May 31st Wardrobe Adjustment

Memorial Day. It’s that special time when America pauses a moment to look for its white shoes and straw hats.

This is the official Unofficial Start of Summer.

 

Note: In Baltimore, “Straw Hat Day” is May 15th. Farther south, other rules apply.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Brandeis May Rent Out Museum’s Art

Last year, Brandeis University announced it would close the Rose Art Museum and sell off its renowned modern art collection to cover the school’s budget shortfall.  The result: condemnation, lawsuits from art donors and their families, student unrest, and cancelled alumni donations. 

Brandeis now says it won’t sell the art after all — it will rent it out instead.  The world of art museums has a specialized and genteel vocabulary. Selling off your collection is called “deaccessioning,” and renting out art may be called “loaning” or “collection-sharing.” If art loans are done for gain, we wonder if the IRS calls it “taxable.”

 More:

 ”Rent-a-Rose: Sotheby’s Persuades Brandeis to Lend Collection for Profit,” Lee Rosenbaum, Culturegrrl.

 ”University considering alternative options to selling art from Rose collection,” Alana Abramson,The Brandeis Justice.

“University exploring alternatives to art sale,” Brandeis University press release.

 

 Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Failure to Cap Well; Failure to Cap Liabilities

Transocean, the Swiss corporation that owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, tried to limit its Gulf oil spill liability to $27 million, citing a U.S. law from 1851. The Justice Department objected, and lawyers for families of Deepwater victims agree. The oil drilling company changed its position.

Transocean actually made money from the loss of the oil rig, which was insured for $270 million in excess of its actual value. The corporation will  also distribute $1 billion in dividends to its shareholders this year. Families of Transocean employees killed and injured in the Deepwater explosion still await compensation.

 

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God’s Trombones — UHOP Parade in DC

 

Experience an annual DC tradition from noon to 3PM on Saturday, May 29th: the 2010 United House of Prayer for All People Parade. UHOP church bands from several cities will march between “God’s White House” (6th & M Streets NW) and Logan Circle (Church founder Bishop C.M. “Daddy” Grace once lived at 11 Logan Circle). If you aren’t in the church-going habit, this a good chance to hear “God’s Trombones.”

If you live in Washington, you may have heard this lively “shout band” music without realizing it. Some young exponents of this musical tradition often play at Dupont Circle and other locations around town.

Parade route: From the House of Prayer (601 M Street NW), North on 6th Street, NW to S Street; West on S Street to 13th Street, NW; South on 13th Street, NW to Logan Circle; East on P Street to 7th Street, NW; South on 7th Street to M Street, NW; East on M Street to end at the House of Prayer.

More:

“Saturday at Logan Circle: UHOP Annual Parade,” Borderstan.com.

Matt Dunn’s slideshow from last year.

Church website (scroll to bottom and click on “History”). 

Couldn’t make the parade? Get the Smithsonian Folkways CD.

 Updates:

Tony Sciascia took some great photos of the 2010 parade, including this one.

 “Photos: Saturday’s UHOP Parade at Logan Circle,” Borderstan.com (slide show here).

 ”Photos: Parade,” Matt Dunn, City Desk, Washington City Paper.

Top image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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BP Twitter Spill Spoof

@bpglobalpr, a parody BP public relations Twitter account, has 64,000 followers; the real BP Twitter account has 7000, wrote Salon‘s Andrew Leonard last night. The numbers have since changed: @bpglobalpr has 84,000  90,000 followers; BP has 7800 8400.

BP wants to shut down the parody Twitter account. It’s unclear if the company will use a Top Hat, Tube Insert, Top Kill, or Junk Shot.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Rolling Thunder 2010

Rolling Thunder descends on the Nations Capital this weekend. Every Memorial Day weekend since 1987, thousands of motorcycles roar through Arlington and Washington in memory of America’s POWs and MIAs.  The highlight of the XXIII Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally will be on Sunday, May 30th, when thousands ride from the Pentagon across Memorial Bridge to the Vietnam Memorial.

More:

Rolling Thunder Run website.

“Rolling Thunder 2010 – Motorcycle Rally in Washington, DC,” Rachel Cooper, About.com. (See Rachel Cooper’s great photos of the event).

“Street Closings for 2010 Rolling Thunder First Amendment Motorcycle Ride,” Fox-5 News.

“Hog Heaven Outside the Hilton,” ARLnow.com

“Humana Veterans Healthcare Services Sponsors Rolling Thunder XXIII in Washington, D.C.,” MarketWatch.

 

Update: Gene Bonventre has uploaded photos of the event to flickr.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Soda Tax Morphs Into Sales Tax

The District of Columbia Council voted down a proposal to tax sugar-sweetened beverages, but turned around and passed a bill extending the city’s 6 percent sales tax to all “non-alcoholic beverages with natural or artificial sweeteners.”

The original proposal would have added 10 to 60 cents to the price of containers of full-sugar soda, punch or sports drink. The new bill taxes all sweetened beverages, even diet sodas without sugar. If it passes the final vote, the new tax would be easier to administer and will raise revenue, but it will not be the disincentive to sugar consumption the original bill sought to create. Sugary drinks contribute to obesity, a major American health problem.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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BP’s Hair-Raising Story

Barbershops, beauty salons, and poodle groomers across the nation sent hair clippings to the Gulf Coast to help sop up the BP Deepwater oil spill. People collected tons of tresses. Now it won’t be used after all.

Tampa’s Karen McAllister asks the big question:

“BP isn’t using donated hair to clean up oil spill. What should we do with it?”

Frankly, we don’t want to know, but you can tell Karen here.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Oil Spill Slimes Environmentalists

The catastrophic BP oil spill has destroyed the Gulf of Mexico marine and coastal ecosystems and the energy, fishing, and tourism industries of five states. It has also destroyed the credibility of The Nature Conservancy, a major nonprofit environmental organization.

The Conservancy accepted $10 million in cash and land from BP, and the oil company sits on the organization’s International Leadership Council (ILC). The ILC usually meets in June at the Conservatory headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, but the 2010 meeting schedule is unavailable (demonstrators are standing by).

The Nature Conservancy is trying to defend its involvement with BP on its blog. It is failing. Big time. Just like BP.

  

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Nevada Polling Places: Poultry-Free

It will be illegal to wear chicken costumes at Nevada polling places during the upcoming Republican primary election on June 8th. Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden is forever linked to Leghorns after proposing bartering chickens for medical care, so wearing your chicken suit near the polls will be regarded as a violation of Nevada law Section 293.740 section 4(D), which forbids these activities near the polls:

(d) Buying, selling, wearing or displaying any badge, button or other insigne which is designed or tends to aid or promote the success or defeat of any political party or a candidate or ballot question to be voted upon at that election.

 If you plan to picnic on the courthouse lawn that Tuesday, better leave fried chicken off the menu.

 

Feeling poorly? Check the Chicken Barter Calculator before you see the Doc.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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