Never underestimate the power of the pen: Meet some of Washington’s leading creative writers.
Novelist Katherine Neville (Photograph by Joseph Allen)
Katherine Nevelle’s The Fire is a long-awaited sequel to The Eight, her best-selling 1988 mystery novel about a centuries-long quest for a mystical chess set once owned by Charlemagne.
Go Ahead, Google Them. Meet some of the D.C.’s leading New Media professionals.
Peter Corbett (Photo by Anchyi Wei)
DUPONT VALLEY: Meet Peter Corbett (@corbett3000) founder of iStrategyLabs (ISL) . “Follow” him and you’ll find he is known for co-creating D.C.’s Apps for Democracy and co-founding Government 2.0 Club, Government 2.0 Camp, and Transparency Camp. Recently NASDAQ OMX hired ISL to launch its first global social media marketing campaign and the Army tapped them to create a contest encouraging military technologists to build new web and mobile apps. Somehow he still finds time to Tweet like 20 times a day.
The press gets a new home and kicks off the gala season
By Janet Donovan
Chris and Kathleen Matthews, Joe Scarborough, and Mitt Romney
Matters of Opinion
Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich, and Talking Points Memo blogger Josh Marshall had plenty of reasons to celebrate at The Week’s Fifth Annual Opinion Awards dinner at the Four Seasons on April 8th: they won.
The elegant and intimate evening raised eyebrows when panelists took center stage, and the discussion turned into a testosterone versus estrogen contest. This was led by Time.com’s Anna Marie Cox, who questioned why, when we have an African American and a woman running for President, the panel of experts were all white men? Fair question.
Global Diplomacy Materializes From Decentralized Social Media
By Mark Drapeau
In his best-selling book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman notes fundamental changes at the intersection of emerging technology and human behavior that have enabled massive 21st century globalization. Among them are collaborative Web technologies, the ability to discover an abundance of information, and personal digital devices like iPods and BlackBerries. The surfacing of such inventions has led to changes not only in running businesses, but also in organizing movements. As billions saw last year, a relatively untried junior senator from Illinois rose to become the leader of the free world. But in a flat world, you don’t need to be a senator to lead a tribe, and you don’t need to be powerful to become a household name.
Luntz leaves, Dozier breathes fire and Press bumps liberal fists (and conservative heads)
By Janet Donovan
Kimberly Dozier
Gimme a break!
Colorful Republican pollster Frank Luntz is pulling up stakes and heading west. The announcement came as a surprise to guests attending his seventh annual Baseball All Star Party at his McLean home in July. The explanation was simple: He’s tired. This, of course, was a rather short answer for the noted wordsmith (he is the author of Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say But What People Hear). But that’s what we heard: he’s tired. Even thinking about how he’ll move his massive memorabilia collection – which includes a Big Boy, a Keystone Cop, and a Palm Beach voting machine signed by presidential decider Katherine Harris – is making everyone else tired.
Actor Richard Schiff and the Creative Coalition’s Robin Bronk lingered past midnight. Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman and Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, said to be on McCain’s veep short list, chatted about Coleman’s senatorial race against progressive commentator Al Franken. There were enough CNN collectibles sighted: bureau chief David Bohrman, political director Sam Feist, and Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. Also seen: Rep. Darrell Issa, lobbyist Bob Livingstone, British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, and David Bass. Surprise guest: former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, currently in the dog house with Barney for his new book What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.
Katie Couric’s Sewell-Belmont House award in honor of early suffrage advocate Alice Paul.
By Barbara Harrison
Katie Couric hugs Margaret Suzor
After the death of her beloved husband, I watched my friend Katie Couric take on the mantle of single-mom, wage a worldwide war on colon cancer, and bravely face down an entrenched male-only tradition by becoming the first single female anchor of a network news broadcast. She is a stalwart soldier when it comes to fighting for what she believes in, and her shoes, as tiny as they are, are hard to fill.
Turning the clock back to nearly a hundred years ago, it’s easy to imagine Katie fighting for women’s rights among suffragists like Alice Paul. Six years before women were granted the right to vote, Paul called Washington’s attention to the disenfranchisement of women in this country. Along with others, she succeeded in stealing attention from newly elected President Woodrow Wilson’s arrival in Washington. Crowds instead lined Pennsylvania Avenue for the Woman Suffrage Parade, a moment considered a turning point for women’s rights.
Much of this history can be found at the Sewall-Belmont House in Washington, just a stone’s throw from the U.S. Capitol. In 1929 it was sold to the National Women’s Party and has served as its headquarters and museum to this day. The prestigious award, chosen by the staff, is given to a distinguished woman who has made outstanding contributions in breaking barriers and setting new precedents for women, as did Alice Paul and the women with whom she fought for women’s rights.
Katie Couric’s daring to eschew the “status quo” makes her a pioneer of the 21st century. Her positive impact on the lives of others across the country is why she was chosen for this year’s Alice Award.
As is tradition, the ceremony was held in the garden of the Sewall Belmont House. With the award, Katie has now joined a prestigious group of former honorees, among them Evelyn Lauder, Billie Jean King, Tipper Gore, Cokie Roberts, Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer, and Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Mary Landrieu. All continue to serve as champions for women.
Katie is a fighter. Who knows what battles she’ll take on next?
Al Neuharth, Tim Russert, and Robert Novak
Location: The Newseum
Photos by Tony Powell
THE EVENT: Four years after breaking ground on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Newseum finally opened with a party every bit as impressive as the $475 million building. Lines stretched down the block, but once inside, the more than 1,800 guests were treated to the cuisine of Wolfgang Puck, opportunities to explore the museum’s many levels and exhibits, and entertainment until the wee hours. THE GUESTS: Andrea Mitchell, Calvin and Jane Cafritz, Charles Krauthammer, Juan and Denise Williams, Debbie Dingell, Gordon and Anne Peterson, Finlay and Willee Lewis, Al Hunt, Newseum architect James Polshek, and Michael and Mary Ann Isikoff, along with representatives of famous media families like the Sulzbergers, Grahams, and Neuharths.
WL Photos WLTV
