Washington City Paper: Contents for Jan. 26

Greetings from D.C. Village, the nursing home that refuses to die.

Cover Story

"Don't be a fool," the old man says. "Anybody can be a fool."

We're sitting on a bench inside the entrance of D.C. Village, the city-run nursing home stranded on Washington's southernmost tip. Like nearly everything here, the morning goes by extremely, even painfully, slowly. For sheer inertia, the place's wheelchair pace is rivaled only by the sluggish gait of its employees, who amble ankle-deep in their own ennui. Outside, the sole movement on the frozen, gray horizon comes from the occasional planes floating into National Airport across the nearby Potomac—even their landing arcs seem lazy.

Once in a while, the automatic glass doors slide open to let in a teeth-chattering gust of river wind, which, despite the weather, carries the signature of the neighboring sewage treatment plant. The old man is bundled in a heavy coat, but he isn't going anywhere, and he isn't expecting anyone. Thomas Bowles rarely leaves D.C. Village, and he hasn't had any visitors for years.

We pay no mind to the sporadic arrivals and departures of employees; Bowles has no use for time clocks or even calendars—he's on Village Time, a zone where seconds drift into years without anyone much noticing. Some residents woke up here not long ago, others have been here since the Eisenhower era.... Continued

Issue of Jan. 26 - Feb. 1, 1996

News and Features

Greetings from D.C. Village, the nursing home that refuses to die.
Cover Story By Eddie Dean
Quaking the Fifth
Feature By Mark Jenkins
Dunning for Dollars
I thought finding advertisers was tough. Then I tried collecting my debts.
The City By Jeffrey Itell
Token Marketing
Congress Tries to Unload a Building Full of Rhetoric
The City By S.J. Ackerman
Military Regime
Vietnam Veteran Lemuel Bray Is Hungry for Attention--But Not Hungry Enough
The City By Nathalie op de Beeck
Will Write for Food
The City By Brett Anderson
J.R's Barred by Sidewalk Café Decision
The City By Mark Jenkins and Bill Rice
Unfounded Accusations
The Mail By Wlliam J. Lehrfeld
Courting Trouble
The Mail By Vic Fuentes
Separation of Court and State
The Mail By Bob Jones
Fleece Is the Word
The Mail By W.T. Buller
A Clockwork Orangutan
The Mail By Betsy Swart
Street Sweeping
The Mail By Robert Riddle