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Christmas in D.C.

By W. James Antle, III on 12.24.08 @ 3:35PM

Family is the most important reason I leave Washington for Christmas, but not the only one. Aside from the Christmas decorations downtown, the festive spirit is lacking.

Case in point: A few days ago I was in a D.C. watering hole. A trio of middle-aged Georgetown women came in after having seen the movie Frost/Nixon. After one drink, they began arguing over the U.S. response to Russia's invasion of Georgia. Neither side of the argument was well represented -- think a bad caricature of Fox News versus a bad caricature of NPR's "All Things Considered." The pro-Georgia woman kept screaming something about being a Slav and how we rightfully own foreign countries in a way that the KGB does not. The pro-Russia woman apparently thought a bratwurst was a vegetable, which limits my confidence in her ability to sort out the sovereignty of nations.

Before too long, the discussion became heated. "Your opinion is offensive to me! Shut up, Grace, just shut up!" The other woman, perhaps channeling 1950s pop, replied, "You don't own me!" The first woman proceeded to shriek obscenities at the second and told her to find a new ride home. The bartender interceded, saying he'd had enough of this nonsense and asked the loudest of these "ladies" to leave.

As the woman stormed out, she turned to the manager and told him that the other women were having a nervous breakdown. "Well, they weren't the ones yelling," he informed her. "F--k you!" she screamed at him. (Assume the missing word is "firetruck" if that is more in keeping with your holiday spirit.) "Merry Christmas," he replied cheerfully.

Merry Christmas, indeed.

View all comments (3) | Leave a comment

Robert Stacy McCain| 12.24.08 @ 4:08PM

"A few days ago I was in a D.C. watering hole . . ."

Now, that's the kind of tradition that every Washington journalist respects. Careful not to become too saturated.

Gary| 12.26.08 @ 2:09AM

Your post points up the biggest difference between NYC women and their DC counterparts: NYC gals are still caught up in the "SATC" worldview, while DC ladies at least pretend to know what's going on outside the Manolo Blahnik sale outlet. All in all, I think DC gets the better of this particular bargain.

One quibble, though: "You Don't Own Me" was a 1963 hit for Lesley Gore (she of "It's My Party" fame); it's more an example of the pre-Beatles pop of the early '60's to which the British Invasion put an all-too-timely end than of "1950's pop." These women were more than "middle-aged," they were women "of a certain age," right?

W. James Antle III| 12.27.08 @ 1:05PM

You're absolutely right, "You Don't Own Me" was a hit in 1963. A lot of the pre-Beatles early '60s pop had a vaguely 1950s feel to it, a good example of how decades don't begin and end according to the calendar -- the 1960s as we tend to think of them actually began in the middle of the decade and ended in 1974 or so.

I'd say that two of the women were in their late 50s, mid-50s at the youngest, and the third woman was only in her early 40s.