John Kelly's Washington Live

John Kelly writes five times a week about the joys and annoyances of living in Washington. He aims to show readers the Washington (and Silver Spring, Alexandria, Manassas, Bowie ...) that they know and take them places they don't know. He wants to make them see familiar things in unfamiliar ways and unfamiliar things in familiar ways. ("We may occasionally end up seeing unfamiliar things in unfamiliar ways," John says, "but such are the risks of the job.") His columns take a cockeyed view of the place the rest of the planet knows as the Capital of the Free World but that we all call home. John rides the Metro for fun and once kidnapped an Irishman to see what made him tick.

Fridays at 1 p.m. ET John is online to chat about his columns and mull over anything that's on your mind.

Discussion Archives / Recent Columns

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John Kelly: Is it Friday already? Seems like only yesterday it was Thursday. Funny how that works.

I tried my hand(s) at blogging this week, filling in on Marc Fisher's blog. I learned a few things, one of them being that being introduced to any new technology will involve a sweaty morning yelling at the computer. But I didn't cause the Web to come crashing down, so I consider it a success.

A blog is a bit like a slow chat. Which makes out weekly get together sort of like a ... fast blog.

This week my columns addressed:

Sunday--What's up with heliports?

Monday--The bittersweet tale of forbidden love between a giant panda and a Federal judge.

Tuesday--Getting psyched over the cherry blossoms and vitriol from a dog-hater.

Wednesday--Some winners you've never heard of.

Thursday--A random encounter with a barcode.

The other thing I was delighted to see this week was that Alfonso Soriano has agreed to play left field. I can now sleep at night.

Oh, before we start, one request: I'm compiling stories of people who beat city hall. If you fought a parking ticket or a speeding ticket that you thought was unfair, and were successful in making your case, send me the details: kellyj@washpost.com. I want to give people hope.

Now, let's get going...

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washingtonpost.com: Fully Cooked Kelly Blog

John Kelly: Today's blog efforts...

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Reston, Va: Hi John, my friend and I are wondering why the Blue Line skips the Arlington National Cemetary stop in the evening and nighttime. Is this because the Cemetary is closed and there should be no more tourists going to or from that area? Thank you!

John Kelly: I just talked with Metro and you are correct. The train doesn't stop because the cemetery is closed.

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Crofton, Md: hi john! you posted this late in the chat last week and asked me to repost this week. Here it is - and thanks!My neighbors have lots of cats, which they adore and treat like their children...children they allow to roam about outside all day long (they bring them in at night). I don't mind the cats being out and about, but I do mind that the cats like to use my flower beds as their litter box. I spray them with water when I catch them, but don't stand sentry looking out the windows all day, so I still end up with lots of poop in my garden. My neighbors are not rational people, and I fear they will not handle well any conversation that involves anything other than, "I love your cats."

My question is this: does anyone know of any plants that are distasteful to cats? The same way that marigolds and lemon grass shoo off mosquitos? I don't wish to hurt the cats - they are doing what comes naturally. (Truly, I wish there were a middle ground - something in between confronting the neighbors and calling animal control and reporting them for violating county leash laws - I do have to continue to live next door to these people).Local nurseries haven't had any suggestions. Anyone? Please?

John Kelly: Oh, man, someone e-mailed me a suggestion last week but I can't remember what it was. And I'll never find it in my bloated e-mail queue. I think it was to put something under mulch. But what was it? Newspaper? Broken glass? Ox blood? Help me out here, people.

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Washington, D.C.: John, this is now pretty old, but a brief story in the Metro section a few Sundays ago said Taghlierini (obviously I have no idea how to spell it) is going to add some signs outside the gates at a few Metro stations. I am crediting your column on the matter for this important development.

John Kelly: It is something that I had in my column, courtesy of a reader who recommended it.

By the way, it's Dan "Tangherlini." I think "Taghlierini" is a type of pasta. Or a Renaissance sculptor.

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washingtonpost.com: Metro Ideas

John Kelly: Victory is ours!

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Arlington, Va: So I ordered a pizza last night from Papa Johns and they tacked on a delivery charge of $1.50. Do you know where this money goes? Does it go to the driver or to the store?

John Kelly: I just called Papa John's corporate HQ (and, no, I didn't order a pizza). Franchisees have the option to set their own policy but most of the Papa Johns in the Washington area are corporate-owned, said spokesman Chris Sternberg. The corporate policy is to give some percentage of the fee to the driver. Sternberg said that, even with the fee, the expectation is that the driver will be tipped Here's a suggestion: Next time, ask the driver.

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Bethesda, Md: John, bravo on your Fully Cooked Kelly blog entry this morning. Underneath your light crust doughboy image, you are a tough cookie, and I love you for it. I hope Jimmy Stewart wakes up and finally figures out that Lionel Barrymore has sold the whole town to Pat Robertson.

John Kelly: You know, I decided, what the heck, I'm a columnist. Why not act like one? One of my admitted shortcomings as a columnist is my decided lack of strong opinions. I'm in awe of people who just KNOW they're right. (Charles Krauthammer, for example.) I just don't know why my opinion would be any better or more valid than anyone else's. But the Bush stuff has bothered me for a while. No matter what you think of him, or of the Democrats, it seems clear to me that Bush hasn't been up to the task at hand. If he was the CEO of a company, he'd be fired.

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Washington, DC: I wrote in last month about my troubles with the wretched Washington Gas company, and wanted to give you the flip side of services in the District.

The next adventure in homeowning involved a blocked sewer pipe. The plumbers did their thing and determined that the blockage was not on our property, but just across the line and past some kind of trap, and said we had to call Public Works. By the time the plumbers gave us their verdict, it was about 8:30 in the evening, so I expected to call the number listed on the DC Water and Sewer Authority website, leave a message, miss -another- day of work waiting around for them, and so on. Much to my surprise, they answered, they were competant and friendly, and THEY SENT SOMEONE OUT THE SAME NIGHT. The guys showed up at 11pm, cheerful and joking and full of helpful answers to our many confused newbie questions. They cleared the line in about five minutes, spent another five minutes cleaning up the sidewalk and street, and were on their way.

Having spent so much time dealing with all the various private enterprise services in the district, (Washington Gas, Verizon, Comcast) it was amazing to find someone who knew their job well and didn't seem to resent doing it.

So KUDOS to the DC Water and Sewer Authority. You guys made my week.

John Kelly: Yay for WASA! It's always nice to hear a customer service story that ends well. If I remember correctly, you were going to be without gas, and heat, over a cold weekend. We made a few calls on your behalf, but it didn't look promising. What ended up happening?

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South Riding, Va: John,

I read today's article and was amazed at how you tried to compare the President, who is legitimately trying to protect the U.S., to a Police Department in Fairfax that could careless about people's Constitutional Rights. John, do you believe the entire nation would by the excuse from the President, "sorry for killing Dr. Culosi, I had a long day I was out deer hunting." That is absurd to me...

John Kelly: Here's what I was comparing: two unintended outcomes. I bet we may hear an apology from Officer Bullock. Horan said he feels terrible about what happened. I don't think we'll hear that from President Bush. I don't fault the president's desire to protect the U.S. and its citizens. I applaud him for that. What I fault is the sketchy way he's done it. It just seems to me that he hasn't done a very good job of it. I don't know how anyone could argue otherwise.

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Alexandria, Va: John, I enjoyed your Tai Shan story. Because I thought it would be rewarding, I've started tutoring 4-7th graders on writing. Last weeks homework assignment was to write a fictional story about Tai Shan. Amazingly, none of these children has ever heard of him! What are the Fairfax County schools coming to! If they come up with anything good, I'll let you know.

John Kelly: Yes, please, send them my way.

I had fun writing about Tai Shan's unrequited love for Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. It was one of the odder things I've perpetrated on The Washington Post and its readers, but what do you want for 35 cents?

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washingtonpost.com: From Tai Shan, With Love

John Kelly: I covered a trial presided over by Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. That's where I first became captivated by her.

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Ashburn, Va: John-Regarding the homeowner with the 'neighboring cat' problem - if he lives in an HOA he should check his covenants. Perhaps the HOA will act on his behalf. The the potential of avian flu, I'm certain we'll all be hearing more about the concerns of cats being permitted to roam.

John Kelly: There's a couple of cats that roam in my neighborhood. I don't know whether they poop. I just worry about the birds, chipmunks and other woodland creatures that may fall prey to the felines.

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Washington, DC: Any thoughts on why the Fairfax County Prosecutor's office is declining to go after the SWAT officer who killed that man outside his house two months ago? Today's article mentioned that tests on his weapon determined it had not malfuctioned, so doesn't that pretty much mean that at some point, he almost certainly must have acted negligently?

John Kelly: That's part of what I write about in my guest blog today. Horan said that for the officer to be charged with a crime, there had to be intent, and that the officer didn't INTEND to discharge his weapon. The family of the slain man disagrees. It seems like a case could be made for manslaughter. But what I'm curious about is what will happen next. What sort of punishment will the officer face? He certainly seems guilty of a committing a tragic error. That just may not happen when you're a police officer, and it seems to me he will have to pay in some way, perhaps by losing his job, or his place on the SWAT team.

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Barcode Land: John, you were way off on the barcode thing. You got bogus info from the experts, too. My father is a consultant to the US barcode and RFID consortiums, and this is straight from the horse's mouth.

In a 12-digit barcode, the 1st digit is to indicate the type of barcode, and the 12th digit is an error-checking digit. Digits 2-6 are assigned to an owner, digits 7-11 are under the control of the owner.

Bottom line: either the library, or CVS, or both, are using a 5-digit owner code that they are not entitled to. If you want more details, I'll be happy to send you my dad's way.

PS - factorial is totally NOT the mathematical formula you want to use. Totally not.

John Kelly: Yes, I got some bum info from the barcode standards people. It is not 14 factorial that describes the number of permutations available. It's actually 10 the 14th power. They also told me that the U.S. has agreed to the international standard of 14 digits. (We have been using 12, which is why most items have that.)

I was an English major, which explains my patheticness on this subject.

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bar code : Reminds me of the X-Files episode where Scully runs an etched metal implant over a store scanner and suddenly the register acts up. Arghh, alien tracking device!

John Kelly: Doncha hate when that happens? If you have to have an alien implant, shouldn't it have some benefit? Like maybe work in the EZ Pass lanes?

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Lumberton, NC: For your prior reader with the cat problem, my vet recommended a little cayenne would go a long way for indoor plants. This may work for outdoor plants as well. It won't hurt the cat, but they are less likely to use their claws and buns around it!

John Kelly: We did this when we had a squirrel problem at our old house. We had a bird feeder that the squirrels were constantly raiding. We greased the pole with Vaseline, then sprinkled cayenne pepper on it. The squirrels would attempt to climb the pole, slide down, then lick their paws to get the Vaseline off. The pepper gave them an unpleasant, but harmless, sensation. They soon equated the bird feeder with a hot tongue and left it alone.

I don't know if this would work over a large area, like a garden. Man, I wish I could remember what it was you were supposed to put under the mulch. Dried shark fin?

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Just Wondering: OK - Your thoughts on the story on Metro B2 about the young father who left his baby in the car when he went to work! Does his wife EVER forgive him for endangering the baby and embarrassing them publicly (we all know where they live now)?!

John Kelly: I thought:

Lucky for him he remembered.

Lucky for him it wasn't 15 degrees outside.

Lucky for him it wasn't 100 degrees outside.

And, it's probably a lot easier to make that mistake than you'd think. I've done that sort of boneheaded thing before, but never involving infants. I'd love to talk to that guy.

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Gaithersburg, Md: John, Your Blog posing as Fisher about the police officer that killed Mr. Culosi, the Metro train that crashed a while back, and your lament the other day about not having the time to attend to personal matters like your cholesterol medicine, all tie together. Yesterday it was reported that the Metro train driver caused that crash because he fell asleep at the wheel, because he was back on the job only nine hours after leaving work the day before. Later in the day we heard State's Attorney Robert Horan say in a news conference that Off. Bullock "probably" shot Mr. Culosi because he was sleep deprived due to an 18 hour day that culminated in the shooting death. We are all trying to do too much in each day. Metro and police departments should be able to control the scheduling of work shifts to avoid overworking its employees, but you and I and the guy down the street can't make our days any longer than 24 hours. Your blog about the post-it note on the mirror sounded sooooo familiar. There must be a dozen things like that I have been meaning to get around to, along with a few big things like exercising to help control my blood pressure and borderline diabetes. But who has time to exercise? I know, I know.... I'd better make time before this stuff kills me. I don't even have time to schedule dying.

John Kelly: Despite all the "time-saving" devices that have been invented during our life time, we are more pressed and stressed than ever. I do worry that I waste time, too. I wish we could be more Mediterranean about things: shrug our shoulders and take a nap.

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Vienna, Va: By your reasoning, people driving a car who take their eyes off the road for 5/10/15 secs and cause an accident should give up their drivers license for life? While I do not oppose such punishment as it would likely stop the reading, applying make up, shaving and other like activities during driving that are making our roads unsafe, I don't think it will truly fly in today's society. However, if you going to apply rules/policy, shouldn't they be consistent? Would you be willing to live to such a standard and live with the consequences if it happened to you?

The other problem that arises with your scenario, more so with Bush than with the police officer, is assigning blame, or do you postulate that the top person in an organization is responsible for the acts of each and every person under them? The extended conclusion of that concept would be the violation of privacy in both the professional and personal life as a CEO of say Microsoft would not only want in depth security checks on every empolyee current and newly hired as well as on-going monitoring of all employees to ensure someone didn't slip through or succumb to greed/power. The long term ramifications of what you propose are frightening.

The American people have the means to set right errors in judgement or outright criminal acts by replacing those the commit the acts and those that fail to address them appropriately though the polls. That does assume, however, an educated electorate that investigates further than a single report on the news or in the paper which may be incomplete or overtly slanted.

Your thoughts?

John Kelly: My thoughts? My thoughts were dashed off in 45 minutes this morning after I ran on the treadmill and before I took a shower. That's the beauty and the curse of a blog.

But let me quickly ponder some more: There are many instances where overlings take the fall for the performance of underlings. The military has been chief among those. That may have changed. Not too many high-ranking people have walked the plank for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. As for Bush, I'm not expecting him to resign or anything, though I am still surprised that Rumsfeld is still around. Again, I'm not saying that Bush or Rumsfeld are venal, or even that they're incompetent. I'm saying that their performance is sub-par.

Stricter penalties for causing auto accidents, even if you didn't mean to? Sure, why not? A lifetime ban may be a bit extreme.

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Preying felines: Why do you worry about the "chipmunks and other woodland creatures" that may fall prey to roaming cats? Cats are predators; they hunt. What about all the squirrels, chipmunks, etc. that get killed by cars every year on the roads? Do you worry about them too? The cats are doing what comes naturally. As long as they don't attack people, tear up flower beds, or treat the neighbors to yowling recitals at 3 am, who cares? Cat poop is fertilizer, just like other kinds of poop.

John Kelly: Give my your address. I'll bring some fertilizer over.

I'm not a big cat fan. I date it to seeing "Lady and the Tramp" as a child. I never forgave those Siamese. They are Siamese if you pleas. AND Siamese if you don't please. In other words, they just didn't care.

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The Mall: The weather for Saturday is looking kind of spotty, and Sunday looks worse. And idea what might happen to the kite flying contest? Have they cancelled or rescheduled it in past years? And how would I find out? The website for the Cherry Blossom Festival is only updated sporadically, so I wonder if they'd do it Saturday morning...

Thanks!

John Kelly: I have a call into the Smithsonian. Here's hoping they get back to me in the next half hour. If not, anyone out there have any experience with the kite fest? I assume the show goes on, unless there's thunder and lightning.

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RE: Washington Gas: Utility companies have draconian policies when it comes to dealing with their over 65 customers. I take care of two elderly relatives, making sure their bills are paid and helping them navigate the customer service issues.

Washington Gas and Pepco (especially), and Verizon all have little regard for the fact that some seniors can't wait on hold for long periods of time, can't read the fine print on the backs of bills and likely don't use the Internet.

I am 46 and even I miss the convienence of the customer service offices where you could go in, talk about your account in person, buy a new telephone, or discuss buying a new water heater.

John Kelly: That's a good point. Can you even go anywhere in person anymore? Of course, that might be tough for the elderly, too.

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Smyrna, Ga.: I spent two weeks in your fair city recently and was stunned by the rudeness of the people in Washington.

They walk into elevators and trains without letting people disembarking out first. They bump into you without so much as an "excuse me" and have no problem chatting away on cellphones in movie theaters.

And when I was in a restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue, and marveling over the high cost of real estate here, a woman interjected that Washington was for people with "money and brains" and anyone else pretty much wasn't welcome.

I have never had people actually TELL me what to tip them, but that's something that happened more than a few times during my visit.

By the time it came for me to go, I was ready. Is Washington always like that? Am I too used to Georgia hospitality?

John Kelly: It's my experience that a lot of those rude people are actually from out of town.

But what about Washingtonians? I've heard that before, but I don't know if I believe it. Remember that you come from the South, where people have the reputation of being extra polite. Now, that politesse can seam treacly, pro forma and insincere. And some of us prefer straightforwardness. But rudeness of the sort you describe is not excuseable.

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Tai Shan Here: Uncle John, Kandula told me that if I was going to start dating, I would need protection. Uncle John, should I hire an armed guard or an unarmed guard? I'm confused.

John Kelly: Even having protection is no guarantee. Just ask your father.

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Frederick, Md: John, those sixteen baby pandas in China are growing up. Did you see the tv footage of them playing in their new playground. Slides, swings, and all kinds of fun stuff to climb on. Could you imagine sixteen Tai Shans in one place?

John Kelly: Sixteen panda cubs in one place, sliding on slides? I think I might suffer from Cuteness Overload. Luckily, I didn't see this. The only cure for Cuteness Overload is to watch "Kill Bill Volume I" AND "Kill Bill Volume II" in quick succession.

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Palm Bay, Fla: There is a spikey mat that you can put under your mulch in the flower beds to keep cats out. Should be available in any number of online gardening catalogs.

John Kelly: There's one suggestion: spiky mat. I think they call these punji sticks.

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Giants in DC: Just learned something new, what's on sale at the Van Ness Giant (or other DC Giants) isn't necessarily on sale at Maryland Giant food stores.

John Kelly: Now, what will you do armed with this information?

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Silver Spring, Md: John, I never would have thought that was you in the blog entry today. Were you channeling Fisher?

You did a great job this week, by the way.

John Kelly: Thank you. I think. In the future, I guess we'll all have to do a million things at the same time. Goodbye REM sleep.

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rubbed raw Kelly : John,

Marc Fisher is a friend of mine. John, you're no Marc Fisher. Though I'm not sure if that's good or bad really.

John Kelly: Well, it's probably a good thing for our wives.

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Gambrills, Md.: Regarding the neighbor's cats, you might want to look into buying a sprinkler scarecrow like this:

http://www.awesometools.com/scarecrow.asp

There are a bunch of these on the market and I bet you can find something like it at Lowe's or Home Depot.

As for plants that cats don't like, no offense to John, but I bet Adrian Higgins is the one to ask about that.

John Kelly: That's cool. It reminds me a little of the robot from "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

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washingtonpost.com: Sprinkler

John Kelly: Is that the sprinkler on the left?

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Washington, DC: DC is a very rude place and no one should visit. If they do visit, they should avoid using Metro, escalators or roads.

John Kelly: Got that? Or at a minimum, stand to the right.

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Yankees Fan, from Virginia: John,

Be honest please tell me, did District Attorney Horan give you guys in the media a legitimate reason as to why he did not charge Officer Bullock with killing Dr. Culosi, did he really say he was tired and sorry, therefore it was not a crime?

John Kelly: I don't have any inside info on that? I'm sure we put in the paper whatever we knew.

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Gaithersburg again: John,

I don't know Off. Bullock, but if he is any kind of person, he is indeed being punished for his killing of Mr. Culosi...every second of every day he is eaten alive by the guilt that is consuming him. If he does not get fired, he will probably end his police career voluntarily. He will not be able to do the job any longer. He will spend the rest of his life struggling with this issue. you can say; "yeah, but at least he is alive. Mr Culosi is not" I think I would rather be dead than live with that guilt.

John Kelly: I'm sure it's just awful for him. He took a man's life. He may himself decide to get out of the SWAT business. If he doesn't, I would think that his superiors would have to say, "We know you didn't mean it, we know it was a tragic accident, but because of that accident we're relieving you of your position."

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Washington, D.C.: Why is the half moon in front of Union Station called Columbus Circle?

It's not a circle at all...

http://www.stationmasters.com/System_Map/UNIONSTA/unionsta.html

John Kelly: Because "Columbus Half Moon" sounds ridiculous.

Well, look at it this way: None of the circles in Washington are actual circles. Dupont Circle, Scott Circle, Chevy Chase Circle. They are CIRCULAR, but they're not perfect, geometric circles. The name denotes how traffic flows around it. Columbus Circle has that weird little flat bit against the front of Union Station, but you may circumnavigate the entire thing in a vehicle.

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Re: Police Shooting...: I may be wrong, but isn't there such a thing as involuntary manslaughter? negligent homicide? Or some other negligent charge that could be made against this officer?

From everything I've heard and read, whether he meant to or not, he caused the unjustified death of a man, through his own negligence (as in, his finger should not have been on the trigger unless he needed to shoot).

Maybe I've watched too much crime TV, but if a reckless driver can be charged with a crime for killing someone even though they didn't intend to, a police officer should as well.

John Kelly: That's kind of the argument that a commenter on my blog makes. He writes:

"So according to Mr Horan, if I were to be showing his wife my brand new .45 and it accidentally went off and killed her; "No crime No fowl!" It's just an unfortunate event. There was no malice in my heart, I didn't mean to do it, and I would be personnally devestated at having takin a human life. So it isn't a crime.

Hunh-I thought thatwas the very definition of Involuntary Manslaughter!

BTW- the above was a scenario for example only. I do not intend to shoot anyone--ever!"

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Washington, DC: Regarding the Tyson's Metro stops and cutting the tunnel (and pedestrian access!!)from the project. Are the politicians not looking at the long term benefits of extra spending (and taxes) now that will have major implications on the neighborhood for the next 100 years?

Imagine if Manhatten had instituted such a short sighted cost cutting measure back in 1900??

In your opinion, how short sighted are their goals? 100 years? 50 years? 25 years?!?

John Kelly: It does seem penny wise and pound foolish, although $500 million IS an awful lot of money. But it would be worse to build something that nobody wants to use and which doesn't do what it was supposed to. Then they'll just end up having to tear it all down and start again, like they're going to do with Silver Spring's Metro station. I wondered whether there will be a bike path along the rails, something that would be really cool. (Although maybe not in a tunnel or on an elevated track.)

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For the Cats....: I know this works on indoor plants - can you put some aluminum foil around the plants? Cats don't like walking on it.

As as a public service announcement - if you know who owns the cats, PLEASE tell them to keep the cat inside. Cats can live 20 years indoors, but only about half that outdoors. Plus they can get into fights, contract several diseases like feline leukemia and FIV, get hit by cars....it's not worth it. Also, in Howard county the leash law applies to cats as well as dogs - not sure what it is in other areas. I'd try to educate the owners, and if that didn't work, I'd call animal control. They won't tell the owner who made the call. (From a shelter volunteer)

John Kelly: Foil--that might have been the thing she recommended putting under the mulch. It was either that or titanium.

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Washington, DC: Re: Washington Gas and a very miserable weekend without heat:

You suggested that we contact our city council member. I did-- Alan in Jim Graham's office was really on the ball, and got our appointment with WG pushed from Tuesday to Monday. So we still spent a couple really uncomfortable days, but thanks to Alan, it was one less day than WG would have had it.

Thanks!

John Kelly: Glad to be of help.

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Washington, DC: Noticed an error in your column yesterday. The number of potential bar codes is not 14!, which is 14x13x12x11x10..x2x1. It's 10-14 (10 raised to the 14th power). 14! would be 8,718,291,200 combinations. In reality it is 100,000,000,000,000 possible bar codes, which makes it much more rare.

John Kelly: Yes, all the mathletes have been beating up on me.

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Washington, D.C.: Sometimes though Arlington Cemetary gets skipped in the morning or evening randomly. It's like an express train or something. They just announce that the train will not be stopping at the cemetary and the next station is Rosslyn or Pentagon... I'm glad I don't get off there or i'd be peeved.

John Kelly: I think the only people who would get off there are those visiting it, or working there. But that would make it kind of hard to plan. I think I recall hearing the conductor make an announcement, though, so people could have off at a nearby station and wait for a train that DOES stop there.

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Utility companies and the Elderly: Oh, just wait until the baby boomers can't do Internet and "press-1-for-new-acccounts" anymore.

Those walk-in service centers will be as plentiful as Starbucks. Oh, wait...they'll put them IN Starbucks.

John Kelly: There's a good idea. And maybe they can harness all that caffeine somehow, use it to power the electrical grid.

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Arlington, Va.: It must be spring, I see tons of schools groups crowding the metro, which doesn't bother me too much. What does bother me (I take the blue/orange line into work) is when I see tourists in cut off jeans and t-shirts going to Arlington Cemetary. I mean besides a tourist spot, its a real cemetary with real people buried there. I wish people would dress a little more appropriately.

John Kelly: Maybe that's why the trains don't stop there. If you're in cutoffs and flip-flops the driver just keeps on rollin'.

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Vienna, Va: John, your answer to my question was interesting until the last paragraph. You advocate the lifetime ban of carrying a weapon by a police officer who accidently shoots and kills someone, but think someone who accidently kills someone with a car shouldn't have a lifetime ban? Can you say double standard?

Regarding Bush and Rumsfeld, if the people believe some adjustments need to be made, they should contact their representatives to express this and if they fail to act in accordance, vote against them in the next election. Again, this assumes an informed and involved electorate.

John Kelly: Well, the express purpose of a gun is to kill or seriously injure someone. That's not the case with a car. You should be careful when driving a car, but even more careful when handling a gun.

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NoLo, DC: Regarding the kite festival, due to the logistics nightmare of moving to the rain date, this is typically only done in the event of a total washout. The decision isn't made until saturday morning, and is generally made known through tv and radio outlets. You can also check the festival's website at http://www.kitesfestival.org/ .

(I've been attending the festival for around 30 years and many friends have served on the festival's planning committee. so yeah, I know whereof I speak!)

John Kelly: I just heard from the Smithsonian. If the weather is bad, it's postponed till Sunday. As of now only a few sprinkles are expected, so it's on--as of now.

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Columbus Circle: used to be a circle. Before the roads in the area were made so wide.

John Kelly: Thanks!

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Arlington, Va.: "every second of every day he is eaten alive by the guilt that is consuming him."

Boohoo for him. Being allowed to carry weapons comes with a responsibility. I'm sure he's upset, but you still got to face the consequences. In auto - accidents that result in death (say by drunk drivers or reckless driving) result in manslaughter convictions. I'm sure many of those people feel guilty enough without being punished, but they still have to own up to their responsibility.

John Kelly: This case will certainly spawn a civil suit by the victim's family. Maybe more information will come out then.

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Washington, DC : Hiya John

Speaking of being so busy despite all the modern conveniences, David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) did a song about 20 years ago called "In the Future." Not to be one of those whacko Nostradamus types, but it is odd how many of his predictions have come true. My favorite is "In the future there will be so much going on that no one will be able to keep track of it." Have a great weekend!

John Kelly: He was wrong about those big, boxy suits, though. They never really caught on.

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New York, NY: So would you blog again if asked???

John Kelly: I might. I'd have to restructure my life somewhat however. Maybe stop flossing.

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Tian Tian Here: John, I didn't any say in the matter. They sedated me and took the, well, you know. I wasn't even awake for the moment!

John Kelly: That's okay. I don't think Mei Xiang was either.

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DuPont Circle, Washington, DC: What's your take on Comcast refusing to show MASN? And why aren't any DC politicians standing up for us?

John Kelly: It's a stupid, petty #@!&-ing match that's just hurting the fans. I blame Angelos, because it's just so satisfying to blame him. And I curse the trees behind our house that block our view of the part of the sky I need for DirecTV satellite.

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Falls Church, Va: DC has the rudest people I've ever been around -- and I grew up in Rahway, New Jersey...

John Kelly: Now that's saying something. But you're sure these are people from D.C., as opposed to transplants from, oh I don't know, New Jersey or Georgia?

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Washington, DC: Having recently served on jury duty in DC superior court and I remembered what they told us in bar review that the DC superior court is superior only to trial by fire but I'm appalled that people sitting on a bench that performs so incredibly poorly have time to do rock and roll as outlined in today's WP. Those seven need to be disciplined.

John Kelly: Oh I think listening to themselves is punishment enough.

But, really, what's wrong with blowing off a little steam? As Bob Seger said, rock and roll never forgets.

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John Kelly: Thanks for stopping by today. Don't forget that my column now runs Sunday through Thursday in the Metro section. I'll be back in the paper Sunday with a look at the role vitriol plays in the building process.

Keep me in mind for any oddities you encounter on your daily rounds. Remember that I'm soliciting stories of people who have triumphed in traffic court, against meter maids, etc. etc. Drop me a line at kellyj@washpost.com.

Have a great weekend.

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