Alonzo Mourning. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) • Alonzo Mourning dining at Founding Farmers Wednesday night. The former Hoya and NBA star celebrated his 42nd birthday in a booth next to the bar, where he and a friend watched a college basketball game during dinner — fried green tomatoes, chicken pot pie, crab cakes and carrot cake.

• Newt and Callista Gingrich taking time from the campaign (he spoke at CPAC Friday) for dinner at DC Coast Thursday night; both had the crab cakes.

David Selby as Abraham Lincoln with Ford’s Theatre Society Chairman of the Board Wayne R. Reynolds on Wednesday night. (Reflections Photography)

Four days before his 203rd birthday, Abraham Lincoln got a present from Ford’s Theatre: An education and leadership center devoted to his legacy.

“Most museums are about things — this place is about ideas,” said outgoing board chair Wayne Reynolds at a dedication ceremony Wednesday for the new center, the final piece of a $60 million remake of the historic theater. The 16th president dropped by the party as well — or rather, lookalike actor David Selby. Also, Vincent Gray, Eric Holder, Ken Salazar, David Rubenstein and other heavyhitters. Mayor Gray took the opportunity, as usual, to make a pitch for D.C. statehood: “I hope that the legacy of Lincoln and what we learn about him will inspire people in District of Columbia to stand up and bring more democracy to our great city.”

Rep. Billy Long speaking at the Washington Press Club Foundation's congressional dinner, at the Mandarin Oriental on Wednesday. (Photo by Tom Williams)

Ladies and gentlemen, remember this name: Billy Long.

“None of you know me,” the first-term congressman from Missouri declared in an after-dinner speech Wednesday. “My chief of staff decided when I first got to Congress I couldn’t go on TV, couldn’t go on any cable shows. . . I’m what they call the unknown congressman.”

Well, no longer! For Long made one heck of a first impression with his rollicking comic routine at the Washington Press Club Foundation dinner — the unofficial kickoff of the Beltway’s media-political schmooze season.

Victoria Jackson in 2001. (Frank Micelotta) • Victoria Jackson drawing a small crowd at CPAC Thursday morning. The former “Saturday Night Live” star, now a far-right pundit, was making a repeat trip to the annual conservative convention at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel — she made a splash on a panel at last year’s gathering when she called President Obama a communist and declared that Hollywood folks “hate God.” As the conference got underway, she was by the registration area, filming herself and others with a small camera for what looked like a videoblog. Simple black outfit augmented by red, white and blue ribbons in her hair.

A staffer tucks a box behind the podium to give Sen. Barbara Boxer, right, a boost during a press conference on Wednesday. (C-SPAN)

“Queen Elizabeth did one of these things, and all you saw was her hat. I’m trying not to repeat that.”

— Sen. Barbara Boxer(D-Calif.) sending aides scrambling for something she could stand on (they eventually found a cardboard box) so she'd be visible behind a too-high podium, in an exchange captured on C-SPAN before a press conference Wednesday. (see video. . . )