V.w.verweij

got that dog fever bad

Last week, someone cut out the word “Black” from a “Black Lives Matter” sign outside of Rock Spring Congregational church (5010 Little Falls Road).

The church has vowed to replace the sign and now it has a message for the vandal or vandals who defaced it.

The Rev. Dr. Katy Dwyer published the following open letter “to the person(s) who altered our sign” over the weekend, inviting them to join a conversation on racial justice at the church Monday night.

Altering the sign we placed on our lawn by deliberately cutting out the word “Black” from the phrase “Black Lives Matter” was a passionate expression. I can make assumptions about what you might have meant by this. However, I can only speculate. This open letter is an invitation for you to join our sacred conversation.

The conversation we have been having has been challenging, powerful, and vulnerable. Those of us who join in the conversation are not all of one mind. We are all learning and growing together. We agree with one another to speak about our own experience, to practice forgiveness, to respectfully challenge one another, and to assume good intentions.

I want to share with you what I heard through your action, and I welcome you to tell me if I am wrong.  I will also share my response to what I think I am hearing. I sense anger in your passionate expression.  Cutting out the “Black” in this sign sounds like you are shouting “Lives Matter.  ALL Lives Matter!” I am aware that when the American Cancer Society is raising money or creating awareness about cancer, no one shouts “All Diseases Matter!” Perhaps you assume that our congregation does not value all lives. Perhaps you feel threatened in some way by positive attention given to the Black community.

Your action this week felt like a contribution to our conversation, and I want to extend the same commitments to you as I do to our other conversation partners from several races and cultures.

Our year-long sacred conversation on racial justice and our public witness that Black lives matter began from a place of compassion and curiosity. Compassion for the Black lives that are being killed, oppressed, and threatened. Curiosity about what our congregation and community might do to help create a more just and equal future.

We meet again this Monday at 7:30 p.m. The topic is Color-Blindness. Most white people think we have two choices: to be racist or to be colorblind. We will talk about whether there might be a more valuable third option.

I hope you will consider joining us. You will be welcome.

Grace and peace,

Rev. Dr. Kathryn N. Dwyer
Senior Pastor

How to tell if fruits and veggies are ripe

A reader writes:

“Writing to report a found dog near Nationals Park in SE DC. He is a small terrier mix, collar and flea collar but no tags and no microchip. Lucky for this little guy, Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL) (www.warl.org) was running an adoptions event in the area and the nice people who found him brought him to the adoptions event. He is currently at the WARL shelter-202-726-2556.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Jim Havard

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Victoria Pickering

Photo by PoPville flickr user Andrew Golda

From MPD:

“Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch have announced an arrest has been made in the homicide which occurred in the 2900 block of Sherman Avenue, Northwest on Tuesday, October 20, 2015, at approximately 11:10 am.

Members of the Third District responded to a call for the sounds of gunshots. Upon their arrival, they located an adult male suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. The victim succumbed to his injuries on scene and was pronounced dead.

The decedent has been identified as 38-year-old Marcus Manor of Northwest, D.C.

On Monday, October 26, 2015, pursuant to a DC Superior Court arrest warrant, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested 28-year-old Kevin Chase of Northwest, DC. He was charged with First Degree Murder While Armed.”

• Chocolate Sauce
  

If you have any animal/pet photos you’d like to share please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say the name of your pet and your neighborhood. Your photos will go into the queue (usually 2 weeks wait) and will be posted in the order I receive them. If you’ve already entered your pet and would like to do so again – that’s no problem – just space the entries out a bit. Please try to send horizontal photos 640×480 (medium size on your iphone) if possible. If you’re not using an iphone any size is fine.

“Pancho from Columbia Heights, ready for Halloween and fall!”

“All three kiddos sunbathing”

“Bomber is ready to cuddle up with his furever human. 40 pounds of love and goofiness is what he has to offer. He is available for adoption through Homeward Trails Animal Rescue.”

If you have any animal/pet photos you’d like to share please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say the name of your pet and your neighborhood. Your photos will go into the queue (usually 2 weeks wait) and will be posted in the order I receive them. If you’ve already entered your pet and would like to do so again – that’s no problem – just space the entries out a bit. Please try to send horizontal photos 640×480 (medium size on your iphone) if possible. If you’re not using an iphone any size is fine.

“Thanks for the memories Winthrop”

“Quincy (goes by “Q”) from Logan Circle”

“Tiger, 7 yr old rescue bichon frise @ Mt. Vernon Triangle”

If you have any animal/pet photos you’d like to share please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say the name of your pet and your neighborhood. Your photos will go into the queue (usually 2 weeks wait) and will be posted in the order I receive them. If you’ve already entered your pet and would like to do so again – that’s no problem – just space the entries out a bit. Please try to send horizontal photos 640×480 (medium size on your iphone) if possible. If you’re not using an iphone any size is fine.

“Lego is a two year old hedgehog living in Brentwood. He is an escape artist and loves his wheel so much that he has gone through three plastic wheels. His parents have now invested in a steel wheel that seems to let the hedgeman run wild!”

“This is “El Rey” (“The King” in Spanish). He is 15 years old and lives with me in Columbia Heights.”

“This is Hushpuppy and he lives in the Shaw neighborhood!”

If you have any animal/pet photos you’d like to share please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say the name of your pet and your neighborhood. Your photos will go into the queue (usually 2 weeks wait) and will be posted in the order I receive them. If you’ve already entered your pet and would like to do so again – that’s no problem – just space the entries out a bit. Please try to send horizontal photos 640×480 (medium size on your iphone) if possible. If you’re not using an iphone any size is fine.

“Dudley the Schnoodle ignores a grasshopper in Lanier Heights”

“Layla of Dupont Circle”

“Here’s Boshi who lives in Shaw and works in Adams Morgan!”

There are now enough uncollected comics for Cat and Girl books Vol. IV and V. But now: do we?* Are books a thing that matters or just another impediment to destroying all physical traces of our life until we can live in a gleaming 10×10 foot cube with a cell phone, two sweaters and a matchbook with deep emotional resonance?** Are books worth making through some POD Createspace type service, which really takes the fun out of a print run but does not add to the years of life I have spent moving around boxes filled with the same book 32 times***?

Is it worth continuing to do something just because a precedent has been set? Or does seeing a project through to completion just mean you didn’t have enough imagination to stop?****

I don’t mind the work. Maybe i should mind the work. Or maybe the work should go into making something new. Consistency is its own kind of death.

I also have a bag filled with blank tee shirts and some iron on letters. We could just do that.

—————————-

*Enter the solipsism.
**I am pro gleaming cube.
***

****Been listening to the Cold Cold Hearts on my own long personal slide to cultural irrelevance – how about you?

If you have any animal/pet photos you’d like to share please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say the name of your pet and your neighborhood. Your photos will go into the queue (usually 2 weeks wait) and will be posted in the order I receive them. If you’ve already entered your pet and would like to do so again – that’s no problem – just space the entries out a bit. Please try to send horizontal photos 640×480 (medium size on your iphone) if possible. If you’re not using an iphone any size is fine.

“Scout from the Navy Yard”

“Roux of 16th Street Heights waking up from a nap in her cave.”

“This is Penny, my 14-year-old Harrier/Chow/Golden/Other mix who has enjoyed living in Petworth since 2007. We walked around Hains Point the last weekend of September and here she was eyeing some birds she wanted to chase.”

See a bonus costume on Facebook

If you have any animal/pet photos you’d like to share please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say the name of your pet and your neighborhood. Your photos will go into the queue (usually 2 weeks wait) and will be posted in the order I receive them. If you’ve already entered your pet and would like to do so again – that’s no problem – just space the entries out a bit. Please try to send horizontal photos 640×480 (medium size on your iphone) if possible. If you’re not using an iphone any size is fine.

“Pierre the toy poodle celebrating his 2nd birthday. Pierre is the prince of Shaw!”

“Winston Leblanc adores me [below]. Magnolia Delacroix tolerates me [above], from a distance, if there’s food. Rockville, MD.”

via Smithsonian’s National Zoo

From the National Zoo:

“On October 8, vets performed an exam on Bei Bei. He weighed in at 5.9 pounds. His eyes are now fully open and he is getting more active and rambunctious. He also received his first vaccination. Before the full veterinary exam, our chief veterinarian Don Neiffer settled the panda cub by massaging two pressure points at the base of his skull.

On October 12, keepers obtained an updated weight on Bei Bei. He is now 6.38 pounds!

Mei Xiang has begun spending time outside during the day. She is eager to go out first thing in the morning to eat and usually returns inside after 20-30 minutes. Some days she also goes outside for 20-30 minutes in the afternoon. Mei Xiang will gradually increase the time she spends outside over the next few weeks and months. She has even recently started bringing Bei Bei out of the den and into her larger indoor enclosurefor brief outings. When Mei Xiang brings Bei Bei outside the den, the door to her outdoor exhibit remains closed to prevent her from bringing him outside before he is fully vaccinated.

Bao Bao Update

Bao Bao has been rotating through mom Mei Xiang’s and dad Tian Tian’s yards also for a change of scenery. Giant pandas are solitary in the wild, so she is not interacting with her parents directly. But, it’s very enriching for Bao Bao to engage with the smells and surroundings in her parents’ yards. According to keepers, she seems to enjoy the variety of trees for climbing! Yesterday Bao Bao participated in her first routine veterinary blood draw. She sat in the training chute, just like her parents do, extended her arm into the blood draw sleeve, and held still while vets collected the sample. According to her keepers, she did very well and got a honey water treat for choosing to participate in the checkup.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Brett Bowers

“Dear PoPville,

We just discovered that our relatively new basement rental tenants are growing weed in their bedroom. We’ve been getting headaches from a smell from the basement since the day they moved in and when we asked what the heck the smell was they’ve claimed it was incense (which technically it was). They are using it it seems to cover up some type of smell from the weed but we are not sure exactly what. The smell occurs often during the day so we think it may be something that they are doing to the weed.

Needless to say – discovering the presence of the weed growing during an inspection of the unit (which we did alert them to) has us really pissed and we are wondering what we can do between now and when the lease expires? The lease they signed with a rental company prohibits smoking of any kind in the unit as well as conduct of any illegal activities. It also prohibits use of the unit for anything other than residential purposes (e.g. no business activities). We have a small kid and don’t want any of this on our property (legal or not). Would appreciate any advice of what we can do/request until such time as we can cancel the lease.”

From the 900 block of U Street, NW.

Guess who? They are the only flying mammals, they kill mosquitoes and they sleep upside down - BATS! October is Bat Appreciation Month, thanks to BLM Idaho for sharing these great bat photos on public lands.

If you have any animal/pet photos you’d like to share please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say the name of your pet and your neighborhood. Your photos will go into the queue (usually 2 weeks wait) and will be posted in the order I receive them. If you’ve already entered your pet and would like to do so again – that’s no problem – just space the entries out a bit. Please try to send horizontal photos 640×480 (medium size on your iphone) if possible. If you’re not using an iphone any size is fine.

“My Great Dane, Roux, enjoying the Arboretum.”

“Haji ‘Sir Richard Burton’ Binkins”

“Pablo and his new Old Man Wheels. You’ll be seeing us on the streets of Bloomingdale.”