book

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Read My Lips, No New Taxis — County staff is taking a hard line on taxi cabs, recommending that the board reject a request to add 75 taxis to Arlington’s current licensed fleet of 765 cabs. More from the Sun Gazette.

Long Bridge Park Construction Continues — Despite the budgetary challenges, the county board has reaffirmed its commitment to complete all phases of the Long Bridge Park project near Crystal City. More from TBD.

Arlington Free Clinic Holds Lottery — To become a patient at the Arlington Free Clinic requires a bit of luck. The clinic will serve no more than 1,600 patients, so once a month it holds a “lottery day” to decide who gets to receive clinic services. More from MyFoxDC.

Snowmageddon: The Book — If someone you know is going through blizzard withdrawal, the fine folks over at the Capital Weather Gang have the perfect holiday gift for you. They’ve come up with a 120-page book, filled with photos and nerdy weather stuff from everybody’s favorite freak succession of snow storms. More from CWG.

Book: We Live Longer Than the Rest of the Country

By ARLnow.com

Good news, Arlington. According to a new book, we live longer than just about everybody else in the country.

Residents in the Eight District of Virginia — us — and the Eight District of Maryland — another D.C. suburb — live more than 83 years, on average.

That makes the Virginia and Maryland Eighths the congressional districts in which Americans are living the longest, according to the book Measure of America 2010-2011: Mapping Risks and Resilience.

We’ll drink to that.

Arlington Resident Wins Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

By ARLnow.com

Patricia McArdle, a retired foreign service officer and Arlington resident, has won the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award in the general fiction category.

McArdle’s debut novel, “Farishta,” follows a female American diplomat who transfers to a remote outpost in Afghanistan, where she becomes a sort of guardian angel (“Farishta” means angel in the Dari language) to the refugee women fleeing the country’s violence.

McArdle will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, along with a $15,000 advance.