A nine-year-old boy jumps in the drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in March 2020. Photograph by Evy Mages .
Good morning. Five years ago today, we all took a leap into the unknown as everyday life as we knew it in the DC area began its rapid unscheduled disassembly. Today, I’ll think about the tens of thousands of people in our area who died over the unsettled years that followed—and remember those first weird days and the first print issue we here at Washingtonian produced, unexpectedly, at home. The cover read, “We will get through this.”
Drizzle and clouds today with a high around 58 and a low around 42 overnight. The Capitals visit Los Angeles tonight, and the Wizards will be at Detroit. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address at the bottom of this post.
I can’t stop listening to:
Vijay Iyer, “Ghostrumental.” An appropriately haunting track from Iyer’s swell 2024 album “Compassion.” Iyer’s trio plays at Blues Alley tonight and tomorrow.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Shutdown watch: Democrats in the Senate declined to support the GOP’s continuing resolution. (NYT) “Democrats do have some leeway to make demands, despite being in the minority.” (Politico) The “most appealing scenario to Democrats” would let them “go on record opposing a shutdown while allowing Republicans to pass the House’s CR on their own.” (Punchbowl News) Funding for the government runs out at midnight Friday. There’s the slimmest of chances Democrats could engineer a fix to the hole the CR would blow in the District’s budget. (Washington Post)
DOGE days: Today is the deadline for federal agencies to “submit plans for sweeping workforce cuts and reorganizations.” (Politico) EPA presented a plan to aggressively roll back regulations. Environmental advocates say they’ll see the agency in court. (NBC News) StudentAid.gov went down for hours after the administration gutted the Department of Education. (AP) The Social Security Administration “abandoned plans it was considering to end phone service for millions of Americans filing retirement and disability” after the Post reported on them. (Washington Post)
[Whew! That’s a lot. Let’s take a beat. Okay.]
Reeling with the feeling, don’t stop, continue: A federal judge ordered Elon Musk‘s DOGE project to turn over records in a suit by Democratic state attorneys general. (Politico) Don’t underestimate how embarrassing President Trump‘s Tesla commercial at the White House was for Musk, Charlie Warzel writes: “Musk needed Trump to come in and fix his mess for him.” (The Atlantic) Musk, rather than Trump, is the star of many Democratic attack ads. (Punchbowl News) We all need our downtime: Musk associate Chris Young “procured a massive TV for Musk’s office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building so he could play video games.” (Politico)
• Trump’s war on law firms he doesn’t like “runs head on into the wall of First Amendment protections,” US District Judge Beryl Howell said yesterday. (Politico) “’I have enormous respect for Williams & Connolly,’ Howell said, referring to the law firm representing Perkins Coie in the case, ‘and enormous respect for them taking this case when not every law firm would.’” (Washington Post)
• Another Trump cultural move: He forced out Shelly Lowe, the head of the National Endowment for the Humanities. (Washington Post)
• The send-migrants-to-Guantánamo plan seems to be on pause. (NYT)
• Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin visited the White House yesterday, and Trump rewarded the visit by complaining about Rosie O’Donnell and saying Ireland takes advantage of the US. (AP)
• Profiles in courage: US corporate bigwigs might say something to Trump if the market goes down by, say, a fifth. (WSJ)
Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen
Photograph by Ike Allen.
Each time I’ve found myself on this block in Bailey’s Crossroads in the past few years (and it’s been many times), I’m struck by the diversity of suburban DC dining. Between Payne Street and Glen Forest Drive alone, there’s a Pakistani grill, an Ethiopian place specializing in raw beef dishes, a Palestinian place, a solid Indian buffet, two new Yemeni coffee shops, and a kind of mini Thai-Town created by the Duangrat family. The newest addition to the latter is Mum Aroi, a comfortable place that replaced the family’s northern Thai outpost Rabieng, which they sold along with the Thai grocery next door to another family of experienced Thai restaurateurs. Two main dishes stood out above most Thai food in DC: a sweet, soy sauce-seasoned duck noodle soup fragrant with star anise and coriander; and pad ped pla dook, fried slices of catfish glazed with what looks like a sweet sauce, but turns out to be fiery and herbal, spiked with bunches of pickled green peppercorns, wilted basil, and the pithy, diminutive variety of Thai green eggplants. (5892 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
Photo courtesy the Waldorf Astoria.
• Don’t miss our guide to places where you can have a cherry blossom-themed afternoon tea!
• How the administration’s return-to-office orders are affecting feds.
• Get a full Irish breakfast at these pubs. Not entirely unrelated: Here’s our list of top cardiologists.
• Send this to your out-of-town friends: Hotel packages for cherry blossom time.
• Why hasn’t Dan Snyder‘s mansion sold?
• Doechii will perform at WorldPride on Sunday, June 8.
Local news links:
• Loudoun’s sheriff has ID’d a person of interest in the disappearance of 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki. (WTOP)
• Jack Evans is back on the DC payroll. (WCP)
• Budget airline Avelo will add more routes out of Dulles. (Northern Virginia Magazine)
• Evan Glass plans to run for Montgomery County Executive. (Bethesda Magazine)
• Falls Church is likely to get more restrictions on turning right on red. (ARLnow)
Thursday’s event picks:
• National Gallery Nights opens its spring season.
• Caleb Hearon hits the Warner Theatre.
• A salute to Austrian women composers at the Embassy of Austria.
See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
Did you miss our 100 Very Best Restaurants List? It’s here.
Forward.
Senior editor
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.