weekend discussion

This past week started off slow but ramped up as everyone recovered from their Thanksgiving weekend.

Friday’s house fire in Penrose might have attracted the biggest emergency response this week, but it barely even cracked the top 20 most-viewed stories of the week.

The three most-read articles this week were:

1. Police: Fight at Yorktown Involved Parents, Accusations of Racial Slurs
2. Parents Say Son Kicked Out of Daycare for Wearing Dress
3. Police Investigating Death in Rosslyn

The top five story was more upbeat: our article on Arlington’s own Brittany O’Grady, who’s starring in the new Fox television series “Star.” We’re hoping to talk to her soon and find out how she’s making it in Hollywood.

With that, feel free to discuss any topic of local interest in the comments. Have a nice weekend!

So this the point at which we mention local events that are happening this weekend, possibly recap some of the past week’s big stories and encourage you to listen to our latest podcast (it was actually a really good one and is on track to being our most listened-to episode.)

This post usually wraps up with us encouraging you to discuss any topic of local interest. But let’s be honest: you’re going to be discussing Donald Trump, just like you (the commenters) did last week.

Here’s a request for our readers: please confine national political discussions to posts that actually mention national political things. We loosened our enforcement of that comment policy since the election, but will resume enforcing it soon. There are plenty of places to discuss the president-elect and his former electoral opponent, including articles we publish specifically regarding Trump and the election, but we don’t want to see substantive discussion of local issues drowned out by ongoing political bickering.

Thank you for your helping us to maintain (relatively) higher standards for our comment section than you might see on other news websites. Have a nice weekend.

Good news: the election is almost here and after a seemingly endless, hopelessly contentious campaign, the country will hopefully be able to resign itself to life under the [INSERT NAME OF UNPOPULAR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HERE] administration after next Tuesday.

We’ll be attempting a two hour live broadcast of local election coverage and interviews, from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Be sure to tune in for that.

We chose the broadcast location, the Arlington Democratic victory party at Sehkraft Brewing in Clarendon, based on having the best immediate access to elected officials and candidates. Don’t worry — we’re inviting guests from other parts of the political spectrum as well.

At this point we’d tell you to discuss any issue of local interest, but let’s face it: you’ll probably just talk about Clinton and Trump. Have at it…

This weekend is supposed to be pleasantly warm, which might not be a great thing for those running the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday.

Normally the MCM involves runners freezing at the starting line and then enjoying comfortably cool temperatures during the race. Expect some extra perspiration on the course this year.

Drivers may also be sweating if they’re trying to get anywhere in Rosslyn or Crystal City on Sunday morning. See a full list of planned marathon road closures from this article we published last week.

Also expected this weekend: plenty of Halloween-related fun. Halloween falls on Monday this year, to the chagrin of students, but some of the festivities will be taking place on Saturday and Sunday.

If you’re wondering about the annual Clarendon Halloween bar crawl — that’s taking place next weekend. We hear that it couldn’t take place this weekend because with all the police overtime being used for the marathon there weren’t enough extra officers available to provide security for a bar crawl.

If you are drinking on Saturday, be sure to take advantage of a free cab ride from SoberRide after 10 p.m.

Feel free to discuss the marathon, your Halloween plans or anything else of local interest in the comments. Good luck to all of the runners!

It was a week of warmth and power issues in Arlington. Both are now in the rear view.

Fall has returned after a week-long summer reprise. Today (Saturday) should be breezy, cool and crisp, followed by a bit warmer of a fall day on Sunday.

Our three most-read articles of the week were: 1. Thousands Without Power in North Arlington; 2. County Board Approves Pedestrian-Only Streets in Arlington; and 3. ACPD Investigating More Than Two Dozen Car Break-ins.

Feel free to discuss any of those stories, this week’s podcast with Rep. Don Beyer, or any other issues of local interest in the comments — assuming the comments section is working.

Photo courtesy Andrew Pang