Smithsonian shrinks this summer’s Folklife Festival from 10 days to two

The Smithsonian Institution has canceled this summer’s 10-day Folklife Festival celebrating the music and culture of Benin and Brazil and will replace it with a smaller event. January’s government shutdown is partly to blame. Sabrina Motley, director of the festival, said Thursday that initially, crucial funding for the 2019 event arrived later than expected, slowing preparations. “And once we had those funds, we had the shutdown,” she said. “The timing was unfortunate.” The partial government shutdown lasted 35 days, from Dec. 22 through Jan. 25. The Smithsonian used reserve funds to remain open through December, one of its busiest weeks. When it closed Jan. 2, its federal employees were furloughed and not permitted to work. Still, the Smithsonian employees were back at work five months before the festival was set to open. It was scheduled for June 26-30 and July 3-7. “The government opened back up, but it took a while for systems to come back online,” Motley said. “We looked at our production schedule, and it became clear we would need more time than we had.” A decision was made to postpone the Brazil and Benin celebration until summer 2020 and do a smaller event this year, Motley said. “Our partners were quite happy with that. They understood the pressure we were under.” Next year, the festival will be held June 24-28 and July 1-5. The 2019 festival will be a two-day event, June 29 and 30, focused on the “Social Power of Music,” in keeping with the Smithsonian-wide 2019 Year of Music theme. “This was not an easy decision to make at all,” Motley said. “We wanted to make sure we would produce a festival that would honor our partners, and take care of our staff.” Not all Smithsonian Folklife Festivals have been 10-day events, she noted. The 1979 festival spanned five days in October, while the 1985 event lasted four days. In 2017, a long-planned Cuban festival was canceled after the Smithsonian was unable to reach an agreement for the event with the Cuban government. It was replaced with a celebration of circus arts. peggy.mcglone@washpost.com


Today’s war on drugs is more than just cartels at the border

On Feb. 12, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo, was convicted of multiple crimes related to running the Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexico’s largest. Thirteen days before his conviction, authorities seized enough of the synthetic opioid called fentanyl for 100 million lethal doses. It was hidden in a truck carrying cucumbers through the Nogales port of legal entry. On Feb. 28, authorities at the port of Newark inspecting a container ship that had arrived from Colombia found inside a container supposedly filled with dried fruit 3,200 pounds of cocaine, worth $77 million on U.S streets. This was two days after Don Winslow published “The Border,” the final volume in his 1,900-page trilogy of novels (“The Power of the Dog” and “The Cartel”) about the cartels and the U.S. “war on drugs.” He could hardly have arranged a better launch for his book, which is already on best-seller lists. His thesis is that the war on drugs resembles the Vietnam War in its futility and its collateral damage to Mexicans, more than 250,000 of whom have died and an additional 40,000 have disappeared, according to the Financial Times, in the past dozen years from violence associated with rivalrous cartels and law-enforcement measures. Those endless photos of confiscated sacks of drugs do resemble old photos of dead Vietcong — body counts of replaceable bodies. El Chapo, 61, will die in a U.S. “supermax” prison, and his incarceration — he has been in custody since 2016 — will make no difference regarding drug flows. The mayhem and sadism Winslow describes are, he says, derived from credible reports. Wonder what the Central Americans who trek through Mexico to the U.S. border are fleeing? Read Winslow’s description of a 10-year-old Guatemalan living off a garbage dump, alert for trucks bringing garbage from the better neighborhoods. Winslow might be right about sinister involvements of some U.S. financial institutions in handling the cartels’ billions. He could, however, have omitted the thinly — very thinly — disguised President Trump, and his son-in-law, who knowingly uses cartel money to rescue himself from a bad Manhattan real estate bet. One reason to read fiction is to avoid reading about those people. However, the upward of $40 billion in profits made from the $150 billion U.S. market — 30 million consumers of illicit drugs — must go somewhere. First, to Mexico, “so much cash,” Winslow says, “they don’t even count it, they


U.S. will not give visas to employees of the International Criminal Court

WASHINGTON — The United States will not issue visas to staff of the International Criminal Court involved in the investigations of abuses allegedly committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, or investigations of troops of allies such as Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. Pompeo said the United States has started restrictions on visas to ICC employees amid a pending request that the tribunal investigate potential war crimes in Afghanistan in which Americans may have been involved. The Palestinian Authority also has asked the court to investigate alleged Israeli crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. “We are determined to protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation,” Pompeo said. “We feared that the court could eventually pursue politically motivated prosecutions of Americans,” he said, saying the fears were borne out in 2017 when the ICC prosecutor requested approval to start investigating “the situation in Afghanistan.” Pompeo declined to say how many ICC-related visas have been denied or name any officials affected. But he said the restrictions apply to anyone working for the court who requests or furthers an investigation into acts by the United States or its allies. An exemption to the new restrictions can be made for ICC employees traveling on official business to the United Nations in New York. The ICC, based in The Hague, The United States is not a member of the ICC, even though the Clinton administration signed a statue creating the body. Many in Congress believed it would infringe on U.S. sovereignty, and it was never submitted for the Senate to ratify. More than 100 countries recognize its jurisdiction, but another 23, including the United States, never ratified it. Administration officials have been threatening for some time to ban ICC judges and prosecutors from visiting the United States, sanction their assets and prosecute them in U.S. courts. In September, in a speech delivered on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, national security adviser John Bolton denounced the ICC’s legitimacy and called it a threat to national security. “We will not cooperate with the ICC,” he said, adding that “for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us.” In December, Pompeo dismissed the ICC as a “rogue court,” and accused


Baltimore mayor resigns from board of U.-Md. Medical System

Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh has resigned from the board of the University of Maryland Medical System following a controversy involving a deal with the hospital system to buy her children’s books. Last week, Pugh (D) and others on the health system’s board were criticized by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and top state lawmakers for the financial deals with the hospital system and possible conflicts of interest. On a financial disclosure form, Pugh listed a $100,000 profit for one year from selling 20,000 copies of her self-published children’s book series “Healthy Holly” to the University of Maryland health system, which runs 13 hospitals including the state’s trauma unit in Baltimore and has connections with the state’s dental and medical schools. Hogan described the financial contracts, which are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, as “appalling” and “unseemly.” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) called them “self-dealing” and “a huge disaster.” House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who has been on the board for 16 years, said the unfolding scandal was the worst he’s seen in Maryland politics. He said he, Hogan, Miller and high-level staff from the hospital system will meet in Annapolis on Wednesday. The deals were first disclosed last week by the Baltimore Sun, which reported that Pugh’s deals with the hospital board totaled $500,000 over several years, and were not fully listed on disclosure forms when Pugh represented Baltimore in the state Senate. Other board members who had lucrative deals included former state senator Francis X. Kelly, who owns an insurance company and reported $1.6 million in revenue from deals with the hospital system. Officials at the hospital system have said their contracts are legal. Legislation pending in the General Assembly would ban such arrangements. In a statement put out Monday explaining her resignation, Pugh, who has served on the board since 2001, said she had “other pressing concerns that require my full attention, energy and efforts.” The Sun reported Friday that she had amended her state disclosure forms from her time in the Senate. The system’s board members are appointed by the governor and the General Assembly’s presiding officers. Hogan said Pugh’s resignation was “a step in the right direction. ” Last week, he called on board members with contracts with the health system to step down. “We’re going to push for major reforms to make sure people either terminate their financial relationship


This coconut chicken curry filling will spice up your bao

Overview Overview My favorite curry powders, such as Sun Brand, which is sold in the spice section of many grocery stores, list coriander as the first ingredient; the spice imparts lovely citrusy sweet notes. Use potato starch for a pretty sheen, which will make the filling look more appetizing when you bite into the bao (see this recipe for basic bun dough ingredients and directions). Feel free to try other kinds of ground meat or meat substitutes. Make Ahead: Where to Buy: Ingredients 8 ounces ground dark-meat chicken 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, plus more as needed 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more as needed 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon potato starch or cornstarch 1/4 cup full-fat unsweetened coconut milk 1/4 cup chopped shallot (about 1 medium) or yellow onion One 2-inch piece peeled fresh ginger root, chopped (1 tablespoon) 1 clove garlic, chopped 1 tablespoon Madras-style curry powder 1 1/2 teaspoons water 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil or another neutral oil 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and stems Steps Step 1 Combine the chicken, sugar and salt in a bowl. Whisk together the potato starch or cornstarch and coconut milk in a liquid measuring cup. Step 2 Combine the shallot or onion, ginger, garlic, curry powder and water in a small food processor and process until a smooth paste forms. Step 3 Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the curry paste mixture and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes, until darkened and richly fragrant. Add the chicken and gently cook, mashing and stirring into small pieces, for about 3 minutes, until just cooked through. Step 4 Re-whisk the coconut milk mixture, then pour into the pan; cook, stirring for about 30 seconds, until thickened. Let cool for 2 to 5 minutes, then stir in the cilantro. Taste, and season with more salt and/or sugar, as needed. Step 5 Spread the filling out on a plate; refrigerate, uncovered, for about 30 minutes, stirring midway, to cool completely before using or storing. From cookbook author Andrea Nguyen. Tested by Toni L. Sandys Did you make this recipe? Take a photo and tag us on Instagram with #eatvoraciously. For a printer-friendly and scalable version of this recipe, view it here. Nutrition Calories: 35; Total Fat: 2 g; Saturated Fat: 1 g; Cholesterol: 10 mg; Sodium: 35 mg; Carbohydrates: 1 g; Dietary Fiber: 0 g;


We’ve been here before: Colleges haven’t learned from admissions fraud

it is not the children of Lori Loughlin or Felicity Huffman, actresses charged in the new admissions scandal. It is home-schoolers. It is rural students. It is students who are the first in their high school to apply to Harvard or Stanford or Yale. Admissions officers are most suspicious of transcripts they have never seen before. When they have a stack of 20 applications on their desk from the same prestigious prep school or public magnet school, they assume the 21st is highly likely to be legitimate. They assume they would notice if it were not. But no one noticed when Wheeler, who actually graduated 47th out of 348 students in his public high school class in Delaware, said he went to Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., a school from which Harvard does indeed receive scores of transcripts. When the applications of children involved in the new scandal said they played water polo and rowed crew in Zip codes where plenty of other children play those sports and apply to these schools, no one bothered to look up whether they were truly on a team. Foreign applicants tend to be subjected to the most scrutiny in the admissions office. And for good reason: A 2010 survey of 250 students from top Chinese high schools who were applying to colleges outside China found that about 90 percent of their applications included fake teacher recommendation letters. Seventy percent of the Chinese students said they or their paid college admissions consultants plagiarized their essays. Fifty percent said they faked transcripts. The problem is rampant, and American universities are wise to treat these applicants carefully. But saving all the scrutiny for foreign students — and, more disturbingly, already potentially disadvantaged students — means one thing: Time and again, students who do not meet the admissions officers’ image of a cheater do cheat, and they do not get caught in time. Esther Reed assumed three people’s identities to study at California State University at Fullerton, Columbia University and Harvard, fraudulently obtaining $100,000 in student loans. She ended up on the Secret Service’s list of 10 most-wanted fugitives in 2008 and was sentenced to four years in prison. James Hogue, a 31-year-old from Utah, passed himself off as a track star and enrolled at Princeton; once he served prison time for that fraud, he got hired as a security guard at a Harvard museum and stole


A trip to the supermarket freezer will help you make these easy bao

“the best sticky buns ever.” The pastries were fantastic, especially given their lowbrow beginnings in the frozen food aisle, but the process wasn’t easy. My husband rolled his eyes at my repeated messes. To make amends, I fashioned one of his favorites: bear claws, from the laminated dough. They were handsome but strangely indistinct. A yucky fail. I wasn’t done with the frozen dough. Noodling around on the Bridgford website, I noted recipes for stuffed appetizers such as pepperoni bites and mini calzone. Since Chinese baked bao (stuffed bun) employ the same idea — a bold savory filling baked inside yeast-leavened dough — I sensed success in the making. At my local market, alongside the Bridgford frozen bread dough were packages of their Parkerhouse roll dough. The dough pieces turned out to be a super shortcut. I’ve made stuffed Chinese buns from scratch myriad times and have taught others, too, but the frozen pre-cut dough pieces were thrilling to play with: smack one into a round, then fill and shape it into a cutie snack. They’re great for beginner bao makers, because the dough is portioned (less guesswork), and you don’t need expert pleating skills to shape bodacious buns. Additionally, the 24 dough pieces per package mean that you can defrost a few at a time for small, experimental batches. That’s how I was able to efficiently develop a pulled pork and curry chicken filling, and perfect the baking process. Compared to the buns at dim sum, these convenience bao are more reserved in their sweetness, with a terrific balance between savory and sweet. With frozen dough in the freezer and filling in the refrigerator, you can practice, experiment and bake up batches of hot buns with little hassle. Being precocious and monkeying around pays off. Ingredients FOR THE FILLING 10 ounces (1 1/4 cups) store-bought pulled pork with sauce 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon potato starch or cornstarch 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce 3 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon canola oil or another neutral oil 1 tablespoon canola oil or another neutral oil Freshly ground black pepper FOR THE BAO One 24-ounce package frozen Bridgford Parkerhouse Style Rolls Dough (see headnote) Flour, for dusting, as needed 2 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons water Steps Step 1 For the filling: As needed, coarsely chop the pulled pork, so the pieces will be small enough to use as bao filling.


Ilhan Omar: We must apply our universal values to all nations. Only then will we achieve peace.

Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, represents Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since I began my first term in Congress, I have sought to speak openly and honestly about the scale of the issues our country faces — whether it is ending the crippling burden of student debt, tackling the existential threat of climate change or making sure no one in one of the richest countries in the world dies from lack of health care. As a survivor of war and a refugee, I have also sought to have an honest conversation about U.S. foreign policy, militarism and our role in the world. This question of how the United States engages in conflict abroad is deeply personal to me. I fled my home country of Somalia when I was 8 years old from a conflict that the United States later engaged in. I spent the next four years in a refugee camp in Kenya, where I experienced and witnessed unspeakable suffering from those who, like me, had lost everything because of war. I saw firsthand the devastating toll of war. And I dreamed of one day coming to the United States of America — a land that promised peace and opportunity regardless of one’s faith or ethnicity. But I also saw how America’s image in the world is undermined when we don’t live up to those values. And I witnessed how our continuous involvement in foreign conflicts — even those undertaken with the best of intentions — can damage our own reputation abroad. I believe in an inclusive foreign policy — one that centers on human rights, justice and peace as the pillars of America’s engagement in the world, one that brings our troops home and truly makes military action a last resort. This is a vision that centers on the experiences of the people directly affected by conflict, that takes into account the long-term effects of U.S. engagement in war and that is sincere about our values regardless of short-term political convenience. This means reorienting our foreign affairs to focus on diplomacy and economic and cultural engagement. At a time when we spend more on our military than the next seven countries combined, our global armed presence is often the most immediate contact people in the developing world have with the United States. National security experts across the political spectrum agree that we don’t need nearly 800 military bases


Brexit in disarray after House speaker moves to block third vote on deal

government’s solicitor general, said Bercow’s announcement could have “huge reverberations” for the Brexit process. “We are in a major constitutional crisis here,” he told the BBC. He suggested one way around the ruling would be to end the parliamentary session, start a new session and then hold a vote on May’s Brexit deal. “We are now talking about not just days but hours to the 29th of March. Frankly, we could have done without this,” he said. May suffered humiliating defeat in the two earlier votes. In January, the 585-page withdrawal agreement she had spent two years negotiating with her European counterparts lost, 432 votes to 202 — with 118 members of her Conservative Party voting against her. She then made a last-ditch pitch to E.U. leaders to improve the deal. She succeeded in having some additional legal language attached to the agreement to calm jitters over how to handle the Irish border. But that second attempt also failed last week, 391 to 242. The government was hoping that if May’s deal passed early this week, she would go to Brussels on Thursday and ask for a “technical extension” until the end of June. If her deal did not pass, she was planning to seek a longer delay. May spent the weekend twisting arms and cajoling rebels in her party, as well as her governing allies in the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, to get enough votes to cross the finish line. She was also expected to need support from the opposition Labour Party, whose leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has threatened to call a no-confidence vote to bring down the government. The prime minister has warned recalcitrant Tory lawmakers that if they do not pass her Brexit deal, Britain will either have to leave the E.U. with no deal or else delay departure by months, even years. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph May’s strategy was brought up short by the speaker’s announcement that there would be no third attempt of a sale — unless the goods on offer were new and different. “If the government wishes to bring forward a new proposition that is neither the same nor substantially the same as that disposed of by the House on the 12th of March, this would be entirely in order,” Bercow said. “What the government cannot legitimately do is to resubmit to the House the same proposition — or substantially the


Philippines leaves International Criminal Court as Duterte probe is underway

MANILA — The Philippines became the second country in the world to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, in what critics believe is an attempt to evade an investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. The Philippines’ withdrawal comes a year after it submitted notice of its exit, which followed an ICC announcement that the country was under preliminary examination for thousands of killings since Duterte rose to the presidency in 2016. The probe is a prelude to a possible investigation, which Duterte’s critics hope will find him criminally accountable under international law. Duterte in turn threatened to arrest ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda if she set foot in the Philippines. Its departure is the latest blow in a rough weekend for the court, as Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced Friday the United States would not issue visas to ICC staff members investigating alleged abuses of troops in Afghanistan. The international body based in The Hague was designed to investigate and prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression when domestic courts fail to do so. However, African countries like Burundi and Gambia have slammed it as biased toward the West. Burundi was the first to leave the court in 2017. Myanmar, which is also not a state party to the ICC, has also decried it amid a probe into its alleged human rights violations against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Philippine Foreign Secretary Teddy Locsin brought up Pompeo’s remarks Monday, adding that the country’s inclusion in the ICC “has a disarming effect on military alliances, to put it as politely as possible.” The effectiveness and relevance of the ICC has been questioned by the United States before. National security adviser John Bolton said last year that the United States, which is not a state party to the Rome Statute that founded the court, would not cooperate with the investigation on the troops’ alleged crimes and would “let the ICC die on its own.” Amnesty International slammed the Philippines’ withdrawal as a “futile attempt” to escape international justice. “States at the U.N. Human Rights Council must launch an independent, international investigation into the human rights situation in the Philippines, including the thousands of extrajudicial killings still being committed,” it said. Filipino lawyer Jude Sabio, who represents two self-confessed assassins allegedly hired by Duterte, first raised concern about systemic state-sanctioned killings to the court in 2017. A


We anti-Brexit folks should feel pretty self-satisfied now. Well, we’re not.

Those of us who have always thought that Brexit, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, was a bad idea should be feeling self-satisfied and vindicated now. Well, we’re not; at least, this observer isn’t. The reason is obvious. Many of the things that we feared would happen have happened, or might still. Worse, the consequences aren’t confined to the United Kingdom. If you take a crude and unscientific survey of some of Washington’s major think tanks, you discover (no surprise) that they’re generally agreed that the economic outlook for Britain is grim. Here’s a commentary by economist Desmond Lachman of the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute: “Since the Brexit referendum, the U.K.’s economic performance has deteriorated. It has done so as the U.K.’s future access to the European single market, which buys around 50 percent of the U.K.’s exports, has come into serious question. . . . At a time that the European economy is already stuttering, with Italy in recession and the German economy on the cusp of recession, the last thing that Europe now needs is a sclerotic U.K. economy.” A new study Although E.U. countries would also lose some exports to the U.K., these are much smaller than the U.K.’s export losses to the E.U. Thus, they’re more easily made up by boosting exports to other countries, the report contends. The U.K.’s losses are not just theoretical. Already, some companies are announcing closures of U.K. manufacturing operations, a good example being Honda. Similarly, some banks are moving financial assets (stocks, bonds, other securities) from their London offices to locations on the continent. There is much fear that London will lose its traditional position as Europe’s preeminent financial center. Meanwhile, the chaos, confusion and contradictions of Parliament’s efforts to find a tenable Brexit policy must seriously undermine confidence in Britain’s political system and its ability to attract future investors, domestic and foreign. The prevailing political anarchy was on public display last week. On Tuesday, Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed agreement with the E.U. for the second time. Then, on Wednesday, it voted down a proposal for the U.K. to leave the E.U. without an agreement, failing to acknowledge “that this is precisely what will happen unless they reconcile themselves to the very deal they rejected the day before,” as Douglas A. Rediker of the Brookings Institution noted in a blog post. The deadline for deciding is March


Pakistani man who tried to stop New Zealand shooter to be given national award

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Naeem Rashid, 50, a teacher and father of three who emigrated from Pakistan to New Zealand a decade ago, was busy this month planning the spring wedding of his son Talha, 21. Neither father nor son lived to celebrate the occasion. Both were killed Friday, along with seven other Pakistanis, when a gunman struck at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing at least 50 people and wounding scores. But since then, Rashid has become a national hero in his native country, after video footage of the shootings showed him trying to tackle the gunman outside one mosque before being shot. “My brother was a brave man who died to save others. His death showed how he cared for humanity,” Rashid’s brother Khurshid Alam said in a telephone interview Sunday from his home in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Just a few days ago, he said, “we were talking to Naeem about the family coming to Pakistan for Talha’s wedding. Now we are talking about his death and funeral arrangements.” Alam said Rashid and his son, who was shot alongside him, “fell victim to terrorism. . . . The whole world should work together to eliminate this scourge.” Avowed neo-Nazi Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, has been charged in the massacres. Pakistan has been a victim and an alleged source of Islamist terrorism for two decades. Even as tens of thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in Islamist militant attacks, India, Afghanistan and the United States have accused it of sheltering and supporting other militant groups that stage attacks abroad. The slayings in Christchurch signified a relatively rare instance in which Muslims living peaceably overseas have been targeted by mass violence because of their religion. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Sunday that Rashid would be given a posthumous national award for bravery. In tweets after the attack, Khan said the nation was proud of Rashid, “who was martyred trying to tackle the White Supremacist terrorist.” Khan said the Christchurch attacks “reaffirm what we have always maintained: that terrorism does not have a religion.” He also said, “I blame these increasing attacks on the Islamophobia post-9/11, where Islam and 1.3 billion Muslims have collectively been blamed for any act of terror by a Muslim.” His government declared Monday a national day of mourning and ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff. In an editorial Sunday, the English-language Pakistani


A doping scandal in bridge? What is the world coming to?

talking about reduced Medicare benefits. Indeed, bridge — like Metamucil — is very, very popular among seniors. The average age of a U.S. bridge player is 71 — or four years younger than anyone reading this column in a print newspaper while sipping a cup of Sanka with “CBS This Morning” in the background. Okay, but why would any bridge player be compelled to seek an unfair advantage? People, people, people — let’s remember the first rule of sports: If there is something to win, someone is going to cheat. Heck, don’t you remember James Bond in “Moonraker” stacking the deck to win 15,000 pounds playing bridge against archvillain Hugo Drax? And, frankly, I always have suspected that Scrabble pros, like Tour de France cyclists, are doping big time. A few years back, the World Anti-Doping Agency detected a prohibited substance in 1.1 percent of billiards players, 3.6 percent of bridge players and 10.6 percent of professional anglers. Anglers? First of all, fishing — like deer hunting — is not a fair fight. And, apparently, it’s not enough that anglers reel in these living creatures from their natural habitat for sport or dinner — sometimes using illegal lures — but they’re also all hyped up on recreational stimulants. Moby Dick never stood a chance. Hey, even pétanque — pétanque! — has been rocked by charges of artificially induced feats. In January, two top Dutch players claimed that two Belgian players took cocaine midgame. “They go to the toilet,” Dutch standout Edward Vinke said, “and do not throw a wrong ball when they come back.” WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO? On the other hand, I am proud to report that poker, bowling and golf generally do not attract performance-enhancing tonics. Rather, on the day of competition, rounders, bowlers and golfers generally engage in mood-enhancing pleasures. Poker Bowling Golf So let me emphatically implore the World Bridge Federation in the wake of Bridgegate: Clean up your game. I don’t mind illegal hand signals or footsie under the table between partners, but clomifene? Jeez. Like most other kids in my neighborhood, all I dreamed of growing up was being a contract bridge professional. It was cutthroat back in the day — everyone wanted to be the next Charles Goren — but I never took anything stronger than a Yoo-hoo. Ask The Slouch Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A.


A new Shaw bistro boasts bottomless fries — and a few limitations

one has pushed the offer to its max yet, Mane said. Take that as an invitation, or a dare. Frenchy’s is the replacement for the Bird, EatWell DC group’s chicken-focused restaurant. Over a 10-day period in January, it was transformed with new bistro chairs, cow wall art, and a teal and hot pink decor scheme. Gone are the Moscow Muellers — a $5 drink deal that was offered anytime an associate of President Trump was indicted — that made the restaurant famous. “If there is a chance of us bringing them back in some capacity, it will be on a positive note — say, we have a female president,” Mane said. But this neighborhood spot could be a little more hospitable. On one visit, we arrived to a vacant host stand and stood for more than five minutes in the entrance. Servers and bartenders ignored us despite making eye contact, and when we were finally seated, our table had a dirty plate on it. On a second visit, I made a reservation, but the restaurant was slammed and had a line that spilled out of the building. For the 25 minutes we waited for our table, the only place to stand was either outside in the cold or directly in the path of servers. And when my friend finished her bowl of unlimited fries, a server took it away without asking if she would like a refill. Venture outside of steak frites and Frenchy’s can be a bit inconsistent. They say you can judge a chef by his omelet, so it was disheartening that mine came out slightly overcooked. But we loved digging into the thick-cut steak tartare, with anchovies and Peruvian peppers that lend a funky tang, and we marveled over a beautiful slab of terrine studded with pistachios. The titular ingredients in a simple and elegant radish appetizer are teeny tiny and scattered across a blanket of goat cheese and herbs. They come from EatWell DC’s own farm. Dishes are priced, on average, about $5 less than their equivalents at Le Diplomate. The “Naturel” in the restaurant’s name refers to its focus on natural wines, or wines made with no additives and minimal intervention. They’re nearly all French, naturally — but a red from Maryland’s Old Westminister Winery was a surprise hit. It’s on tap, slightly effervescent, and only $8 a glass. As spring rolls in, Frenchy’s will


Winter solstice 2018: Why our longest night of the year will be brighter than usual

Saturday morning (Dec. 22), giving skywatchers an opportunity to catch a few shooting stars in the night sky. Any meteors will be hard to spot, though, as the bright light of the full moon will probably steal the show. If being out in the dark isn’t your thing, the good news is that the nights only get shorter from here. In fact, we are already seeing a few more minutes of evening light than we did in early December. That’s because even though the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s not the day of the earliest sunset or the latest sunrise. This astronomical misalignment happens because the Earth is tilted on its axis and we orbit the sun in an ellipse, not a perfect circle. When you combine these two factors, it causes our 24-hour clocks to end up slightly out of sync with the length of the “solar day” — that is, the amount of time it takes for the sun to reach its highest point in the sky from one day to the next. Near the December solstice, each solar day is about 24 hours and 30 seconds long. This causes the time of sunrise and sunset to shift slightly later each day, even as the days continue to get shorter until Dec. 21. Just like the length of daylight, the exact date of the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise depends on your latitude. In most of the Lower 48, the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise occur about two weeks before and after the solstice, respectively. Washington’s earliest sunset was at 4:46 p.m. on Dec. 7, while the latest sunrise will not be until 7:27 a.m. on Jan. 4 or 5. The upshot is that mornings will continue to get darker for another two weeks, even as we slowly tack on a few minutes of daylight in the evenings. By the end of December, sunset in D.C. will be at 4:56 p.m., a full 10 minutes later than it was at the start of the month. And by Jan. 5, the increased evening light will become even more noticeable: on that day the sun will set in the 5 o’clock hour. Even though the coldest days of winter are still upon us, the winter solstice is nature’s way of reminding us that in darkness, there is indeed light.


No, CBD-infused jelly beans definitely won’t get you high. Here’s why.

There is CBD beer, and CBD coffee, and CBD gummies and soda, skin care, oils and drops. And now the cannabis-derived product is appearing in jelly beans — designed by the man who created Jelly Belly candies. The product, a mash-up of an “adult” chemical compound — CBD — and a staple of American childhoods, has been so popular that the company that created it, Spectrum Confections, helmed by Jelly Belly inventor David Klein, sold out after a spate of press coverage over the past week. “Jelly Belly creator debuts cannabis-infused jelly beans: Toasted marshmallow, mango and more,” USA Today wrote. “Creator of Jelly Belly launches CBD-infused beans,” CBS chimed in. CBD is a cannabinoid compound, but it’s not the chemical in cannabis that causes a high. Short for cannabidiol, it acts on different parts of your nervous system than does THC, which is the chemical associated with a marijuana high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In short, CBD: no high. THC: potential for high. The product has grown in popularity in the past few years and has been touted as a potential treatment for anxiety, seizures, insomnia and even cancer. But its medical benefits are still in the early stages of research. One study published last May found that CBD significantly reduced seizures among people who suffer from a rare syndrome called Lennox-Gastaut. Another, in 2017, found that children with Dravet syndrome, another severe form of epilepsy, saw the number of seizures drop from 12.4 to 5.9 over the course of a month. The Food and Drug Administration responded in June by approving a purified form of the drug for use to treat these conditions. “But it’s also important to note that this is not an approval of marijuana or all of its components,” the FDA noted. “This is the approval of one specific CBD medication for a specific use.” Igor Grant, the chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego and the director of its Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, said in an interview that other medical uses and benefits of the product have not been as firmly established. “And from [those studies] it follows that it’s possible that CBD may be useful in other epilepsies, although that is not established,” he said. He said some studies had also indicated that CBD might have some anti-anxiety properties, noting


The Health 202: Obamacare plans face lawsuits over erroneous doctor directories

start over with a new one. “The USDS report raised concerns that the eligibility tool was designed in a way that wouldn’t work for VA doctors,” Isaac writes. “The report predicted that the tool would generate errors or run slowly or crash. These glitches would lengthen each appointment by five to 10 minutes, the USDS team estimated, which equates to being able to treat 75,000 fewer veterans every day systemwide.” A VA spokesman declined to comment to Isaac on the review but said it “remains a work in progress.” OOF: Anti-vaccine activists have taken to targeting doctors online, as public health advocates have pointed to social media as platforms for the spread of vaccine misinformation, the Los Angeles Times’s Soumya Karlamangla reports. More than 50 online campaigns against health-care providers who promote vaccines have ocurred since late 2017, according to Chad Hermann, communications director for Kids Plus Pediatrics, a Pittsburgh practice that started tracking these online attacks after it was the target of one itself. Hermann told the LA Times it’s important to teach doctors how to deal with web-based tactics as social media become sources of information for parents trying to decide whether to vaccinate their children, Soumya writes. She writes about one doctor who posted on Facebook encouraging patients to come to her office for a flu shot. The doctor was bombarded with comments from anti-vaxxers. She also received low online ratings from people she hadn't treated and was called a "child killer.” “When pediatric practices are being … terrorized into silence, it’s going to create a void in the discourse,” Hermann said. “And we all know who’s going to fill that: the anti-vax folks.” OUCH: New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show about 80 percent of new HIV infections in 2016 were spread by people with HIV who were diagnosed but not being treated, or who did not know they were infected. The report, based on information about the 1.1 million people in the United States living with HIV in 2016, was published in the CDC’s Vital Signs report on the first day of the National HIV Prevention Conference. It found 38 percent of transmissions occurred from about 15 percent who had an undiagnosed HIV infection. It also found 23 percent of people had a diagnosis but were not getting treated, a group linked with 43 percent of the new transmissions in 2016.


‘Full worm supermoon’ rises shortly after Wednesday evening’s spring equinox

Spring officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere early Wednesday evening at 5:58 p.m. Eastern. Less than four hours after the onset of the new season, a stunning spring supermoon will be full in the night sky. The third and final supermoon of 2019, it reaches 100 percent fullness at 9:43 p.m. Eastern. It’s the first time in two decades a full moon and the start of spring have been so close to each other. This full moon is also called the “worm moon” (or sap moon) in the Northern Hemisphere. The name ties into how “The ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins,” according to “The Old Farmer’s Almanac.” A full moon and the spring equinox ending up so close to each other is a special treat. “This is the closest coincidence of a full moon with the March equinox since March 2000 — 19 years ago,” wrote EarthSky.org. “The full moon and March equinox won’t happen less than one day apart again for another 11 years, until March 2030.” The fact that this full moon is also a supermoon makes it even more unusual. The final supermoon of the series, there won’t be another until February 2020. Typically, three to five supermoons occur in any year. Although a supermoon does not appear bigger than an average moon to the human eye — except when it looms near the horizon — it does tend to appear brighter. In fact, it can appear as much as 30 percent brighter than normal. Supermoons occur when a full moon is in perigee Using NASA data, USA Today reported that this supermoon will be 224,173 miles from Earth. That’s roughly 14,000 miles closer than average. The closest supermoon in recent times came Nov. 14, 2016, when the moon was 221,524 miles from Earth, according to Space.com. Wednesday evening’s sky conditions support the best viewing from Texas north-northwest into Montana. In the Washington region, the full moon rises in the eastern sky at 7:02 p.m. Wednesday, shortly before sunset at 7:19 p.m. Unfortunately, local sky observers seem likely to face increasing clouds by late Wednesday. It should stay dry through the evening, with rain possible later at night. If you want to avoid the possibility of clouds interfering with your view Wednesday evening in Washington, Tuesday night’s moon is pretty close to full at 96 percent or greater illumination.


Community deaths

from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Herbert Hoffman, lawyer Herbert Hoffman, 102, a lawyer who was chief of legislation and law at the Justice Department, counsel to a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee and director of the Washington office of the American Bar Association, died Dec. 18 at a hospital in Sarasota, Fla. The cause was a heart attack, said a daughter, Barbara Eldridge. Mr. Hoffman was born in New York City. He worked for the Justice Department from 1948 to 1971 and then for the House of Representatives. From 1974 to 1981 he was director of the bar association’s Washington office. A former resident of Arlington, Va., he moved to Sarasota in 1983. Linda Rosenthal, lawyer Linda Rosenthal, 70, a Montgomery County lawyer who specialized in real estate for 45 years, died Jan. 16 at her home in Rockville, Md. The cause was cancer, said a son, Jeffrey Rosenthal. Mrs. Rosenthal was born Linda Schwartz in Washington. In 1973, she founded the law firm Eig & Schwartz, which later merged with Paley Rothman in Bethesda, Md. She was active in the firm until shortly before her death. She had served on the boards of Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md., and the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in Rockville. Juan Leonel Villavicencio, professor of surgery Juan Leonel Villavicencio, 92, a professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences who retired in 2006, died Jan. 14 at his home in Potomac, Md. The cause was cancer, said a daughter, Suzanne Zuaiter. Dr. Villavicencio was born in Mexico City, where he practiced medicine until joining the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1982. He also was a surgical consultant and director of teaching clinics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stephan Werner, urologist Stephan Werner, 78, a urologist who practiced in Prince George’s County, died Jan. 11 at a hospital in Washington. The cause was renal failure and heart disease, said a friend and colleague, Barry Epstein. Dr. Werner, who lived in Silver Spring, Md., was born in Brooklyn. He moved to the Washington area in 1970 and opened a private medical practice. He retired in 2017. He was on the staff and teaching faculty at Washington Hospital Center and was urology department chairman and president of the medical staff at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, Md. — From staff reports


Brexit is breaking the British Parliament. Can the damage be repaired?

brink of collapse. Thirteen government ministers from the Conservative Party ignored a three-line whip, rebelling against the idea that a no-deal Brexit should be kept as a live possibility. The next day, Brexit Minister Stephen Barclay announced that it was “time for this House to act in the national interest” and back an extension. He then voted against the very delay he had spoken in favor of. The unspoken assumption that the government acts as a coherent body and can only stay in office with the support of the House of Commons is starting to crack. That said, both parties are still trying to shore up MPs’ loyalty. The Brexit deal that Labour opposes is not that different from the deal that it demands. Meanwhile, Conservative MPs have coalesced around a compromise that stood no chance of being approved by the E.U., just to secure party unity. Partisanship remains key to understanding British politics. Instead of two major groups you have four There are now four groups in Parliament, each with a different preferred outcome: May’s unpopular deal; a disruptive no-deal Brexit; an as-yet-not-clearly-defined different deal; or, perhaps least likely, no Brexit at all. Only one of these groups will get what it wants. If allowed another vote on the negotiated deal, the prime minister needs to swing at least 75 MPs from opposing to supporting her plan. She is trying to persuade those who want a no-deal Brexit to back her deal by threatening that E.U. negotiations could go on so long that there would be no Brexit at all. And she will need to persuade Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party’s 10 MPs, who she hopes will not want to force a snap election that would deprive them of their power over May’s minority government. All this might bring another 50 or so Conservatives to her side. Then, May would need some Labour MPs to vote her way. Within Labour, those who want another referendum are fighting with others, including Jeremy Corbyn, who would prefer a different Brexit deal. But even the latter don’t want to vote for the Conservative Party’s Brexit deal unless they are sure that this will push May over the line. Both May and Corbyn want to hold their parties together above all else. That, at least, is normal for British politics. Both leaders are also united, for different reasons, in wanting Brexit to be


The 400-year-old legal precedent that might break Brexit

Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union was supposed to be about imagining a new, independent future for the nation. But as Brexit moves forward, it has often ended up mired in the past, with centuries-old disputes — including over the Irish border or the status of Gibraltar — proving to be newly intractable. As such, it seems only fitting that the latest blow to Brexit involves a 1604 legal precedent. This is what John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons, cited Monday when he announced he would not allow Prime Minister Theresa May’s government to hold a third vote on her withdrawal agreement in its current form. In his ruling, about which the prime minister’s office has said it was not forewarned, Bercow quoted from a guide to parliamentary procedure that said a question that “has been decided during a session may not be brought forward again during that same session.” He said this is a “strong and long-standing convention” dating to 1604. It is a turn of events that has shocked many in Europe. “I’ll concede that I wasn’t actively aware of the British Parliament’s rules of procedure from the 17th century, so I took note of this with interest yesterday,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday. But why is Bercow harking to a legal idea from the era of Shakespeare (fun fact: 1604 featured the first known performance of “Othello”) in a decision that could lead Britain to a potentially disastrous “no deal” Brexit? Here’s a rough guide. Bercow’s decision was based on an official parliamentary rule book that was first published by Thomas Erskine May in 1844. This book, known as “Erskine May,” has become an important tool for understanding Britain’s constitution, which, unlike the U.S. Constitution, was not codified in a single document and is derived from a set of laws and conventions. “Erskine May” has been regularly updated, with 24 editions so far. A new edition is expected in May. In print form, the book is 1,097 pages and will cost you £439.99 ($583.20) in Parliament’s bookshop. In his statement, Bercow said he was referring to a statement on Page 397 of the 24th edition of the book: “A motion or an amendment which is the same, in substance, as a question which has been decided during a session may not be brought forward again during that same session.” The book goes


I pushed to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ The transgender ban defies our values.

displaying the kind of talent and bravery our military needs. Alivia Stehlik, for instance, a transgender U.S. Military Academy graduate, deployed to Afghanistan as a physical therapist, where she treated more than 1,700 patients. She told lawmakers that being honest about herself inspired fellow service members to be more honest about themselves. Her integrity bred more integrity, and instead of spiraling into denial and pretense, her unit enjoyed enhanced cohesion and morale. Stehlik is one of a small cohort who will be grandfathered in under the new ban. But whatever rationale retains her for service ought to welcome any qualified transgender person. The new policy, which is based on the recommendations of a panel that then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis commissioned, bars another Stehlik from joining the military. At a time when the military is missing its recruiting goals and spending hundreds of millions of dollars on enlistment bonuses and lowering standards to fill shortfalls, we should think twice about banning service by qualified transgender people for reasons that have nothing to do with ability. Like “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the current ban presents itself as a neutral policy imposing narrow restrictions on a segment of the LGBT population instead of what it is: a cudgel broadly targeting a defining characteristic of the population. The new policy allows transgender people to serve only if they avoid being diagnosed with gender dysphoria and agree to serve in their birth gender. The Pentagon is being too cute by half when it claims it is not banning transgender people from service. A policy that targets proxies of being transgender amounts to an effective ban. Worse, it could discourage people from seeking the psychological and medical help they may need, potentially leading — as the Rand Corp. study found — to more cases of substance abuse and suicide. In war, it’s crucial to fight the next battle instead of the last. Likewise, we should be aiming to build the military of the future, not of the past. Discriminating against a group of proven patriots is no way to appeal to the next generation of fighters and serves only to place politics above readiness. Fortunately, the Pentagon has stated it is committed to reviewing the data on transgender service within two years. We must hope that, when it does, it is prepared to do so with a genuinely open mind and to do the right thing.


The Trump administration is opening millions of new acres to drilling — and that’s just the start

whales, which are endangered. Interior has offered nearly 16.8 million acres of federal land for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office, according to the Center for Biological Diversity — a swath of land larger than the combined size of Maryland and New Jersey. Of those acres, more than 2.3 million were leased, and the department plans to auction off another 1.3 million acres in the spring. Under Friday’s decision, oil and natural gas operations can more easily conduct horizontal drilling in sage grouse habitat. Sage grouse exist only in the United States. Scientists consider them an indicator species because their status reflects the overall well-being of many animals in the sagebrush sea, which encompasses about 160 million acres across 11 states. Sixty-seven million of those acres were designated for protection under a 2015 federal plan designed to increase the bird’s population and bring it back from the brink of being placed on the endangered species list. The new decision eliminates or weakens protections on 75 percent of the area in the original plan. On their expedition across what became the United States, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark noted that flying sage grouse blackened the skies, leading to unconfirmed estimates that their historical numbers stood at 16 million. Since the bird’s habitat has been cut in half by human expansion and development, those changes, coupled with invasive species and disease, have shrunk their numbers to fewer than 500,000. Acting interior secretary David Bernhardt said in a statement that the department’s final decision demonstrated that the administration could achieve several goals at once. The new plan will shift significant power to the states, including leaving it up to state officials whether energy companies have to offset the environmental impacts of their development. “The plans adopted today show that listening to and working with our neighbors at the state and local levels of government is the key to long-term conservation and to ensuring the viability of local communities across the West,” Bernhardt said. Governors from several Western states — including some prominent Democrats — praised the new plan for scaling back restrictions adopted in 2015 and empowering state officials to authorize energy development without imperiling the sage grouse’s survival. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), for example, thanked Interior officials for addressing the state’s concerns in a statement, adding, “Our focus now turns to implementation and creating successful outcomes on the


It’s the Year of the Pig. Is it also the year fake pork takes off in China?

spot King of Sheng Jian, Right Treat has clearly taken a page from the in-restaurant advertising strategies of its Beyond and Impossible burger counterparts. Omnipork posters hang on the walls above diners, postcards are taped to every tabletop, and branded paper flags fly from toothpicks over orders of meat-free xiao long bao. The bao are priced at about $5 for a plate of four dumplings, a relatively affordable price for downtown Hong Kong, and just about 6 cents each more than the real deal. This aggressive marketing and pricing have helped fuel Omnipork’s growth into more than 100 restaurants throughout Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, but Yeung thinks the driving factors in the world’s biggest pork market, China, will be twofold: aspirational lifestyles and concern for food safety. On that first point, he cites Starbucks. “For 5,000 years, Chinese people don’t drink coffee, we drink tea. So, what the heck does Starbucks have to do in China? They should have no business here.” According to Yeung, it’s all about the lifestyle, and there he already has a big advantage: Before developing Omnipork, he started Green Common, a chain of seven sleek, full-service vegan restaurants, with adjacent health stores stocking organic quinoa pasta, locally made “Basil Restoring Shampoo” and now, of course, Omnipork. But where aspirational lifestyles sell products based on hope, the food safety angle depends on fear. It’s a fear with which mainland Chinese are very familiar, having lived through numerous scandals involving problematic vaccines, counterfeit medicines and tainted food, including the 2008 infant formula disaster that killed at least four babies, hospitalized tens of thousands more and sent so many Chinese residents in search of legitimate formula that Hong Kong had to limit the amount visitors could leave the city with for years afterward. Even now, as images of lovable, pink, Peppa types abound, another pig poster has begun to appear around the city’s commuter train stations. This one is government-issue, and features a dark pig silhouette against a smeared, filth-brown background. “Guard against African Swine Fever,” it warns. “Do not bring raw meat into Hong Kong illegally.” “ ‘Do this for good. Do this for animals. Do this for the environment.’ In China, that won’t work.” Yeung says. Consumer safety, however, drives sales. All of this is going to keep Right Treat busy in Asia for the foreseeable future. Beyond China, Yeung says, interested investors and distributors


Maryland must lead the way on addressing climate change

The March 10 Local Opinions essay by Mike Tidwell and Karla Raettig, “Annapolis can set the right course on climate change,” urged passage of the 2019 Maryland Clean Energy Jobs Act. The bill would raise Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 50 percent renewable electricity generation by 2030 and create a plan to reach 100 percent by 2040. It also would provide for workforce development in the clean-energy field. As the essay pointed out, humanity has only a narrow window of time (approximately 11 years) in which to make a significant transition from fossil fuels. We must act now. Critics will say that climate change is a global problem and that one local government, alone, won’t begin to solve it. Why not say that is the very reason that everyone, including little Maryland, must act now — so that we are able to do our necessary part for the good of all and for all of creation? A thousand little parts add up. And Maryland’s biggest contribution in acting decisively and thoughtfully now can be in demonstrating the way forward for other governments. By this Earth Day — April 22 — the fate of the bill will be known. I surely hope we all arrive there with Maryland’s lawmakers having recognized our obligations to the Earth, and having acted. Environmental luminary and Maryland resident Rachel Carson was pointing us to the right thinking when she said: “In nature, nothing exists alone.” James P. Wagner


The smallest and farthest worlds ever explored by NASA are really, really weird

HOUSTON — In recent months, NASA has explored the smallest object ever orbited and the most distant body ever encountered — and found that both worlds are weirder than anyone could have imagined. The 1,600-foot-wide asteroid Bennu, which is being studied by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, produces strange plumes of dust particles. Principal investigator Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, called the discovery “one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career.” Meanwhile, data collected during the New Horizons spacecraft’s New Year’s Day flight past a far-flung icy object called MU69 suggests that the body is weirdly flat. Planetary scientist William McKinnon, a co-investigator on the mission, compared the two-part body to “a meatball attached to a pancake." The strange findings from both missions were presented this week at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference outside Houston, raising questions and offering clues about how the solar system works. Although the dust plumes seen streaming off Bennu don’t pose any threat to the spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx has revealed other, less pleasant, surprises in its four months at the asteroid. Researchers said Tuesday that the surface of Bennu is far more rugged than expected; some of the boulders that comprise this cosmic “rubble pile” may be as large as 150 feet across — bigger than a baseball diamond. The finding could pose problems for plans to scoop up a sample of the asteroid’s surface material and bring it back to Earth, researchers said. Because they had believed that Bennu would be dusty, OSIRIS-REx doesn’t have a mechanism for breaking up big rocks. The mission team instead plans to give Bennu something like an air kiss, using a puff of gas to raise a cloud of dusty material and gather it into a capsule that will eventually be sent back home. The team will need to spend the next year or so carefully seeking a site that contains the right kind of material for this sample-collection process. When the time comes to grab the sample in 2020, spacecraft operators will have a tough time navigating Bennu’s rough terrain. But NASA assured reporters Tuesday that it is up to the challenge. “The first three months of OSIRIS-REx’s up-close investigation of Bennu have reminded us what discovery is all about — surprises, quick thinking and flexibility,” said Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA’s planetary science division. The New Horizons spacecraft is already


Britain’s May asks European Union for a three-month Brexit delay

leave the E.U. May will now travel, hat in hand, to a summit of skeptical European leaders in Brussels on Thursday. This will mark at least the 17th time the gathering has been forced to discuss Brexit since the June 2016 referendum. The French, for their part, appear exasperated by Britain’s dithering. “The central scenario is a no-deal exit,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced Wednesday, making clear his government’s hard-line approach. “We are ready,” he said. But at a later news conference in Brussels, Tusk said that “a short extension will be possible, but it will be conditional on a positive vote on the withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons.” Meaning: The Europeans do not want to give May the delay until the deal is inked. Brussels officials cautioned that May’s last-minute letter asking for more time probably arrived too late for European leaders to respond to it definitively Thursday. Leaders need to consult with their cabinets and parliaments, policymakers said. That sets up the likelihood of a nail-biting, last-ditch emergency summit next week. In briefings, diplomats from several European countries made clear they would do everything they could to avoid having Britain leave without the safety of a withdrawal agreement. “We will go to great lengths to avoid a hard Brexit,” one senior E.U. diplomat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer a frank assessment. The British prime minister is struggling to persuade 10 members of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, which props up her minority government, to back her deal. The thinking is that if the DUP swings behind her, some hardcore Brexiteers in her own party may hold their noses and support her plan. May told Parliament that even if an extension is granted, a “no-deal Brexit” wasn’t off the table. Instead, the cliff edge would simply be pushed back. That alarmed some lawmakers who think exiting the bloc without a deal would be economically disastrous for the country. Samuel Gyimah, a Conservative lawmaker, told the BBC that a short extension “increased chances of a ‘no deal’ by 60 percent” and that it was “downright reckless” of the government to keep it as an option. British reporters were told by 10 Downing Street that May might try to pass a revised deal as early as next week. But the prime minister faces procedural head winds, as well as political ones.


Trump Jr., Bolton take unusual step of weighing in on Britain’s domestic affairs

“we are ready to go.” The commentary from members of Trump’s inner circle was an extraordinary departure from the diplomatic norm, in which close allies such as the United States and Britain are careful not to appear to be meddling in each other’s business. Trump Jr. said the Brexit process should be over by now and that May erred by not taking his father’s advice on how to sever ties. May has said that Trump advised her to sue the E.U. rather than enter into what became protracted negotiations. The younger Trump has not previously commented extensively on foreign policy. Bolton supported Brexit before becoming Trump’s national security adviser a year ago and shares the president’s view that the E.U. impinges on state sovereignty. “God bless the people of Great Britain, who two years ago voted to get out of the European Union,” Bolton said in a speech last year. Bolton is known to speak with pro-Brexit British ministers. He told Sky News that British trade minister, Liam Fox, a vocal Brexit supporter, “would be welcome here” for talks on a separate U.S.-U.K. trade deal once Britain is out of the E.U. An agreement could be reached “quickly,” Bolton predicted, although such a pact faces an uncertain and probably lengthy review in Congress, where Democrats and Republicans have expressed reservations. “The president’s been clear that he wants a resolution to this issue that allows the United States and Britain to come to trade deals again,” Bolton said. He added, “The people of Britain have voted. When is the political class going to give effect to that vote?” Britain’s Parliament has twice rejected May’s plans for departure. She conceded Wednesday that she must ask E.U. leaders to delay Brexit until June 30, and blamed lawmakers for foiling plans to exit on schedule by March 29. There is no agreement in place governing British trade and the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and May wants to prevent Britain from “crashing out” of the E.U. without those safeguards. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was in London on Wednesday attempting, he said, to reassure Britons that Trump Jr.’s “bonkers” opinion piece may reflect the president’s views but is not a stand-in for official U.S. policy. “The Donald Trump Jr. op-ed has completely flummoxed people over here,” Murphy said in an interview. “It sounds like it was written by Nigel Farage, and people don’t know


Local Digest: Infant girl in Southeast Washington dies of blunt-force trauma

the girl to Children’s National Medical Center. Police said the infant died Tuesday. The report does not say who called police. — Peter Hermann MARYLAND Hyattsville council to study renaming park The Hyattsville City Council has voted to study the feasibility of renaming Magruder Park, which bears the name of a former mayor who donated the land on the condition that it be used for “Caucasian inhabitants only.” The city government will also examine how to update the deed to remove the racially restrictive covenant from 1927, when William Pinkney Magruder gave the land to the city. City Council member Joseph Solomon said he wants to rename the park as a way of recognizing that the diverse city of Hyattsville bears almost no resemblance to the mostly white, segregated town of nearly a century ago. “The council is taking bold action to address concerns about who our namesakes are and what values we choose to hold near and dear to us,” Solomon said. — Rachel Chason VIRGINIA After hit and run, man found in closet Fairfax County police said they found a man in a closet last week during a search after a car crash. The police said they were in the 1200 block of Thompson Run Court about 8 p.m. Thursday during a search for someone who had fled from a hit-and-run incident. As officers searched, police said, they were told by a homeowner that someone had forced entry into a home. The location was in the Vienna area. Police said Zachary Fossett, 23, of Ashburn was arrested and charged with hit and run, burglary, driving while intoxicated, possession of schedule I or II drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia. — Martin Weil THE REGION Marine Marathon lottery is open The Marine Corps Marathon lottery is open to runners who want to participate in the 44th annual race. The lottery-based registration system is used to allow the maximum number of runners an opportunity to obtain an entry because the volume of interest exceeds the field capacity. Known as “The People’s Marathon,” it is one of the largest marathons in the United States. Runners have several days to enter their names in the lottery. Registration slots will close at noon Tuesday. On Wednesday, all registered runners will be notified of their status through email. This year’s marathon is scheduled for Oct. 27 in Arlington and the District. — Associated Press


Meet Steve: Streaking, pulsing northern lights in the spring equinox sky

movie with my kids over the week prior, so it was in my mind,” says Chris Ratzlaff, a Calgary-area chaser who suggested the name. He adds: “I’m the kind of person who as soon as someone says, ‘Hey, let’s name this planet,’ I’ll call it ‘Bob.’ Just, yeah — I can’t really explain it better than that.” The name stuck, though researchers now know it by the more-official sounding STEVE, short for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. Those who run across one on a cold, lonesome night walk away with a lasting impression. “Like watching the auroras dance, watching Steve pulse and move across the night sky is like magic and mesmerizing,” says Mitch Popilchak of the Alberta Aurora Chasers. He snared this shot of Steve in 2017 in Pincher Creek, Alberta: Renaud Cheyrou Bagging a Steve can be a badge of honor for space-weather enthusiasts. “I can’t speak for places outside of Alberta, but I suppose there’s a certain amount of bragging rights for capturing a powerful Steve display in a beautiful setting,” says Clark Monson, who witnessed Steve near Mount Robson, British Columbia: “Steve was a very pale purple, but the camera picked up the color really well,” Monson says. The “picket fence” — the term for the green tendrils that sometimes, for unknown reasons, dangle off Steve — moved “slowly across the sky and pulsed quickly upward from bottom to top as they moved.” The science on Steve is relatively new, but here’s what’s known: Steve tends to appear several hundred miles south (or north, in the Southern Hemisphere) of the typical aurora zone. It has been spotted in higher-latitude locations such as Canada, New York, Michigan, Montana, Scotland and Tasmania, and resembles a purplish airplane contrail flowing hundreds or thousands of miles across the celestial dome. Steve can last for minutes or upward of an hour, and during that time manifests queer optics. “Light at essentially all wavelengths in the optical band is enhanced where Steve is,” Donovan says. While Steve often accompanies auroras, it is not one. Some scientists believe Steve is the result of narrow, extremely fast-moving rivers of ions colliding with neutrally charged particles in the atmosphere. “But can we give enough energy to the neutral particles to get them to give off light?” Donovan asks. “That’s a question I do not have an answer to; it’s the number-one question we have to


Six spots where you can enjoy the cherry blossoms around D.C. — without big crowds

by the snow-cone and lemonade stands operated by young residents, and then celebrate the blossoms’ heritage at Yirasai Sushi (5110 Ridgefield Rd.). Lunch options at the small Japanese cafe, a neighborhood favorite, include sushi, sashimi, rice bowls and udon. Kenwood, between Little Falls Parkway and River Road, Bethesda. Free. Meadowlark Botanical Gardens This 95-acre park in Vienna lights up with about 200 cherry trees of assorted varieties, including the Yoshino blossoms that the Tidal Basin is known for. Many of them surround Lake Carolyn, where visitors are likely to spot koi fish and snapping turtles. There’s also a cluster near Meadowlark’s Korean Bell Garden. Peak bloom typically occurs a day or two after it does downtown, says park manager Keith Tomlinson: “What I tell people is, if you’re a cherry tree enthusiast, go downtown, and then a couple days later, come here.” Mosey about the grounds, then head to Clarity (442 Maple Ave. E), which Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema has called “a one-of-a-kind dining experience in Northern Virginia.” The menu at chef-owner Jon Krinn’s modern American restaurant changes daily and has included such dishes as braised lamb ragout with hand-rolled fettuccine, followed by bittersweet flourless chocolate cake and cocoa-nib ice cream for dessert. The cherry blossoms are, after all, a special occasion. Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, 9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court, Vienna. $3-$6. River Farm Don’t let the total of only three cherry trees dissuade you from this bucolic estate located on the banks of the Potomac in Alexandria. What River Farm lacks in quantity, it makes up for in atmosphere and serenity. The property, once owned by George Washington, is the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society. Commune with the trees, and then explore the children’s garden, the orchard — ripe with apple, pear and Japanese persimmon trees — and the Osage orange tree, which is 200 years old and recognized as one of the largest in the country. Peak bloom is expected to coincide with the explosion of 14,000 bulbs — daffodils, tulips and other radiant flowers planted across the property, says Dan Scott, AHS’s associate director for horticulture and River Farm. Bring a lunch to enjoy in the four-acre meadow, which is dotted with native grasses and wildflowers, and if you’re inspired by Washington’s legacy, continue the tour at nearby Mount Vernon (3200 Mount Vernon Hwy., Mount Vernon). River Farm, 7931 E. Boulevard Dr., Alexandria. Free. goingoutguide@washpost.com


Japan’s Olympic chief to step down amid corruption allegations over Tokyo 2020

TOKYO — Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda announced Tuesday that he will step down at the end of his term in June, in the face of corruption allegations that have cast a shadow over the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. French prosecutors placed Takeda under formal investigation in December onsuspicion that he paid a bribe to help secure Tokyo’s bid to hold next year’s Summer Olympics. Takeda, who was president of the 2020 bid committee, said at a Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) board meeting Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in June and that he will resign from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). “I am extremely sorry for causing the trouble for the public,” he said at a news conference. “For the future of the JOC, it is appropriate for me to leave and have a new young leader, who will shoulder the next generation, take over and pave [the] way for the new era.” But Takeda denied breaking the law. “I don’t believe I’ve done anything illegal,” he said, vowing to keep trying to prove his innocence, and defending his decision not to step down immediately. “It pains me to have created such a fuss, but I believe it is my responsibility to serve out the rest of my term.” French authorities have spent years investigating corruption in athletics as well as the bidding and voting process surrounding the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the Tokyo 2020 Games. They have questioned Takeda in Paris over a payment of 230 million yen ($2.1 million) to Black Tidings, a Singapore company, that they suspect was part of an effort to win support from African countries for Tokyo’s bid. Some of the money is thought to have been channeled to Papa Massa Diack, a Senegalese marketing executive and the son of Lamine Diack, a former head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), both of whom are the subject of various French corruption investigations. Takeda, 71, has maintained that the money was paid for legitimate consultancy work. However, criticism of his lack of candor mounted in Japan after he held a seven-minute news conference in January in which he denied the charges but declined to take questions. Takeda, a great-grandson of Japan’s Emperor Meiji, competed as a show jumper at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and has held the chairmanship of the JOC, a largely honorary position,


All my life, I hated running. In my 50s, I set out to change that.

beige in the morning sun, rising from a crust of frozen snow, their branches latticed against the pale blue sky. At the end of the third week, I posted a picture on Instagram hashtagged #morningrun. My close friends immediately took notice. “Have you been hacked?” one commented. “Wait,” another wrote, “you were the one who was running? From what?” It took me eight weeks, until the end of the Couch25K program, to realize that, like so many goals throughout one’s life — losing the weight, finding the boyfriend, publishing the book — running five kilometers was going to be the beginning of something, rather than the end. I didn’t even make it to 5K by the end of the eighth week: The final day has you run for 30 minutes without stopping, which is only 5K if you run fast enough. It took me another couple of weeks to hit the 5K mark. Then that felt anticlimactic, so I registered for an actual race in the fall. Feeling empty without the app’s guidance, I discovered there are a wealth of running apps that will chart your distance and pace and create training programs, and downloaded another one. The hardest thing about starting to run in middle age was not the running itself. The hardest thing was running through my own prejudices and fears. I had always seen exercise as a means to an end, rather than something I might do for its own sake, and it was hard to shake the idea that the perfect body was the ultimate goal, or to shake disappointment when it failed to appear. Nor did running become magically easy to do; it felt hard most days, and I remained dismayingly slow. Fear held me back like mud — fear I was doing it wrong, fear I was going to injure myself and have to stop (something reinforced in me by the many friends who told me they were former runners until they had blown out their knees, or developed arthritis). I began having shooting pains down the back of one leg, and worried that my running career was over until Facebook, probably triggered by my repeated googling of “hip pain,” popped up an article about the piriformis, a small muscle in the pelvic area, that exactly described all my symptoms as well as some stretching exercises that, within a few weeks, alleviated them. I


Miller Lite’s maker is suing Anheuser-Busch over the Bud Light corn syrup Super Bowl commercials

Daughters Brewing in Florida, explains why the specific sugar in the beer-making process doesn’t matter much. “When you ferment and make alcohol, you need a sugar source, and historically those sources are local or regional. Sake is made from rice for a reason. You can use wheat, corn, sugar cane, rice. In the U.S., it’s traditional to use wheat products to give a bolder flavor and more of a body. The issue with using all barley or wheat is that they have a higher caloric content; corn or rice is used for light beer because they are lighter and, frankly, cheaper.” In the end, it’s moot. “The yeast eats most of it.” Harting’s craft brewery is launching an all-corn beer on Friday, a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to what has come to be called “corngate.” Corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup have become nutritional boogeymen in recent years. Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, thinks this is largely an issue of labeling and psychology. “How did high-fructose corn syrup become demonized? My sense is companies started saying on food labels, ‘no high fructose corn syrup,’ in the way you can say ‘gluten free,’ and people then think gluten is bad. Corn syrup is no worse for you than table sugar or any other kind of sweetener.” Ordinary table sugar consists of a molecule of fructose linked to a molecule of glucose, half and half. Corn syrup is straight glucose. High-fructose corn syrup is made by converting some of the glucose in corn syrup to fructose. Liebman says HFCS may have become associated with ill health because it’s the sweetener frequently used in soft drinks. That’s because it’s cheap and plentiful. But it’s no worse for you than things that sound healthy, like brown rice syrup. There’s evidence that sugary drinks lead to weight gain and are linked to a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease. But, Liebman says, these light beers have, at most, one gram of sugar. Chump change in the scheme of things. According to MillerCoors, Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl and subsequent ads about corn syrup were about negative marketing. They released a statement on Thursday that said, in part: “Anheuser-Busch has admitted that its campaign was designed to mislead the public. Anheuser-Busch is fearmongering over a common beer ingredient it uses in many of its own beers, as a fermentation aid that


New at Nationals Park for 2019: Steamed buns, pupusas and so many oysters

Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and . . . oysters?! Baseball fans finally can get their bivalve fix at not one but two new Nationals Park concession stands with oysters on the menu this season. Hank’s Oyster Bar will serve oyster and shrimp Po’ Boys, fish and chips, fish sandwiches and Old Bay fries near Section 108, while Harris Creek Oyster Co. and Rappahannock Oyster Co. will offer oysters on the half shell at a new stand beneath the center field scoreboard. For those interested in a different taste of the sea, a Lobster Shack serving lobster rolls is opening by Section 105. There are plenty of non-seafood options among the new concession offerings at the ballpark this year, which were introduced during a tour for media members Thursday. Medium Rare, which has four locations in the D.C. area, will offer a steak sandwich stuffed with fries and the restaurant’s signature sauce near Section 136. Bao Bao near Section 116 will feature several house-steamed buns, including Ssamjang mushroom, hoisin pork and char sui chicken. One of the best additions to the ballpark, in this amateur food critic’s opinion, is the CHIKO stand by Section 238. Founded by chefs Danny Lee and Scott Drewno and with locations in Dupont Circle, Capitol Hill and Capital One Arena, CHIKO blends traditional Chinese and Korean flavors. The restaurant’s ballpark menu includes a bulgogi hoagie (beef, caramelized onions and “kimcheese wiz” on a soft roll), Korean fried chicken wings and Furikake tots. La Casita Pupuseria, which was introduced at Nationals Park toward the end of last season, returns by Section 140. The Salvadoran stand will offer pollo con queso, revuelta con queso and frijol con queso pupusas. Other new concessions for 2019 include the D.C. Empanadas stand (Section 244), which will feature buffalo chicken and spinach and feta empanadas, and Taco Caminando (Section 233), which will offer a “walking taco” — corn chips, chili, cheese, tomatoes, jalapeños, sour cream and hot sauce in a bowl. Cantina 202 in Sections 129, 216 and 314 will serve nachos and soft shell tacos. Old Hickory Barbecue, located near the Bud Light Loft, will feature bone-in short rib and Mexican grilled corn. The Nationals also have partnered with food delivery service Caviar, which will open its first in-stadium concession stand by Section 106. The stand will feature items


Trump’s advice on Brexit may be useless — or worse

advised her to “sue” the E.U. rather than negotiate with it. In Britain, though some Brexiteers do long for a Trumpist approach, many experts doubt his advice would work at all. “I would guess it’s just bluster to be honest,” Kevin Hjortshoj O’Rourke, an Irish economist at the University of Oxford, said of Trump’s ideas on Brexit negotiations. Asked whether he knew what Trump might have meant if he said May should sue the E.U., O’Rourke replied simply: “No.” May has always been in a weak position in negotiations to leave the European Union. She had to first reach a deal on withdrawing with the 28 E.U. leaders, who had to agree unanimously. Then, she took that deal back to her own Parliament, which is fiercely divided between those who want a hard Brexit, those who want some kind of softer exit and those who don’t want an exit at all. For complicated issues like the Irish border, there’s probably no one solution that could satisfy all these parties. Amanda Sloat, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said that even Trump’s apparently favored tactic — threatening to walk away without a deal — was incoherent; Britain has so much more to lose than other E.U. states. “Walking away from Brexit with no deal doesn’t mean that nothing happens,” Sloat said. “It means you have significant rupture in all the existing arrangements.” Trump’s self-styled reputation as a master dealmaker has also been tested by his time in office. Domestically, his government has struggled in some surprising ways. My colleagues Fred Barbash and Deanna Paul wrote this week that the Trump administration has an “extraordinary record of legal defeat” in the nation’s courts. Some legal experts have noted errors so basic that they wonder whether the administration was “more interested in announcing policy shifts than in actually implementing them." But Trump’s negotiation failures are largely masked by the office he holds. Despite British nostalgia for imperial might, the United States is the world’s preeminent superpower; it can use its economic leverage and military power to dominate other nations in a way that Britain, with an economy only one-tenth the size and military spending even smaller in comparison, cannot. And unlike May, Trump holds power over the executive branch rather than the legislative branch — meaning that he doesn’t have to try


A visual guide to the dead ends and murky contacts in the Trump-Russia collusion question

sense of where there was or may have been “coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” as Mueller’s mandate reads. But in each case, there are gaps or murkiness that prevent the drawing of a straight line between Trump himself and Russian efforts. Consider, for example, the infamous meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016. We can distill that event down to a few core actors: Aras Agalarov, a Russian developer linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin; Rob Goldstone, a music promoter who represents Agalarov’s son; Donald Trump Jr.; Trump’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. We know that Goldstone told Trump Jr. that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, which they wanted to share as part of a Russian effort to aid Trump’s campaign. So let’s draw a bright red line between Goldstone and Trump Jr. Goldstone was acting on behalf of Agalarov — but in a book, Goldstone claims that the specific enticement was something he came up with to sell the meeting to Trump Jr. It’s not clear, then, that Agalarov told Goldstone that the meeting was part of a Russian effort to aid Trump. We make that a dashed red line. Similarly, we don’t then know whether Agalarov had actual information about the interference effort from the Russian government — another dashed red line. And while Trump Jr. clearly told Manafort and Kushner the reason for the meeting, Trump himself claims he didn’t know it was happening. Another dashed line. We get a diagram that looks like this. Tantalizing — but with a lot of gaps. Consider another set of interactions, between Manafort and his longtime aide Konstantin Kilimnik, who is believed to have ties to Russian intelligence. Manafort was in contact with Kilimnik multiple times during the campaign, including to see whether a former business client of Manafort’s named Oleg Deripaska might want a private briefing on how the campaign was progressing. At another point, he apparently shared campaign polling data with Kilimnik. But why? To aid the Russian effort? Did Kilimnik even have a link to the Russian government? Did anyone on the campaign besides Manafort (and his deputy, Rick Gates) even know about the data being shared? The links between this meeting and Trump, and between Kilimnik and the Russian government, are sufficiently vague that they get dashed gray lines.


The real college admissions scandal isn’t bribes and cheating. It’s how wealth tilts the playing field.

I identify three causes of bias in favor of students in well-off areas. First, a student who tries four times as many sports and activities will be four times as likely to show exceptional results. We call that an “opportunity effect”: more opportunities increase the likelihood of success. Thus, the New Trier student or Harvard Westlake student, who has the opportunity to try more sports, has a higher likelihood of showing exceptional abilities. Second, students at wealthy schools have the chance to try elite sports — which results in a “specialization effect.” Becoming a college-level water polo player requires having the opportunity to play water polo — which is available to approximately 22,000 high school boys. By comparison, more than a million boys play football; more than a half million play basketball; and another half-million run track. If Princeton has roughly the same numbers of admissions slots for each sport, then the water polo player is more than 40 times more as likely to become a Princeton athlete. Third, students at elite schools have access to better coaching, better facilities and more family support — which offers them what we call a “support effect.” With more support, they are more likely to excel. These three effects combine to produce a substantial advantage. Our crude initial estimate suggests that kids from advantaged schools may be 10 to 20 times more likely to show the exceptional talent desired by elite colleges. Once we undertake a more nuanced and careful analysis, that range will probably tighten. We expect to find huge advantages in particular sports like fencing, skiing, and crew. Yes, William Singer — the college admissions adviser at the center of the current fraud scandal — claims to have altered the test scores of potentially hundreds of students per year. But that focus on overt cheating and fraud may distract attention away from a much broader bias toward wealthy families: the emphasis on exceptionalism in elite college admissions. Wealth cannot purchase innate talent. But it can provide access to elite — and less competitive — sports and activities like fencing, water polo, crew, classical music, debate and dance. It can provide better coaching, counseling, stronger familial support. As a result, students from wealthy families are much more likely to get into elite colleges — not through cheating, but through the selective back door available primarily to those from wealth. Scott E. Page


Project Wander: Wandering-Washington, D.C.

& Dickie’s Seafood Carryout This seafood and soul-food spot has been around so long that it doesn’t have a website and never will. Its no-frills attitude is why locals line up early for the whiting fish and crab cakes. The line moves fast, and make sure to smile: A friendly face will make you quick friends who will tell you all about the neighborhood. Don’t skip the sides — mac and cheese and hush puppies are favorites — and order bean pie for dessert. It tastes a lot like sweet potato pie. Fine print: 809 12th St. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002. 202-397-6040. Gravitas Don’t let Gravitas’s prices scare you. Yes, chef Matt Baker only offers a tasting menu that starts at $78 for four courses, but if you break it down, that comes out to under $20 a dish for some of the most inventive food in the city. The restaurant is house in an old tomato-packing factory in industrial Ivy City. Vegetarians are in luck, because half the menu is for them. Gravitas’s wine menu is impressive, but opt for the cocktails instead. Each glass comes with a fancy garnish, such as the origami butterfly on the “Southern Butterfly.” Fine print: 1401 Okie St. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002. 202-763-7942. Late-night Amsterdam Falafelshop Even if you’re not on your way back from the bars, Amsterdam is worth a late-night stop; it’s open until 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights (or morning). The original location, in Adams Morgan, is small, but it’s a quick eat. Pick a falafel pita or bowl, then go crazy with the 22 topping options, from pickled cabbage to hummus. If you happen to be on 14th Street NW, you’ll find a location there, too. Fine print: 2425 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009. 202-234-1969. Copycat This H Street NE spot pulls double duty. The bottom floor is a Chinese street-food shop, with bar and window seating only. The chef makes potstickers, bao and skewers right in front of you. When you’re ready for a drink, head upstairs to the bar, where the city’s bartenders hang out. Because of that, order the “bartender’s choice” to give them the opportunity to show off their skills. Fine print: 1110 H St. NE, Washington, DC 20002. 202-241-1952. Capitol Hill Books It’s arguably the most Instagrammed storefront in D.C., but the real shots are inside. As you enter the small


rowhouse on Capitol Hill, one packed from floor to ceiling with used books, take note of the list of “words not spoken here” (“perfect,” “whatever” and “totally” are just a few millennial words at which the former owner cringes). You’ll then notice snarky commentary written on notecards reacting to the books on display. Novels are upstairs, sociology is in the basement and foreign language is in the bathroom. Fine print: 657 C St. SE, Washington, DC 20003. Congressional Cemetery Congressional Cemetery has been dubbed “the hippest cemetery in America,” and it lives up to the title. Located in Hill East, it was America’s first national cemetery, established in 1807, with several V.I.P eternal residents, including former D.C. mayor Marion Barry and several congressmen. Once in disarray, the cemetery started promoting itself as a dog park and charged people for it. To this day, it has a long dog-walking wait-list. Beyond hosting the city’s pets, the cemetery has tours with wine, horror-novel book clubs, yoga and free live music on Sundays in the chapel. Fine print: 1801 E Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. Eastern Market The longest continuously operating market in the country, Eastern Market is considered the “town center” of the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood. Inside the large brick building are stands selling fresh produce, cakes, dumplings, flowers and fish. The very last stand in the market is Market Lunch — ironically a popular breakfast spot. People stand in line for over an hour to pay cash for blueberry buckwheat pancakes. On the weekend, the outside turns into a large flea and farmers market. A Turkish woman who sells jewelry to celebrities and a Maryland artist commissioned by the White House are just two of the vendors you’ll meet. Fine print: 225 7th St SE, Washington, DC 20003. Frederick Douglass House The Frederick Douglass House, now part of the National Park Service, was the private home of the 19th-century abolitionist. The house gives historians much to geek out about, but its location will entice everyone to visit. Located in historic Anacostia, the house is on one of the highest hills in D.C., providing a clear view of the city’s skyline. If you’re looking for that perfect shot for social media, this is your spot. Fine print: 1411 W Street SE, Washington D.C. 20020. Kingman Island This man-made island in the Anacostia River was twice proposed to be a theme park.