falls Church). The lot will be open from 6 – 9 Chefs Demonstrate at F.C. p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Farmers Market Trees include Fraser fir, Blue spruce and Douglas fir and range from The final Falls Church 4 – 10 ft. (Photo: Courtesy Dick Lobb) Farmers Market Chef Demonstration will be on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 9 – 11 a.m. at the Falls Church Farmers Market (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). The demonstration will feature chefs Tracey O’Grady, Debra Rubin, Kate Jensen and Maeve Curtin from Willow Restaurant.

The chefs will be demonstrating how to make Mushroom Bisque and Apple Compote. Recipes and tastings will be available. For

more information about the demonstration, e-mail fallschurchmarketchef@gmail.com.

Synetic Family Theater Presents ‘Snow Queen’ On Saturday, Dec. 5, the Synetic Family Theater will present “The Snow Queen,” a winter production that combines music, masks, pantomime, puppetry and live action. The story

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follows the journey of a young girl who tries to save her brother from the cold-hearted Snow Queen in Laplandia. Director Lilia Slavova invites all ages to this family-friendly play.

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es will take place at the Synetic Family Theater (4041 Campbell Ave., Arlington). Tickets cost $15.

To order tickets, call 1-800-4948497 or visit www.synetictheater. org.

MCC Hosts Craft Show for The Holidays The McLean Community Center (MCC) is hosting a holiday craft show from Friday, Dec. 4 – Sunday, Dec. 6. More than 70 artisans will come together to offer holiday shoppers unique handmade gifts. Visitors can enjoy holiday music and food catered

by Bertuccci’s Italian Restaurant while they shop.

There will be free performances by local music ensembles including Longfellow Middle School’s Choral Ensemble, McLean High School Ensemble, the McLean Youth Orchestra Flute Ensemble and the Chantilly High School Choir.

The show will take place at MCC (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean) on Friday, Dec. 4 from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 6 from 11 a.m.

– 4 p.m. Admission costs $2 for adults and $1 for children. For more information, call 703-7900123.

St. Thomas More Presents Lessons and Carols On Sunday, Dec. 6, the St. Thomas More Cathedral will carry on the Kings College tradition of music and scriptural readings during the Advent season with “Service of Lessons and Carols,” featuring clergy, lay readers, the Catherdral choir, the youth choir and the handbell ensemble.

The program will be led by the Bishop of Arlington and will

Page 11

feature Dr. Larry Young as guest organist.

The program will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Cathedral (3901 Cathedral Ln., Arlington).

Admission is free. For more information, call 703-524-2815.

Arlington Artists Sponsor ‘Artful Weekend’ The Arlington Artists Alliance will celebrate the 7th Annual “Artful Weekend” from Friday, Dec. 4 – Sunday, Dec. 6. The show and sale will feature 40 artists who specialize in oil, pastel, water media, collage, ceramics, wood, textiles and glass.

There will be an opening reception on Friday, Dec. 4 from 6 – 8 p.m. The show will continue on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. with a special performance by the Stardust Dance Band from 1 – 3 p.m. The last day of the show is on Sunday, Dec. 6 from noon – 4 p.m.

All events and festivities will take place at the Hendry House at Fort C.F. Smith Park (2411 N. 24th St., Arlington). Admission is free.

For more information, visit www. arlingtonartistsalliance.org.

Mary Riley Styles Receives Top Honors For the second year in a row, the Mary Riley Styles Public Library in the City of Falls Church has been named one of the best libraries in the U.S. by the Library Journal. It is one of only 258 libraries out of 7,268 public librares in the country to receive star ratings in a rating system similar to that used in the Michelin Guide.

Ratings are based four percapita service indicators: library visits, circulation, program attendance and public Internet com-

THE THANKSGIVING REENACTMENT at the Cherry Hill Farmhouse took place this past Saturday.

Civil War reenactors (left to right) Beth Buffington, Sue Perlin, Tracey McIntire, Ron Beavers, John Tuohy and Susan Kelly portray Falls Church residents of 1863 as they sit down for a Civil War Thanksgiving dinner. (Photo: Courtesy Barbara Gordon) puter uses.

Dogwood Tavern Collects Toys for Tots Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church) is now collecting toy donations for Toys for Tots. On Dec. 18, from 5 – 9 p.m., Marine Corps members will be at the tavern to collect the donation box and have a meet-andgreet. For more information, call 703-237-8333.

BG Healthcare Reports Successful Food Drive BG Healthcare of Falls Church recently partnered with local senior living facilities to host its first annual food drive.

After gathering a large amount of non-perishable donations, BG Healthcare delivered them to Our Daily Bread, a non-profit organization that specializes in food donations.

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FALLS CHURCH’S Daniel Degnan, a 1997 graduate of George Mason High School, is the author of a new children’s book released last month entitled, “Tribe Pride: A Visit to William and Mary,” one of a series of publications focusing on the history of college and university campuses produced by Mascot Books of Chantilly.

Degnan graduated from William and Mary in 2001. He and his wife, Brett Golladay Degnan, now work in Richmond, where they have two children, Erin and Keller. Degnan stopped by the office after Thanksgiving at his parents’ home on Great Falls St. Copies of the book are available for purchase at Art and Frame of Falls Church, 111 Park Ave. (Photo: News-Press)

Page 12

December 3 - 9, 2009

Clear, Hold & Duct Tape In late 2006, Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. James F. Amos released a brilliant book with a thrilling title.

It was called the “Army/Marine Corps Field Manual 3-24.” In its quiet way, this book helped overturn conventional wisdom on modern warfare and gave leaders a new way to see the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s a mistake to think you can succeed in conflicts like these by defeating the enemy in battle, the manual said. Instead, these wars are better seen as political arguments for the loyalty of the population. Get villagNEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE ers to work with you by offering them security. Provide services by building courts and schools and police. Over the long term, transfer authority to legitimate local governments.

This approach, called COIN, has reshaped military thinking, starting with the junior officers who developed it and then spreading simultaneously up and down the chain of command.

When President Barack Obama conducted his first Afghanistan strategic review last winter, he too gravitated toward the COIN mentality, appointing Gen. Stanley McChrystal, one of the chief architects of COIN, to run the war effort there.

This fall, McChrystal came back with his own report, and made two key recommendations. First, the U.S. should deliver a sharp blow, to regain the initiative and reverse the Taliban’s momentum. Second, he wrote, “Success demands a comprehensive counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign.”

But over the past few months, senior members of the Obama administration have lost some of their enthusiasm for COIN. It may be a good approach in the abstract, they say, but there are problems with applying it in this particular context.

First, they say, COIN is phenomenally expensive. It consists of doing a lot of things at once – from increasing troop levels to nation-building – and doing them over a long period of time. America no longer has that kind of money, and Americans won’t accept a new 10year commitment having already been there for eight.

Second, it may be possible to clear and hold territory, but it is looking less likely that we will be able to transfer it to any legitimate Afghan authority. The Karzai government is like an organized crime ring.

The governing talent is thin. Plans to build a 400,000man Afghan security force are unrealistic.

David Brooks

Third, they continue, the population in Afghanistan is too dispersed for COIN to work properly. There would be a few bubbles of security, where allied troops are massed, but then vast sanctuaries for the insurgents.

Fourth, COIN is too Afghan-centric and not enough Pakistan-centric. The real threats to U.S. interests are along the Afghan-Pakistani border or involve the destabilization of the Pakistani government. The COIN approach does little to directly address that.

The administration seems to have spent the past few months trying to pare back the COIN strategy and adjust it to real world constraints. As it has done so, there has been less talk in the informed policy community about paving the way for a new, transformed Afghanistan.

There has been more talk of finding cheap ways to arrange the current pieces of Afghanistan into a contraption that will stay together and allow us to go home.

What’s emerging appears to be something less than a comprehensive COIN strategy but more than a mere counter-terrorism strategy – shooting at terrorists with drones. It is a hybrid approach, and as we watch the president’s speech Tuesday night, we’ll all get to judge whether he has cut and pasted the different options into a coherent whole. It’s not the troop levels that matter.

What matters is how this war will be fought.

Some very smart people say that the administration’s direction is already fatally flawed. There is no such thing as effective COIN-lite, they argue. All the pieces of a comprehensive strategy have to be done patiently and together because success depends on the way they magnify one another.

These experts may be right. But none of us get to have our first choice on this matter. Obama faces such a devilishly complex set of constraints that the policy he announces will be partially unsatisfying to every American and to every member of his administration. The fights inside have been so brutal that there have been accusations that the Defense and State Departments have withheld documents from the president to bias his thinking.

Nonetheless, my impression, pre-speech, is that Obama has negotiated these constraints in a serious manner, and improved some of his options – for example, by accelerating troop deployments. He has not been enthusiastic about expanding the U.S. role in Afghanistan, but he has not evaded his responsibility as commander in chief, and he’s taking brave political risks.

It may not be the complete COIN strategy, which offers the best chance of success. But it may be the best strategy under the circumstances.

Afghanistan More & More Like Vietnam WASHINGTON – President Obama insists that his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 more troops is not Vietnam all over again.

Well, it sure reminds me of the perils and the price of that unwinnable war in Southeast Asia and the political chaos it wreaked at home.

Hearst Newspapers In Afghanistan, the designated enemies are remnants of the weakened al Qaida network and the native Taliban, which has been growing in strength despite the eight-year war started by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9-11 catastrophe.

Obama was too young to remember the national turmoil during the Vietnam War that resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and thousands

Helen Thomas

of Vietnamese. That war also ended the political careers of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. Johnson decided not to seek reelection and Nixon was forced to resign in the ensuing Watergate scandal.

In his remarks at West Point, Obama rejected any comparison between Afghanistan and Vietnam, calling it “a false reading of history.” He claimed that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan is supported by “a broad coalition of 43 nations,” that “unlike Vietnam, we are not facing a broad-based popular insurgency” and, unlike Vietnam, “the American people were viciously attacked from Afghanistan.”

Well, yes and no.

The U.S. effort in Vietnam had its own coalition of anti-communist allies, including South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Continued on Page 36

The Jobs Imperative If you’re looking for a job right now, your prospects are terrible.

There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings, and the average duration of unemployment – the time the average job-seeker has spent looking for work – is more than six months, the highest level since the 1930s.

You might think, then, that doing something about the employment situation would be a top policy priority. But now that total financial collapse has been averted, all the urgency seems to have vanished from policy discussion, replaced by a strange passivity. There’s a pervasive sense in Washington that nothing more can or should be done, that we should just wait for the economic recovery to trickle down to workers.

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE This is wrong and unacceptable.

Yes, the recession is probably over in a technical sense, but that doesn’t mean that full employment is just around the corner. Historically, financial crises have typically been followed not just by severe recessions but by anemic recoveries; it’s usually years before unemployment declines to anything like normal levels. And all indications are that the aftermath of the latest financial crisis is following the usual script. The Federal Reserve, for example, expects unemployment, currently 10.2 percent, to stay above 8 percent – a number that would have been considered disastrous not long ago – until sometime in 2012.

And the damage from sustained high unemployment will last much longer. The long-term unemployed can lose their skills, and even when the economy recovers they tend to have difficulty finding a job, because they’re regarded as poor risks by potential employers. Meanwhile, students who graduate into a poor labor market start their careers at a huge disadvantage – and pay a price in lower earnings for their whole working lives. Failure to act on unemployment isn’t just cruel, it’s short-sighted.

So it’s time for an emergency jobs program.

How is a jobs program different from a second stimulus? It’s a matter of priorities. The 2009 Obama stimulus bill was focused on restoring economic growth. It was, in effect, based on the belief that if you build GDP, the jobs will come. That strategy might have worked if the stimulus had been big enough – but it wasn’t. And as a matter of political reality, it’s hard to see how the administration could pass a second stimulus big enough to make up for the original shortfall.

So our best hope now is for a somewhat cheaper program that generates more jobs for the buck. Such a program should shy away from measures, like general tax cuts, that at best lead only indirectly to job creation, with many possible disconnects along the way. Instead, it should consist of measures that more or less directly save or add jobs.

One such measure would be another round of aid to beleaguered state and local governments, which have seen their tax receipts plunge and which, unlike the federal government, can’t borrow to cover a temporary shortfall. More aid would help avoid both a drastic worsening of public services (especially education) and the elimination of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Meanwhile, the federal government could provide jobs by ... providing jobs. It’s time for at least a small-scale version of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration, one that would offer relatively low-paying (but much better than nothing) public-service employment. There would be accusations that the government was creating make-work jobs, but the WPA left many solid achievements in its wake. And the key point is that direct public employment can create a lot of jobs at relatively low cost. In a proposal to be released today, the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, argues that spending $40 billion a year for three years on public-service employment would create a million jobs, which sounds about right.

Finally, we can offer businesses direct incentives for employment. It’s probably too late for a job-conserving program, like the highly successful subsidy Germany offered to employers who maintained their work forces. But employers could be encouraged to add workers as the economy expands. The Economic Policy Institute proposes a tax credit for employers who increase their payrolls, which is certainly worth trying.

All of this would cost money, probably several hundred billion dollars, and raise the budget deficit in the short run. But this has to be weighed against the high cost of inaction in the face of a social and economic emergency.

Paul Krugman

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 13

It’s Not Easy Being President President Obama’s address to a global television audience Tuesday night about his intent to send 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan was a sobering reminder of the unbelievable mess that he inherited from George W. Bush when he entered the White House last January.

Indeed, when the veil is pulled away from one ugly fiasco after another that was visited upon the planet by the Bush administration, the reaction is downright visceral. “W” has to have been the worst blight ever visited upon the U.S. people and the globe from such a position of power and authority in the nation’s history.

Aside from his criminal neglect responding to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, it was, of course, the Falls church news-press President’s unyielding determination to invade and occupy Iraq that represents his single most monumental malevolence. Many of us were jumping up and down screaming that his phoney pretext for the invasion was exactly that. The erroneous claim that “we all thought there were weapons of mass destruction” that has been used to justify Bush’s decision is a downright lie.

In the context of this, operating in the name of “American exceptionalism” (a mantra that smacks of the kind of arrogance of national cultural superiority that justified some very nasty genocide in the last century), Bush turned most of the globe against the U.S. He turned a national surplus into a deep deficit, and his administration ordered blinders on every Wall Street regulator, bringing the entire world, as a consequence, to the brink of a total financial and economic meltdown.

We can blame Bush, or Dick Cheney, or others in the administration, but as a collective effort, they constituted the most dangerous and illintentioned pack of thieves in U.S. history.

Regretfully, there remain many in the land who are eager to return to the same path that this crowd followed, as if they learned nothing. Their fixations on the ideology of free markets, low taxes and less government are matched by their unrelenting belief in this “American exceptionalism” garbage that could easily bring the country back to the brink of unthinkable economic and military conflagrations.

It’s no wonder that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in his first year in office. It reflected the deep planetary sigh of relief felt when Obama was successful in rooting out this menace from the White House. It was deserved for the entirety of his primary and general campaigns to build a national mass movement around a very different approach than that taken by Bush et al.

For over a year leading up to the election, Obama schooled an entire nation, and an eagerly watching world, on the need to retool U.S. foreign policy toward alliance-building, diplomacy and dialogue, and away from the bullying “my way or the highway” approach of Bush.

But since January, given the reigns of leadership in the White House, President Obama has faced a different challenge than the one he took up during his campaign.

It’s been an arduous and aggressive effort to undo the damage he inherited from Bush, and it’s not been easy. No longer the prophetic voice preaching from the mountain top, Obama moved inside the temple as its high priest, and his role necessarily shifted as a result.

For some, this means a betrayal of his pre-election values. The impulse for instant gratification has led some groups to, in fact, betray him, urging others to withhold financial support for Democratic candidates. In other cases, such as in Virginia last month, leading Democratic candidates tragically (for themselves, as it turned out) distanced themselves from him. But there is no questioning the monumental effects he’s already had, domestically and internationally.

The nation has averted a worse collapse than the Great Depression, at least for now. It is on the verge of real health care reform for the first time since the advent of Medicare. And now, the president has boldly taken the steps needed to responsibly clean up the messes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s on the jobs front where even bolder steps are now needed. Largescale national infrastructure projects offering an abundance of WPAlike jobs are essential on an array of levels to become the bedrock of a slow but sustainable economic recovery.

Nicholas F. Benton

 Nicholas Benton may be e-mailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.

Who’s Sari Now? WASHINGTON – Michaele and Tareq Salahi finally actually got invited to an exclusive Washington gathering.

But they’re not sure they want to accept.

It is, after all, an invitation to Thursday’s congressional hearing into their Night of Living Dangerously, the notorious White House party-crashing incident.

The Salahis discovered the secret to sneaking through a mythical gate, and that has now taken on the import of one of Dan Brown’s ancient portals; the breached White House wall serves as a prism to examine our society, our president and our values.

We live in an age obsessed with “realNEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE ity” and overrun by fakers. The mock has run amok.

This decade will be remembered for the collapse of the Twin Towers, the economy and any standard of accomplishment for societal prestige. TV and the Internet wallow in the lowest common denominator.

Warhol looks like Whistler.

But if Congress investigates social climbing and party crashing in Washington, it won’t have time for anything else.

Because even the outrage over the fakers is fake. The capital has turned up its nose at the tacky trompe l’oeil Virginia horse-country socialites: a faux Redskins cheerleader and a faux successful businessman auditioning for a “reality” show by feigning a White House invitation.

Yet Washington has always been a town full of poseurs, arrivistes, fame-seekers, cheats and camera hogs.

Lots of people here are trying to crash the party, wangle an invite to the right thing, work the angles and milk their connections to better insinuate their way into the inner circle.

Barack Obama is the ultimate party crasher. He crashed Hillary’s high-hat party in 2008 and he crashed the snooty age-old Washington party of privileged white guys with a monopoly on power.

Sneaking past the White House gates with the slippery Salahis, we catch a rare glimpse of a Secret Service, a social office and a Pentagon with glaring – and chilling – vulnerabilities and liabilities.

The Washington Post reported the Secret Service guard waved in the Salahis, breaking the rules, because he “was persuaded by the couple’s manner and insistence as well as the pressure of keeping lines

Maureen Dowd

moving on a rainy evening.”

Because Barack Obama has broken historic barriers and excites strong passions, he requires a heightened level of Secret Service protection. Now, he isn’t getting the minimum required.

Vetting guests does not involve emotion or leeway. Famous lawmakers like Pat Schroeder have been turned away after showing up without IDs. Whatever Michele Jones, the Pentagon-based liaison to the White House, e-mailed the Salahis to enhance their delusion of having a shot at a dinner, she was mindlessly enabling fabulists.

Desiree Rogers, who has also been asked to testify Thursday, has been cruising for a bruising since telling The Wall Street Journal in April: “We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand. Our possibilities are endless.” She wanted to pose for The Journal in an Oscar de la Renta gown in the first lady’s garden, but the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, vetoed that.

The statuesque social secretary brandishing a Harvard MBA and animal-print designer shoes is not any mere party planner. The old friend of the first couple from Chicago has the exalted and uncommon title of social secretary and special assistant to the president.

Instead of standing outside with a clipboard, eyeballing guests as Anne Hathaway did in “The Devil Wears Prada,” Desiree was a guest at the dinner, the center of her own table of guests, just like the president and first lady.

As Michael Isikoff wrote in Newsweek, Rogers sidelined Cathy Hargraves, the East Wing staffer whose job it was to go to the East Gate portico and check off the names of each guest from a printout.

Rogers told Hargraves that the Obama team felt no need for those services because, given the recession, there wouldn’t be many lavish dinners. But even if it’s just two state dinners a year, as the first lady plans, one big mistake is too many.

Also, the rejection of the Bush appointee has unseemly echoes of Hillary Clinton sacking the White House travel office staff, unnecessarily politicizing an office that required old pros.

Rogers also conjured up a White House closing ranks on itself, allowing far too many West Wing staffers, mid-level political aides, press flacks and speechwriters to attend the prestigious premiere state dinner, rather than people more relevant to the Indian guests of honor. The Obama team always talks of making the White House “the People’s House,” so why let it look like the White House mess?

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December 3 - 9, 2009

‘Social Issues Santa’ Earlier this week, extremists within the Republican Party proposed a 10-point checklist of principles that GOP candidates would have to sign if they expect to receive Party support. Like a deranged “Social Issues Santa”, the enforcers of doctrine are descending in their sleighs to slay Republicans who are naughty and not considered nice.

According to their puritanical plan, Republicans would be required to sign 7 of 10 radical resolutions, such as, “opposing Obama’s socialist agenda.” By far the most reckless part of this pledge is the demand that Republicans agree to, “Support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troops surges.” I wonder what such pandering politicians might say to families if these wars took a turn for the worse: “I’m sorry your son died on the battlefield, but I had six campaign pledges and needed a nything seventh to get a windfall of dough from the Republican Party.” ut traight Ironically, the Republican governors gathered last week and ran away from

By Wayne Besen such extremism. According to The New York Times, “There was little talk of the divisive social and political issues that Mr. Bush and Mr. Rove embraced as a way to attract independent and moderate Democratic voters and build a lasting Republican majority.”

The right wing chest thumping seen in the GOP checklist was echoed in a manifesto signed by 145 religious activists and clerics called the Manhattan Declaration. This document basically said that religious people were above the law and did not have to obey it if they deemed it unholy. Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council, hailed the radical manifesto by calling it a “line in the sand” and vowing that the malcontents “will not be moved.”

Of course, growing up on the lovely beaches of Florida and Hawaii, I’ve learned that there is nothing more temporary than a line in the sand.

These arrogant preachers are badly overreaching and will be surprised to find that their sinister sandcastle will succumb to history’s high tide.

The Catholic Church, in particular, is entering politically perilous territory it will soon regret. For most of American history, many voters were concerned that Catholic politicians were beholden to Rome. John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic President, won by assuring people that he was independent of the Vatican.

This week, however, Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin scolded another member of the famous clan, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), and told him he was unworthy of taking part in communion because of his pro-choice views. Amazingly, Tobin told NBC News, “To receive a sacrament you have to be in union with the church.” To voters, this can be interpreted as: “Bow to Rome or go home.”

If the Church continues to push these boundaries, it will become toxic.

It will force office holders into making a decision between voting with the Vatican, or risking nasty public spats, like the Tobin-Kennedy spectacle.

In an era where people are quite fickle with faith, aspiring Catholic politicians may find it easier to avoid this dilemma and switch religions. In the future, the only remaining Catholic politicians may be hardliners, such as former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

In fact, this backlash is already underway. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine criticized the Archdiocese of Washington this week for threatening to end contracts to feed Washington, DC’s homeless if the city allows gay couples the freedom to marry.

“I’m Catholic and I think it’s wrong,’’ Kaine said. “If you look at the church through history, the church will stand in tough situations and continue to do good. I think the strategy of threatening to hold back, it just doesn’t seem like the church I’ve come up in.”

Kaine was seconded by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who also is Catholic.

“I don’t understand how they can possibly do this,” O’Malley said. “ I have a hard time believing that the nuns and priests who taught me about the Corporal Works of Mercy would agree that this is an appropriate response for the church.”

The Religious Right is still one of the strongest special interest groups in America, but they keep forgetting that they represent an immoral minority, not the Moral Majority they once fancied themselves to be.

Raging with dictatorial ultimatums and mutinous manifestos, these extremists are too far-gone to realize they have gone too far. As the “Social Issues Santas” shimmy down the chimney to deliver their dogma, it is unclear if they are simply blowing smoke or gift-wrapping future elections for the Democratic Party.

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S

Congressman Moran’s News Commentary

By James P. Moran

Virginia’s 8th Congressional District Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives

Ahead of President Obama’s Afghanistan policy announcement on Tuesday, December 1st, I issued the following statement: “I appreciate President Obama’s careful consideration regarding the future of the U.S.’s engagement in Afghanistan. In a responsible shift from the previous administration, the president has resisted calls for a rush to judgment, giving such an important decision the attention it deserves.

“The President’s focus on providing an exit strategy for Afghanistan is appropriate and commendable. I am concerned, however, that the projected call for such a substantial increase in troops will cost too many of our soldiers’ lives for an unwinnable military mission and more money than we can afford to borrow from our children’s future.

“The cost is too high. The proposed troop increase and what I fear may become a long term counterinsurgency commitment of sustaining 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan is estimated to cost more than $1 trillion. There is insufficient justification for the American people to bear the burden of what could become a long term commitment to what is already the second longest war in

American history.

“Our security concern is AlQaeda, not the Taliban. Eight years ago we went into Afghanistan to eliminate al-Qaeda and the “safe haven” that Afghanistan’s Taliban were providing the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Al Qaeda has no significant presence today in all of Afghanistan. In contrast, their presence in Pakistan, Yemen, the Horn of Africa, and Europe has grown exponentially. I’m concerned increasing our involvement in Afghanistan will only further the perception of the U.S. as an occupying force in the region, hardening the indigenous insurgency in Afghanistan, and distracting our attention from the more serious threat of universal jihadist factions outside of Afghanistan.

“History shows that without a credible government partner, nation-building can’t succeed.

Fighting a successful insurgency requires that the government in place be deserving of the loyalty and call to sacrifice demanded of its citizens. Unfortunately, the government of President Hamid Karzai is the second most corrupt in the world. The Karzai administration lacks the confidence of the Afghan people, and has virtually

no influence outside of the capital, Kabul. Afghanistan has historically lacked a strong central government, let alone one financially and militarily dependent upon a foreign country.

“Instead of increasing our troop presence, the U.S. should limit its mission in Afghanistan to securing strategic Afghan population centers with the troops currently on the ground, require the Karzai government to make reforms if they want to continue receiving the existing level of aid for targeted development projects, and establish a more specific plan for drawing down our troops and empowering the legitimate provincial leaders to take control of their own destiny through semi autonomous regional councils operating in the Pastun-majority provinces.

“Our military and civilian personnel have served valiantly in Afghanistan for over eight years.

The mission we set out to accomplish of capturing and prosecuting Osama bin Laden and the other perpetrators of the 9/11 attack can only be accomplished in Pakistan where they currently reside. The Afghan conflict is a civil war whose outcome can only be determined by the Afghan people, for better or for worse.”

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 15

A Penny for Your Thoughts

News of Greater Falls Church

By Supervisor Penny Gross

Fairfax County depends a lot on its volunteers – no matter their age, their interests, or their talents.

Volunteers assist in our schools, in our parks, at senior centers, homeless shelters, and so many other places that could use an extra helping hand for the many programs and activities desired by our neighbors. If you want to volunteer, you can surely find something to do in Fairfax County.

One of the oldest volunteer recognitions is the Elly Doyle Park Service Awards and Recognitions from the Fairfax County Park Authority. The award was established in 1988 and named for Elly Doyle, who served as a Park Authority Board member from 1958 to 1974, and was its chairman for 10 years.

Recently, Elly Doyle award winners were celebrated at a festive, jungle-themed celebration, “Go Wild for Parks.” Animal prints and safari hats were de rigueur for the evening, and everyone got into the spirit of the theme.

The Park Service Awards were presented to Kathi McNeil for her volunteer work at Huntley Meadows Park; to Jack Pitzer who brings Frying Pan Farm Park alive for visitors; and to the Southwestern Youth Association for supporting the adopt-a-field program (they adopted all or part of 10 athletic fields) and partnering to develop several fields and facilities at local elementary schools. Outstanding volunteer included Dotty Stahl, who heads the Historic House Committee at Green Spring Gardens Park, and Robert Young, well-named since he is the youngest awardee at 13 years of age, as an enthusiastic program assistant at Hidden Oaks Nature Center.

Three of the Special Recognition Awards were presented for volunteer work in Mason District – at tiny Bel Air Park in Falls Church, at Annandale Community Park, and at Pine Ridge Park, both in Annandale. Tim Dokken saw that something needed to be done at Bel Air Park. The tiny 1.5 acre neighborhood park was in danger of being swallowed up by invasive plants and vines. The playground area was disappearing, just as the neighborhood was seeing an upsurge in children. Tim contacted my office and the Park Authority to begin the labor

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 Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be e-mailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov.

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intensive process of plant removal. Once the invasives were removed, in 2007, the area was covered in plastic and mulch, trees donated by Fairfax ReLeaf were planted, and vines were cleared from the mature trees. Tim continued his work into 2008, and arranged for neighborhood clean-ups twice a year. Bel Air Park is once more an attractive spot for parents to visit while their children play.

Congratulations, Tim! Ray and Patty Hubbard of Annandale enjoy walking their dogs (leashed) in Annandale Community Park. During one visit, they discovered smoldering embers from a fire and notified the naturalists at nearby Hidden Oaks Nature Center. After this chance encounter, to which firefighters responded, Ray and Patty noticed that the concrete steps down a steep hill were in bad shape, and there was no funding to repair them. Ray is vice president of Clark Construction, so he offered to rebuild the steps and have the labor donated by his company. The new steps are fabulous, and Ray and Patty, and their dogs Gabby and Bella, already have other projects planned for the park. Thank you, Ray and Patty Hubbard!

Beth and Merle Swival are longtime gardeners at Pine Ridge Park, and helped organize the Pine Ridge Park Watch, reforest the park’s buffer area through a partnership with Fairfax ReLeaf, and maintain all the public area planting beds. Their dedication and good cheer have benefitted Pine Ridge for more than ten years. Good job, Beth and Merle!

These terrific volunteers found their special niche in the parks, and you can, too! Please contact my office at 703/256-7717 or mason@fairfaxcounty. gov, or call the Fairfax County Park Authority at 703/324-8750 for more information about becoming a park volunteer. I’ve been a park volunteer for 30 years; it’s a great way to get involved in your community.

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News from the Coffin Corner: Bob Hull’s

Richmond Report More Legislative Elections Just when you thought it was all over, it begins anew. Yes, election time is coming up in two legislative districts.

On Monday, Governor Tim Kaine signed writs for special elections to select successors to two members of the state Senate elected to other offices last month.

One of the elections will be in western Fairfax County in the 37th district for the vacant seat of Ken Cuccinelli, who was elected attorney general of Virginia.

In Virginia Beach, there will be an election to fill the vacancy created when Ken Stolle, who had represented the 8th Senate district since 1992, was elected Sheriff.

Both men are Republicans and they each resigned their Senate seats following their November election victories.

The special elections will be held on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, and the deadline for candidates wishing to run for either seat is next Friday, December 11.

The Virginia Beach district is considered to be heavily Republican, but Democrats see hope in Cuccinelli’s seat.

Voters in that Senate district have selected Democrats in recent elections and there will be a strong Democratic nominee.

Delegate Dave Marsden, a Democrat who was just reelected to a third term in the House, has announced his intention to run for that seat.

Of course, as the results of our last election showed, past voter history is no guarantee of future behavior.

The weather in January is also unpredictable and could lower voter participation even below the normally low turnout of a special election.

A Great Loss Virginia lost a great leader when John Warren Cooke, former Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, passed away last Saturday.

He was 94-years-old when he died at his longtime home, Palace Green, on Put In Creek in Mathews County in the Middle Peninsula of Virginia.

Mr. Cooke, whose father was 76 years old when he was born, may have been the last surviving child of a Civil War veteran in the United States.

His father, Giles Buckner Cooke, who became an Episcopal priest, was an Army major in the Confederacy and served on the personal staff of General Robert E. Lee. Mr. Cooke was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1941 at the age of 26 and the Democratic caucus elected him secretary in 1944.

He was elected caucus chair in 1950 and Majority Leader in 1956. The House elected him Speaker in 1968.

He served as Speaker until he decided not to run for reelection in 1979. At the time of his retirement, his 38 years of service in the House set a record.

Mr. Cooke was the first Speaker of the House to give Republicans regular committee assignments.

Until then, Democratic Speakers either did not give Republicans any committee assignments or appointed them to minor committees that rarely met.

He was quoted as saying more than 20 years after his retirement that he had still not gotten over the era of massive resistance in the 1950s.

A stalwart of the Byrd political organization, he defied their efforts to prevent school desegregation and voted to keep public schools open.

I met Mr. Cooke in 1978 when he was Speaker. I found him to be very nice and the epitome of a Virginia gentleman.

Every person whom I have ever spoken with about him over the years has described his fairness and gracious, courteous manner.

His passing is a great loss to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

John Warren Cooke set the benchmark for civility to which all Virginia legislators should aspire.  Delegate Hull represents the 38th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. He may be emailed at delrhull@state. house.va.us.

Page 16

December 3 - 9, 2009

News Curry’s Auto Service is one of three finalists for the Tire Review Magazine’s national Top Shop Awards. Curry’s Auto Service, the only automotive shop in the D.C. area named, was selected as a finalist from nearly 100 entries. The award honors the “best of the best” independent tire dealers in North America. Headquartered in Sterling, Curry’s is one of the area’s largest independent service and repair shops with six locations including one in Falls Church. Matt and Judy Curry founded Curry’s Auto Service in 1997. Chris Coulter joined the company and became a partner in 1999. Curry’s Auto Service posted 2008 gross sales of $7.8 million and expects to reach $11 million for 2009. For more information, visit www.currysauto.com or call 888-8Currys.

Nicholas Paradise is the new branch manager of the recently opened Falls Church location of Virginia Commerce Bank (VCB). Paradise served as the Branch Manager of VCB’s Reston branch, then moved to the Dulles location prior to accepting the position in Falls Church. VCB opened its first branch in 1988 in Arlington, Virginia, where it maintains its headquarters. The Falls Church branch is located at 7115 Leesburg Pike. For more information, call 703-962-5510 or visit www.vcbonline.com.

New demographic information on the City of Falls Church has been made available online by the Falls Church City Economic Development Authority. Businesses interested in this information to help with marketing plans, financial forecasts, etc. can access the information by going to www.developfallschurch.org and clicking on “Data Center.”

Events Chefs from Willow Restaurant will be participating in the Falls Church Farmers Market Demonstration from 9 – 11 a.m. on Saturday, December 5. Tracey O’Grady, Debra Rubin, Kate Jensen and Maeve Curtin will be demonstrating Mushroom Bisque and Apple compote. Recipes and tastings will be available. The Falls Church Farmers Market is open Saturdays until noon year-round in the City Hall parking lot at 300 Park Ave. The deadline for the Virginia Department of Taxation’s “Get Square VA” tax amnesty program is Saturday, December 5. Through the program, taxpayers, including businesses, who have an outstanding bill or delinquent return for any tax administered by the Virginia Department of Taxation may pay only the tax due and half the interest on eligible outstanding bills and delinquent returns. The remaining interest and penalties will be waived. For more information on the program including a list of business taxes eligible for this program, visit www.getsquareva.com.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs is sponsoring a grand opening and ribbon cutting for Open Kitchen’s commercial kitchens on Wednesday, December 9 at 11 a.m. Robert Bloxom, Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry will be in attendance.

Governor Tim Kaine has been invited. Open Kitchen is located in Unit 107 at 7115 Leesburg Pike in Falls Church. E-mail susan.watson@vdacs.virginia.gov for information or to RSVP. Dogwood Tavern is collecting new, unwrapped toys for the US Marine Corp Toys for Tots program. Unwrapped toys will be collected in the large box located in the vestibule at the front of the restaurant until 9 p.m. on Friday, December 18. Members of the Marine Corps will be at the restaurant from 5 – 9 p.m. to meet families and children and pick up the boxes of collected toys. Dogwood Tavern is located at 132 W Broad St. Call 703-237-8333 for details.

The Falls Church Chamber of Commerce and the Falls Church City Economic Development Office are sponsoring “Entrepreneur Express: Moving Your Business Forward” from 8 a.m. – noon on Thursday, January 14. The workshop is designed to provide information on available business resources and deliver practical, hands-on training covering key elements of business practice. Entrepreneur Express will take place at the Falls Church Community Center at 223 Little Falls St. The event is free, but seating is limited. Go to www.vastartup.org to register.  The Business News & Notes section is compiled by Sally Cole, Executive Director of Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be e-mailed at sally@fallschurchchamber.org.

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 17

THE PEAK OIL CRISIS

China in 2010 It is looking like the course of China’s economy will have a lot more to do with your life and lifestyle over the next year or so than you had ever imagined possible. The logic behind this assertion is simple. The U.S. and for that matter the rest of the OECD economies seem unlikely to be doing much growing in the near future.

Some believe the Chinese have found the formula for perpetual growth. Even if an unprecedented world-wide depression should devastate an export market that was some 38 percent of your GDP, all you have to do is to hand out $900 billion in various forms of stimulus and order your banks to lend, lend, lend and lend some more. These sorts of policies seem to work better in Peoples’ Republics than countries where bankers worry more about their bonuses than what the government believes is good for the nation. In the short run these measures seem to have produced some very impressive “growth” (pumping nearly a trillion dollars of stimulus into a $4.3 trillion economy is bound to do something) even if foreign skeptics question whether we are seeing real economic progress.

Among the reasons China’s GDP should be of interest is our old friend the price of oil.

With world oil production flat and unlikely to grow much in response to renewed demand, 9 percent economic growth in China next year is almost certain to increase their demand for oil.

In fact, the various world forecasting organizations are already predicting a jump in oil demand next year – largely based on growth in China, India, and the Middle East.

Some outside observers, however, are not sure China’s economy is is really growing as fast as Beijing claims. They cite numerous examples of anomalies in China’s recent economic statistics. As China’s exports are acknowledged to have dropped by 23 percent in July and August and 15 percent in September, this

leaves only domestic consumption and investment in plant and infrastructure to be the source of the rapid growth. While Beijing says retail consumption has increased by 15 percent in the third quarter, other factors such as falling consumer prices suggest that the government is fudging the numbers.

While Chinese new car sales are reported to be growing from 70 to 90 percent year over year in the last quarter, gasoline sales are flat. Unlike Western practice, Beijing counts goods as retail consumption as soon as they are shipped from the factory – even

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exchange reserves to continue heavy spending on investments during the next year. Not only is China doing well, but India just announced that its GDP grew by 8 percent in the last quarter and the Middle Eastern oil exporters are benefiting from oil selling in the vicinity of $80 a barrel.

The prospects for increased demand for oil from the U.S. and other OECD nations do not look that good at current oil prices.

U.S. oil consumption has dropped by 2 million b/d in the last two years largely due to the reductions in industrial activity. While more reductions in the demand for oil will come with higher oil prices, these reductions will come more slowly as Americans reluctantly reduce their hard-to-cut driving. With much of the fat already cut from commercial use of oil, further cuts will come more slowly and with more pain.

Over the next year, the price of oil will be driven higher by two forces – a weaker dollar and increased demand that cannot be met. While there may be 3 or 4 million barrels of spare capacity to produce oil – mostly in the Middle East – the last couple of million barrels will be very expensive oil and will require higher prices to bring onto the market.

Taken together, the evidence suggests that higher, possibly much higher, oil prices in the year ahead are likely. The U.S. deficit is not going away and the dollar is likely to continuing falling without major changes in U.S. monetary policy. China is committed to another year of heavy economic stimulation, and India and the oil exporters are doing well. Keep in mind that for much of the world, oil prices are subsidized by the state so that much higher oil prices do not really impact consumer demand.

Those talking of economic recovery in the U.S. would do well to contemplate what the effects of oil prices north of $100 a barrel will be.

reasons

China’s GDP should be

”

of interest is our old friend: the price of oil.

if they are still languishing in warehouses. Many suspect that at least some of China’s “economic growth” in going into inventory or not particularly useful infrastructure projects.

Whether or not China’s economic stimulus is being well spent really does not matter. Wars are usually not useful either. Jobs are being maintained in China and the demand for raw materials and oil is increasing.

Last week the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party announced that the Central Committee has decided to continue the stimulus for another year despite concerns that much of the money may be going into overcapacity, inventory, and a real estate bubble. The Central Committee tacitly acknowledged that there have been problems in the last year and that they would make efforts to improve the “quality and efficiency of economic growth.” Last week the government made an effort to clamp down on the free-wheeling bank loan policies that have been in place during 2009 by requiring banks to hold larger reserves.

This new policy coupled with what we have seen in recent months suggest that China will be using its massive foreign

 Tom Whipple is a retired government analyst and has been following the peak oil issue for several years.

Page 18

December 3 - 9, 2009

Swimming Mustangs Move to the Deep End Mason Team Tries Hand at D-AA

by Robert Fulton

Falls Church News-Press

Last year, the George Mason High School swim and dive team went undefeated, with the boys and girls squads each going 12-0, and the squad sent 14 swimmers and a diver to the Virginia AA/A state championships.

Now this season, the Mustangs are moving up a division, going from the single A Bull Run District to the double A Dulles District, where all of the fulltime schools located in Loudoun County.

What this means is that the team will face bigger, deeper squads, pretty heavy stuff for a team that just a few years ago was at the club level.

Not that they can’t handle the challenge.

“This season is going to have some new challenges we’re looking forward to,” said Mason grad-

uate and head coach Jon-Michael Lemon, who is entering his fifth season at the helm of the Mustangs, and has been key in growing the team from a small club squad with about 20 swimmers to a force to be reckoned with.

He added, “We were invited to join (double A). It provides a great deal more competition. We always enjoy the single A Bull Run district, but it’s a small district.”

This year’s Mustang team promises to be even more dynamic that last year’s squad, and should be able to step up to the challenge of a stronger district.

Of the 48 swimmers on last year’s team – boys and girls combined – only four graduated.

Looking ahead, this year’s team of about 60 only has 10 seniors, meaning many future seasons also promise to be fruitful.

“Both the boys and the girls are in good shape for the sea-

FORCES TO BE RECKONED WITH. Mason senior Kelly Frank (top) returns this year, as does junior Will Doty (below). (Photo:

News-Press file photos)

UNDEFEATED, LAST YEAR’s George Mason swim team (above) sent 14 swimmers and a diver to the state championships. (Photo: News-Press file photo) son,” said Lemon, who is also excited about the freshmen that have joined the mix.

Lemon is looking at a handful of players to have successful individual campaigns and contribute to the team’s overall success.

Specifically, the coach named senior girls Kelly Frank and Karen Hamill; and on the boys side, se-

nior Sam Parker and juniors Sam Butler and Will Doty.

Lemon has his eyes on two big dual meets that will show what the Mustangs can handle.

This Friday, Mason host Potomac Falls at the Dunn Loring YWCA; and Jan. 30 the team travels to Broad Run. Against Potomac Falls, the Mustangs

will see where they’re at right out of the gate; against Broad Run, Mason will see how they’re handling stiff double A competition late in the season.

“The added competition is going to be beneficial,” said Lemon.

“It provides a good challenge to us. The kids are excited to meet some new faces.”

STEELER PERFECTION

THE ANKLE BITER STEELERS, a Vienna Youth Football Association team, ended the 2009 season on Nov. 14 undefeated, with nine wins and no losses, winning the Fairfax County Youth Football League AB Championship. Pictured above in the team’s trophy shot are, left to right: (back row) Coaches Adrian Showells, Doug Mitchell, Chris Collins and Dick Thomas; (second row) Head Coach Brian Walston, Zachary Saporito, Tucker Mitchell, Brian Collins, Bradley Wharton, Aidan Platter and Coach Todd Horacek; (third row) Lucian Walston, Jacob Lusk, Connor Cryan, Eli Wisemiller, Alex Deeds and Clark Thomas; and (bottom row) Mohammed Khraibani, James Schagrin, Ian McQueen, PJ Whitsworth and Antonio Leon. (Photo: Courtesy Sharon Lusk)

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 19

Eyes on Hoyas & Ovi in Mailbag Mike, the Hoyas are up to No. 14 in the Coaches Poll. Does that seem right for a team that couldn’t crack 50 points and almost blew a home game to Temple?

Craig E.

MCLEAN HIGH SCHOOL’S ice hockey team returns to the ice rink this year with 21 players, 15 of which are either freshman or sophomores. (Photo: Courtesy McLean High School)

Chillingly Young: McLean Hockey Returns to the Ice Young Team Looks to Turn Around Last Year’s Record

by Robert Fulton

Falls Church News-Press

The McLean High School club hockey team is really young heading into the 2009-2010 season.

How young? Well, of the 21 students on the team, 15 of them are either freshmen or sophomores.

All of that youth will pose challenges for the Highlanders.

Last season, the squad had five players graduate, and before that, the team lost eight seniors. All of this turnover resulted in a 4-5-1 record last season, and interesting prospects for the 2009-2010 season.

“We were hurt last year by losing a core group,” said McLean head coach John Sherlock, who has been at the helm of the team for its entire nine year history.

“This year, we’re almost starting over again.”

What the team lacks in experience, it makes up well in depth.

One key this season is that with so many pieces, Sherlock will be able to better fit players into their

proper positions, as fell as field a third line, a luxury not all teams have.

“Last year, skating a third line was not an option,” said Sherlock.

“We have some more depth than last year’s team. The downside is it’s all young.

“From a coaching perspective, this is a better team,” the coach added. “The pieces fit together better.”

As an example of the team’s inexperience is that only six players have any travel experience – more ice time usually makes for more prepared players.

“This is a more challenging team to coach in some ways,” said Sherlock.

The coach is looking to sophomore defender Nick Baker, who has been named a team captain, to set the tone for the squad. Junior forward Matt Stewart and sophomore Maury Winter are also expected to take leadership roles.

Sophomores Michael Gayle and Julian Kell and freshman Remi Paine will man the defensive

effort this season.

Offensively, key players will be junior forwards Tommy Borman and Matt Stewart and Martin Alm will man the goal.

After a number of scrimmages that date back to October, the McLean Highlanders finished with three wins and four losses.

The squad played its first official match of the season on Nov. 20, defeating Potomac Falls High 4-1 at home at Skatequest in Reston.

Senior Mason Richardson scored two goals for McLean, and Stewart and Connor Gilmartin each added a goal in victory. Alm was fantastic in his first start, stopping 21 shots.

Despite the young team, Sherlock sees a manageable schedule.

“Our schedule is not an overwhelming schedule,” the coach said.

“We have some optimism about this year being OK.” The Highlanders next face Langley at 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4 at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex at Ballston Common Mall.

court. Washington, on the other hand, excels in creating chaos, forcing turnovers on nearly 25 percent of their opponent’s possessions.

If Clark can hold onto the ball and continues to provide points through the season, Georgetown will enjoy a very formidable starting five. Depth? That’s another matter.

But it’s one that should be answered by the run ‘em ragged Huskies.

Needless to say, I’ll be paying close attention this coming week.

To be sure, the Hoyas’ current ranking is the product of the preseason opinion polls and a 5-0 mark against good, not great, competition.

The one-point squeaker at home against Temple was one of the ugliest games I’ve ever seen the Hoyas win, but Hume, what’s the Owls aren’t cup- Picking Splinters your take on the By cakes, as they showed Alex Ovechkin susby knocking off midpension, eh? Should Mike Hume major darlings Siena he heed the warning a few games later. I’m from the NHL with willing to write that performance off the two-game benching and play to early-season kinks, particularly less aggressively? since we’re about to see who the true Barry M. Hoyas are next week.

Tuesday kicks off a two-game Absolutely not. Under no cirstretch that will pit Georgetown cumstances should Ovechkin, who against No. 20 Butler and No. 10 has built his reputation not only as Washington. Each game features a hard-shooter but a hard-hitter, opponents with entirely different throttle down. By playing full bore, playing styles — the methodical Ovi generates turnovers just by approach of Butler and the fre- looking at opposing defensemen. netic run ‘n gun of Washington. A few strides in their direction and Moreover, the Butler Bulldogs will blueliners are firing the puck away be eager to validate the Final Four from them with little regard for its hype that’s surrounded the program direction. Often those hasty passes after dropping decisions to Clemson end up on the blades of Capitals’ and Minnesota earlier this season. sticks and in the back of oppoLikewise, Georgetown may be the nents’ nets. Turning that aspect of toughest opponent the Washington his game off entirely robs the Caps Huskies face all season, depending of a potent weapon. on how the Pac-10 shakes out. A That’s not to say there aren’t win over the Hoyas may be a pre- adjustments to be made, however. requisite for a shot at a protected The NHL isn’t saying the Great seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Eight needs to stop pounding on While the scare against Temple players. It’s saying he needs to make painted a fairly vivid picture of sure the hits are clean. And frankly, Georgetown’s lingering problems for his own good, he ought to listen.

— too many turnovers, an inability The knee-on-knee job that netto execute the offense in pressure ted him the two-game ban is a situations — the rest of the early good example. Playing recklessly season has yielded some pleasant not only puts his team at a disadvandevelopments. And none has been tage (the five-minute power play more pleasant than the break-out resulting from the hit) it could also play of sophomore guard Jason lead to injury (the bruised knee that Clark. Through Monday’s game currently has the game’s fiercest against Mt. St. Mary’s, Clark was competitor listed as “day-to-day.”) third on the team with 13.2 points The latter is of more concern to me. per game and tied for second in both Injuries add up over time and slow rebounds (5.4) and assists (3.2). you down, and sticking your knee Defensively, he’s clogged passing into harm’s way accelerates that lanes and harried opposing guards, time frame. The Caps, and fans, will averaging two steals a game. On want to see Ovechkin at his best for the flip side, both Clark and junior as long as possible. Making sure he point guard Chris Wright are turn- minds his knees is a good way to ing the ball over far too often, make sure that happens. particularly against teams that lack  Mike Hume may be e-mailed at elite defensive talent in the back- mhume@fcnp.com.

Page 20

December 3 - 9, 2009

Statesmen Welcome New Tennis Coach

THANKSGIVING CHAMPS

by Robert Fulton

Falls Church News-Press

When the Marshall High School varsity boys tennis team takes the court next March, there will be a new face in charge of the squad: Luke Haen has recently been named the team’s new head coach, replacing long-time coach Stephen Moody.

Haen is in his first year teaching at Marshall after a stint student teaching at Chantilly High.

Haen is currently an assistant coach for the Marshall wrestling program, but has no tennis coaching experience.

Haen has, however, played some tennis, and ran cross country in college.

“I’ve always had a love for tennis,” said Haen, who teaches social studies. “I’m really excited to give it a shot.”

Former coach Moody will still be around and help out in an advisory role, ensuring a smooth transition. Haen has been taking advantage of having the former coach’s experience right at his fingertips.

“We sat down,” said the rookie coach. “I’ve been picking his brain, getting a lot of good pointers.”

After searching for a coach, Marshall High’s Activities Director Joe Swarm was energized by the possibilities that Haen pres-

COACH LUKE HAEN. (Photo: Courtesy Marshall High School)

ents.

One positive is that Haen is on campus, meaning better access and communication between him and student-athletes.

“It helps with the kids,” said Swarm. “They see him on a day to day basis.”

Swarm also added that Moody mentoring Haen is a plus, and sees the girls head coach Robin Crider as a valuable resource for the new coach to use.

“It’s an opportunity to nurture somebody,” said Swarm, With the season still a few months away, Haen is spending the time leading up to then “just getting to know my players.”

“It’s a whole new ballgame,” he said.

THE U-11 MCLEAN BOYS BASKETBALL TEAM won all four of their games at the Braddock Road Thanksgiving Tournament, held over the Thanksgiving weekend. The boys defeated teams from Herndon, Vienna and Gainesville before trouncing Lee District in overtime for the gold in a final game held last Sunday at Lake Braddock High School. The team consisted of (left to right) Matt Livingston, Eric Mintz, Chase Barrand, John Rau, Bo Miles, Tax Ridgely, Patrick Ryan, Chris Murphy, Will Rock and Jack Coleman. (Photo: Courtesy Andy Livingston)

McLean Magic Trumps Manassas, Takes Gold at Lacrosse Tourney Undefeated for the season, theFairfax County Under-13 lacrosse team, McLean Magic, overcame one more opponent last Sunday to claim the county’s top honors.

The girls won the championship match over the Manassas Bat-

tle Field team, which had a season record of 5-1.

The girls team was composed of 12 players from Falls Church and the area. Samie Boryan was from Falls Church, while Erin and Jessica Alexis, Ellie Clark,

Ella Deeken, Nicole Lee, Kate Salamido and Haley Wenk came from the McLean district. Kristen Somers, Coleen Salazar and Margaret Doyle were from Vienna.

The team was coached by Mary Minshall.

Calling All Parents & Coaches: send us your stuff!

We need scores & game summaries of local high school sport games e-mailed to us on a weekly basis. Photos are also welcome.

We’ve been reaching out to coaches. Now, let’s work together to give these student athletes the coverage they deserve!

e-mail: sports@fcnp.com THE U13 MCLEAN MAGIC lacrosse team following last Sunday’s victory over the Manassas Battle Field Team in the Fairfax County championship. (Photos: Courtesy Jonathan Boryan)

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 21

Please join us for worship & fellowship.

Breakfast with Santa ‘Peter Pan’ Premieres at Marshall H.S.

pounds of canned goods and more than $2,300 in gift cards.

The theatre troupe of George C. Marshall High School is launching its fall production of “Peter Pan: A Musical.” Theatre director Trena Weiss-Null has incorporated over 63 pieces of music, song, dance and magic into this family-friendly production.

The show is set to debut on Friday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Marshall High School auditorium (7731 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church). The production will also run on Dec. 5, 11 and 12 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 6 at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. To purchase tickets, visit www.theatreatmarshall.org.

McLean H.S. Kicks Off Opera Season

McLean Students Raise Awareness Students from Cooper Middle School, Kilmer Middle School and Longfellow Middle School recently helped raise awareness of Share of McLean’s holiday relief program by handing out flyers at local grocery stores. The students asked shoppers to support over 200 families in economic distress by purchasing extra groceries or gift cards that can be used at the Share of McLean’s holiday shop in December. The students collected approximately 1,700

The Opera Scenes Players of McLean High School will kick off the December season with “Hansel and Gretel,” a one-act fairy tale opera that incorporates witches, fairies, angels, children and gingerbread.

The players will perform on Thursday, Dec. 3 & Friday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium (1633 Davidson Rd., McLean).

Admission is free. Donations will be accepted. For more information, call 703-714-5700.

G.M.H.S. Raises Funds for All Night Grad On Sunday, Dec. 6, Principal Byrd of George Mason High School will host the First Annual “Byrd Feeder” Fundraiser to benefit the All Night Graduation Celebration.

There will be a silent auction featuring items like professional sports tickets, bottles of wine and gift certificates to area restaurants.

The event will take place at Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 N. Washington St., Falls Church) from 4 – 7 p.m. For more

Saturday, December 5

information, call 703-248-5500.

Stuart FBLA Collects for Charity Toys for Tots

9:30 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. s Fellowship Hall

9:00 a.m.

Celebration Service Intergenerational and Family Friendly

The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) of J.E.B. Stuart High School are hosting the Marine Corps’ annual Toys for Tots drive. The FBLA will be collecting new, unwrapped toys through Wednesday, Dec. 9. Toys can be dropped off in the main office or room J-213 at Stuart High School (3301 Peace Valley Lane, Falls Church). Money donations will also be accepted. For more information, call 703-8243900.

10:00 a.m.

Education for All Ages 11:00 a.m.

Traditional Worship Service Holy Communion at both services Nursery available at both services

Stuart High Holds Book Fair Fundraiser

Master of Professional Studies and graduate certificates in the field of

Security and Safety Leadership

Marshall H.S. Announces New Tennis Coach

Be mentored by experts in homeland security policy, law enforcement cooperation, public safety leadership, emergency management, and international security issues.

George C. Marshall High School is pleased to name Luke Haen as the new head men’s tennis coach for the 2010 season.

Coach Haen is a social studies teacher at Marshall High School and is also an assistant coach in the wrestling program.

Earn credentials quickly by completing a graduate certificate in 8 months or a master’s degree in approximately 16 months.

Attend convenient classes one or two nights per week in Arlington.

G.M.H.S. Hosts GMRP Bake Sale

GEORGE C. MARSHALL STUDENTS (left to right) Ellen Chapin, Mera O’Malley, Lenny Tellis and Sarah Chapin practice flying for the production of “Peter Pan.” The musical will premiere on Friday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the George C. Marshall High School auditorium (7731 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church). (Photo: Courtesy Peggy Pridemore)

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The Parent Teacher Student Association (PTA) of J.E.B. Stuart High School invites book lovers to the annual Book Fair on Thursday, Dec. 3 from 6 – 10 p.m at Barnes & Noble (6260 Seven Corners Center, Falls Church).

Stuart’s orchestra, jazz band and choir will be performing. To obtain a voucher that can be used at any Barnes & Noble location throughout the week of the book fair, visit www.stuartptsa.org. For more information, call 703-354-6323.

George Mason High School will host a bake sale on Wednesday, Dec. 9 from 3 – 3:15 p.m. to raise funds for the George Mason Relief Project (GMRP) to benefit a school in Mali. All are invited to pick up a sweet treat and support the relief project. The sale will take place in the George Mason High School lobby (7124 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church). For more information, call 703-2485501.

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Information Session Monday, Dec. 7 6:30 pm 3601 Wilson Boulevard Suite 400 Arlington, VA Metro: Orange Line to Virginia Square

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Page 22

December 3 - 9, 2009

and closing night is Dec. 21, from 6 – 8 p.m. The gallery space is otherwise limited to normal office hours, Monday – Friday, 11 a.m.

– 5 p.m., or by appointment.

Pointed Perspective

W

ith the holidays bearing down on us, it’s time to list some of the open studio events, and small works shows around town.

Seasonal Shindigs Going Postal 2009, at the Target Gallery in the Torpedo Factory (105 North Union St., Alexandria).

The exhibit runs from Thursday, Dec. 3 – Sunday, Dec. 6. The gallery is open everyday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., and on Thursdays until 9 p.m.

For more details, call 703-8384565 ext. 4, or visit www.torpedofactory.org/galleries/target.htm.

Several hundred postcard sized art works will be on display for this three-day quickie show. The works will be on view in art bins for some time after the show comes down. The opening reception is this Thursday, 6 – 9 p.m.

Shaun Van Steyn photography and Liz Day paintings, at Art & Frame of Falls Church (111 Park Ave., Falls Church). The exhibit runs throughout December. The opening reception is this Friday, Dec. 4, from 6 – 8 p.m. An artist talk will be held at 7:15 p.m., all part of the regular monthly FIRSTfriday in Falls Church events.

FCA Holiday Market, at the Farmers Market (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). The Saturday farmers market runs from 8 a.m. – noon.

Falls Church Arts will be showing

works by artists in the area. The dates are Dec. 5, 12 and 19.

The NEPTUNE Gallery Artist Marketplace, at Gallery Neptune (5001 Wilson Lane, Bethesda, Md.). The marketplace runs through Dec. 20. The gallery is open weekly by appointment, and on Fridays and Saturdays from noon – 5 p.m. For more details, call 301-718-0809 or visit www.galleryneptune.com.

This is the best small works show I’ve seen so far. Neptune has 10 artists in this one, each with their own wall space, not unlike Artomatic. The work shown is interesting and of high quality, two features not always seen in small works shows. Check out their Web site for special events.

Open Studios, at the Jackson Art Center (3048 ½ R St. NW, Washington, D.C.). Well over 40 artists have their studio space here, and will be showing their work, in their own work spaces.

WPA Icebox, at the Washington Project for the Arts (2023 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.). The event starts this Friday, Dec. 4, and runs through Dec. 21.

Twenty local WPA members will be showing their small works in this show. Works are priced from $4 – 250 (most under $100, many under $25). The opening night is this Friday, Dec. 4, from 6 – 8 p.m.,

Moulden, “Abstraction 1, 2, 3,” acrylic on plywood, a collaboration with Robert Sibbison 40”x36”x4” (each), 2007.

Doug Moulden – The Empty Landscape, Sharon Fishel and Nancy Sausser – Small Worlds, at the Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) (12001 Market Street, Suite 103, Reston). The exhibit runs through Dec. 23. The gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more details, call 703-4719242 or visit www.restonarts.org.

Doug Moulden’s work makes up one of three focus exhibitions at GRACE. It’s difficult to pigeon hole Moulden’s work. Esthetically speaking, it’s akin to pointillism and needle point.

Working on shaped plywood forms, Moulden weaves a network of intricate lines applied with syringes loaded with acrylic paint.

Working with one color mixture at a time, Moulden’s back and forth weavings also recall cross hatched drawing skills.

Dealing mainly with paintings of trees, Moulden uses a variety of focal ranges in the 18 pieces on view here. Some images read at say eight to 10 feet away, while others never seem to come fully into focus, no matter how far away from them you get. The fuzzier images such as (Abstraction I, II, and III) seem more resolved, and more true to the pointillist notion of color mixing within the viewer’s eye and brain.

Sharon Fishel provides us with a series of small, fairly loose botanical paintings of canoe shaped foliage, which play well off Nancy Sausser’s often podshaped ceramic pieces.

While Fishel’s paintings appear to be fairly literal compositions, Sausser’s canoe-shaped ceramics are clearly metaphoric in nature.

They seem transitory vessels to be birthed from the soul, or to transport it to the next realm.

Sausser’s large assemblage titled “Each to the Other” is a ceramic collection of petri dishlike containers. While each dish seems subtly different from the next, the contents are alike within each container. Try as we might to mix it up, we are hard-wired to seek the company of people similar to ourselves. As such, Sausser’s piece seems the perfect metaphor for that ever so human quality.  The Northern Virginia Art Beat is compiled by Kevin Mellema.

See www.fcnp.com for photos and more. To e-mail submissions, send them to kevinmellema@gmail.com.

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 23 Dr. Leila Saba, DDS Proudly Announces the Opening of Her Falls Church Office

Mason High’s ‘Shop of Horrors’ Debut Shines

Falls Church Dental Care Hablamos Español

Participates In Most PPO Insurance Plans

Saturday Hours Available

www.fallschurchdentalcare.com 2 blocks from West Falls Church Metro Station 7115 Leesburg Pike, Ste. 205 (West Metro Plaza)

DR. LEILA SABA

by Tess Higgins

Special to the News-Press

Sometimes success can come about in a quite unexpected – or dangerous – way, and that is exactly what happened to the workers of Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists in George Mason High School’s production of Little Shop of Horrors.

In the middle of the dark, decrepit neighborhood of Skid Row sits a lowly floral shop, owned by Mr. Mushnik (Tom Shapiro). His young and geeky worker, Seymour (Sam Waters), believes he can turn the shop’s luck around by displaying a rare plant he has discovered in the shop’s window for all prospective customers to see. He names the plant Audrey II, after Audrey (Sarah Johnson), the coworker whom he loves. However, Seymour does not realize that this plant wants more than the usual diet of water and sunlight. This plant wants blood.

George Mason’s production was anchored by large group numbers, that included strong harmonies. The leads produced similar results during their solo numbers.

Many of the numbers had a 60’s Doo-Wop feel and the vocalists were able to execute these commendably.

Sam Waters gave a performance filled with energy and noticeable

Discover the Magic of Christmas at

Merrifield Garden Center

GEORGE MASON H.S. STUDENTS Sarah Johnson (left) and Sam Waters (right) co-star as Audrey and Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors.” (Photo: News-Press) character development as Seymour transformed from being shy and insecure to having more confidence in himself. Waters also had fantastic vocal, and his voice stood out in every song.

Tom Shapiro’s portrayal of the frantic Mr. Mushnik brought hilarity to many scenes through his awkwardness and understated humor.

Another superb vocalist was Katie Loftur-Thun who played the

MASON HIGH’s Miles Butler (right) stars as the Devil in the school’s most recent production. (Photo: News-Press)

voice of Audrey II. Although she was never onstage and sang from inside the pit band, she made all of her songs stand out, hitting all the low notes that were originally written for a man. Sarah Johnson, as the human Audrey, maintained a nasal tone of voice throughout the show that was always entertaining.

She brought life and meaning to her solo song, “Somewhere That’s Green.”

Rand Walter, as Audrey’s ne’er-do-well boyfriend, Dr. Orin Scrivello, gave an enjoyable comedic performance, especially in “Dentist!” and “Now (It’s Just the Gas).”

The set was one of the best aspects of the show. The space onstage was certainly used well, and wire fences, dumpsters and graffiti were used to play up the decaying condition of Skid Row. While at times the lighting seemed a little frenzied, other lighting such as streetlights and neon signs were creative additions to the set.

Overall, George Mason High School’s cast performed this delightfully dark comedy with enthusiasm and made sure to warn everyone: “Don’t feed the plant!”

• Tess Higgins is a student at Langley High School and a member of the Cappies Critics and Awards program.

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Page 24

December 3 - 9, 2009

Community Events THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 Opening Exhibitions. McLean Project for the Arts is opening several exhibits. Sculptures by Alex Bay and R.L. Croft will be unveiled, works

by Melissa Dickenson open and an eclectic mix of other artwork by the McLean Art Society can be viewed for the first time. The public is invited to an opening reception in the Atrium Gallery. McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean). Free. 7 – 9 p.m. 703790-1953.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4 FIRSTfriday. Join local eateries, galleries and retail establishments in Falls Church for specials, meet & greet, live music and more. For a full listing of events, visit www. firstfridayoffallschurch.com.

Craft Expo. Marvel at the works of over 70 crafters and artisans as they come together for one weekend to offer their handmade merchandise.

McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean).

Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children under 14. 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

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

Continues through Monday. 703790-1953.

will host a “Cider and Cookies” open house to collect toys and canned goods for the local food shelter. NERA (6703 Farragut Ave., Falls Church). Cost is a donation of canned food or an unwrapped toy.

2 – 4 p.m. 703-534-1329.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5 Chef Demonstration. Chefs from Willow Restaurant will concoct mushroom bisque and apple compote. Recipes and tastings available. Falls Church Farmers Market (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). Free. 9 – 11 a.m. www. fallschurcharts.org.

Holiday Craft Show. The show will have 60 vendors gathering to offer unique items, breakfast with Santa, a craft corner and more. Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls St., Falls Church). $1 for adults, free for children under 12. Saturday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m.

– 4 p.m. 703-248-5077.

Children’s Holiday Shop. Volunteers will help children purchase and wrap inexpensive holiday gifts for friends and family. Cherry Hill Farmhouse (312 Park Ave., Falls Church). All items are $5 and under. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. 703-248-5171.

‘Cider and Cookies.’ The Naval Enlisted Reserve Association (NERA)

&

An International Christmas. Follow artistic director Gretchen Kuhrmann and the Choralis’ Ēchos ensemble as they send audiences on a listening voyage around the world.

Peace Lutheran Church (6362 Lincolnia Rd., Alexandria). $20 for general admission, $5 for students, free for children under 12. 7 p.m.

703-237-2499.

Networking Seminar. Jim Wylde will conduct a pro bono networking seminar, offering training in business and professional networking skills for public, private and international settings.

Shirlington Branch Library (4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington). Free. 3 p.m. 703-228-6545.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6 ‘Byrd Feeder’ Fundraiser. A fundraiser benefiting George Mason H.S. will feature a silent

auction with gift certificates. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 N. Washington St., Falls Church). 4 – 7 p.m. 703-532-9283.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 7 Teen Brain Teasers. Sample classic logic puzzles, mini-mysteries, word benders and more. Ages 12 – 19.

Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church).

Free. 4 p.m. 703-790-8088.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9 Homeless Shelter ‘FUNraiser.’

Help the Falls Church Emergency Homeless Shelter by painting an ornament, plate, bowl or mug. All proceeds will be donated directly to the shelter. Clay Café (101 N. Maple Ave., Falls Church). $25. 7 – 9 p.m. For reservations, call 703534-7600.

‘Molière.’ Partake in the “World Cinema Spotlight” series by viewing this lively comedy film following the premise of Molière’s life. Rated PG 13. Shirlington Branch Library (4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington). Free. 7 p.m. 703-228-6545.

Theater Fine Arts THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3

‘Unlawful Assembly.’ Join P.J. Megaw, grandson of former U.S. Senator Alan Dixon and Falls Church thespian, and 30 other actors for an original comedy about the Illinois State Legislature. Falls Church resident, former Illinois Senator and playwright Mark Q. Rhoads authors the play and Falls Church acting teacher Cheryl Rhoads directs the stage. A reception with champagne and an Illinois birthday cake will follow. The Comedy Spot Theater (4238 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $15. 7:30 p.m. 703-294-5233 or www.comedyindc.com/unlawful.htm.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4

‘Christmas Wishes.’ This art exhibit features two-dimensional works by members of Falls

Church Arts with the theme of holiday wishes coming true. An artists reception will be held for the opening. ArtSpace Falls Church (410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church). Free. 6 – 8 p.m. www. fallschurcharts.org or 571-239-5288.

‘Peter Pan: A Musical.’ The George C. Marshall High School Drama Department will perform its rendition of the childhood fantasy “Peter Pan.” George C. Marshall High School (7731 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church). $10 for adults, $5 for students. Shows Friday & Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. 703-714-5409.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5

‘The Snow Queen.’ Based on the play by Alexander Pushkin, “The Snow Queen” tells the story of a young girl rescuing her brother from his servitude to a cold-hearted royal family.

Synetic Family Theater (4041 Campbell Ave., Arlington). $15. Noon. Runs through Jan. 10.

800-494-8497.

‘The Christmas Cabin of Carnaween.’ Creative Cauldron presents an Irish folktale adapted for the stage with music, storytelling and dance.

ArtSpace Falls Church (410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church). $10. Shows Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. through Dec. 20. 571-2395288.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10

GMHS Band Concert. The George Mason High School Band Concert will feature performances from the jazz band, percussion ensemble and symphonic band. George Mason High School auditorium (7124 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church).

7:30 p.m. Free. 703-248-5500.

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 25

live_music&nightlife THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 E� V�� ��� L�� S������������. With Lovely Elvettes, The Hall Monitors.

9:30 Club (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $20. 7 p.m. 202-265-0930.

G����� R���. Bangkok Blues (926 W. Broad St., Falls Church). $5. 7:30 p.m. 703-534-0095.

L��� B�������. With Peter Bradley Adams, Rosi Golan. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15.

7:30 p.m. 703-255-1566.

P�� P�����. With Helo, Type Fighter, The Seedy Seeds. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10.

8:30 p.m. 703-522-8340.

J��� B����’� B���. With Lionize.

The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $15. 9 p.m.

703-237-5717.

M��� W�����. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church). Free. 10 p.m. 703-237-8333.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4 P���������� B���. With Mike Lapadula and The Lost Souls. Bangkok Blues (926 W. Broad St., Falls Church). $7. 7 p.m. 703-534-0095.

G����� C�����. With Michael Pearsall. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E,

Vienna). $12 in advance, $15 day of.

7 p.m. 703-255-1566.

Broad St., Falls Church). $7. 7 p.m.

703-534-0095.

R������ B������. With Anders Parker. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $14. 9 p.m.

703-522-8340.

J����� W�����. With The Gypsy Sons. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $26. 9 p.m. 703-237-5717.

W������ W������ P������ F���������. With Future, See-I, Poor Man’s Lobster. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $15 in advance, $17 day of.

9 p.m. 703-237-5717.

P����� L. With John Nolan, Brian Bonz. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10 in advance, $12 day of. 9 p.m. 703-255-1566.

F���� ��� H�����. With Memphis 59, Laura Tsaggaris. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10. 10 p.m.

703-255-1566.

T�� C���� C����� D��. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church).

Free. 10 p.m. 703-237-8333.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5 A���� R��. With RadioRadio, Fight Cloud, Sub-Radio Standard, Thatswhatshesaid. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10 in advance, $13 day of. 3 p.m. 703-2551566.

D���� R�����. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10.

5 p.m. 703-522-8340.

A��� P����. With The Sherwood Blues Band. Bangkok Blues (926 W.

T�� U-L�����. With Ruthie and The Wranglers. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $12. 9 p.m.

703-522-8340.

J���� M���. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church). Free. 10 p.m. 703-237-8333.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6 M��� F���. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $18. 7 p.m. 703-2551566.

J��� H���. With Tony Lucca, Matt Lowell. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $12. 8 p.m.

703-522-8340.

D���� B���� � T�� G���� S�������.

The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $30 in advance, $32 day of. 8 p.m. 703-2375717.

T��� S�������. Jammin’ Java (227

Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $12. 9:30 p.m. 703-255-1566.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 7 R������ S�����. With Anjulie. 9:30 Club (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $35. 7 p.m. 202-265-0930.

M����� M���� N����. “Up In Smoke.” The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $3.

7:30 p.m. 703-237-5717.

D�� F������. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10. 8 p.m.

703-255-1566.

T�� F������ R������ C���������. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $5. 8 p.m. 703-522-8340.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 J���� G�����. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15. 8 p.m.

703-255-1566.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9 B������ B�����. 9:30 Club (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $15. 7 p.m.

202-265-0930.

J��� C����’� C�������� S���.

Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15 in advance, $20 day of.

7:30 p.m. 703-255-1566.

P������� A����...

T

his is the limbo of holiday eating. Right after Thanksgiving when the last of leftovers have been finished and not quite to the time when holiday cookies and treats begin coming out of the kitchen. So what’s an eater to do? I say, “Keep on eating!” Just because the gingerbread isn’t done and the eggnog isn’t on tap doesn’t give you an excuse to revert to a sensible diet. Consider this your stomach training period, keeping it prepared for the next holiday feast. Fortunately, helping keep that appetite finely tuned is F.C.’s own Elevation Burger, which, with a coupon in this paper, is offering up a free double patty burger on Saturday. But just one isn’t going to do the job, so make it a burger-doubleheader by hitting up BGR The Burger Joint as well. With every burger sold in December, the Joint will donate one to the DC Central Kitchen, which helps feed the homeless. It’s a win-win! Help your belly, help the homeless.

What: Burgers, Burgers, Burgers When: Elevation Burger: Dec. 5; Burger Joint: Through December Where: Elevation Burger: 422 S. Washington St, Falls Church; The Burger Joint: 1514 Connecticut Ave, Washington, D.C. 106 N. Washington St, Alexandria; 4927 Fairmont Ave, Bethesda, MD

Friday, Dec. 11 – ‘Nutcracker Sweet & Spicy.’ Dream in Color Studios has created a version of “The Nutcracker” with a taste of ethnic flavor. The music, characters and style of dance presented reflect the cultural diversity that represent the Washington D.C. Metro community. James Lee Community Center Theatre (2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church). $5.

Two performances, 7 & 8:30 p.m. Also shows Dec. 18. 703-642-1711.

Sunday, Dec. 13 – Christmas Holiday Festival & Hymn Singing. Get into the mood for the holidays by lending a voice to a musical performance. The First Church of Christ’s Sunday school and musicians will be singing carols and songs of the season. First Church of Christ, Scientist (890 N. McKinley Rd., Arlington). Free. 11:30 a.m. 877-345-4567.

C������� S���������� Be sure to include time, location, cost of admission, contact person and any other pertinent information.

Event listings will be edited for content and space limitations. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for the current week’s edition.

Email: calendar@fcnp.com Fax: 703-342-0347; Attn: FCNP Calendar Mail: 450 West Broad Street, #321, Falls Church, VA 22046

Page 26

December 3 - 9, 2009

Roger Ebert’s Movie Review

‘Up In the Air’

by Roger Ebert

Universal Press Syndicate



Ryan Bingham is the Organization Man for the 2000s.

He never comes to the office.

Technically, he doesn’t have an office; he has an address where his employer has an office. His life is devoted to visiting other people’s offices and firing them.

“Up in the Air” takes the trust people once had in their jobs and pulls out the rug. It is a film for this time.

Bingham describes himself as a “termination facilitator.” He fires people for a living. When corporations need to downsize quickly but hate the mess, he flies in and breaks the news to the new former employees. In hard times, his business is great.

Ryan Bingham George Clooney Alex Goran .......... Vera Farmiga Natalie Keener . Anna Kendrick Craig Gregory .. Jason Bateman Jim Miller .......... Danny McBride Julie Bingham Melanie Lynskey

SCREEN

GE

This isn’t a comedy. If it were, it would be hard to laugh in these last days of 2009. Nor is it a tragedy. It’s an observant look at how a man does a job. Too many movie characters have jobs involving ruling people, killing them or going to high school. Bingham loves his work. He doesn’t want a home. He doesn’t want a family. He gives self-help lectures on how and why to unpack the

RD RED WAAH F ” D E R R O S “ARMDONEN DAN FANTAL M L I F H A A H FAR UCED OSHUA TED ROD ION WIT ER PROD BY J NDIREC BY NIM T IA C O S IN AS LLAND SIMPSO DUCTION RUSSELLWHRITOTEN Y JAMES V. O R P T B EN RETXAECIUNTIVMERS DEBRA JAMES E T N E D E S R OA PRODUC A STAR N MURPHY S T N E IC MS PRES MUS BY JOH STARTS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES SORRY, NO PASSES ACCEPTED FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT

Paramount presents a film directed by Jason Reitman. Screenplay

by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, based on a novel by Walter Kirn.

Running time: 109 minutes.

MPAA rating: R (for language and some sexual content).

backpack of your life.

George Clooney plays Bingham as one of those people you meet but never get to know.

They go through all the forms, and know all the right moves and you’re “friends,” but – who’s in there? Sitting in a first-class seat one day, asked where he lives, Bingham says, “Here.”

He likes his job because he feels he performs a service.

Nobody likes to fire someone.

Someone has to. He has protocols. In a curious way, he’s like the two Army men in “The Messenger,” who notify the next of kin after a soldier is killed.

Jason Reitman, the director, auditioned real people who had recently been fired to play some of the fired employees (others are played by actors). He asked them to improvise their words on learning the news. Would you want the job of listening to their pain?

There are two women in Bingham’s life. Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) is also a road warrior, and for some time they’ve been meeting in dreary “suite” hotels in East Moses, Nowhere – having meals, making love, playacting at being the happy couple neither one will commit to.

Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) is a bright, ambitious new graduate who has taken a job with Bingham’s company because it’s near her boyfriend. Bingham takes her on the road to teach her the ropes. Alex is him now; Natalie is him then.

Farmiga is one of the warmest and most attractive women in the movies, or at least she plays one. You may not guess all she’s thinking. Kendrick’s Alex is so brim-full of joy at the dawn of her career that it shines even on ending those of others. Nothing better than making your boss happy.

The isolation of the road life is threatened by the introduction of firing by Web chat. This is in-

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 27

New on Video & DVD

H Mini Movie Reviews Opening in Theaters

B

ROTHERS (Drama, R, 104 minutes). About a family twisted from its natural form when a father leaves for service in Afghanistan just after his brother comes home from prison. The good brother (Tobey Maguire) goes into harm’s way while the bad brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) is shielded by his misbehavior. The serving brother is reported killed in action. The survivor tries awkwardly to help the widow (Natalie Portman). We know all along Maguire didn’t die and is

being tortured by the Taliban. When he returns, the drama deepens.

Directed by Jim Sheridan; remade from a 2004 Danish film. Rating: Three and a half stars.

E

VERYBODY’S FINE (Drama, PG-13, 95 minutes). Robert De Niro plays a widower who embarks on a cross-country journey to visit his children, with predictable consequences. They’re played by Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell. Sincerely done, with a tactful performance by De Niro, but not compelling. Rating: Two and a half stars..

ARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (Fantasy, PG, 153 m., 2009). Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) team up to learn a secret from Voldemort’s school days, after coaxing the reclusive Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) out of retirement.

The sixth film in the Potter saga is darker and more ominous than before, as the evil Voldemort creeps closer. Adolescence is also making itself evident, although at a PG-rated temperature. Helena Bonham Carter, as Bellatrix Lestrange, makes a big mess in the dining hall, and generally suggests she may have a larger role in the concluding two films. The art direction and cinematography are gorgeous. Rating: Three stars.

Continued on Page 28

“A FUNNY AND INVENTIVE COMEDY.” Jeff Craig, SIXTY SECOND PREVIEW

TM

GEORGE CLOONEY STARS as Ryan Bingham in Paramount Pictures’ “Up in the Air.” (PHOTO: DALE ROBINETTE © PARAMOUNT

PICTURES)

sourcing, if you will. It may not be warmer than firing someone in person, but it saves a lot of money on air fare. Notice how Reitman likes to start with the way corporations justify immoral behavior and then apply their rationalizations with perfect logic. That method was at the core of his brilliant debut, “Thank You for Smoking” (2005).

Reitman also made the great “Juno.” Still only 32, the son of the Canadian producer-director

Ivan Reitman (“Ghost Busters”), he grew up behind the counter of the family store, so to speak. With these three films at the dawn of HIS career, we can only imagine what comes next. He makes smart, edgy, mainstream films. That’s harder than making smart, edgy indies. In a pie chart he compiled of questions he’s asked time and again during interviews, “How does your father feel about your success?” ranks high. Bursting with pride, is my guess.

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Page 28

Mini Reviews Continued from Page 27

J

ULIE & JULIA (Comedy, PG13, 123 m., 2009). A frustrated Queens wife vows to write a blog about cooking her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” 524 recipes in 365 days. The film shows the effect of culinary dedication on both women’s lives and marriages. Amy Adams and Meryl Streep are engaging, and Streep’s impersonation of Child is uncanny, but really, is the price of total obsession worth paying for the cost of a perfect boeuf bourguignon? Rating: Two and a half stars.

P

UBLIC ENEMIES (Crime drama, R, 140 m., 2009).

Shrugs off the way we depend on myth to sentimentalize our outlaws. Well-researched, many actual locations; Johnny Depp plays John Dillinger as efficient, violent and hard as steel. Marion Cotillard is effective as Billie Frechette, his girlfriend at the end, who masks her vulnerability with sweetness. Christian Bale is all busi-

December 3 - 9, 2009

ness as FBI agent Melvin Purvis. Billy Crudup plays J. Edgar Hoover as a dreamer unfamiliar with the brass tacks of law enforcement. Directed by Michael Mann (“Heat”) with precision, sidestepping cliches and sweeteners.

Rating: Three and a half stars.

T

ERMINATOR: SALVATION (Sci-fi action, PG, 115 m., 2009).

Roughly 90 percent of the running time is occupied by action sequences, chase sequences, motorcycle sequences, plow truck sequences, helicopter sequences, fighter plane sequences, towering android sequences and fistfights. It gives you all the pleasure of a video game without the bother of having to play it. With Christian Bale, Moon Bloodgood. Rating: Two stars.

N

IGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN (Comedy, PG, 105 m., 2009). Larry the socalled maintenance man (Ben Stiller) returns to the museum to comfort his buddies from the 2006 movie who are being retired and shipped off in packing crates to an eternity of confinement in the National Archives.

Like ectoplasm from a medium, this is the visible extrusion of a marketing campaign. With Robin Williams, Amy Adams, Christopher Guest, many more. Rating: One and a half stars.

P

APER HEART (Comedy, PG, 88 m., 2009). Quasi-documentary about comedian Charlyne Yi and her tour of America to ask people for their insights into true love --

an emotion she doesn’t understand.

Along the way she meets and falls in love with the actor Michael Cera (“Juno”), and the intriguing question is, when does reality end and the scripting begin? Sweet, funny and deceptive. Rating: Three stars.

A

NGELS AND DEMONS (Thriller, PG-13, 138 m., 2009).

Professor Tom Hanks is back on the trail again, racing through Rome

against a ticking time bomb to save four kidnapped cardinals and reach a vial of anti-matter that could vaporize the Vatican. Meanwhile, intrigue within the College of Cardinals and evidence the previous pope was murdered. This kind of thriller requires us to accept the preposterous, and if we do, it promises to entertain. “Angels and Demons” succeeds. Rating: Three stars.

(C) 2009 The Ebert Co.

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 29

Dec

3 ay

sd Thur

Luke Brindley Jammin’ Java 7:30 p.m.

227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna 703-255-1566 • jamminjava.com

Pet Parade Iota Club & Café 9 p.m.

2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington 703-522-8340 • iotaclubandcafe.com

4

y

Frida

Four Bitchin’ Babes Birchmere 7:30 p.m.

3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria 703-549-7500 • birchmere.com

5 ay

d Satur

BY MIKE HUME

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

Persistence and dedication are two of the best traits a band can have as it tries to break out of the local music scene. Fortunately for fusion funk-jazz group Poor Man’s Lobster, they seem to have no shortage of either.

There are few weeks that go by that the Fairfax-based band doesn’t perform at least a pair of shows. With regular gigs at Fat Tuesday’s the fivesome is continually crafting its style and building a reputation as one of the most intriguing young groups in the area.

“The last three years, we never had a week off,” drummer and founding member Michael Lilburn says. “We work really hard and play all the time. We usually feel weird when we don’t play.”

Along with guitarist and singer Justin Piteleski, Lilburn has seen the band’s lineup consistently evolve over the years. Bass players rotated through. Horn players came and went. For the moment, however, the group is relatively static and primed to release its first full-length recorded album around the new year (tentatively Dec. 29).

Like it’s lineup the band’s sound has constantly changed over the past three years, now arriving at a blend of blues, jazz, rock and funk that Lilburn likes to call “audio acrobatics.”

“It’s the way I’ve always wanted to play as a drummer,” Lilburn says. “We just started out doing simple rock and Reggae covers.

Our sound was kind of to get everyone to dance at first. Now we’re playing like a

POOR MAN’S LOBSTER (PHOTO: COURTESY MIKE DIBELLA) fusion, Weather Report style, complicated fusion jazz/funk songs. It’s really challenging.”

The schizophrenic “Beat Heat Funk for a Bent Beat Duck,” available to stream on their MySpace page is a good illustration of said difficult sound. (Heck, it’s difficult enough just to type.) The tune alternates between a frantic rhythm and belt-out-loud chorus with an elongated, and intricate, bass solo that shows off the band’s chops. The nine minute-plus “I’m Leavin’” builds from a slow groove into a growl-filled blues ballad, adding

Rob Zombie 9:30 Club 7 p.m.

Music lovers at the News-Press soaked up these singles this week:

815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C. 202-265-0930 • 930.com

 

Nicholas Benton— Wild Word by Cat Stevens

Jody Fellows— Popular Demand by Clipse ft. Cam’ron  

Natalie Bedell— Hey, Soul Sister by Train Dean Edwards— Alejandro by Lady Gaga

screaming guitar and saxophone solos before bowing out.

Area music aficionados will get the opportunity to check the band out live when it performs at The State Theatre with Future and SeeI as part of a concert benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project, a charity dedicated to helping veterans injured while serving abroad.

To date, Poor Man’s Lobster has enjoyed their history with Future. Lilburn’s friendship with the bass player since middle school has netted Poor Man’s Lobster a few opening opportunities, including this show on Dec. 4, which Lilburn is particularly excited to play.

“This is our first time involved with the Wounded Warrior Project,” he says. “I have a few friends who will be there who were in Iraq for a few tours. Anytime we can play for a meaningful cause it just makes it that much better.”

If the band’s raw musical talent is any indication, Lilburn and Co. should have plenty of opportunities to help out for many years to come.

• Tickets for the Dec. 4 show at the State Theatre are $15 in advance and $17 at the door.

For more information on Poor Man’s Lobster, visit www.myspace.com/poormanslobster.

Page 30

December 3 - 9, 2009

Restaurant Spotlight Ristorante Murali

395

395

1201 S. Joyce St., Arlington, VA www.muraliva.com • 703-415-0411 The First Name in Pancakes

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

Availab

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

7700 Wisconsin Ave. Bethesda, MD 301-986-0285

12224 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 301-468-0886

www.edencenter.com MANY OF WASHINGTON'S BEST RESTAURANTS WASHINGTONIAN MAGAZINE AND WASHINGTON POST REVIEWED

Authentic Afghan Cuisine 124 N. Washington St. Falls Church, VA By the intersections of Rt. 7 & 29 Free Parking in Rear

(703) 534-1033

Lunch: 11 am-2:00 pm Dinner : 5 pm-10 pm • Sunday 5-10 •

Phone: (703) 536-4566 924 W. Broad Street Falls Church, VA 22046

Harvest Moon Restaurant & Lounge

703-573-6000 www.theharvestmoonrestaurant.com (Graham Center across from Loehmann’s Plaza) 7260 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, VA 22042

Call for Reservations 105 W. Broad St. Falls Church, VA 22046

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des Célestins CA F È Tel: (703) 538-3033 Fax: (703) 573-0409

6876 Lee Highway Arlington, Virginia 22213

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Ar my

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Ristorante Murali 1201 S. Joyce St.

Arlington

Ristorante Murali, located in the courtyard of Pentagon Row, offers ambiance, flavorful food and casual italian dining.

The interior is straight out of of a Wes Anderson film – rich murals of waterways and gondolas, large windows and an open-air feel make for a colorful scene.

And what is an Italian “atmosfera” without a little wine? There are 20 whites and reds by the glass to choose from, all for less than $10. The list of bottles is even more comprehensive. For a versatile red, try the 2007 Barbera D’Alba Lodali ($8.25/$36.00). All of this is topped off by a fast, attentive staff.

Begin this Mediterranean feast with the Murali Vegetable and Goat Cheese Bake ($8.25), layers of eggplant, roasted bell peppers and fresh goat cheese over a light pesto sauce. For a cold selection, try the Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese appetizer ($7.25), tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette with red onions and toasted almonds. The spinach and dressing together complement the creaminess of the goat cheese and almond mix. Dense, homemade peasant bread and extra virgin olive oil is also table-side for those who haven’t sworn off carbohydrates.

Entrées include tasteful renditions of various Italian classics. The Pizza Al Murali ($12.95) is a homemade white pizza topped with mushrooms, garlic and a generous portion of lump crabmeat for the price. Fresh basil leaves top the thin-crust, individual-sized pies, a distinct scent sure to signal the dish’s arrival. For those looking to go meatless, try the Agnolotti di Formaggio ($14.50), ricotta cheese and spinach-filled ravioli or the Lasagna al Forno ($13.50) with vegetables in tomato sauce topped with fresh mozzarella.

And the magic doesn’t stop at the entrées.

Indulge in the Murali ($6.25) for dessert, poached pears in a red wine and cinnamon reduction served over Zabaione – Italian custard – with vanilla ice cream. Perfect for a cold winter’s night, the meal ends with the sweet fruit, served warm in nutty spices, combined with cool custard, then topped with frozen cream. Sorbetto ($5.25) is also offered, which comes in raspberry, mango and lemon flavors.

Ristorante Murali is also a superb choice for large-group dining. Head chef Luis Antonio has prepared a variety of three-course lunch and dinner menus, starting as low as $16.95 per guest. These dinner and lunch sets can be prepared family-style upon request.

Whether it is a romantic dinner for two or a holiday function, Ristorante Murali is an under-theradar gem that won’t wreak havoc on a budget. When the weather outside is frightful, kick the winter doldrums and head to Murali’s for Italian delight.

— MARY PORTNER

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December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 31

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Page 32

December 3 - 9, 2009

Books On Drinking Offer Good Value Books about drinking are in a curious place this season.

Familiar names, familiar concepts. That’s not a bad thing. It’s a good year to provide solid value per page, and that’s what you’ll find in these selections.

If you want to understand the sea change in the realm of Robert Parker, here’s what you do: Take a copy of Parker’s “Wine Buying Guide” (sixth edition) and flip through for 10 minutes. Take Parker’s Wine Bargains (Simon & Schuster, 497 pages, $18) and do the same.

What’s different? For one, no scores. No vintages either, a choice both savvy and disorienting. And don’t overlook the extra voices in the mix, including contributors like Riesling expert David Schildknecht, who help bring a

By Jonn Bonné sensibility that - and let’s be fair SAN FRANCISCO here - reflects the shelves of a CHRONICLE smart wine shop far better than the Wine Advocate might have even a few years ago.

Hence wines like Riesling from Austria’s Loimer and Basque Txakoli from Xarmant, plus more mainstream fare like the (excellent) Chablis from Gilbert Picq.

“Bargains” makes a larger statement about the state of Parkerdom. Producers and places, not numbers, are given center stage. In that sense, it can serve as a very handy guide to consistently worthy wines; its shorthand descriptions balance the usual fruit rigmarole with solid contextual detail.

Let’s be honest: Rather than nabbing a one-time superstar, much of our wine buying is about hunting for labels we trust.

That’s the approach in “Bargains,” and for a Parker book to fly without scores is yet another sign of how the world’s most powerful wine critic is finding a way to stay relevant in changing times.

Another new release with familiar pedigree is The Concise World Atlas of Wine (Mitchell Beazley, 352 pages, $30). The key word is “concise, ” as this largely replicates the 2008 edition of the World Atlas edited by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson.

This paperback form may contain less detailed text, but all the 200 maps are retained. At substantially less than the $50 hardcover, this allows the curious drinker on a budget to access what has become the indispensable source for understanding wine’s geography.

I already noted the arrival of Randall Grahm’s compilation of writing, “Been Doon So Long,” (UC Press, 318 pages, $35), but as holiday bells draw clear, the collected works of the bibulous muse of Santa Cruz hold sway. Grahm’s tributes to literature (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Rootstock”) mostly illuminate his brilliant excesses of biochemical creativity.

But move past that and find there’s also a serious side in Grahm’s repertoire. It’s here that Grahm’s talents truly shine, as when he turns Friulian winemaker Josko Gravner into his own Salinger in “Six Feet Under.” When he’s on, Grahm manages the sort of wine writing that rarely finds a place in print anymore: rhapsodic, smart and frank, if not for the beginner.

Now to strong tipple. All cocktail books need a hook, and Kara Newman has found a novel one for “Spice & Ice” (Chronicle Books, 159 pages, $17): drinks with a notable kick beyond the alcohol.

In their most interesting form, this includes beverages like a jalapeno-enhanced julep or the cayenne-powered Gunpower Gimlet from Presidio Social Club’s Tim Stookey.

At its less glorious, it wraps in beverages like the “Hot Lips” Chocotini, and there’s a preponderance of ginger, perhaps a reflection of the root’s elderflower-style saturation in cocktails.

Aspiring mixologists note: Adding spicy heat to drinks requires infusions and other boozy legerdemain, so most concoctions require planning. But for those who want their drinks with a whomp - like me - Newman has conveniently sleuthed out most of what’s in the canon.

The Wine Line

Playing the Cards That Are Dealt I’ve been playing too many hands for awhile now. Though this strategy has yielded a few chip leads, unfortunately, it’s resulted in zero wins. Consistently playing suited connectors like 8c-7c for raises and reraises will cause big chip swings. If that’s what you want, well, strap on your seatbelt, because you’ve got a turbulent ride ahead of you!

The real problem with this style of play is the frequency with which you’ll end up going allin, even on Day One of a major poker tournament. Yes, 8c-7c is terrific when the flop comes 8-73, but what happens when the flop comes J-8-3 and your lone opponent catches pocket kings? You risk losing a lot of chips early.

Also, because you’re playing a lot of pots, you’ll establish a loose table image. When you do move all-in with A-K, J-J, or K-K, you’ll get called by A-Q. Okay, you might have A-K vs.

A-Q but you’ll still be risking a lot of your chips very early in the tournament.

So now that I’ve been on this playing-too-many-hands kick for over a year, I consciously decided to over-adjust and start playing super-tight poker utilizing a make-one-move-per hour strategy.

I used this approach at the UltimateBet tournament in Aruba and repeatedly folded suited connectors for a raise or a reraise, and I rarely bluffed. I’d occasionally reraise with K-Q suited but only when I thought I had the best hand.

This style kept me out of trouble on Day One. I ran up my starting stack from $15,000 to $50,000 completely risk-free. I more than doubled up when I limped with As-Js under the gun and flopped a flush against two players who were drawing dead.

I ran horribly on Day Two but not in any given pot. I had one pair of pocket kings but no straights, sets, flushes, or any other big pairs. Still, I managed to break even for the day. I never moved all-in and ended up with around $50,000 in chips.

I finally played a coin flip on Day Three with pocket jacks

against an opponent’s K-Q suited.

Incidentally, it was a horrible play by my opponent. He should never have been in that pot in the first place.

Then I picked up A-A against K-K and Ac-Kc. I moved all-in with my hand only to lose some (but not all) of my chips when the case king hit on the river. Finally, with 54 players remaining, and 45 of them getting paid, I moved all-in with Ah-Kh and lost to pocket aces.

See you later, Phil!

Still, I was encouraged. It felt like the old days when I was getting all of my money in pre-flop with A-A, K-K, A-K, and occasionally Q-Q. Fast forward to the $15,000 buy-in Festa al Lago World Poker Tour tournament at the Bellagio.

My strategy was to attempt approximately one over the top move per hour because that play works around 75% of the time

for average players but almost 90% of the time for me due to my reading ability.

With a starting stack of $60,000, I found myself effortlessly folding hand after hand in the middle of Day Two. Later in the day, with the blinds at $800/$1,600, I put $45,000 of my $60,000 starting stack in the middle with A-K against Q-Q and lost.

An hour later, I was all-in for my last $20,000 with A-K against J-J and lost again.

Bottom line: Since switching back to super-tight poker, I’ve moved all-in for my last four big pots with A-K, A-A, A-K, and A-K -- and lost them all. So what? I’m back to playing Phil Hellmuth poker!  Learn more about Phil at www.

PhilHellmuth.com and www.

PokerBrat.com. © 2009 Card Shark Media. All rights reserved.

December 3 - 9, 2009

Page 33

crossword / 1

2

3

4

5

17

8

28

29

25 30

40

44

41

49 54

42 46

35

36

37

38

43 47

50

48 51

55

56

57 65

13

26

34

45

53

12

31

33

39

11

22

24

32

10

19 21

23

9

16

18

20

52

7

15

14

27

6

By David Levinson Wilk

58

59

66

60

61

62

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

© 2009 David Levinson Wilk

Across

1. KFC piece

63

64

ACROSS 1. KFC piece 5. Director Burton 8. Coast Guard job 14. “Am ____ early?”

15. AK-47 relative 16. Americans in Paris, perhaps 17. Take vengeance 20. Oscar, e.g.

21. Narc’s org.

22. Cuba ____ (rum drink) 23. Actress Ortiz of “Ugly Betty” 25. Takes to the police station 27. Waiter’s query 32. 1978-82 sitcom locale 33. Botch 34. Took hold of 39. Synthetic fabric 41. Cry from someone in need (of solving this puzzle’s themed answers!)

43. Part of an act 44. NYSE alternative 46. ____Kosh B’Gosh 48. Actor ____ Luke of “Kung Fu” 49. 1999 Spike Lee movie 52. “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” actor 56. Mexicali Mrs. 57. Love to bits 58. Physically sound 61. Suffix with land or sea 65. Short-barreled weapon 68. “In ____ and out ...”

69. Blubber

THE QUIGMANS

70.

71.

72.

73.

Pasta used in soups Signals, in a way ‘08 and ‘12 Bravo and Grande

47. Timecard abbr.

50. Botch 51. Roughly 52. Cement layer 53. Hersey’s “A Bell for ____” 54. Dragged 55. Elders, e.g.

59. Touch-and-go 60. Ivan or Feodor 62. Prefix with culture 63. Author Mario 64. Genesis grandson 66. Spanish gold 67. Elevs.

Down 1. Trace of smoke 2. Brain passage 3. Terse denial 4. Lost at laser tag, maybe 5. Elec. Day, e.g.

6. Big name in golf shirts 7. Pedometer unit 8. In medias ____ 9. Rules out 10. Overindulge 11. Pasta is loaded with them 12. Wombs 13. City on the Ruhr 18. Jay that chatters 19. Willy Wonka’s creator 24. “You ____ Here” 26. Some batteries 27. Symbol of gracefulness 28. Gumbo vegetable 29. Coffee dispensers 30. Most univ. applicants 31. “____ With a View” 35. Gross measure?

36. Two pieces of pizza?

37. “Orinoco Flow” singer 38. Consider 40. Lit into 42. NNW’s opposite 45. Sine ____ non

Last Thursday’s Solution O U S T A M A H F A M O R A P I E S I N A S U N U T S O A T E R M I Q U I N U T T G I G I E P E E S S R S

S T R L U S A E E S E H I N U S L I P A I I N I T E R B L A S A S

D A M E S S M L M U F T I

S R E O S S P I M D E S O D O J I M T A D I S T T E F Y T O A R S

T A K E A I M L I B R A R Y

R E A C T S

A R N E T T

P O S S E S

A L A I

M E N A

T R E S

F F Y A B S B I L

Buddy Hickerson

5. Director Burton 8. Coast Guard job 14. "Am ____ early?"

15. AK-47 relative 16. Americans in Paris, perhaps

Level: 1

2

3 4

17. Take vengeance 20. Oscar, e.g.

21. Narc's org.

22. Cuba ____ (rum drink) 23. Actress Ortiz of "Ugly Betty" 25. Takes to the police station 27. Waiter's query 32. 1978-82 sitcom locale 33. Botch 34. Took hold of 39. Synthetic fabric NICK KNACK

SOLUTION TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE

12/6/09

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9.

For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk

© 2009 N.F. Benton

© 2009 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

Page 34

December 3 - 9, 2009

Announcements DEVELOP GREATER CONFIDENCE! Learn and use simple powerful

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For Sale 12 BURIAL SITES at National Memorial Park. Discounted 50%. 8 sites in L Section; 4 sites in Masonic Section. 336-349-3405

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MASTER BR, OWN BA, pool, sauna, 24 hour security, includes utilities, 5 minutes from Tyson’s. $800, 2nd rm w/ shared bath and kitchen $600. Call 703-798-4743

PUBLIC NOTICE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH HISTORIC ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD

LOCAL FALLS CHURCH brick & stone mason Installing brink, stone; steps, walkways, patios, retaining walls; Fireplace/chimney repairs. Jeff Cadle: 703-698-1390.

Public Notice LIEU’S RESTAURANT INC., trading

as Binh Dan Restaurant. 6763 Wilson Blvd #6, Falls Church, Fairfax County, VA 22044.

The above establishment is applying to the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for a Beer, Wine, & Mixed Beverage license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages. Nga Dieu Tran, Owner.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on Monday, December 7, from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m., a public hearing will be held during the City Council Work Session on moving the City Council’s election date from May to November, in the Training Center in City Hall (Level G).

Proposed ordinance (TO9-14), Ordinance To Move Council Election Date, was given first reading on November 23, 2009. Second reading and public hearing will be held on Monday, December 14, 2009 at 7:30 p.m., Official Time, or as soon thereafter as may be heard in Council Chambers.

PUBLIC HEARINGS will also be held at the City Council Meeting of December 14, 2009 on proposed resolutions (TR9-33) Resolution Requesting The General Assembly Of Virginia To Amend Section 3.01 Of The City Charter To Hold Council Elections In November; and (TR9-32) Resolution Endorsing A Referendum Initiated By Registered Voters Of The City On Whether City Council Elections Should Be Held In November; along with any other similar resolutions brought forward at that meeting. [(TR9-33) requests that the General Assembly amend City charter Section 3.01 to hold Council elections the first Tuesday in November.

Currently, Section 3.01 of the City charter requires that council elections be held the first Tuesday in May.]

Public hearings held in the Council Chambers are at 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia. Copies of legislation may be Services obtained from the City Clerk’s office (703248-5014) or at cityclerk@fallschurchva. gov. This location is fully accessible to CHILD CARE Experienced childcare persons with physical disabilities. Special provider provides quality care for your infant services or assistance to persons with disin F.C. home. (703) 241-0605. abilities 1/15/02 may be requested in advance.

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Information concerning this item is available in the City’s Planning Division, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, VA, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, 703-248-5040 or Virginia Relay System 1-800-526-0857.

VOLUNTEERS WHO LIVE in the City

of Falls Church are needed to serve on the boards and commissions listed below.

Contact the City Clerk, Kathleen Buschow (703-248-5014, or e-mail cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov) or go to www.fallschurchva.gov for an application form or more information.

Requests for reappointments must also be made through the City Clerk. Applications are being accepted until the end of the month. Vacancies that have been advertised for more than one month may be filled during each subsequent month before month’s end.

Architectural Advisory Board Citizens’ Advisory Committee on Transportation Economic Development Authority Environmental Services Council Girls’ Home Advisory Board Historic Architectural Review Board Historical Commission Housing Commission Human Services Advisory Council Local Board of Building Code Appeals Planning Commission Private School & Day Care Facility Board Recreation and Parks Advisory Board Retirement Board Senior Citizens Commission Tree Commission Board of Zoning Appeals Regional Boards/Commissions: Fairfax Area Commission on Aging Long Term Care Coordinating Council Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Commission Workforce Investment Board

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

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308 Grove Avenue by Robert and Kimberly Field, contract owners, to renovate the existing single-family structure, to construct a two-story addition, and to construct a front porch.

The City of Falls Church seeks candidates for the business representative vacancy on the new GEORGE Task Force. Purpose: Assess transit needs, research and consider transit options and cost effectiveness, and make recommendations to the City Council. The GEORGE Task Force will be expected to offer its initial findings to the City Council beginning in January 2010.

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December 3 - 9, 2009

BACK IN THE DAY laz y The dog. c k q u i fox sly p e d jum e r o v lazy the g . d o is Now time the all for o d g o to cows

15 s Yearo g A

to come aid the ir of there. pa stu is Now e the timall for o d g o to cows to come aid the ir of there. pa stu

10 & 15 Years Ago Falls Church News-Press Vol lV, No. 38 • December 8, 1994

in the

News-Press

It is no the timw e for g o all o cows d to go to the aid of the pa stu ir re. *** **

Falls Church News-Press Vol IX, No. 39 • December 9, 1999

10 Year s Ago

Thro w it up.

Pour it up It now is the time for all go od cows to go to the aid

‘Everyone On Board for Downtown Renovation’

‘‘EDA Mulls Innovative Plan to Help Developer’

“All parties have signed on either verbally or in writing to participate in the business-city partnership to renovate the first three blocks of West Broad St., according to city economic development specialist Nick Moscatiello. Work on storm drainage improvements should begin in February, he said. The unique project requires every business in the corridor to agree to cede sidewalk right of way space to the city and make frontage improvements in...”

“The News-Press has learned that the Board of the Falls Church Economic Development Authority held a special meeting yesterday to consider options for possibly assisting McLean developer Robert D. Young in the build-out of the Anderson site in the 400 block of West Broad. EDA Executive Director David Holmes said that innovative approaches - such as the one taken this week by the Washington D.C. Council to finance at $195 million...”

Helen Thomas Continued from Page 12

Laos. As is the case in Afghanistan, the U.S. provided vastly more manpower than any of its allies in the Vietnam War. Broad-based insurgency?

By his own statements, Obama acknowledged Tuesday night that “momentum” has been with the Taliban and said his goal is to reverse that trend and deny the Taliban “the ability to overthrow the government.”

That sounds like the makings of a civil war, as was the case in Vietnam, where the U.S. intervened to prop up the corrupt Saigon government against the Viet Cong insurgents and their North Vietnamese allies.

There is another huge – but unspoken – similarity between the U.S. war in Afghanistan and the Vietnamese War. In both cases, the American people became fed up with pouring more and more men and women and money into wars that went on for years, with no end in sight. (We’ve been in Afghanistan for eight years; U.S. military involvement in Vietnam also lasted eight years, 19651973.)

War fatigue in the U.S. is aggravated by the devastating 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, where we still have more than 100,000 military personnel and where we have lost more than 4,000 Americans.

Obama omitted the single biggest difference between Vietnam and Afghanistan when he failed to mention that the military draft was roaring through every American town and suburb and city during the Vietnam War. Now, the U.S. military relies exclusively on volunteers.

The draft focused public atten-

tion – and ultimately, public outrage – on our strategy, our allies, the corrupt South Vietnamese leadership, the colonial legacy we inherited from the French and the failure of Presidents Johnson and Nixon to articulate credible goals that would justify the continued loss of lives. The American people ended up rejecting both the Vietnam War and the national leaders who took us there.

President Obama, take note.

By choosing to deliver his historic address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Obama also evoked past memories of the times when both Johnson and Nixon could only travel to military bases and aircraft carriers without encountering loud crowds of protesters.

Our investment in the Vietnam quagmire was incremental. But Gen. William C. Westmoreland’s strategy of wearing down the insur-

gents through attrition required more and more U.S. troops. LBJ obliged – up to a point.

That point was reached in 1968 when Westmoreland told the White House he needed 206,000 more troops, a surge that would have brought U.S. military forces in Vietnam to more than 700,000.

Johnson griped to reporters at the time that “all the generals wanted was more and more” troops.

The president gave Westmoreland 13,500 reinforcements but shortly thereafter replaced him as the U.S. military commander in Vietnam.

Obama won a mandate in the 2008 election to pull up Bush’s war stakes. He should listen to the people, not the generals, not the neo cons and certainly not former Vice President Dick Cheney.

That would be the same Dick Cheney who notably dodged the Vietnam draft but now is gung ho for more war in Afghanistan.

Just a Little Pup in a big world. This little guy loves checking out everything new to his small world. One ear up and one ear down is the way that he likes to roll. In fact, all he wants to do is listen to and get love from his owner. The little white tip at the end of his tail, the diamond on his forehead and his striking white muzzle marked him as unique among all the others in his litter. This little guy might just win the coveted Cute Pet award for December. If you think you have a cutie contender, send your photo and some information about your pet to crittercorner@ fcnp.com. Just take a look above at this professionally posing pet and be warned, this little one is certainly tough competition.

Make Your Pet a Star!

Just because you’re not famous doesn’t mean your pet can’t be!

Snap a pic of your critter and email it to: CRITTERCORNER@FCNP.COM OR mail it to Critter Corner c/o Falls Church News-Press 450 W. Broad Street #321 Falls Church, Va 22046

Critter

For the Best Updates on Falls Church, D.C. and Northern Virginia

@ FCNP

Corner

VISIT US ONLINE

www.fcnp.com

December 3 - 9, 2009

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Accounting

Diener & Associates, CPA. . . . . . . . . 241-8807 Eric C. Johnson, CPA, PC . . . . . . . . 538-2394 Mark Sullivan, CPA . . . . . . . . . . . 571-214-4511 Hassans Accounting & Tax Services . 241-7771 Hahn & Associates, PC, CPAs . . . . . 533-3777

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Catering

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Gifts

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Cleaning Services

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health & FItness

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home care

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home improvement

ANTIQUES & cOLLECTIBLES

Falls Church Antique Company . . . . 241-7074 Antique Annex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-9642

Sam’s Catering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580-7511 Pressure Washing/Deck, Siding . . . . 980-0225 A-Cleaning Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892-8648 Affordable Carpet Resoration . . . . . . 978-2270 Maid Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823-1922 Carpets, Ducts, Windows . . . . . . . . . 823-1922

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Computer services

Mark F. Werblood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9300 Janine S. Benton, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . . .992-9255

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Counseling

Beyer Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5000 Integrity Tire & Auto Repair . . . . . . . . 639-0700

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Dentists

Attorneys

Automotive banking

Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. . . 519-1634 BB&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-3505 TD Bank/www.TDBank.com . . . . . . . 237-2051 Acacia Federal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506-8100

Fast-teks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496-7807 Carol S. Miller, LCSW . . . . . . . . . . . . 395-4980 Josette Millman, APRN . . . . . . . . . . . 855-0396 Dr. William Dougherty . . . . . . . . . . . . 532-3300 Dr. Nimisha V. Patel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-1733

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Equipment REntal/Sale Eyewear

VA Outdoor Power Equipment . . . . . 207-2000 Ace Tool & Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 532-5600

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book Binding

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BUSINESS SERVICES

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FLorists

chiropractor

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FRames

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BCR Binders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9181 Jon Rizalvo, PAYCHEX . . . . . 698-6910 x27045 Dr. Solano, solanospine.com . . . . . . 536-4366

Art & Frame of Falls Church . . . . . . . 534-4202

massage

Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536-0140 Sacred Well Yoga and Healing . . . . . 989-8316

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medical

Human Touch Home Health . . . . . . . 531-0540

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Music

Joseph Home Improvement . . . . . . . 507-5005 Ram Home Improvement . . . . . . . . . 641-5892 Doug’s Handyman Services . . . . . . . 556-4276 Ambassador Home Improvements . 499-7095 FC Heating & Air Service . . . . . . . . . 534-0630 N.G. Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-0032 Millennium, USA Painting . . . . . . . . . 409-8563 The Vinyl Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793-3111

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ophthalmology

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pharmacy

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real estate

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tailor

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insurance

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lawn & garden

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masonry

Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-6500

Falls Church Florist, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 533-1333

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Stifel & Capra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407-0770

Fred Cruz, Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876-1666 State Farm Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5105 Morales Landscaping and Lawncare 502-3990 Sweet Garden Lawn Care . . . . . . . . . 627-7723 Gabriel Lawn Service . . . . . . . . . . . . 691-2351 Seven Brothers Landscaping . . . . . . 241-4990 Mottern Masonry Design . . . . . . . . . . 496-7491 Masonry Specialist LLC . . . . . . . . . . 443-2308 Jeff L. Cadle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698-1390

www.healthybyintention.com. . . . . . . 534-1321 Sheraton Premiere Women’s Massage 403-9328 Dr Gordon Theisz, Family Medicine . 533-7555 The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy . . . 536-4042 Academy of Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938-8054 World Childrens Choir . . . . . . . . . . . 883-0920 Columbia Institute - Fine Arts . . . . . . 534-2508 Foxes Music Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-7393 John Karickhoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536-2400 Broad Street Pharmacy . . . . . . . . . . . .533-9013 Merelyn Kaye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .790-9090x218 www.helpfulmortgage.us . . . . . . . . . . 237-0222 Casey O’Neal - ReMax . . . . . . . . . . . 824-4196 Rosemary Hayes Jones . . . . . . . . . . .790-1990 Leslie Hutchison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .675-2188 The Young Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .356-8800 Shaun Murphy, Realtor . . . . . . . . . . 868-5999 www.TheJeffersonatBallston.com . . . 741-7562 Susan Fauber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395-8741 Tailor Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-8886

All numbers have a ‘703’ prefix unless otherwise indicated.

To see your business here, call us at 703-532-3267, fax 703-342-0352 or E-Mail us at ads@fcnp.com Check out our NEW Online Business Directory at www.FCNP.com

Make Your Pet a Star!

Just because you’re not famous doesn’t mean your pet can’t be!

Snap a pic of your critter and email it to: CRITTERCORNER@FCNP.COM OR mail it to Critter Corner c/o Falls Church News-Press

VISIT US ONLINE

www.fcnp.com

450 W. Broad Street #321

Critter

Falls Church, Va 22046

Corner

News•Photos•Online Polls•Sports E-Issuu • Twitter • and More

Page 38

December 3 - 9, 2009

for the week of December 3-9, 2009

Shop for Gifts at the Holiday Craft Show This Weekend, Dec. 5-6 Deck the halls this holiday season with special gifts from the 17th Annual Holiday Craft Show. More than 60 crafters will take over the Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls St.) to sell unique handmade items and baked goods from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6. Admission is $1 for adults and 50 cents for children 12 and older; admission is free for children under age 12.

Saturday Activities for Children: Breakfast with Santa ($5)* 9-10:30 a.m.

Videos with Santa ($10) 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The Great Zucchini ($5)* 11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Craft Corner 2-4 p.m.

Sunday Activities for Children: Puppet Show ($5)* 1-1:30 p.m.

Craft Corner 2-4 p.m.

Face Painting 2-4 p.m.

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*Reservations and pre-payment required. Call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711) or register online at www.fallschurchva.gov. All other activities are free with admission.

The Cherry Hill Farmhouse (312 Park Ave.) will host a special Holiday Shoppe on Dec. 5 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Volunteers will help children purchase and wrap inexpensive gifts ($5 and under) for friends and family. Call 703-248-5171 (TTY 711) for more information.

For more information and reservations, call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711).

city

Ring in the New Year in the City Leaf Collection Watch Night Schedule Reminder Usher in the New Year with fun, free family festivities at the 12th Annual Watch Night New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eve spectacular in downtown Falls Church at the intersection of Broad (Route 7) and Washington (Route 29) streets. Watch Night will feature entertainment for all including a dragon obstacle course, Velcro wall, karaoke, face painting, dance lessons, five bands and more. The evening will also feature a New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s countdown spectacular and lowering of the historic star that first lit the Falls Church sky in 1948 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the year Falls Church became an independent city.

Participating local restaurants will offer special Walking Watch Night menus containing items that are easy to carry. Free snacks and giveaways will also be available (while supplies last). The festivities get underway at 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.fallschurchva.gov.

New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eve Extravaganza for Middle Schoolers The Community Center presents its annual New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eve Extravaganza exclusively for middle school students from 7 p.m.-1 a.m. The evening will feature Mr. DJ spinning hit tunes, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wild Oneâ&#x20AC;? obstacle course, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;defender domeâ&#x20AC;?, â&#x20AC;&#x153;bouncy boxing,â&#x20AC;? a movie, food, door prizes and the big countdown to midnight!

Early Bird registration ($20) ends tomorrow, Dec. 4. Regular admission will be $30 until Dec. 30; and $35 for admission on the day of the event. Teen with a parent chaperone can enjoy free admission (chaperone must volunteer for a minimum of three hours). Register online at www.fallschurchva.gov or call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711).

For more information on the event or how to make a donation, contact Amy Maltese, Teen Coordinator, at 703-248-5307 (TTY 711).

2010 City Calendar Information

The City will not publish or mail a 2010 Calendar due to budget cuts. A complete list of City events, meetings, closures, and important dates will be available online at www.fallschurchva.gov.

Residents who wish to have their loose leaves collected by the City are advised to rake leaves to the curb, but avoid gutters and sidewalks wherever possible.

Thru Dec. 11 Areas north of Broad Street (Thursday and Friday refuse collection zones) Dec. 14-18 Areas south of Broad Street (Tuesday and Wednesday refuse collection zones) Dec. 21-23 Areas north of Broad Street (Tuesday and Wednesday refuse collection zones) Properly prepared bundled brush, yard waste bag and special collections will continue throughout the leaf collection season. For more information, call the Operations Division at 703-248-5281 (TTY 711) or visit www.fallschurchva.gov.

City Budget Update Revenue and expenditure projections for Fiscal Year 2011 were presented to the City Council and School Board at a joint budget retreat on Nov. 30. The PowerPoint presentation, handouts, and video of the meeting are posted at www.fallschurchva.gov (click on City Council meetings under Popular Topics). Background memos and reports about budget preparation are also posted on the City Web site under â&#x20AC;&#x153;FY11 Budget Updates.â&#x20AC;? Comments and suggestions about the budget can be sent to budget@fallschurchva.gov.

www.fallschurchva.gov - The official site for City of Falls Church news m.

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or Comments?

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

December 3 - 9, 2009

“Byrd” Feeder This Sunday Don’t miss the First Annual ”Byrd Feeder” fundraiser to benefit the All Night Graduation Celebration featuring GMHS Principal Ty Byrd this Sunday, December 6th at Clare and Don’s Beach Shack from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Clare and Don’s is donating a portion of the proceeds from each meal served during the event. In addition, a silent auction will be held, including professional sports tickets, vino, and gift certificates to fine area restaurants.

Bring your whole family and enjoy a special evening with Principal Byrd and your friends and neighbors in Falls Church.

Call for Curriculum Study Participants The Falls Church City Public Schools conducts regularly scheduled curriculum studies for each major program area.

The science curriculum study will begin in January, 2010. A parent from each of the four schools is asked to participate in this comprehensive review process.

Visit www.fccps.org/sciencestudy for an application to participate in the study. For more information contact the FCCPS Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment at (703) 248-5607.

The application deadline is December 15th.

Page 39

Day Care Winter Break Registration It’s never too early to plan for winter break. Falls Church City Public Schools will be closed from December 24th through January 1st. Registration is now open for the FCCPS Day Care and middle school ASAP programs, which will be open December 28-31 from 7:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School. All eligible students must preregister and children must bring their lunch each day.

To register, visit www.fccps.org/daycare or call 703-248-5682. The registration deadline is December 18th.

Rave Reviews for GMHS Musical

FCC-TV Spotlight: Jazz Cardio Strength Stretch

BIE Partner of the Week Matthew Quinn & the Quinn Family Quinn’s Auction Galleries

School involvement: Develops educational partnerships between Falls Church City Schools and the local business and non-profit community.

Why Matthew is a BIE partner: “We know that education is the most important building block of our community. As a multi-generational Falls Church family with two GMHS alumni and two businesses, (Falls Church Antique Company & Quinn’s Auction Galleries) we are very pleased to be involved in supporting the schools through the Falls Church Education Foundation.”

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

Foundation Footnotes

Sam Waters (center) as Seymour and the George Mason High School cast earned rave reviews for their recent production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” In two reviews from the Critics and Awards Program for High School Theatre (CAPPIES), the show was called “wonderful” with high marks given to the cast and the technical crew for “precise lighting” and “creative effects.”

MEHMS Barnes and Noble Night The big Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School annual fundraiser at Barnes and Noble will be held this Friday from 6-9 p.m. at the Seven Corners store. Proceeds will fund the teacher grant competition, the Shakespeare in Residence program and the end-of-year field day and moving up ceremony.

If you are unable to attend in person, you can still contribute by using the code number 501270 at any Barnes and Noble store in the country between Friday, December 4th and Thursday, December 10. Using the code will not impact any membership discounts, and it is good for in-store purchases only. The code cannot be used for online purchases.

Calendar for December 3-10, 2009 Testing Now - 12/9 SOL Non-Writing (GM) December 7:30 p.m. Mason @ Loudon Co. (B Basketball) 3 4

6:00 p.m. Mason @ Gar-Field High (G Basketball)

7

5:00 p.m. Mason @ Madison Co. (Scholastic Bowl) 6:00 p.m. EIP/HEP Tutoring (GM) 7:00 p.m. Special Education Advisory Committee (TJ)

Robotics Team Awarded FCEF Grant The George Mason High School Robotics Team will make good use of a Falls Church Education Foundation grant to purchase robot-making materials and to pay for entry fees for the regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competition in Baltimore. GMHS teacher John Ballou is the team coach.

The Falls Church Education Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. For more information about the foundation, visit www.fcedf.org or contact Donna Englander at denglander@fcedf.org.

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

8

6:00 p.m. Mason @ Marshall High (G Basketball) 6:30 p.m. School Board Work Session (City Hall) 7:30 p.m. Mason @ Marshall High (B Basketball) 8:00 p.m. School Board Regular Meeting (City Hall)

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7:30 p.m. Winter Band Concert (GM)

For more calendar information, visit www.fccps.org/calendar.

(MD) Mt. Daniel School (TJ) Thomas Jefferson Elementary (MEH) Mary Ellen Henderson Middle (GM) George Mason High (CO) Central Office www.fccps.org - The official site for Falls Church City Public Schools news

Schools

Tune in to Falls Church Community Television (FCC-TV) to watch Jazz Cardio Strength Stretch, a public access program produced by Jazzercise. This program gets your blood pumping through a 30-minute workout featuring aerobics, muscle toning and cooldown stretches. Jazz Cardio Strength Stretch airs weekday mornings at 6 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Now you have no excuse not to get moving every morning!

You can now see FCC-TV programming live at www.fcctv.net anywhere in the world! FCC-TV also airs in the greater Falls Church area on Cox Channel 12, Verizon Channel 35 and RCN Channel 2.

Page 40

December 3 - 9, 2009

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