Three Eliminated In Fight for Poplar Point Bid

"I was walking him around and showing him what I do. He wiped down the counter, and he took the trash out," she said. "He wants to come back . . . when it's the busiest."

Butler said she needs the wage increase and benefits to support her family, including a daughter who is an 11th-grader at McKinley Technology High School. "This year it's a little more demanding -- the $25 application fees [for college]. I don't want to have to keep borrowing money from people. Then I have to pay them back as soon as I get my check."

Did Brown fit in during his hour as a security officer?

Passersby "knew that he had to be somebody because there were cameras," Butler said.

And his outfit wasn't quite right.

"I wear black pants, a white shirt and black boots," she said.

With rubber soles. He got that right.

City Council's Light Moment

Laurel and Hardy. Abbott and Costello. George and Gracie. Cheh and Graham?

Okay, so the two D.C. Council members may not exactly carry on the legacy of legendary comedic duos. But Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) had a ba-dum-bum moment during a tense eight-hour council oversight hearing of Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi's office last week in the wake of the tax scandal.

The most lighthearted moment came as Graham grilled former tax office director Sherryl Hobbs Newman, who was asked to resign in the wake of the scandal. Graham wanted to know if Harriette Walters, the manager accused of being the mastermind behind the $20 million-plus theft, and her co-workers had displayed some obvious bling-bling in their wardrobe and accessories.

"I don't know if everyone . . . was dripping with diamonds and furs and driving convertible Mercedes," Graham said during questioning.

At one point, he asked if Walters, who is in jail, was in the chambers, noting that he wouldn't recognize her if she was. That's when Cheh cut in with a quip that was inaudible in the chambers but drew chuckles from her colleagues on the dais. Fortunately, Graham helped with a quick public announcement.