What the Helen of Troy is This

About those Helicopters Yesterday

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by Doug Landry

Jax (and others) with some serious frustration yesterday (to see in real time follow @PoPville on twitter):

“Why are the circling just about daily in certain areas in DC?”

Some responses: “In addition to the Marine one and decoys, park police starts circling 20 mins before each lift off and touch down.”

“1st Helicopter Squadron out of Andrews in holding patterns waiting for National traffic to clear for transport of minor VIPs.”

“For at least the past 30 min, a single Marine One (Presidential) Helicopter has been circling my neighborhood from about 12th St NW to 7th and M St NW to P. This is definitely not normal! What is going on?”

“Holding pattern. Standard military procedure, just sucks that is was over a residential area. Maybe they wanted to check out the Logan circle/Shaw area today.”

“At the time you saw it, Trump was about to leave the White House on Marine One headed to Andrews. (more…)

Member of the Tribe or Not, Get Ready for a city-wide shofar blast at 5:00 pm on Friday to announce the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah

By Prince Of Petworth


Countdown as of 11:54am Wednesday

From an email:

“the basics are: city-wide blast at 5:00 pm on Friday 9/18 to announce the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which begins that evening. Anyone who has a shofar (ram’s horn) is invited to blow the shofar from wherever they will be. If they’d like, they can pin their location on the map at www.theblastdc.com so others in their vicinity can hear. If folks don’t have a shofar but want to hear a blast, they can check out the pins on the map and find something in hearing distance nearby.”

More about The Blast: (more…)

“Military ordnance team has secured the item”

By Prince Of Petworth


via DC Fire and EMS

From DC Fire and EMS:

“Final update military ordnance located 4700 block Quebec St NW. Military ordnance team has secured the item and will transport it for disposal. Incident has been mitigated and evacuation zone is no longer in place.”

“Unusual incident 4700 block Quebec St NW. what appears to be unexploded military style ordnance discovered during backyard excavation. #DCsBravest in unified command with @DCPoliceDept and military ordnance team. 450 foot evacuation zone established in all directions.”

“Update: The item was discovered as part of an ongoing operation by @USACEBaltimore to search for & mitigate discarded ordnance from WW I testing in what were then isolated open fields.”

About that Crazy Sun

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by Phil Yabut Tuesday morning “Surreal smoky sunrise.”

From the National Weather Service: “It is indeed smoke from the wildfires out west (thin, at about 20,000 to 25,000 feet above our heads)!”

More crazy photos from last night and this morning: (more…)

About That Light Beam Last Night

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by Dr J

Got tons of queries, understandably, about this last night starting around 9pm:

“anyone else send you pics of this huge beam of light that appears to be coming from the Pentagon?”

“Spotlight pointed straight into the sky near Pentagon City Metro with a chopper in the distance. Anyone know what’s going on?”

Fox5 reported that it was a practice for:

“This Wednesday, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation will illuminate its ‘Towers of Light’ tribute next to the Pentagon in honor of the lives lost in Flight 77 there on September 11, 2001.”

More photos: (more…)

“I am so, so curious about this, and the fact that it keeps happening with no witnesses.”

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoPville,

Loud explosions in Brightwood Park?

I am bewildered by the large bangs that I’ve been hearing over the last few (many? 2020 is a blur) months, here in Brightwood Park. At first, I assumed this was part of DC’s fireworks “season” but now I am not so sure. The explosions are so loud they rattle the entire house and they happen at all hours of the day. At the times when they happen at in the middle of the night – 2:00 or 3:00 am – I have rushed to the window to see absolutely nothing – no signs of humans or traffic or sounds or anything. (more…)

“An intriguing mystery in need of answers”

By Prince Of Petworth

UPDATE: “The artist is instagram user @perfectionisht and the project is his quarantine coping strategy.”

“Dear PoPville,

About 2 months ago I was walking in Cleveland Park and I found a miniature polymer clay version of “The Scream” tucked into an empty apartment promotional box. I found it delightful. Cut to ~3wks ago when I was telling this patient about my funny little find and asked “oh, you mean the one in Rock Creek?” And my brain exploded. So far I’ve physically found two but I have confirmation of 2 more around Tregaron and Klingle Valley. (more…)

“Recommendations/Advice About Sinkhole on Property?”

By Prince Of Petworth


“It’s about 3 inches in diameter.”

“Dear PoPville,

We discovered what we think is a small sinkhole on our front lawn. Anyone have any experience in dealing with this on their property? My googling says that you should call your insurance company first, and that some policies might cover the cost of an assessment of the issue. Does anyone have any recommendations on companies/engineers that assess sinkholes?”

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