Morning Notes

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by ARLnow.com March 9, 2012 at 8:30 am 3,182 49 Comments

Daylight Saving Time Begins This Weekend — Daylight Saving Time will begin at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 11. Clocks should be moved ahead one hour before going to bed Saturday night. The start of Daylight Saving Time is also commonly cited as a good time to replace the batteries in smoke detectors.

Artistic Fence Coming to Water Treatment Plant — The County Board is expected to approve a $350,000 contract for an artist to build a 1,600 foot fence around the water treatment plant on S. Glebe Road. The fence, a functional work of art, “redefines the traditional purpose of a fence,” according to county staff. [Sun Gazette]

Hummus Happy Hour at Lebanese Taverna — Local restaurant chain Lebanese Taverna just launched a $5 “bottomless hommos” happy hour. The deal, which runs from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays, is available at the company’s Pentagon Row and Westover restaurants, in addition to several other locations. [Facebook]

Oyster Happy Hour at Restaurant 3 — Clarendon’s Restaurant 3 (2950 Clarendon Blvd) has introduced a “local oyster happy hour” on Sundays. The eatery is offering discounted Maryland and Virginia oysters, $9 fried oyster sliders, $7 oyster shooters and $3 beer specials from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. every Sunday. [Rrestaurant 3]

nunya

had a double take…..i thought it said “bottomless homos” …
FREDTERP
- TG30a
  
  No, that’s restricted to Clarendon establishments.
  - Josh S
    
    I’m thinking your calculations about the locus of gay Arlingtonians may need some rejiggering.
- OldTimer
  
  I saw Hammas at first glance.
(another) Greg

“[R]edefines the traditional purpose of a fence.”

Why do public art announcements have to use such pretentious language? Why couldn’t they just say something like, “this will look better than chain links topped by barbed wire”?
- C Z future
  
  Spot on, Greg.
  Teh ‘public art’ community makes itself a very easy target.
- Ed
  
  How about: “We are pioneering postmodern barriers at that place where aesthetics meets material exclusion”
  - Dan
    
    I think that you might have a future in this !!!
  - drax
    
    The milieu of “fence” as integral to the emancipation of sensibility deconstructs the value of inherence, substantiating causal reality amongst constricted objectivity and rejecting dystopian modernism post hoc.
- Modwop
  
  Can they do something “artistic” to the chain link/barbed wire combo around the Dominion Power substation at Wilson/10th/Fairfax? I’d throw some tax dollars at that….
  - Ballstonian
    
    +1 What an eyesore in the heart of Arlington.
  - Clarendude
    
    There is actually an ‘art’ project to replace that fence with a nicer one. No county money involved, it’s being paid for by Dominion Power. Basically it will be a tall, wooden fence that has characteristics that cause subtle moire patterns to change as the temperature changes. I can’t seem to find any illustrations online. Dominion had an open house on it last year. It’s been taking a longer time than planned. Ben Fehrmann is the artist hired by Dominion.
    
    http://benfehrmann.com/
    
    Arlnow mentioned it:
    
    http://www.arlnow.com/2010/09/07/wilson-blvd-power-station-to-get-new-facade/
Really?

As to the artistic $350,000.00 fence: Why not give spray cans of paint to the kids and let them have it?
Be much cheaper and would encourage involvement by youth in the county’s public arts.
Might even get a new winning design for that annual windshield sticker mandated by the board for our vehicles.
- Really?
  
  “…and let them have at it”.
Clarencarry

I hope the fence does not contain any water related themes making it a sign the county would required to be covered.
MC 703

Are oyster prices artificially high? Is the bay in that much trouble that they are becoming THAT rare? I was trying to buy a 10 dozen for a cookout last year and even the Maine Ave fish markets wanted a dollar per oyster…

If you love crabs and oysters, fishing for stripers in the spring and eating any sort of seafood caught along the mid-Atlantic coast remember that everything you put on your lawn or on the road ends up in the Chesapeake Bay.
- Zoning Victim
  
  I was at the Maine Ave. fish market a few weeks ago and bought:
  
  50 little neck clams
  2-dozen Chincoteague oysters
  2-dozen medium sized clams for Clams Casino
  
  I think it was about $65. Maybe last year was a bad year for them because of the BP oil spill in mid 2010 shutting down the gulf?
- drax
  
  Yes, they are that rare. Yes, the Bay is in that much trouble.
  
  There was a graph in the Post last week. Off the top of my head:
  
  Oyster catch in 1958 – 4 million bushels.
  Catch in 2005 – about 28,000 bushels.
  
  It’s going up now, to something like 50,000 bushels.
  
  And probably most of the oysters you’ll get at Restaurant 3 are flown in from Asia or something.
Hummus = Beans

Hey baby, let’s meet at the Taverna, chow down on some fiber all evening, then go back to my place for some no holds barred dutch oven action!
Thes

Daylight savings time kills people. Be careful on the roads on Monday.
stupid time to change the clocks

they should go back to the pre-Bush daylight saving times. Just another thing W f’d up!
- Really?
  
  To “stupid time, etc.”
  If we are going to turn the clocks back; let’s turn them back to pre-Obama gas prices. Just another thing O f’d up!!
  - Really!
    
    Prices are quite up to where Bush had them in ’08
    
    http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=24
    
    But bringing them down is easy – just crash the global economy !
    - Zoning Victim
      
      Or just ignore them and convert to CNG.
    - drax
      
      Oops, another right wing myth shattered.
  - Zoning Victim
    
    I wish somebody could explain to me how Obama effed-up the price of a globally traded commodity that’s almost completely controlled by the OPEC nations.
    - Really?
      
      Who’s effing-up the price? Talk to Al Gore. He’s promoting $5.00 gas to get us on O’s green agenda. You know like Solendra, Chevy Volt, etc. and other tax subsidized failures.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        All tax subsidized failures as you stated, but none of those things are responsible for the price increase. Those who stupidly advocate for $5 a gallon gas, which is nothing new, want it done through taxation.
      - Josh S
        
        Why is that stupid?
    - Elmer
      
      Kill the Keystone pipeline. Let OPEC rule. Why buy oil from those Canucks when we can give our money to the Arabs?
      - Really!
        
        I’d say build the pipeline but don’t yet extract the resource. First, we should be depleting other country’s resources as long as they are suckers enough to sell it to us. When their wells are all sucking sand, then we can re-energize our extraction and will be in the catbird seat. Why is the “Deplete America First” strategy so popular in some circles ?
      - SoMuchForSubtlety
        
        All of the Keystone oil would be exported out of the country, as in not used here.
      - Elmer
        
        Hum. So more oil available and for sale on the world market has no effect on the price we pay?
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Elmer, what makes you think Canada isn’t already selling all of the oil they extract? It’s the oil products that we plan to export (primarily diesel). Sometimes things sound really simple and logical but aren’t:
        
        http://www.tarsandsaction.org/spread-the-word/key-facts-keystone-xl/
      - drax
        
        The oil in Canada isn’t enough to bail us out yet again either.
    - CC
      
      The nominal price of oil has not changed, commodity prices are more sensitive to inflation.
      - Elmer
        
        Zoning Victim: I read the article in your link. Its Stop The Keystone. I’ve also considered the source.
        Brainwashed.
      - drax
        
        You wouldn’t want to just consider the facts. Nope, find a way to ignore them by “considering the source.”
- ArlingtonChick
  
  It’s stupid that we change clocks anyway. What’s wrong with changing them later and earlier so it doesn’t screw us up as much?
Arlington, Northside

I wish they would move oyster night to Fridays for the Lentin period.
nom de guerre

How about the $50 light bulb that was developed by Phillips? They won a $10 million U.S. Department of Energy award for this baby! I can’t wait to buy 10 of them. not!
- Clarendon
  
  Well, the bulb has a rated life of 30,000 hours versus about 1,000 for a typical incadescent. It also is 80% more efficient per lumen, so it may not actually be more expensive. If the light quality is good I might try it for some applications (where the light is always on or in a hard place to reach). With new tech, there are always issues though – is it good for fan applications with vibration, or outside with hot and cold extremes, does it do better left on or is it robust to power cycling, etc.
- Dia
  
  For some interesting background about light bulbs, go to “The Lightbulb Conspiracy” at http://dotsub.com/view/aed3b8b2-1889-4df5-ae63-ad85f5572f27
  
  Dotsub is a site where folks can translate movie subtitles for folks.
soarlslacker

How much would the fence cost if it was not artistic. It is the poop processing plant. You can put a ton of lipstick on it and it is till going to look like the place where the contents of your toilet go after you flush. Couldn’t they waste this money on the Artsphere or redoing the fake turf fields every year?
- Elmer
  
  Well, after all its the Arlington Way. Why be fiscally responsible with the taxpayers money when you can simply raise taxes without fear being accountable for the waste.
Ashton Heights

1. Regarding Dominion power substation project — I think Dominion promised years ago to finish this project with an artistic fence that would fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. That sounds scary.
2. Regarding $50 light bulb — WP had article today explaining that one $50 light bulb would last for 10 years, where it would take $50 worth of $1 incandescent bulbs to get you through 10 years. Same cost for light bulbs, but big savings in electricity. Also the same light bulb made offshore would only costs half as much.
John Andre

I dislike having to wake up on weekdays with more than an hour before the sun rises!!!

Why can’t they rearrange the DST conversion so that it happens on the Sunday closest to the spring and fall equinox??? This gets particularly bad in the fall when they wait until NOVEMBER before the fall-back to Standard time! The change back to Eastern Standard Time should happen on the Sunday closest to September 23rd not after Halloween. During late October it’s sometimes after 7:30 am before sunrise. I think this continual pushback of the time-change is mighty foolish and doesn’t really save that much energy! A lot of people have to turn their lights on before sunrise in the fall.
John Andre

About the light bulbs…this is one of the very few areas where i agree with the conservatives.

Being on a fixed income, I DISLIKE having to pay inflated prices for light bulbs. I never see the “lower cost” for “energy savings”, but it hits me in the pocketbook when I have to pay huge amounts for light bulbs which used to cost me less than two dollars a box. This mandate for compact fluorescent and other light bulbs is nothing more than an effort by the light bulb companies to soak us for something which used to be reasonably priced. The new light bulbs don’t always last longer than their incandescent predecessors. The least these folks could do is to lower the price of CF light bulbs so they are no more expensive than the incandescent bulbs they replaced. Then we could REALLY start saving money! And don’t go blaming President Obama and Al Gore for this. That bill was signed by a Republican President in 2007, and represents another effort of the GOP to make life more expensive for us ordinary folks. Just wait until Mitt Romney starts fooling around with Medicare and Social Security if he gets elected.
Liz

Does anyone else see a problem with their tax dollars paying for a $350,000 fence! I certainly do; that is outrageous.

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