Out With the Old, In With The Mauve: A Look Back at the Fun, Frolic and Tree-Felling That Was Reston 2009

What an awesome year for our earth-toned planned real estate development community! Let's look back together at 2009, abandoned dreams of juiceries and all:

• All that clapping finally worked, as Metro's Silver Line was finally approved by the Feds. Soon plans for an awesome shrine to rad '80s art were proposed for the Wiehle Avenue Metro Station, followed by an even more awesome, or at least costlier, $90 million parking garage and related, Macaroni Grill-friendly, mixed-use development.
  
  
• All the Reston Association wanted was a measly $15 million to buy or build a shiny new headquarters, but voters shot that referendum down -- even after the RA's heartfelt plea for new filing cabinets. But the RA didn't get mad -- they got even by proposing an even more grandiose plan that had been developed in secret for more than a year, an awesome indoor rec center, complete with juicery, to be built at Brown's Chapel Park. After public opposition and the world's second most awesome YouTube video about Reston scuttled those plans, the RA went ahead and leased the fancy office building, complete with child labor cubbies, that they wanted for their headquarters in the first place. That'll show us!
  
  
• After considerable protest, the stream deforestation restoration project continued, turning the Glade and Snakeden reaches into pristine wastelands remediated waterways. The RA thoughtfully let everyone get into the act. And along Soapstone, first they came for the trees. Then they came for the junk cars and tradesmen's vehicles.
  
  
• Reston earned its newly coined reputation for being a foul-mouthed haven for political junkies, what with the awesome tea party and town hall meeting and local elections featuring Holocaust deniers, Willie Horton-like advertising, morality plays and whatnot.
  
  
• The DRB outdid itself. And one cluster earned the well-deserved title of Reston's most selfish cluster.
  
  
• The long-discussed revitalization plans for Lake Anne were finally approved. We joked about trepidation that the plan would turn bucolic Reston into "another Manhattan," but the joke was on us when JBG unveiled plans to turn the low-rise Fairway Apartments into a massive development. But it would have something like 11 on-street parking spaces, so no worries. Fortunately, the process of revising Reston's overall master plan has kicked off, so even if we don't get a say, we'll at least see a bunch of cool pictures of air rights development over the ole Toll Road!
  
  
• The athletic but somewhat plan-averse bank robber who hit a number of Reston banks but forgot to bring a bag to carry the money in remains at large. Oddly, the better thought-out use of a getaway canoe in another robbery didn't work out quite as well.
  
  
• Lawyers Road went on a road diet, gaining bike lanes to create an awesome, Spandex required velodrome. So far, no accidents like this have been reported, but you never know.
  
  
• Reston's vibrant economy continued apace, getting a hipster computer store (which was promptly robbed), while other companies continued massive layoffs, and the old-timey "news-papers" that serve our beloved community kept getting smaller. But property values only plummeted a lucky 13 percent! (Sounds like the perfect time to buy, especially with awesome inventory like this!)
  
  
• Nekkid plays and daring world record attempts dominated the cultural scene.
  
  
• This filthy "web log" got its 15 minutes of fame. So did Reston, which exported the disease named after our beloved planned community to pigs in the Philippines. Not to be outdone, the RA began its own web log and Twitters, including offering some fun facts.

If you're really nostalgic, you can look back at 2008 as well. But we wouldn't recommend it.

Happy Holidays! Soapstone 7-11 Robbed, As Usual

With the passing of the seasons, one thing remains a constant: the Reston 7-11 on Soapstone Drive was robbed... again.

An armed man entered the 7-Eleven store located at 2303 Soapstone Drive on Monday, December 28 around 3:30 a.m. and robbed two employees. The suspect displayed a gun, demanded money and fled with an unknown amount of cash and other property. There were no injuries.

The suspect was described as black, about 6 feet tall and approximately 250 pounds, with black hair. He was wearing a black hat, black pants, and a green jacket. He had a gray cloth covering his face.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Solvers by phone at 1-866-411-TIPS/8477, e-mail at www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or text “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES/274637 or call Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131.

Same old, same old. Talk about a case of the post-holiday blahs.

A DRB-Approved Shade of White Christmas to All!

This former resident of Targetville was spotted delivering holiday cheer, or at least a festive collection of DRB violations. As we wind down for a brief holiday hiatus, which Reston institutions do you think made the naughty and nice list for 2009? Sound off, in the comments.

So Much for Getting a Sandwich and a Stamp With Your Meds: Lakeside Pharmacy, the Last Original Business in Lake Anne Plaza, Up for Sale

As Lake Anne Village Center girds itself for the promise of revitalization, the last of its original businesses has been put up on the market.

Lakeside Pharmacy, the last original business at Reston’s first village center, is no CVS. Like the pharmacies of the 1950s and 1960s, the shop doesn’t double as a grocery store, but it has a soda fountain and food counter where customers can order breakfast, lunch or dinner while waiting for their prescriptions to be filled. It also offers a candy counter, newspaper stand and U.S. Post Office in the 3,000-square-foot space.

Owner Larry Cohn opened the business more than 40 years ago. The space went on the market early this month.

"The owner has been there many, many years, and it’s just time for him to go on and start a new adventure," agent John Querolo said.

Regardless of who buys the property, it's unlikely that it will remain a place where you can shop, mail a letter and have lunch under the same roof.

"We would love to see it continue into the future as a working pharmacy," he said, but he noted that the idea might be improbable. Pharmacists are in short supply, and the shop would require a licensed pharmacist who would also be willing to oversee food preparation and sell goods like greeting cards and shampoo, while most druggists today can work at a CVS or supermarket without the responsibilities of owning the business or managing anything beyond the drug counter, he said.

"We are trying to find that person," Querolo said, but he added that Cohn was willing to sell the property to anyone ready to buy. With space for outdoor seating and a view of Lake Anne, he said, the location could become a prime restaurant site.

The only problem is there's another one of those sitting vacant across the street, at least for now. Until Reston becomes another Manhattan, we'll just have to enjoy these throwbacks to a simpler, earth-toned time while they're still here.

Flashback Monday: A Photographic Look Back at the Hellstorm of '09

The terror of the snowpocalypse that blanketed Reston is so fresh in our minds, it seems like it happened just yesterday... when in fact it's been two long, harrowing days. Let's take a look back.

Dear Leader seems to have taken the hellstorm in stride.

"Reston ass." Heh. We'll try to remember this lighter moment of the snowpocalypse when we're completely out of bread and milk and slowly starving to death.. or at least getting a killer case of osteoporosis.

The dearth of snowplows and lack of bread at local grocery stores led some to take drastic measures. Of course, this intrepid homeowner will be dinged by the DRB for not spraypainting his threatening missives in brown, the end.

What, is There Some Kind of Weather Thing Happening?

Somehow Reston Hospital forgot to include this fancy "web log" in its blizzard-like (get it?) blanketing of the Twitters. Apparently it might snow or something, so watch this horrifying video to see what fresh hell awaits us, and be sure to tweet all about your exciting trips to the grocery stores.

Update: 0.0000000" of snow currently recorded at Restonian World Headquarters. We'll be "live web logging" this exciting natural occurrence in the comments, at least until the power goes out and society collapses. Join us there and share your own reports of the snow-related carnage all weekend long.

¿Donda Esta Compare Foods? Part Dos: Stop Work Order Resolved, Work Can Continue at Tall Oaks Supermarket

Hey, remember that time an international supermarket went out of business in the Tall Oaks Stucco Wasteland Shopping Center and another one called Compare Foods announced it would take its place? Yeah, that was awesome. But the grocery store missed its scheduled pre-Thanksgiving grand opening and remains closed. What gives?

In a exclusive Restonian investigation which involved the supreme effort of putting on our Kleenex box slippers, leaving the friendly confines of Restonian World Headquarters and driving through the desolate Tall Oaks parking lot, we have learned the shocking truth. Fairfax County slapped a stop-work order on the supermarket on Oct. 30 because no permits had been filed with the county. Never fear, though, as our exclusive Restonian investigation has uncovered an almost-Christmas almost-miracle! Last week, the county gave the company its blessing to continue renovation work, as evidenced by a fancy permit taped to the plate glass window of the still-deserted store. Based on our drive-by earlier this week, little has happened as yet, but at least the place now appears to be street legal.

Why did we, as lazy "web loggers," decide to extend the effort of reporting getting out of our car and staring slack-jawed at a couple of notices taped to a window as part of our exclusive Restonian investigation? To serve the public interest, of course. But mostly to have an excuse to post another video like this:

We miss "Susie de la Santos," but again, those are some... extremely well-stocked shelves. Ay caramba!

Three Words You Don't Want to Hear Together: 'Schools,' 'Bloodbath' and 'Catastrophe'

Hunter Mill School Board Rep. Stu Gibson didn't mince words when talking with Reston parents about the county budget shortfall that has already imperiled language immersion, music, art and full-day kindergarten programs in Fairfax County Schools.

Hunter Mill district school board representative Stu Gibson told parents at a meeting at Hunters Woods Elementary School Tuesday night that unless the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors changes their outlook, the school system will be in for a catastrophic budget crisis.

"Unless they significantly change or alter their spending priorities we're looking at what my daughter would say is a ginormous deficit," Gibson said. He said FCPS stands to lose about 2,000 positions while an anticipated 3,000 more students come into county schools next year.

Gibson said the message school officials have been trying to deliver to the community is that if the county executive and board of supervisors do not provide enough funds to schools there could be long-term negative affects.

Negative "affects" like students graduating without knowing the difference between "affect" and "effect"? Yikes! How much more will we have to pay in property taxes to avert such a catastrophe?

To stay at the same level of instruction an 11-cent tax rate increase would be required, Gibson said. He said to provide all the money the schools will require for the expected increase in students would require a 21-cent tax increase, and to wipe out the county's budget deficit as well would require a total 28-cent tax increase.

Gibson said there is not a lot of time to work on the budget because the superintendent has to release the advertised school budget on Feb. 4. The county executive will release the county's advertised budget on Feb. 23.

The board of supervisors has to advertise the new tax rate on March 9. Once a tax rate is advertised it cannot be increased, Gibson said. He said a 10-cent real estate tax rate increase would result in a "bloodbath" for the schools next year.

Gibson said the board of supervisors understands the need and the difficulties but are sometimes afraid to take risks because of how it will affect them politically. For example, he said some residents at a Dranesville district budget meeting told Supervisor John Foust they would vote him out of office if he voted for a tax rate increase.

That would be an unfortunate affect, that's for sure. For our part, we're happy to pay a few more sheckels in taxes on our lovely earth-toned hovel to ensure that our kids get the education we moved here for them to receive in the first place. Otherwise, this blog may well have been called "Hinterlandonian" and featured lots of stories about people without enough rusting appliances in their yards, the end.

On the YouTubes: Floating Over Reston

If you like trippy New Age music and fever dream-like panoramic views of Google Earth, only with more clouds, this fancy video is for you. As a bonus, click through to find similar presentations of such metropoli as Plainfield, Illinois and Maple Heights, Ohio. Sweet!

(Shout out to the Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston for the find.)

Hats Off: Reston's Original Master Planner Dies at 81

James Rossant, the master planner of Reston and the architect who designed Lake Anne Plaza, has died.

James Rossant, the master planner of Reston, died on Tuesday at the age of 81.

The architect, urban planner, artist and former commissioner of the Art Commission of New York City passed away at his home near Condeau, France, from complications related to leukemia.

His work in Reston established one of the first post-war “new towns” in America. The suburban development was inspired by German architect Walter Gropius and the Italian coastal town of Portofino.

Reston was initially created in 1964 by Robert E. Simon whom the town is named after. Rossant designed Lake Anne Plaza, which was the first section of town built.

Rossant also designed the U.S. Navy Memorial at Market Square on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the National Archives.

He graduated from Columbia University, worked at Mayer & Whittlesey and taught at New York University and Pratt Institute.

He worked on the Butterfield House in Greenwich Village, the original master plan for Lower Manhattan and Battery Park City and is largely credited for the preservation of the Soho District in New York City.

Hats off.

Reston's Vibrant Economy: There's an App for That

What's hot in business these days? That "Internet" thing all the kids are talking about. So let's fire up our fancy AOL Web browser and see what a couple of Reston companies are doing!

First up, a Reston alternative healer has made one of those fancy "apps" for the cellular iPhone telephone device. Usually when you hear "deep breathing" and "phone" in the same sentence, it's a reason to call the cops, but in this case it has to do with holistic medicine.

A Reston alternative healer has teamed up with a Herndon software developer to create an iPhone software application that helps people practice holistic deep breathing techniques -- and it is selling all over the world.

Darshan Khalsa, 61, and his wife Carol O'Donnell Khalsa are Reston-based alternative medicine providers whose Khalsa Integrative Medicine practice centers on holistic care, including Oriental medicine, acupuncture, herbal and enzyme therapy, nutrition, yogic breathing, detoxification, sound therapy and fertility medicine.

Jeanne Churchwell is a patient of Darshan Khalsa. She is also half-owner of Herndon software company Tech 2000 Inc. Tech 2000, which employs about 15 people, has been in business since 1984 but only began developing iPhone applications this year.

The Khalsas and the Churchwells collaborated and came up with the Long Deep Breathing application that launched last month. "The Khalsas really hit a niche market," Churchwell said. "We were amazed. It began selling in Great Britain and Australia the day it came out."

The application, which sells for 99 cents, has both an informational component that lists the benefits and history of the deep breathing technique, and a feature that allows you to set the pace and duration of your breathing exercise regimen. An optional verbal prompt can assist users as they perform their breathing.

Although the application is currently selling at a rate of about 20 a day and their costs are expected to be recouped in about six months, the Khalsas insist that they did not create the application for the money.

Then there's the hottest "dot-com" we've seen since the boom of the late '90s, and instead of being located in some latte-intensive corner of the Silicon Valley, it's headquartered right here in Reston!

Reston-based RefrigeratorArtist.com allows parents to create a digital archive of their children's artwork and share the images with family and friends via e-mail, social networking Web sites and within the RefrigeratorArtist site.

"It was really just a random idea that came to us," said Jennifer LaFollette, who launched RefrigeratorArtist in October with her husband, Jason, and their friend, Lenny Pham. "I'm 31 years old and my mom still has artwork that I did when I was a kid, but there was probably a lot more that wasn't saved."

Parents upload photos of their child's work to a gallery on the site. Friends and relatives, whether they want to create their own art galleries or not, can connect with each other on the site by labeling each other as "friends," allowing that person to view a particular child's gallery. Within the gallery, there are options to share the image on Facebook or e-mail it to people.

"That's basically where we live these days -- is online -- especially younger parents," LaFollette said.

Social media! That's where it's at! Expect to see a parking lot full of Boxters once this gets an IPO. Or maybe not:

Once the site is profitable, a portion of profits will be donated to arts programs for children, LaFollette said.

A much nicer aspiration than, say, this filthy "web log."

Flashback Monday: Right Idea, Wrong Order

This stunning 1960s-era panorama of Golf Course Island's townhouses, the golf course, and Isaac Newton Square shows how the "new town" embodied the "Live, Play, Work" motto from the get-go. Presumably Reston changed its motto to "Live, Work, Play" after discovering that busy executives would leave their mauve townhomes and try to squeeze in 18 holes of golf on their way to work, missing those important 9:30am meetings in the process.

Elementary Language Immersion Advocates to Meet With Superintendent

Hey, remember how cash-strapped Fairfax County Schools was going to do away with elementary language immersion, full-day kindergarten and other programs at Lake Anne Elementary and other county schools? Apparently someone was listening to the silent protests organized by a group of parents supporting the language immersion program. Fairfax Schools Superintendent Dr. Jack Dale will discuss the group's concerns at a meeting tonight.

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Dr. Jack Dale will be available to discuss our budget concerns and answer questions at the next FLAGS (Foreign Language Advocacy for Grade Schools) meeting on Monday, December 14 from 7-8 PM... in the 1st floor Cafe of the FCPS Gatehouse Administration building at 8115 Gatehouse Rd. , Falls Church, VA 22042 . Go past the building to park and enter the building from the parking garage.

Dr. Dale will be available for the first part of the meeting. During the second part of the meeting, Fairfax FLAGS will hear from updates from committees and discuss specific actions/next steps and delegate tasks for people to contribute to and share the workload within the FLAGS group.

You are invited tostay for the second part of the meeting, however, if you unable to stay, you are still encouraged to come to the discussion with Dr. Dale.

Important - please email fairfaxflags@gmail.com if you plan to attend the meeting so enough copies of printed materials will be prepared. Traffic and weather make travel time unpredictable so please do your best to plan ahead and arrive on time by 7 PM (especially since Dr. Dale will be there.)

For more information about Fairfax FLAGS (Foreign Language Advocacy for Grade Schools) please visit their website (www.fairfaxflags.org).

Dr. Dale has been a supporter of the elementary immersion program, as this fancy "streaming video" purportedly shows. (We couldn't get it to work on the Commodore 64 powering Restonian World Headquarters, so it could just as easily be discussing his love of professional wrestling or roller derby.)

Breaking: Reston's Sizzling Hott Singles Scene Recognized By Washington Post

The Washington Post, undisputed arbiter of all things hip and au courant, showcased Reston as a sizzling hot cauldron of swinging singles action for people in their 30s. No, really:

It's a Saturday night in Reston, and the bar at McCormick & Schmick's is packed, filled with members of Meetup's Singles in the Suburbs. As its title suggests, the group is aimed at unmarried folks living in Reston, Herndon, Fairfax, as well as Maryland.

The 30-to-50-somethings who are its members are a friendly, chatty bunch that like to go out; they organize trips to a bar-centric take on "Jeopardy," to see the holiday lights at Bull Run, or to a Santa Bar Crawl. On this night, they're out on a bar crawl for Feed the FISH, an event to raise money for the charity Herndon-Reston FISH, which offers emergency assistance to the needy. The culmination of this night of revelry? A date auction.

"Here's why my group works," says Rita K. Colbert, 33, the founder of the 1,000-member-strong meet-up. "My group does it all. We have a book club in the group, we have a movie club in the group, we go on hikes, we go on trips, we have happy hours. When people go to that group that attracts them, they're meeting other people who are attracted to that same thing, so already, you have a common interest."

She should know. She met her boyfriend of three years, Scott Langbauer, through Singles in the Suburbs, when Colbert was hosting a Texas Hold 'Em night at her house.

We "met" Rita and Scott on the pages of the Internets two years ago. Frankly, we should have predicted they would hit it off then. How'd the love connection happen?

Langbauer, 34, recalls that it was a Saturday night when all his friends had plans with their significant others, so he decided to check it out by himself. "Through that, we just sort of clicked. I think it was probably after I took all of her money, but I did use that to buy her dinner, like, two nights later."

Stay classy!

Dogwood Elementary May Lose Year-Round School Calendar

Dogwood Elementary, the only Title I school in Reston, may lose its innovative year-round calendar in the same round of budget cuts that are imperiling elementary music, language immersion and full-day kindergarten throughout Fairfax County.

Seven Fairfax County elementary schools operating on a modified calendar could lose their extra instructional time as a result of budget cuts during the next two school years.

Most Fairfax schools are in session from early September to mid-June, but 10 schools have a different calendar, operating almost year-round without the traditional 2 1/2-month summer break.

This fall, officials have asked the seven elementary schools with an alternative schedule, including Dogwood in Reston, to prepare their communities for a return to the commonly used nine-month school year.

The modified elementary school calendar provides more flexibility for an extended school year. Children sometimes take part in two-week intensive classes that offer an opportunity to intensive remedial work in core subjects, accelerated learning or enrichment exercises like cooking classes.

Those schools that employ the modified calendar tend to serve students who come from low-income households or are non-native English speakers. Six of seven elementary schools on a modified calendar receive additional money, called "Title I" funds, because they are among the dozen or so schools with the neediest populations in the county.

At Dogwood, for example, approximately 62 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals at school and a little over 46 percent are not considered English proficient.

FAIRFAX SCHOOLS superintendent Jack Dale has proposed letting the elementary schools keep their modified calendar next year if they can financially support it through the extra "Title I" funding they received from the federal government. He does not want to spend the more flexible general education dollars, those supplied by the county and state, on the modified calendar in elementary schools because of the system's overall budget shortfall.

The following school year, which starts in the fall of 2011, no extra federal money is expected to be available to these schools and Dale has proposed ceasing the use of an elementary school modified calendar altogether.

While alternative scheduling has had a mixed record of success in Fairfax County, national studies suggest that year-round school schedules are helpful for struggling students. Given that Dogwood is already under double secret probation for failing to meet NCLB testing benchmarks, cutting instructional time seems like a penny-wise, pound-foolish decision.

Last week, the Fairfax County School Board voted to postpone a decision on ending the modified calendar until its Feb. 4 meeting.

On the YouTubes: We Watch the Reston Association Videos So You Don't Have To

Yes, Andy Sigle and his soothing dulcet tones are back, this time in front of the fancy, environmentally friendly Nature House, with its bald eagle-powered heating system. But if you think that's enough excitement for one RA video, think again! Andy also breathlessly describes Reston's recent visitors from Korea, complete with a dizzying Google Earth video. (Take your Dramamine before watching.) And following in the footsteps of earlier shock videos, a county police officer reminds us to lock our cars as we watch scary sepia footage of random actors rifling through someone's briefcase, kind of like the grainy footage you see on CSI, only less so. And then there's the winter bird count on Jan. 2. Yay! As Sigle somewhat ominously says at the end of the video, "Get out and enjoy the winter in Reston." That's an order, mister.

Indoor Rec Inches Forward; Lake Newport Also Considered for Indoor Swimming

Imagine our surprise when a uniformed federal agent delivered a letter to Restonian World HQ earlier this week informing us that we may be contacted for a RCC survey about indoor recreation! And it turns out we're not the only one!

Meanwhile, we got an anonymous update about the potential plans for indoor facilities at Lake Newport. Not only is an indoor tennis pleasure-dome being considered, but the existing swimming pool could be covered by one of those fancy retractable structures you see in your better baseball/football stadiums.

The humble minions on the Park and Planning Advisory Committee, desperately trying to meet the February deadline imposed by their overlords on the RA Board, voted to recommend to the RA Board that, in order to provide RA members and their families an opportunity for year round swimming, Lake Newport be enclosed with a permanent structure that could be open during the summer months. 

Before you ask NO, no giant bubble dome.  Maybe magical, disappearing post and tenon beam framing, painted mauve instead.

Sweet! Seriously, this isn't a bad idea at all, given the desperate need for year-round rec facilities. Just put an Orange Julius hut between the swimming pool and tennis courts, and we'll be in earth-toned indoor rec heaven.

This and That: A Random Scoot Through Reston News

• The tax districts that will pay for the stations along Metro's Silver Line are one step closer to reality.

  Following a public hearing, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a proposed resolution to create the tax district. The board will meet Dec. 21 to formally establish the district, as required by state law.
  
  The additional real estate tax paid by commercial landowners in the proposed tax district will provide $330 million of the county's estimated $850 million share of the $5.28 billion total cost to extend Metrorail from Falls Church through Tysons Corner, Reston and Herndon to Washington Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County.
  
  Another special tax district, which surrounds the future rail stations in Tysons Corner and at Wiehle Avenue in Reston, will generate about $400 million in commercial property taxes.
  
  The county has not finalized where the remaining $120 million will come from, but it could come from bonds backed by the county's commercial and industrial tax, an existing tax of 11 cents per $100 of assessed value that commercial landowners pay to a fund for county transportation projects.

  But what's a measly $120 million among friends?
  
  
• Meanwhile, some of the people who live in the fancypants subdivisions along the Toll Road want new sound walls to protect their sylvan neighborhoods with names like "Hallcrest Heights" from the unsightly noise made by the train as it carries proles people past their homes -- though in reality, they should be more concerned about the smoke from the track fires. Of course, this isn't an issue in Reston proper, as the original Reston master plan forbids residential development along the Toll Road... at least until that plan is modified as part of the ongoing redevelopment deliberations. We're OK with that, so long as the new projects don't have dumb names like "Hallcrest Heights."
  
  
• A Reston family is suing Virginia Tech over their son's 2007 suicide.

  The suit, filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Friday by William and Elizabeth Kim, seeks $43 million from the university's Care Team in connection with the suicide of Daniel Kim, a senior at Tech at the time of his death.
  
  According to the filing, Daniel Kim committed suicide on Dec. 9, 2007, after telling friends and family members that he felt he physically resembled shooter Seung-Hui Cho and that he "was ashamed of being Asian." The suit claims that an online gaming friend, Shuan Pribush, who was a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, contacted Virginia Tech and warned them of Daniel Kim's suicidal tendencies about a month before Kim killed himself.
  
  Daniel Kim was a 2004 graduate of South Lakes High School in Reston.

  Regardless of the legal outcome, there are no winners in this case.
  
  
• Fancypants venture capitalists from San Francisco bought Reston-based medical software firm QuadraMed for $126 million. And what did you do at work today?
  
  
• A memorial service for Arts Council of Fairfax CEO Ann Rodriguez was held on Dec. 2.

  The "celebration," held at Reston Community Center's CenterStage theater and hosted by the Arts Council, was much like the longtime arts, business and civic leader herself -- joyous, genuine, heartfelt and fun.
  
  As an overflow crowd of hundreds of friends, family and colleagues awaited the formal start of the program --aptly held in Reston, a place where Rodriguez lived and "thrived" for 34 years -- a buoyant six-piece Dixieland band set the tone. At a later reception, a Mariachi ensemble represented another of Rodriguez's favorite musical genres.

  
  
• There are a lot of depressing stories in this wrapup, so here's one that's slightly more optimistic: Fairfax County is expanding a power soccer league for wheelchair users that got its start last year in Reston.
  
  
• The only shocking thing about this story is that it didn't happen in Reston:

  A Medal of Honor recipient in a dispute over his right to fly the American flag in his yard will have another week before D-Day -- when he'll be forced to take down the Stars and Stripes or face legal action.
  
  Ninety-year-old Col. Van T. Barfoot, a veteran of three wars, initially was given a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to dismantle his flagpole or face a legal battle over violating an order from his townhouse community association in Henrico County, Va.
  
  Barfoot, who fought in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam, was told in July that he could not put up his freestanding flagpole in his Sussex Square neighborhood — but he installed it anyway.
  
  On Tuesday, he says, he got a letter from the homeowners' association telling him the 21-foot pole he erected in September violates the community's aesthetic guidelines.
  
  "This is not about the American flag. This is about a flagpole," the association said in a statement, insisting that Barfoot directly violated its board's July ruling.
  
  "Col. Barfoot is free to display the American flag in conformity with the neighborhood rules and restrictions. We are hopeful that Col. Barfoot will comply."

  How exactly are you supposed to display an American flag without a flagpole? The answer to that question will keep the DRB busy for weeks.
  

News We Missed: Charge Filed in October Shooting Death in Winterthur Apartments

A charge was filed in the October shooting death of Reston resident Karen Deck in the Winterthur Apartments complex:

No charges have been placed at this time for the victim’s death; however, Ronald Robertson, 45, of 11900 Winterthur Lane #PH3 in Reston, was charged on Wednesday, October 28 with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Homicide detectives are still investigating.

Good to know.

'Tis the Season for Festive Displays, Equally Festive DRB Violations

Maybe we're just way too cynical for this wondrous time of the year, but why do we wonder if people who submit photos of their "holiday displays" will be getting DRB violation notices in their stockings come Christmas?

Nah, that's crazy. They wouldn't arrive until after New Year's.

Save Browns Chapel Group Joins Master Plan Push; No Awesome YouTube Video (Yet)

Hey, remember that time a group of Reston residents banded together to successfully stop a juicery with an attached indoor rec center from being built at Brown's Chapel Park in North Reston, largely due to an awesome YouTube video? Yeah, that was awesome. Now the group is getting involved in the just-begun process of revising Reston's Master Plan, arguing that the task force convened for this purpose doesn't have sufficient community representation.

The issues surrounding the revision of Reston's Master Plan are enormous and complex. The outcomes will directly impact the quality of life and home values for Reston residents. The newly appointed task force will be providing recommendations for Reston's Master Plan to Fairfax County by June 2010. The pace is fast and furious driven by the deadlines associated with the Dulles Corridor Rail Project.

Please attend tomorrow night's meeting (Tuesday, December 8th) and ask the task force and Fairfax County to include citizen participation in this process. The individuals who, in good faith, attended the Land Use College were led to believe that they would be using that knowledge base in citizen advisory roles for the revision of Reston's Master Plan but this did not happen. There is too much at stake to limit citizen input to after-the-fact public hearings.

Yes, growth is coming to Reston, but we want to make sure Reston retains its unique features, namely our open/green spaces and ease of traffic. We urge you to attend this community meeting.

No community representation? Let's take a look at the task force's membership:

Gerald Volloy, ARCH
Michael Cooper, Brandywine Realty Trust
Peter Ottenti, Boston Properties
Patricia Nicoson (Chairperson), Dulles Corridor Rail Association
Mark Looney, Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce
John Schlichtling, JBG Companies
Paul Thomas, Reston Association
Mike Corrigan, Reston Citizens Association
William Keefe, Reston Community Center
Van Foster, Reston Community Reinvestment Corp.
Arthur Hill, Reston Planning & Zoning (P&Z)
Arthur Murphy, Reston Planning & Zoning (P&Z)
Robert Walker, Reston Planning & Zoning (P&Z)
J Seidenstricker, Reston Town Center (Commercial)
Robert Goudie, Reston Town Center (Residential)
Greg Riegle, Western Alliance for Rail to Dulles (WARD) - Counsel
Phil Tobey, Western Alliance for Rail to Dulles (WARD) - Counsel
John Anderson Carter, At-Large
Frederick Costello, At-Large
Nicholas Bauer, At-Large
Robert Simon, At-Large
Kohann Williams, At-Large
Frank de la Fe, Planning Commission Member - Ex-Officio

Well, there's Gerry Volloy, and Dear Leader, and... a bunch of real estate developers. That's balance!

All we know is they better get this master plan thing straightened out before we run out of conceptual illustrations of Toll Road air rights development, the end.

In Remake of Classic Christmas Movie, FDIC Seizes Reston Bank

Just like in the uplifting Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life, which starred Jimmy Stewart as a lovable grifter who threatened suicide in an attempt to solicit money from gullible townsfolk, the heartless bank regulators swooped in and closed Reston-based Greater Atlantic Bank on Friday night.

Regulators closed Reston-based Greater Atlantic Bank on Friday night, the first bank failure in Virginia since 1993.

The failure does not affect the bank's customers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sold the bank's deposits and virtually all of its assets to Sonabank, based in McLean, which will reopen Greater Atlantic's four branches on their normal schedules. Customers can continue to write checks and withdraw money from ATMs over the weekend.

Greater Atlantic was sunk by rising losses on commercial real estate loans, both its own and those it purchased from other banks, according to FDIC spokesman David Barr.

Greater Atlantic was founded as the Greater Baltimore Savings and Loan Association in 1887. It moved to Reston in 1999.

The company's chairman, Charles Calomiris, is a well-known finance professor at the Columbia Business School. Calomiris, also a major shareholder, inherited the role from his father.

The bank's failure was not a surprise. In April 2008, its regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, ordered Greater Atlantic to improve its operations. In May of this year, the agency ordered the bank to raise more capital or face seizure. The company announced in June that it would be sold to a group of private investors, but the deal was never consummated.

Sonabank agreed to take ownership of virtually that entire portfolio, but the FDIC will share in any losses.

The bank's slogan now sounds like an elegy. It read, "Nice doing business with you."

George Bailey was unavailable for comment.

On the YouTubes: Terrifying Video Images from First Snowfall of Year

Relive the sheer terror of driving in 1/16" of slushy snow on Saturday with this gripping, you-are-there view from some brave soul's car. But not until you've had that first cup of coffee or six.

Reston Town Center Has New Logo, Same Old Mid-Scale Retail Options

Hooray, Reston's Fake Downtown has a fancy new logo to help ring in its 20th anniversary of rising spontaneously from the primordial ooze and evolving into a primitive version of a working downtown, minus the polyglot hot dog vendors and squeegie guys.

Jonathan Cronin, a Reston resident who grew up in Herndon, won the contest. He said he has been a fan of the town center since it was built. Logo judges were impressed with his story on how he arrived at his design, which incorporates Reston Town Center's 20th anniversary tagline, "Defining. Inspiring. 20 Years." Cronin was awarded with a $500 Reston Town Center gift card.

$500 will buy a lot of pizza from Uno's, that's for sure. In case all you aspiring corporate logo designers out there were wondering about Cronin's "vision," here you go:

The font I chose for "Reston Town Center" and "Years" is a classic art deco styled font that reminds me of the architectural designs of the shopping center and the metropolises it is designed to emulate. The fonts for "defining" and "inspiring" were chosen to portray how the Reston Town Center, and Reston itself, has defined successful commercial, business, and civil planning, while maintaining a changing, human element, eliciting inspiration from its visitors.

The "20" is drawn in a similar art deco style, but as a continuous line. As someone who has been visiting the Reston town center since it was a small cluster of buildings in the middle of a field, I and others like me tend to think of the Reston Town Center not only as what it is, but what it was before, and what it's turning into. The Reston Town Center has undergone a slow and constant evolution, and the single continuing stroke is designed to represent that journey. It’s long, it never stops, and it goes on into the future.

The remaining elements of the logo are designed to identify the center, and celebrate. Despite how much growth the Reston Town Center has had, The Mercury Fountain remains the most unique and memorable symbol of the area. The inclusion of the fountain, redrawn and similar to the existing Reston Town Center logo, also provides for consistency and continuity between the two logos. The fireworks display is a simple element of celebration, representing the occasion and the liveliness that the Reston Town Center has allowed its visitors whether they visited during its 20th year or its first.

Good for Cronin, but sadly this means one of our commenter's awesome submissions didn't make the cut.

Reston Master Plan Meeting: The Rest of the Story

If it's another illustration depicting hot building-over-Toll-Road action on this site, you know we must be about to talk about the new Reston Master Plan. So here goes!

More than 100 people, including a few of the regulars on this filthy "web log," attended Tuesday's master plan kickoff meeting. Here's the official mainstream media account.

The last time the master plan was reviewed, county officials were planning on a number of phases of transportation alternatives to take shape, starting with bus rapid transit by the end of the decade, Merkel said. Now that the phased transportation plan has skipped straight to the rail phase, many of the plans the county had on file are obsolete, she said.

[Fairfax County senior planner Heidi] Merkel said by focusing on providing more housing in Reston's core it will help reduce the need for changing the surrounding neighborhoods and village centers that are already stable. She said because many of the areas jobs are in Reston Town Center, more high-density housing close to those jobs should be considered.

The Reston Master Plan Special Study will include a series of community meetings including workshops, as well as a task force that will meet to discuss the plans. Community workshops will focus on specific sites, such as the future Herndon-Monroe, Wiehle and Reston Town Center metro stops, and the Reston Parkway area. The special study will first focus on the areas Metro is coming to, before focusing on the village centers and Reston's outlying areas, Merkel said.

The task force is comprised of members of community organizations such as Reston Association, Reston Citizens Association, Reston Community Center, Reston Community Reinvestment Corporation, Reston Town Center, Western Alliance for Rail to Dulles and a number of area residents. Also on the task force are representatives from landowners and developers, such as JBG Companies and Boston Properties.

In 2008 many developers proposed rezoning land parcels or amendments to the county's comprehensive plan in the Hunter Mill and Dranesville districts, Merkel said. The county has set aside about 21 proposals so they can be looked at and considered as a whole to determine how they will fit together and affect other areas of Reston once the special study is finished, she said.

Sounds pretty cut and dry, right? Fortunately, our regular commenters were there to provide... the rest of the story. Here's one account from a regular commenter who asked to remain anonymous:

I think it is imperative that we be allowed to have citizen representation with advisory groups. RCA, ARCH and RA are ready to set up such groups. There are over one hundred Reston residents who finished the Land Use College who are able and willing to lend their talent and expertise to this endeavor. I am concerned that a task force that will meet once a month will not have an adequate amount of time to develop planning guidelines for the Dulles Corridor worthy of our community by next June. The redevelopment of the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor took years. Local residents actively participated in the decisions regarding the changes to Arlington.

Heidi Merkel said the task force will develop a criteria that will be used to determine which neighborhoods are redeveloped. I don't feel that having Patti Nicoson, who is president of the Dulles Corridor Rail Association, and who represents the interests of the property owners in the Dulles corridor is an appropriate choice to chair the task force. I would much rather see someone else chair the task force. Having a preponderance of developers, their attorneys, and pro-growth individuals on the task force is not likely to produce a planning document most Restonians will be willing to live with.

I think it is very important for Restonians to pay attention to this process and speak out at the community meetings. Speaking at the community meetings may be the only venue we have to voice our opinions about the changes Cathy Hudgins wants to bring to Reston.

Another commenter had an extra bit of excitement -- Bob Simon helped him take his jacket off!

Can we get DOUBLE bonus points if we both attended AND met Mr. Bob Simon? This gentleman sat behind me and helped me to take off my leather coat when it got stuck on me as I flailed my arms around like a chicken with its head cut off. :-)

The meeting was VERY well-attended; nearly every seat was occupied. I found the PowerPoint presentation to have been a bit on the boring side, especially since we were mostly being read things we either already knew or could easily glean from the materials we were given. I was saddened to see I was probably the only one there under 25---apparently Reston either has no youth or is home to youth that don't care about the community's future.

Ms. Marion Stillson's husband [Dick] aired some excellent points:

1.) Why are the Dulles Corridor & Reston Town Center being reviewed separately from the rest of Reston when projects considered for one will directly impact the other?

2.) How can civic-minded citizens get involved?

There was one man a few rows ahead of me who I think runs a public access television show. He looked to be upset that he was skipped over when he had wanted to ask a question, but then again, as Heidi Merkel pointed out, he has asked numerous questions in the past and should let someone "new" get a chance.

A well-spoken gentleman who emigrated to Reston from the U.K. 8 years ago asked if the non-PRC areas would be absorbed into the PRC. Heidi said no.

Overall while the event was a bit of a bore everyone behaved themselves. There were no hysterical comments about the ills of rail, the bogeyman coming to bulldoze their clusters, etc. Very well done!

Another commenter had this to say:

The mental image that comes to mind of 95-year old Dear Leader helping 23-year old BiCO escape from his entangled leather coat (with BiCO by his own admission flailing around like a decapitated chicken)is priceless.

The next meeting is at 7pm Tuesday at RCC's Lake Anne center. Be sure to bring your coat.

Breaking: RA Selects Fancy New Headquarters Building, Child Labor Cubbies Were There All Along

This falls into the category of "foregone conclusions," but the Reston Association has officially signed a lease to move its headquarters to Reston Corner off Sunrise Valley Drive.

After more than 35 years at the 1930 Isaac Newton Square location, the Reston Association will be moving to new headquarters in the late summer of 2010. On Thursday, Milton W. Matthews, Chief Executive Officer, announced that a 12-year lease had been signed for space located at 12001 Sunrise Valley Drive, in the Reston Corner office complex.

The total square footage leased will be 29, 042, which includes 3,383 of common areas such as hallways, restrooms, elevators and stairwells. As part of the lease agreement, Reston Association will pay no rent for the first year. After that, the base rent will be approximately $27 per square foot. Reston Association will have the option to renew the lease for one additional ten year term.

The announcement ends months of searching throughout Reston for a headquarters facility. Cresa Partners of Bethesda, Md., a full service commercial estate firm, worked with Reston Association’s board and staff to find a location that would best meet the growing needs of the organization and provide more space for member activities and operations.

Currently, Reston Association occupies approximately 20,000 square feet of space at 1930 Isaac Newton Square location. The lease on this property expires in August, 2010.

For months, our awesome commenters have speculated that the "generic" floor plan (which includes the child labor cubbies in the detail above) that was circulated during earlier discussions about buying or leasing new headquarters space closely matched this building. So much for Bob Simon's idea of making the headquarters a key driver of the Lake Anne redevelopment... unless of course, it takes 12 years to get that little project off the ground.

(Hat tip to our Facebook BFFs at the Observer.)

You Heard it Here Last, But Really FIrst: Lake Newport Recommended Site for Indoor Tennis

For once, one of the hot scoops we shared months ago has actually come to fruition: Lake Newport has been recommended as the site for a fancy new indoor tennis facility.

The [Parks and Planning Advisory Committee] zeroed in on the Lake Newport site because it already had sufficient parking, arterial road access, substantial tree buffers and prior approval for covered courts, and because the facility would have a minimal impact on adjoining properties and no impact on other recreation facilities and would be next to an existing park.

Larry Butler, the Reston Association’s director of parks and recreation, said the presidents of clusters around the Lake Newport tennis facility had mixed reactions to the suggestion that the six outdoor courts there be replaced with five indoor courts. While they appreciated the outreach, he said, they wanted to know what a new facility might look like.

Giant plexiglass dome! Giant plexiglass dome! Okay, we're just hoping. So what happens next?

The advisory committee recommended that the RA begin to engage the community in the process and conduct additional studies to develop concept plans that could be looked over and approved by residents and the Design Review Board. A referendum sometime next year was suggested.

Board member Richard Chew recommended that when community outreach began, each of the surrounding neighborhoods be brought in individually for a presentation and to provide feedback before a community-wide meeting was held. He said the committee should also make presentations to the Environmental Advisory Committee and other affected groups, inviting the neighboring clusters to those meetings as well.

RA President Robin Smyers agreed, saying, "If we have multiple, multiple chances [for community input], I think that would be a real positive."

Speculating on the community’s reaction to the Lake Newport proposal, Chew said, "It’s almost this or nothing. But it may be nothing."

Based on past reactions, Chew may have a point.

This and That: A Random Stagger Through Reston News

• On the eve of a fascist "smoking ban" that was put into place in Virginia restaurants earlier this week, a group of protestors decided to have a "four stogie feast" at Morton's in Reston Town Center as a protest, of sorts, setting off the fire alarms in the process.
  
  
• Reston Community Players former president Sue Pinkman was named citizen of the year by the Reston Citizens Association, the first time the award has gone to a leader of an arts group.
  
  
• Democracy was definitely in action when folks from the impoverished village of "Great" Falls slummed it came to Reston to complain about a fancy turn lane on Rt. 7 that would allow more Loudoun County poors to shatter the bucolic beauty of its 7-11 and Safeway:

  More than 150 people, most of them Great Falls residents, showed up for the meeting at Buzz Aldrin Elementary School in Reston, and they were not happy. However, the public comment period on the project closed six years ago, and it was approved in 2004. The purpose of the meeting was simply to explain that additional turn lane was necessary.

  Heh. To be fair, maybe they just want to keep Loudoun's "serial smoocher" away.
  
  
• Oracle is proposing to build a 203,000-square-foot office complex on its property in Reston.
  
  
• A few weeks back, the Washington Post had an interesting feature about 13-year-old Smar Abuagla, a Langston Hughes middle school student who chose to wear a head scarf at school for the first time this year. Was there taunting and the throwing of items at Abuagla, including a zucchini? Oh, yes.
  
  
• Palestinians are looking to build their first planned community. Guess what fancy beige real estate development they picked as a model?

  These communities are patterned after American suburban development -- the new city, Rawabi, is specifically designed for upwardly mobile families of a sort that in the United States might gravitate to places such as Reston, Va. The developments are also relying on another American import, the home mortgage, including creation of a Fannie Mae-style institution for the West Bank.

  Easy mortgages and confounding regulations. What could possibly go wrong?
  
  
• Reston resident Dwayne Phillips, 50, is walking the length of U.S. 11, bit by bit. Last year, he and his wife walked from Reston to Chattanooga, Tenn., and in October he was in Mississippi, hoping to make it the full length of the highway, which ends in New Orleans. Beats sitting on the Toll Road at rush hour, is all we know.

Silent Protests Planned Over Proposed Language Immersion Cuts During County Budget 'Dialogues'

Public hearings about proposed budget cuts to Fairfax County schools that would end language immersion, full-day kindergarten and other arts programs at Lake Anne Elementary and other schools throughout the county continue tonight. A new group of advocates is planning a silent demonstration outside of tonight's meeting at Herndon High School.

Join us as Fairfax FLAGS, along with many community members, conducts silent demonstrations Wed., Dec. 2, starting at 6:15 p.m. outside of Herndon High School prior to the Fairfax County community budget dialogues.

Following the demonstration, is a county budget dialogue session, 7-9 p.m., at Herndon High School. Two more sessions are at Lake Braddock and Hayfield secondary schools with community members demonstrating beforehand as well.

Even though the dialogues are considered full, previous sessions have allowed unregistered community members to participate -- this is your chance go be heard!

Bring a sign and let's make clear that funding for FCPS is critical to preserve its world-class school system and key at-risk programs such as elementary school foreign language, elementary band and strings, and full-day kindergarten.

The FLAGS group was formed by parents concerned about the potential end of language programs in county elementary schools.

Language immersion programs at a dozen elementary schools and an introduction to foreign language at 31 elementary schools also are at risk. Cutting both would save $3.4 million.

School leaders say the early programs are crucial to producing a generation of bilingual students. Two or three years of high school French typically is not enough to get students beyond a beginner level, said Paula Patrick, coordinator for the county's world languages program. It takes more time to move past memorizing vocabulary lists and start communicating. Students are more likely to master a second language if they start young, she said.

Tina Meek said her family chose to move near Fox Mill Elementary school in Herndon because of its immersion program, which allows students to spend half their days studying in Japanese. Meek's mother was Japanese, but she grew up speaking English. She struggled to learn Japanese in college and later in Japan. In contrast, her daughters, in fifth and second grade, are learning easily, she said. By first grade, they were correcting her accent, she said.

Meek and Chantilly parent Sandy Knox have formed a group called Foreign Language Advocacy for Grade Schools, or FLAGS, to save the elementary programs. Knox helped bring Spanish instruction to Brookfield Elementary two years ago. The program offers a half-hour of instruction twice a week in one of seven languages. It is intended to go districtwide, but two years of tight budgets have slowed expansion; fewer than one in four elementary schools offer the course.

Knox said she was compelled by research that shows how learning a foreign language helps the brain develop and how beneficial language skills are in a global economy.

"My son will be hitting the workforce in 16 years, and I think he will be at a disadvantage if he doesn't speak another language," she said.

Sixteen years from now, we'll be lucky if the country isn't owned outright by the Chinese, but we're pretty sure they'll find it cute when we ask them if they want an extra packet of hot sauce in French or German as they go through our fancy, All-American "drive-throughs."

Will the Hanging Gardens of Reston and Plexiglass Dome Be Part of the New Master Plan?

Check out this fancy cross-section drawing of one possibility for the Reston-style Big Dig, which would put a series of structures, including a recreation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and a Simpsons Movie-like plastic dome over the Toll Road, thereby uniting North and South Reston forever in something that might resemble a leftover set from the sci-fi classic Barbarella, only with fewer fembot assassins. Sweet!

One of our regulars passed along the illustration and this modest proposal:

I have two drawings of the "futuristic hanging gardens of Babylon" over the Toll Road made by urban planner and landscape architect, Guy Rando. This drawing is bigger and you can see more detail. It is a cross-section. In the center bottom you will see where the rail line goes with the highway on either side.

The dome above the rail line area is a climate controlled construction to provide an interior space in all weather.

Each cross-section would be different depending on the buildings and plazas at any particular spot. It would be the ideal place to put the indoor rec center planned for Brown's Chapel.

Once we build this, we can bulldoze the buildings along the corridor (between Sunset Hills and Sunrise Valley), create parkland and woodlands for the new residents living over the Toll Road. All the commercial buildings Reston could ever need can be accommodated over the Toll Road. New roadways and pedestrian pathways can be added across the new development so Reston can be whole and not divided anymore. The developers get to make lots of money. The county gets lots of tax money. We get to keep our town the way we like it.

It's so crazy, it just might work.

Meanwhile, yesterday's kickoff meeting on revisions to the Reston Master Plan was missed by the so-called "mainstream media" and us filthy "web loggers," who had to contribute to the U.S. economy by going to various retail-zoned locations to get this item for everyone on our Christmas list. But never fear, as the next meeting will be at 7 p.m. next Tuesday at RCC's Lake Anne center.

Anyone want to share what happened at the kickoff meeting? Please do so in the comments (and bonus points if you actually attended).

On the Twitters: Hope Springs Eternal, Fox Sightings, and a Very Special Delivery

Here are some more of those, whazzit, "tweets" about Reston. We're still not sure how many characters each one has, as our ca. 1997 cell phone with the flip-up antenna will only "tweet" one or two numbers on its tiny rotary dial before the battery dies, but we hear the kids go nuts for these things:

Hope springs eternal, especially from someone whose Twitter account suggests he's the "lion" of real estate. Well, the title of king has already been taken.

Someone got a "special" delivery... and one of your neighbors didn't.

Someone has a short attention span.

Too bad rabbits don't keep their cell phones handy.

For once, a bit of legitimately useful information on Twitter! Well, is someone going to hook us up or what?

We think Elizabeth and Chick-Fil-A are both being a bit overly optimistic here.

We've been doing this filthy "web log" for more than two years, and we still don't know the answer to this question.

EEEEEWWWW!