* Download a Metro map to your iPod. [Not that you asked me, but..."]

* We like to think of the proposed Purple Line as a collective noose. [Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space]

* District residents struggle to pick up the pieces: "It wasn't just a cigarette -- it was an act of love." [Rock Creek Rambler]

* Women be shopping. [The Intersection]

* 2007 couldn't truly begin without DC's #1 web novelist SethJ: "The driver decides to lead the way, disregarding whether the hitchhiker follows or not. The fidgety passenger had become so lost in the game -- not just in the rapid-fire trumps and losses but in every gesture and groan from every player, especially his bald-headed friend- that the driver figures he is no longer his consignment. Stealing off towards the door, the driver could safely leave him behind, absorbed as is, here in his element. Then he feels the claw cupped over his entire shoulder." [American Night]