ereed

“Unless your the worlds most fuckable man, you need Sure Fuck Cologne!” (sic) says the manufacturer.   They also brag it “drives women into a Hot Sexual Frenzy!” If that’s true, it must smell an awful lot like having a full-time job.

High school student Justin Beckerman made his own single-person submarine to explore a lake near his New Jersey home, "see fish and hopefully find a bit of history, like the cannons from my neighbors' historic house." The project took him six months and cost $2,000. The window is an old skylight, the regulators and gauges are from a trashed soda fountain. From CNN:

The submarine has ballast tanks to maintain its depth and equilibrium; air vents that bring oxygen down from the surface; a functioning PA and a range of emergency systems including back-up batteries, a siren, strobe lights, a breathing apparatus and a pump to fight leaks. The vessel can remain submerged for up to two hours and travels beneath the waves at one and a half miles per hour.

Justin Beckerman's site

"High-school teen builds one-man submarine for $2,000" (CNN)

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This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Adam Gallegos of Arlington-based real estate firm Arbour Realty, voted one of Arlington Magazine’s Best Realtors of 2013. Please submit follow-up questions in the comments section or via email.

Question: I found your last article about the Arlington real estate market helpful.  I’m in the market for a home along the Orange Line.  It sounds like everything is selling pretty well right now, but can you tell me which ones are at the top?

Based on what I am seeing out there, these are the neighborhoods with the most action along the Orange Line, broken down by condo, townhouse and single family house:

Condo – Clarendon 1021 (1021 N. Garfield St.)

Clarendon 1021 is one of the largest condominiums on the Orange Line with 417 homes.  Therefore it also tends to have the most homes available, which works to its advantage during an inventory drought like this one.  Four homes have already sold so far this year and eight more are under contract.

The biggest attraction to Clarendon 1021 is the location.  Walk out the front door and you are within two blocks of Clarendon Metro.  You’re within easy walking distance of Arlington’s most popular bars and restaurants.  Within the same radius are a number of conveniences including shopping, groceries, fitness facilities, banks, car/bike share, drugstore,  etc.  Because of its size, Clarendon 1021 is able to offer a full array of amenities (including rooftop pool and 24×7 front desk) while keeping condo fees relatively low.

Other popular options along the Orange Line are The Phoenix, Station Square, Liberty Center and Wooster & Mercer Lofts.  I would also keep an eye on the Courthouse area.  There is a lot of new retail space being developed, which will include new shopping and dining options.  I expect the Courthouse area to become a great second choice to Clarendon.

Townhome – Clarendon Park (near Fillmore and 11th)

Clarendon Park shares a similar location to Clarendon 1021.  You may find bigger, newer and more extravagant townhomes along the Orange Line, but none with such a sought after a location.  Already this year, we have seen sales in this neighborhood escalate from $26,000 to $68,000 over list price.  Only the smallest model seems to have any trouble selling quickly.

Clarendon Park offers street and park views.  The most popular homes have large front porches that face the park.  Typical of urban style townhomes, they include a rooftop terrace in lieu of a yard.

Clarendon Park is a great option if a central location is important to you.

Another popular option along the Orange Line is Courthouse Hill where the average number of days-on-market in 2013 is only three.  Of the four homes that have sold this year in Courthouse Hill, two have sold the first day!

Single Family House – Ashton Heights

Depending on where you live within Ashton Heights you are either an easy walk or bike ride to Ballston and Virginia Square.  You also have direct access to DC via route 50.

If you are looking for conformity, Ashton Heights is not the place for you.  The homes range from the traditional colonials to more contemporary Craftsmans and Bungalows.  There is also a wide range of prices.  Thus far in 2013, we have seen homes listed from $650,000 to $1,629,000.  What is consistent is the speed at which the homes sell.  Homes are only taking eight days on average to sell.

The Ballston area has a lot of conveniences within close proximity and I expect the area to continue growing in popularity.

Lyon Village would have been the easy choice for this category, but there really has not been much available in Lyon Village so far this year.  Some homes in Lyon Village are selling before they even hit the market.

Though it is important to understand which neighborhoods are performing well during this market, I think it is also important to research how they performed during the weaker market we just emerged from.  Please feel free to contact me for additional information about a specific neighborhood or neighborhoods you are considering.

The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Update at 12:50 a.m. — Police have given the “all clear” and roads are being reopened. The package was disrupted “without incident” and no hazards were found, according to Arlington County Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Fitch.

Earlier: Arlington County police and the county’s bomb squad are investigating a suspicious package in the area of the Transportation Security Administration headquarters in Pentagon City.

Police are shutting down roads within a one block radius of the package, including S. Hayes Street and S. Fern Street between Army Navy Drive and 15th Street S. They have also closed off access to one of the Pentagon City Metro entrances.

According to scanner traffic, a witness told police that the package was dropped off on 12th Street S. by individuals in a white box truck, which then left the scene.

At around 12:35 a.m., the bomb squad conducted a controlled blast to “disrupt” the package. A loud boom could be heard in surrounding neighborhoods. (See video, below)

This was the second suspicious package in the area in the past week.

Comedian Stephen Colbert devoted part of his Comedy Central show on Monday to a four-star Yelp review of the Arlington County Detention Facility.

Colbert read from the review, which praised the jail for offering juice boxes and a “very clean environment.”

“If you’re going to get arrested, do it in Arlington County,” Colbert said, reading from the review.

“I think Arlington tourism just found its new slogan,” he quipped.

Hat tip to Keith H.

From the Neiman-Marcus gift catalog, a trailer that converts into an elaborate, beautiful bar, and comes with a year's supply of Bulleit bourbon and rye. There are two for sale at $150K each, with 10 percent going to an HIV/AIDS charity.

A chorus of cheers rings out the minute you pull up. Tailgating will never be the same now that your Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Woody-Tailgate Trailer is on the scene. Designed by interior designer Brad Ford, it's impressive on the outside, but what's on the inside truly astounds: sleek leather furnishings and details from Moore & Giles, rich wood finishings (handcrafted from reclaimed Bulleit Bourbon casks), elegant glassware, and a top-notch entertainment system, including a flat-screen TV, Blu-ray Disc™ player, and a state-of-the-art sound system, plus a one-year supply of Bulleit Bourbon and Bulleit Rye*. You park, open the hatch, and slide out the bar—cocktails anyone?

Bulleit is delicious bourbon, but I recently bought a bottle of Elmer T Lee Single Barrel and holy cats, is that stuff astounding.

BEST GIFT, BAR NONE! & BULLEIT TO GO (via Neatorama)

Living in Southern California, we have an abundance of citrus nearly year round — lemons, limes, kumquats, grapefruits, and more. I also have a household of beverage enthusiasts, from my kids who love to make lemon-, lime-, etc. -ades, or “kid drinks” as they call them, to my wife and I who are crazy about cocktails, flips, fizzes, and sours. This is why I graduated from my fine, but slow, hand juicer, to the monstrous, restaurant-calibre Ra Chand J210 Bar Juicer. It makes quick, efficient work of juicing tons of citrus. Rather than dread all the labor, I’m now happy to juice enough fruit to make a full pitcher of Ginger Limeonade with my kids to sell in their DIY juice stand.

The Ra Chand is dead simple. No motors or fragile plastic parts to break — in fact it only has six parts, made of cast aluminum, plus a wire return spring and a few bolts. The mechanical advantage it provides is tremendous. With its long lever and offset pivots, even my six-year-old daughter can use it to easily squeeze a half-lemon dry. The Ra Chand is big enough for me to juice a medium grapefruit — when I have a larger-sized one to contend with I quarter it (and secretly wish I had the even-larger model, the J500).

The straining cone (which looks like a half beehive) allows juice and the occasional small seed through, but very little pulp. This is also due to the fact that pressing (rather than twisting like a motorized juicer) bursts the cells of the fruit, but doesn’t shred the membranes.

If I have one complaint it is that the juicer can be tipped forward easily until you get the hang of pulling the lever down, not down-and-toward-yourself. I’ve gotten used to this, but I do hold onto the base when my kids use it to avoid a mess.

In all, the Ra Chand is hands-down the best citrus juicer I’ve used. I appreciate its size, speed, power, ruggedness, and simplicity. I imagine it’ll be in our family for many years, hopefully providing juice for generations. -- John Edgar Park

Ra Chand Citrus Press $194

Last summer I tried some carrot soup that tasted like buttered toffee. It had been made in a pressure cooker, which heats water vapor above boiling temperature, greatly reducing normal cooking times. I told my parents I was going to get a pressure cooker, and they recommended the $90 Fagor multicooker, because unlike most pressure cookers it has an electric browning feature, which lets you brown beef, fish, or chicken right in the pot before you pressure cook it, greatly improving the flavor.

The Fagor is also a slow cooker and a rice cooker. Because it is so versatile, I use it almost every day. The throw-everything-in-the-pot-and-push-a-button approach has broadened my cooking horizons. I’ve made rib roast in the slow cooker that had my in-laws coming back for thirds. I’ve made mouth-watering chicken stuffed with sun-dried tomato pesto, basil and goat cheese in a matter of minutes. I’ve made salmon with spinach and lemon sauce, fennel and Italian sausage, creamy risotto, and spicy Bolognese sauce. Thanks to an online army of pressure-cooker devotees, I’ll never run out of recipes.

The only negative thing about the Fagor is that the user interface doesn’t make it clear when it is cooking. A couple of times I’ve set the timer and forgotten to press the start button, only to find out twenty minutes later that it never started. I’ve learned not to do that. -- Mark

Fagor Stainless-Steel 3-in-1 6-Quart Multi-Cooker

My wife Carla has been reading some excellent books in her book salon. One of them was Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, which I reviewed here. More recently, she handed me her copy of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple, and told me I was going to love it, and she was right! It's a tremendously entertaining work of social satire combined with a mystery that kept me wondering what would happen next right up to the end.

Bernadette Fox lives with her husband, Elgie, in Seattle. Twenty years ago, Elgie and Bernadette lived in Los Angeles. Elgie had been an animator and Bernadette had been an up-and-coming architect. But then two things happened: Elgie sold his company to Microsoft, and Bernadette suffered a terrible event. Now they live in a decrepit old house (that used to be a home for wayward girls) on a hill in Seattle with their daughter Bee, who attends Galer Street, an expensive private school filled with the kids of Microsoft's top managers.

Bernadette doesn't like the other Galer Street parents. In fact, she doesn't like anyone besides Bee and Manjula, her 75-cents-an-hour virtual assistant from India who performs all manner of tasks for the agoraphobic and antisocial Bernadette. In turn, the other parents despise Bernadette for her aloofness and refusal to volunteer at Bee's school. And Elgie offers little support: he's too busy heading a project that he thinks will change the world, and the fact that many other people think so (he gave the 4th most watched TED Talk in history about his creation, called Samantha 2), allows him to justify his 80-hour workweeks.

Author Maria Semple tells the story through email messages between school parents, emails from Bernadette to her assistant Manjula, psychiatric evaluations, and other Internet communications, interspersed with notes from Bee. There's a reason the story is presented this way, which readers discover near the end of the book. We also learn the terrible secret of what happened to Bernadette in Los Angeles, and why she suddenly disappeared the day before she was supposed to go on a vacation with Elgie and Bee to Antarctica.

One of my favorite things about Where'd You Go, Bernadette, besides the entertaining characters and takedown of private-school/TED/Microsoft culture, was the sheer unpredictability of the story. I had no idea what I was in store from one scene to the next. But everything tied together, and as a stickler for satisfying endings, Where'd You Go, Bernadette nailed it.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Restaurant Talk is an occasional feature written by Nick Freshman, a native Arlingtonian and co-owner of Spider Kelly’s and Eventide Restaurant in Clarendon.

Food trucks? Sure! Cupcakes? Bring it on! No subject is too risky, so let’s go right for the perpetual hot button topic of almost every live chat or website about food: Kids.

I enter on all sides of the conversation here: I’m an operator who deals with families all the time, I’m a Dad who loves to eat out with my daughter, and I’m a diner who often likes eating out with just grown-ups. A lot of you fall into the latter two categories, so you can surely appreciate how nuanced the topic is.

Here is the deal: some kids are angels eating out, some kids have a hard time in restaurants, and sometimes it’s the same kid on different days. Some parents are like Baby Whisperers with their kids, some parents struggle more, and sometimes it’s the same parents. Also, we could all probably stand to take a deep breath and relax just a little bit.

It’s just that simple. And it’s just that hard.

As an operator, I love kids. Their parents spend money, after all, and there are a ton of advantages to marketing to families. In Arlington, families represent a very lucrative demographic; I’d be crazy to ignore them. Also, as stated above, today’s family at brunch could turn into next week’s anniversary dinner or next month’s mom’s night out in the bar. We have always prided ourselves in welcoming kids into Eventide and Spider Kelly’s. We have families ourselves.

And let me be very clear to point out that the responsibility for ensuring everyone has a good time is on us. It’s our job to make all our guests happy, and that’s what we try to do.

But we could all use a few ground rules.

When I became a parent, I realized that the restaurant business had actually prepared me well. For work, I had to learn to be ready for anything at anytime. I had to learn to keep calm and trust my preparation. Parenting was the same except infinitely more wild and unpredictable. The best part about kids is you never know what will happen next, but that can make plans and events and dinners maddening. A sense of humor helps a lot, but it won’t always save the meal.

Here are a few tips that I valued as a dad, and that establishments will value as they do their best to accommodate you:

1. Bring Cash; Get the Check Early. I know, no one carries cash anymore and cards process quickly, but it saves a time-consuming step. I ask for the check when the food comes. If things go south, no problem.  I can pay the check and be gone before things really break bad.
2. Bring a Snack. We strive for everything at Spider Kelly’s to come out in less than eight minutes, but that can be an eternity if your kid has plummeting blood sugar because you forgot to feed her after soccer. That was me more than once this past season. Snacks on hand can make all the difference.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Something Your Kid Will Eat:  I don’t know how anyone could shun the donuts at Eventide, but kids’ tastes change by the minute it seems. Don’t be afraid to go off menu if you can’t find anything for your kid. And don’t be shy about placing an order right when you sit so it comes out quickly. Happy kids and parents mean good tips for the servers. They should hop to it.
4. Bring your own entertainment — as long as it is quiet. Even if your kid is a budding food nerd, it’s hard to keep them busy through an entire meal. Just remember that the table behind you probably doesn’t want to hear Shrek 2. Doesn’t anyone color anymore? My office is papered with my daughter’s handiwork. Many restaurants keep supplies on hand, but your stuff is always the best.
5. Pay attention to your children. Seems basic, right? But it isn’t. This isn’t date night for you, so please keep an eye on your kids. Even good kids get into things, and all kids can get bumped by grownups not accustomed to looking out for them. I see it all the time at Spider Kelly’s, and it honestly scares me a bit. The later it gets the more we encourage parents to keep their kids on their hips. It’s safer for everyone.

Okay, that should be enough fodder for the comment section.

I also wanted to give some praise to spots in town that my daughter and I love. She has been my breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner and dessert date for as long as we have had her. She is almost six now, and a seasoned pro at going out. It’s always been something fun for us to do together to get out of the house where we seem to drive each other, and my wife, crazy. We are at our best out and on the move. Her tastes have changed (along with her patience) as she gets older, so certain places have gone in and out.

Our favorites and the times we usually hit them up:

Faccia Luna (Lunch)

Quick food and good variety. Great beers for Dad, coloring stuff always on hand for the little one. I’ll admit this one is heavily favored because of nostalgia. My wife and I had our first real date here, and when our daughter came along, it was one of the first places we were brave enough to venture out to. Dinner or lunch here is always kind of a mile marker.

Eat Bar (Brunch)

They serve an amuse bouche, and it’s a doughnut! They play old cartoons on the big screen which keeps the kids at bay. The quizzical looks my daughter gives Elmer Fudd and Foghorn Leghorn are priceless.

Iota Café (Breakfast)

The most peaceful place for breakfast in town. Quiet, usually with classical music playing. Daily papers laid out and the most killer breakfast sandwiches. Room for restless kids to run around (stage dancing, perhaps?).

Café Caturra

A shout out to a chain albeit a regional one. This café concept is out of Richmond. Nice building, comfortable seating and lots of good stuff to choose from on the menu. They slash the food and drink prices for happy hour, so you can get some drinks, food for you and the kids and be out of there way before bedtime with barely a dent in the wallet.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Sixty feet under the Gulf of Mexico lie the remains of an 50,000-year-old forest. Diver and photographer Ben Raines took some amazing photos of the site and sent samples of the trees — which still look like trees — to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for radiocarbon dating. You can see sap in a cross-section of the wood and, when it's cut, Raines says it still smells like fresh cypress.

Several years ago I needed about half a dozen tools for a series of workshops I was hosting. I needed a hand tool that could safely and easily shape plastic and thin sheet metal, but not break the bank. I found trauma shears at the local hardware store for a couple dollars each and bought every pair they had. Although I had misgivings about the price they worked great. I still have them and they all get constant use and abuse.

Sometimes called EMT or Paramedic scissors, they were originally designed for emergency responders to cut through seat belts, zippers, denim and leather. The rounded tip and bent handle made to safely cut along skin also make them useful for cutting along other surfaces without snags or jabs.

They’re somewhat famous for being shown cutting through a penny, which they’ll do without too much trouble. More practically they’ll cut sheet metal, wire, cable, plastic, cardboard, staples, rubber, foam, branches, and small bolts, to name a few. They’re the scissors I reach for when I don’t want to ruin my good scissors, and you’ll find them scattered throughout my workshop. They’re also great for opening plastic clamshell packages and I’ve tied them into bows on presents to help get into gifts. -- Steve Hoefer

Trauma Shears: about $3 a pair

There are 44 prescription drugs on the market today that should never be combined with grapefruit. That's because the sour fruit (and some other, closely related, kinds of citrus) contain chemical compounds called furanocoumarins that prevent your body from metabolizing certain prescription drugs. Essentially, the grapefruit creates an artificial overdose where one tablet packs the power (and side effects) of 20. The CBC has a full list of the drugs, which includes cancer drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and drugs to treat problems of the urinary tract. Wikipedia has more about why this interaction happens.