Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 24

Stay the Course
Brenda McCaskill came to First Class in 1984 to take a seminar on buying a home. One hundred courses later, she's still feeling the learn.

Cover Story

Brenda McCaskill decided in 1984 that it was time to buy her first home—or at least learn as much as she possibly could about the topic. With no relatives or friends familiar with the process to guide her, she decided to embark on a monthslong fact-finding mission to gather information on becoming a homeowner. In a stroke of luck, McCaskill’s hunt for data coincided with the opening of First Class Inc., a Dupont Circle nonprofit adult learning center. She happened upon a catalog and signed up for one of its maiden courses, a seminar for first-time homebuyers called “Buying a House in D.C. and You Don’t Have $100,000?”

“I knew absolutely nothing,” McCaskill says. “I took the course and learned different things about location, condos versus co-ops, I picked up pointers from other participants—things like that.”

Several months after the first-time homeowners’ class, McCaskill, now a 66-year-old retired nurse, purchased her first home. She was so thrilled with her buy that, right then, she decided that spending pocket change and a chunk of free time on a class was a small price to pay for knowledge.

After buying her house, McCaskill had to decorate it. She took a First Class course in interior design to help her pick out furniture and paint colors. “I learned about space arrangement…north and west exposures, how sunlight should radiate in—stuff like that,” she says.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 24 - 30, 2006

News and Features

Stay the Course
Brenda McCaskill came to First Class in 1984 to take a seminar on buying a home. One hundred courses later, she's still feeling the learn.
Cover Story By Sarah Godfrey
Working Stiffs
Scenes from a hospital morgue
Feature By Anonymous
Man's Best Trend
Petworth resident helps pioneer the canine memorial T.
The City By John Metcalfe
Center Market Provision Co. Inc.
115 R St. SW
The City By Rachel Beckman
Mt. Pleasant Deli
3068 Mount Pleasant St. NW
The City By Rachel Beckman
St. Patrick's Catholic Church
619 10th St. NW
The City By Aaron Leitko
Vend of an Era
The Mail By Charles Badley
Joy Dingle
The Mail By Joy Dingle
Clarification
Clarification

Columns

One on None
A Shaw man puts his hoops compulsion on display.
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
The Heat Is On
City Desk By Ryan Grim
Xtremely Disappointing
City Desk By Huan Hsu
SETTING THE AGENDA
Loose Lips By James Jones
Savage Love
Savage Love By Dan Savage
Channel Serf
A week of subsistence in TV's vast wasteland
Television By Mario Correa

Eats

Dogma Food
Young & Hungry By Tim Carman

Movies

The Word at War
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Cracking Wiseguy
Film Review By Tricia Olszewski
Reality Checkpoint
Talking Pictures By Mark Jenkins

Music

Sense U Been Gone
Music Review By Michael Little
Seven Nights EP
Pagoda
Music By Joe Warminsky

Theater

Boarder Tension
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Text Messaging
With a photocopier and a pencil, Molly Springfield draws meaning from the printed page.
Arts By Huan Hsu
Fructose About to Rock
Artifacts By Dave Nuttycombe
Dolly Mama
Artifacts By Ryan Grim
Culture Vultures
What does it take to get an arts grant from the D.C. government?
Culture Vultures By Rachel Beckman
The Dada of Us All
Art Review By Jeffry Cudlin