Once Again, Reston Goes Viral on Video, Once Again For All The Wrong Reasons

Man oh man, we love us some viral videos, and for the second year running, Reston doesn't disappoint. Unfortunately, for the second year running, it's not exactly a good viral video that's put our plastic fantastic planned community on the map yet again:

To be fair, the person in the video hasn't worked for the Reston Association for several years, the organization said in a statement posted on its home page. And until we build the Big Beautiful Earth-Toned Wall to keep undesirables from, say, shopping at Trader Joe's, we can't take responsibility for every bit of unpleasantness that happens in our community. But come on, folks! Doesn't anyone who lives in Reston have a video of a cat or dog who Thinks They're People?

Bummer: Reston Native Loses 'Battle of the Decades' on Jeopardy, Though Not to Some Dude From Columbia at Least

Sadness fell on our earth-toned Nirvana at approximately 7:23 pm last evening, as after his earlier triumph, Reston's own Mark Lowenthal failed to advance beyond the semi-finals on Jeopardy's "Battle of the Decades." We were too busy watching the latest cutting-edge Lithuanian buddy comedy, Uter, No! That is My Unicycle From Which You Are Liberating, which had just arrived in our appropriately earth-toned mailbox from our favorite mail-order supplier of Eastern European cinema, Nyetflix. Fortunately, our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought-After South Reston, filed a report:

"I'll take homeowners association CEOs who defected to Columbia for $800, Alex."

Once again, regrettably, that shifty son of the north Alex Trebek refuses to acknowledge the existence of flagpole design guidelines, earth tone aesthetics, and homicidal nudist colonies as legitimate Jeopardy categories, instead presenting Reston native Mark Lowenthal questions from such BOR-ING categories as folklore, European rulers, and government medical abbreviations.

Lowenthal, playing in the quarterfinal round of Jeopardy's Battle of the Decades -- a battle royal equaled perhaps only by the Baron Cameron dog park hoopla -- faced off Wednesday against some serious competition: none other than Brad "The Bradinator" Rutter, the show's biggest all-time money winner, and Dan Pawson, the fifth-highest money winner. In this Brouhaha of Bearded Boffins, no one could halt the Bradinator; his advance to the semi-finals was as unstoppable as Sherman's march to the sea or Particleboard's advance into Loudoun.

By the end of the first round, Mark is in third place; although he knew some answers across the board, he couldn't get traction against the Bradinator. We do learn, however, during Alex's chat with the contestants that he is writing an "autobiography" of the Greek god pan. "A lusty fellow," Mark adds, to which the devilish Alex retorts, "Just like you."

As the second round progresses, it becomes a runaway for the Bradinator, especially after he bets $10,000 on a daily double and gives the right answer to an obscure English literature question. We know in our hearts that Mark's fate is sealed when he slightly flubs the correct answer of "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" -- obviously, more time with the cougars at Jackson's would have helped him there.

By the end of round two, the Bradinator is like a runaway Silver Line train pulling into Wiehle, with an uncatchable $32,400 to Dan's $10,200 and Mark's $1,800. All three, however, incorrectly answer the final Jeopardy question dealing with Supreme Court rulings, believing that a 1956 decision referred to a strike rather than the Montgomery bus boycott.

And so the Bradinator lives to fight another day while Mark returns home to the greener pastures of Reston. But kudos to Mark for what he has accomplished during his appearances on Jeopardy dating back to the 1980s. And better yet...we haven't seen any contestants from Columbia in the Battle of the Decades, so put that in your pipe and smoke it (although not on a nature trail with an expensive official no-smoking sign), Uncle Miltie!

So pour one out, as the kids somewhat recently used to say, for Mssr. Lowenthal. This one's for you:

Bummer: Reston's Nate Tao Booted From American Idol

See what you made us do, Nate Tao? You made us turn on the teevee at Restonian World Headquarters, an event usually reserved exclusively for quality educational programming, to watch the singing game show. And you weren't even on until the last two minutes, in a brief montage saying goodbye to the people who didn't survive "Hollywood Week," whatever that is. Sorry! Maybe we should spend more time watching actual teevee instead of Reston-themed public access cable.

"It sucks," Tao said, and we agree. But it was a fun ride, and Tao seems like a legitimately nice guy. You can read an interview he did with our BFFs at Patch, or maybe this older story.

Yes, That Was Nate Tao, Some Dude From Reston, on American Idol (Updated With Audition Video)

Some Twitter operative took a picture of his teevee showing a picture of Nate Tao, who's apparently from Reston, on American Idol, which is apparently a singing show on the teevee. And he apparently got four yes votes and a "golden ticket" subjecting him to further reality television embarrassment. Good on him!

There are many YouTubes videos of Nate singing, including this song, which apparently is the one he sang during his audition tonight (we don't know -- we would have been watching 30 Rock if we were watching teevee at all).


More videos are available here. (We liked the Adele cover.)

From his bio:

Nate Tao is an artist with an impressive yet growing resume. He has performed at Lincoln Center, Fenway Park, and the Kennedy Center. Known for his smooth but powerful voice, he truly excels at pop/r&b music and loves to perform.

Originally from Northern Virginia, Nate is a first generation Taiwanese-American born to deaf parents. He grew up playing piano but realized his true passion was singing. Having grown up without any musical influences from his parents, he ended up listening to his older sister's pop albums. It turns out that pop music is where he feels the most passionate.

Between Tao and Kei$ha's songwriter, Reston is rapidly becoming the avant-garde epicenter of the pop music universe. These guys were just ahead of their time.

Nothing quite like an excuse to use the Drudge Sireen twice in a week.

Update: Here's the audition video, assuming you can endure the requisite montage of bad auditions beforehand.

On the YouTubes: A Fistful of Color Chips

Who says that Reston has lacked culture since its crowning artistic triumph? Please to be enjoying the first episode of the fancy Web series "Thurston," created by Reston couple Paul Awad and Kathryn O’Sullivan. "Thurston" has been nominated for the 3rd annual Indie Soap Awards for best Web series in the drama category, along with a number of individual awards. Tell us more, old-timey "news paper!"

"Thurston" tells the story of the residents of a remote mining town in the Kansas Ozarks and their struggle for survival. O’Sullivan, a theater professor at the Manassas Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College, wrote the screenplay for the series; Awad, an instructor in video and film-making at The Art Institute of Washington, D.C., directs and films the series.

Since Lake Anne's brutalist concrete splendor isn't exactly the closest fit to the Old West, visually speaking, the series has been filmed in Wytheville, Virginia -- at "a western theme park, complete with a dusty main street and faded clapboard buildings." In other words, an old-timey Fake Downtown, minus the frozen yogurt and Pottery Barn. Let's just hope an upcoming episode doesn't involve the sheriff arresting a mysterious stranger trying to make an unauthorized daguerreotype plate near the fountain watering hole, the end.

To The Lighthouse: Reston Resident Buys Lakefront Property A Bit Out of Town

If you can't find the right lakefront property in Reston, you could always follow the lead of Sheila Consaul and do the next best thing. The Reston resident purchased a government surplus lighthouse on Lake Erie in an online auction and will use it as a summer home.

Sheila Consaul has officially taken possession of the Fairport Harbor West Lighthouse and now the real work begins in turning the iconic structure into a summer home.

“I was out to see the lighthouse both in September and October and I’m very excited to get on with the restoration,” said Consaul, a marketing executive from Reston, Va.

Consaul has a fancy website and Facebook page for the lighthouse, if you're into such things.

Personally, we could see moving the whole thing to Lake Thoreau, maybe right on the dock at South Lakes Village Center. That bright light would definitely keep something like this from happening again.

McShocker: Reston Home To Sacred Artifact Of Americana

European cities were built around cathedrals, which in turn were built, in part, to house relics -- the toenail of a saint, or what have you. We're pleased to tell you that Reston, too, is home to an artifact that's worthy of a large physical structure -- say, a seven-level parking garage topped by parallelograms -- to call home.

Our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, just happened to be watching "History Detectives" on PBS when the show's hosts stumbled upon the find of the millennium -- the original Ronald McDonald costume, in the hands of a Reston collector! (It was actually the prototype used to standardize advertising for franchise operators around the country, but who's quibbling?) Not Randy Lieberman, our own Indiana Jones of mid-century franchise memorabilia.

Please to be enjoying this fancy embedded video of this dramatic find (skip ahead to about 37:00 for the McDonalds segment). A transcript is available here if for some reason you prefer reading.



As the Peasant put it, "how this national treasure escaped being swept up by the Smithsonian is unclear, but it is with pride swelling in our hearts and a tear in our eyes that Restonians can state we are indeed the official cultural capital of the civilized world, with the Macaroni Grill as our artistic epicenter. Paris may have the Beaux Arts, but we have the Beaux-zo Arts!"

'Naked Jay Big Dill Vodka' Just One More Thing For Reston to Be Proud Of

It's been a while since the 'ole distillery packed up, moving its wares of swill favored by fraternity types at a nearby state college to Fredericksburg. But Reston is once again living up to the traditions of its forefathers from the drunken village of Wiehele, courtesy of Reston native Jason Zimecki and one, um, "Naked Jay."

Naked Jay Vodka debuts with a line of premium and uniquely flavored vodkas: Naked Jay Big Dill -- dill pickle flavored vodka, Naked Jay Whip Cream -- whipped cream flavored vodka, and an 80 proof original vodka. The American-made vodkas, distilled four times, are now available exclusively to the state of Virginia.

Naked Jay Big Dill Vodka, the boldest flavor in the lineup, is the brainchild of Reston, Virginia native, Jason Zimecki. Zimecki came up with the "Big Dill Idea" when he ran out of mixers at a football tailgate with friends. After mixing vodka with leftover pickle juice, an idea was hatched.

It's not quite the apple hitting Sir Isaac Newton's head, which as grade school students everywhere know gave him the inspiration for a square full of low-rise, Ebola-producing businesses. But we'll take it. Let's hear more!

Naked Jay Big Dill exudes the delicious bite of dill pickles and the smoothness of Naked Jay Vodka. Zimecki prefers the product in a Bloody Mary, as a chilled shooter or in a Dirty Pickle.

Who wouldn't?

The fancy press release that crossed the transom here at Restonian World Headquarters ended with this chilling statement:

Photos Available Upon Request

Um, thanks but no thanks.

This and That: A Random Run of the Bases of Reston News

• Man oh man, we love us some schematic drawrings, and this new earth-toned hawtness represents the new $18 million Reston police station and governmental center, which is slated to rise from the parking lot behind the current, considerably blockier building. At a meeting Wednesday, architects explained that the police section of the building is the part that's solid and built into the ground, while the offices for the Hunter Mill District Supervisor and her staff are the glassy bits, symbolizing transparency in government or something awesome like that. The site is in the midst of prime property targeted for development, but there are no plans yet for the land that surround it. Who knows? Maybe they can move the hookah parlor and sex shop lingerie boutique next to the police station; they seem like what urban planners would call "complementary uses."
  
  
• Our BFFs at Reston 2020 read a fancy study on Toll Road rate pricing commissioned by the airports authority and learned a "fun" fact, assuming you find hoarding quarters "fun": Rates could rise to $7 now -- and up to $12 in 2023 -- and revenue would still increase, as even with the fancy Silver Line, some folks will have no recourse but to take our favorite multilane slice of gridlock. Um, yay?
  
  
• Following in the footsteps of an awesome report that solved all of the Lake Anne Village Center's problems forever, a meeting was held last week to discuss new ways to attract businesses and visitors. We'd say something about one new buisiness attracting some attention for the Plaza, but we already used that joke in the first item.
  
  
• Colin Mills is the new president of the Reston Citizens Association. He's also involved in the Master Plan Task Force With An Interminably Long Acronym (MPTFWAILA), so it's good that the group that's been paying the most attention to the Task Force's work is well-represented. Meanwhile, given the slow speed of its work, John Lovaas wonders if the aforementioned Task Force is "trapped in a time warp," though presumably one bereft of good showtunes.
  
  
• The Reston Association Board will allow a Buckthorn Lane resident to once again hunt deer on his property. Let the deerpocalypse begin!
  
  
• Boeing has acquired Reston-based Solutions Made Simple, a cybersecurity contractor for the government involved in, we dunno, strapping encrypted files to dolphins.
  
  
• Finally, some good news: After winning the state Little League championship, the Reston Nationals go to Georgia this weekend, where they will play South Carolina, Florida and West Virginia teams in hopes of making it to the national semifinals. Please to be enjoying this fancy video -- and wish the Nationals luck.
  
  
  

This and That: A Fancy New Fountain, Funnel Cloud Over Reston, and RA Headquarters Bounces Back from Bankruptcy

• The fancy Lake Anne fountain, which makes our earth-toned community the "Geneva of Fairfax County," as people from far and near don't call it, is in the midst of being replaced with some fancy upgrades, assuming you consider electrical systems and dredging to be "fancy." The new fountain will be up and running by the end of May, according to the RA, "barring any unforeseen difficulties or scheduling conflicts." What could possibly go wrong?
  
  
• The storms that tore through much of the south last week generated a confirmed tornado touchdown in Reston, according to the National Weather Service. This won't surprise anyone who's seen the line of uprooted trees on both sides of Wiehle Avenue -- and the conspicuous lack of damage anywhere else. The NWS says the tornado was about 75 yards wide and was on the ground for 1.1 miles, from roughly the parking lot on Sunset Hills Drive to the Tall Oaks assisted living facility. (Here's the play by play, in case you're keeping score at home.) Considering the damage elsewhere even in Virginia, it's amazing it left only downed trees in its wake.
  
  
  
  
  
• It's shaping up to be a year of transition in Reston schools. Along with the midyear reassignments of Armstrong's two top administrators and Forest Edge Elementary's announcement that principal Frank Bensinger is retiring, new South Lakes football coach Andy Hill said he is resigning to take a job at his alma mater in Minnesota. Lake Anne Elementary principal Linda Hajj is also retiring in June.
  
  
• Good news for the Reston Association: Its landlord narrowly averted foreclosure on the RA headquarters building and has now emerged from bankruptcy court. Plus the owner has big plans!

  Garrison is now looking to reposition the properties and market them to office tenants. It plans to add new conference and fitness facilities to add value to two of the buildings, 12001 and 12005 Sunrise Valley Dr., which total nearly 210,000 square feet near Reston Town Center. Known as Reston Corner I and II, the first building is about 30 percent leased and the second is empty

  Huh. Does that mean the Reston Association is the only tenant in either building?
  
  
• Yay, the fake downtown gritty urban core has a couple of new stores. We're sure White House/Black Market and Francesca's Collections are fine retail options, but we were secretly hoping for a bold new retail concept: a combination saladry/cupcakery called Dressings to Donuts (patent pending).
  
  
• Local mystery author Alan Orloff set his second book, Killer Routine, in Fairfax County and had this to say about our beloved beige community.

  On his website, he describes Reston’s strict developmental guidelines and contrasts that to people’s messy lives.
  
  “You can’t always adhere to a rigid set of guidelines and still be happy," he says.  “I enjoy the dichotomy between the perfect plastic exterior and the inner chaos.”

  Uh-oh. Did we just out ourselves? Probably not, as no one's ever accused us of knowing how to write. Plus, we had to find a dictionary to figure out what "dichotomy" meant.
  
  
• Yay, Reston company Metron Scientific Solutions helped find the black box of downed Air France Flight 447. Beats our usual Reston business story involving strapping bombs to dolphins, etc., etc.
  
  
• The Washington Post "news-paper" ran an interesting article about a Reston woman who lost her job as a result of changes in Virginia's policies involving drivers licenses for legal immigrants with work permits.

  Hirut Bekele had never heard of Carlos Martinelly-Montano, the undocumented Bolivian immigrant charged with killing a nun in a drunken-driving accident in August.
  
  But last month, their worlds collided when Bekele, an Ethio­pian woman living in Reston, tried to get her driver’s license renewed in Virginia.
  
  As she had done for years, Bekele, 32, took her work permit, which she is legally allowed to renew each year, to the Department of Motor Vehicles. In previous years, the DMV would issue her a new license based on the work permit. But last month, it said no.
  
  Jorge E. Figueredo, director of racial justice and immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Virginia, said he has come across dozens of recent cases of legal immigrants being denied driver’s licenses in Virginia, and two other cases of immigrants — one from Tunisia and the other from Pakistan — who were denied licenses on identical grounds as Bekele.

  Cue the sensitive and nuanced discussions of our nation's immigration policies in 3... 2...
  
  
• Bummer: Dinner Zen in the South Lakes shopping center is closing, as did Books-a-Million in Plaza America.
  
  
• If weeks-old celebrity sightings are your cup of tea, you're in luck! Redskins coach Mike Shanahan was recently spotted at a screening of "The Conspirator" at the Fake Downtown gritty urban core's cinemas. Get ready for some juicy, no-holds-barred gossip:

  The Redskins coach had a large beverage, while his wife toted a tub of popcorn. Left before all the credits rolled.

  Good thing TMZ was staking out the theater from the Apple store across the street.
  
  
• Finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the passing of Reston soccer coach Ty Lewis. The Reston Knights FC coach and South Lakes High School alum never stopped coaching during his three-plus year battle with colon cancer. "You just live each day like it's the last day of your life," he said in a February TV interview. "Play each game like it's the last you'll ever play." Words to live by, even on a stupid "web log."

The Triumph of Art: Reston Resident Wins Most Important Contest of All Time

Lest you doubt the incredible creative energy that resides behind our earth-toned walls, let it be known that Mary Jo Ondrejka of Reston was one of three people who won the Washington Post's annual "Peep Show" contest, which involves creating art from children's candy and whatnot. Along with co-conspirators Bryn Metzdorf from Fairfax and Margaret Hartka from Parkton, Md., Ondrejka created this stunning reenactment of the "Chilean CoPeepapo Mine Rescue" (get it?) The best art should enlighten and challenge, and we think this does both, inasmuch as molded extrusions of marshmallow and high-fructose corn syrup can do either, so yay, the end.

On the YouTubes: Forget March Madness, Let's Watch People Lifting Heavy Objects For Sport

You may think you're a bit of a badass, what with riding your bike along the soon-to-be-artified W&OD Trail, but check out your fellow Restonians lifting heavy objects such as tires and whatnot during the first annual strongman competition at Crossfit Reston. And we can thank our community's unique aesthetics for making the event legit!

The brainchild of Barry Perkins, 44, former strongman and founder of the Edge 2.0 training group, the Capital Classic was the first competition of its kind in Fairfax County.

The Capital Classic Strongman Challenge concept began in Perkins' Reston backyard. He and his strongman buddies would get together to lift atlas balls and large tires to train for upcoming events.

Naturally, this didn't sit well with his suburban Reston neighbors.

"The neighbors did not like it at all," he said.

Maybe they should have tried lifting some earth-toned objects, as opposed to the neon yellow car you can watch a woman hoist in this exciting but unembeddable video.

Fun fact about your Restonian: We would have been right there power-lifting two-door sedans and whatnot in this fancy video, but tragically a last-minute paper cut kept us from entering. There's always next year!

Shocking Graffiti Shocks A Reston That's Not Easily Shocked

Our BFFs at Patch posted this shocking twitpic, whatever that is, of some graffiti found in South Reston. We strongly recommend drawing your blinds and locking your doors until this "Connor" decides to put away his DRB-approved beige chalk and take up a slightly less menacing pastime, like "hacky sack," whatever that is, the end.

Reston Barista Could Be America's Next Top Model (With Your Help)

Meet "Sara," a barista at the Starbucks at the ever-gritty and authentically urban Reston Town Center, who is in the running to be a finalist on America's Next Top Model, which is apparently a reality teevee show that does not involve starving on some island or having a serial business failure with a bad toupee as a "boss."

"Sara" isn't the first Restonian to seek fame and fortune this way, but we wish her the best just the same. You can help by voting for "Sara" through the end of the day at this link. She's identified as Gallery 15, Photo 15.

Final Jeopardy: Reston's Dan Jensen Loses Day 4; Walks Away With As Much As $72,804

Dan Jensen, we hardly knew ye:

The streak has ended. Reston weeps.

Tempting fate once too often with a shirt in a borderline DRB-acceptable white, our native son Dan Jensen loses on his fourth Jeopardy appearance. The reigning champ faces fierce competition from fellow contestants Justin from Canada and Sally, who lives in a nun-run residence in New York City (one imagines the good Sisters hovering over poor cowering Sally, wielding their WMD/weapon of merciless discipline yardsticks as she crams for tonight's appearance: "Faster on the signaling device! Study harder! Pick up the pace!"). Sally takes a $6,400 lead over Dan at the end of round one, and keeps pouring it on in the second round, as does Justin. While Dan does well in the category of brand logos -- perhaps too much time spent in our awesome midscale retail outlets at RTC? -- he ends the second round in last place with $12,400. All three contestants correctly deduce that Jackson Pollock is the correct answer in Final Jeopardy, but Sally bets big and ends up champ at $33,601, with Justine second at $25,300 and Dan third at $14,601.

But we salute Dan for a game well played and for a great run while it lasted. You make us proud, Dan, to call ourselves Restonians.

That, courtesy of our Chief Game Show Correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston.

Jensen walked away from the experience with $72,804. Not too shabby. And for the Dan Jensens of the world, there's this:



Update: If there's one thing we don't know, it's the rules about losing on Jeopardy:

As I recall, and as listed in Wikipedia's Jeopardy entry, third place contestants win only $1,000 for their appearance that day, regardless of how much they win in the game itself, so Dan's grand total for the four days may be "only" $59,203.

Oh well, back to writing about DRB regulations.

If there was actually a game show about that, we'd have enough Turtle Wax to last a hundred lifetimes.

The Day Is His! Reston Man Wins Day 3 of Jeopardy

Chief Restonian Jeopardy Correspondent The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston weighs in with this update on Dan Jensen, our local boy done good on the teevee, after he survived his third night on Jeopardy:

Dan The Man hits the trifecta (or a hat trick, for you Caps fans) and wins his third game in a row, but not without some heart-stopping moments such as losing his entire $4,200 in the first round's Daily Double when he thinks Simon Bolivar, from whom Hugo Chavez is reincarnated, is buried in Cartagena and not Caracas. Dan is in second place when the first round ends, but rebounds nicely in the second round, thanks especially to his acing the phobia category of "animals who scare me". We think Dan has perhaps spent too much time out in the Reston woods having close encounters with varmints and latex-gloved creepos. Dan ends the second round with $16,800, a substantial lead but not enough to assure victory. In the final Jeopardy category of "Symbols", all three contestants answer correctly that the symbol of two snakes (those varmints again) separated by a staff is a caduceus. Dan wins $18,001 dollars, bringing his three-day total to an impressive $58,203.

We attribute the relatively narrow margin of victory today, some $2,400, to the fact that Dan wore a shirt that was barely borderline DRB-approved in color...some shade of off-white, apparently. Russet brown, Dan, russet brown!

Jensen is a 2000 graduate of South Lakes High School and works at Champps. Too bad he wasn't a contestant on Wheel of Fortune, as he'd start out with an extra P.

What is Mauve? Reston Man Wins Second Night on Jeopardy

Reston's own Dan Jensen won for a second day on Jeopardy, reports our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston:

Dan the man does it again! After a seesaw struggle in both rounds, he enters Final Jeopardy with a $2,000 lead over his nearest rival. All three contestants correctly answer that of all countries where Spanish is the official language, Venezuela is the last alphabetically. Dan cannot be caught and ends the day with $19,201 in winnings, bringing his two-day total to an impressive $40,202. Viva Danilo!

And he wasn't even wearing a lucky russet brown shirt...rather something blue-gray in tone.

Fingers crossed for another victory--and a DRB-approved wardrobe choice--on Day 3.

We'll Take Earth Tones for $100: Reston Man Wins Big on Jeopardy

And we thought this was a slow news week! Our favorite correspondent, the Peasant from Less Sought After South Reston, weighs in with an exciting scoop, straight from his living room:

In a continuing quest to fill his brain with all sorts of esoteric and at times useless knowledge (beyond that gleaned from reading certain "official" websites run by professional journalists and/or homeowners associations), The Peasant sprawled out this evening to watch "Jeopardy". Imagine the surprise to find that one of the two new contestants on tonight's show was a Mr. Dan Jensen who comes from none other than Reston, Virginia. His occupation is restaurant manager; one could only hope against hope that he oversees the all-you-can-eat breadsticks and pasta at The Macaroni Grill.

In the first round, our native son proves to have pretty broad knowledge and a lightning fast finger on the answering device (although not fast enough, ironically, to ring in with the answer about the design on the Virginia state quarter). He does nevertheless earn $1,500 on that round's daily double with the correct answer of "The Reign of Terror". No, the question wasn't about those RA Covenants dudes with clipboards terrorizing hapless homeowners who own oversized compost bins, but rather that "off with their heads" chapter in the recent RA Board of Directors election -- strike that -- revolutionary France. Our man Dan ends the first round in the lead with $9,300.

Different story in the second round, as reigning champ Steve comes on strong in both the art and physics categories; we are guessing that Dan snoozed through art appreciation class at South Lakes and that his Mr. Plutonium Cold Fusion in a DeLorean project did not win first prize at the Fairfax County Science Fair. Steve takes the lead, but then in a John Edwards series of moments self-destructs with several big-buck wrong answers. The second round ends in a cliffhanger with Dan at $11,300, $700 more than fellow contestant Maureen and $900 more than Steve.

It all comes down to Final Jeopardy in the category "worldwide media". For a nanosecond we harbor the hope that the correct answer to the upcoming question will be "Restonian World Headquarters", but no, that sneaky Alex Trebek asks about some mainstream/lamestream "news agency whose name means peninsula as in the Arabian Peninsula". Everybody get the obvious correct answer of al-Jazeera, but our man Dan bets big with a wager of $9,701, giving him the championship, a one-day total of $21,001, and the chance to play again. Lucky guy -- that's enough money to pay at least another 35 years of RA annual assessments, or a week's worth of expected Dulles Toll Road fares in the year 2018.

And finally, while Dan is obviously a bright guy, we believe a significant part of his success tonight is due to the fact that he was wearing his lucky shirt that was, of course...mauve.

We wish Dan the best of luck as he moves on to the next round... tonight? We haven't watched Jeopardy in a while, opting instead for more sophisticated fare, but maybe it's tonight. We only hope he chooses a russet brown shirt for Day 2.

You can watch a brief "hometown howdy" from Jensen here, or at least you could if you had an Internet connection faster than a 300 baud modem.

This and That: A Random Turkey Trot Around Reston News

• Tennis enthusiasts flocked to last night's Reston Association board meeting to urge the RA to move forward on a referendum on the awesome $3.8 million juice-bar free indoor tennis facility proposed for Lake Newport. Were their (ahem) volleys successful?

  RA president Kathleen Driscoll McKee says given the current budget, the message might have to be "not 'no,' just 'not now.' "
  
  "We are concerned about success of a referendum," she said. "Does it make sense for us to spend $75,000 if it stands a chance of not being successful? This [budget situation] may not be the reality in two years, but right now, the board does not feel ready to go to referendum and have a successful result."

  Would that be love-40? Match point? Or Yahtzee? God help us, we don't understand tennis.
  
  
• The fancy new Metro station coming to Wiehle Avenue will have rad 80s art and, eventually, an awesome civic plaza. But you know what's still missing? Security measures.

  The missing security features, which will probably increase the project's cost, were identified in a triennial audit by the Tri-State Oversight Committee, a regional panel that oversees safety at Metro. Released last month, the nearly 300-page report noted dozens of problems at Metro, but it also highlighted the lapse in planning for the new rail line to include the "additional processes, design features, and equipment necessary in a 'post-9/11' environment."

  We recommend a couple of those fun nekkid scanners everyone seems to be so happy about.
  
  
• Both the principal and assistant principal at Armstrong Elementary have been reassigned to other county schools. You'd think that removing a school's entire leadership team in the middle of the year might be an ill omen, but then you'd be forgetting this is one of the astronaut schools and everything is totally fine.
  
  
• How's this for an awkward correction from the newspaper iPad app of record?
  
  
• After a truck hit the Beulah Road bridge over the Toll Road earlier in the week, the bridge has remained closed, blocking a handy overland route to Tysons that avoids the Toll Road, if not about a million "traffic calming" measures closer to "Fairfax County's downtown." Hunter Mill Supervisor Catherine Hudgins wants VDOT to replace the bridge, which was rated structurally deficient even before the collision. No word on whether VDOT will reach into its pockets and pull out a shiny dubloon or two to do this as of yet.
  
  
• A lot of associations are headquartered in Reston, including the one that oversees the vaunted Meat Industry Hall of Fame, which has been awarded to McDonald's Ray Croc and a bunch of Canadians. Um, yay meat?
  
  
• Robert Hansan of Reston won $137,000 at the Breeder's Cup Betting handicapping Challenge at Churchill Downs.
  
  
• South Lakes High School graduate Grant Hill reminisces about his time in Reston. Meanwhile, there's a nice profile about current SLHS gridiron star Ja'Juan Jones and his brother Rashaan, both of whom spent time in homeless shelters growing up. But when it comes to real sporting matches, Lawrence Jones of Reston takes the cake, losing a close 38-37 decision to Alexandria's Brandon Quarles in the junior middleweight category at the Patriot Center on Nov. 7. We're not 100 percent sure, but this sounds like boxing to us. Um, Yahtzee?
  
  
• Darius Nichols, who grew up in Reston, played the role of Hud, the "sensuous, omnisexual wild child" in the Kennedy Center production of Hair. We knew Reston was a bit more freewheeling in the 1960s, but we had no idea!
  

Terror, Tolls, and Politics As (Un)usual: A Random Sprint Through Reston News

• Farooque Ahmed, the Ashburn man accused of plotting to bomb a number of Virginia Metro stations, worked as a contractor at Ericsson in Reston. What's more, he was taken into custody in Herndon. That's what those of us (not) in the news business would call a "local angle two-fer."
  
  
• Here's what those of us (not) in the news business would call a "real shocker:" Dulles Toll Road tolls are going up by a quarter at the main toll booth outside of Tysons on Jan. 1. The "good" news is that ramp tolls will remain the same through 2012. Feeling ripped off? Apparently, it's still a bargain, at least to hear the airports authority explain it:

  According to the MWAA, the Dulles Toll Road still has one of the cheapest toll-per-mile rates, currently at 13 cents per mile, and it will go up to 15 and 17 cents per mile in 2011 and 2012, respectively. To compare, the Dulles Greenway is 32 cents per mile during off-peak hours, and the Beltway HOT lanes will be 43 cents per mile, according to estimates from project sponsors.

  Maybe it's just us, but comparing anything to the Greenway strikes us as an odd way to make the case that we're not getting shafted.
  
  
• Hunter Mill Road's Toll Road underpass will be closed again overnight from Nov. 1-5 as construction crews do something involving "bridge decking," or maybe just preparing to have a money fight with all those shiny new quarters they'll be getting. The same helpful detour is in place as last time.
  
  
• After reading those last two items, you're probably getting excited about someday forgetting about the whole Toll Road experience and just stone cold hopping on the Silver Line. Well, the good news is that the fancy tunnel taking the Metro under one of Tysons' most prestigious hillocks is now completed, though trains will return to the surface just in time to see the endless sea of car lots along Rt. 7. The bad news? The project is behind schedule. Blame "utility lines," whatever that means.
  
  
• So maybe riding your bike is a good idea then, right? Remember that time that Reston was in line for federal funds to build a vaguely socialist bike sharing system? Well, not so much anymore.
  
  
• Yay Reston's Fake Downtown, which just turned 20! The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recently honored the real estate development "world-class urban model," along with James Cleveland, Hunter Richardson, and Jeffrey Kovach, who all played key roles in its development. Robert E. Simon and Cathy Hudgins were among the people who planted a fancy time capsule to be opened on Oct. 18, 2030. We're guessing the future denizens of the RestonWiehleTargetvilleMetroplex will be quite impressed by the cupcakes, cryogenically frozen yogurt and, whaazitcalled, "iPods."
  
  
• Nineteen-year-old Lee Wiggins was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the Easter 2009 murder of Siobhan Russell in Fox Mill.
  
  
• Following the traditional "preference poll," Beverly Cosham, William Keefe and Roger Lowen were named the selected appointees to the Reston Community Center Board of Governors. In Small Tax District #5, polls prefer you!
  
  
• Reston resident Richard Allen Beyer, currently a corporate vice president and member of the executive committee at Trimble Navigation Ltd., was named the first non-Jesuit president of Wheeling Jesuit University.
  
  
• Rockwell Collins, which is involved in, we don't know, strapping aviation electronics to dolphins, is consolidating operations in Sterling, including Reston employees who joined the company when it bought Information Technology and Applications Corp.
  
  
• TerreStar, which is involved in, we don't know, strapping dolphins to satellites, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
  
  
• We've said it before, and we'll say it again: People love puppies.
  
  
• With the elections on Tuesday, we've been remiss in covering much in terms of politics. But here, through the magic of the Twitters, are two exciting photos that capture the zeitgeist of Campaign 2010: Reston Style.
  
  
  
  Thanks to a Confidential Restonian Operative, here is an exciting cellular telephone photo of Republican Congressional candidate Patrick Murray's bus at North Point Shopping Center. We're not sure if he was there campaigning, just stopping by for ice cream, or if the bus had plowed into the red car in the foreground.
  
  And then there's the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear, which seems like something that would be up many Restonians' alley. Is anyone going?
  
  
  
  Apparently so.