Borders clearance sale: Everything must go

Posted at 3:13 PM ET, 02/22/2011
By Elizabeth Flock
Read it at the Washington Post 

After the news that Borders filed for bankruptcy last week, bibliophiles across the nation mourned its departure while the sarcastic asked who didn't see this coming.

Borders stores in the Washington region prepared to close, putting up garish red and yellow signs that read:"STORE CLOSING", "EVERYTHING ON SALE" and "EVERYTHING MUST GO" as their wares went on deep discount.

At the 18th and K St. NW store location, which stretches an entire city block, the sales drew a hungry crowd. At lunch hour, the line stretched the entire length of the store. One customer remarked "Oh my god are they giving this [expletive] away?!" And another: "This is worse than a book signing."

The deals at this Borders are a bookworm's dream. All new books, bargain books and regular books are 20 percent off. (So are DVDs.) I picked up the newish novel "Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao" for just $12. The travel bookshelves look ransacked. Magazines are a cool 40 percent off. Calendars are going for just a dollar.

The whole scene was sad, of course. The Borders cafe in which customers so often sat and lovingly opened the first pages of their new purchases over a cup of coffee now has chairs stacked upon tables, for good. Moleskin notebooks lay hanging off the racks in disarray. The employees told me they had nowhere to go from here--they'd all been let go. And the signs that papered the walls screamed its store's unhappy fate.

But in some ways, looking at the line that stretched from 18th to 17th streets inside the store, two women talking about how much they loved a certain Dr. Seuss novel, a man holding a three-foot-high stack of "Mystery Science Theater", it gave me hope, too.

Everything must go, but at least for many of the books, they are finding another home.

Egypt protests: Reports and audio from the ground, Days 12 and 13

Posted at 9:45 AM ET, 02/ 5/2011
By Elizabeth Flock
Read it at the Washington Post

Thousands of protesters still fill the streets of Egypt, demanding the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. However, tentative signs emerged Friday that a solution may be found in Egypt. We'll continue to update you with reports from our correspondents in the field. 

Read the live blog here. 

"Demand Al-Jazeera in the USA" campaign

Posted at 10:19 AM ET, 02/ 4/2011
By Elizabeth Flock
Read it at the Washington Post

Over the past 11 days, major U.S. cable news networks repeatedly began their breaking news reports with the words "al-Jazeera reports."

The international news network headquartered in Doha, Qatar, and broadcasting to 190 million households around the world, has been the only media outlet with uninterrupted live video of the demonstrations. Al-Jazeera continued broadcasting even after Egyptian authorities stormed their Cairo office and detained several al-Jazeera reporters.

Americans huddled around their computer screens to watch low-resolution video on the al-Jazeera site or saw the video replayed on American networks, because other than a few pockets across the U.S., including Ohio, Vermont, and Washington D.C., American cable carriers don't offer viewers the choice of al-Jazeera.

Via Mondoweiss (Alexa.com)

Now, al-Jazeera is trying to change that. On Feb. 10, al-Jazeera is encouraging a meet up in 224 communities for viewers to demand the network on U.S. television. "This past month has shown us something that America can no longer ignore: millions of Americans want to watch our channel and better understand our region," Wadah Khanfar, director general of the network, wrote on the site.

SPLAT! Snowball fight!

By Elizabeth Flock
Read it at the Washington Post

The Capital Weather Gang is predicting a “snow thump" later tonight, with 4 to 8 inches or more of snowfall in the District and northern and western suburbs.

With those kind of predictions come sledding plans, pleas for days off from school and … a giant snowball fight!

The Washington DC Snowball Fight Association, the group that was responsible for the 2,000-strong flash mob snowball fight in Dupont Circle last February, has announced a massive snowball fight for 8 tonight in Dupont Circle.

People love pelting the videographer with snowballs. Check it out at 20 seconds in:

Library of Congress hawk captured

By Elizabeth Flock
Read it at the Washington Post 




Updated, 10:12 a.m. Jefferson the hawk was safely captured at around 8:30 a.m. this morning by experts from the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Service. They laid a trap with two starling birds inside to bait the hungry hawk, which hadn't eaten since the frozen quail bait on Sunday. Jefferson swooped down to eat the starlings, and her talons quickly caught on to the trap's hooks. It took only 25 minutes for her to be captured.

Jefferson was then put into a box with breathing holes for safe transport to raptor rehab at the Raptor Conservancy. The bird experts estimated that Jefferson is now the size of a male hawk--females are usually larger than males--so it was likely she had lost weight and is emaciated. They transported her out of the library quickly to get her to food and drink.

America's Favorite Cities? Not D.C.

The District didn't get a rousing vote of approval from the nation in Travel and Leisure's annual survey "America's Favorite Cities," released in T and L's last issue.

Both visitors and residents ranked 35 U.S. cities on their culture, shopping, restaurants, nightlife, and other factors, and it's safe to say the two groups' feelings don't always jibe. This year, D.C. fell behind on everything but culture -- in the ratings by both groups.

Here's the worst of it: We are now the fifth-rudest city in the nation, and we fell to 31st in friendliness. A former intern in D.C. told T & L about a time she passed out on the Metro and no one came to her aid.

But it's OK, because we're pretty, right? No. Our attractiveness has fallen to No. 30, according to both residents and visitors -- 30 out of 35.

America reCycled: cross-country by bicycle

By Elizabeth Flock
Read it at the Washington Post

At this very moment, two brothers are pedaling their way across America on bicycles recycled from trash, documenting Americans who are trying in bold ways to relocalize their culture and communities. In some ways, they're documenting the search for America's lost communities.

The brothers are Tim Hussin, a young award-winning photojournalist, and Noah Hussin, a Fulbright scholar. For this year-long journey, they're "digital hobos," as they call it, who will be eating out of dumpsters and sleeping under bridges and pulling out a notebook computer or microphone when they have something to say.

They were funded by raising money on Kickstarter, a nonprofit organization that helps fund entrepreneurs. Since they hit the road on Nov. 6, the Hussin brothers have populated the America reCycled blog with stories about people who say America has been losing communities for 60 years to subdivisions and strip malls and the country needs to get those communities back.