Washington City Paper: Contents for Jan. 22

Fly Me to the Mall
The New National Airport has a Gap, a Disney Store, a Cheesecake Factory--and, oh yeah, some planes, too.

Cover Story

Flight 101:

The Lonesome Traveler

With the half-lidded eyes of a crocodile on Valium and a small smile flickering across his sagging face, the lonesome traveler creaks onto a barstool inside the Virginia Beverage Company and lifts a finger for a drink.

The middle-aged man with the dirty blond hair and purple Polo shirt waits patiently for his glass of liquid soma and plays with the multiple silver hoops stapled into each ear. His sluggish stare crawls over the brass beer vats reinforcing the decor of this microbrew-joint-meets-sports-bar-meets-marketing-research-project, but nothing takes hold.

This frequent flier looks as if he's seen it all before: the consumerization of an airport. Big deal.

Soon enough, a shot glass of something clear and a tall glass of something red show up. The lonesome traveler positions the beverages side by side, then disappears beneath the bar and returns with four white pharmacy bottles: folic acid, zinc, and two unidentifiable vials. He gulps handfuls of horse pills, one after the other, then washes them down with the red juice. He exhales a few thick belches, but with the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" shouting from the speakers, no one can hear his guttural faux pas. ... Continued

Issue of Jan. 22 - 28, 1999

News and Features

Fly Me to the Mall
The New National Airport has a Gap, a Disney Store, a Cheesecake Factory--and, oh yeah, some planes, too.
Cover Story By Sean Daly
Failing Black Studies
Feature By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Your Enemies and Neighbors
Quique Aviles' new play makes a bitter stew in D.C.'s melting pot.
The City By Holly Bass
Questionnaire: Richard Brecht
The City By Eddie Dean
Freeze-Frame
The City By Marc Doussard
Cops and Haulers
D.C.'s Environmental Crimes Unit catches criminals green-handed.
The City By Elizabeth Murdock
Signs of the Times
Hizzoner has abdicated the throne. Let the name-cleansing begin.
The City By Elissa Silverman
The Naked Truth
The Mail By Michael Foote Cormier
The Wages of Sin
The Mail By James Sager
The Naked and the Dread
The Mail By Kathleen Kinsolving
Heave-Ho
The Mail By Martin Morse Wooster
Wrongs Against the Right
The Mail By Robert Stacy McCain
Nuttycombe's Coming Up Roses
The Mail By Larry Bellinger
Unchanging Environment
The Mail By Carol Schwartz
C'Est Possible, N'Est-ce Pas?
The Mail By Bill Morgan

Columns

All My Rabbi Friends Are Comin' Over Tonight
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Capital Punishment
City Desk By Colin BaneJason CherkisAmanda Ripley, Michael Schaffer and Elissa Silverman
BARNETT'S LEGACY
Loose Lips By Erik Wemple