Friday Round Up
#GUESTEDITOR
Andrew Rafferty
Political Reporter at NBC News
“Yesterday I turned 30. Today I am formally endorsing whatever healthcare bill covers Vitaminwater and everything bagels and won’t treat a hangover as a pre-existing condition.“
Weather: Welp, winter decided to show up just in time for the days that we like to spend not inside. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the rain will be a thing of the past and you can enjoy happy hour without your umbrella. Tomorrow you’ll likely wake up in a frozen state and don’t expect to thaw out anytime soon because Saturday and Sunday have decided to be colder than your ex. The upside? More sun than clouds which, we guess, is good news for anyone that recently bought a new pair of sunglasses.
Awesome events you can attend this weekend: If we lose an hour of sleep this weekend, does that mean we lose an hour of drinking?; Tiesto began his career DJ-ing at school parties. This weekend he’s bringing those same skills to Echostage. Get your tickets here; Shake your shamrock and pretend you’re Irish for the day tomorrow at Shamrock Fest!; And if you wanna make up for all that beer you’ll be chugging, run a marathon first. Rock and Roll your way to those carbs; We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Cherry. Blossom. Pub. (allergies not included); If being funny is Wong, we don’t wanna be right. Ali Wong’s at the Warner Theatre this weekend – tickets are currently sold out. We just really wanted to use that pun; Just when you thought there could be no such thing as an edit-a-thon, Wikipedia proves you wrong. See for yourself tomorrow at the National Museum of Women in the Arts; It’s the last weekend to see the Washington Ballet production of “Giselle.” Get your tickets before it’s Gi-sold-out; The Smithsonian’s “Museum Day Live” is hosting a special edition on Sunday in celebration of Women’s History Month.
From Andrew: Today the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History debuts “Objects of Wonder” – and no, ladies, I won’t be on display. But stuff that’s almost as good to look at, like whale earwax and the last passenger pigeon, will be; Shaw’s Espita Mezcaleria is turning one this week and they’re celebrating by getting their drink on! (A little young to be drinking if you ask me) Shout out to our fave bartender, James!; Kingfisher is always fun and you guys should check it out! When they ask your tab tell them: “Put it on Richard’s!”
#WATCH
Despite March already seeming nuts (and 2017, really), the craziness hasn’t even begun. March Madness is upon us and whether you’re into it or not, you’ll be thankful there’s something else making headlines besides the president’s tweets. Here’s a look back at some of last year’s mayhem and if we’re lucky, a foreshadowing of what’s to come.
#LOCAL
A birthday boy walks into a bar…; Washingtonian coined “Javanka”; Dacha beer garden will soon be blooming over by Nationals Park; DC-based firm NextGen pivots into a new venture; This list of DC restaurants and bars put the “happy” in happy hour; Lactose intolerants need not read this dairy good news about the Dairy Godmother; These 10 DC-based web series will hold you over in between seasons of “This Is Us”; First Lady Melania Trump hosted a White House luncheon for International Women’s Day; We just wish the cherry blossoms would make up their minds; Speaking of which, this is why they’re even here; Coming to DC: first cattle call of Democratic contenders for 2020; Wisconsin steaks are coming to Washington, DC; What even is the West End? They beat us to it… The Swampy Awards.
From Andrew: If you’re anything like me and Mitt Romney, you enjoy sport. The Big 10 tourney has already started at the Verizon Center. Perdue is the No. 1 seed, but if opponents can get into their heads by saying “More like Per-Don’t!”, there could be some real March Madness; Go to Cork this weekend, but before you leave, mention to your server that you’re heading to the Trump Hotel because you heard the president talking about it.
#NATIONAL
The world just wants a dang cup of coffee; That’s Brawny woman to you; [Insert romantic John Legend song lyric about our love for Chrissy Teigen]; This statue of a little girl facing the Wall Street bull is everything; Starburst is releasing an exclusive all-pink pack and we’re ok with it; Don’t worry, be happy (on the coast of southwest Florida); The Bush twins are writing a memoir, “Sisters First: Stories From our Wild and Wonderful Life”; WANTED: this in our Easter baskets.
#SOCIALSEEN
We celebrated International Women’s Day with some of the awesome women we’ve gotten to know this year
An unseasonably warm winter gave us a peek at this year’s cherry blossoms
We’re still drooling over yesterday’s lunch thanks to sandwiches from Taylor Gourmet!
Do you love The Swamp more than we do? Prove it
Flat Stanley ain’t got nothin’ on this guy
Dear Miami, can we go back now?
Pro tip: leave the office now. Avoid rush hour later.
#EDITORSPICK
We’ve officially made it halfway in President Trump’s first 100 days in office. We haven’t been watching the news much, so we’re assuming it’s been going exactly like we predicted.
#TWEETOFTHEWEEK
#BIRTHDAYS
Famous birthday wishes to Holly Fry, Kristy Campbell, Sadie Weiner, Jordan Brown, Alex Tureman, Josh Jemente, Elizabeth Sewards, Gabrielle McCaffrey, Frannie Harris, Joday Kent Lavy, Hallie Williams, Hunter Rome, Rep. Juan Vargas, Brad Dayspring, Katie Conlon, Laura Wilson, Rep. Alan Lowenthal, John Murray, Andrew Rafferty, Sarah Swinehart, Sarah Ghessie, Ashley Wolos, Kate Michael, Josh Holly, Heather Dean and Tom Simei!
#FAMOUSFORDC
Summer Bravo xcels at throwing surprise birthday parties; Matt Bravo = Scottie Pippen; Ask Andrew Behringer, Benny Johnson and Ben Jenkins what they’re scheming up for Thursday night of WHCD weekend #Epic; Kelley Hudak sends Whip floor updates from undisclosed locations around Capitol Hill #Multitasking; Chance the Rapper kicks off his Presidential campaign (hey Natasha Flint!); Major high fives to the POLITICO Focus team for their 2017 Silver Telly award!; Freddy Barnes is president of the Bo Buckets fan club; Alana Wilson and Cassie Smedile dominated Las Vegas; 5 tips to write perfect headlines (h/t Josh Shultz); Tell Brian J. Walsh congratulations on Bucknell going out of the March Madness tournament in the first round; RT this email if you slept overnight at the Energy and Commerce Committee this week; Did you tell Sarah Swinehart happy birthday?; Ask Todd Wooten if he can get you a toe by three o’ clock; Congrats to Stuart Roy on being honored as one of 60 alumni selected to celebrate 60 years of MSU College of Arts & Sciences; Brian Lenihan celebrated his birth at the White House Mess; Meredith Shiner wants to be a baller in her next life – but we ask – why not this life?; Hello Paige Gress – tweet if you read this!; Greta Van Susteren is thinking about working for Judy Woodruff; Gerry Smith’s golf game is better than yours; Andrew Fimka is a machine; Why is Nika Nour feeling drained?; Shout out to Paul Edattel, Adam Fromm and E&C health staffers who might still be delirious after a quick 27-hour markup; 5 am is still really late too (or early depending on which side you wake up on), Rick Limardo, Emily Murry and Paul Guaglianone; Richard Cunningham still owes us a plan for a FamousDC party on a boat; According to Chris Cillizza, Jimmy Carter was once attacked by a rabbit while on a boat; Hoping Donté Stallworth is our guest editor soon; Dan Schneider wins at smiling at the end of every snap; If you’re looking for Sean Hayes, he may be staying cool in the control room; Caroline Karcher should enjoy lunch outside more often!; When is Mary Stewart Bell coming over to hang out?; Did Jenn Sherm bring back macaroons for the class?; Spotted in Griff Jenkin’s Instagram: Jay Gulshen; Congrats to Jessica Ferguson Sandlin and family!; We always knew Matthew Faraci would have his own radio show; Brian Wohlert, can you get us some of the “World’s Best Bourbon” from, A. Smith Bowman Distillery?; Congrats to Louisa Imperiale for passing her comps and getting one step closer to being called, Dr. Imperiale!; A belated, ‘welcome back to the USA’ to, Sabrina Siddiqui; Mike Ricci, we’re loving the doc pics; Congrats to Todd Bowers and Jessica Bowers for having the best baby announcement ever… oh, and having a baby!; We are sorry about your right arm, Andrew J. Aragon; Noah Chestnut, we’d like to buy you a beer whenever you’re back in D.C.; Hello, Ed Patru; David Almacy, can we visit Mt. Vernon with you?; Stuart Siciliano, is awesome. Just because; David Popp, thanks for introducing us to Super70sSports; Don Seymour, can the entire FamousDC team come work with you, or will you take just one of us?; Your tweets entertain us, Logan Dobson; Brielle Ann, it’s a date. We’ll gladly take you to Ben’s Chili Bowl; Justin Peligri, we love the smell of GQ too; Welcome to DC, Katie, Hagen and Halle Linogon!; Good luck to all the Rock n’ Roll Marathon runners this weekend. The faster you run, the warmer you get – we think.
#MAKINGMOVES BY S3 PUBLIC AFFAIRS
A big congratulations to Amy Harder, who is leaving The Wall Street Journal to continue covering energy at Axios; Amanda Faulkner is joining the public policy and government relations team at Google. She most recently worked as manager of public policy at Twitter. #DoBigThings; Henry Gomez is joining BuzzFeed News as a national politics reporter to cover the Trump administration. Gomez makes the move from the Cleveland Plain Dealer; Tony Romm and Rani Molla are the newest additions to Vox Media’s Recode. Most recently, Romm was a tech reporter for POLITICO and Molla makes the move from her role at Bloomberg; Jessica Kahanek, most recently with the NLRB, joins Association of American Railroads as press secretary. Prior to this, Kahanek also spent time on the Hill in the offices of Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA) and Rep. Gene Green (D-TX); The office of Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) has promoted both Marty Reiser and Kelley Hudak to deputy director of policy and coalitions director, respectively; Stacey Dion, former vice president for corporate public policy at Boeing, joins the Carlyle Group as a managing director; The American International Automobile Dealers Association has added Ashley Burch to its team as senior advocacy and grassroots manager. Burch makes the move from her most recent role at the International Dairy Foods Association; Katie Fletcher, previously with BBI International, joins the American Coalition for Ethanol as communications director; The office of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) adds Ryann Durant as press secretary. Durant previously worked in the offie of Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) as communications director; Anastasia Khoo is the new CMO at Conservation International. She previously worked as CMO at Human Rights Campaign; Elizabeth Kelley joins Hamilton Place Strategies as a senior director. Kelley previously was a special assistant to President Barack Obama; Katie Peters joins Americans for Responsible Solutions to lead its communications and media relations strategy; Alexandre Ford, previously with the American Institute of Architects, joins NAIOP as director of legislative affairs; Go BIG Media has hired both Peter Graves and Nicole Venezia as president of political and media strategies and director of client accounts, respectively. Graves previously served as the RNC’s western political director and Venezia most recently worked with the Presidential Inaugural Committee; Nancy Powers Perry joins the American Council of Life Insurers as legislative director. She most recently was a senior policy adviser to former Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA); Kevin Keane has been named EVP at the American Beverage Association, where he will head its government and public affairs department; Jonathon Dworkin joins NewDEAL as communications director. Before this, he led communications for former Gov. Jack Markell (DE); Santander welcomes Natalee Binkholder as manager of federal government affairs. Binkholder was the deputy chief of staff and counsel for Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) before he assumed his new role as OMB director; Matthew Cornelius joins the Office of Management and Budget from his current role as senior adviser to the administrator at the General Services Administration; Ruchi Bhowmik is the new senior vice president of public policy and government affairs for North America at PepsiCo. She makes the move from her previous role in the office of the global chairman at EY. Briget Polichene, most recently with Promontory Financial Group, joins MetLife as vice president and head of federal government relations; Evan Zasoski and Amelia Showalter h
#BYE
Let’s repeal and replace Monday morning.
