[
{"authors":"By Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1989-12-13","section":"Business","title":"BLUES ALLEY GOES GLOBAL WITH JAPANESE DEAL","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/12/13/blues-alley-goes-global-with-japanese-deal/c23372a0-886f-45fa-ae35-bba63fd6a630/","article_text":"It may be a jazz world, but it looks like it's going to be a Blues Alley universe -- Blues Alley clubs everywhere, Blues Alley CDs and videos, a Blues Alley clothing collection, and even a Blues Alley crystal decanter. Washington's well-known jazz club -- which attracts legendary jazz performers such as Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Byrd and Wynton Marsalis -- has signed a $57 million licensing agreement with a group of Japanese investors to open three clubs next year in Japan, according to Blues Alley owner John T. Bunyan. And other deals with investors in the United States, Germany and Spain are in the works to capitalize on the popular supper club's name and knack for booking jazz greats, said Bunyan, who is lining up investors for a $3.5 million Blues Alley Investment Limited Partnership. The investment group seems to be following the grace notes of another successful music club franchise, the Hard Rock Cafe, which is set to open a branch here tomorrow, by emphasizing franchises and a popular line of logoed retail goods. The 18-year-old Hard Rock, founded in London and a specialist in American food and rock-and-roll, now has 16 cafes. It makes more than 40 percent of its current revenues from retail sales, and has sold 22 million T-shirts. Blues Alley's Washington club, which features two or three shows into the night, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its founding by clarinetist Tommy Gwaltney. Bunyan bought Blues Alley in 1973, and its popularity has grown so much in the intervening years that Gillespie once proclaimed, \"Now THIS is a jazz club!\" Even the alley in Georgetown where it is located is named after the club. Bunyan also runs a club in Baltimore, a production/recording company, two music groups and the Blues Alley Music Society, a nonprofit organization that matches young musicians with headliners. Bunyan's deal with Naritaka Mouri, a Japanese businessman and real estate investor who owns the Tokuyama Country Club in Japan, calls for opening clubs in Tokyo in June, in Yokohama in September and Kyoto in December. The newly incorporated company, Blues Alley Japan, is hoping that each club there will gross $15 million annually and net $3 million from Japan's jazz-loving public. \"There are hundreds of thousands of die-hard jazz fans in Japan and they've got lots to spend on entertainment,\" said Bunyan, who owns 50 percent of the Japanese partnership. \"And we're happy to export what they want ... for a change.\" The deal was born of a Japanese television ad for All Nippon Airways, which filmed Washington landmarks for a commercial shown in Japan about its Tokyo-to-Washington flights. Pictured along with the Washington Monument was Blues Alley, which is well-known among Japanese tourists; Bunyan estimated that 10 percent to 15 percent of the 75,000 patrons yearly at the small club here are Japanese. The Japanese clubs will have 250 seats, almost double the size of Washington's cozy club, and state-of-the-art electronic equipment. \"There are high expenses in setting up in Japan,\" said Bunyan, \"but we wanted to do this right.\" The Japanese owners also have rights to open clubs throughout the Pacific Rim in Hawaii, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, and clubs are expected there in 1991. All will carry the Blues Alley name and logo. Jazz music booking and programming -- and later rock, pop, bluegrass and country -- will be directed from Washington, and under another $1 million deal with the Japanese, Bunyan will produce CDs and videos, called \"Live at Blues Alley,\" for distribution in Japan and worldwide. Thirty-nine shows are planned, to be taped at the Baltimore club, which is used as a video studio. Also in the works are instructional videos featuring jazzmen like Marsalis and drummer Louis Belson. The Japanese-American investment group also will manufacture and market a line of denim wear, T-shirts, jackets and other items such as glass decanters that could be lucrative if Blues Alley attains worldwide recognition. In another venture, Bunyan is seeking about 70 limited partners to pony up $50,000 each for the Blues Alley Investment Limited Partnership, which will have an interest in the Washington club and clubs scheduled to open in New Orleans and Chicago in 1990, and licensing rights to the Blues Alley concept and business plan throughout the world, except for parts of the Pacific involved in the Japanese deal. Bunyan said he is talking with a German law firm that wants to open clubs in Hamburg, Munich and Berlin, and a Spanish department store that wants them in Barcelona, Malaga and Majorca. \"We're even thinking of Moscow and Leningrad, considering the current climate there and their well-known love of jazz,\" Bunyan said. \"You have to make sure your concept is firm or it's suicide,\" said Robert Earl, president of America's Hard Rock Cafe Inc., based in Orlando, Fla., about the chances for Blues Alley to make a worldwide splash. \"People have to love you and want you near them.\" Bunyan is not worried. \"Blues Alley is upscale and quality entertainment all the way,\" he said, noting his entire staff will travel from here to Japan for two weeks in January to advise and counsel. \"Besides, this deal is strong,\" he said. \"The Japanese pay in advance.\"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/12/13/blues-alley-goes-global-with-japanese-deal/c23372a0-886f-45fa-ae35-bba63fd6a630/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.576Z"},
{"title":"TAPPING A MEDICARE DATA MINE","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"BALTIMORE -- It would be hard for most people to see gold in the floor-to-ceiling stacks of paper that line the walls of Health Care Investment Analysts Inc.'s warren of offices here.    But it's there, said George Pillari, a 27-year-old entrepreneur who is extracting valuable nuggets from pages filled with confusing and disorganized information from the federal government.    Mining the Medicare data filed by the nation's 5,500 hospitals, the four-year-old HCIA distills the figures, creating a clearer picture of this branch of the health industry for those with a stake in it -- including bankers, accountants, consultants, hospital administrators and management groups, insurance companies and even the federal government.    \"There is a deep and wide void for centralized, consistent, systematically collected information about the hospital industry's financial and operating status,\" Pillari said. \"You'd be surprised how little people know about hospitals.\"    Along with his 34-year-old partner, Steven Renn, Pillari is working on the premise that a lot of information can go a long way if properly packaged.    Based on an idea they and a former partner, Carl Schram, had while at Johns Hopkins University (Renn was on the faculty, Pillari was his student), HCIA is one of the many niche companies that recycle data -- collecting, processing and regurgitating it in a usable form.    \"We look at hospitals as businesses,\" said Renn, \"and anybody involved in the industry getting this {data} can make clear, fact-based decisions.\"    Considering the size of the hospital industry -- it accounts for 4 percent of the U.S. gross national product -- little is known about it, because close to 84 percent of U.S. hospitals are nonprofit and are not required to release their financial data to the public.    But most hospitals get about 60 percent of their revenue from the public coffers, and that's where HCIA steps in, collecting Medicare and Medicaid cost reports filed all over the United States. The raw statistics cost HCIA $500,000 a year to obtain. HCIA then breaks down the data into 230 elements, including net income, admissions, markup ratios and plant operation, for its base of 225 clients. But anyone can get reports for as little as $65.    \"Having information readily disseminated is great for everyone,\" said Pillari. He cited an HMO in Michigan that wanted information on hospital costs in the region. \"They can then negotiate a better deal. Say they look at 100 hospitals and find out one hospital is overcharging them on a per-patient basis. Then they can know the hospital is not accurate and can stop the gouging.\"    Pillari said there are benefits for hospitals, 200 of which have closed across the United States in the past five years.    \"For the most part,\" Pillari said, \"they are in the patient care business and have trouble with the financial side.\" Knowing the competition is an example, he said. \"We can show Hospital A that Hospital B down the road has a low debt balance and hoards of cash. That might mean that Hospital B might be thinking of expanding and it would damage Hospital A's market share.\"    HCIA can also pinpoint a hospital's profitability by specialty area, showing what is making or losing money compared with other hospitals in the market, region or country.    \"It helps their judgment. If they are 10 percent above average, they say, 'We can't do that,' \" said Pillari. \"It can be used to their advantage. If they are losing money hand over fist in some needed area, they can prove they need government support or a type of tax and the public will be much more sympathetic to hard facts.\"    Pillari and Renn also are moving to expand services by interpreting and analyzing the information they gather. \"We're not going to be like the big accounting firms, who would formulate a strategic plan,\" said Pillari. \"It's more likely we would provide a dozen comparative tables, the basis for a strategic plan. We're a technical partner.\"    To stake this claim, HCIA has published \"The Sourcebook: The Comparative Performance of U.S. Hospitals\" with Deloitte Haskins & Sells. For traders and investment analysts studying the $50 billion secondary market in hospital bonds, the company provides the Index of Predictive Creditworthiness, an alternative rating system.    HCIA is branching out in other directions. It's gearing up to offer information on the growing nursing home industry -- there are more than 10,000 mostly investor-owned operations nationwide, making up 2 percent of the GNP. HCIA is also thinking of combing through vast data files on public utilities.    It undertakes special studies for clients, such as one comparing investor-owned versus nonprofit hospitals, and provides local and national census data to wrap around other information. And it offers the data in a variety of forms. \"We try to deliver data in any way we can -- on line, hard copy -- any way possible,\" said Renn.    To ensure that there is someone to deliver the data to, the company has hired four sales representatives. . \"Before, it was catcher's mitt sales,\" said Pillari. \"Whatever came in we caught on the fly.\" The company's entire staff has grown this year to 22 from 11 and is likely to reach 30 by late 1990.    The success has been noticed. Last year, HCIA was bought by AMBAC Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Citicorp. Another subsidiary, AMBAC Indemnity, an insurer of hospital bonds, was a big user of the service.    Pillari and Renn still run the company and have a contract with undisclosed terms that links their fortunes to HCIA's growth. They think it will grow to a $25 million to $50 million business before long -- projected revenue for next year is $2.5 million, up from this year's $1.5 million.    So why doesn't anybody else get in on this paper mine? \"We can deliver it a lot easier than other businesses,\" said Pillari. \"If people want to compete, we are now recognized in marketplace. There's a time constraint too, as it takes some years to accumulate data and develop a system, and that cannot be so easily replicated.\"","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/12/25/tapping-a-medicare-data-mine/0f0de58a-a8fa-4674-9b3c-3015b44f1935/","publication_date":"1989-12-25","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/12/25/tapping-a-medicare-data-mine/0f0de58a-a8fa-4674-9b3c-3015b44f1935/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.412Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":"CENTRAL'S HANGOVER","publication_date":"1990-01-01","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/01/01/centrals-hangover/6bd9381a-2f31-491a-b3a5-fc2ca75344b2/","article_text":"The winter winds blew cold last week through the perpetually swinging doors of Central Liquor on Ninth Street NW as patrons came in and out, stocking up for New Year's celebrations.\n\nThe store looked ready enough for any kind of holiday drinker, evidenced by the wide range of champagne displayed on one wall of shelves: Andre for $3.99 a bottle and Asti Spumante at $5.99 for those who just wanted something fizzy to raise their glasses with; Piper Heidsieck for $22.99 and Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin at $29.99 for the more upscale.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/01/01/centrals-hangover/6bd9381a-2f31-491a-b3a5-fc2ca75344b2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.439Z"},
{"section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/01/15/the-bailout-bonanza/4df363c8-1db5-475f-8433-49a02ca403ea/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1990-01-15","title":"THE BAILOUT BONANZA","article_text":"For undertakers, there are no recessions. And none, too, for those in Washington who are jockeying to be part of the multibillion-dollar cleanup of the nation's battered savings and loan industry.\n\n\"When you look at a brand new agency with billions of dollars to spend and huge amounts of power right here in Washington, it doesn't take a genius to see everyone in town thinking that there's got to be something in that for me,\" said George Lesser, publisher of Bank Bailout Litigation News, a new $500-a-year newsletter created to cash in on the thrift debacle.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/01/15/the-bailout-bonanza/4df363c8-1db5-475f-8433-49a02ca403ea/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.117Z"},
{"section":"Business","title":"LAWYERS COORDINATE MYRIAD SUITS AGAINST EXXON","publication_date":"1990-01-30","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Last spring, after the Exxon Valdez supertanker ran into a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history, locals reportedly joked that the only thing worse than the 11 million gallons of raw crude washing up on the pristine shores was the legions of lawyers that would arrive in its wake.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/01/30/lawyers-coordinate-myriad-suits-against-exxon/ac4f795a-58d0-4966-bbc8-c19147d82e2b/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/01/30/lawyers-coordinate-myriad-suits-against-exxon/ac4f795a-58d0-4966-bbc8-c19147d82e2b/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.135Z"},
{"publication_date":"1990-03-31","article_text":"Although \"Henry V\" didn't nab the big Oscars Monday for best actor and best director, weep not for those who produced it.\n\nEven before the awards ceremony in Los Angeles, this latest celluloid version of Shakespeare's tale of stirring warfare and an ambitious young king's political intrigue had established itself as something of a box office smash for small films, with ticket sales of $6.5 million so far from showings on only 131 screens.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/03/31/in-dc-audiences-go-for-art-films/53ba44aa-bd37-481f-bf51-c18fa92f89f0/","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":"IN D.C., AUDIENCES GO FOR ART FILMS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/03/31/in-dc-audiences-go-for-art-films/53ba44aa-bd37-481f-bf51-c18fa92f89f0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.638Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/05/backing-away-from-controversy/54e0413b-7796-4757-9cfc-b1adb759db8f/","title":"BACKING AWAY FROM CONTROVERSY","publication_date":"1990-04-05","article_text":"Politicians aren't the only ones feeling the heat from the abortion debate. More and more corporate executives are sweating through that touchy issue -- and many others like it, such as gay rights and gun control.","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/05/backing-away-from-controversy/54e0413b-7796-4757-9cfc-b1adb759db8f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.153Z"},
{"title":"RETAILERS REARRANGE THE FUTURE OF FURNITURE","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1990-04-16","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/16/retailers-rearrange-the-future-of-furniture/0d3aeb69-58d0-41d0-8efa-82ef310894b4/","section":"Business","article_text":"As Lou Glickfield sees it, furniture's future lies in talking mattresses.\n\n\"The environment of shopping for furniture is very sterile, so you have to do something to make customers come in,\" said Glickfield, owner of Marlo Furniture, explaining the purpose of Peter Posturepedic, a babbling box spring displayed in his new store in Laurel and programmed to promote the virtues of comfort zones to customers who meander by.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/16/retailers-rearrange-the-future-of-furniture/0d3aeb69-58d0-41d0-8efa-82ef310894b4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.162Z"},
{"title":"FOR FISHER-PRICE, NO JOY IN TOYLAND","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/25/for-fisher-price-no-joy-in-toyland/4691ead0-a53a-45ac-8651-b9885591bf51/","section":"Business","article_text":"Toddlers nationwide have pretended to cut acres of grass with its bubble mower. Its colorful boats have been floated in countless bathtubs. And its highchair is so ubiquitous that even the yuppies on \"thirtysomething\" use it to feed their children.\n\nBut Fisher-Price, best known for simple and durable toys, is being put up for financial adoption by its corporate parent, Quaker Oats Co. The Chicago-based food products giant said yesterday it decided to spin off the toymaker it has owned for two decades in light of the subsidiary's declining profits and eroding market share.","publication_date":"1990-04-25","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/25/for-fisher-price-no-joy-in-toyland/4691ead0-a53a-45ac-8651-b9885591bf51/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.170Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/27/ames-chain-files-for-bankruptcy/878809d8-31a3-4450-97fd-b7fca5f33a6d/","title":"AMES CHAIN FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Ames Department Stores Inc., whose discount deals on everything from soda to motor oil to jeans weren't enough to keep an expensive takeover deal afloat, sought protection from creditors under bankruptcy law late Wednesday.\n\nThe bankruptcy filing will allow the discount chain, including its 15 stores in the Washington area, to continue operating while the company works with creditors on a plan to pay its debts. Ames said it sought court protection to \"restructure its business and finances and to restore the confidence of its vendors and suppliers.\"","publication_date":"1990-04-27","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/04/27/ames-chain-files-for-bankruptcy/878809d8-31a3-4450-97fd-b7fca5f33a6d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.179Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"W. BELL PUTS ITSELF UP FOR SALE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/10/w-bell-puts-itself-up-for-sale/1206ce7c-cb52-4b23-bf5c-45d826da0417/","publication_date":"1990-05-10","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/10/w-bell-puts-itself-up-for-sale/1206ce7c-cb52-4b23-bf5c-45d826da0417/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.393Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/21/w-bell-rings-in-changes/de7d39f2-1d2a-4920-9d1d-9e36c081246a/","section":"Business","article_text":"On a drizzly weekday morning last week, customers waited patiently in line outside the locked doors of W. Bell & Co. in Rockville. After the retailer opened, the small crowd of people fanned out across the spacious store, browsing among the wide range of products.\n\nBut before long, many of the customers were in line again, waiting this time to order the products they wanted from Bell's thick catalogue. Finally, they fell into their third line of the morning, as they waited to pay.","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1990-05-21","title":"W. BELL RINGS IN CHANGES","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/21/w-bell-rings-in-changes/de7d39f2-1d2a-4920-9d1d-9e36c081246a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.189Z"},
{"title":"GEORGETOWN COPES WITH CHANGING IMAGE","article_text":"The timing couldn't have been worse for Georgetown.\n\nJust as the Business and Professional Association of Georgetown was gearing up its newest initiative -- to attract better stores to all parts of the longtime retail and entertainment mecca, the bad news was all over the media about a spate of recent teenage gang attacks on its crowded weekend sidewalks.","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/24/georgetown-copes-with-changing-image/c5bab493-4bfd-409b-92ab-b3403fc26063/","publication_date":"1990-05-24","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/24/georgetown-copes-with-changing-image/c5bab493-4bfd-409b-92ab-b3403fc26063/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.200Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"At a time when much of the retail world is groaning about soft sales and squeezed profits, Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc. can't seem to stop catching the brass ring -- and everything else in sight.\n\nConsider the tip-top bottom line for the 20-year-old Maryland-based retailer of young men's and women's apparel, whose profits, revenue, size, sales per store and stock price have been shooting upward since 1987:","title":"THE FUN IS JUST BEGINNING FOR MERRY-GO-ROUND","publication_date":"1990-05-31","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/31/the-fun-is-just-beginning-for-merry-go-round/45d0c51e-da8e-47cd-be2b-855adba5b859/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/05/31/the-fun-is-just-beginning-for-merry-go-round/45d0c51e-da8e-47cd-be2b-855adba5b859/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.210Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"GIANT, SAFEWAY STILL DOMINATE REGION'S FOOD SHOPPING","article_text":"It's not news really for anyone who knows the supermarket game in Washington. According to the annual local market share survey of the retail grocery business released today, the big are even bigger and the small are getting smaller.\n\nAs expected, the huge Giant and Safeway chains continue to dominate the Washington region, with consumers spending close to 80 cents of every grocery dollar at one of the food giants, according to Food World, a Columbia, Md.-based monthly publication that tracks the supermarket industry in the Washington area.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/06/04/giant-safeway-still-dominate-regions-food-shopping/16677c4e-859f-4447-9ba2-3cadcd6483a5/","section":"Business","publication_date":"1990-06-04","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/06/04/giant-safeway-still-dominate-regions-food-shopping/16677c4e-859f-4447-9ba2-3cadcd6483a5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.219Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/06/18/gay-spending-power-draws-more-attention/297c9e43-8f32-4249-a87e-0df214ffdb22/","article_text":"After the story appeared in a gay-oriented newspaper earlier this year, Woodward & Lothrop started receiving piles of returned credit cards and merchandise from gay customers.\n\nThe 17-store local department store chain was then in the midst of a fracas with D.C.'s gay community over the refusal of Woodies's management to give employee discount privileges to the live-in partner of a gay salesman at its Chevy Chase store. The policy then was to only give the special 20 percent discount to employees and their legal spouses and dependents.","title":"GAY SPENDING POWER DRAWS MORE ATTENTION","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1990-06-18","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/06/18/gay-spending-power-draws-more-attention/297c9e43-8f32-4249-a87e-0df214ffdb22/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.232Z"},
{"article_text":"The calls to Raleighs's Harvey Brown started immediately after Garfinckel's declared bankruptcy last month. Customers of the old and elegant department store chain wanted to know what was going to happen to Raleighs.\n\nFor Brown, who serves as senior general manager for the 12-store local specialty chain, the connection Washingtonians still make between the down-and-out Garfinckel's and Raleighs is exasperating.","publication_date":"1990-07-09","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/07/09/raleighs-looks-back-to-conservative-roots-in-planning-future/35d441e0-670f-480c-9854-ad2c1c6dd6ae/","title":"RALEIGHS LOOKS BACK TO CONSERVATIVE ROOTS IN PLANNING FUTURE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/07/09/raleighs-looks-back-to-conservative-roots-in-planning-future/35d441e0-670f-480c-9854-ad2c1c6dd6ae/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.543Z"},
{"article_text":"Even from Interstate 95 South in Virginia you can sense the unavoidable pull of Potomac Mills, like some enormous vacuum cleaner sucking up shoppers into the 115-acre complex of off-price retailers and discount outlets.\n\nNearing exit 52 at Dale City, the traffic inevitably clots at the sight of the massive sign hanging over the highway for the 1.2 million-square-foot shopping mecca. By 11 a.m., the parking lots look like a prairie of glass and metal as customers hike across the asphalt to one of the many entrances.","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/09/01/shoppers-brace-for-mega-mall-expansion/9e25e3d1-f1f2-4af7-ae06-631728ab5a05/","title":"SHOPPERS BRACE FOR MEGA-MALL EXPANSION","publication_date":"1990-09-01","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/09/01/shoppers-brace-for-mega-mall-expansion/9e25e3d1-f1f2-4af7-ae06-631728ab5a05/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.229Z"},
{"title":"DART SETTLES DISPUTE OVER PENSION PLAN","article_text":"The Dart Group Corp., controlled by Washington's Haft family, will pay $2.7 million into a profit-sharing plan for 1,200 employees of Dart Drug Stores Inc., in a settlement announced yesterday that resolves a Labor Department complaint involving the Hafts' sale of the drug chain in 1984.\n\nThe government contended that the Dart Group \"failed to monitor\" the fate of the drugstore chain's $3.5 million profit-sharing plan when it sold the chain for $187 million to a management-led buyout group and turned the fund over to the new owners. A similar claim was made against the former trustees of the Dart Group plan.","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","publication_date":"1990-09-25","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/09/25/dart-settles-dispute-over-pension-plan/f835d29a-9d80-4fd9-9db5-9467ee64fe6e/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/09/25/dart-settles-dispute-over-pension-plan/f835d29a-9d80-4fd9-9db5-9467ee64fe6e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.238Z"},
{"article_text":"Local retailers had a hard time discovering customers willing to open their wallets on Columbus Day yesterday, with fears about the federal budget impasse overshadowing the federal holiday and widespread markdowns across the area.\n\n\"The uncertainty is pretty scary,\" said Leslie Street, manager of the White Flint Mall branch of Compagnie Generale Aeropostale, a specialty clothing chain. \"And that makes people more conservative in their purchases.\"","section":"Business","title":"AREA RETAILERS PAY PRICE OF UNCERTAINTY","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/10/09/area-retailers-pay-price-of-uncertainty/e7a75e44-6fdc-4901-b838-690b8151e96d/","publication_date":"1990-10-09","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/10/09/area-retailers-pay-price-of-uncertainty/e7a75e44-6fdc-4901-b838-690b8151e96d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.248Z"},
{"publication_date":"1990-10-24","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/10/24/bankruptcy-looms-for-southland/c42ea75c-3eaf-4fe4-9bcb-4509e8df0a76/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"BANKRUPTCY LOOMS FOR SOUTHLAND","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/10/24/bankruptcy-looms-for-southland/c42ea75c-3eaf-4fe4-9bcb-4509e8df0a76/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.620Z"},
{"article_text":"Lipstick and lettuce just don't mix.\n\nWhile that determination may not seem earthshaking, the decision six months ago by Giant Foods Inc. that it would no longer sell cosmetics in its supermarkets is helping to breathe new life into another local firm, Cosmetic & Fragrance Concepts Inc. of Savage, Md.","title":"POLISHING UP A COSMETICS FIRM","authors":"By Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/08/polishing-up-a-cosmetics-firm/8e955d06-7575-4274-9fb2-d7c3dfd736b3/","section":"Business","publication_date":"1990-11-08","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/08/polishing-up-a-cosmetics-firm/8e955d06-7575-4274-9fb2-d7c3dfd736b3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.535Z"},
{"authors":"By Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1990-11-10","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/10/legendary-owners-leaving-wagshals-deli/b9329584-2e81-4e26-843b-03735eb22863/","article_text":"One time at a fancy embassy party, someone came up to Ben Wagshal and said: \"I didn't know you without the counter in front of you.\"\n\nFor the last half century, the 78-year-old Wagshal and his wife, Lillian, 76, have been the folks behind the counter. Delimeisters to presidents and the Northwest gentry, they are retiring after selling truckloads of corned beef and buckets of baklava from their Spring Valley location.","title":"LEGENDARY OWNERS LEAVING WAGSHAL'S DELI","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/10/legendary-owners-leaving-wagshals-deli/b9329584-2e81-4e26-843b-03735eb22863/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.560Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The sun setting low in the western sky gives the red-brick mass of Hechinger Mall an inner glow, like some out-in-space meteor that has landed at the eastern end of H Street NE.\n\nIts daunting architectural presence isn't the only thing that makes the 10-year-old, 250,000-square-foot center impressive. As Washington's only inner-city shopping plaza, Hechinger Mall has become a retail Goliath of the neighborhood, generating tens of millions of dollars in sales annually and employing hundreds of area workers.","title":"HECHINGER MALL II THE STRUGGLE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/12/hechinger-mall-ii-the-struggle/754ef078-1dff-44ee-9d7b-757c7b381f13/","section":"Business","publication_date":"1990-11-12","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/12/hechinger-mall-ii-the-struggle/754ef078-1dff-44ee-9d7b-757c7b381f13/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.274Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":"AREA SHOPPERS MAKING A NIGHT OF IT","article_text":"Shopping by day in the Washington area -- from Tysons Corner to Rockville Pike to College Park to downtown D.C. -- is like dealing with a particularly rambunctious child, all tantrums of traffic, shrieking congestion and shoving enough to give you fits.\n\nBut late at night while the region sleeps like an angel, it's another retail story altogether. Throughout the area, an increasing variety of stores -- ranging from record, book and toy stores to pharmacies and supermarkets -- offer late-night shoppers more than just Twinkies, Slurpees and microwaved burritos.","publication_date":"1990-11-23","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/23/area-shoppers-making-a-night-of-it/82c6d9c7-cad6-4f25-b103-9994e7cf5b02/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/11/23/area-shoppers-making-a-night-of-it/82c6d9c7-cad6-4f25-b103-9994e7cf5b02/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.457Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"THE SHARPER IMAGE SHIFTS SALES FOCUS","publication_date":"1990-12-08","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/12/08/the-sharper-image-shifts-sales-focus/890472ef-b920-4e9e-a043-64e82e6889b1/","section":"Business","article_text":"\"The Sharper Image is over,\" declared Richard J. Thalheimer.\n\nDuring the 1980s, Thalheimer, president and chief executive of the San Franciso-based catalogue and retail company, built a fortune catering to the indulgent desires of the newly rich. But with the gimme-one-in-every-color '80s at his back and nervous-nellie '90s ahead, Thalheimer is rethinking the merchandising strategy that turned his small business into a nationwide retailer with annual sales of more than $200 million.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/12/08/the-sharper-image-shifts-sales-focus/890472ef-b920-4e9e-a043-64e82e6889b1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.311Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/12/23/the-marketplace-menagerie/69ad993f-3a70-4452-a221-f0edb1bc465c/","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":"THE MARKETPLACE MENAGERIE","article_text":"This time, the Grinch actually is stealing Christmas. Or to put it more precisely this holiday buying season, loads of grinches: fat grinches, tall grinches, grinches with Mercedes and grinches on foot, all grinchily grinching around the retail scene this Christmas.\n\nThey don't like to shop. They browse with belligerence. They don't want to spend on anything costing more than the price of the shopping bag they take it home in. And they are making retailers nearly homicidal.","publication_date":"1990-12-23","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/12/23/the-marketplace-menagerie/69ad993f-3a70-4452-a221-f0edb1bc465c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.552Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/01/05/best-products-seeks-bankruptcy-protection/560ff3c8-06e4-4336-9da4-a62d7653dce2/","publication_date":"1991-01-05","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"BEST PRODUCTS SEEKS BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/01/05/best-products-seeks-bankruptcy-protection/560ff3c8-06e4-4336-9da4-a62d7653dce2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.293Z"},
{"authors":"By Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/01/25/waves-of-war-hit-area-businesses-some-helped-some-hurt/f923a835-6db6-4041-9b60-d4d2d42dc61c/","article_text":"Takeout pizza sales are up, while restaurant sales are down. Escapist movies like \"Home Alone\" and \"Green Card\" are booming at the box office, as seats at war and horror films go empty. Night-time shoppers at department stores have virtually vanished with customers rushing home to watch the latest news on television.","section":"Business","publication_date":"1991-01-25","title":"WAVES OF WAR HIT AREA BUSINESSES SOME HELPED, SOME HURT","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/01/25/waves-of-war-hit-area-businesses-some-helped-some-hurt/f923a835-6db6-4041-9b60-d4d2d42dc61c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.585Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Reliable Home Appliances, the no-frills, cash-and-carry retailer that sold many Washingtonians their first discount electronic goods, has gone to federal bankruptcy court to seek protection from its creditors.\n\nThe current recession, rising rents and competition from a new generation of discount stores over the past few years combined to hurt Reliable, which opened more than 40 years ago in a basement store on 11th Street NW in Washington's old downtown retail district.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/02/07/reliable-files-for-bankruptcy/3856a271-fa5f-4a9e-ac20-7fc5a69d057a/","section":"Business","publication_date":"1991-02-07","title":"RELIABLE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/02/07/reliable-files-for-bankruptcy/3856a271-fa5f-4a9e-ac20-7fc5a69d057a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.320Z"},
{"title":"TUESDAY MORNING, WITH DISCOUNTS ALMOST DAILY","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/02/21/tuesday-morning-with-discounts-almost-daily/6d286dc9-6e31-47a3-a220-72ded74e09f6/","section":"Business","article_text":"Lounging in front of a fireplace in the comfortable living room of his elegant Middleburg farmhouse last week, Lloyd Ross looked like a man sitting pretty.\n\nBut the business he founded nearly two decades ago -- Tuesday Morning Inc. -- seems to be even more perfectly placed these days. Since 1980, the Dallas-based discount retailer of upscale giftware -- such as Wedgewood china and Waterford crystal at deep bargains -- has quadrupled in size and had sales and profits grow at least sevenfold.","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1991-02-21","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/02/21/tuesday-morning-with-discounts-almost-daily/6d286dc9-6e31-47a3-a220-72ded74e09f6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.330Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/02/23/sutton-place-changes-business-recipe/fa08fac2-2059-47b5-b34d-058ac9323418/","title":"SUTTON PLACE CHANGES BUSINESS RECIPE","publication_date":"1991-02-23","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/02/23/sutton-place-changes-business-recipe/fa08fac2-2059-47b5-b34d-058ac9323418/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.794Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/03/18/health-clubs-head-for-the-fast-track/09692a92-e048-4bbb-88cb-2155903b3988/","title":"HEALTH CLUBS HEAD FOR THE FAST TRACK","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1991-03-18","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/03/18/health-clubs-head-for-the-fast-track/09692a92-e048-4bbb-88cb-2155903b3988/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.802Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"You can judge a book by its cover -- at least if you're looking at Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s 1990 annual report.\n\nReleased recently to shareholders, the sedate-looking report is as plain as it gets, using only austere blue, black and white lettering and nothing else. No jazzy pictures of frolicking customers and employees, no fancy graphics, no pat-on-the-back pronouncements, not even a hint of happy colors.","publication_date":"1991-04-04","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/04/04/a-black-and-white-report-for-a-black-and-blue-year/9685cbbf-10e1-4eb8-9d81-10c817327349/","title":"A BLACK-AND-WHITE REPORT FOR A BLACK-AND-BLUE YEAR","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/04/04/a-black-and-white-report-for-a-black-and-blue-year/9685cbbf-10e1-4eb8-9d81-10c817327349/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.340Z"},
{"title":"THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE MALL","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/05/11/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-mall/a59ea35c-8d45-4f20-bcfc-cc0e5332e1d3/","publication_date":"1991-05-11","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/05/11/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-mall/a59ea35c-8d45-4f20-bcfc-cc0e5332e1d3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.811Z"},
{"article_text":"Seven Corners Shopping Center was designed for a \"world on wheels\" -- and as the first major mall in the Washington area was eagerly anticipated by suburbanites, tax-beloved by politicians and heavily praised by newspapers as the \"biggest,\" \"bestest\" and \"mostest\" when it opened in 1956.\n\nThe silk-stocking mall prospered in the midst of an increasingly affluent community at a nexus of some of Northern Virginia's most important roads, including Arlington Boulevard, Leesburg Pike and Wilson Boulevard. It was a retail pioneer others followed.","title":"A PIONEER IS CAUGHT BEHIND THE TIMES","section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/05/20/a-pioneer-is-caught-behind-the-times/8e721a7e-c4c9-43f8-885a-a753eafd4175/","publication_date":"1991-05-20","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/05/20/a-pioneer-is-caught-behind-the-times/8e721a7e-c4c9-43f8-885a-a753eafd4175/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.489Z"},
{"title":"DISCOVERY'S LONG, HARD ROAD","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/06/17/discoverys-long-hard-road/04abd9ed-38fc-4fab-bb41-f736d119610c/","publication_date":"1991-06-17","section":"Business","article_text":"John S. Hendricks is a millionaire now, but in 1986, the company he had mortgaged his house to start was near bankruptcy.\n\nThe Discovery Channel, which first aired six years ago, was the offspring of a company that the former University of Maryland fund-raiser and freelance educational consultant started in 1982. While helping a client try to market a documentary, he found most documentaries were forsaken by the major TV networks and languishing on shelves with no venue except the Public Broadcasting System. Still, a little research revealed that PBS's top-rated shows were nearly all documentaries.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/06/17/discoverys-long-hard-road/04abd9ed-38fc-4fab-bb41-f736d119610c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.348Z"},
{"title":"A MALL FOR AMERICA?","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/06/30/a-mall-for-america/ace8807b-a6c3-4706-8ee9-3b2f349333ff/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1991-06-30","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/06/30/a-mall-for-america/ace8807b-a6c3-4706-8ee9-3b2f349333ff/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.577Z"},
{"title":"HECHINGER, HOME DEPOT SQUARE OFF","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/07/15/hechinger-home-depot-square-off/dd815175-c27b-44de-8c6a-b18113bdb507/","article_text":"The face-off would make a great card on the pro wrestling circuit -- the tag team of Hechinger's yuppiesque Harry and Harriet Homeowner vs. good-old-boy Homer of Home Depot.\n\nWhile that titanic clash of do-it-yourselfer mascots isn't likely to make it into the ring, such a retail battle is now brewing in Glen Burnie, Md., where the national hardware powerhouse Home Depot Inc. of Atlanta has invaded the home turf of Landover-based Hechinger Co.","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1991-07-15","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/07/15/hechinger-home-depot-square-off/dd815175-c27b-44de-8c6a-b18113bdb507/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.282Z"},
{"section":"Business","article_text":"'Cause I was living on nothing but a young girl's dreams\n\nWith my cowboy boots and my old six string","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/07/22/when-the-office-is-a-stage/5fc66b74-04ce-41b1-a5c9-5423321e0527/","title":"WHEN THE OFFICE IS A STAGE","publication_date":"1991-07-22","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/07/22/when-the-office-is-a-stage/5fc66b74-04ce-41b1-a5c9-5423321e0527/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.291Z"},
{"section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher, David S. Hilzenrath","publication_date":"1991-08-12","article_text":"The rain came down so hard on the grand opening of Western Development Corp.'s Gurnee Mills near Chicago last Thursday that all the carefully planned hoopla -- ribbon-cutting, balloons, congratulatory speeches -- had to be moved inside the new mall.\n\nBut the downpour drenching the festivities was nothing compared to the menacing storm brewing in Washington for the locally based development company that made its reputation with its famous outlet malls, such as Northern Virginia's Potomac Mills, and other distinctive projects, including Georgetown's Washington Harbour and Georgetown Park mall.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/08/12/potomac-mills-developer-in-court-battle/faa4a895-ae21-44ec-8f04-f09288fade06/","title":"POTOMAC MILLS DEVELOPER IN COURT BATTLE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/08/12/potomac-mills-developer-in-court-battle/faa4a895-ae21-44ec-8f04-f09288fade06/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.299Z"},
{"title":"WHEN A 'DIAMOND EDUCATION' COMES THE HARD WAY","publication_date":"1991-10-07","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/10/07/when-a-diamond-education-comes-the-hard-way/72e3843f-25f6-4d1b-a952-3481800d6ee8/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/10/07/when-a-diamond-education-comes-the-hard-way/72e3843f-25f6-4d1b-a952-3481800d6ee8/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.445Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"MONTGOMERY MALL UPDATES IMAGE WITH MAKEOVER, EXPANSION","publication_date":"1991-10-14","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/10/14/montgomery-mall-updates-image-with-makeover-expansion/615b4594-9054-43a0-b2ef-54f9d8ebe488/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/10/14/montgomery-mall-updates-image-with-makeover-expansion/615b4594-9054-43a0-b2ef-54f9d8ebe488/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.819Z"},
{"title":"RETAILERS LEAPFROG INTO HOLIDAY SEASON","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/11/29/retailers-leapfrog-into-holiday-season/b4480f13-f514-46d4-907b-38d73afa17e3/","publication_date":"1991-11-29","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/11/29/retailers-leapfrog-into-holiday-season/b4480f13-f514-46d4-907b-38d73afa17e3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.540Z"},
{"title":"BIG CROWDS, FAIR SALES AS SEASON STARTS","publication_date":"1991-12-06","article_text":"Recession plus holiday shopping equals stress -- so customers snapped up all kinds of massagers at Brookstone stores last weekend.\n\nThat's why the New Hampshire-based gadget retailer will make sure there are plenty more of these basic products for sale from now until Christmas, shoving slower-moving items right off the shelves to make room.","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/12/06/big-crowds-fair-sales-as-season-starts/3e6420ea-959c-415a-9a1f-7923edeafe81/","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/12/06/big-crowds-fair-sales-as-season-starts/3e6420ea-959c-415a-9a1f-7923edeafe81/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.473Z"},
{"publication_date":"1991-12-17","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/12/17/outlet-malls-no-longer-outcasts/5dedbc0a-5192-4e10-bdf7-065fe7289d5f/","authors":"Kara Swisher, Liz Spayd","title":"OUTLET MALLS: NO LONGER OUTCASTS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/12/17/outlet-malls-no-longer-outcasts/5dedbc0a-5192-4e10-bdf7-065fe7289d5f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.301Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/08/hudson-trail-hits-a-rocky-patch/6648db29-573a-4e74-b5a5-7b5f10df6491/","title":"HUDSON TRAIL HITS A ROCKY PATCH","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-01-08","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/08/hudson-trail-hits-a-rocky-patch/6648db29-573a-4e74-b5a5-7b5f10df6491/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.318Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"MACY'S IS ON THEIR MINDS AS RETAIL EXECUTIVES MEET","publication_date":"1992-01-14","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/14/macys-is-on-their-minds-as-retail-executives-meet/df5d5146-0126-4671-87ae-32337fb0b8ab/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/14/macys-is-on-their-minds-as-retail-executives-meet/df5d5146-0126-4671-87ae-32337fb0b8ab/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.420Z"},
{"title":"ROBINSON SEEKS BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION FOR JEWELRY CHAINS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/15/robinson-seeks-bankruptcy-protection-for-jewelry-chains/f04f5e6e-9d19-4322-9843-85baae99fb1e/","publication_date":"1992-01-15","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/15/robinson-seeks-bankruptcy-protection-for-jewelry-chains/f04f5e6e-9d19-4322-9843-85baae99fb1e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.403Z"},
{"authors":"Brett D. Fromson, Kara Swisher","article_text":"The bankruptcy filing by R.H. Macy & Co. yesterday is likely to be followed by asset sales, store closings and a fierce battle between the department store chain and its creditors, according to Wall Street and retail industry sources.\n\nThe Macy bankruptcy is the latest in a series of major retail failures that have occurred as the heavy debt taken on in the go-go 1980s became intolerable in the more cautious '90s. The lethal combination of overleveraged balance sheets and anemic retail sales finally forced the retailer to seek bankruptcy, according to Macy's executives, competitors and other retail experts.","publication_date":"1992-01-28","title":"MACY AND CREDITORS EXPECTED TO BATTLE OVER ASSETS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/28/macy-and-creditors-expected-to-battle-over-assets/331710d1-ec84-4255-80a0-34bba0daaba4/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/01/28/macy-and-creditors-expected-to-battle-over-assets/331710d1-ec84-4255-80a0-34bba0daaba4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.240Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-02-02","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/02/02/giving-customers-what-they-want/72bbe120-9dda-41bf-8e25-a30645bf2cca/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"GIVING CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/02/02/giving-customers-what-they-want/72bbe120-9dda-41bf-8e25-a30645bf2cca/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.326Z"},
{"title":"AT HARTMARX, BIDDING TO REMAKE A STAID-OF-THE-ART RALEIGHS","publication_date":"1992-03-02","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/03/02/at-hartmarx-bidding-to-remake-a-staid-of-the-art-raleighs/0700417f-29aa-49fd-9176-1499804936b1/","section":"Business","article_text":"At the end of a long interview, Elbert O. Hand blurted out a daring idea: What if Hartmarx Corp. took its three dozen different specialty apparel chains, including the 81-year-old Raleighs in Washington, and gave them all one exciting new name?\n\nThe name switch is only a fanciful what-if, the kind of drastic move that isn't what you'd expect from the conservative Chicago-based apparel manufacturer and retailer. But it is a symbol of the kinds of changes Hartmarx is considering these days as the nation's largest maker of men's suits continues to grope for ways to jump-start its stalled retail operations.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/03/02/at-hartmarx-bidding-to-remake-a-staid-of-the-art-raleighs/0700417f-29aa-49fd-9176-1499804936b1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.308Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-03-24","title":"MD.-BASED SCHWARTZ BROTHERS SUBMITS BANKRUPTCY FILING","section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/03/24/md-based-schwartz-brothers-submits-bankruptcy-filing/a7e9392d-38ef-4147-b31d-3db0eaa7a855/","article_text":"Schwartz Brothers Inc., a once-dominant force in the East Coast music and video distribution business and a company that has operated for almost a half-century in the Washington area, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday with the intention of closing down.\n\nThe company began laying off its more than 200 employees earlier this month, and the 70 remaining employees also are expected to lose their jobs.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/03/24/md-based-schwartz-brothers-submits-bankruptcy-filing/a7e9392d-38ef-4147-b31d-3db0eaa7a855/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.317Z"},
{"title":"COMPANIES UNVEIL 'SCANFONE' SHOPPING SERVICE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/16/companies-unveil-scanfone-shopping-service/fdc5bad4-3892-486b-84a0-7c3c7b3b537f/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-04-16","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/16/companies-unveil-scanfone-shopping-service/fdc5bad4-3892-486b-84a0-7c3c7b3b537f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.334Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-04-21","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/21/kitchen-bazaar-reportedly-talking-with-potential-buyer/49879184-874f-4a9a-826d-c837659e74ec/","title":"KITCHEN BAZAAR REPORTEDLY TALKING WITH POTENTIAL BUYER","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/21/kitchen-bazaar-reportedly-talking-with-potential-buyer/49879184-874f-4a9a-826d-c837659e74ec/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.343Z"},
{"section":"Business","title":"SEAGRAM MARKETS NEW LOW-ALCOHOL SPRITZER DRINK","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-04-23","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/23/seagram-markets-new-low-alcohol-spritzer-drink/f6f28260-59a5-4b1c-ac6f-829f0fe8f114/","article_text":"Spritzer may look and even taste like a typical bottle of flavored water, but its manufacturer says it wants to make sure consumers know it's actually alcoholic.\n\nToday, Seagram Beverage Co. will unveil its Spritzer, a clear, low-alcohol malt beverage and hopes to roll it out in 15 states within a month. In doing so, the New York-based company, a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd., is taking steps to head off a growing movement by federal officials and consumer groups seeking controls on the way new alcoholic beverages are marketed.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/23/seagram-markets-new-low-alcohol-spritzer-drink/f6f28260-59a5-4b1c-ac6f-829f0fe8f114/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.325Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-04-24","article_text":"It was only last fall that the 3,000 employees of Nordstrom in the Washington area were invited by the company to watch \"Boyz N the Hood\" and hear a speech by the head of Concerned Black Men about the troubles facing young black men in America today.","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/24/nordstrom-tackles-delicate-issues/fd32f9f5-de0b-470d-a692-70406b114f88/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"NORDSTROM TACKLES DELICATE ISSUES","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/24/nordstrom-tackles-delicate-issues/fd32f9f5-de0b-470d-a692-70406b114f88/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.725Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/28/macys-chief-announces-retirement/a854fe9c-9c15-4204-8db0-39d3c6e3775c/","title":"MACY'S CHIEF ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-04-28","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/28/macys-chief-announces-retirement/a854fe9c-9c15-4204-8db0-39d3c6e3775c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.429Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-06-22","article_text":"It is a test. It is only a test.\n\nBut out on the Eastern Shore, three hours from Washington, Giant Food Inc. executives are carefully watching the results at their new Super G Deep Discount Drug Store, the supermarket chain's first foray into the deep-discount drugstore business.","title":"GIANT TAKES ON THE DISCOUNTERS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/06/22/giant-takes-on-the-discounters/eff549e6-e5c0-4e10-be45-b2279da569d6/","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/06/22/giant-takes-on-the-discounters/eff549e6-e5c0-4e10-be45-b2279da569d6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.498Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/06/27/b-gordons-falls-victim-to-tofu-tussle/9a2826cd-f78c-4a8e-a79f-e3c1037eada2/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":"B. GORDON'S FALLS VICTIM TO TOFU TUSSLE","article_text":"Rockville Pike's battle of the bulgur took a turn for the worse this week.\n\nB. Gordon's, the Washington area's first natural foods supermarket, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week -- a victim of the weak economy, a lack of cash and a poor location.","publication_date":"1992-06-27","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/06/27/b-gordons-falls-victim-to-tofu-tussle/9a2826cd-f78c-4a8e-a79f-e3c1037eada2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.734Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-07-20","section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"THE WARTHOG'S TALE OF WOE","article_text":"They can't stop talking about Britches of Georgetowne -- those still there, those now gone.\n\nAbout how great the clothing chain with the warthog mascot once was. About its magical mystique and family feel. About its charismatic pair of founders.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/07/20/the-warthogs-tale-of-woe/b48a5ca9-9eb2-47ef-bd88-4a893f7e54a5/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/07/20/the-warthogs-tale-of-woe/b48a5ca9-9eb2-47ef-bd88-4a893f7e54a5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.743Z"},
{"article_text":"Kitchen Bazaar Inc., the money-losing kitchenware chain that helped pioneer gourmet cooking in Washington, filed for bankruptcy court protection late Wednesday.\n\nFor years, the Rockville company has been whipsawed by a wide range of setbacks, including increasing competition, recession, ill-considered expansion, changing demographics and shifting consumer tastes.","publication_date":"1992-10-16","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/10/16/kitchen-bazaar-seeks-bankruptcy-protection/dd386456-1c09-46ad-8ddb-5208c480010d/","title":"KITCHEN BAZAAR SEEKS BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/10/16/kitchen-bazaar-seeks-bankruptcy-protection/dd386456-1c09-46ad-8ddb-5208c480010d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.377Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/10/26/battling-the-fear-factor/dc8c0fc1-e0f7-4d4f-95e1-d1064e478882/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"BATTLING THE FEAR FACTOR","publication_date":"1992-10-26","section":"Business","article_text":"The customers didn't come to the Two Quail restaurant on Capitol Hill one Saturday night last month. They didn't bother to cancel. They didn't call to explain. But much of the \"middle seating\" -- mostly made up of suburbanites who drive in for a romantic dinner at the intimate town house -- just didn't arrive.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/10/26/battling-the-fear-factor/dc8c0fc1-e0f7-4d4f-95e1-d1064e478882/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.825Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-11-16","authors":"By Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/11/16/cvs-struggles-to-prosper-with-peoples/73b58ab3-2b96-4992-9d1a-9f29c29e3751/","section":"Business","article_text":"WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- Peoples Drug Stores Inc. is a $330 million hockey stick.\n\nAt least that's how officials at CVS headquarters these days describe the shape that they expected to see on their financial charts after they bought the 87-year-old Washington-based drugstore chain about two years ago.","title":"CVS STRUGGLES TO PROSPER WITH PEOPLES","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/11/16/cvs-struggles-to-prosper-with-peoples/73b58ab3-2b96-4992-9d1a-9f29c29e3751/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.506Z"},
{"authors":"By Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-11-30","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/11/30/a-shoppers-nightmare/2e758134-1566-4762-ac6d-646dfaa2ce9f/","article_text":"You know who you are. The Brooder. True Detective. Mister Brain Dead. Monsieur Just-What's-Out and Madame Out-of-That. The \"It's-Over-There\" Finger Pointer. Chatty Kathy. The \"May-I-Help-You\" Maniac. The Toady.\n\nIt's Christmastime, and that means it's also time for the Sales Clerks From Hell. They have haunted shoppers' retail nightmares, sent consumers skittering out of stores with shopping bags over their heads, made a simple purchase of socks as complicated as Ross Perot's tax return.","title":"A SHOPPER'S NIGHTMARE","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/11/30/a-shoppers-nightmare/2e758134-1566-4762-ac6d-646dfaa2ce9f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.517Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/12/01/holiday-shopping-gets-off-to-fast-start/06fc8bfa-50f3-4478-a6a3-c837ca65e2e8/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"HOLIDAY SHOPPING GETS OFF TO FAST START","publication_date":"1992-12-01","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/12/01/holiday-shopping-gets-off-to-fast-start/06fc8bfa-50f3-4478-a6a3-c837ca65e2e8/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.351Z"},
{"title":"IN STORES, VISIONS OF HOLIDAYS PAST","article_text":"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas -- actually, more like last Christmas.\n\nWhat's hot in housewares? Juicers and bread-making machines, which were retail phenomena a year ago.","publication_date":"1992-12-15","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/12/15/in-stores-visions-of-holidays-past/eeb3f1d5-5905-4312-b9f6-d54ef30102cd/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/12/15/in-stores-visions-of-holidays-past/eeb3f1d5-5905-4312-b9f6-d54ef30102cd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.387Z"},
{"title":"THE (LOWEST) PRICE IS RIGHT","publication_date":"1992-12-21","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/12/21/the-lowest-price-is-right/de4be2a2-2e45-4047-8ca2-e084c333988c/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/12/21/the-lowest-price-is-right/de4be2a2-2e45-4047-8ca2-e084c333988c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.611Z"},
{"title":"SEARS'S DISTRICT EMPLOYEES, SHOPPERS MOURN STORE'S FATE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/01/27/searss-district-employees-shoppers-mourn-stores-fate/d6239b21-109b-4406-8b20-85fa9879be48/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","publication_date":"1993-01-27","article_text":"The skinny red Sears sign hung for so long on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Albemarle Street NW that you didn't always notice it when driving by. At the top of a rise in the road, it was a comforting and steady District landmark for as long as most people in the neighborhood can remember.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/01/27/searss-district-employees-shoppers-mourn-stores-fate/d6239b21-109b-4406-8b20-85fa9879be48/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.855Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/01/28/giant-plans-1st-expansion-outside-local-sales-region/c24b0bd1-83b9-4ca4-953a-af887d342a19/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Giant Food Inc., expanding beyond the Washington-Baltimore market for the first time, said yesterday it will open a store in Delaware in the spring of 1994.\n\nThe Landover-based grocery chain, the largest in this area, also said it will move ahead with long-planned construction of three new stores here, the remodeling of four others and the opening of two that are nearly complete.","title":"GIANT PLANS 1ST EXPANSION OUTSIDE LOCAL SALES REGION","section":"Business","publication_date":"1993-01-28","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/01/28/giant-plans-1st-expansion-outside-local-sales-region/c24b0bd1-83b9-4ca4-953a-af887d342a19/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.843Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/02/10/sears-reports-it-lost-39-billion-last-year/3941ba0c-7825-4af0-bc0b-03941b029b31/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"SEARS REPORTS IT LOST $3.9 BILLION LAST YEAR","publication_date":"1993-02-10","article_text":"Sears, Roebuck and Co. yesterday reported that it lost $3.9 billion last year, as the bills came due to fix its struggling stores, pay off insurance claims after a devastating hurricane and deal with complaints about fraudulent practices at its auto repair business.\n\nWhile the loss is the largest ever posted by a U.S. retailer, it was expected after the Chicago-based merchant announced a massive restructuring of its struggling stores last month. Sears said then it would discontinue parts of its well-known catalogue operation, lay off 50,000 workers and close more than 110 stores, including the one on Wisconsin Avenue NW, its last outlet in the District.","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/02/10/sears-reports-it-lost-39-billion-last-year/3941ba0c-7825-4af0-bc0b-03941b029b31/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.761Z"},
{"article_text":"The \"revolution\" started with a retreat.\n\nFor four days in the fall of 1989, 25 top Hechinger Co. executives gathered in a small room at a Virginia countryside resort, formed circles and with much emotion swapped their visions of the future for the 125-store, do-it-yourself home improvement retailer.","title":"HARDWARE WARS: HECHINGER STRIKES BACK","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/03/29/hardware-wars-hechinger-strikes-back/11cb244e-d2da-4703-bcf1-9f6cd5a5d226/","section":"Business","authors":"By Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1993-03-29","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/03/29/hardware-wars-hechinger-strikes-back/11cb244e-d2da-4703-bcf1-9f6cd5a5d226/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.685Z"},
{"article_text":"ATLANTA -- You think a lot of things to yourself listening to Bernard Marcus as he builds up a head of steam talking effusively about his vision of retailing.\n\nYou think: even a really big dose of tranquilizers would not slow this guy down.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/03/29/home-depots-aggressive-entrance/e6356633-b72b-43cc-aa57-9306972f522c/","title":"HOME DEPOT'S AGGRESSIVE ENTRANCE","publication_date":"1993-03-29","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/03/29/home-depots-aggressive-entrance/e6356633-b72b-43cc-aa57-9306972f522c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.248Z"},
{"publication_date":"1993-04-03","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/04/03/philip-morris-cuts-price-on-marlboro/a6fe0e73-94b3-4863-b16c-f1bdd3543cb2/","title":"PHILIP MORRIS CUTS PRICE ON MARLBORO","article_text":"The Marlboro man declared war -- a price war -- as the nation's largest cigarette maker yesterday took aim at market-lassoing discount manufacturers.\n\nPhilip Morris Inc., attempting to round up herds of smokers who have strayed to the cheaper deep-discount generic brands, said it would reduce prices by about 40 cents a pack for the world's top cigarette brand. The company said Marlboro now sells for about $2.15 a pack nationally, and costs about $1 more per pack than many discount cigarettes.","section":"Business","authors":"By Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/04/03/philip-morris-cuts-price-on-marlboro/a6fe0e73-94b3-4863-b16c-f1bdd3543cb2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.677Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1993-04-25","title":"TARGETING THE GAY MARKET","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/04/25/targeting-the-gay-market/439a211e-ddf4-4a8e-8dac-85af9ac3ffe5/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/04/25/targeting-the-gay-market/439a211e-ddf4-4a8e-8dac-85af9ac3ffe5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.560Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/04/26/street-in-a-state-of-flux/f1756d66-38b6-44ae-9753-1469cf7ce6cf/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1993-04-26","title":"STREET IN A STATE OF FLUX","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/04/26/street-in-a-state-of-flux/f1756d66-38b6-44ae-9753-1469cf7ce6cf/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.360Z"},
{"article_text":"Those pesky, pesky rumors. Bill McDown swats them down here and they buzz over there. He denies them once, twice, three times, and then another item appears in trade publications, newspapers and analysis offered by Wall Street observers.\n\nBut Safeway Inc.'s 143-store Eastern division, with headquarters in Lanham and made up largely of more than 100 stores in the Washington area, is not on the selling block, he said.","publication_date":"1993-05-24","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/05/24/safeway-battles-competitors-and-hard-to-kill-rumors/3ffc21d0-8362-44a5-85ba-9c855ef00bdc/","title":"SAFEWAY BATTLES COMPETITORS AND HARD-TO-KILL RUMORS","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/05/24/safeway-battles-competitors-and-hard-to-kill-rumors/3ffc21d0-8362-44a5-85ba-9c855ef00bdc/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.660Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/05/battle-lines-drawn-in-haft-family-rift/79523ebb-ae13-464f-b83b-29f3eadcca60/","publication_date":"1993-06-05","title":"BATTLE LINES DRAWN IN HAFT FAMILY RIFT","article_text":"The father-son battle over who will lead the local Haft business empire heated up yesterday when family patriarch Herbert H. Haft sent a powerful warning to his wife and children about who was in charge.\n\nHaft, 72, one of the area's most prominent businessmen, issued a press release announcing that \"there may be significant changes\" in the boards of directors of three major companies in the family-controlled retail and real estate organization.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/05/battle-lines-drawn-in-haft-family-rift/79523ebb-ae13-464f-b83b-29f3eadcca60/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.257Z"},
{"publication_date":"1993-06-07","article_text":"So many new competitors have begun nibbling away at the business of supermarket chains that the trade publication that tracks the local industry has changed the way it measures the market.\n\nFood World, a trade newspaper based in Columbia, has rejiggered its 15th annual market study, released today, to reflect the \"new landscape.\"","title":"TAKING A BITE OUT OF THE FOOD BUSINESS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/07/taking-a-bite-out-of-the-food-business/f84b2135-3ec1-4334-b4fa-7aab9d6a2073/","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/07/taking-a-bite-out-of-the-food-business/f84b2135-3ec1-4334-b4fa-7aab9d6a2073/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.527Z"},
{"title":"DISTRICT SHIFTS ITS STANCE ON GARFINCKEL'S BUILDING","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1993-06-10","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/10/district-shifts-its-stance-on-garfinckels-building/a9842a6c-8de8-4c3f-a100-13762a115ee2/","article_text":"A District agency will recommend today that the owners of the vacant Garfinckel's building downtown be allowed to convert it to the \"best possible retail use,\" rather than require that it be a department store.\n\nIf the proposal clears bureaucratic and political hurdles, it will mean that the D.C. government has given up its long attempt to attract a major department store to the site, at the corner of 14th and F streets NW.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/10/district-shifts-its-stance-on-garfinckels-building/a9842a6c-8de8-4c3f-a100-13762a115ee2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.265Z"},
{"title":"ALL THAT'S GOLD DOESN'T ALWAYS GLITTER","publication_date":"1993-06-14","authors":"Albert B. Crenshaw and Kara Swisher and Maryann Haggerty","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/14/all-thats-gold-doesnt-always-glitter/0d1d5f9e-a1ee-4ffc-89bc-7cef70d57f49/","article_text":"Roughly 1,000 residents of the Washington-Baltimore area recently got a first-hand demonstration of the old saw that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.\n\nBut thanks to the Federal Trade Commission, this lesson will not be terribly expensive.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/14/all-thats-gold-doesnt-always-glitter/0d1d5f9e-a1ee-4ffc-89bc-7cef70d57f49/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.807Z"},
{"section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/15/the-last-of-latts-another-dc-clothier-hangs-it-up/ea278a9c-4f97-4c88-b0e2-d5aaba3b04e9/","title":"THE LAST OF LATT'S: ANOTHER D.C. CLOTHIER HANGS IT UP","publication_date":"1993-06-15","article_text":"When Latt's closes sometime this summer after 80 years in operation, it will be the death of another of Washington's old-time men's clothiers and a continuation of a trend that has taken down such local institutions as Raleighs and Arthur A. Adler & Son. \"Raleighs beat us to the end,\" joked Alan Latt about his longtime competitor, which declared it was closing last summer. Latt's, a son-to-son business started by Alan Latt's grandfather in 1910, followed down that sad path this year. Alan Latt is president of Latt's and his father, Milton, is chairman.","authors":"By Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/06/15/the-last-of-latts-another-dc-clothier-hangs-it-up/ea278a9c-4f97-4c88-b0e2-d5aaba3b04e9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.651Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/08/10/the-rift-in-the-house-of-haft-keeps-widening/ba3d2dc0-d117-4d8c-8506-edc3cb143153/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"THE RIFT IN THE HOUSE OF HAFT KEEPS WIDENING","publication_date":"1993-08-10","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/08/10/the-rift-in-the-house-of-haft-keeps-widening/ba3d2dc0-d117-4d8c-8506-edc3cb143153/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.368Z"},
{"title":"FROM WOODIES TO WANAMAKER, AN AFROCENTRIC EXPERIMENT","publication_date":"1993-09-28","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/09/28/from-woodies-to-wanamaker-an-afrocentric-experiment/6009b842-f52e-4fbd-9866-cb85d4da3371/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/09/28/from-woodies-to-wanamaker-an-afrocentric-experiment/6009b842-f52e-4fbd-9866-cb85d4da3371/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.376Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/10/13/wal-mart-loses-suit-over-pricing/98fef031-51aa-4371-8c09-9f8f2e083309/","title":"WAL-MART LOSES SUIT OVER PRICING","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1993-10-13","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/10/13/wal-mart-loses-suit-over-pricing/98fef031-51aa-4371-8c09-9f8f2e083309/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.739Z"},
{"publication_date":"1993-11-15","article_text":"\"Ronnie has the fire, enthusiasm and dream to get the job done.\"\n\n-- Ronald Haft's father, Herbert","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/11/15/heeeeres-ronnie-hes-no-longer-on-the-sidelines-but-is-ronald-haft-up-to-leading-an-empire/91453783-5d45-47f4-8333-1005027ce185/","title":"HEEEERE'S RONNIE! HE'S NO LONGER ON THE SIDELINES, BUT IS RONALD HAFT UP TO LEADING AN EMPIRE?","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/11/15/heeeeres-ronnie-hes-no-longer-on-the-sidelines-but-is-ronald-haft-up-to-leading-an-empire/91453783-5d45-47f4-8333-1005027ce185/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.275Z"},
{"article_text":"Button-down Washington, D.C., and bagels?\n\nFrom early on, Michael Robinson knew what it would take to beat the bagel bias in a city only an Amtrak ride away from the bagel capital of the universe -- New York.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/03/on-a-roll-bagel-chain-bets-it-can-grow-bigger/112f716e-1539-47f7-85aa-7133824ccaf0/","publication_date":"1994-01-03","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"ON A ROLL, BAGEL CHAIN BETS IT CAN GROW BIGGER","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/03/on-a-roll-bagel-chain-bets-it-can-grow-bigger/112f716e-1539-47f7-85aa-7133824ccaf0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.797Z"},
{"title":"HAVING A BALL AT THE MALL","publication_date":"1994-01-21","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Touring the District's main shopping areas yesterday -- Georgetown, downtown, Capitol Hill -- it seemed like some weird 1970s sci-fi movie where all human life disappears mysteriously. Darkened storefronts instead of the usual warm glow, lonely chairs stacked on restaurant tables, ice-crusted sidewalks without shoppers, no delivery trucks blocking the street.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/21/having-a-ball-at-the-mall/122ffd71-a3ef-4434-9483-bf3c09cb4b98/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/21/having-a-ball-at-the-mall/122ffd71-a3ef-4434-9483-bf3c09cb4b98/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.806Z"},
{"article_text":"FIRM DOWN TO 6 LOCATIONS, HAS UNPAID BILLS\n\nK-B Cinemas, the Washington area's last locally owned first-run movie chain, said yesterday that it has closed its theaters and is negotiating to sell the chain.\n\nAt one time the dominant theater chain here, K-B has run into financial problems, according to sources close to the company and in the movie business.","title":"K-B CLOSES THEATERS, LOOKS TO SELL CHAIN","publication_date":"1994-01-22","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/22/k-b-closes-theaters-looks-to-sell-chain/6e2ed272-0a09-4e85-9a24-2f006b10afd1/","authors":"Michelle Singletary and Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/22/k-b-closes-theaters-looks-to-sell-chain/6e2ed272-0a09-4e85-9a24-2f006b10afd1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.472Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/31/court-appointed-mediator-to-tackle-the-haft-family-feud/db170c5d-0756-4460-94df-8ce0870c9956/","title":"COURT-APPOINTED MEDIATOR TO TACKLE THE HAFT FAMILY FEUD","publication_date":"1994-01-31","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"He has negotiated with Fidel Castro, has been a rifle platoon leader in the Korean War, has argued many times before the Supreme Court -- and now John E. Nolan Jr. is going to try to make peace among the members of the feuding Haft family.\n\nNolan, 66, a prominent senior partner at Washington's Steptoe & Johnson law firm, has been appointed by two D.C. Superior court judges to \"conduct mediation designed to achieve a global settlement\" in the complex and interlocking lawsuits the five members of the wealthy retail and real estate clan are waging against each other.","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/01/31/court-appointed-mediator-to-tackle-the-haft-family-feud/db170c5d-0756-4460-94df-8ce0870c9956/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.865Z"},
{"publication_date":"1994-03-07","section":"Business","article_text":"We'll call Helen Mills a New Age Workaholic.\n\nMills, of Arlington, works seven days a week, has a phone in the car and a shower at the office. She owns two companies: a health and beauty aids retailer (the D.C. franchise of the Body Shop), and an employee benefits and insurance consulting firm (the Mills Group). She plays a key role in two major socially active business groups (the Social Venture Network and Business for Social Responsibility). And she is launching a company (Shirt- works) to create jobs for homeless women, who would make T-shirts.","title":"WORK AROUND THE CLOCK","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/07/work-around-the-clock/0f963a1e-9615-4393-9dc9-8629741db0e2/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/07/work-around-the-clock/0f963a1e-9615-4393-9dc9-8629741db0e2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.834Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"A New York medical school and hospital have agreed to pay a female researcher nearly $1 million to settle a long-running sex discrimination lawsuit. Legal experts believe it is one of the largest known settlements in a sex discrimination case in the science field.\n\nMany legal experts said that the size of the settlement -- $900,000 -- announced yesterday between Heidi Weissmann, a researcher in nuclear medicine and former associate professor of radiology, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx is likely to shine a bright light on the status of women in the medical field. They said it could result in many more cases being filed.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/18/medical-school-researcher-settle-sex-bias-lawsuit/cd193fce-b9f2-4eeb-867f-d078144fb77e/","subtitle":"Company","section":"Business","title":"MEDICAL SCHOOL, RESEARCHER SETTLE SEX BIAS LAWSUIT","publication_date":"1994-03-18","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/18/medical-school-researcher-settle-sex-bias-lawsuit/cd193fce-b9f2-4eeb-867f-d078144fb77e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.410Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/25/her-mustache-or-her-job/b86f3639-1ad3-4fc3-9750-b4cebd689445/","publication_date":"1994-03-25","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Licia Joy Galinsky is a woman with a mustache. And she alleges that her facial hair is the reason she was fired last month from her job as an audio-visual technician at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Tysons Corner.\n\nSo Galinsky, 30, and her former supervisor Roy A. Peterson, who said he was fired for defending her, filed a federal sexual discrimination complaint yesterday at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It is against both the Ritz-Carlton and the pair's employer, an audio-visual services company that has a contract with the hotel.","section":"Business","title":"HER MUSTACHE OR HER JOB","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/25/her-mustache-or-her-job/b86f3639-1ad3-4fc3-9750-b4cebd689445/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.991Z"},
{"subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1994-03-30","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Tysons Corner and its audio-visual contracting firm yesterday publicly offered to rehire a woman who contended that she lost her job with the firm because of her mustache. Hotel officials said she could return despite new employee grooming rules that bar women with facial hair.\n\nThe \"unconditional\" offer came in a news conference in an elegant reception room after a barrage of national and international media attention, including calls from television talk shows such as those hosted by Sally Jesse Raphael and Phil Donahue.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/30/woman-offered-job-back-in-dispute-over-mustache/c8f92b4e-4703-48f1-a19c-8af726b45e5a/","title":"WOMAN OFFERED JOB BACK IN DISPUTE OVER MUSTACHE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/03/30/woman-offered-job-back-in-dispute-over-mustache/c8f92b4e-4703-48f1-a19c-8af726b45e5a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.419Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/04/08/the-dreams-that-work-is-made-of/776acafb-494b-48ed-95cd-133c3082d10c/","article_text":"NEW STUDY FINDS OFFICE FANTASIZING COMMON, HARMLESS\n\nI am 6' 7\", 240 pounds, a forward for the L.A. Lakers. Mmmm: I'm playing in the NBA finals where I kick Michael Jordan's skinny, overcommercialized butt. Mmmm: Then I send copies of my paycheck to all my exes. And, finally, I show up at my former office in my uniform and ask the boss if he wants my autograph. Mmmm: I don't give it to him.","publication_date":"1994-04-08","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":"THE DREAMS THAT WORK IS MADE OF","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/04/08/the-dreams-that-work-is-made-of/776acafb-494b-48ed-95cd-133c3082d10c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.462Z"},
{"section":"Business","subtitle":"Company","title":"DISNEY GOES IN PURSUIT OF THE PERKY","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/04/23/disney-goes-in-pursuit-of-the-perky/21463cbe-262c-44e3-b6df-f1684395fd4c/","publication_date":"1994-04-23","article_text":"Whistle while you work?\n\nActually, no. Because if you are whistling, you probably can't cheerfully and immediately hear and answer the questions of the \"guests\" -- Walt Disney Co.'s preferred term for customers.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/04/23/disney-goes-in-pursuit-of-the-perky/21463cbe-262c-44e3-b6df-f1684395fd4c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.447Z"},
{"article_text":"A whopping $8 million legal bill -- resulting in part from the bitter feud within the Haft family -- contributed to a hefty loss at the clan's Dart Group Corp. last year.\n\nThe heavy legal expenses, along with a new round of multimillion-dollar restructuring costs designed to improve future performance, were the principal reasons given by company officials yesterday for the net loss of $6.7 million that it reported for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/04/30/dart-group-posts-loss-of-67-million-for-year/2d9dd51d-a5e0-4357-bd4b-2923c1effcb9/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","publication_date":"1994-04-30","title":"DART GROUP POSTS LOSS OF $6.7 MILLION FOR YEAR","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/04/30/dart-group-posts-loss-of-67-million-for-year/2d9dd51d-a5e0-4357-bd4b-2923c1effcb9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.010Z"},
{"title":"THE TALE OF A HOUSE DIVIDED","article_text":"In the end -- long after it became nearly impossible to keep track of the bitter recriminations, harsh allegations, business battles and hopelessly intertwined squabbles -- it was a stranger who played the deciding role in settling the Haft family feud.\n\nOne of the few things the feuding members of the retail-real estate clan can agree on was the key role played in the settlement by D.C. Superior Court Judge Rufus King III.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/05/23/the-tale-of-a-house-divided/2e34226d-d8f3-4add-bde6-a5c423b31606/","section":"Business","publication_date":"1994-05-23","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/05/23/the-tale-of-a-house-divided/2e34226d-d8f3-4add-bde6-a5c423b31606/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.964Z"},
{"section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/07/24/odd-jobs/1fb4d389-acc8-423d-9b99-e63e361b1e21/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"ODD JOBS","article_text":"An employer's bark might not be enough, according to a recent move -- or, more precisely, a non-move -- by the Supreme Court.\n\nWith sexual harassment claims still rising nationwide and companies struggling to find ways to deal with them, businesses should take note that written policies and procedures to deal with sexual harassment complaints may not be enough to protect senior management.","publication_date":"1994-07-24","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/07/24/odd-jobs/1fb4d389-acc8-423d-9b99-e63e361b1e21/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.874Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/09/26/paying-for-the-show-to-go-on/534e6c52-0986-4424-b2cc-81abb6425212/","section":"Business","article_text":"The winding country road that once rolled past the Olney Theatre's old white frame building is gone -- ripped apart to make way for four whiz-by lanes that will serve the homes and businesses that have flooded north to fill up this once-rural pocket of Montgomery County.\n\nThe Olney, long considered a quiet and remote summer stock venue, also has begun to remake itself. In an expensive and ambitious effort to transform the 48-year-old theater, officials there are building a multimillion-dollar, year-round arts center to tap the pockets of an affluent Montgomery County and beyond.","title":"PAYING FOR THE SHOW TO GO ON","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1994-09-26","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/09/26/paying-for-the-show-to-go-on/534e6c52-0986-4424-b2cc-81abb6425212/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.974Z"},
{"publication_date":"1994-10-24","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/10/24/a-corporate-gentle-giant/40a0c09f-04d3-4f1e-a5c4-e14308879bc5/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Landover-based Giant Food Inc. takes in 48 cents of every dollar that consumers spend on food here, and its 160 stores blanket the Washington region. With 24,500 employees, millions of customers and $3.6 billion in sales annually, it is one of the most visible companies in the region.\n\nAll this has made Israel Cohen, 81, one of Washington's wealthiest people and one of its most important business fixtures.","title":"A CORPORATE GENTLE GIANT","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/10/24/a-corporate-gentle-giant/40a0c09f-04d3-4f1e-a5c4-e14308879bc5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.893Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/02/14/japanese-firm-to-buy-computer-show-operator/cb834d0d-272a-4966-9893-3dc0485989ca/","article_text":"Japanese computer equipment and software distributor Softbank Corp said yesterday it has agreed to pay $800 million for a U.S. business that dominates computer-related trade shows in this country, including the huge annual gathering in Las Vegas called Comdex.\n\nThe purchase of the trade show division of Interface Group Inc. will mark the exit from the computer industry of a controversial figure, Sheldon Adelson, who built Comdex but has been criticized for alleged high pricing.","publication_date":"1995-02-14","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"JAPANESE FIRM TO BUY COMPUTER-SHOW OPERATOR","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/02/14/japanese-firm-to-buy-computer-show-operator/cb834d0d-272a-4966-9893-3dc0485989ca/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.926Z"},
{"title":"INTEL UNVEILS CHIP DOUBLING SPEED OF ITS PENTIUM","publication_date":"1995-02-17","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/02/17/intel-unveils-chip-doubling-speed-of-its-pentium/6529853f-521f-49f3-afce-aa454dddc691/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/02/17/intel-unveils-chip-doubling-speed-of-its-pentium/6529853f-521f-49f3-afce-aa454dddc691/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.747Z"},
{"article_text":"The Washington area is about to become the country's first testing ground for interactive television systems that use wireless technology. The systems are among a collection of competing technologies that are intended to let people shop, bank and communicate using their TV sets.\n\nReston-based Eon Corp. said Thursday it will equip 200 Bethesda homes this spring to test a system it developed. Eon's main wireless system competitor, California-based Radio Telecom & Technology Inc., said yesterday it will begin testing its system in selected area homes sometime after March.","section":"Business","publication_date":"1995-02-25","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/02/25/wireless-interactive-tv-coming-to-the-area/cf619f26-7fae-43e4-8286-95597874a10c/","title":"WIRELESS, INTERACTIVE TV COMING TO THE AREA","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/02/25/wireless-interactive-tv-coming-to-the-area/cf619f26-7fae-43e4-8286-95597874a10c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.019Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/03/20/rating-system-is-a-game-start-for-douglas-lowensteins-firm/28ba9cf1-a6e3-447e-acab-3c36679dedfe/","title":"RATING SYSTEM IS A GAME START FOR DOUGLAS LOWENSTEIN'S FIRM","publication_date":"1995-03-20","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Douglas Lowenstein is hoping to be known as more than just the video games rating guy. The former newspaper reporter, Capitol Hill staffer and consultant, who is president of the year-old Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), based in the District, spent much of his first year shepherding into existence the Entertainment Software Rating System for violence-filled video games such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/03/20/rating-system-is-a-game-start-for-douglas-lowensteins-firm/28ba9cf1-a6e3-447e-acab-3c36679dedfe/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.035Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"DIGEX FLOURISHES WITH INTERNET'S POPULARITY","publication_date":"1995-04-10","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/10/digex-flourishes-with-internets-popularity/12a4e3ed-d9ef-413d-9197-54fd452e87b0/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/10/digex-flourishes-with-internets-popularity/12a4e3ed-d9ef-413d-9197-54fd452e87b0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.125Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-04-11","title":"FAIRFAX'S UUNET TECHNOLOGIES PLANS TO GO PUBLIC","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/11/fairfaxs-uunet-technologies-plans-to-go-public/0e28a003-0f9e-4ac0-b706-93790a45fff2/","section":"Business","article_text":"Fairfax-based Uunet Technologies Inc., one of the nation's biggest companies that link computer users to the Internet, said yesterday that it planned to sell shares to the public.\n\nThe private company filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell more than 4 million shares in an initial public offering to raise more than $40 million. The company said it plans to use the money to expand and improve its services.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/11/fairfaxs-uunet-technologies-plans-to-go-public/0e28a003-0f9e-4ac0-b706-93790a45fff2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.955Z"},
{"article_text":"Time Warner Inc. agreed to sell a controlling stake in its Six Flags theme park business yesterday. The deal would be worth about $1 billion to Time Warner, the world's biggest media-entertainment company, and further its efforts to reduce its $15 billion debt load.\n\nA group of outside investors led by Boston Venture Partners would pay $200 million in cash for a 51 percent stake in 10 amusement parks nationwide and would assume $800 million in debt, according to executives at Time Warner. Boston Ventures also owns a major stake in the Enquirer/Star Group.","publication_date":"1995-04-18","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/18/time-warner-to-sell-stake-in-six-flags/90c8ca49-2734-40c4-9dd9-b8ba7f1536c3/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":"TIME WARNER TO SELL STAKE IN SIX FLAGS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/18/time-warner-to-sell-stake-in-six-flags/90c8ca49-2734-40c4-9dd9-b8ba7f1536c3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.027Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","title":". . . AND STARRING SISSY CYBERSPACEK","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/22/and-starring-sissy-cyberspacek/63888cec-b2ff-4469-8932-b2fd01ecdc2a/","article_text":"What do you get if you cross Hollywood with Silicon Valley?","publication_date":"1995-04-22","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/04/22/and-starring-sissy-cyberspacek/63888cec-b2ff-4469-8932-b2fd01ecdc2a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.874Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/05/08/an-inundation-of-internet-information/88c63bf3-851f-44f4-8f19-b376afa5575e/","section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"It used to be diet books that were stacked up high as mountains. Then piles of new age tomes. Then too many cartoon cat collections. But these days, walk down bookstore aisles and what is more likely to fall and crush you are books about the Internet. Or on-line services. Or CD-ROMS. Or any permutation that caters to the growing consumer interest in multimedia.","title":"AN INUNDATION OF INTERNET INFORMATION","publication_date":"1995-05-08","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/05/08/an-inundation-of-internet-information/88c63bf3-851f-44f4-8f19-b376afa5575e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.840Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/05/14/multimedias-maelstrom/fd448a6e-8904-477a-885c-9439fd9175ed/","title":"MULTIMEDIA'S MAELSTROM","publication_date":"1995-05-14","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"After three years in business, Putnam New Media called it quits last month. It closed its offices in Reston and laid off its six full-time workers. The CD-ROM business had looked fabulous from the outside; inside, it turned out to be a trendy way to lose money.\n\nThe CD-ROM boom began in the early 1990s, as companies rushed to provide content for the millions of advanced \"multimedia\" computers that could provide sounds and images. The catalogue of CD-ROMs -- so named because they are \"compact discs\" with a \"read-only memory\" -- expanded rapidly to include games, encyclopedias, interactive books, art collections and more.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/05/14/multimedias-maelstrom/fd448a6e-8904-477a-885c-9439fd9175ed/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.919Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/01/primark-to-acquire-disclosure-for-200-million/5ab916b4-cfe3-4673-b5fb-4d776998f1b0/","title":"PRIMARK TO ACQUIRE DISCLOSURE FOR $200 MILLION","section":"Business","publication_date":"1995-06-01","article_text":"Disclosure Inc., a fast-growing financial data company based in Bethesda, said yesterday it had agreed to be acquired for $200 million by Primark Corp., a Massachusetts information services company.\n\nThe deal is not expected to result in layoffs among privately held Disclosure's 950 employees, about two-thirds of whom are located in the Washington area, said company spokesman Tim McLean. The purchase must be approved by regulators.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/01/primark-to-acquire-disclosure-for-200-million/5ab916b4-cfe3-4673-b5fb-4d776998f1b0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.054Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/07/ibms-bid-a-more-electric-shade-of-blue/1a87aa2d-6984-48a3-a04f-8c102ec6d8fa/","title":"IBM'S BID: A MORE ELECTRIC SHADE OF BLUE","section":"Business","publication_date":"1995-06-07","article_text":"Lotus Development Corp. chief executive Jim Manzi got his corporate wake-up call at 8:25 Monday morning.\n\nOn the telephone line was International Business Machines Corp. chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr., informing Manzi that in five minutes IBM would announce to the world that it was going to try to buy softwaremaker Lotus for $3.3 billion, with or without Manzi's cooperation.","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/07/ibms-bid-a-more-electric-shade-of-blue/1a87aa2d-6984-48a3-a04f-8c102ec6d8fa/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.928Z"},
{"title":"PSI PURCHASING 2 OTHER INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS","subtitle":"Company","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/07/psi-purchasing-2-other-internet-service-providers/7e4c8bed-c18c-4fc6-befc-b045e1e954f1/","publication_date":"1995-06-07","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Performance Systems International Inc. of Herndon, leveraging the money and prominence it has gained in the wake of its recent successful public offering, said yesterday it plans to buy two software companies for $31.8 million in stock.\n\nPSI, one of the nation's largest providers of services that link users to the Internet worldwide network of computers, said it has signed letters of intent to acquire InterCon Systems Corp. of Herndon and Software Ventures Corp., based in Berkeley, Calif., using more than 2 million shares of PSI stock.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/07/psi-purchasing-2-other-internet-service-providers/7e4c8bed-c18c-4fc6-befc-b045e1e954f1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.549Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-06-22","authors":"Kara Swisher and Elizabeth Corcoran","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/22/gingrich-condemns-on-line-decency-act/06dd5913-6189-4bc4-b51d-397a1e0fdfa8/","title":"GINGRICH CONDEMNS ON-LINE DECENCY ACT","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/22/gingrich-condemns-on-line-decency-act/06dd5913-6189-4bc4-b51d-397a1e0fdfa8/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.071Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/24/orbital-sciences-destroys-rocket-during-launch/d1ab20d6-2958-43b6-940c-29338e7ebd36/","section":"Business","publication_date":"1995-06-24","title":"ORBITAL SCIENCES DESTROYS ROCKET DURING LAUNCH","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Sterling-based Orbital Sciences Corp., which has been plagued by a series of technological mishaps recently, said yesterday it had to blow up one of its new Pegasus rockets just after it was launched. Some investors sold Orbital's stock in response, driving the price down 10 percent.\n\nThe space-product company's Pegasus XL rocket was to have placed an Air Force satellite into orbit. But the company sent it a \"destruct\" signal Thursday afternoon just 2 1/2 minutes after it was dropped from a launch plane over the coast of California to begin its flight. The rocket cost the company $12 million to develop and launch.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/24/orbital-sciences-destroys-rocket-during-launch/d1ab20d6-2958-43b6-940c-29338e7ebd36/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.072Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/27/discovery-plans-site-on-internet-web/c37fe0f8-0f8e-4d35-939a-9741e3c9c6c9/","section":"Business","article_text":"Bethesda-based Discovery Communications Inc., owner of a cable TV channel known for documentaries about spiders and other facets of nature, is moving onto a new kind of web.\n\nWith a $10 million investment, the company will offer pictures, articles and sounds on nature and other educational subjects on the World Wide Web, the fastest-growing part of the global Internet computer network. And by the end of the year, it will take the unusual step of charging people for access.","publication_date":"1995-06-27","title":"DISCOVERY PLANS SITE ON INTERNET WEB'","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/06/27/discovery-plans-site-on-internet-web/c37fe0f8-0f8e-4d35-939a-9741e3c9c6c9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.894Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"BAN ON ON-LINE SMUT OPPOSED","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/07/18/ban-on-on-line-smut-opposed/8b06a468-1805-4830-8bdc-454521b633a9/","article_text":"On-line companies, software makers and civil liberties groups came to Capitol Hill yesterday to make their case that the on-line world can be made safe for children without government intervention.\n\nWith congressional attention focused on the easy availability of pornography on computer networks, the groups converged to try to head off passage of legislation that would ban obscene material outright.","section":"Business","publication_date":"1995-07-18","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/07/18/ban-on-on-line-smut-opposed/8b06a468-1805-4830-8bdc-454521b633a9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.945Z"},
{"title":"COMPUTER ASSOCIATES CLEARED TO ACQUIRE LEGENT CORP.","publication_date":"1995-07-29","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/07/29/computer-associates-cleared-to-acquire-legent-corp/dd2e61d0-f43f-471a-98e2-f7edbb13757e/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"After long and sometimes testy negotiations, Computer Associates International Inc. and the Justice Department yesterday struck an antitrust agreement that clears the way for the company's $1.8 billion acquisition of Vienna-based Legent Corp., the area's biggest computer software company.\n\nThe deal requires Islandia, N.Y.-based Computer Associates to freely license five mainframe computer software products to other companies to create viable competitors in the marketplace for these products. A judge must approve the agreement before it can go into effect.","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/07/29/computer-associates-cleared-to-acquire-legent-corp/dd2e61d0-f43f-471a-98e2-f7edbb13757e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.982Z"},
{"article_text":"Digital Equipment Corp., the country's third-largest computer maker, yesterday reported its first annual profit in five years.\n\nDigital Chairman Robert Palmer attributed the improvement to cost controls -- including layoffs of 16,000 people in the past year -- and stronger sales in its flagship computer lines. Digital now has 61,700 employees worldwide, with about 1,500 located in the Washington area.","section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"DIGITAL EQUIPMENT REPORTS 1ST ANNUAL PROFIT IN 5 YEARS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/08/02/digital-equipment-reports-1st-annual-profit-in-5-years/4744de0c-ff8c-4ecb-8e12-6d27072446ec/","publication_date":"1995-08-02","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/08/02/digital-equipment-reports-1st-annual-profit-in-5-years/4744de0c-ff8c-4ecb-8e12-6d27072446ec/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.912Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/09/15/walking-the-beat-in-cyberspace/d3f587e2-7030-4e08-b323-32d5ec1286aa/","title":"WALKING THE BEAT IN CYBERSPACE","authors":"Kara Swisher, John Schwartz","section":"Business","article_text":"Calton Bolick was surprised, and then disgusted.\n\nAs a subscriber to the popular commercial on-line service America Online, Bolick received an unsolicited piece of electronic mail on Aug. 29 with a computer data file appended to it. \"There was a message from somebody I'd never heard of . . .,\" he said. \"I was in for somewhat of a shock.\"","publication_date":"1995-09-15","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/09/15/walking-the-beat-in-cyberspace/d3f587e2-7030-4e08-b323-32d5ec1286aa/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.937Z"},
{"title":"MCI ENTERING MARKET FOR COMPUTER SERVICES","section":"Business","article_text":"MCI Communications Corp. said yesterday it will buy Canada's largest information services company for $1 billion, a move that would put MCI into yet another line of business.\n\nThe $13-per-share offer for Ottawa-based SHL Systemhouse Inc. would give District-based MCI a major presence in computer consulting and operation of computers for clients. This would further MCI's strategy of becoming a company where businesses can fill all of their communications and computing needs, company officials say.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/09/21/mci-entering-market-for-computer-services/732fe514-662a-4f31-91d2-492663a8ec4f/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1995-09-21","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/09/21/mci-entering-market-for-computer-services/732fe514-662a-4f31-91d2-492663a8ec4f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.947Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-09-21","title":"WETA TO MANAGE CAPACCESS AREA COMPUTER NETWORK","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/09/21/weta-to-manage-capaccess-area-computer-network/907b9e50-f7b7-4c2f-a616-c5136d945369/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/09/21/weta-to-manage-capaccess-area-computer-network/907b9e50-f7b7-4c2f-a616-c5136d945369/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.775Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-10-12","title":"INDEPENDENT-MINDED MANZI","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/10/12/independent-minded-manzi/d443ea98-7f66-4828-8bde-4650c33dacd4/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/10/12/independent-minded-manzi/d443ea98-7f66-4828-8bde-4650c33dacd4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.080Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"As a project officer at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Michael Strait was present three years ago at the birth of CapAccess, the Washington area community computer network.\n\nWith an initial $75,000 grant from the CPB, technical and administrative help from George Washington University and support from volunteers at 50 local organizations, the National Capital Public Access Network Inc. has grown into the area's most active community-based network. With links to schools, libraries, governments and community groups, as well as a plethora of on-line discussion groups, it has 16,000 users in the Washington area.","title":"ART AND CULTURE ARE GOING DIGITAL","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/10/16/art-and-culture-are-going-digital/91a1892a-6d68-4dab-8246-0a87270426e6/","publication_date":"1995-10-16","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/10/16/art-and-culture-are-going-digital/91a1892a-6d68-4dab-8246-0a87270426e6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.956Z"},
{"article_text":"\"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a third time, shame on everyone who knows me, shame on Fools everywhere, shame on my stock-picking dog, Bully,\" read a recent posting on America Online.\n\n\"Now, the above probably seems like the maniacal rantings of a bedridden character in one of the many great, brooding 19th-century Russian novels,\" the posting concluded.","publication_date":"1995-11-06","title":"INVESTOR DUO TURNS FLIP SIDE OF FINANCE INTO ON-LINE SUCCESS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/06/investor-duo-turns-flip-side-of-finance-into-on-line-success/3da79b2f-1078-4ca3-972f-b8ab2a1a9e22/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/06/investor-duo-turns-flip-side-of-finance-into-on-line-success/3da79b2f-1078-4ca3-972f-b8ab2a1a9e22/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.118Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-11-13","title":"JIM KIMSEY STEPS OUT FROM BEHIND THE SCENES","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/13/jim-kimsey-steps-out-from-behind-the-scenes/fc318211-9847-44a4-8c37-385e8b5db916/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/13/jim-kimsey-steps-out-from-behind-the-scenes/fc318211-9847-44a4-8c37-385e8b5db916/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.092Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-11-14","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/14/internet-access-providers-lining-up-a-marketing-blitz/3ff604d5-da9c-4ee5-897c-ead52e5792e1/","title":"INTERNET ACCESS PROVIDERS LINING UP A MARKETING BLITZ","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"You haven't been inundated with Internet come-ons, yet?\n\nIf not, YOU WILL, to borrow a line from the telephone company ad.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/14/internet-access-providers-lining-up-a-marketing-blitz/3ff604d5-da9c-4ee5-897c-ead52e5792e1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.283Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/20/intersolv-buys-its-way-up-the-software-ladder/e7fd6b8a-11cb-4af5-9088-972a85f6a71f/","title":"INTERSOLV BUYS ITS WAY UP THE SOFTWARE LADDER","publication_date":"1995-11-20","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"This has been a banner year for technology takeovers, with mega-mergers and big buyouts involving billions of dollars.\n\nInternational Business Machines Corp. gobbled up Lotus Development Corp. for $3.5 billion, Computer Associates International Inc. acquired Legent Corp. of Herndon for $1.8 billion and Microsoft Corp. made a $2 billion play for Intuit Inc. that was stopped only by antitrust regulators.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/20/intersolv-buys-its-way-up-the-software-ladder/e7fd6b8a-11cb-4af5-9088-972a85f6a71f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.968Z"},
{"title":"IZZY COHEN: FIERCE COMPETITOR, INSTINCTIVE RETAILER, EAGER INNOVATOR","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/24/izzy-cohen-fierce-competitor-instinctive-retailer-eager-innovator/7c7343b0-7826-4ed7-853e-ff3b66547dc4/","publication_date":"1995-11-24","authors":"Frank Swoboda and Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Izzy Cohen's closest friends and toughest business competitors say the same thing about him: He was a hell of a grocer.\n\nCohen, the chairman of Giant Food Inc. who died Wednesday at the age of 83, didn't disagree. \"I might not be the best corporate executive,\" Cohen once told his shareholders, \"but I consider myself one of the best grocers in the business.\" That's about as far as he went when it came to public talk about his business philosophy and the strategies he followed to build Giant from one store to 164, with 107 of them in the Washington area where Giant dominates.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/24/izzy-cohen-fierce-competitor-instinctive-retailer-eager-innovator/7c7343b0-7826-4ed7-853e-ff3b66547dc4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.453Z"},
{"section":"Business","article_text":"Discovery Communications Inc., which owns cable television's popular Discovery Channel, said yesterday it would launch five new cable channels in the next two years. The channels would be part of a diversification campaign that so far has added retail stores, feature film-production and a presence on the Internet computer network.\n\nThe company also reshuffled members of its executive suite. The company said the new lineup is meant to improve the management of its increasingly diverse and far-flung media empire.","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"DISCOVERY PLANS 5 NEW CABLE CHANNELS IN TWO YEARS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/29/discovery-plans-5-new-cable-channels-in-two-years/d15ee4b4-05f4-40cf-a466-e110f918d2f6/","publication_date":"1995-11-29","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/11/29/discovery-plans-5-new-cable-channels-in-two-years/d15ee4b4-05f4-40cf-a466-e110f918d2f6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.866Z"},
{"article_text":"In Thorton Wilder's \"The Matchmaker,\" now playing at the District's Arena Stage, the main character utters this unforgettable line at the very end of the comedy:\n\n\"Money, pardon my expression, is like manure,\" Dolly Gallagher Levi archly notes. \"It's not worth a thing unless it's spread about, encouraging young things to grow.\"","publication_date":"1995-12-04","title":"FOR HIGH-TECH START-UPS, SOMETHING VENTURED AND SOMETHING GAINED","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/12/04/for-high-tech-start-ups-something-ventured-and-something-gained/d0d2893e-b9bc-43bc-bdff-a288b96f0f8d/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/12/04/for-high-tech-start-ups-something-ventured-and-something-gained/d0d2893e-b9bc-43bc-bdff-a288b96f0f8d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.978Z"},
{"title":"THE GAMES PEOPLE RATE","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/12/13/the-games-people-rate/7c91976e-9291-4aa5-bbc1-40369ecd95e7/","publication_date":"1995-12-13","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/12/13/the-games-people-rate/7c91976e-9291-4aa5-bbc1-40369ecd95e7/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.063Z"},
{"article_text":"A new character surfaced in the long-running Haft saga yesterday, as the woman who said she helped establish the family's lucrative real estate business testified in D.C. Superior Court.\n\nThe witness, Vana Martin, delivered a detailed and sometimes entertaining account of her role in the founding of the Haft family real estate concern, which is the largest owner of strip shopping centers in the Washington area.","publication_date":"1995-12-21","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"NEW TWIST IN HAFT CASE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/12/21/new-twist-in-haft-case/6ff65692-d164-4c5c-996c-de7d5efcc436/","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/12/21/new-twist-in-haft-case/6ff65692-d164-4c5c-996c-de7d5efcc436/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.988Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/01/cyberporn-debate-goes-international/8045b976-a6f8-4550-801d-64ac41b484ce/","publication_date":"1996-01-01","title":"CYBERPORN DEBATE GOES INTERNATIONAL","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/01/cyberporn-debate-goes-international/8045b976-a6f8-4550-801d-64ac41b484ce/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.766Z"},
{"section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"LAS VEGAS -- @DINK:BIZ+\n\nVCR, PC, CD-ROM. Now the consumer electronics industry is trying to add another ingredient to home technology's alphabet soup -- DVD -- in hopes of generating a whole new multibillion-dollar wave of purchases.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/06/its-the-new-improved-electronic-mousetrap/49b91748-bfa1-49e5-b26c-3ffab14b2ad4/","title":"IT'S THE NEW, IMPROVED ELECTRONIC MOUSETRAP!","publication_date":"1996-01-06","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/06/its-the-new-improved-electronic-mousetrap/49b91748-bfa1-49e5-b26c-3ffab14b2ad4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.997Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-01-26","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/26/at-apple-sale-talk-is-a-can-of-worms/5a6c6736-35b8-43f8-9e7e-822e4293f09b/","title":"AT APPLE, SALE TALK IS A CAN OF WORMS","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/26/at-apple-sale-talk-is-a-can-of-worms/5a6c6736-35b8-43f8-9e7e-822e4293f09b/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.117Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-01-31","title":"SELLING THEIR NET ASSETS","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/31/selling-their-net-assets/e45a9bac-360e-4e31-9126-63289f750da2/","article_text":"Even George Patton has joined the craze for computer networks.\n\nFestooned with ribbons and medals, the legendary general from World War II -- actually an actor named Dennis Cockrum -- stood ramrod straight amid a crowded trade show at the Washington Convention Center and demanded that  passers-by purchase the products of a California company called Micom Communications Corp. \"That's an order!\" he barked.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/01/31/selling-their-net-assets/e45a9bac-360e-4e31-9126-63289f750da2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.007Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-02-12","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/12/serving-as-an-agent-of-change/04f4b922-681e-4b08-859a-a65a10afe049/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"SERVING AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/12/serving-as-an-agent-of-change/04f4b922-681e-4b08-859a-a65a10afe049/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.979Z"},
{"title":"AT GROWING FIRMS, DREAMS GIVE WAY TO MANAGEMENT TEAMS","article_text":"It is an inevitable moment in nearly every entrepreneurial venture: when the business's founder must make way for the manager who can better run its day-to-day operations.\n\nOne local technology executive calls it the \"picking-up-the-toys\" period of a start-up company that is entering its adolescence. And for three Washington area technology businesses, this coming-of-age transition appears to have arrived in the past few weeks. For example:","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/13/at-growing-firms-dreams-give-way-to-management-teams/9b6fa9ce-a8dd-48ea-babc-040ca65584c6/","publication_date":"1996-02-13","section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/13/at-growing-firms-dreams-give-way-to-management-teams/9b6fa9ce-a8dd-48ea-babc-040ca65584c6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.044Z"},
{"section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/22/sears-to-sell-its-stake-in-prodigy/acc520a1-a32b-473b-a35b-552ee6b36055/","title":"SEARS TO SELL ITS STAKE IN PRODIGY","publication_date":"1996-02-22","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"In the second major shake-up this week in the competitive on-line services industry, Sears, Roebuck and Co. said yesterday it plans to sell its 50 percent stake in Prodigy Services Co.\n\nThe announcement comes a day after H&R Block Inc. announced it would spin off CompuServe Inc. in a public stock offering. CompuServe is the nation's No. 2 on-line services company, behind industry leader America Online Inc. of Vienna, while Prodigy is in third place.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/22/sears-to-sell-its-stake-in-prodigy/acc520a1-a32b-473b-a35b-552ee6b36055/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.134Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"America Online Inc., the nation's largest on-line services company and one of the fastest-growing businesses in the Washington area, yesterday said it plans to move from a cramped trio of office buildings in Fairfax County to a single large headquarters facility in Loudoun County.\n\nCompany officials confirmed they have signed a letter of intent to purchase the prominent British Aerospace building at Route 28 and Waxpool Road, just north of Dulles International Airport. The building has been largely vacant since the British company decided not to expand as planned. The deal is subject to meeting \"due diligence\" requirements, America Online officials said.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/24/aol-planning-move-to-loudoun-county/cf185787-e7e1-4d5b-b8d1-47f759e0776f/","publication_date":"1996-02-24","title":"AOL PLANNING MOVE TO LOUDOUN COUNTY","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/24/aol-planning-move-to-loudoun-county/cf185787-e7e1-4d5b-b8d1-47f759e0776f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.222Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/26/gtsi-retools-with-a-former-rival/df4a76f0-6710-4817-a153-f6eae0adee69/","article_text":"When M. Dendy Young sold his very successful Falcon Microsystems Inc. to rival Government Technology Services Inc. 18 months ago, he walked away with $16 million and the freedom to kick back and start up yet another lean and nimble entrepreneurial business.","title":"GTSI RETOOLS WITH A FORMER RIVAL","section":"Business","publication_date":"1996-02-26","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/26/gtsi-retools-with-a-former-rival/df4a76f0-6710-4817-a153-f6eae0adee69/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.143Z"},
{"article_text":"Steve Case, chairman of America Online Inc., sounded weary answering yet another question about whether the proprietary on-line industry is in trouble these days because of the rising popularity of the wide-open Internet.\n\nCase is cast in an unusual role these days: defending his industry's future, even as his Vienna-based company -- the nation's biggest on-line service -- continues its dizzying growth. Last week, it announced its 5 millionth customer, double its size a year ago.","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-02-27","section":"Business","title":"ALONG CAME A PROVIDER, AND SAT DOWN BESIDE HER . . .","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/27/along-came-a-provider-and-sat-down-beside-her/4f3a6eef-3292-48b7-942a-28a2d4ea0fe4/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/27/along-came-a-provider-and-sat-down-beside-her/4f3a6eef-3292-48b7-942a-28a2d4ea0fe4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.016Z"},
{"section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/28/att-to-begin-offering-access-to-the-internet/a28bdaa9-e642-4db6-89d3-20eee3c91e09/","article_text":"AT&T Corp. yesterday said it would offer Internet access service to consumers nationwide within a few weeks.\n\nThe long-distance telephone giant is the latest big company to enter the fast-growing business of linking people to the worldwide network of computers. AT&T said it will offer \"dial-up\" Internet access to its 80 million residential and 10 million business customers nationwide starting March 14.","publication_date":"1996-02-28","title":"AT&T TO BEGIN OFFERING ACCESS TO THE INTERNET","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/28/att-to-begin-offering-access-to-the-internet/a28bdaa9-e642-4db6-89d3-20eee3c91e09/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.885Z"},
{"title":"AT&T'S INTERNET PLANS BUFFET AREA TECH STOCKS","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-02-29","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/29/atts-internet-plans-buffet-area-tech-stocks/f509404c-fd03-47f3-b497-561902d5610d/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/02/29/atts-internet-plans-buffet-area-tech-stocks/f509404c-fd03-47f3-b497-561902d5610d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.997Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/02/att-s-cyber-shadow/8e872e86-4b40-48ae-9f02-adf2df3d9c22/","title":"AT&T 'S CYBER SHADOW","publication_date":"1996-03-02","section":"Business","article_text":"Unless you've been in the remote wilderness for the past year, you've heard of the Internet.\n\nAnd AT&T Corp. is sure you've heard of it.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/02/att-s-cyber-shadow/8e872e86-4b40-48ae-9f02-adf2df3d9c22/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.126Z"},
{"section":"Business","publication_date":"1996-03-06","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/06/att-discussing-alliances-with-on-line-services/6e29fb7e-a2d6-40f1-a6e5-524633afb959/","title":"AT&T DISCUSSING ALLIANCES WITH ON-LINE SERVICES","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"AT&T Corp. is talking to America Online Inc. of Vienna and other commercial on-line companies about alliances that would allow its customers to link up to the proprietary services using AT&T's newly announced Internet access service, sources familiar with the talks said.\n\nIf negotiations are successful, analysts said, such deals could shake up the entire pricing and distribution structure of the still-evolving on-line computer services industry and further blur the lines between closed on-line services and the wide-open Internet. Prodigy Services Co. sources also said they are in talks with AT&T and CompuServe Inc. said it would welcome such discussions.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/06/att-discussing-alliances-with-on-line-services/6e29fb7e-a2d6-40f1-a6e5-524633afb959/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.935Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/12/att-interface-pushes-up-aol-stock/a546575d-cec4-410e-a76b-79eef33f347a/","publication_date":"1996-03-12","article_text":"America Online Inc.'s stock price jumped 10 percent yesterday after the Vienna-based company confirmed it will offer reduced-price links to its on-line computer service to tens of millions of people via AT&T Corp.'s new Internet access service.\n\nAmerica Online stock rose $4.37 1/2 a share to close at $48.37 1/2 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, and analysts said it reflected the possibility that America Online could gain major market share after its service becomes available this summer through AT&T's WorldNet service, which is to debut Thursday.","title":"AT&T INTERFACE PUSHES UP AOL STOCK","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/12/att-interface-pushes-up-aol-stock/a546575d-cec4-410e-a76b-79eef33f347a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.151Z"},
{"article_text":"An industry that barely existed a year ago has proliferated like kudzu and today is considered one of the hottest technology fields in the Washington area.\n\nBut the patchwork of mostly small service companies that link customers' computers to the Internet also is a business with prospects that appear to be dimming as big players, including AT&T Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp., begin launching major Internet access services.","publication_date":"1996-03-18","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/18/surviving-in-the-land-of-the-giants/9e3eb701-5592-4375-a92b-0799a303d00f/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"SURVIVING IN THE LAND OF THE GIANTS","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/18/surviving-in-the-land-of-the-giants/9e3eb701-5592-4375-a92b-0799a303d00f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.040Z"},
{"section":"Business","publication_date":"1996-03-29","article_text":"If you were flush with cash and wanted to buy a good-sized chunk of high-flying UUNet Technologies Inc. of Fairfax last November, you'd have almost had to use a tractor-trailer to move the money. With its 28.5 million shares worth close to $100 each at the time, just a 10 percent stake in the Internet access company would have cost almost $285 million.","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/29/net-gains-vanish-as-competition-rattles-on-line-companies-stocks/a595201e-116a-48d3-ad22-1e68932fa37a/","title":"NET GAINS VANISH AS COMPETITION RATTLES ON-LINE COMPANIES' STOCKS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/29/net-gains-vanish-as-competition-rattles-on-line-companies-stocks/a595201e-116a-48d3-ad22-1e68932fa37a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.049Z"},
{"title":"FREELOADER THINKS IT'S FOUND A BETTER WAY TO THE WEB","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/04/01/freeloader-thinks-its-found-a-better-way-to-the-web/34158ef8-394c-4a84-bff8-8d7030b91858/","publication_date":"1996-04-01","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/04/01/freeloader-thinks-its-found-a-better-way-to-the-web/34158ef8-394c-4a84-bff8-8d7030b91858/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.108Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-04-03","section":"Business","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/04/03/sparing-computers-the-cuts/f599d477-4544-44a8-becd-df72d6db35e1/","title":"SPARING COMPUTERS THE CUTS","article_text":"After a seemingly endless winter of budget headaches, why were so many federal bureaucrats smiling yesterday?\n\nBecause in one part of the Washington Convention Center, Pentagon officials were playing race-car computer games. Nearby, an Agriculture Department analyst was happily nabbing a free T-shirt for helping test new data management software. And in the \"Internet Adventure Park,\" workers from an alphabet soup of federal agencies -- FBI, GSA, DOJ, HHS -- surfed the worldwide network of computers, searching for the hottest pages on the graphical World Wide Web.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/04/03/sparing-computers-the-cuts/f599d477-4544-44a8-becd-df72d6db35e1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.902Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-04-09","title":"AT DIGITAL, A ROUGH ROAD TO RECOVERY","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/04/09/at-digital-a-rough-road-to-recovery/1fc46688-1763-4a9c-a4ab-5e6326433469/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"It was almost looking as if the turbulence was over for Digital Equipment Corp.\n\nAfter years of multibillion-dollar losses, layoffs and Wall Street predictions that the once-hot computer maker was headed for irrelevance, Digital was again posting some good news.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/04/09/at-digital-a-rough-road-to-recovery/1fc46688-1763-4a9c-a4ab-5e6326433469/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.060Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-05-01","section":"Business","article_text":"The quicksilver restructuring of the U.S. communications industry gained new speed yesterday with a $2 billion deal to wed one of the Washington area's hottest Internet companies to an aggressive Omaha telecommunications upstart.\n\nUUNet Technologies Inc. of Fairfax, which links businesses to the worldwide network of computers, said it had agreed to be acquired by MFS Communications Co. in a stock transaction that values UUNet at more than $450 million above its stock market value on Monday. That would give shareholders a premium of about 28 percent.","title":"UUNET TECHNOLOGIES AGREES TO MERGER WITH NEB. FIRM","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/01/uunet-technologies-agrees-to-merger-with-neb-firm/10d53bdd-522a-4a36-a6e2-4e7652d0b3b2/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/01/uunet-technologies-agrees-to-merger-with-neb-firm/10d53bdd-522a-4a36-a6e2-4e7652d0b3b2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.159Z"},
{"section":"Business","title":"TERMINALLY FRUSTRATED","article_text":"Employees were delighted when the 24 computers in the Kensington headquarters of Century Pool Management Inc. were wired together into a network. It meant the information needed to run 250 community swimming pools -- proper chlorine levels, work schedules for 1,000 lifeguards, and more -- could be freely traded electronically between different screens.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/05/terminally-frustrated/da73d98a-9568-4e63-bacb-0fe6acec6aec/","publication_date":"1996-05-05","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/05/terminally-frustrated/da73d98a-9568-4e63-bacb-0fe6acec6aec/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.078Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/06/anticipating-the-internet/ebef84f0-e7d9-4340-96ef-b57ae949da40/","publication_date":"1996-05-06","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"ANTICIPATING THE INTERNET","section":"Business","article_text":"In early 1993, Rick Adams got an offer very few people could refuse.\n\nWe'll pay you $8 million for your little Fairfax company, said executives from an up-and-coming telecommunications firm in the Midwest.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/06/anticipating-the-internet/ebef84f0-e7d9-4340-96ef-b57ae949da40/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.090Z"},
{"title":"PRODIGY OFFICIALS TO BUY THE FIRM FROM SEARS, IBM","publication_date":"1996-05-08","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Prodigy Services Co., the company that pioneered the mass market for home computer on-line service but has fallen behind in the race it touched off, soon will be acquired by a group of its own managers for about $100 million, according to company sources.\n\nThe managers, led by Prodigy chief executive Ed Bennett, also are negotiating possible purchase of the service's headquarters building and land at its White Plains, N.Y., headquarters and its national communications network, the sources said. That could add another $100 million to the deal.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/08/prodigy-officials-to-buy-the-firm-from-sears-ibm/1c2b930d-8f0f-420a-b2d2-21fb9d4b5d44/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/08/prodigy-officials-to-buy-the-firm-from-sears-ibm/1c2b930d-8f0f-420a-b2d2-21fb9d4b5d44/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.098Z"},
{"title":"CLARITAS TO BUY SOFTWARE FIRM","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Business","article_text":"Claritas Inc., an Arlington-based demographic marketing research company, yesterday said it agreed to acquire Strategic Mapping Inc., a California-based mapping and marketing data software company, for an undisclosed sum.\n\nThe deal will join two leading marketing information companies, said Tom Dailey, Claritas president and chief executive. The transaction must be ratified by SMI's shareholders, he added.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/11/claritas-to-buy-software-firm/713a7472-1d18-4dd2-ad3a-97e023584154/","publication_date":"1996-05-11","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/11/claritas-to-buy-software-firm/713a7472-1d18-4dd2-ad3a-97e023584154/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.198Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"PSINet Inc., a Herndon-based Internet service provider, yesterday announced it would cut its work force by 15 percent and shift its business from the increasingly competitive consumer market for Internet service.\n\nAbout 85 people, mostly in the New York area, will lose jobs, officials said.","title":"PSINET TO TRIM WORK FORCE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/11/psinet-to-trim-work-force/1a18cc00-6108-427c-b16f-d738bc0d28a0/","section":"Business","publication_date":"1996-05-11","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/11/psinet-to-trim-work-force/1a18cc00-6108-427c-b16f-d738bc0d28a0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.206Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/14/herndons-psinet-tosses-a-few-takeover-hints-of-its-own/f232266c-f209-44b5-9fca-3a415782c6b3/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"With the announcement a few weeks ago that UUNet Technologies Inc. of Fairfax had agreed to be acquired by MFS Communications Inc. for $2 billion, the focus of takeover talk on Wall Street and among industry analysts has shifted to other nationally based Internet access providers.\n\nThe takeover targets being mentioned most often include Herndon-based PSINet Inc., whose stock jumped from $11.75 on the Nasdaq Stock Market to $14.12 1/2 on April 30, the day UUNet announced its deal.","publication_date":"1996-05-14","section":"Business","title":"HERNDON'S PSINET TOSSES A FEW TAKEOVER HINTS OF ITS OWN","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/05/14/herndons-psinet-tosses-a-few-takeover-hints-of-its-own/f232266c-f209-44b5-9fca-3a415782c6b3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.168Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/06/04/by-the-sweat-of-their-browser/2b05a98b-281e-464a-87b7-b2815a0636a8/","title":"BY THE SWEAT OF THEIR BROWSER","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Combine a couple of smart young cookies, one pretty good idea, a few doses of venture capital, several dashes of hard work and the all-important secret sauce of the Internet worldwide network of computers. Mix together for a few months, turn up the heat with a bit of industry hype and await hungry companies to offer millions of dollars for resulting concoction.","publication_date":"1996-06-04","section":"Business","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/06/04/by-the-sweat-of-their-browser/2b05a98b-281e-464a-87b7-b2815a0636a8/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.180Z"},
{"article_text":"Pete Wills was a recent high school graduate from rural Charles County in southern Maryland who was just \"bumming   around\" in mid-1960 when a friend talked him into going along to an eight-week trade school to learn how to wire early versions of the computer.\n\nThat turned out to be a good idea because, even though he didn't have a college degree, the training led him to a low-level job working for the federal division of International Business Machines Corp. in 1961. At the time, the company that began the computer revolution was mostly selling electronic accounting machines to the government. Wills wired the machines.","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"AT PSINET, A VETERAN OF THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION","section":"Business","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/06/10/at-psinet-a-veteran-of-the-computer-revolution/86a3af2c-8c88-4dd5-9dc2-98b035e076b1/","publication_date":"1996-06-10","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/06/10/at-psinet-a-veteran-of-the-computer-revolution/86a3af2c-8c88-4dd5-9dc2-98b035e076b1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.115Z"},
{"publication_date":"1987-03-02","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/03/02/the-tribe-regroups/4337fbb8-f6aa-4269-bdd0-5769cc7eb25c/","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"REOPENED BOTSWANA, HANGOUT FOR ARTISTS\n\nDe rigueur at the reopening of Washington artists' hangout Botswana on Feb. 20: black-on-black-on-black outfits for artists, stark white walls covered with off-the-wall art and earnest talk about the abysmal \"state of the unknown artist\" in Washington.\n\nOne thing that does seem abysmal is the constant shifting of gathering spots for artists. Herb's restaurant made way for the more pricey Cafe Beaux-Arts, and the old Botswana at the Washington Project for the Arts at 404 Seventh St. NW had to be abandoned when the building was sold. The WPA moved up the street to the Kresge building at 434 Seventh St. NW and Botswana II was reborn in the former storeroom on the second floor. Artists volunteered their time, tearing out the shelving, putting up white plasterboard over the rough wood walls and trying to turn a room that had housed dime-store trinkets into a showplace for artists.","title":"THE TRIBE REGROUPS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/03/02/the-tribe-regroups/4337fbb8-f6aa-4269-bdd0-5769cc7eb25c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.316Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/03/30/the-critics-face-the-music/fcf19e84-9037-4251-989c-b61a1b0bb366/","title":"THE CRITICS FACE THE MUSIC","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1987-03-30","article_text":"\"Get ready for some hot and heavy hitters in this verbal prizefight,\" said the bow-tied referee. \"Things could get ugly and I'm right in the middle of this rogues' gallery.\"\n\nA warm-up press conference before the upcoming Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvin Hagler match? A particularly contentious interview on \"Nightline?\"","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/03/30/the-critics-face-the-music/fcf19e84-9037-4251-989c-b61a1b0bb366/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.309Z"},
{"publication_date":"1987-04-20","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/04/20/feminist-strokes-at-wpa/ebda8fa5-9dbd-4683-a48a-c9d2e719f2cb/","title":"FEMINIST STROKES AT WPA","article_text":"\"The museum is long on fund-raising skills and short on curatorial talent,\" said art critic Elizabeth Hess to three representatives of Washington's new National Museum of Women in the Arts about what she called the \"neutral and nonpolitical\" women's art in their genteel art place.\n\nThem's fighting words, but the trio only smiled benignly. \"We're very concerned with what all women think,\" said museum consultant Martha McWilliams later, not taking the cut.","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/04/20/feminist-strokes-at-wpa/ebda8fa5-9dbd-4683-a48a-c9d2e719f2cb/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.339Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/05/18/doing-doubles-duty/c852ae2c-b54d-4dc0-affc-534944718f43/","publication_date":"1987-05-18","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Over by a red-and-white striped tent that had been pitched on the White House lawn, \"Wheel of Fortune's\" letter-turning wonder Vanna White munched honey-roasted peanuts and talked politely with rapt fans gathered around. She was dressed in tennis whites for the third annual Nancy Reagan Drug Abuse Fund tennis tournament, though she didn't play.","title":"DOING DOUBLES DUTY","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/05/18/doing-doubles-duty/c852ae2c-b54d-4dc0-affc-534944718f43/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.375Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"TWOSOME ON THE MOVE","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1987-06-01","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/06/01/twosome-on-the-move/99745520-2422-4809-85d7-f27614fc2b11/","article_text":"It would make a good plot for a ballet. A boy and girl meet and fall in love in a small town. From there, they head for the big city and become famous. They move all over the country, then finally come home to where they started. Still together.\n\nIt might be a little mushy, but it's true. James Canfield and Patricia Miller will be returning to the Washington Ballet in late August. Canfield has been appointed assistant artistic director and will also be choreographing and dancing. His longtime partner Miller will become a member of the company. The duo trained at the Academy of the Washington Ballet in the '70s and performed in the company after graduation. From here they went on to successful careers with New York City's Joffrey Ballet and then with the Pacific Ballet Theatre in Seattle, where Canfield was named artistic director in 1986.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/06/01/twosome-on-the-move/99745520-2422-4809-85d7-f27614fc2b11/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.394Z"},
{"title":"THE SPREAD OF SISTERFIRE","publication_date":"1987-06-27","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/06/27/the-spread-of-sisterfire/11478341-f99f-4eb0-ab79-fb0bf36adc4a/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"For a woman about \"to give birth,\" Amy Horowitz is unusually calm. \"That's just what we're doing here,\" she intones. \"We're all struggling together to deliver this whole thing in the best way possible.\"\n\nThe child she speaks of is the fifth anniversary of Sisterfire, the two-day, open-air women's music festival taking place this weekend in Maryland. The event, sponsored by the arts organization Roadwork, has expanded considerably from its modest beginnings in 1982 as a one-day, one-stage, eight-performer fundraiser.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/06/27/the-spread-of-sisterfire/11478341-f99f-4eb0-ab79-fb0bf36adc4a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.432Z"},
{"publication_date":"1987-07-27","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Restaurateur Bill Wooby remembers the woman who came in for a hamburger and ended up with a $700 check.\n\n\"When she was leaving,\" he says, \"she said it was the most expensive meal she ever had.\"","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/07/27/where-dealer-meets-diner/fffb9e95-fbb0-490c-83b5-9a8574cb961e/","title":"WHERE DEALER MEETS DINER","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/07/27/where-dealer-meets-diner/fffb9e95-fbb0-490c-83b5-9a8574cb961e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.442Z"},
{"article_text":"The Washington Harbour, the Folger Library and a small newsstand were singled out along with 10 other architectural designs at the second annual Mayor's Architectural Design Awards, presented yesterday by Mayor Marion Barry at the District Building.\n\nThe awards, which honor \"significant\" contributions to the esthetic environment of Washington, were given out to 10 architectural firms, with one firm, Hartman-Cox Architects, winning five awards. Sixty-two projects were submitted.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/07/30/architectural-firms-honored-for-dc-designs/bbf1dffe-c784-4918-b858-79c8b250b584/","publication_date":"1987-07-30","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS HONORED FOR D.C. DESIGNS","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/07/30/architectural-firms-honored-for-dc-designs/bbf1dffe-c784-4918-b858-79c8b250b584/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.459Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1987-09-21","article_text":"The controversy surrounding the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall seems to have died down finally. After the dramaticblack wall was criticized for its abstract style, a more realistic statue of three servicemen was installed nearby. The Veterans Memorial is now the most visited monument in Washington, and it clearly has touched the hearts of veterans and other citizens with its stark, simple design. Most seem to be satisfied.","section":"Lifestyle","title":"A NEW STATUE FOR THE MALL?","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/09/21/a-new-statue-for-the-mall/6b41e666-775b-4f2e-b697-b9e2b1b8b410/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/09/21/a-new-statue-for-the-mall/6b41e666-775b-4f2e-b697-b9e2b1b8b410/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.477Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/09/28/the-storm-over-a-stanza/1315e1da-eb3b-410d-994f-65c3446fefd3/","publication_date":"1987-09-28","title":"THE STORM OVER A STANZA","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"A minor tempest that surfaced at the Mayor's Arts Awards last Monday continued to brew last week, with a performance artist claiming the D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities triedto censor a poem he was to perform at the ceremony -- because of the word \"corruption\" and the presence of Mayor Marion Barry.","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/09/28/the-storm-over-a-stanza/1315e1da-eb3b-410d-994f-65c3446fefd3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.498Z"},
{"article_text":"Though the flash of the spectacular $53.9 million sale of van Gogh's \"Irises\" at Sotheby's in New York last week blinded almost everyone, there were at least a few who averted their eyes long enough to notice the $3.3 million an unidentified U.S. private collector paid for Georges Braque's \"Music\" (now called \"Le Violon\"), which the Phillips Collection had put on the block.","publication_date":"1987-11-16","title":"THE PHILLIPS, BEYOND BRAQUE","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/11/16/the-phillips-beyond-braque/6eaa5699-4ac1-460b-9d9c-3b1ce8210de0/","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/11/16/the-phillips-beyond-braque/6eaa5699-4ac1-460b-9d9c-3b1ce8210de0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.481Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"JACK GUIDONE'S LIVING LEGACY","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/01/25/jack-guidones-living-legacy/6ce70223-2e43-4328-a16b-b4a7fe8196d6/","article_text":"\"The evening was very ironic, we thought, for us, because it really\n\nwas in a lot of ways a more professional, a larger-scale production than","publication_date":"1988-01-25","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/01/25/jack-guidones-living-legacy/6ce70223-2e43-4328-a16b-b4a7fe8196d6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.537Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/02/22/documenting-the-horror/68269772-2ec7-4e2b-b819-e152140d3739/","publication_date":"1988-02-22","title":"DOCUMENTING THE HORROR","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"\"We've only seen the tip of the iceberg,\" says Arthur Rosenblatt,\n\ndirector of the United States Holocaust Museum, on why the fledgling","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/02/22/documenting-the-horror/68269772-2ec7-4e2b-b819-e152140d3739/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.547Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1988-02-24","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/02/24/maya-lins-memorial-defense/5e775b5c-3684-43ec-83c6-1bdd6d2f06ee/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"MAYA LIN'S MEMORIAL DEFENSE","article_text":"Architect Maya Lin, who as a student seven years ago designed and\n\nfought for the stark black granite Vietnam Veterans Memorial, yesterday","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/02/24/maya-lins-memorial-defense/5e775b5c-3684-43ec-83c6-1bdd6d2f06ee/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.566Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1988-03-07","title":"TEAMING UP TO TAKE CULTURE ABROAD","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/03/07/teaming-up-to-take-culture-abroad/1b5c98af-b893-4620-9c57-55b56cde9418/","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"\"It's always a scramble,\" says Frank Hodsoll, chairman of the\n\nNational Endowment for the Arts, about the difficulties U.S. artists","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/03/07/teaming-up-to-take-culture-abroad/1b5c98af-b893-4620-9c57-55b56cde9418/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.584Z"},
{"publication_date":"1988-03-21","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/03/21/the-tomlin-takeover/fce6a847-f85e-45a8-a95d-19ac1f2b16f6/","title":"THE TOMLIN TAKEOVER","article_text":"\"Lily Tomlin puts a lot of people in the seats,\" new Kennedy Center\n\npresident Ralph Davidson said rather bluntly. He was talking about the","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/03/21/the-tomlin-takeover/fce6a847-f85e-45a8-a95d-19ac1f2b16f6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.604Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/04/04/the-muralist-on-a-roll/2f5a2571-3b6c-42b4-bbc3-dbafafe0501a/","article_text":"His work looks as if it was inspired by children's doodlings, so\n\ngraffiti artist Keith Haring will return the favor by creating a mural","title":"THE MURALIST, ON A ROLL","publication_date":"1988-04-04","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/04/04/the-muralist-on-a-roll/2f5a2571-3b6c-42b4-bbc3-dbafafe0501a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.616Z"},
{"publication_date":"1988-05-30","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/05/30/lily-tomlin-plane-speaking/8639e04b-28ad-4e67-ba4f-f66b100949a5/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"To attract more ticket buyers to \"The Search for Signs of Intelligent\n\nLife in the Universe,\" which has been extended at the Kennedy Center's","title":"LILY TOMLIN, PLANE SPEAKING","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/05/30/lily-tomlin-plane-speaking/8639e04b-28ad-4e67-ba4f-f66b100949a5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.635Z"},
{"publication_date":"1988-06-06","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/06/greenpeaces-pointed-poster/336c03fd-fbfa-4506-ab33-c47178cd4356/","article_text":"A rainbow arches out of a sea of muted blues and greens in famed\n\nBelgian poster artist Jean-Michel Folon's newest work. Usually, Folon's","title":"GREENPEACE'S POINTED POSTER","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/06/greenpeaces-pointed-poster/336c03fd-fbfa-4506-ab33-c47178cd4356/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.644Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/13/thats-what-friends-are-here-for/b1227448-0375-42fc-9ee6-ede8d2f2a1bd/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE HERE FOR","article_text":"When Elton John called late yesterday afternoon en route from London\n\nand said he was headed toward Washington, Dionne Warwick said one thing","publication_date":"1988-06-13","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/13/thats-what-friends-are-here-for/b1227448-0375-42fc-9ee6-ede8d2f2a1bd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.662Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"ACTION ON THE WOMEN'S MEMORIAL","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1988-06-22","article_text":"The proposal to add a statue honoring women to the Vietnam Veterans\n\nMemorial gained further momentum yesterday as legislation similar to","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/22/action-on-the-womens-memorial/968b1ead-d3a5-4bbd-bdf1-324d976db7a6/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/22/action-on-the-womens-memorial/968b1ead-d3a5-4bbd-bdf1-324d976db7a6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.679Z"},
{"article_text":"The House of Representatives took the first legislative step\n\nyesterday into the controversial debate over the colorization of classic","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/30/house-takes-steps-on-colorization/8b899700-2d8e-4d3e-ac56-6703dc5b6ca2/","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1988-06-30","title":"HOUSE TAKES STEPS ON COLORIZATION","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/30/house-takes-steps-on-colorization/8b899700-2d8e-4d3e-ac56-6703dc5b6ca2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.688Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/07/18/tax-exemption-inches-on/0972672c-4b30-44b7-a54f-bc17a4c548d9/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Artists scored a minor victory last week as the House Ways and Means\n\nCommittee cleared an amendment, sponsored by New York Democrat Thomas","publication_date":"1988-07-18","title":"TAX EXEMPTION INCHES ON","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/07/18/tax-exemption-inches-on/0972672c-4b30-44b7-a54f-bc17a4c548d9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.707Z"},
{"publication_date":"1988-07-28","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/07/28/hayloft-dinner-theater-closes/f7f0c049-f507-4210-a2ae-c8ac7e81c8ec/","title":"HAYLOFT DINNER THEATER CLOSES","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"The Hayloft Dinner Theater has unexpectedly announced that it has\n\nclosed, primarily because founder and President Frank Matthews has been","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/07/28/hayloft-dinner-theater-closes/f7f0c049-f507-4210-a2ae-c8ac7e81c8ec/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.730Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/08/01/warhol-the-man-on-the-moon/b1569e10-6451-4fe5-a4c5-932c14ebfa67/","title":"WARHOL THE MAN ON THE MOON","publication_date":"1988-08-01","article_text":"When you're the second man on the moon, you might not expect to be\n\nas remembered as the first, but former astronaut Edwin(Buzz) Aldrin Jr.,","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/08/01/warhol-the-man-on-the-moon/b1569e10-6451-4fe5-a4c5-932c14ebfa67/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.740Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"MASS TRANSIT, POETRY NOTIONS","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"If you believe that the Washington literary scene is about as faint\n\nas a dying heartbeat, find the latest issue of the Washington Review to","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/08/08/mass-transit-poetry-notions/badb43ec-7bed-4eb7-96e1-edd3242e8089/","publication_date":"1988-08-08","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/08/08/mass-transit-poetry-notions/badb43ec-7bed-4eb7-96e1-edd3242e8089/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.762Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"THE GRANDEST OF THEM ALL","publication_date":"1988-10-10","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Like a gaggle of girls dressed to the nines all lined up at a\n\ncotillion, the dozens of pianos -- uprights, baby grands, grands and","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/10/the-grandest-of-them-all/ffe8d3b0-0750-431a-be7f-a3e87cf59d2e/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/10/the-grandest-of-them-all/ffe8d3b0-0750-431a-be7f-a3e87cf59d2e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.771Z"},
{"publication_date":"1988-10-17","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/17/keeping-fragments-of-the-quilt/6a90d4b3-ac84-4628-8f7c-f856d65c0d44/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"KEEPING FRAGMENTS OF THE QUILT","article_text":"As it was being folded up last weekend, the AIDS quilt brought\n\nfeelings of regret from many that it was leaving Washington. The","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/17/keeping-fragments-of-the-quilt/6a90d4b3-ac84-4628-8f7c-f856d65c0d44/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.780Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/26/art-off-the-wall/932657b7-06ff-4612-aa1d-fa75e23493ed/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Cars driving by on Jefferson Drive slowed down to a nervous creep.\n\nJoggers on the Mall stopped in midstride and stared. And guests leaving","publication_date":"1988-10-26","section":"Lifestyle","title":"ART OFF THE WALL","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/26/art-off-the-wall/932657b7-06ff-4612-aa1d-fa75e23493ed/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.804Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"KENNEDY CENTER'S LOT LIFT","publication_date":"1988-10-31","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/31/kennedy-centers-lot-lift/049b6801-36bd-4ba7-8d65-9f60e6ce6a8f/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The price of parking at the Kennedy Center has gone up 25 percent,\n\nfrom $4 to $5, an increase that's not surprising, perhaps, considering","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/10/31/kennedy-centers-lot-lift/049b6801-36bd-4ba7-8d65-9f60e6ce6a8f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.825Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/11/07/arts-beat/eaf4160e-661e-4dec-86f4-3c5c46b12c6f/","publication_date":"1988-11-07","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"In Essex Hemphill's and Wayson Jones' experience, \"corruption\" has\n\nbeen a naughty word.","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"ARTS BEAT","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/11/07/arts-beat/eaf4160e-661e-4dec-86f4-3c5c46b12c6f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.840Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/11/17/reagan-signs-bill-for-vietnam-womens-memorial/cb05bf62-3302-45c7-a479-1fbdb3ed937e/","publication_date":"1988-11-17","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"President Reagan signed into law late Tuesday a bill authorizing\n\nconstruction of a memorial honoring women Vietnam veterans. The memorial","title":"REAGAN SIGNS BILL FOR VIETNAM WOMEN'S MEMORIAL","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/11/17/reagan-signs-bill-for-vietnam-womens-memorial/cb05bf62-3302-45c7-a479-1fbdb3ed937e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.857Z"},
{"article_text":"It's been called The Column That Will Not Die, and Art Buchwald made\n\nabsolutely sure it wouldn't this year.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/11/24/once-again-the-gift-of-gobble/bd53bff5-bceb-4059-85b7-696c4e758eed/","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1988-11-24","title":"ONCE AGAIN, THE GIFT OF GOBBLE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/11/24/once-again-the-gift-of-gobble/bd53bff5-bceb-4059-85b7-696c4e758eed/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.867Z"},
{"title":"MONUMENTAL DAY FOR WOMEN","publication_date":"1988-12-12","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/12/12/monumental-day-for-women/6c9c16ed-a758-4533-9966-c80f4af45942/","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"\"Isn't this wonderful,\" said Wilma L. Vaught, a retired Air Force\n\nbrigadier general, as she surveyed the three-acre site at the entrance","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/12/12/monumental-day-for-women/6c9c16ed-a758-4533-9966-c80f4af45942/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.888Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The fate of the long-planned Indian museum is likely to be at the top of the agenda at the Smithsonian winter regents meeting today. On the table is a new proposal (in a long line of them) to bring a National Museum of the American Indian to the Mall in the next few years, using the Smithsonian's extensive collection of Indian artifacts and that of the nation's finest holding -- the Heye Collection, which belongs to the Museum of the American Indian in New York.    That million-piece, $1 billion collection is considered the best in the world. Since it was discovered that the collection was deteriorating rapidly in the little-visited museum in upper Manhattan, various plans were put forth to save it, including one from the Smithsonian to bring it to Washington. But all were blocked by New York state officials because the terms of the trust for the collection stipulate that it stay in New York.    Smithsonian and New York officials have been in secret discussion for months negotiating a possible solution. It was revealed at midweek that they had come to a draft agreement to bring the bulk of the collection here and also to create a \"significant\" museum in New York. In the unsigned agreement, which will be debated at the regents meeting, the Smithsonian seems to have gotten what it has wanted -- title to the collection.    New York officials are reportedly furious over the Smithsonian's hedging about the size and location of the New York museum. New York officials want at least 75,000 square feet in the Custom House, but the Smithsonian doesn't want to be pinned down on the size and place. \"New York will not go along with any legislation unless we get assurances that we will get a substantial amount of space in the Custom House,\" said one New York Hill staffer close to the negotiations, claiming that the Smithsonian \"could stick the whole thing in a basement in New York City if they wanted. It's an illusory promise they're giving us.\"    Smithsonian spokeswoman Madeleine Jacobs disagreed with that notion. \"Anything we will do will be first-rate,\" she said. \"We are determined to open a fine museum in New York, but the regents need to work out the specifics and that won't happen till after the meeting is over on Monday.\"    \"We can't lose sight of what is really important in this whole thing,\" added Jacobs, \"and that's serving this fine collection.\"    No Heat for Hodsoll    At a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing last Tuesday, panel chairman Sidney Yates (D-Ill.) paid National Endowment of the Arts Chairman Frank Hodsoll a compliment edged in historic irony.    \"We should congratulate you on your missionary work,\" Yates told Hodsoll. \"For the first time since you've been in office, the administration's {arts} budget exceeds that of the previous congressional allocation.\"    Yates' comments came after an eight-year battle by the longtime arts supporter for increased federal arts funding. This year's administration request for NEA funding is actually up $1 million over last year's $169 million.    \"Mr. Chairman,\" said Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), \"it's a kinder, gentler nation.\"    Everyone laughed. Kindly.    \"Touche',\" said Yates. \"I'm not going to be partisan.\"    And the hearing was neither overtly partisan nor even covertly controversial, in marked contrast to last year's hearings during which Yates and Hodsoll clashed over Hodsoll's plans to change the procedure by which NEA decides the amount of money grantees receive. The distribution and size of grants is determined by panels of artistic peers of the applicants; Hodsoll sought to employ computer-aided formulas to remedy what he saw as \"inconsistencies in the size of grants.\"    Hodsoll's proposal was met by cries of disapproval from much of the national arts community, and the 1989 budget included language that prevented him from making the changes. On Tuesday Yates said the administration had requested the language be omitted from this year's budget, and \"as far as I'm concerned, I'm inclined to go along with that.\"    Said Hodsoll, \"We have halted, suspended, retracted all of the actions which we had begun to take last year about the methods in which the panels work.\"    Tea for 2,000    The Washington Performing Arts Society planned a small tea yesterday, following the afternoon performance of soprano Kiri Te Kanawa at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, to thank its membership. But it didn't turn out that way. Expecting only 50 members to accept invitations to the free event, WPAS got 1,600 responses, forcing a move to the Grand Foyer and champagne instead of tea (the society couldn't find that many teacups). \"We were going to have a nice little thing in the Atrium with sweets and tea,\" said WPAS' Lisa Palley, with great aplomb. \"But that's all right -- Dame Kiri is very sociable.\"","title":"ARTS BEAT","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/01/30/arts-beat/f7ff6f51-365c-43ea-9b4a-e9df8129c7c3/","publication_date":"1989-01-30","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/01/30/arts-beat/f7ff6f51-365c-43ea-9b4a-e9df8129c7c3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.819Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/05/08/ready-for-the-indian-museum/dda107b4-85df-4d86-84e5-922b6492859d/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"READY FOR THE INDIAN MUSEUM","publication_date":"1989-05-08","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/05/08/ready-for-the-indian-museum/dda107b4-85df-4d86-84e5-922b6492859d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.548Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/06/29/consummate-consumer/f9c36b42-2844-4258-a125-263af5a3285f/","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Walter North is obsessed with women's dirty shirts. Sometimes, he says, he and his colleagues even would take freshly dry-cleaned ones, rub them in dirt and then return them to the cleaners. For all this, he got an A.    \"Well, I think we deserved it, though it's admittedly silly at first blush,\" says North. Silly, sort of. But serious enough to get nationwide media attention, involve the District government and scare the starch out of the biggest trade association for dry cleaners and launderers.    North, a night student who works by day as a bureaucrat at the Agency for International Development, and two of his fellow students at George Washington University Law School, as an exercise in their legal activism class, are the plaintiffs in a series of complaints against 27 Washington dry cleaners and the International Fabricare Institute with the D.C. Office of Human Rights.    The trio, calling themselves the Coalition Against Discriminatory Drycleaning, allege that dry cleaners practice \"sex-based discriminatory pricing,\" i.e., women pay more to have their shirts laundered than men. Similar suits have been brought in San Francisco, Berkeley and Los Angeles.    The group has had enormous success. The complaint originally took on only two cleaners who happened to be close to the school in Foggy Bottom. Last week, the cleaners, Royal and Vogue, signed a document during a news conference agreeing not to charge more for women's shirts than for men's.    In addition, the Human Rights office has stepped in, threatening to initiate a \"formal citywide investigation,\" not limited to shirts, of all Washington dry cleaners. \"You can bet our demands would be more onerous than law students',\" says a Human Rights office lawyer. \"I mean these businesses are going to have to jump into the 1980s and start recognizing that women wear just as many white collars as men.\"    Yesterday, the office sent copies of the complaint to other area dry cleaners named by North's group, in an effort to get them to settle. There is a possibility that by tomorrow, the cleaning of men's and women's shirts will cost the same citywide.    Women, says North, \"are tired of higher prices. The costs add up and they're an incredible detriment to women trying to establish their careers.\" The other students -- Sara Nichols and Heidi Halleck -- were similarly interested, considering they were just about to move from sweat shirts to dress shirts as new lawyers.    They started the class in the fall, preparing a 100-page supplemental brief. After working with their professor, John F. Banzhaf III, they submitted the complaint to the Human Rights office in March. The document showed evidence of arbitrary pricing by two dozen area dry cleaners, including up to 200 percent more charged for women than for men. Different prices for the same \"oxford-style\" cotton shirts ranged from 25 cents to $4.60. They also used a unisex print shirt. When it was brought in by men, the lower price was charged; when women brought it in, the higher one was.    The next day, they had a surprise meeting with International Fabricare, the Metropolitan Drycleaners Association and the Korean Drycleaners Association, who struck back with their own justifications for the prices. The most important argument centered on shirt sizes. The dry-cleaning representatives asserted that women's shirts generally were too small to fit on mechanical presses, some of which have been in use since the 1950s. \"It is peculiar that automatically women were charged more -- in my 45 years in the business, I have never seen anything like that, and that is wrong,\" says Ed Boorstein of the Metropolitan Drycleaners Association. \"But we should have freedom to price the labor involved. If a shirt takes hand work, because we can't do it on the presses, we should be able to charge for it. If we can't we won't be able to stay in business.\"    The students' argument rests on the D.C. Human Rights Act, which states discrimination \"cannot be justified by increased costs to business, business efficiency or comparative characteristics of one group as opposed to another.\" In other words, the disparate effect on one sex cannot be used to justify the differences in cost. \"Size is an 'immutable characteristic,' and discriminating because of the effects or consequences of race or sex is illegal,\" says Banzhaf. \"If the shirts have other characteristics -- puffy sleeves, rounded collars, fancy fabric, frills -- that is a matter of choice, and should cost more.\"    In addition, Banzhaf points out the large discrepancies in pricing. \"Since several charge the same price for shirts and are making a living, others cannot argue 'business necessity,' \" he says. \"And, ultimately, it's going to become a practical business matter, because they are going to need to attract women. And if they discriminate, women won't go to them.\"    Banzhaf and his students plan to keep the issue visible. In early June, they filed against 25 more dry cleaners, this time asking for the city to revoke business licenses. On June 20, they dragged the International Fabricare Institute into the fray, accusing the trade association of encouraging discrimination with its 10,000 members. According to District law \"aiding and abetting\" discrimination also is illegal. Similar complaints may be brought against the Metropolitan and Korean Drycleaners Associations.    The two original dry cleaners settled last Friday, agreeing to condemn sex-biased pricing discrimination, ignoring the gender of the person bringing the shirt to the store or whether it is a man's or woman's shirt, whether it buttons to the right or left, its size (unless it is unusually big or small) and the shape or cut. But Jon Hee Shin of Royal Cleaners and Uk Hwang of Vogue, both Korean immigrants who speak little English, did not admit to violating the law. In fact, their attorney Silvia Park said she hoped someone would oppose the law school group. \"It would have cost them {the two dry cleaners} thousands of dollars in legal fees that they can't afford to litigate a 'hot' issue,\" she said. \"They perceive it as a battle between David and Goliath ... they just want the media attention to go away and end the disruption in their lives.\"    Banzhaf, however, told the press conference his group was going to start playing tougher. \"Dry cleaners might now lose their licenses or have to repay women by free laundering of shirts for all the years they have overcharged,\" he said.    Jim Mercer, the associate director of the Office of Human Rights, backs him up. \"We'd like to settle the claim without a lengthy investigation, but if we have to have one, we will,\" he says. \"I think it would be in their best interests to settle, because industry always loses control when the city gets involved.\"    And, worst of all for the industry after the wide news coverage, the American Civil Liberties Union is threatening similar action in Michigan, and activist groups around the country are calling the students for information. \"I love what the students are doing. Three cheers,\" says Molly Yard, president of the National Organization for Women. \"I'd tell them to please let us help, but they seem perfectly capable on their own.\"    All of which makes Walter North very happy. \"We showed that you can use law as an instrument for social change,\" he says. \"This is my first legal action and the fact that it's had so many real-life implications is really satisfying.\"    To say nothing of the satisfaction on the home front. \"I really knew it as a success,\" he says, \"when my girlfriend turned to me and said, 'With all these years of studying, you've finally done something.' \" Suiting Up    Though it may seem an oxymoron, sometimes law school can be fun. While working on their dry-cleaning project, one joy for the students was thinking up puns to deliver to the media. Among their choices: Don't be taken to the cleaners; this is an important suit; we have a new wrinkle in the case.    \"We want the students to have fun, get excited about public-interest law,\" says Prof. John F. Banzhaf III, who has been teaching the legal activism course at George Washington University for two decades. \"I think you learn something best by doing it and pursuing a topic of interest.\"    In 1988, the class played a key role in forcing District men's clubs to admit women members, including the 110-year-old Cosmos Club, battling its \"freedom of private association\" argument by pointing out that they held a liquor license, which put them under city purview.    Other cases include getting D.C. police to arrest husbands immediately in cases of domestic violence, requiring no-smoking sections in airplanes and smoke detectors in airplane lavatories, the 5 mph bumper standard, better school-bus safety standards and getting former vice president Spiro Agnew to return to taxpayers money he received from bribes.    The showman professor, who is a walking press release, says he got the idea for the course when he \"filed an action when I was at law school, was successful and was turned on by it.\"    The students pick their own topics and are under close academic supervision. \"The costs are minimal, the legal research is free and they are their own clients,\" says Banzhaf. \"It's sometimes harder because they don't know as much, but they make up for it in energy.\"    Since grades aren't given for energy, do they have to win to get ahead? \"Grades are based on quality of the legal document they turn in,\" says Banzhaf.    Still, it's a thrill to win. \"True, true, but any customer can do what we do. File complaints, tell your friends, make noise,\" he advises.    Banzhaf and his students will continue doing all of that. Their next target, with action likely coming next semester: discrimination in haircutting prices.","title":"CONSUMMATE CONSUMER","publication_date":"1989-06-29","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/06/29/consummate-consumer/f9c36b42-2844-4258-a125-263af5a3285f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.898Z"},
{"article_text":"It's a different kind of pizza war than the one Domino's is used to, where they compete with Pizza Hut and Godfather's to deliver the fastest, hottest and cheapest pie to your doorstep.    This battle is political, ethical, moral and altogether messy, as the 400-chapter National Organization for Women (NOW), in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of a Missouri law that restricts the availability of publicly funded abortion services in that state, is stepping up its call to boycott the nation's second largest pizza chain -- Pizza Hut is number one -- because founder and CEO Thomas Monaghan, a devout Catholic, has given substantial amounts of money to antiabortion groups. NOW first announced the boycott in January.    The fight is likely to get particularly steamy in the Washington area. Local franchises of the Michigan-based company, which sold 130 million pizzas for $2 billion last year at its 5,060 stores worldwide, are top earners in pizza sales for Domino's, as Washingtonians scarf down more than 100,000 Domino's pizzas each week.    \"People should know where their money is going, know how he's acting,\" says Patricia Ireland, executive vice president for NOW, about Monaghan's contributions, more than $50,000 to Michigan groups to help defeat Medicaid-funded abortions in that state last year. \"You might not want to buy pizza and put money in his pocket. People should be able to make a decision on whom they want to do business with politically.\"    Officials at Domino's Pizza Inc. in Ann Arbor see it differently. \"The donations were personal contributions by Mr. Monaghan, and a boycott across the board for individual personal convictions is out of context,\" says public relations manager Kerry McNulty. \"And you are also doing a great injustice to independent owners of Domino's stores.\"    Indeed, more than two-thirds of Domino's stores are independently owned franchises, who, says McNulty, do not have to follow Monaghan's personal opinions. But Ireland's NOW discounts this. \"Every individual vendor ultimately puts money in his {Monaghan's} pocket,\" she says.    One of those franchisers, Frank Meeks, who runs the successful Domino's Pizza Team Washington, with 30 stores and $40-million in yearly sales, doesn't seem to mind. \"I don't like the boycott, but I am not angry at him,\" says Meeks. \"It hasn't affected us so far, except for some letters and phone calls at the height of last week's news on the abortion ruling.\"    In fact, Meeks says recent weeks sales have set records. \"I think you buy for product and service, and not the politics,\" he says. \"Tom has the right as an American to be involved in any issue, so I applaud him for exercising that right.\" Meeks says so far none of his 1,800 employees have complained. \"One of my supervisors even worked for NOW, and she told me, though she might not agree, that Tom should be able to do what he wants with his money,\" he says.    That kind of conflictive opinion might cause this type of boycott, based on moral convictions, to bomb. The boycott has always been a tool used by groups of all persuasions to coerce businesses to act or stop acting in a certain way. Some say it works while others say it does not.    In the late 1970s, homosexuals stopped drinking Florida orange juice to protest Anita Bryant's then anti-gay stance. Unions called on consumers to not buy Coors beer during a labor dispute. A six-year, worldwide boycott of Nestle products took place in the late 1970s and 1980s because of criticism of the Swiss food conglomerate's marketing of infant formula in developing countries, until Nestle agreed to change practices in 1984.    Recently, many have called for consumers to stop filling up at Exxon gas stations to protest the company's involvement in the Alaskan oil spill. In that case, though irate consumers sent back 10,000 credit cards out of 7 million, analysts said the action had little effect, because of the size of the company. The same is true of boycotts against a number of companies that do business with South Africa.    A boycott of the MCA movie \"The Last Temptation of Christ\" last summer was even credited with generating interest in the film, which previously had received mixed reviews.    But a threatened boycott of PepsiCo Inc. by religious groups early this year caused it to drop plans to run Pepsi ads featuring Madonna and her controversial song \"Like a Prayer.\"    Locally, the boycott also is used to try to effect change. In February, the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association threatened a boycott of businesses that supported last year's campaign to retain Maryland's controversial gun control law. In March, the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board stopped patronizing a Fairfax City Holiday Inn when members felt the hotel unjustly fired seven retarded housekeepers.    On the abortion issue, the boycott more often has been a tool of antiabortion forces, though they usually go right to the source. Nationwide, groups have boycotted hospitals that perform abortions. This week, the New York Times reported that an Alaskan clinic stopped performing abortions, though only two doctors there were performing the procedure, after patients boycotted the entire clinic.    \"We talk softly and carry a big stick,\" says John Willke, president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRTLC). \"We only loosely call boycotts and so far it's of things directly related to abortions.\" NRTLC is still boycotting Upjohn Co. for its marketing of abortion-inducing drugs, and the March of Dimes for its funding of amniocentesis testing.    \"There is a constitutional right for a citizen to buy from whomever they want, and if something is morally offensive, you can choose not to patronize,\" says Willke. \"Boycotts slowly run down, and they can be effective, and sometimes are not. But they all produce at least a sting.\"    He says the profit line is hard to disturb, \"but there are other aspects like reputation. They do treasure their name and I know the ones we boycott don't relish being known as 'death peddlers,' which is just what we show the public they are.\"    Willke says NRTLC would not boycott a company over a donation by a top officer, as NOW is doing, instead sticking with the \"instruments of abortion.\" When the new morning-after pill from France arrives here, Willke predicts \"a wingdinger of a boycott.\"    But NOW will continue its protest. Across the country, chapters have been picketing stores. College students, big consumers of pizza, are especially targeted for informational leaflets. In Minneapolis, placards read \"Buy pizza in a Domino's box, put a woman in a pine box.\" At the April 9 abortion rights march, NOW handed out 10,000 fliers, reading \"Does your pizza take a slice out of choice?\"    \"We're only in the informational stage, getting the news around the country and looking at the next step,\" says Ireland. The boycott will be discussed at the National NOW conference in Cincinnati, starting July 21. \"Next we will start to identify the source of the opposition's money. Instead of asking who are the congressmen for and against, we want to know who are the businesses, especially the ones that fund the more violent antiabortion groups,\" she says. \"This is something new in our approach.\"    The D.C. NOW chapter will hold a press conference in two weeks, outlining support for the boycott by other sympathetic area groups. \"This is only going to snowball, the word is spreading out,\" says Dorothy Jones, president of D.C. NOW, who says the bottom line is getting the consumer to act. \"It's something relatively simple for a person to do. And it is effective.\"    Domino's officials are close-mouthed over the possible effect, although they admit some declining sales around college campuses. And newly installed Domino's president David Black is less controversial. \"I'm going to try to keep focused on the pizza business and not get sidetracked with other issues,\" he said in recent interviews in Detroit newspapers. \"We've built up a lot of momentum and I want to push forward.\"    But slowing down Domino's speedy momentum, exemplified by its 30-minute delivery promise, is exactly what NOW wants to do. \"I think it's working, and it's a way for all of us to make views known,\" says Ireland. \"Call up Domino's and let them know. I am sure they will hear.\"","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/07/13/politics-and-pizza/9ddafac2-67e5-4700-9e71-ff77c5646691/","publication_date":"1989-07-13","title":"POLITICS AND PIZZA","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/07/13/politics-and-pizza/9ddafac2-67e5-4700-9e71-ff77c5646691/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.918Z"},
{"publication_date":"1989-07-25","article_text":"\"The gay revolution has failed.\"    It's hard to imagine how authors Hunter Madsen and Marshall Kirk could have picked a more inflammatory -- or, as some critics have maintained, more attention-grabbing -- first line for their new nonfiction book, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear & Hatred of Gays in the 90s.    And those words are merely the warm-up for the controversial 400-page book, currently the object of lively debate in the gay community nationwide. Released last month near the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall riot in New York City, when a group of homosexuals rebelled against police harassment (considered by gay rights groups to be the birth of the gay liberation movement), the book takes a look at what appears to be a bleak issue: how homosexuality is unsympathetically viewed by heterosexuals in the United States.    To counter negative perceptions, they wrote the book. Calling it a \"gay manifesto for the 1990s,\" the authors outline a slick \"program of unabashed propaganda, firmly grounded in long-established principles of psychology and advertising,\" to change prejudices mainstream America has against homosexuals. They turn aside more aggressive, \"storm-the-barricades\" tactics. Write the authors: \"Such tactics have proven themselves impractical -- ineffective or even harmful -- and their day is past.\"    Such suggestions are hackle-raising for many longtime gay activists, but the sometimes abrasive Madsen and Kirk don't stop there. Included in their analysis is a sharp rebuke to gays themselves. \"For 20 immature years, the gay community has shrieked for rights, while demonstrating an alarming degree of irresponsibility,\" they write, chronicling a litany of abuses, mostly by gay men, ranging from narcissism to misbehavior in relationships. \"All the squeaky-clean media propaganda in the world won't sustain a positive image in the long run unless we start scrubbing to make ourselves a little squeakier and cleaner in reality.\"    Among their assertions is a lightning rod for debate -- a call to closet the gay community's more controversial stereotypes, such as bull dykes and drag queens. \"The 'fringe' gay groups ought to have the tact to withdraw voluntarily from public appearances at gay parades, marches, and rallies, but they don't seem to care whether they fatally compromise the rest of us,\" write Madsen and Kirk.    Locally, reactions are mixed. \"The premise that everything we do is for potential public relations is false, and I do not live my life that way, being defined externally,\" says Mary Farmer, owner of Lammas, a feminist bookstore in Dupont Circle. \"I am as pragmatic as the next person, and I think we have to live with straights -- there is a meeting of pragmatism and principles. But leaving less attractive parts of our community out is self-hate, self-hate, self-hate. Times are hard, but not that hard.\"    \"It's a strange and important book and I regard it as valuable to talk about it,\" says Deacon Maccubbin of Lambda Rising, the Dupont Circle gay bookstore, where the book is selling briskly. \"It raises important issues in not always the nicest way, but their hearts are in the right place.\"    \"We thought it was controversial when we wrote it, and maybe we lean into it a bit too much,\" says Madsen, who works for an advertising firm in New York. \"But we wanted to get gay people to think hard and boldly confront lazy habits and values in the gay community.\"    He says neither of them expected the book's fiery reception, especially over the suggestion to free the community of stereotypes. \"In reality, they make up a small percentage of gays, but the image is strong-willed, defining what it means to be gay, and creates the tenor that the rest of America sees,\" he says. \"We don't want to get rid of people, and we believe that anyone should live the life they want, but we don't want them to speak for us.\"    Madsen says he and Kirk decided to write the book when it became clear to them that gays, who make up at least 10 percent of the U.S. population according to widely publicized estimates, were in deep trouble as the community headed into the '90s. In a section titled \"A Field Trip to Straight America,\" the authors paint a stark picture of a country that is less accepting than it seems from the big cities. Calling the problem \"homohatred,\" they sketch a place where most heterosexuals know very little about homosexuality and would prefer to know less, avoid gay news events and issues, and refuse to educate themselves about homosexuality. They conclude that much of the country is engaged in a self-deluded \"big lie\" -- believing that there are not many homosexuals, and that all gays are easy to spot, sinful and insane, sex addicts, unproductive and untrustworthy, and suicidally unhappy. And they outline the effects of these beliefs, including a strong effort to try to prevent homosexuality, deny civil rights and condone public disapproval -- even as far as allowing violence toward gays to flourish.    \"Some gays, living in their progressive urban environments, think America is tolerant and there is no need to build greater public support. They feel the way now is only through the courts and the legislatures,\" says Madsen. \"They are all good tactics, but they are reversible, as soon as someone -- usually on the religious right -- fans the flames of public disapproval.\"    Their plan is a mix of the Madison Avenue campaigns used to hawk margarine and the time-honored methods of many oppressed minority groups. The aim is to derail prejudice by desensitization, jamming of hatred and eventual acceptance. The tools include reaching out to straights, moderating lifestyles, universal coming out and portraying gays as victims of circumstance and oppression and not as aggressive challengers. In other words: make gays look good.    Madsen and Kirk suggest magazine and television ads, direct mail, public service announcements, reorganization of fractured gay rights groups, fund-raising drives and even a gay credit card. \"The dynamics to change all this have been used by other minorities -- it's a mass educational process. So we must start the campaign with something heterosexuals can most easily understand and then drive the wedge in slowly,\" says Madsen. \"And as sad as it is, the AIDS crisis gives us the opportunity to establish ourselves as a victimized minority seeking America's special care and protection.\"    The proposal includes \"standard image management techniques,\" because, as they see it, gays are often judged as a group. Their list of alleged misconduct by gays is long and tough to swallow: persistent lying, rejection of morality, narcissism and self-centered behavior, self-indulgence, self-destruction, misbehavior in bars, irresponsibility in relationships, tendency not to question the movement, and uncompromising belligerence for its own sake.    \"For example, {raising the issue of} sex in public places by gays may seem like a silly thing, but it has major repercussions and creates hostility with straights,\" says Madsen. \"Someone in the gay community should stand up and say this is wrong. Like it or not, what straights think of our behavior affects our lives.\" So as their parting shot, the authors created a detailed \"self-policing social code,\" for relations with straights, gays and themselves.    Not surprisingly, their proposals, which the authors concede are \"politically incorrect,\" have generated a wide range of opinions, sharply delineating the long-standing gulf between gays who want to work within the system and those who do not.    \"It is easier to appear 'normal' to make the mainstream comfortable, but trying to be different is not bad and diversity is not an unhealthy thing,\" says Tim McFeeley of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, a Washington-based national gay lobbying group. \"The book operates on the premise that Americans can't accept diversity, and I think they can.\"    Urvashi Vaid, incoming executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, agrees. \"How you handle diversity has always been a hot issue, but I don't think this book is the right approach,\" she says. \"Sure, we need positive images to counteract stereotypes. But we don't want to say we're just like you to heterosexuals. That's not the message we put out -- we say we are who we are in all our diversity.\"    She also takes aim at the authors' idea that the 20 years of struggle since Stonewall has been fruitless. \"To say the gay revolution has failed is flatly preposterous and unsupportable and it does a great disservice to the thousands who have fought for the legal protections that now exist,\" she says, pointing out anti-discrimination laws across the country. \"We think demonstrations have been effective, and urgency and anger are longtime methods that work.\"    The Washington Blade, the city's gay newspaper, recently ran positive and negative reviews of the book, and its letters section received a large response. One supportive letter read: \"If we expect to win, we must play by their rules and beat them at their own game. Only after we've won enough and thereby gained some control, can we add our own rules or change the game altogether.\" But another letter called the gay authors \"Uncle Toms.\"    That does not bother Madsen. \"There are gays in urban gay ghettos who are well-connected, have worked out their lives and say, 'I am not going to change any more,' \" says Madsen. \"But 70 to 80 percent of gays, I think, are annoyed and disgusted with the {gay} community and are scared to come out {of the closet}.    \"Some people complain that we are making the community look bad, and that we just don't like gays,\" he says. \"We have tremendous concerns about this, which is why we have gone this far. And a lot of people have come up to us saying, 'What a relief, someone has finally gotten up and said what is true.' \"    Still, the longstanding debate over whether homosexuals can fit into mainstream society is not likely to die down soon. In 1973, author Rita Mae Brown wove the idea throughout her groundbreaking gay novel, Rubyfruit Jungle. Her bold protagonist, Molly Bolt, voiced the issue with bravado: \"I don't care whether they like me or not. Everybody's stupid, that's what I think. I care if I like me, that's what I truly care about.\"","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/07/25/gays-in-the-90s-into-the-mainstream/27893026-e464-46b5-818b-2051081c6d13/","section":"Lifestyle","title":"GAYS IN THE '90S INTO THE MAINSTREAM?","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/07/25/gays-in-the-90s-into-the-mainstream/27893026-e464-46b5-818b-2051081c6d13/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.960Z"},
{"article_text":"In a way, for Christina Malan it all comes down to a chocolate candy bar. In a drugstore in the Lake Forest Mall in Gaithersburg, the 9-year-old wants one and she can't get it. It isn't because her mother, Patty, objects to the sweet, and it isn't because she doesn't have enough allowance money to pay for it. It's because her fragile body can't stand up at the checkout line. Christina was diagnosed at 8 months old with progressive spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that attacks and deadens muscle nerves, leaving the victim with very little mobility. But it will not stop this strong-minded girl in a weak body. She pulls a dollar out of her pocket and hands it to Cosel, her aide. \"Take,\" she says quietly, and Cosel pays the cashier and brings the bag with the candy bar and change back to her. That might not seem unusual, but a large crowd gathers around the pair to watch. \"Awesome,\" says a bedazzled young boy. And it is, because Cosel is a golden retriever who does whatever task Christina commands him to. \"Good dog,\" says Christina, praising her now-constant friend. \"I don't know what I'd do without you.\" Cosel was given to Christina by Canine Companions for Independence, a 14-year-old organization that trains dogs to help the disabled. It's long been reported that animals, especially dogs, have beneficial effects on people, especially the elderly, young and disabled. For the elderly, animals help alleviate depression, loneliness, even high blood pressure. They teach nurturing values to the young. For those with disabilities, dogs are thought to provide a social entree. And now, apparently, a new set of arms and legs. Service dogs like Cosel, for instance, turn lights off and on, push elevator buttons, pick up dropped items and pull wheelchairs. Signal dogs alert the hearing-impaired to ringing telephones, alarm clocks, smoke detectors and crying babies. Social dogs are used by the autistic or convalescing to help bridge their isolation. And specialty dogs help people with multiple problems. CCI, which received the 1987 Distinguished Service Award from the Presidential Commission for Employment of the Handicapped, is the pioneer in the service dog field. The idea was conceived by a teacher, Bonnie Bergin, in 1975 on a visit to Asia, where she saw the handicapped being pulled along streets by donkeys. She felt the concept could be easily transferred to dogs. \"It was scoffed at at first,\" says Bergin, \"and that just made me more determined.\" The first service dog was placed with a handicapped woman in 1976. As of today, more than 500 dogs have been placed in service nationwide. There are less than a half-dozen in this area. Headquartered in Santa Rosa, Calif., the nonprofit CCI currently has four centers nationwide. The organization breeds its own stock, which includes German shepherds, golden retrievers, Labradors, border collies and Welsh corgis, all sporting and herding dogs with a long history of desire to help people. The dogs are initially raised by volunteers, who get the puppies at 8 weeks and keep them until 15 months. While with the puppy raisers, the animals learn trust, socialization and simple commands. The dogs are then evaluated by the CCI staff and any problems are screened out. They are then trained for six more months at CCI in more complex duties, learning to respond to 89 commands. After that, those disabled who have been approved to receive a service dog are brought to \"boot camp\" to learn about the history, psychology, emotionality and mastership of the animal. They are given daily quizzes and by the end are required to take a solo excursion to a shopping center. \"We look for people who have the great desire to be independent,\" says Bergin, \"because what this does for people can't be expressed.\" CCI says it has requests for 400 dogs a year, but can afford to train only 100. It costs more than $8,000 to produce a working dog. The handicapped person receiving the dog pays a $25 application fee, but the dog is free. Currently, both Virginia and the District have laws that give the same kind of total access to service dogs as that enjoyed by guide dogs for the blind. But Maryland, where Christina lives, does not. A Maryland bill has been introduced twice, in 1988 and this year, by state Sen. Idamae Garrott (D-Montgomery), but was defeated both times. \"The stormy weather really surprised me,\" says Garrott. \"This is an astoundingly good cause.\" Opposition has come from bus and taxi associations concerned about the possibility of too many wheelchairs and dogs on board, and from the business community, worried about liability. \"This is a whole new area and it's scary,\" says Charles Krautler, senior vice president for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. \"We have a longer trail of experience for the seeing-eye dog, and the public is comfortable with them. Our concern is a uniform definition of liability. It needs to be clarified.\" Garrott will introduce the bill once more next January, and is determined to get it passed. \"What's going to get this through is public opinion,\" says Garrott. \"When the business community realizes this is what the people want, it will pass.\" Christina can't really understand the political controversy, though she has undergone her share of trouble getting Cosel accepted. There was some trouble initially with school officials, who were wary about the concept and concerned about allergic reactions of other students and biting problems. Patty Malan complained, noting that Christina needs constant contact with the dog. The school finally relented. \"Our goal is to work the dog into the system,\" says Thomas O'Toole, director of special education for Montgomery County. \"If there are a lot of dogs, we will have to spread them through the system.\" And Christina also may lose Cosel, whom she got in February. He may have bad hips. CCI would replace Cosel, however, with another dog. All these problems, however -- with the state, schools, Cosel's hips and her disease -- do not seem to faze Christina as she glides through the mall on a Saturday afternoon. \"You can't think of this dog as a pet, it's a tool,\" she says, though she cannot hide her pride as strangers constantly compliment her dog. \"I make many more friends now. One girl at school can't wait for me and Cosel to get there.\" And Cosel has helped her feel safer. \"I used to cry a lot when my mom left the room or went anywhere,\" she says. \"Now I feel like I can go anywhere.\" As proof she decides to try out the glass elevator. \"Up,\" she commands Cosel again and again. The button is the hard kind, deeply embedded in the wall. After numerous tries, he gets it. It takes much maneuvering of the wheelchair and the dog to get situated in the elevator, long minutes most able-bodied people can't even imagine. But before long they are in and on their way up.","publication_date":"1989-08-03","authors":"By Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/08/03/extending-a-helping-paw/7da7d2c5-b4ed-493e-a8b5-7fd0aa22e9cd/","title":"EXTENDING A HELPING PAW","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/08/03/extending-a-helping-paw/7da7d2c5-b4ed-493e-a8b5-7fd0aa22e9cd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.601Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1989-08-20","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/08/20/my-fathers-homecoming/7450d208-9a4d-40ec-9daa-5d2de36aba23/","title":"MY FATHER'S HOMECOMING","article_text":"This is my grandmother's reason, said faintly over a long-distance telephone line: \"I want him to come home at last.\"    She is asking for my permission to move my father's body, her oldest son's last remains, from a New York City suburb, where he died more than 20 years ago, to the verdant hills of West Virginia, where he was born.    Her voice is trembly soft, mostly because she is calling from her nursing home bed there where she recovers from a stroke, from blood infections, from the exhaustion of caring for my long-ailing grandfather, who lies in a bed next to her in the room they now share.    \"We want to be ready,\" she says, trailing off. I have the quick inclination to ask, \"Ready for what?\" -- but stop. For when they die. For when they are laid to rest. For them, of course. I think for a while after we have hung up. I will do what she asks, but for my reasons. And I have only one.    I do not remember the last time I said good night to my father.    It's funny what one remembers of the scatterings of days. I used to sit on my father's shoulders, looking down at his Navy-short black hair, when he sat in our wing chair. His hair was so short I could trace the whorls.    I can easily recall sitting on the bathroom floor under the sink as my father shaved in the mornings. I used to put my cheek up against the pipe, because the warmth of the water rushing down it was comforting to me. The soft hairs of my father's legs trapped bits of water from the steamy air of the bathroom, until he shifted his legs, suddenly releasing the drops as he moved.    It amazes me that I can recount those times so easily, but not the last night he said goodbye to me. Worse still, I remember no living face at all, only the one I see frozen in snapshots.    I suppose there was a moment when I did that final time, and he answered as always in his languid drawl, \"Good night, good night, good night,\" before turning out the lights. I do remember many nights like that, but not the last one. I try sometimes, squeezing my memories dry, but years ago I just about gave up on it.    As I dial the cemetery to make arrangements, it seems as though I will try again, despite the pain all my friends say will undoubtedly come from \"unearthing\" the past -- yes, that's the word one used -- attempting to preserve that which is lost.    He was only 34 years old.    Dr. Louis Bush Swisher died from the complications of a brain aneurysm that burst without warning one sunny Sunday morning more than 20 years ago. My room was so dark that when I came out into the hall to help wake him for breakfast, the brightness of the day slapped me back to the shadowy doorway. I watched from there as my brother knocked purposefully on the door of my parents' bedroom to get my father up. The door was locked, and Jeffrey turned the knob round and round and hit the door with his hip. He just didn't give up, though no amount of shoving was going to open it, I remember thinking at the time. That was me, the practical one, with the unlikely childhood understanding that some things just aren't ever going to move.    We both thought my father had fallen into a deep sleep in there while writing a speech he was to give the next day. So Jeff kept kicking the door and smacking it and making such a noise that my mother finally came up, knocked impatiently and said, \"Bush, Bush, open up the door right now; you're making Jeff very upset.\" But he did not wake.    After that, it was quick: the firemen coming to ax the door to splinters, the ambulance and stretcher with all sorts of things hanging off of it. And the extraordinary silence when it was over.    I went back into my cocoon of a room, well before they carried my father out, and only imagine now the gurney with him on it, the white sheet, the hysterical cries of my mother following behind, saying, \"What is wrong with him?\" I stayed in my room, where it was quiet, and fell back asleep. I never did see my father again.    He lingered for weeks through January and finally died after two horrible operations. They buried him on a very cold February day. I didn't go to the funeral. Mom did explain to me that he had left and had been so very sick and it was probably better this way. \"Left\" is the word many used with me, as if he just up and walked out the door one day to get the mail or a pack of cigarettes and never came back. My father did not leave -- I knew -- as that would have implied choice.    I do not remember being too upset, but I was only 5. Jeffrey was 7 and he cried for weeks. He told me once then that I was stupid for not crying. I tried, but it never came.    It seemed like the memories faded before they had time to form. And after a while, my life with my father seemed like a familiar story, not a distant dream. The recollections blurred and then refocused. \"Yes, you remember that time ...\" someone would say. And, if I did not, I would then remember it their way, even creating new scenes -- that might not have really happened, but that became more real than the ones that did.    My father would come up often. Meeting new people, there would always be the question: \"What does your dad do?\"    \"Nothing,\" I'd always reply. \"He died.\"    \"Oh, I am so sorry,\" went the stock response. I always felt bad because I wanted to explain that it was okay, and anyway it was a long time ago and I was doing fine. But all I would see was an embarrassed face, a definite conversation stopper.    \"That's okay,\" was always as much as I could muster.    I could make up hours from the minutes of such moments. And others: empty Father's Days; an absent parent at school plays; good grades without his pat on the back; a prom with no lectures on being safe. And what else was missed? The love, I suppose, most of all.    But how would I know really what was gone, since it was never there? I often felt bad about pondering what I lost, thinking about all the greater loss that went on all over the world. I'd sometimes read the newspapers, focusing on the killings, shootings, earthquakes where lives were lost, and think that what happened to me wasn't really so bad. But it never worked.    The contacts with my father's parents faded over time. I perceived then some hint of acrimony between them and my mother. Such an unexpected death either yields closeness or a desperate need to get as far away as possible from reminders of the pain.    And we all went on and did pretty well with our lives. In spite of what happened? Because of what happened? My mother remarried; Jeffrey is a newly graduated doctor; my other brother studies to be a lawyer.    The envelope from the cemetery sits in front of me, the definition of impersonal. \"Please have the forms notarized ... once all the paperwork has been completed we shall schedule disinterment of deceased ...\" reads the businesslike letter from the secretary of the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, N.Y.    Enclosed are forms and affidavits and scores of places to sign. One is an application for a duplicate burial certificate from the state of New York, since my mother lost the original a long time ago. The form is nosy: Where is the certificate? Who last had custody of certificate? Has search been made for certificate? \"I don't remember anything I signed then,\" my mother says by way of an explanation.    The next deals with the stone monument on the grave. \"Move it,\" I tell the cemetery official. \"We don't do that,\" she replies. \"You have to hire someone to cart it away.\" She does not know what happens to the stones after they pass through the gates. \"I suppose they make gravel out of it,\" she says.    And the plot itself -- Section 16, Range V, Plot 37? Whom do we want to be buried there now? Four can be stacked in the plot, I am informed. Or do we want to sell it? The cemetery will only pay us the price we bought it for in 1968, $700, though it would cost much more now. But the rules say only the cemetery can sell plots. Our undertaker lets me in on a trick. We can designate the plot to someone else for free on paper, and he or she will pay us top dollar under the table. The idea horrifies and intrigues me at the same time. \"Real estate has gone up,\" the undertaker jokes, but quickly apologizes when he realizes the context. I laugh to put him at ease. The idea is kind of funny.    I learn a lot about graves in this time. That bodies cannot be disinterred in the summer months because it is too hot. That little will be left of my father, some bones and mostly dust, because he had a wood and not a metal casket. That it is very expensive to move a body. I find the old bills for the right of burial and the permanent grave care endowment. They totaled $225, and my mother paid by check.    The last paper is for my mother, two brothers and I to sign as sole survivors. When a body is moved, everyone in the immediate family must agree to it. My younger brother, David, agrees right away. When I call Jeffrey, he is at first put off. \"It's macabre,\" he says. \"We should leave him where he is.\" But he calls back soon after we hang up. \"Well, we never visit him in New York,\" he says from across the country with some guilt in his voice. My mother used to take all three of us to the cemetery when we were children, but we never liked going -- the place was dark and crowded and creepy. \"If it makes everybody feel better, I guess it's the right thing to do,\" Jeffrey says.    My mother is harder to convince. \"No,\" she says emphatically. \"It was hard enough to live through it the first time.\" We argue over the idea for many weeks and she avoids signing the final papers. \"Why? Why? Why?\" she asks me. I reel off the reasons: because we never visit the grave so far away from any of our lives; because his parents want to bring him home; because his children were too young then to understand. She finally softens. \"I guess it's time to close that chapter for all of us,\" she says quietly.    I have visited my grandmother and grandfather more and more lately. All through college in Washington I seldom made the trip to West Virginia to see them, but now I am drawn there. It seems sometimes just like gravity: the rolling green hills, the narrow roads, the dark lakes. The last trip, I even started singing \"Take Me Home, Country Roads\" out loud as I drove down the highway with my convertible top down. \"Almost heaven, West Virginia ...\" I warbled off-key as truck drivers eyed me warily. My father had the same kind of car, and I am certain he would have done the same thing if he had lived to know the lyrics.    I sit for hours with my grandmother in the nursing home as she tells me stories of my father, sometimes the same ones over and over. I do not correct her. In one he is a boy, then a young man, then a baby. His favorite color was blue. He loved corn on the cob and watermelon with salt. She tears up often as she talks of her son. I tape-record her, as a friend has suggested, and though it feels somewhat morbid, I know I will not regret it later on. After, she and I both know, she has died. I cannot do the same with my grandfather, for he is unreachable now, close to comatose. My grandmother swears he understands her stories and lights up when he hears them. Looking at the vacant eyes of a very old and tired man, I am not so sure.    And I wander through their now-empty home, where they raised their children. I do not believe in ghosts, but can feel some here. I climb to the third floor, where my father spent his boyhood. His is a small attic-like room, still with its old beds and cabinets. There is no air conditioning, so the air is heavy with the summer heat and long-ago scents. My grandmother asked me to take the old worn chair my father used to study in and a picture to hang on my wall. It strikes me only then that I have never displayed a photo of him anywhere I have lived.    I search their house for any of his old letters, bills or even notes from college, but can find little. I ask my grandmother where they went -- I myself have boxes of papers, a loose diary of my days. \"I just don't know,\" she answers. \"Things have a way of getting lost along the way.\"    But I find a pair of his glasses, which turn out to be strikingly like the ones I now wear, and the laminated picture of me he kept in his wallet. And that is about all I recover of his things, though I imagine somewhere are the rest of his possessions.    With all the papers signed, I must now wait until the state regulatory agency spits out its approval of our wishes. It will be around late fall by the time he's cremated and brought here, to be buried again with the first of his parents to die. That must be comforting to them, I think, that someone will be there when they leave the earth. And I feel more at peace too.    But there is one more duty of my own.    The road to the new cemetery is winding and lush, weaving its way into the hillside. I almost pass the place on the right, for it looks like just another meadow carved out of the trees. There are no headstones at this cemetery, only small brass plates flat on the ground, so it is more like a lucky find for the traveler, a spot where one could just rest and admire the view on a bright, sunny day.    It is a spectacular blue-skied one, and I stop in my car and look out at the mountains. It takes a long time and a squinty-eyed look from a groundskeeper before I realize the radio is playing a loud happy tune, and I turn it down quickly, having forgotten I am in a cemetery.    So I sit quietly and try once again to recall the last time I said good night to my father. But it is gone and will not be back.    It does not matter anymore, though. Soon we will bring him here forever, home at last. I will say goodbye then, and remember it as long as I can.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/08/20/my-fathers-homecoming/7450d208-9a4d-40ec-9daa-5d2de36aba23/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.013Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/09/15/the-perils-of-playthings/02132c80-4912-48f5-b0da-09b193e39ac7/","publication_date":"1989-09-15","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"In a perfect world of children's toys, all sharp edges would be rounded, all objects unbreakable, all materials nontoxic and all designs kid-proof.    But nothing in the world is 100 percent safe and dangers lurk in the most ordinary places. Balloons asphyxiate. Small objects like marbles block breathing passages. Mobiles strangle. Slingshots blind. Some stuffed dolls catch fire easily.    And judging from the testimony at a toy safety conference held this past Wednesday in downtown Washington, most injuries caused by unsafe toys are preventable.    That news is not new, however. Consumer advocacy groups for years have attempted to force manufacturers and federal and state governments to adopt stricter standards for toys. But the daylong meeting, \"Toy Safety: More Than Child's Play,\" jointly sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Hospital Injury Prevention Center and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, was a first, bringing together all players -- consumer groups, plaintiff attorneys, government regulators, physicians, scientists and toy manufacturers -- for a lively and sometimes contentious debate about the future of toy safety and a \"blueprint for action.\"    \"We're not here to advocate or bash,\" said Russ Herman, president of ATLA, as he opened the conference. \"We're here to talk to each other and find some common building blocks to save injured children.\"    And there are many. Though the statistics are in dispute, the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 130,000 children suffer from toy-related injuries every year. Consumer groups say the number is closer to 500,000, while toy manufacturers' numbers are much lower, counting only injuries clearly linked to a toy's defects.    The issue is timely. According to industry analysts, about 75 percent of all new toys are bought between Labor Day and the winter holidays.    The numerous topics taken up at the conference were varied, but seemed to fall under certain general heading: the role of the government, specifically the CPSC; legal secrecy agreements; the importance of media coverage; the epidemiology of toy safety; and, most importantly, prevention.    Government    The main target throughout the day was the lackluster role of state and federal regulatory agencies, which were portrayed by numerous speakers as ghosts of their former selves. Over a span of eight years, for example, the CPSC has had its 951-member staff cut to 500, its $42 million budget slashed to $34 million and its five-member commissioner panel made impotent, with only two in place -- not enough for a quorum.    \"They are so stripped down, that good inspection is impossible,\" said former CPSC commissioner David Pittle, technical director for the Consumers Union, a nonprofit group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. \"We can't kid ourselves, they are inefficient and weak and most companies have nothing to fear from them.\"    Local television consumer reporter Roberta Baskin concurred. \"You just can't trust the CPSC anymore, not because they are dishonest, but because they can't do their job. They cover 15,000 product areas and now have only friendly persuasions. They can't meet, can't require, can't force anything,\" she said. \"Their mandate has been lost to the private sector.\"    Philip Bechtel, legislative director for Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.), was more blunt on this issue. \"I wouldn't look to Congress and the legislative arena to provide relief, because it's such a broad-based problem,\" he said. \"There are not going to be any major funding changes, nothing dramatic. They are going to have to do an effective job with what they have.\"    Conference participants concluded that advocacy groups and others should press Congress and the administration to set minimum adequate levels of money and staffing for the CPSC, including naming a new commissioner immediately so the agency can function. \"It's obscene,\" whispered one conference attendee about the vacancies.    Secrecy    Darts also were aimed at the current practice of secrecy in product liability settlements concerning toys. Many companies, faced with solid suits, were willing to make generous settlements -- but at a price of silence from victims.    \"It's economic coercion,\" said Robert Habush, a Milwaukee lawyer. \"The victims are often burdened by expense, the possibility of losing if it goes to trial, the fear of litigation, and often they don't want the publicity either.\"    Most attorneys agreed with Habush, saying it is incumbent upon them to convince their clients not to agree to secrecy arrangements.    \"Besides being a conflict of interest for the lawyer, who is supposed to be an officer of the court and bring out full disclosure, {secrecy deals} also have far-reaching implications beyond the immediate victim,\" said Habush.    \"I wish I had known more,\" said David Snow, a children's safety activist who founded the Michele Snow Foundation in memory of his daughter, who died as a result of injuries from lawn darts. \"Every time a secrecy agreement is signed, it takes away important knowledge from the public and in many instances it could mean a tragic incident.\"    Said Seattle consumer reporter Herb Weisbaum: \"We need a flood of public knowledge, because the public does not perceive a safety issue unless they hear about it.\"    Many at the conference suggested legislation is needed to bar agreements that keep such information locked away in files forever.    Media    All conference attendees underlined the importance of the media in the fight to bring safer toys to children's playrooms, but many media practices were taken to task.    \"Toy safety gets skimpy and seasonal treatment from the media,\" said Pittle. \"If it's not sexy or has a seasonal hook, you seldom see ongoing coverage of the topic. But products are dangerous all year round.\"    Pittle pointed to the small attention paid to recall announcements. \"They get buried and ignored,\" he said, noting that the fine-print recall list is one of the best read in his magazine. \"But readers really pay attention to those tiny and sometimes boring explanations.\"    \"It's a once-a-year story,\" agreed Weisbaum, \"and sometimes it becomes so identical year after year, you get burnt out.\" Weisbaum advised advocacy groups to stage more events throughout the year and to make them visually interesting for the media.    Ann Brown, who heads the Consumer Affairs Committee for the Americans for Democratic Action, which sponsors an annual toy evaluation during the holiday season, agreed. \"The media is our friend on this issue,\" she said. \"We need as much education and exposure as possible, and you have to understand what they need to make the story more compelling, including victims who can talk about what happened to them. It is a human issue.\"    Epidemiology    Though the conference was more about tactics and theories, some hard facts were presented.    Mark Widome, representing the American Academy of Pediatrics, recounted the various problems doctors have had to deal with in the past, including off-road motorbikes, skateboards and trampolines. \"When regulators and the media spoke up about the dangers of trampolines, the effect was ... sales underwent a sharp decline,\" he said. \"So talking out matters a great deal.\"    Garen Wintemute, an expert in injury prevention and epidemiology from California, outlined some current trends and looked at injuries involving toy guns. He recounted a story of a child playing Laser Tag at night who was killed by a police officer. The officer mistakenly thought the child was carrying a real rifle. \"The way some guns look, no one, even a professional cop, can tell the difference.\" Though new laws call for bright colors and fluorescent barrel plugs for toy guns, Wintemute does not believe this is enough. \"I don't care if they're polka dot or purple, they are not a safe and decent plaything, and they are potentially dangerous,\" he said.    Prevention    \"Toys shouldn't be causing injuries,\" said Cleveland attorney James Lowe. \"We can't prevent all injuries, but we should be able to reduce them significantly. We need to do everything possible to make people aware of the potential problem.\"    It was a sentiment echoed throughout the day. \"Toy safety is a contradiction in terms. Children have no common sense. They think they are older than they are,\" said Habush. \"It's better to build a fence at the top of a cliff rather than pay for an ambulance at the bottom.\"    After all the quibbling over statistics, Habush zeroed in on the heart of the issue: \"Do we need a body count to design safe toys? Do I need to put a rocket scientist on the stand to tell me that sharp edges are dangerous? Do I need an expert to tell me children are imitators and will play with toys designed for older children and think they can handle it?\" he asked.    \"It's the height of cynicism to say we can regulate ourselves without laws. The media should publicize this. The manufacturers should come forward with problems. And, if they don't, the lawyers and parents should give them hell.\"","title":"THE PERILS OF PLAYTHINGS","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/09/15/the-perils-of-playthings/02132c80-4912-48f5-b0da-09b193e39ac7/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.430Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/02/zsa-zsa-and-me/0a471501-fbb6-4d0b-86bc-b2439a24c359/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"\"Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one fine morning.\"    \"The Trial,\" by Franz Kafka    I am probably the only person in North America who believes Zsa Zsa Gabor's story about her recent wranglings with the Beverly Hills Police Department. Of police brutality. Of surreptitious taping in the cellblock. Of the horrors of the Big House.    I never thought the day would come when I would understand Zsa Zsa, the patron saint of the moving violators. But we now have something in common, this 66-year-old Hungarian semi-celebrity and me. She wasn't looking for trouble. Neither was I. But trouble, as it always does, found us. The similarities are uncanny:    In mid-June she was arrested in Beverly Hills in her buff Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible by Officer Paul Kramer. Last April, I was nabbed on my midnight black Honda Elite motor scooter near the Mall during a random police check.    She had expired registration tags. The District of Columbia decided to classify my putt-putt as a motorcycle, in the same category as Harleys, so when I gave them my driver's license without a motorcycle license attached, it was handcuff city for me.    Words escalated between Zsa Zsa and Officer Kramer. Kramer says she said: \"You are an {expletive}.\" She says he said \"Get out {of the car}, you {expletive}.\" Zsa Zsa slapped the mirrored sunglasses off Kramer. I facetiously asked Park Police Officer M.E. Smith if he was sick of ticketing tourists for jaywalking or eating ice cream at the monuments. He told me to put my hands behind my back.    Handcuffed so tightly, Zsa Zsa had to cancel a charity appearance because of bruises and she even broke two fingernails. Although the cuffs were too small for my wrists, and they nearly slipped off, I did miss half a day of work.    And now, after a 15-day trial, Zsa Zsa's been convicted of slapping a police officer, driving without a valid driver's license and having an open bottle of alcohol in her car. (She was acquitted of disobeying Officer Kramer, though she drove away shortly after he initially stopped her.) She faces up to 18 months in prison. I got off lightly, in comparison: a $50 fine and eternal embarrassment because I still was handcuffed when a colleague arrived to pick me up.    I thought it would be fun to own a motor scooter. And economical. I used it to get to and from work, saving gas and parking costs.    I had owned a moped before, and after it had seen better days, I went to buy a new, snazzy number. This one was a dream -- all sleek lines and curves. I paid for it before I even rode it.    I had checked with District authorities concerning the previous moped, and was told that a driver's license would suffice. Since the new vehicle was similar, except for some fancy molded plastic, I thought the same rules applied. But the difference between freedom and the jail cell had to do with pedals. My old one had them and my new one didn't. And without them, I was astride a hog.    Police seem to love picking on scooters. Someone once told me it's because drug couriers use them, and another person said it's because they buzz in and out of traffic like annoying gnats. So I wasn't surprised when I was motioned over by Smith on the corner of 14th and Constitution NW. I pulled over and he took my license, conferring with a group of officers in that police way that could make Mother Teresa believe she had commited a capital crime. Then, before I could sputter \"Give me a break,\" he told me driving without a license -- a valid motorcycle license -- was illegal and then I was wearing steel bracelets.    I was determined not to panic or cry. \"Crime just doesn't pay,\" I joked to the curious tourists who had gathered around for the bust.    I thought of the later implications. I'm at a job interview and I have just about clinched it. \"Any serious arrests,\" the interviewer asks, mostly in jest. \"Well, there was that scooter incident some years ago ...\" And then it's over; the door closes in my face.    When you are arrested, the police on the scene take everything away from you -- your wallet, keys, briefcase -- and it makes you feel as if you don't exist. After what seemed like an eon of pointing children and staring adults, the paddy wagon showed up and I was shoved into the back. \"Hold on,\" one grinning officer said. Good advice, since I was thrown around the slippery stainless steel cubicle with every turn.    By the time I got to the Hains Point holding station, I was plenty shook up. At the receiving desk, the officer in charge had my bag and was busy taking out and tagging every single item, an excruciatingly time-consuming process, made especially uncomfortable in handcuffs. \"Belt, shoelaces,\" said the officer to me when he was finally done.    \"Yes, I have them on,\" I answered.    \"I mean, hand them over,\" he replied. \"It's in case you try to commit suicide in the cell.\" I thanked him for being so thoughtful. After an hour, I was led to the jail block, where I was fingerprinted and photographed.    They let me make a call to a friend to come spring me, since I did not have a check or credit card with me to get myself out. He laughed a good long time and then agreed to come get me as soon as he could. Until then, it was the lockup.    There is a point when an arrest takes on the surreal feeling of fantasy, as if it can't be happening. Sitting in the tiny cinder block jail cell with its faraway window, I surprisingly started to feel as though I were in a television drama. I was alone, since very few commuter arrests are made in the morning, so I had no one to commiserate with.    The final indignation had nothing to do with the arrest. It was the line at the Department of Motor Vehicles, where I waited for hours to answer just a few questions more to get a motorcycle designation on my driver's license. And then at the motorcycle driving test site. \"Once around the parking lot and stop,\" said the tester, explaining the course. What? No pop-a-wheelies? No figure eights? No vroom? With these tests, my cat could get a motorcycle license.    Does it have to happen this way? Isn't a warning, a ticket, a fine mean enough?    \"All persons found to be driving without a license are immediately arrested and taken in,\" said a police spokesman to me when I called. \"It is a misdemeanor, but there are no exceptions -- for you, for Zsa Zsa Gabor, for anyone.\"    There is hope, at least for Zsa Zsa. S.P.A.A.Z.Z. -- the Florida-based Society for the Prevention of Anything Against Zsa Zsa -- says fans are joining in droves, and a \"Free Zsa Zsa\" T-shirt business has been brisk in recent weeks. Always a fighter, she is not a newcomer to the pummeling of life's indignities. Last year, she was removed from a Delta Airlines flight for letting her Shih Tzu loose in the first-class cabin and refusing to do anything about it. \"He was in my Louis Vuitton carrying case the whole time,\" she classily declared to \"People\" magazine recently. And just last week, a Tennessee hairdresser is claiming that she stiffed him on a $75 bill. \"You cannot stand and argue with Zsa Zsa,\" he said.    About the arrest, she waxed philosophic. \"This is a woman's reaction. I admit I have a Hungarian temper,\" she boldly states. \"Why not? I am from Hungary. We are descendants of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun.\"    I understand completely.","title":"ZSA ZSA AND ME","publication_date":"1989-10-02","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/02/zsa-zsa-and-me/0a471501-fbb6-4d0b-86bc-b2439a24c359/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.023Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/03/issues/960f27e8-45e6-4270-9577-9086c96bb96a/","title":"ISSUES","publication_date":"1989-10-03","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"The calls and letters to the Smithsonian Institution in recent weeks have been \"like a flood,\" says spokeswoman Madeleine Jacobs, who ticks off the big and small media throughout the country that have covered the issue. \"Even important topics like our divestment from South Africa didn't get this much attention.\"    The deluge has come from the debate over what to do with the 35,000 American Indian remains and funerary objects held by the Smithsonian for more than a century. In mid-September, the institution agreed to ease repatriation of their large collection of Indian skeletal remains and burial artifacts to tribes nationwide.    The oral agreement will be part of legislation -- now moving swiftly forward in Congress -- authorizing the creation of the National Museum of the American Indian. The disposition of Indian remains, which has been at the top of Indian agendas for a decade, was the major stumbling block in that effort. Now the Smithsonian will return remains where a \"preponderance of evidence\" links them to specific tribes, as opposed to close relatives, which was the old standard.    But though the influential Smithsonian has acquiesced, the fight is far from over. According to estimates, there are more than 600,000 remains throughout the U.S. in the nation's universities, research institutions, museums and even roadside tourist attractions. The issue, therefore, is likely to remain a hot topic in anthropological and museum circles and an emotional rallying point for Indians for a long time to come.    \"We are a living, viable, ongoing Indian culture, but America has not yet resolved who we are and what we want,\" says Suzan Shown Harjo, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest Native American advocacy group with 1.5 million Indian constituents. \"We accept nothing other than total compliance to our requests. The remains don't belong to anyone, and there's no point to collecting when it's so deeply morally offensive to other human beings.\"    The level of emotion is not surprising. Washington, more than any other city in the United States, is well-suited for the issues involving the proper honoring of the dead, with perfectly groomed Arlington National Cemetery set prominently on a hill across the Potomac River and monument after monument dedicated to those who have passed before. But no more proof is needed than the startling statistics. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the most popular tourist spot in Washington with more than 1 million visitors yearly.    Who can say why graves are important? To remember those we have loved, to honor those we respect, to show our decency as human beings. But there is perhaps another reason: Cemeteries remind people of their own mortality.    This national respect for the dead seems to have turned to historical indifference when it comes to American Indians, however, who frequently note that the old axiom from Westerns, \"The only good Indian is a dead Indian,\" still is in full force. Today's attempts to keep Indian remains locked up in museum vaults, Indians say, is like \"racist grave-robbing.\"    In testimony before the Senate in 1987, Bill Tall Bull, spiritual leader of the Northern Cheyenne tribe of Lame Deer, was graphic: \"How would you feel if your grandmother's grave were opened and the contents were shipped back east to be boxed and warehoused with 31,000 others ... and itinerant pot-hunters were allowed to ransack her house in search of 'artifacts' with the blessing of the U.S. government?\" he asked. \"It is uncivilized ... savage ... barbaric ... inhuman. It is sick behavior. It is un-Christian. It is punishable by law.\"    \"When most people discover this is going on, they are horrified,\" says Harjo, \"and there is nothing in our traditions to deal with this. None of our enemies before the white man has ever disturbed or violated our burial grounds.\"    That is particularly upsetting for American Indians, who believe that when you upset a grave, you disturb the journey of a spirit; Indians believe their dead cannot rest until they are buried. It is not a unique belief. The Vietnamese, for example, consider the ceremony surrounding dying a fine art, and death anniversaries are far more important than birthdays.    Therefore, Indians feel they are responsible for the care of their collective ancestors' spirits. Of the more than 500 Indian tribes recognized by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, nearly all believe a person's burial place is sacred and should not be disturbed. Some tribes believe holding remains causes sickness, and others avoid speaking the name of a dead person.    The emotional trauma and spiritual distress is so high over the situation that today's older Indians, says Harjo, are directing that their bodies be cremated, because they are afraid their remains will be disturbed and their spirits will be forced to walk the earth for eternity.    Their fear is well-documented. Even though the American Indian population faces a number of serious problems, the systematic grave violations reveal some of the grisliest stories of all. Many Indian bones were collected in the early 19th century right off the battlefield. In 1868 the surgeon general of the Army directed medical officers in the west to collect Indian craniums for study of infection and disease. Much of this collection was done by the plundering of grave sites, and 4,000 of these specimens were transferred from the Army Medical Museum to the Smithsonian at the turn of the century.    The practices continue today. Indian grave sites are destroyed and bones scattered as looters search for artifacts. A roadside Indian bone pit in Kansas -- billed as a tourist attraction -- only recently was closed down. Even President George Bush was dragged into the fray when it was asserted his college secret society, Skull & Bones, had the skull of warrior Geronimo in its possession, taken in a raid led by none other than Bush's father, Prescott Bush.    And though the Smithsonian has come around, 166 bones still are on display in its museums. \"You can imagine your dismay if Thomas Jefferson's bones were removed from his grave and displayed on a museum shelf,\" said Chief Nelson Wallulatum of Oregon's Wasco tribe to a Senate panel in 1987. \"You would feel even more strongly if he were your great-grandfather.\"    Smithsonian Secretary Robert McCormick Adams, who worked on the remains agreement, says he has grown more sympathetic. \"After some years dealing with Native Americans, their story takes on an anguish ... and becomes a weight one cannot carry,\" he says. \"As I read more about the atrocities, the tragedy takes on a horrible deepness. These are the crimes of the past we cannot afford to repress.\"    Scientists and anthropologists, meanwhile, are nervous over the new trend to repatriate, likening it to burning books, since the bones can chronicle the history of disease, diet and migration patterns. Scientists now are even able to extract DNA from bones to study genetic disorders of long ago.    Therefore, burying the bones has been compared with throwing away treasure. \"It is certainly a loss, because the evidence is extremely valuable,\" says Adams. \"As a scientist, I can't help but feel that, of course.\"    Some scientists say that they should not have to pay for the legal and ethical standards of the time, likening the fight to the Evolution vs. Creation battle. \"All that wandering souls stuff is dramatic for the media,\" says one New York anthropologist. \"We are doing important work that benefits all mankind, and we're portrayed as grave robbers.\"    There also is an undercurrent of betrayal for many anthropologists who believe they played an integral role in protecting most of the Indian artifacts that have survived to this day. The American Anthropological Society has clung to its right to study ancient bones, though it allows the return of remains to close relatives -- a task that is sometimes impossible for Indian tribes to prove.    Indians have not accepted the scientific justifications, refusing to be rated as artifacts and resources for the scientific community when other racial groups are not. Much of the unearthing of the dead was done without the consent of the affected tribes, and the Indians often equate it to Nazi experimentation during World War II. Claiming that Indians should enjoy equal protection under the law and free exercise of religion, the tribes mostly feel that racial biology should not be allowed without the full consent of those studied.    \"We would allow some testing if we were asked,\" says Walter Echo-Hawk, an attorney for the Native Americans Rights Fund (NARF), which pursues Indian repatriation requests. \"They have had decades for study, eons to examine the hoarding of our ancestral remains. The science should be done by now.\"    Indian groups even question the good of some of the scientific inquiry. NARF released a letter from Emery Johnson, retired assistant surgeon general for the U.S. Public Health Service, to the Association of American Indian Affairs. \"In response to your recent questions about the value of collections of Indian skeletal remains to the present medical care of American Indian and Alaska Native people, I can only say that I am not aware of any current medical diagnostic or treatment procedure that has derived from research on such skeletal remains,\" he wrote. \"Nor am I aware of any during the 34 years that I have been involved in American Indian/Alaska Native health care.\"    Pending legislation may make all arguments moot. Though laws in all 50 states rule against disturbing or mistreating the dead, often graves located on private land were exempt. The 1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act says nothing about private sites.    But Kansas, Washington, Kentucky, Nebraska, Texas, Minnesota, Indiana and New Mexico have recently passed stiffer laws protecting Indian burial sites. In a forward-looking solution, Delaware will require reburial, but is pushing for special vaults that make the bones available for scientists.    Around the country, a trend is emerging. Last year Stanford University gave back the remains of 550 Indians to the Ohlone-Costanoan tribe. The University of Minnesota has released 1,000 Indian remains. And Seattle University soon will return 150 boxes of bones to Indian tribes in that state.    In Congress, five \"bones\" bills are pending, besides the new Smithsonian repatriation agreement, to stop the plunder of Indian graves. \"It's a cooperative effort all the way around,\" says Frank Ducheneaux, counsel on Indian Affairs to the Interior committee of the House. \"And the Smithsonian action is a quantum leap forward.\"    The Smithsonian decision is expected to have a ripple effect. \"The Smithsonian is king of the hill when it comes to museums,\" Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-Colo.) said at a recent Capitol Hill press conference. \"This represents the best of mainstream ethics and it will have a profound effect.\"    The agreement calls for a two- or three-year inventory of the collection, which will cost $1 million. The Smithsonian then will inform tribes of their interests and remains will be returned, creating further hardship for the impoverished tribes who will have to pick up the tab for the reburial of their kin.    The Smithsonian's Madeleine Jacobs cautions against elevated expectations. \"If it passes, the funding is not authorized until 1991, so nothing is going to happen instantly,\" she says. \"I hope people realize that.\"    That may be true, but if museums and lawmakers did not act, they might have faced lawsuits from Indian groups. \"There were a lot waiting on the front porch, pending a lot of these talks,\" says Harjo. \"But we wanted to take the least contentious manner to arrive at a solution that matches today's ethical standards.\"    Harjo is excited by the prospect of visiting the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History again, where most of the bones are now housed. She says she could not before, because of the spirits of her ancestors in torment there. \"Indian tribes will now come forward to claim their dead, because they now feel welcome,\" she says with a sigh of relief.    Still there are tragedies. \"These acts are full of vision, goals and aspiration,\" says Harjo, \"but there is a continuing sadness, because many of our dead have no people to claim them at all and they will never rest.\"    GRAVE TALES    Good friend for Jesus sake forbear,    To dig the dust enclosed here:    Blessed be the man that spares these stones,    And cursed be he that moves my bones.    These words are carved on a tombstone in Stratford-on-Avon's Trinity Church in England. The grave? William Shakespeare's.    While the Bard remains safe, there have been instances of grave desecration of well-known people: Grave robbers removed the hands of Argentine leader Juan Peron and demanded $8 million for their return. And the body of his charismatic wife, Eva, was stolen and moved about the world until it was recovered and buried years after her death.    And just this week, hundreds of thousands of Argentinians celebrated when the body of Juan Manuel de Rosas, the 19th-century strongman, was returned to Buenos Aires from England after 112 years.    In the United States, the remains of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and circus magnate John Ringling have been the subject of fierce family battles. There was public outrage when author Dorothy Parker's ashes were found gathering dust on an office shelf. In 1983, someone stole actor James Dean's tombstone from its Fairmount, Ind., grave site. Locally, in 1985, a Montgomery County potter's field was destroyed by developers, though recently graves dating back to the Civil War in Fairfax County were spared when Virginia officials were unable to establish a legal right-of-way.    Humans aren't the only ones affected. Some years ago, a fight arose over development near the Aspen Hill Pet Cemetery in Silver Spring, the 65-year-old graveyard with more than 50,000 pets and 30 pet owners interred. Opponents were concerned that building might upset the tranquillity of the site.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/03/issues/960f27e8-45e6-4270-9577-9086c96bb96a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.072Z"},
{"title":"CAMPUS CRIMES","article_text":"A bike is stolen when it is left unlocked by its owner, who quickly runs into a store for a soda. An expensive new computer system is taken from a room when a window is left unlatched. A person at an automatic teller is robbed late at night as he withdraws some cash. A woman gets drunk and passes out at a party, and she later wakes up to find she's being raped by a man she met earlier in the evening.    These instances of crime -- sometimes violent -- take place every day across the country in an unexpected environment: college campuses. While most think of universities as safe oases of higher learning, where the cares of the world are far away, crime on campus is a growing problem.    In fact, a recent USA Today poll showed one of every four college students is a crime victim. Most of the crime is petty theft, which is no surprise considering today's students equip dorm rooms with computers, VCRs, TVs and other expensive items.    \"Let's face it, crime is the absolute last thing on young people's minds when they are going to college,\" says William J. D'Urso, a former law enforcement officer who has just opened a McLean-based consulting firm, Campus Security Resources, with partner Edward L. Lee II. \"They think about studying, having a little fun. We understand that -- we were all young.\"    But, says D'Urso, \"as we looked at it, it was far more of a problem than most people realize -- so much was not reported.\"    After creating a seminar series that they are marketing to college campuses nationwide, the partners wrote a manual: \"Crime Prevention on Campus: A Guide for Students, Faculty and Staff\" (ELL Security Consultants Inc., $3.75). The small, informative handbook, says D'Urso, was written to dispel notions about crime on campus, reduce problems and give students a few tips on how to keep safe. The thrust of the book, published last month, is on prevention and avoidance and, in cases of robbery, cautions self-defense as a last option.    D'Urso and Lee attribute crime on campus to a variety of reasons, including carelessness by students, increased drug and alcohol abuse and security forces unequipped to deal with modern times. \"It's not the good old days anymore, where you could have one or two night watchmen to help a few drunk students on their way,\" says D'Urso.    The university has a clear responsibility to people who live and work on campus to provide security and foresee dangers, say D'Urso and Lee. This can be accomplished by:    having campus security systems evaluated by experienced professionals and providing more funding for security programs;    publishing crime statistics;    having strict college policies on alcohol and drug abuse, theft, sexual assault and date rape;    providing support for crime victims;    giving campus police arrest authority;    conducting background checks on all workers.    Their book also recommends the college or university provide after-hours shuttles and escort services, grilles on all ground-level buildings, and deadbolt door and window locks for individual rooms.    The authors acknowledge that students must also accept some responsibilities, including compliance with security rules, reporting of security lapses and responsible behavior. Most of it, they say, is common sense: lock windows, don't give out keys, organize a dorm watch system, lock up and engrave valuables, close drapes to deter peeping Toms and never leave bikes unlocked. For those students with cars, they advise locking valuables in the trunk, keeping doors locked and windows mostly up when driving late at night, and parking in well-lit areas.    The pair target women for special warning. \"Do not present the criminal with ideal predictable targets,\" says D'Urso. Since most rapes, according to the manual, occur from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., avoid dark or vacant places such as parking lots or deserted laundry rooms; walk fast and with confidence and have keys ready. D'Urso recalls a local incident where a woman alone stopped for a soda at a convenience store late at night and was followed home by people hanging out there and attacked. \"Be aware of everything around you,\" he says.    Women should carry a whistle, but not a lethal weapon, which can be used against them, the authors say. The best tactic if attacked? Run, if you can, throwing your book bag in the opposite direction than you are going to momentarily distract an attacker.    One problem covered in the book concerns date rape, which often is accompanied by alcohol abuse. The easy advice: Do not get in a situation where you are alone with strangers, and, above all, report any incidents.    One local campus that is considered top-notch security-wise by D'Urso and Lee is George Mason University in Fairfax County. The 18,600 graduate and undergraduate students on the large campus are served by both 24 security officers and 31 actual police officers, accredited by the state of Virginia's Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Police Academy.    \"I think we do a better job because we are trained professionally in dealing with the criminal,\" says Lt. John Jenkins, commander of operations. He says theft is usually their biggest problem, as on other campuses, \"but we are well prepared to deal with anything else.\" The GMU force sends all its crime stats to the state police, advertises most dangerous incidents in local newspapers and conducts monthly lectures on safety tips.    City colleges have a tougher time. \"We have to deal a lot more with the general public,\" says Bill Tucker, director of public safety at Georgetown University, where a staff of 70 protects 9,000 students. With the campus spilling over into the city streets, officers there patrol off-campus, especially in areas where muggers might hide on weekend nights near the busy Wisconsin Avenue and M Street NW. \"We try to teach students the basics of being careful and advise them to use our security and student escort services,\" says Tucker.    They also rely on D.C. police. \"There is no problem on a campus that does not occur in the city at large,\" says D.C. Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile. \"A campus is a mini city within the city.\"    Gentile reiterates that taking precautions is the best way to fight crime. \"If you have valuables, you should take advantage of the closest police district's engraving tool and etch your Social Security number on items,\" says Gentile. \"It's immediately harder for criminals to fence.\"    Gentile stresses that the problems for students are similar to those of any other citizens. \"People should not walk home alone. If they have not lived in a city, they should talk to people that have. Don't carry a lot of valuables or more keys and identification items than you need.\"    But since crime on campus is likely to stay around as long as bad cafeteria food, there will always be the inevitability of something getting stolen. In that case, students should have proper insurance, since many bring almost $15,000 worth of merchandise to school. Most homeowner policies on parents' homes will cover students' possessions, but a review of the coverage for expensive items is a good idea, especially to find out what risks are included.    \"Most parents' household insurance protects everything, but like anything in life, make sure you have enough coverage,\" says Dan Olmstead of New York's Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. \"For example, a new trend is computers and if you make it clear you own it, it will be easier to collect in case of theft.\"    According to Olmstead, there are a few other things to check. Be sure the most common risks are covered: theft, accidental damage, fire and losing or misplacing property. Review exclusions -- conditions under which claims will not be paid. For example, some policies do not cover property stolen while the student has been away from his dorm for longer than 45 consecutive days, such as over summer vacation. Insure for full value expensive items like personal computers; policyholders should list, or \"schedule,\" the purchase price and exact make and model. Deductibles are not applied to scheduled items and claims are paid more quickly when property values are specified in advance.    D'Urso and Lee also advocate good coverage, but still stress the best insurance when it comes to college campuses is, not surprisingly, education.    \"Of course, all great security systems in the world won't help when some student carelessly props open a door to a residence hall and allows thieves and even worse to get in,\" says D'Urso. \"But universities have to educate kids to give them insight and training and make them aware.\"","publication_date":"1989-10-19","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/19/campus-crimes/82379941-6fb1-43d2-965c-6d3ad45391d9/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/19/campus-crimes/82379941-6fb1-43d2-965c-6d3ad45391d9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.084Z"},
{"publication_date":"1989-10-24","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/24/plays-for-thought/723fefea-bb43-4491-8535-a4874d15ca33/","article_text":"The dialogue between two children provokes stunned silence:    \"Dirty nigger!\"    \"Well, you're a cracker!\"    \"Soda cracker good to eat! Niggers only good to beat!\"    In adult theater, such words are harsh to listen to, even for the most mature audiences. But this exchange mature audiences. But this exchange is part of an upcoming production of \"Most Valuable Player,\" about the early career of Jackie Robinson, the first black American to break the color barrier in major league baseball, at the Kennedy Center Theater for Young People (KCTYP). The play, set in 1946, was conceived by the California Theatre Center and is designed for children from fourth to eighth grades.    Formerly called Programs for Children and Youth, this theater production group of the Kennedy Center's education department has been taking on serious topics, such as racism and prejudice, for almost all of its 14 years. \"We try to treat kids like real people, and also engage and keep them interested,\" says Carol Sullivan, producing director for the theater. \"There is room for both entertainment and seriousness in children's programming.\"    KCTYP presents more than 200 performances for 100,000 young people each year, including local school groups. The Kennedy Center works with more than 500 schools in 17 school districts in the Washington area, who come for the theater's morning performances. This season's topics range from nuclear war and bank foreclosures in the farm belt to a story about a prince, a princess and a troll.    The notion of offering children something more substantive than what's shown on Saturday morning television can be controversial, however.    When the KCTYP was presenting a show about a traumatic divorce, for instance, a child actor in the show fantasized himself in an accident that would result in his parents reuniting. Sullivan says a parent called up and asked why the Kennedy Center was advocating suicide. \"I thought: 'Suicide? Where?' \" she says. \"It was about the difficulty of loss, but a lot of people don't like presenting difficult subjects like that to kids.\"    Other area troupes -- Arena's Living Stage Theatre Company, for example -- also chronicle difficult subjects, such as the pain of poverty and the ravages of drugs. All around the country, in fact, children's theater companies are taking on more sophisticated topics.    The production of \"One Thousand Cranes,\" which was part of last year's season and will be reprised in February, will tour the country in cities such as Seattle, Columbus, Portland, Birmingham and Albany.    The play is about as fearful a topic as you can present to children: nuclear war. According to recent surveys, 51 percent of children in grades 7 to 12 had heard of nuclear weapons when they were between the ages of 5 and 10; in another poll, 90 percent felt there would be a nuclear attack in their lifetime and that they would not survive; in yet another survey, 72 percent said they never talked about the nuclear-war issue with their parents, though more than half thought about it \"quite a bit.\"    \"Sure, it's a really scary topic,\" says Sullivan. \"But presenting the ideas and talking about fears seemed to us a better way than keeping silent.\"    The play is based on the real-life experiences of 11-year-old Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia nine years after the bombing of Hiroshima, near where she was born. A statue of Sadako was erected in Japan by her friends. It is decorated with garlands of paper cranes (representing long life and good health) and bears the inscription, \"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.\"    Her story is juxtaposed with that of Buddy Harman, a present-day 13-year-old who is frightened by the prospect of growing up in a world threatened with nuclear war. Audiences of children are quickly acclimated to words such as atomic bomb, bomb shelter, D-day, fallout, mushroom cloud, radiation and X-ray.    \"We try to convey hope to the children who see this,\" says Sullivan, \"all the while trying not to avoid troublesome problems that are on their minds. This is stuff we have to deal with and a good theater for young people has to reflect those things.\"    Though Sullivan is not sure KCTYP would take on topics as serious as abortion or AIDS (\"They are more apt to interest older teens,\" she says), she will take any good script that covers topics on the minds of kids.    \"Amber Waves,\" for example, was commissioned this year and will premiere in late February. It will portray a Kansas farm family on the brink of losing everything. \"We want to present good drama and good characters. We won't just pick something to 'do' an issue,\" she says. \"There is room for both the Ice Capades and more serious things,\" she stresses.    KCTYP also publishes comprehensive performance guides, so teachers can take what the kids see on the stage and convert it into a deeper learning experience. For \"One Thousand Cranes,\" children can fold their own paper cranes; for \"Most Valuable Player,\" the guide suggests a discussion about racism, prejudice, courage and heroism.    Other programs run by KCTYP include a play-writing competition by area young children, a month-long Imagination Celebration in April and theater training for grades 5 to 12, taught by local actors.    Sullivan says she has no trouble attracting good actors for the productions. \"Some see it as 'kiddie theater,' but once they do it, they realize it's just as much of a challenge. We approach {their plays} as seriously as you would any show.\" That quality has attracted top local talent, including actor Ritchie Porter, set designer Russell Metheny and lighting designer Nancy Schertler, all of whom have performed at regular area theaters.    Mary Hall Surface came from California to direct \"Most Valuable Player,\" and she sees it as a unique challenge. \"We are trying to show kids the history of racial prejudice in a creative forum, so you have a special responsibility to get it right,\" she says. \"It's not 'The Princess and the Pea.' \"    But even that silly classic folktale got special treatment: Hans Christian Andersen's \"The Princess and the Pea\" was the opening show for KCTYP's new season this year. The 500-word fairy tale is mostly a lark, but Sullivan has tried to inject some semblance of reality into it. \"We don't use a dumb princess as she is usually portrayed,\" she says. \"Usually the princess is an idiot, but we tried to make her seem smart and courageous, so kids learn those values are important.\"    Playbill    \"Most Valuable Player\" performs Friday through Sunday, Oct. 27-Nov. 19. Times are Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. Recommended for fourth through eighth grades.    \"One Thousand Cranes\" performs Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9-24, with one Sunday performance on Feb. 11. Times: Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. Recommended for third through eighth grades.    \"Amber Waves\" performs Friday through Sunday, March 2-18. Times are Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. Recommended for fourth through eighth grades.    All tickets are $8.50. Call Instantcharge at 467-4600 for tickets and 416-8830 for more information.","title":"PLAYS FOR THOUGHT","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/10/24/plays-for-thought/723fefea-bb43-4491-8535-a4874d15ca33/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.421Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1989-11-09","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/09/reagan/0b07791f-7f50-4076-8af0-252563681316/","authors":"By Kara Swisher","article_text":"He misspoke, he says now -- a slip of the lip, lapsus linguae, typo of the tongue. It wasn't quite like saying we would begin bombing the Soviet Union in five minutes or that trees cause air pollution or any of the other verbal gaffes made by former president Ronald Reagan in his eight years in Washington. But on Tuesday, Reagan begged the pardon of the U.S. entertainment industry for his criticism in Japan last month of the state of American TV and movies. \"I'm sorry I was a little tardy in getting here today. You see, my dentist was running late -- he had a little difficulty in removing from my mouth the last piece of shoe leather I acquired in Japan,\" Reagan told more than 1,000 members of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society in Beverly Hills, Calif. \"I'm glad he did though, otherwise I wouldn't be able to enjoy this wonderful lunch -- there's nothing like crow souffle followed by humble pie.\" He did not apologize for receiving $2 million from the Japanese Fujisankei Communications Group for his and Nancy Reagan's visit last month. \"That's what was offered, and I didn't protest, even though I knew there was an actor in Hollywood who got $3 million for just doing a Toyota commercial there. I just thought that in 16 years I hadn't made any kind of money,\" said Reagan. \"But I was happy at the same time that I was able to carry on what I had been doing in office, which was to bring about the elimination of the last few restrictions on free trade between our two countries.\" During an Oct 25 television interview in Japan, Reagan voiced his support of Sony's recent $3.4 billion acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment Corp. \"I don't think there's anything wrong with that,\" he said. \"... I'm not too proud of Hollywood these days with the immorality that is shown in pictures, and the vulgarity. I just have a feeling that maybe Hollywood needs some outsiders to bring back decency and good taste to some of the pictures that are being made.\" The apology came at the beginning of the lunch, which was billed as the \"unfinished business of his presidency,\" at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The audience included some of Hollywood's most prominent entertainment executives, such as Aaron Spelling, Grant Tinker, Brandon Tartikoff, Fred Silverman and Stephen Cannell. It was the best-attended luncheon in the 42-year history of the gathering. \"I'm sorry that what I've said about this industry may have been misunderstood, and I apologize to anyone who may have taken any offense,\" said Reagan. \"That certainly was not my intention. ... What a person says in one country is often misinterpreted in another.\" Still, Reagan stuck to his guns, saying he was appalled by some things he sees in movies and on television and that Hollywood should clean up its racy offerings. \"You can call me a blockhead or a prude if you want, but ... if I was offered a script and told I had to say those words, I would have turned down the script,\" said the former actor. Reagan suggested Hollywood should police its own vulgarity and tastelessness to avoid government meddling. \"The federal government has tried to interfere too much and too often. Censorship or restriction should be within,\" he suggested. Reagan gave thumbs up to new \"family\" movies and efforts de-glorifying drug use in movies. He underscored his point by calling those at the gathering \"truly great communicators,\" because information, like that in American movies and television programs, is \"the best and perhaps the only hope\" for democratic change in communist countries. In a question-and-answer session, Reagan denied that his laudatory remarks toward the Japanese film industry were affected by the fact that Sony might donate $1 million for video equipment for his presidential library. Asked why the former president decided to apologize, Reagan spokesman Mark Weinberg said, \"He knew he had made a mistake and when he did he wanted to tell his colleagues directly.\"","title":"REAGAN","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/09/reagan/0b07791f-7f50-4076-8af0-252563681316/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.612Z"},
{"article_text":"Kelly McGillis, the Hollywood actress who made a year's commitment to the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, will leave the company at the end of next week because she's expecting a baby.    McGillis, who is two months pregnant, has been advised by doctors not to work during her term. Taking a hiatus from her film career, she is now starring in the theater's sold-out production of \"Twelfth Night,\" which has garnered rave reviews. McGillis had signed a \"seasonal\" contract with the theater through June, but has been released from it.    The movie star, who is in her early thirties, has been in such films as \"Witness,\" \"Top Gun\" and \"The Accused,\" and was set to play lead roles in \"Mary Stuart\" in February and \"The Merry Wives of Windsor\" in April at the Shakespeare Theatre. She was to have skipped the theater's presentation of \"The Tempest\" in December to prepare for the demanding role of Mary Stuart.    \"I will miss everyone a lot, but some things are bigger than theater, like taking care of another life,\" said McGillis yesterday. \"I don't like having things undone, but at the same time I am happy to be pregnant.\"    But she said she has regrets about leaving so soon after her much-publicized move to the theater from California, considered risky for a top-grossing screen star. \"The reviews have been very nice, and I love the intimacy of playing before a live audience, because you can't lie as an actress,\" McGillis said of her current role as a woman impersonating a young man. \"I'm also a little sad, since I have been researching and working on 'Mary Stuart' a lot already and now I won't get to do it.\"    Also disappointed is Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director Michael Kahn. \"We looked forward to Kelly finishing out her year here, but I do understand the stress she would go through to continue and she needs to protect her health,\" he said. \"When she came here, she wanted to try a variety of roles and to stretch her instrument, and one play, of course, is not as good as three.\"    Kahn does not expect the departure of the celebrity actor to lower attendance. \"Twelfth Night\" is now operating at 110 percent capacity and has been sold out since its first week. \"People will come to plays if we do them well,\" he said.    Kahn is now casting for an actress to replace McGillis in \"Mary Stuart.\" \"I have several people in mind. We're looking for the best actress, whether or not she's well known outside of the theatergoing public.\"    McGillis's situation is hardly the first of its kind, but at least her departure is amiable, unlike that of one of her predecessors in the theater world: Legendary actress Helen Hayes was forced to leave a long-running production of \"Coquette\" in the 1920s after possible complications during one of her pregnancies. \"I was three months pregnant,\" Hayes remembered yesterday, \"and after a matinee one day, my doctor put me in bed with books under my feet to keep them elevated and there I stayed.\" When the play abruptly closed following Hayes's departure, the other actors in the production sued the producer for not giving them sufficient notice. They lost, however, when Hayes's pregnancy was dubbed an \"act of God\" by a court.    \"Like fire, plague and riots,\" said Hayes.    McGillis, who married yacht broker Fred Tillman last year, declined to comment on possible medical complications. \"It's a personal thing between me and my doctor, but I was told not to work,\" she said, adding that though she and her husband were not planning to have children yet, \"we were not avoiding it either.\" At the abortion rights march in Washington last April she told reporters, \"I look forward to having a family -- someday.\"    McGillis will finish the run of \"Twelfth Night\" -- it closes Nov. 19 -- and then will return to Los Angeles in December. After she has her child in June, she expects to begin work as producer of a film version of the feminist classic \"The Awakening,\" by Kate Chopin, for Turner Network Television.    She has no definite plans to return to Washington. \"I'd like to be back at some point to finish my season, because I have enjoyed it so much so far,\" said McGillis. \"But who knows, maybe I'll just drop into the abyss of motherhood and you'll never hear from me again.\"","title":"PREGANT KELLY MCGILLIS QUITS FOLGER","publication_date":"1989-11-12","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/12/pregant-kelly-mcgillis-quits-folger/25e69062-87d9-48f1-ad3b-14246e6cd929/","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/12/pregant-kelly-mcgillis-quits-folger/25e69062-87d9-48f1-ad3b-14246e6cd929/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.465Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"After considering dueling plans from Virginia and Maryland since September, the Smithsonian Institution yesterday designated Virginia's Dulles International Airport as its choice for the location of a proposed $300-million annex to the popular National Air & Space Museum, rejecting runner-up Baltimore-Washington International Airport.\n\nSmithsonian Secretary Robert McC. Adams said yesterday afternoon that the Smithsonian Board of Regents chose \"to reaffirm its preference for Dulles as the site for the new extension for the Air & Space Museum.\"","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/01/30/va-wins-air-space-bid/88ea6a70-8474-48f8-9c39-dd2ff6d3b92e/","title":"VA. WINS AIR SPACE BID","publication_date":"1990-01-30","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/01/30/va-wins-air-space-bid/88ea6a70-8474-48f8-9c39-dd2ff6d3b92e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.833Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"UNDEFEATED 'SKINS FANS ON THE STORE PATH","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/10/26/undefeated-skins-fans-on-the-store-path/167e5e95-9640-4abe-8bdd-2a0c4627ac28/","publication_date":"1991-10-26","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/10/26/undefeated-skins-fans-on-the-store-path/167e5e95-9640-4abe-8bdd-2a0c4627ac28/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.603Z"},
{"article_text":"Here sits Sarah Schulman sipping caffe latte late into the winter afternoon in a gay-owned cappuccino zone in a gay-populated neighborhood as gay men and lesbians chat all around her. And more: A new gay-friendly administration is settling into power only blocks away with gay issues on its agenda.\n\nAnd here sits Sarah Schulman, gay novelist, doing an interview with a mainstream -- read, straight -- metropolitan newspaper about a new book, \"Empathy,\" that she has written for a big mainstream -- read, also straight -- publisher.","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1993-03-15","title":"A DIFFERENT SORT OF SELL FOR GAY AUTHORS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/03/15/a-different-sort-of-sell-for-gay-authors/c4ebf4a9-ec69-418f-9708-f971f9164dee/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/03/15/a-different-sort-of-sell-for-gay-authors/c4ebf4a9-ec69-418f-9708-f971f9164dee/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.770Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/02/05/backstage/48c5848d-8e12-4874-8081-9374bc875fc6/","section":"Lifestyle","subtitle":"Company","article_text":"Stanley Anderson and Robert Prosky, who both left Arena Stage's resident company to concentrate on TV and film work, are back in town, starring in Arthur Miller's \"The Price\" -- which broke Arena's single-day, single-ticket box office record.\n\nPart of the audience appeal is surely the prospect of witnessing some actorly competition between Prosky and Anderson, who also appear in \"Mrs. Doubtfire\" and \"The Pelican Brief,\" respectively. They're competitive offstage too:","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1994-02-05","title":"BACKSTAGE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/02/05/backstage/48c5848d-8e12-4874-8081-9374bc875fc6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.392Z"},
{"publication_date":"1994-02-19","authors":"Kara Swisher, Joe Brown","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/02/19/backstage/138cd1f0-b878-4634-9e7e-a50cd84ab56a/","article_text":"First, the good news: Washington audiences can get a pretty good view from the front-row seats these days. Now, the bad news: Washington audiences can get a pretty good view from the front-row seats.\n\n\"Totally bucko,\" says Marty Lodge of his upcoming performance in Theatre of the First Amendment's version of Heather McDonald's \"Dream of a Common Language.\"","section":"Lifestyle","title":"BACKSTAGE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/02/19/backstage/138cd1f0-b878-4634-9e7e-a50cd84ab56a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.825Z"},
{"article_text":"Casting the Studio Theatre's current staging of Philip Kan Gotanda's \"The Wash\" took a full year to complete and entailed a coast-to-coast search. That's because the play -- which started previews last week and runs through April 10 -- calls for eight Japanese American characters of various ages -- roles that, according to Studio Artistic Director Joy Zinoman, were hard to fill.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/03/12/casting-afar-for-the-wash/5846cdcf-8b35-48fa-8927-15559d29649d/","title":"CASTING AFAR FOR 'THE WASH'","publication_date":"1994-03-12","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","subtitle":"Company","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/03/12/casting-afar-for-the-wash/5846cdcf-8b35-48fa-8927-15559d29649d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.401Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/04/09/where-theres-a-good-wig-theres-a-play/591e2304-ac03-4405-ba55-396ab5094120/","title":"WHERE THERE'S A GOOD WIG, THERE'S A PLAY","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Kara Swisher and Joe Brown","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1994-04-09","article_text":"There's a wild, long red one with a hot pink stripe, a little blond number, and one that's gray and curly with a blue hat attached, worn by actress Nancy Robinette.\n\nA lot of the merriment of Arena Stage's new production of Alan Ayckbourn's \"The Revengers' Comedies\" -- a black farce about a pair of families linked by suicide and murder -- has come from the nine wigs that share the stage with the actors. (The play is now in previews.)","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/04/09/where-theres-a-good-wig-theres-a-play/591e2304-ac03-4405-ba55-396ab5094120/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.438Z"},
{"publication_date":"1994-04-23","title":"THE (NEW) SOUND OF OSMOND","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/04/23/the-new-sound-of-osmond/a36dbfd6-eb79-4da9-858a-bd2d313d47b7/","authors":"Kara Swisher, Joe Brown","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"It's 9 a.m. and Marie Osmond has just shut the door of her Chicago hotel suite so her kids -- four of them -- can't come in while she's on the phone.\n\n\"I take everybody on the road with me,\" chirps one half of the late '70s singing brother-sister duo of Donny and Marie. And on stage too, it seems. Her oldest -- the 10-year-old -- is now appearing with Osmond as one of the Von Trapp brood at the Warner Theatre for the national tour of \"The Sound of Music.\" The Washington stint runs through May 1.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/04/23/the-new-sound-of-osmond/a36dbfd6-eb79-4da9-858a-bd2d313d47b7/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.846Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher, Joe Brown","article_text":"Recently on Washington stages the show has gone on, but two unexpected deaths have sent shock waves through theater companies.\n\nBritish actor John Bott's death from a heart attack here on May 3 ended a 20-year career with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Bott was performing the role of Antigonus in the RSC's \"The Winter's Tale,\" which finishes its run tomorrow at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/05/21/backstage/ec46c8fd-6b13-42af-8917-5d683a349fcf/","publication_date":"1994-05-21","title":"BACKSTAGE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/05/21/backstage/ec46c8fd-6b13-42af-8917-5d683a349fcf/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.854Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Veteran actress Mikel Sarah Lambert won't soon forget getting the invitation to play Lear at the Washington Shakespeare Company.\n\n\"{Director} Chris Henley called and said, 'We're doing \"Lear\" at the end of the season,' \" says Lambert, who plays Shakespeare's tragic king as a tempestuous queen.","publication_date":"1994-05-28","subtitle":"Company","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/05/28/queen-lear-why-not/1b08f586-0a47-4d18-acb2-b486a71719ce/","title":"QUEEN LEAR? WHY NOT?","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/05/28/queen-lear-why-not/1b08f586-0a47-4d18-acb2-b486a71719ce/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.465Z"},
{"authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1994-06-25","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"\"We're incredibly patriotic, as anyone who has seen us or heard us will tell you,\" says Austin Tichenor, one-third of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, whose \"The Complete History of America (Abridged)\" may be essential Fourth of July fare. The RSC's rip-roaring pageant, which begins Friday at the Kennedy Center and already has been extended through July 24, encapsulates the entirety of U.S. history in two hours, including a slide show of rejected designs for the grand old flag and a new, politically correct version of the \"patriarchal, militaristic and musically-all-over-the-place\" national anthem. (The group proposes rewriting \"America the Beautiful\" and using it as the anthem.)","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/06/25/us-history-reduced-to-fun/afe3795a-71c7-4aa0-9df2-6fc6a8489e3b/","title":"U.S. HISTORY, REDUCED TO FUN","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/06/25/us-history-reduced-to-fun/afe3795a-71c7-4aa0-9df2-6fc6a8489e3b/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.720Z"},
{"publication_date":"1994-07-02","article_text":"It's hot, it's a holiday weekend, and we know everyone is feeling a little lazy -- including us. So, theatergoers, here's a pile of information about what we'll be seeing on Washington stages next season to scratch into your date book as you lounge by the pool, on the beach or just on a cheap foldout chair in your back yard by the barbecue.","section":"Lifestyle","title":"FALL'S NOT FAR AWAY: CLIP SAVE","authors":"Kara Swisher, Joe Brown","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/07/02/falls-not-far-away-clip-save/2b5738d0-f543-4a56-bfd5-985efc99052a/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/07/02/falls-not-far-away-clip-save/2b5738d0-f543-4a56-bfd5-985efc99052a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.865Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/08/13/backstage/1bd99d8b-8113-4b74-8a7d-d76d423e2130/","title":"BACKSTAGE","article_text":"Don't look for the Ford's Theatre production of \"Hot Mikado\" on Broadway this fall after all.\n\n\"My deal with {Broadway producer James} Nederlander was he had to open it by December 1,\" says Ford's Theatre producing artistic director Frankie Hewitt, who had hoped to place the musical at the Brooks Atkinson or the Neil Simon Theatre.","publication_date":"1994-08-13","authors":"Kara Swisher, Joe Brown","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/08/13/backstage/1bd99d8b-8113-4b74-8a7d-d76d423e2130/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.884Z"},
{"subtitle":"Company","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/08/20/finding-room-for-one-more/94d49e3e-c651-432f-8be1-d4afcbb5a7fa/","title":"FINDING ROOM FOR ONE MORE","publication_date":"1994-08-20","article_text":"When Washington's newest theater company, the Actors' Theatre of Washington, opens its double bill of one-acts at Church Street Theatre Sept. 10, it will join more than 45 other theaters in the area. That's up from only about 15 in 1985.\n\nDespite the increase, starting a theater is still a risky business. Nonetheless, says Actors' Theatre artistic director Michael Russotto, \"I believe there's always, hopefully, room for good theater. And as companies like Round House and Studio and Woolly Mammoth are maturing and buying buildings and institutionalizing, I felt there was a niche opening for a company that was able to take a few more chances than people who had tremendous financial responsibilities.\"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/08/20/finding-room-for-one-more/94d49e3e-c651-432f-8be1-d4afcbb5a7fa/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.475Z"},
{"article_text":"\"They were the first local theater that asked,\" replies Michael Kahn to the question of why the well-known artistic director of the tony Shakespeare Theatre agreed to cross the 14th Street Bridge to Arlington to direct Signature Theatre's upcoming \"Otabenga.\"\n\nThe new play by John Strand, which opens in mid-November, has been in development for several years. Strand got the idea -- his work tells the story of a South African Pygmy who travels to turn-of-the-century America -- at an exhibit of Zairian art he saw in 1991 at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/09/10/michael-kahn-crossing-over/a3aaabbc-65d3-43b9-9740-666a95d40e02/","title":"MICHAEL KAHN, CROSSING OVER","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Kara Swisher and Joe Brown","publication_date":"1994-09-10","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/09/10/michael-kahn-crossing-over/a3aaabbc-65d3-43b9-9740-666a95d40e02/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.483Z"},
{"publication_date":"1994-10-08","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/10/08/in-jeffrey-a-woman-among-men/06242ccb-a4a8-46ba-9acd-7265b5eeed17/","article_text":"Paul Rudnick's gay comedy \"Jeffrey\" is pretty much exclusively about men, focusing on the title character, who decides to forgo love and sex in the menacing age of AIDS.\n\nSo with seven male actors onstage in Source Theatre's current production of the play, it falls to Mary Tucker to take on the smaller female roles -- and she very nearly steals the show. Tucker's characters include the saintly Mother Teresa (\"Terry\" to Jeffrey), a tough-loving talk show host, a gun-slinging society hostess, a phone-sexpert and Mrs. Marcangelo, the proud and parading parent of a \"preoperative transsexual\" lesbian. In all, Tucker plays seven roles.","title":"IN 'JEFFREY,' A WOMAN AMONG MEN","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/10/08/in-jeffrey-a-woman-among-men/06242ccb-a4a8-46ba-9acd-7265b5eeed17/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.499Z"},
{"authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","article_text":"\"Drag is dirty work, but someone has to do it!\" So said entertainer Charles Pierce, who was seldom seen (or at least recognized) without a dress and heels. For some reason, drag has bounded out of the boudoir this year, as men in frocks show up on TV, in the movies and onstage with unprecedented frequency.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/11/05/some-really-like-dressing-the-part/e1c6f74e-d7c5-4b8a-a14f-dd6d56c36cb6/","subtitle":"Company","title":"SOME REALLY LIKE DRESSING THE PART","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1994-11-05","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/11/05/some-really-like-dressing-the-part/e1c6f74e-d7c5-4b8a-a14f-dd6d56c36cb6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.507Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/11/12/the-unspeakable-acts-of-hartkes-silent-hour/d609caf4-ab91-4af6-b7ef-6a80af8fc56a/","publication_date":"1994-11-12","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Admit it: While sitting in a park or cafe or mall, silently watching strangers pass, you find yourself wondering who they are, even making up stories about them.\n\nAnd what is theater but a more formalized form of people-watching? An adventurous new play receiving its American premiere at Catholic University's Hartke Theatre turns everyone in its audience into an expert people-watcher.","title":"THE UNSPEAKABLE ACTS OF HARTKE'S SILENT 'HOUR'","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/11/12/the-unspeakable-acts-of-hartkes-silent-hour/d609caf4-ab91-4af6-b7ef-6a80af8fc56a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.515Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher and Joe Brown","article_text":"Bill Daily was a popular sitcom character actor of the 1960s and 1970s -- think \"I Dream of Jeannie\" (\"Hi, Tony!\") and \"The Bob Newhart Show\" (\"Hi, Bob!\") -- who had stock gestures he used over and over again.\n\nFor years, D.C. actor Marty Lodge has taken a very private delight in paying tribute to the television actor by sneaking one particular favorite Daily tic -- where he puts his hands on his ribs and breathes in sharply -- into every play he has been in.","title":"BACKSTAGE","publication_date":"1994-11-26","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/11/26/backstage/4801346d-8d47-43e5-9633-e129573abbcb/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/11/26/backstage/4801346d-8d47-43e5-9633-e129573abbcb/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.001Z"},
{"publication_date":"1994-12-10","authors":"Kara Swisher and Joe Brown","section":"Lifestyle","subtitle":"Company","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/12/10/backstage/1d75fc5e-d70e-4df3-a5e8-124983e9be25/","article_text":"She's playing in India. She's playing in Malaysia. She's playing in Holland. She's even playing in Bosnia.\n\nYou may know Barbara Klein from her acting stints in local theaters, but in her day job these days, all the world's a stage. Klein is co-host of the Voice of America's first English-language radio talk show, and she has listeners calling in from all over the globe every weekday from noon to 1 p.m. The show, \"Talk to America,\" is estimated to have an audience of millions. Her co-host is veteran local broadcaster Meredith Buel.","title":"BACKSTAGE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/12/10/backstage/1d75fc5e-d70e-4df3-a5e8-124983e9be25/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.524Z"},
{"authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"The D.C. theater event of the month is actually a movie. The critically acclaimed new film \"Vanya on 42nd Street,\" which opened yesterday at the Key Theatre, has quite a theatrical pedigree. After film director Louis Malle saw an informal run-through of director Andre Gregory's bare-bones production of \"Uncle Vanya\" (performed by actor-playwright Wallace Shawn and a hand-picked ensemble), Malle said, \"What a shame, such a remarkable production will never get to be seen by an audience.\"","title":"BACKSTAGE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/12/24/backstage/dbbca7a9-dfea-4154-a5f5-6308339f0b76/","subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1994-12-24","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/12/24/backstage/dbbca7a9-dfea-4154-a5f5-6308339f0b76/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.531Z"},
{"title":"'WHAT GOES AROUND' STOPS HERE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/01/21/what-goes-around-stops-here/91d5a7e9-08dd-4c89-9143-e886522282f3/","publication_date":"1995-01-21","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"The comedy \"What Goes Around ... Comes Around\" has been seen by 250,000 people since it went on the road in August. The tour included stops in Detroit, Philadelphia, Dallas, Oakland, Atlanta and Baltimore; after a week at the Warner Theatre (starting Tuesday), it's slated for seven weeks at the Beacon Theatre in New York.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/01/21/what-goes-around-stops-here/91d5a7e9-08dd-4c89-9143-e886522282f3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.710Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-02-18","authors":"Kara Swisher, Joe Brown","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/02/18/restoring-the-richness-to-raisin/8127f742-5a9f-4d82-b002-0fd5fd0b8895/","section":"Lifestyle","title":"RESTORING THE RICHNESS TO RAISIN'","article_text":"Washington-born director Seret Scott knew she was taking on a tough task -- finding whatever juice was left in a very old \"Raisin.\" The actress-turned-director, who grew up in Washington and attended McKinley High School, had been tapped to stage Ford's Theatre's 35th-anniversary revival of Lorraine Hansberry's classic drama \"A Raisin in the Sun.\"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/02/18/restoring-the-richness-to-raisin/8127f742-5a9f-4d82-b002-0fd5fd0b8895/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.902Z"},
{"article_text":"\"Most of us do soaps and series, so we weren't able to do theater eight times a week,\" says Troupe NY artistic director Saundra McClain of her 30-member acting company, which includes actors from daytime's \"All My Children,\" \"As the World Turns\" and \"The Guiding Light,\" as well as nighttime's \"NYPD Blue\" and \"The Cosby Mysteries.\" \"So we got together and started working on classics.\"","publication_date":"1995-02-25","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/02/25/willy-loman-meets-all-my-children/42683009-b977-4940-ab13-5316f11a1b4c/","title":"WILLY LOMAN MEETS ALL MY CHILDREN'","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Kara Swisher and Joe Brown","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/02/25/willy-loman-meets-all-my-children/42683009-b977-4940-ab13-5316f11a1b4c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.540Z"},
{"title":"DIRECTOR OF ARENA'S LIVING STAGE TO RETIRE","publication_date":"1995-03-04","authors":"Kara Swisher and Joe Brown","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/03/04/director-of-arenas-living-stage-to-retire/3df9301a-6cbf-4cdc-8fb6-d8f491a8bedf/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/03/04/director-of-arenas-living-stage-to-retire/3df9301a-6cbf-4cdc-8fb6-d8f491a8bedf/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.005Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"ARENA, SIGNATURE TOP HAYES NOMINEES","publication_date":"1995-03-21","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/03/21/arena-signature-top-hayes-nominees/1daf1a3c-3140-42b5-a9f1-6f0d46c0d7a2/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Washington's Arena Stage and Northern Virginia's Signature Theatre found themselves sitting at the top of the local theater scene yesterday when the 1995 Helen Hayes Award nominations were announced. Arena, a longtime local powerhouse, garnered 18 nods, while Signature, a relative newcomer, pulled 15.\n\nAnother suburban troupe, Theater of the First Amendment at Fairfax's George Mason University, received eight nominations, all for its production of Heather McDonald's \"Dream of a Common Language,\" a study of artistic and gender freedom set in France during the impressionist era.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/03/21/arena-signature-top-hayes-nominees/1daf1a3c-3140-42b5-a9f1-6f0d46c0d7a2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.911Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"CRITICS, BRACE YOURSELVES","article_text":"Tomorrow is press night for \"It's Only a Play,\" and the performance will have more than the usual resonance for the cast of the MetroStage production: Terrence McNally's show biz farce is about the cast of a Broadway play sitting around at an opening-night party, waiting for the reviews to come in.   Life imitating art and all that.   Press night is always a weird occasion, says director Lee Mikeska Gardner. \"Usually, everyone is tense, and in general it's not the best show the actors have done or will do afterwards. The actors are painfully aware that there are people out there taking notes,\" says Gardner. \"On this particular stage, which is very intimate, an actor could look out there and see {City Paper's} Bob Mondello sighing. Or {radio critic} Faiga Levine whispering something to her seat-mate.\"   Everyone in theater has had this experience, says Gardner. \"The underlying dark side of this hysterical play is that all these actors -- plus a huge amount of people we don't see onstage -- are waiting on the word of one person, one critic, who's going to make or break all their work,\" she says. \"And it makes me crazy that that's the way the American theater system has evolved. And Washington is no exception.\"   Unfortunately, she adds, \"theater people generally don't stick up for themselves in public -- not like movie or TV people, who will speak out. We generally live in the same town as the critics who will review us again and again, so people are afraid to respond. One of the things that this play says is that the critics are not this out there group. They're an integral part of the whole system.\"   That said, Gardner jokes, \"We'll all be biting our nails till we hear what the critics have to say about our show.\"   For this production, Gardner updated McNally's 1992 script and sprinkled it with mentions of local theater figures past and present, including David Richards (former New York Times and Washington Post theater critic), Lloyd Rose (current Washington Post theater critic), Michael Kahn (Shakespeare Theatre artistic director) and Eric Schaeffer (Signature Theatre artistic director). She also coaxed critics Robert Aubry Davis and Peter Fay from WETA-TV's \"Around Town\" and Arch Campbell of WRC-TV to contribute voice-overs to the play.   Gardner says her cast is having fun playing McNally's archetypes, especially actor Gary Telles as the despised critic who crashes the cast party to tout his own play.   \"Lee said, Make him feral,' \" says Telles. \"The common conception is that critics are the guys that are standing around waiting for something to fall so they can dive in. Like a jackal or a vulture. It's a conception of how theater people might look at critics in a make-believe world.\"   Telles's character is described as being physically unappetizing, vicious and generally creepy. \"Everybody wants to punch him throughout the play,\" says Telles, who insists he doesn't have any particular critics in mind in his characterization. \"Hey, that's the way it's written. I'm playing a part. It's only a play.\"  Overheard Onstage","publication_date":"1995-04-29","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/04/29/critics-brace-yourselves/096e3d25-4620-42a3-9806-2e49debdc638/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/04/29/critics-brace-yourselves/096e3d25-4620-42a3-9806-2e49debdc638/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.702Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/06/24/tony-winner-glover-looks-homeward/66c94b68-864f-459c-b037-e236988834ef/","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","article_text":"For his beyond-Patty Duke turn as twin British gay brothers in \"Love! Valour! Compassion!,\" John Glover recently won the Tony Award for best performance by a featured actor in a play.\n\nLeafing through the playbill before a recent matinee of the beautifully written Terrence McNally comedy-drama about the \"chosen family\" ties among eight gay men, we noted that the first thing mentioned in Glover's bio is that he \"began his career at Robert Porterfield's Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va., in 1963.\"","title":"TONY WINNER GLOVER LOOKS HOMEWARD","publication_date":"1995-06-24","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/06/24/tony-winner-glover-looks-homeward/66c94b68-864f-459c-b037-e236988834ef/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.694Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","subtitle":"Company","article_text":"When the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company decided to risk its first-ever musical five years ago, Wunderkind director Jeff Church put together an outrageous production of \"The Rocky Horror Show\" and turned it into a Helen Hayes Award-winning hit that ran for nearly a year. So when the troupe decided it was time for another tuner, it naturally turned to Church and his golden touch.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/07/08/a-hitmaker-was-wanted/f6288259-eb58-4a0e-be8a-516652d967d0/","title":"A HITMAKER WAS WANTED!'","publication_date":"1995-07-08","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/07/08/a-hitmaker-was-wanted/f6288259-eb58-4a0e-be8a-516652d967d0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.559Z"},
{"title":"TEENS ON A QUEST, WITH ROMEO AND JULIET'","article_text":"More than 100 teenagers -- half from Los Angeles, half from the D.C. area -- are in town rehearsing for a full-scale classical staging of \"Romeo and Juliet.\" The production, presented under the auspices of the Pasadena, Calif.-based Theater Quest program, begins performances Aug. 23 at the Kennedy Center Opera House.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/08/12/teens-on-a-quest-with-romeo-and-juliet/2fe82511-d0a4-4779-9990-291c8dd4e4c3/","publication_date":"1995-08-12","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","subtitle":"Company","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/08/12/teens-on-a-quest-with-romeo-and-juliet/2fe82511-d0a4-4779-9990-291c8dd4e4c3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.567Z"},
{"title":"HE'S GOT BETTE DAVIS EYES . . .","subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1995-09-09","authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/09/09/hes-got-bette-davis-eyes/8a24859b-9892-43a0-8c2f-1aa3842cc829/","article_text":"Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night: Actor Rick Hammerly is channeling the late, great Bette Davis.\n\n\"And she's taking me over!\" he wails.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/09/09/hes-got-bette-davis-eyes/8a24859b-9892-43a0-8c2f-1aa3842cc829/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.576Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/09/23/hard-hearted-macbeth/301aafd4-8409-444a-a82d-f9e3f03ea26e/","publication_date":"1995-09-23","subtitle":"Company","title":"HARD-HEARTED MACBETH'","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Ming Cho Lee says he didn't actually mean for the tree growing skyward onstage in Shakespeare Theatre's current \"Macbeth\" to look like a medical-book depiction of a sick heart.\n\n\"I did not quite intend for it to look that way, but people climb all over it and so it got smooth-looking like some kind of organ,\" says the renowned set designer on the telephone from New York. \"And so I said, Why not?' \"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/09/23/hard-hearted-macbeth/301aafd4-8409-444a-a82d-f9e3f03ea26e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.584Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"It should have been a big deal for Audra McDonald to come to the Washington area with a Broadway-bound play that has all the makings of a huge hit. After all, her work in Terrence McNally's \"Master Class\" got great reviews from local critics, this is the last stop before New York, and McDonald has family on her mother's side living in Prince George's County.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/10/07/mcdonalds-unscripted-intermission/b79895da-5811-47fe-9547-9e973b122349/","title":"MCDONALD'S UNSCRIPTED INTERMISSION","publication_date":"1995-10-07","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/10/07/mcdonalds-unscripted-intermission/b79895da-5811-47fe-9547-9e973b122349/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.592Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/11/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-rush-hour/9ef18a13-341c-4de9-8c40-5cda3de8ae40/","title":"HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF RUSH HOUR","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1995-11-11","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/11/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-rush-hour/9ef18a13-341c-4de9-8c40-5cda3de8ae40/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.022Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"MILLER'S VIEW' ANEW","publication_date":"1995-11-25","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/25/millers-view-anew/058ba1cd-c59f-4b77-ba9d-17667363542b/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/25/millers-view-anew/058ba1cd-c59f-4b77-ba9d-17667363542b/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.013Z"},
{"title":"WOOLLY'S SHALWITZ CONQUERS N.Y.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/12/02/woollys-shalwitz-conquers-ny/dea3e9bd-9d7c-4c57-ac50-8aa1bdce29e0/","publication_date":"1995-12-02","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/12/02/woollys-shalwitz-conquers-ny/dea3e9bd-9d7c-4c57-ac50-8aa1bdce29e0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.031Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-12-09","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/12/09/actors-holiday-madness/f733fb32-652b-443c-ad09-7b80d2d24500/","title":"ACTORS' HOLIDAY MADNESS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/12/09/actors-holiday-madness/f733fb32-652b-443c-ad09-7b80d2d24500/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.039Z"},
{"title":"KENNEDY CENTER PUTS IT ON-LINE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/12/23/kennedy-center-puts-it-on-line/f3f14fae-6a94-4a7f-a669-311a95ec280e/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1995-12-23","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/12/23/kennedy-center-puts-it-on-line/f3f14fae-6a94-4a7f-a669-311a95ec280e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.047Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","title":"MELLEN'S SEATTLE SEESAW","article_text":"On a recent trip to Seattle, after answering an innocent trivia question as an audience member, Backstage got dragged onstage -- selected as a \"contestant\" in Alice B. Theatre's annual production of \"The Holiday Survival Game Show.\"\n\nWhile waiting nervously in the wings for our moment to shine, we asked how artistic director Andrew Mellen was doing at the helm of the city's oldest and most prominent gay theater.","publication_date":"1996-01-20","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/01/20/mellens-seattle-seesaw/ed15b491-6bc6-4f80-8d7c-f2394b2105da/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/01/20/mellens-seattle-seesaw/ed15b491-6bc6-4f80-8d7c-f2394b2105da/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.802Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/01/27/potomac-more-than-a-project/cc89ae94-830e-45a9-a973-e060a8fa3100/","publication_date":"1996-01-27","title":"POTOMAC, MORE THAN A PROJECT'","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/01/27/potomac-more-than-a-project/cc89ae94-830e-45a9-a973-e060a8fa3100/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.946Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/02/10/two-roosts-for-robinette/7ca06e26-6bee-41f9-b439-d8de9c6a5f86/","authors":"Kara Swisher","subtitle":"Company","title":"TWO ROOSTS FOR ROBINETTE","publication_date":"1996-02-10","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Spring seems very far away, which has put Backstage in an awfully bitter February funk.\n\nThank, then, the theater gods -- this time in the form of Signature and Woolly Mammoth -- for giving us a strong double dose of Nancy Robinette. The soulful actress is now appearing simultaneously in new works by two local playwrights -- Paulette Laufer's \"Taking My Life in Your Hands\" at Signature and Barbara McConagha's \"The Obituary Bowl\" at Woolly.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/02/10/two-roosts-for-robinette/7ca06e26-6bee-41f9-b439-d8de9c6a5f86/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.600Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-02-17","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"AT SOURCE, MAKING HEADLINES'","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/02/17/at-source-making-headlines/199847ac-5333-45bd-bd94-8897ca66e70d/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/02/17/at-source-making-headlines/199847ac-5333-45bd-bd94-8897ca66e70d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.954Z"},
{"title":"GOING HOME TO MOLLY SWEENEY'","publication_date":"1996-03-09","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/03/09/going-home-to-molly-sweeney/6c042e27-4060-4a37-bc6e-1442ad4d0827/","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"During Kyle Donnelly's dozen years in Chicago, she directed at many of the city's major venues.\n\nOne place where she didn't work was the well-known Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Until now.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/03/09/going-home-to-molly-sweeney/6c042e27-4060-4a37-bc6e-1442ad4d0827/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.610Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-03-12","article_text":"Signature Theatre's \"Cabaret\" led a well-balanced field of nominees for the 1996 Helen Hayes Awards, which were announced yesterday at a reception at the Canadian Embassy. The revival of the sinister Kander and Ebb musical set in the anything-goes atmosphere of pre-Nazi Berlin took nine nominations.\n\nThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts received the most nominations for any theater with 19. Among the center's honored productions were \"Black Nativity,\" an African American take on the holidays; the two parts of \"Angels in America,\" the award-winning AIDS opus by Tony Kushner; \"Master Class,\" the star turn penned by Terrence McNally for Zoe Caldwell; and the comic \"The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged).\"","title":"CABARET' TOPS HELEN HAYES LIST","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","subtitle":"Company","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/03/12/cabaret-tops-helen-hayes-list/278bc89d-26a8-45c1-81a3-c9ee722a30b4/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/03/12/cabaret-tops-helen-hayes-list/278bc89d-26a8-45c1-81a3-c9ee722a30b4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.619Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/03/16/strange-hayes-ways/1ebf7177-8534-4083-bfdf-2616c25e6969/","subtitle":"Company","title":"STRANGE HAYES WAYS","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1996-03-16","article_text":"This year's Helen Hayes Awards nominations were announced Monday, followed by a lot of air-kissing congratulations at the annual cocktail party at the Canadian Embassy.\n\nMost of Washington's top theater players attended the soiree, including artistic directors galore: Signature's Eric Schaeffer, Studio's Joy Zinoman, Woolly Mammoth's Howard Shalwitz and Arena Stage's Doug Wager.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/03/16/strange-hayes-ways/1ebf7177-8534-4083-bfdf-2616c25e6969/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.631Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"THROUGH GLASS,' NOT SO DARKLY","publication_date":"1996-04-06","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/04/06/through-glass-not-so-darkly/d86f1f95-557d-4c78-b873-bfb7782058fc/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/04/06/through-glass-not-so-darkly/d86f1f95-557d-4c78-b873-bfb7782058fc/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.962Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/04/13/actor-hugh-nees-birth-and-rebirths/415904d7-1347-48ce-aca1-4c58a9e35ac0/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-04-13","title":"ACTOR HUGH NEES: BIRTH AND REBIRTHS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/04/13/actor-hugh-nees-birth-and-rebirths/415904d7-1347-48ce-aca1-4c58a9e35ac0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.970Z"},
{"title":"THE STUDIO, BIGGER AND BUSIER","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"The Studio Theatre, the local powerhouse that brought the Washington theater scene \"Two Trains Running\" this year, will have three theaters running in 1996-97. Studio's 19th season will offer a raft of new plays and musicals featuring some favorite local actors, to be divided between two main stages: the current one, to be named the Mead, and an identical new one upstairs (to be called the Milton), plus a smaller stage (the Marshall).","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/04/27/the-studio-bigger-and-busier/0873adf3-96c1-4678-b4c2-8a48c47824a3/","publication_date":"1996-04-27","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/04/27/the-studio-bigger-and-busier/0873adf3-96c1-4678-b4c2-8a48c47824a3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.069Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/04/kahn-bawdy-with-soul/d8513795-4bcf-4696-b1af-4d7bd6bd08c5/","publication_date":"1996-05-04","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"As Backstage watched a dwarf, a eunuch and a hermaphrodite saunter onstage and start camping it up with abandon, we said a silent thanks for the bawdy imagination of Shakespeare Theatre artistic director Michael Kahn.\n\nThe antics in \"Volpone,\" Ben Jonson's black comedy about a \"fox\" of a miser, could have gone way overboard -- a series of gags about a dwarf certainly stretches limits, for example. It is to Kahn's credit that the potential to slip into vulgarity has been perfectly contained.","subtitle":"Company","title":"KAHN: BAWDY WITH SOUL","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/04/kahn-bawdy-with-soul/d8513795-4bcf-4696-b1af-4d7bd6bd08c5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.640Z"},
{"title":"RENT,' NOISE' TOP THE TONY NOMINEES","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/07/rent-noise-top-the-tony-nominees/2b58e4ca-4343-40df-8ce6-072a14824527/","publication_date":"1996-05-07","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/07/rent-noise-top-the-tony-nominees/2b58e4ca-4343-40df-8ce6-072a14824527/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.936Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"If the show itself wasn't quite a rocking affair -- the desired just-between-us intimacy partially lost, one player observed, somewhere in the vast space of the Opera House -- the same could not be said about the ebullient party that followed the 12th annual Helen Hayes Awards last Monday night at the Kennedy Center.","subtitle":"Company","title":"ACTING UP ON AWARDS NIGHT","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/11/acting-up-on-awards-night/776e6535-89b1-47bc-acee-6c59fd699bf3/","publication_date":"1996-05-11","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/11/acting-up-on-awards-night/776e6535-89b1-47bc-acee-6c59fd699bf3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.648Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/25/shooting-simone-its-a-conspiracy/9f5f0298-e6d4-4011-a177-14b754df96f8/","title":"SHOOTING SIMONE': IT'S A CONSPIRACY","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-05-25","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/25/shooting-simone-its-a-conspiracy/9f5f0298-e6d4-4011-a177-14b754df96f8/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.101Z"},
{"title":"DONNELLY, DIRECTING HER EXIT","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Kyle Donnelly doesn't much like paperwork.\n\nIn a simplistic nutshell, she says, that is why she announced this week that she is giving up her job as Arena Stage's producing director to resume her career as a freelance director. The post, to which she was named just last year, after going to Arena in 1992, made her second-in-charge to artistic director Douglas C. Wager at Washington's most prominent resident theater.","publication_date":"1996-06-08","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/08/donnelly-directing-her-exit/414be29e-7b0d-4ca8-bebd-84729eaaed50/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/08/donnelly-directing-her-exit/414be29e-7b0d-4ca8-bebd-84729eaaed50/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.106Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1996-06-15","subtitle":"Company","article_text":"Sexually oriented party games, a lot of liquor and seven naked gay guys -- would you believe it if we told you that \"Party,\" at the Church Street Theater, is perhaps one of the sweeter and more innocent plays now on Washington stages?\n\nIndeed, perhaps the best way to describe David Dillon's romp about a group of friends who get together for a monthly fiesta and gossip fest is as a gay \"Shear Madness\" -- except it's a lot less crude than that perpetual Kennedy Center hit.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/15/party-bare-innocence/84f7d98c-10fc-4794-95ec-f8ba56d7d927/","title":"PARTY': BARE INNOCENCE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/15/party-bare-innocence/84f7d98c-10fc-4794-95ec-f8ba56d7d927/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.658Z"},
{"article_text":"Though he had not been onstage for years, after Howard Shalwitz read the Tom Murphy play \"The Gigli Concert,\" he knew he had to play the lead someday.\n\nBut the artistic director of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company didn't cast himself in the role until a month before rehearsals for \"Gigli\" (pronounced jee-lee) began in May.","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/22/new-direction-for-howard-shalwitz/11e94981-94f7-4114-a238-f641721daad5/","title":"NEW DIRECTION FOR HOWARD SHALWITZ","subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1996-06-22","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/22/new-direction-for-howard-shalwitz/11e94981-94f7-4114-a238-f641721daad5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.670Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/29/small-role-model-caitlin-oconnell/a68cfaa7-8b88-4152-a5ac-23a913792d7a/","publication_date":"1996-06-29","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"SMALL-ROLE MODEL CAITLIN O'CONNELL","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/06/29/small-role-model-caitlin-oconnell/a68cfaa7-8b88-4152-a5ac-23a913792d7a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.920Z"},
{"title":"OCTOPUS': TANGLED PLOT","publication_date":"1996-07-13","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"The Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va., will import a whiff of Washington-style scandal and conspiracy this week with the world premiere of Jon Klein's drama \"The Octopus.\"\n\nThe play concerns itself with the still-mysterious demise of freelance investigative reporter Danny Casolaro, who died in a Martinsburg, W.Va., motel room five years ago while seeking to establish links between alleged scandals involving the White House and Justice Department. Though police finally declared that Casolaro, a D.C. native, had committed suicide, much controversy still surrounds his death. Some observers insist he was murdered by powerful people fearful of his reporting.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/07/13/octopus-tangled-plot/1e0377f6-03f6-4dd6-a4e0-eb3e4e7dc984/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/07/13/octopus-tangled-plot/1e0377f6-03f6-4dd6-a4e0-eb3e4e7dc984/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.135Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/07/20/the-year-in-revue/97fa6a61-cd1e-4e0d-a9ca-81bdbd2f877d/","title":"THE YEAR IN REVUE","article_text":"It may only seem as if the theater scene is completely dormant in July. But rehearsals for next season are actually about to begin for many local companies. The season will start the last week in August with Signature Theatre's new version of the Kander and Ebb musical \"The Rink.\" In September there will be Arena Stage's \"Blues for an Alabama Sky,\" Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's \"Quills,\" Round House Theatre's \"Better Living\" and the Shakespeare Theatre's \"Henry IV.\"","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-07-20","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/07/20/the-year-in-revue/97fa6a61-cd1e-4e0d-a9ca-81bdbd2f877d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.856Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/07/27/west-coasting-in-la/b7a16794-c9a0-4685-877e-0dc39deac029/","title":"WEST COASTING IN L.A.","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-07-27","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/07/27/west-coasting-in-la/b7a16794-c9a0-4685-877e-0dc39deac029/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.928Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-08-17","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/08/17/sources-rite-of-summer/d6602f72-1c18-40eb-8c3f-9d36c45149fe/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"SOURCE'S RITE OF SUMMER","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/08/17/sources-rite-of-summer/d6602f72-1c18-40eb-8c3f-9d36c45149fe/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.837Z"},
{"subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1996-08-24","title":"A FULL PLATE FOR FALL","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/08/24/a-full-plate-for-fall/7a17370d-f7a9-4ded-b9da-118af0b61d7a/","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Are you ready for a busy fall?\n\nNick Olcott better be. That's because the Washington director, actor and writer has to stage two plays by November, when he's leaving for a three-month sojourn in Britain.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/08/24/a-full-plate-for-fall/7a17370d-f7a9-4ded-b9da-118af0b61d7a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.679Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-08-31","title":"GOOD SUPPORT PROPS UP PLAYS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/08/31/good-support-props-up-plays/27ae8bc6-286f-444b-b2f5-c43facc4e74c/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/08/31/good-support-props-up-plays/27ae8bc6-286f-444b-b2f5-c43facc4e74c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.845Z"},
{"title":"STRAND'S FLIGHT OF FANCY","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-09-07","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/07/strands-flight-of-fancy/1569083b-f223-4e96-b85a-a13d5e0d1873/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/07/strands-flight-of-fancy/1569083b-f223-4e96-b85a-a13d5e0d1873/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.853Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/14/the-sky-high-actor/cc3cd9c1-a34b-4269-a9a8-34231069354c/","title":"THE SKY'-HIGH ACTOR","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-09-14","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/14/the-sky-high-actor/cc3cd9c1-a34b-4269-a9a8-34231069354c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.863Z"},
{"title":"CATHOLIC U. EJECTS ANGELS'","publication_date":"1996-09-21","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/21/catholic-u-ejects-angels/f7580464-0749-44fd-a6df-11ac0ce7740b/","article_text":"Catholic University is taking strong measures to limit a student production of \"Angels in America,\" Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning opus about AIDS and homophobia in America. Those actions include banning advertising and moving the play to an undetermined off-campus venue rather than allowing it to be performed at the university's Hartke Theatre.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/21/catholic-u-ejects-angels/f7580464-0749-44fd-a6df-11ac0ce7740b/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.148Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/28/doug-wrights-provocations/4e46555d-28df-4147-9596-dfd1bf8684bc/","title":"DOUG WRIGHT'S PROVOCATIONS","publication_date":"1996-09-28","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/09/28/doug-wrights-provocations/4e46555d-28df-4147-9596-dfd1bf8684bc/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.871Z"},
{"article_text":"Thomas W. Jones II got a tattoo the other day at a Georgetown parlor. It reads \"Angel,\" in honor of his 9-month-old daughter, Angeline. \"Don't let anyone tell you there isn't pain when someone is sticking that needle in your skin again and again,\" he says.\n\nBut that's probably about the only pain the 40-year-old Atlanta actor and writer is feeling these days, what with yet another hit show -- \"Hip 2: Birth of the Boom\" -- running at Studio Theatre in the wake of last year's multiple award-winning \"Bessie's Blues.\"","title":"WIZARD OF HIP'S LATEST SPELL","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/10/19/wizard-of-hips-latest-spell/75e4cb30-9882-43ad-b027-26af92581299/","publication_date":"1996-10-19","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/10/19/wizard-of-hips-latest-spell/75e4cb30-9882-43ad-b027-26af92581299/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.214Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-10-26","title":"SOURCE'S SHEEHY TAKES A PAUSE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/10/26/sources-sheehy-takes-a-pause/c440b3e2-db04-4643-8056-edfb1ac209a5/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/10/26/sources-sheehy-takes-a-pause/c440b3e2-db04-4643-8056-edfb1ac209a5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.879Z"},
{"title":"'THE MISER'S' GENEROUS JOKESTER","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-11-02","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/02/the-misers-generous-jokester/e7f6e678-0dc8-49fb-8f52-e6bcbc024c72/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/02/the-misers-generous-jokester/e7f6e678-0dc8-49fb-8f52-e6bcbc024c72/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.887Z"},
{"title":"WAGER'S CUE TO EXIT, HESITANTLY","publication_date":"1996-11-09","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/09/wagers-cue-to-exit-hesitantly/accac0be-0c4b-45d0-85c9-65038a397e57/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/09/wagers-cue-to-exit-hesitantly/accac0be-0c4b-45d0-85c9-65038a397e57/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.895Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-11-16","title":"WOOLLY'S PRIZE PANTHER","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/16/woollys-prize-panther/318751d9-a901-42d3-afe4-227ccc35d045/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/16/woollys-prize-panther/318751d9-a901-42d3-afe4-227ccc35d045/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.904Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"When Jeff Keenan began thinking about creating a new theater company in Washington last year, his motivation was one that a lot of actors could easily understand: He and his friends were having trouble getting cast in shows at established theaters.\n\n\"It was kind of classic, because we were all sitting around and complaining that we were not getting work, but we weren't doing anything about it,\" says Keenan, who at the time had a job answering phones in the circulation department of The Washington Post.","publication_date":"1996-11-23","section":"Lifestyle","title":"KEENAN'S DRAMATIC LICENSE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/23/keenans-dramatic-license/3f3313bb-3314-470e-9f4c-ee0b75970257/","subtitle":"Company","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/23/keenans-dramatic-license/3f3313bb-3314-470e-9f4c-ee0b75970257/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.687Z"},
{"title":"MONDY'S NORTH EXPOSURE","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/30/mondys-north-exposure/66f0f590-6b03-4d7d-a274-262fbe51c84b/","publication_date":"1996-11-30","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/11/30/mondys-north-exposure/66f0f590-6b03-4d7d-a274-262fbe51c84b/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.912Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-12-07","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Ron Taylor got the inspiration for a production based on the history and impact of blues music after appearing in \"Lost Highway,\" a play about the early life of legendary singer Hank Williams.\n\n\"I played yet another old black guy who was the one who introduced yet another white guy to the blues,\" he remembers. \"So I thought, Why isn't there something on the original guys in the first place, since all these people attest to the fact that it's where they got their juice?' \"","section":"Lifestyle","title":"THE MANY HUES OF BLUES","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/07/the-many-hues-of-blues/d9aa28aa-58ec-48d3-868d-96c13d7d8024/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/07/the-many-hues-of-blues/d9aa28aa-58ec-48d3-868d-96c13d7d8024/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.784Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"They say good things come in threes, and that's been especially true this season for actor Craig Wallace.\n\nIn the Shakespeare Theatre's season opener, \"Henry VI,\" Wallace was drafted to play three roles -- the witch Margery Jourdain, the rebel Jack Cade and the warring noble Vernon. And now in the theater's latest, \"Antony and Cleopatra,\" he's a shape shifter again: the tough-guy warrior Sextus Pompeius, the troubled soldier Canidius and the messenger Diomedes, dressed up like a very hip Egyptian.","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-12-14","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/14/an-actors-three-for-all/0a8335d3-f5f3-454a-9bc1-6217a02962fb/","title":"AN ACTOR'S THREE FOR ALL","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/14/an-actors-three-for-all/0a8335d3-f5f3-454a-9bc1-6217a02962fb/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.792Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/28/improving-our-acts-in-1997/9884b4e2-b561-489d-8dd6-35c21293f780/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1996-12-28","title":"IMPROVING OUR ACTS IN 1997","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/28/improving-our-acts-in-1997/9884b4e2-b561-489d-8dd6-35c21293f780/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.586Z"},
{"publication_date":"1997-01-11","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"So what is the trouble with \"Whistle Down the Wind\"?\n\nAfter some last-minute wrangling, producers decided this week that rather than stick to their schedule and open the $10 million Andrew Lloyd Webber musical on Broadway in April, they would overhaul it and open it in June -- too late to be considered for the 1997 Tony Awards. The show completes its world premiere engagement at the National Theatre on Feb. 9.","title":"'WHISTLE' STOP: PRODUCERS HIT THE BRAKES","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/01/11/whistle-stop-producers-hit-the-brakes/5f381789-bcc6-46dd-8c0d-28fc8d864555/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/01/11/whistle-stop-producers-hit-the-brakes/5f381789-bcc6-46dd-8c0d-28fc8d864555/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.158Z"},
{"article_text":"Anna Deavere Smith, it seems, is always trying to make peace. On Tuesday the performance artist was in New York moderating a discussion she had organized between playwright August Wilson and stage critic Robert Brustein in the wake of their acrimonious debate over the future of black theater.\n\nAnd by the end of the week she was in Washington rehearsing for another production of her well-known and much-lauded show \"Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,\" which she created to inject some understanding into the confusion after that city's violent riots. It opened last night at Ford's Theatre.","subtitle":"Company","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"SOOTHE OPERATOR","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/01/soothe-operator/74ad4ccd-3cb9-496a-b331-3f7d414ca20d/","publication_date":"1997-02-01","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/01/soothe-operator/74ad4ccd-3cb9-496a-b331-3f7d414ca20d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.702Z"},
{"publication_date":"1997-02-08","section":"Lifestyle","title":"AN ACTOR'S BODY OF WORK","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/08/an-actors-body-of-work/b86a4e02-a237-4daf-a3a0-f362b4816cee/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Christopher Lane says that friends still ask him whether it's a requirement that he bare a bit of his body in every show he does.\n\n\"I tell them that I seem to always have roles where I take my clothes off,\" jokes Lane. \"But now at least they are letting me say more.\"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/08/an-actors-body-of-work/b86a4e02-a237-4daf-a3a0-f362b4816cee/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.167Z"},
{"title":"SCHAEFFER BITES THE APPLE WITH APLOMB","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"As the massive City Center theater on Manhattan's 55th Street began to fill up Wednesday night, Eric Schaeffer did not look the slightest bit nervous.\n\nThat despite the fact that Signature Theatre's artistic director had had only five days to tame a cast of 32 -- including such bigwigs as Dorothy Loudon and Tony Randall -- and create a smooth concert version of \"Sweet Adeline,\" one of the more obscure musicals by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. Wednesday was the dress rehearsal, with the scary New York critics coming Thursday. The show's five-performance run ends tomorrow.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/15/schaeffer-bites-the-apple-with-aplomb/92674911-fdc2-4865-8347-bafdbed2e534/","subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1997-02-15","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/15/schaeffer-bites-the-apple-with-aplomb/92674911-fdc2-4865-8347-bafdbed2e534/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.712Z"},
{"title":"KATHRYN KELLEY'S ICE-COLD 'ANGER'","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/22/kathryn-kelleys-ice-cold-anger/7edff29f-95ca-495f-bf4f-5d8b1d565e6a/","publication_date":"1997-02-22","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/02/22/kathryn-kelleys-ice-cold-anger/7edff29f-95ca-495f-bf4f-5d8b1d565e6a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.827Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","title":"GOING DOWNTOWN WITH THE SHIP","publication_date":"1997-03-01","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The deft writing of Jeffrey Hatcher was one of the delights of the Source Theatre last year, when it presented his \"Three Viewings,\" a trio of clever monologues in the unlikely setting of a funeral parlor.\n\nHatcher got the idea after his father died and \"I had to spend too much time in one.\" Rather than just mourn, Hatcher took time to look at all the details of the experience, and from those observations his play was born.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/01/going-downtown-with-the-ship/91bf9de4-8c79-42f8-ab72-5fd2d82997a2/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/01/going-downtown-with-the-ship/91bf9de4-8c79-42f8-ab72-5fd2d82997a2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.177Z"},
{"article_text":"At the end of the inaugural performance in the new Milton Theatre, Studio Theatre Artistic Director Joy Zinoman -- who had managed to keep a lid on her excitement all day -- finally began jumping up and down as she hugged Russell Metheny on stage before a packed and cheering audience.","publication_date":"1997-03-15","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/15/the-new-faces-of-studio/f5bc750f-6fef-4e6c-9adf-da151f3c24c4/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"THE NEW FACE(S) OF STUDIO","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/15/the-new-faces-of-studio/f5bc750f-6fef-4e6c-9adf-da151f3c24c4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.186Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"Shakespeare Theatre artistic director Michael Kahn had a few items on his wish list for the downtown theater: to expand the season, to stage a work by Tennessee Williams and to provide his burgeoning company with increasingly challenging work.\n\nWith the Shakespeare's 1997-98 schedule, he has succeeded across the board.","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/22/shakespeares-growing-season/6573b1c6-eed8-4afb-9a2c-4724ce79e364/","publication_date":"1997-03-22","title":"SHAKESPEARE'S GROWING SEASON","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/22/shakespeares-growing-season/6573b1c6-eed8-4afb-9a2c-4724ce79e364/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.848Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/29/signature-gears-up/e6fff677-6dfc-4513-b7ce-4c6d2d7c6965/","title":"SIGNATURE GEARS UP","publication_date":"1997-03-29","article_text":"Signature Theatre's theme for its coming season, says artistic director Eric Schaeffer, is an exhortation to the audience to \"take the ride.\"\n\n\"We wanted to pick shows that were all over the map,\" says Schaeffer. \"I think it's one of our more challenging and demanding seasons.\"","section":"Lifestyle","subtitle":"Company","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/03/29/signature-gears-up/e6fff677-6dfc-4513-b7ce-4c6d2d7c6965/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.720Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1997-04-05","subtitle":"Company","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/05/the-playwrights-old-haunts/cbae8dec-1552-420e-8215-96485a5080f3/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The setting for Norman Allen's \"Melville Slept Here,\" a poignant comedy now having its premiere at Signature Theatre, is a historic house on Cape Cod very much like the one where the District-based playwright lived five years ago.\n\nAllen was serving as a caretaker -- again, in much the same way as a couple in his play -- and took advantage of the free time and isolation to begin formulating the work.","title":"THE PLAYWRIGHT'S OLD HAUNTS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/05/the-playwrights-old-haunts/cbae8dec-1552-420e-8215-96485a5080f3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.729Z"},
{"article_text":"Surveying Arena Stage's impressive upcoming 47th season, it's tempting -- at least for anyone who saw her brilliant one-woman show at Ford's Theatre this season -- to say that the November world premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's new work will be the high point of its lineup. For some, it could be the peak of the entire D.C. theater year.","title":"WAITING IN THE WINGS","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/12/waiting-in-the-wings/cf342951-182c-402e-8410-6c7d1e30c7df/","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1997-04-12","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/12/waiting-in-the-wings/cf342951-182c-402e-8410-6c7d1e30c7df/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.196Z"},
{"publication_date":"1997-04-19","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/19/11-weeks-of-rent-due-at-national/4da40c3b-5fb2-488e-a48e-e77f415b5602/","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"\"Rent,\" the rock musical mega-hit about the dreams and disappointments of the artistic denizens of Manhattan's Alphabet City, is coming to Washington this summer for an 11-week run at the National Theatre.\n\nTickets go on sale May 12 for \"Rent,\" a multicultural, painfully hip celebration of life penned by the late Jonathan Larson. An instant hit last season that continues to sell out in New York, the show has been credited with attracting a younger audience to Broadway. It's also been lining the pockets of its producers, who will be launching a second and third touring company of \"Rent\" in addition to the first one, which lands here Aug. 20 after runs in Boston and St. Paul.","title":"11 WEEKS OF 'RENT' DUE AT NATIONAL","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/19/11-weeks-of-rent-due-at-national/4da40c3b-5fb2-488e-a48e-e77f415b5602/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.211Z"},
{"title":"FINDING 'GODSPELL'","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/26/finding-godspell/69a979bd-f45a-48ef-8a12-9a6fdeeae0fa/","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1997-04-26","article_text":"The highlight of Round House Theatre's upcoming 20th season is likely to come late next spring with a production of the hippie-cool musical take on the life of Jesus, \"Godspell.\"\n\nIt's deja vu of sorts for Round House since the Stephen Schwartz work based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew was the first show produced in the building that now houses the company. And with the arrival of a kind of musical descendant -- \"Rent\" -- at the National Theatre this August, the D.C. theater scene has a nice pair of bookends to the 1997-98 season. \"Godspell\" opens in May 1998.","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/04/26/finding-godspell/69a979bd-f45a-48ef-8a12-9a6fdeeae0fa/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.231Z"},
{"title":"'CHICAGO'S' QUICK-STUDY STAND-IN","publication_date":"1997-05-03","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/03/chicagos-quick-study-stand-in/31c347c6-964e-4ae8-a8ca-fafc1a17fa72/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Producers of the touring version of \"Chicago\" -- now running at the National Theatre -- should probably be smacked upside the head for keeping it under wraps before the opening here that star player Charlotte d'Amboise had been sidelined with a knee injury.\n\nBut they've made it into Backstage's good graces for having tapped veteran hoofer Belle Calaway to understudy the d'Amboise role of the murderous Roxie Hart. Calaway, who continues in the part, takes the stage by storm, delivering songs like \"Roxie\" and \"Nowadays\" as if she'd been doing the show for years.","subtitle":"Company","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/03/chicagos-quick-study-stand-in/31c347c6-964e-4ae8-a8ca-fafc1a17fa72/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.737Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/10/studios-skylight-opening/3ea19650-453e-4619-a70c-e189289a7a69/","article_text":"The Washington premiere of David Hare's acclaimed \"Skylight\" will open the Studio Theatre's 20th-anniversary season in September. The play, about the relationship between a businessman and his former mistress, will be directed by Studio artistic director Joy Zinoman.\n\nIn November comes Jon Marans's \"Old Wicked Songs,\" centering on 16 love songs by Robert Schumann and the relationship between an American musical prodigy and a voice teacher.","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1997-05-10","title":"STUDIO'S 'SKYLIGHT' OPENING","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/10/studios-skylight-opening/3ea19650-453e-4619-a70c-e189289a7a69/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.240Z"},
{"title":"NICKY SILVER'S POLISHED PERFORMANCE","subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1997-05-17","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/17/nicky-silvers-polished-performance/a5b90a20-322b-446c-9005-62f0fad40d8d/","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Not surprisingly, hours before his solo appearance at a benefit for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company last week, playwright Nicky Silver had no idea what he was going to say.\n\nNot that a niggling little detail like that was going to faze this hysterical motormouth of the absurd. Nor did Silver slow down in his comic commentary to Backstage about his recent activities.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/17/nicky-silvers-polished-performance/a5b90a20-322b-446c-9005-62f0fad40d8d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.746Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"May 5 was a big day for Helen Carey. It began with the news that she had garnered a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the just-opened \"London Assurance.\" And that night in Washington, the gifted actress picked up her first Helen Hayes Award, for her hilarious Lady Politic Wouldbe in the Shakespeare Theatre's \"Volpone.\"","title":"CAREY'S WINNING WEEK","subtitle":"Company","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/24/careys-winning-week/171fa5ab-8e61-44ef-9ddc-681772faf20e/","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1997-05-24","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/24/careys-winning-week/171fa5ab-8e61-44ef-9ddc-681772faf20e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.756Z"},
{"publication_date":"1997-05-31","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"For a lot of modern audiences, Eugene O'Neill's \"Mourning Becomes Electra\" -- with its purple plot lines, withering dialogue and highly dysfunctional Mannon family -- bears more than a faint resemblance to a television soap opera.\n\nGood thing then that Franchelle Stewart Dorn, who's appearing in \"Mourning\" at Shakespeare Theatre, knows a thing or two about soaps. She spent time last year on \"Another World,\" playing hospital administrator Dr. Rita Madison, whom she describes as \"bad, but not quite bad enough.\"","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/31/mournings-dorn-on-her-soapbox/de633260-9f71-4390-9945-d9ac88914223/","subtitle":"Company","title":"'MOURNING'S' DORN, ON HER SOAPBOX","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/31/mournings-dorn-on-her-soapbox/de633260-9f71-4390-9945-d9ac88914223/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.764Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/06/14/twos-company-threes-embarrassing/9b3967a4-a1aa-43b6-b434-8ec7bebdb9ba/","subtitle":"Company","title":"TWO'S COMPANY, THREE'S EMBARRASSING","publication_date":"1997-06-14","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"As a veteran of '70s television, Richard Kline will have to excuse theatergoers who notice his hair first when he steps onstage in \"By Jeeves\" at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater.\n\nThe elegant, neat gray look he sports in the role of the very proper English manservant Jeeves is diametrically opposed to the wild, dark mane he sported as that quintessential '70s swinger Larry Dallas on the cheesy sitcom masterpiece \"Three's Company.\"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/06/14/twos-company-threes-embarrassing/9b3967a4-a1aa-43b6-b434-8ec7bebdb9ba/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.774Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/05/an-earnest-look-at-homosexuality/31625d49-4b60-4894-8d2b-f730bcad908c/","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1997-07-05","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Director Richard Romagnoli had \"sensed all along\" another, more serious theme running quietly through Oscar Wilde's \"The Importance of Being Earnest.\"\n\nBut for anyone who has seen other productions of the classic satire -- it is done often by high school and college drama clubs -- Romagnoli's take, on view at Olney Theatre through July 13, will likely come as a bit of a shock.","title":"AN 'EARNEST' LOOK AT HOMOSEXUALITY","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/05/an-earnest-look-at-homosexuality/31625d49-4b60-4894-8d2b-f730bcad908c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.250Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The Moonlight Theatre Co. is a dreamy kind of name for a new theater troupe, but its origins are grounded in reality.\n\n\"It does sound pretty,\" says Dwayne Nitz, one of Moonlight's founders. \"But it basically describes our job situation -- we all have jobs to make money by day and work on this at night.\"","section":"Lifestyle","subtitle":"Company","title":"MOONLIGHT THEATRE'S WELL-TIMED DEBUT","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/12/moonlight-theatres-well-timed-debut/11ee8d11-641c-4293-8885-56e382f78ee4/","publication_date":"1997-07-12","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/12/moonlight-theatres-well-timed-debut/11ee8d11-641c-4293-8885-56e382f78ee4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.782Z"},
{"publication_date":"1997-07-19","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"\"You must be Hanrahan,\" says the eager beaver Dobbitt, in a cheery greeting to his new roommate and business associate at a mysterious company plant located somewhere in a lonely desert.\n\n\"Must I be Hanrahan?\" comes the biting and definitely unwelcoming reply, delivered in a deliciously catty style by actor J.P. Linton. \"I don't have a choice?\"","title":"A HIT 'BELOW THE BELT'","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/19/a-hit-below-the-belt/6d61930a-ee49-45d0-bc10-f10bc1c60b5d/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/19/a-hit-below-the-belt/6d61930a-ee49-45d0-bc10-f10bc1c60b5d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.259Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/26/gilbert-sherlock/9d4bf905-b9df-4a6f-9652-f3e665f625a6/","article_text":"Nick Olcott was standing in a tube station in London last November when he saw a poster for Gilbert & Sullivan's \"The Mikado.\" Nearby was another poster with a silhouette of one of Britain's greatest literary heroes -- super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes.\n\nVoila: the twin inspirations for the new original show that Interact Theatre Company opens this week -- \"Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Purloined Patience (Or the Scandal at the D'Oyly Carte).\"","publication_date":"1997-07-26","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"GILBERT & SHERLOCK?","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/26/gilbert-sherlock/9d4bf905-b9df-4a6f-9652-f3e665f625a6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.810Z"},
{"publication_date":"1997-08-16","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"'RENT'S' STAGE FATHER","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/08/16/rents-stage-father/8e3047ca-92bd-4180-86d2-b1b2fd61cab4/","article_text":"Allan Larson remembers his son Jonathan telling him less than two years ago that he thought the new rock opera he was about to debut would be the future of Broadway.\n\n\"He was very confident that it was going to bring about a marriage of the MTV generation and Broadway,\" he says. \"Jonathan thought he would be an important part of reinvigorating theater for a younger generation.\"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/08/16/rents-stage-father/8e3047ca-92bd-4180-86d2-b1b2fd61cab4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.270Z"},
{"title":"SCHRAF'S DINNER DATE","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/08/23/schrafs-dinner-date/fa22bdb1-b83b-4552-8d8a-01ee7d964d5f/","section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"In the course of David Hare's \"Skylight,\" actress Kim Schraf will have to cook an entire spaghetti dinner -- boiling water, chopping up garlic and onions -- and then eat it nightly, all while chewing on some pretty rich dialogue between her character and the man she left behind, who has suddenly reappeared in her quiet life.","publication_date":"1997-08-23","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/08/23/schrafs-dinner-date/fa22bdb1-b83b-4552-8d8a-01ee7d964d5f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.279Z"},
{"article_text":"Perhaps it's appropriate that I leave the Backstage column after more than three years on a high, just as \"Rent\" is rolling into town.\n\nI went to the opening last week at the National Theatre and was deeply moved by the piece. As has happened so many times since my mother began dragging me to plays when I was a child, I experienced a familiar medley of emotions -- happiness, sadness, love, anger and especially profound insight.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/08/30/a-final-bow-before-a-scene-change/50cc634a-117c-4821-b36d-73eecbdf9139/","title":"A FINAL BOW BEFORE A SCENE CHANGE","publication_date":"1997-08-30","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/08/30/a-final-bow-before-a-scene-change/50cc634a-117c-4821-b36d-73eecbdf9139/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.288Z"},
{"title":"WHEN THE MOUSE RUNS THE HOUSE","section":"Lifestyle","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"From a podium in Las Vegas -- like many, perhaps too many before him -- Eckhard Pfeiffer was imagining the automated home of the future.\n\nIn his particular vision, an omnipresent household computer -- with its powerful microprocessor and a new home automation technology standard -- was at center stage.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/home-garden/1996/06/13/when-the-mouse-runs-the-house/a80e915a-db96-4134-8662-e2da604e768d/","publication_date":"1996-06-13","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/home-garden/1996/06/13/when-the-mouse-runs-the-house/a80e915a-db96-4134-8662-e2da604e768d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.126Z"},
{"section":"Lifestyle","article_text":"If you were a bit of a seer, just a little smarter than the average observer, you probably could have read the signs, seen the precise moment when the age of civility in Washington retailing ended.\n\nIt was sometime on June 27, 1990, the first day of Garfinckel's going-out-of-business sale.","subtitle":"Company","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1994/03/06/boom-and-bust/e3ac40cd-12d0-42a0-bc12-de089a3e749d/","publication_date":"1994-03-06","title":"BOOM AND BUST","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1994/03/06/boom-and-bust/e3ac40cd-12d0-42a0-bc12-de089a3e749d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.428Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1987/05/10/little-victories/8debd556-2199-4dc2-959b-81602091bb37/","title":"'LITTLE VICTORIES'","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","publication_date":"1987-05-10","article_text":"Bringing the turbulent lives of Joan of Arc and Susan B. Anthony together in one play would be a stretch for any playwright, but Lavonne Mueller does just that in \"Little Victories,\" which opens Monday night at Round House Theatre.\n\n\"I was enamored of this idea, how these women cope in the landscape of men,\" says Mueller who is in Washington for her play's opening. \"I mean -- how did they do it?\"","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1987/05/10/little-victories/8debd556-2199-4dc2-959b-81602091bb37/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.355Z"},
{"publication_date":"1987-10-11","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Lifestyle","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1987/10/11/the-muse-of-the-mermaids/5f6cbc46-555c-40f0-8291-bf67d5adf0a2/","title":"THE MUSE OF THE 'MERMAIDS","article_text":"With her bright red straw hair perpetually askew and her offcenter gait, Polly seems to be one of life's losers. In scene after scene of \"I've Heard the Mermaids Singing,\" this Chaplinesque fumbler and mumbler attracts humiliations and embarrassments like a supermagnet. In one sad moment, Polly, played with quirky sweetness by Shelia McCarthy, sits alone in her rickety little walk-up, eating peas one by one off a fork and staring off into the middle distance.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1987/10/11/the-muse-of-the-mermaids/5f6cbc46-555c-40f0-8291-bf67d5adf0a2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.509Z"},
{"authors":"Joe Brown and Kara Swisher","article_text":"She's a former class clown from Long Island who's now palling around with Madonna and Meg Ryan. From \"Star Search\" champ to stand-up comedy star to big-screen presence, 31-year-old Rosie O'Donnell has honed her funny \"best friend\" character, made Mr. Blackwell's Worst-Dressed List and is learning to live with fame. She's now playing Betty Rizzo in the Broadway-bound revival of \"Grease,\" currently at the National Theatre.","publication_date":"1994-02-27","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1994/02/27/five-questions-for-rosie-odonnell/8be1efeb-302b-4bd0-bd9b-de10f60ef26f/","section":"Lifestyle","title":"FIVE QUESTIONS FOR . . . ROSIE O'DONNELL","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1994/02/27/five-questions-for-rosie-odonnell/8be1efeb-302b-4bd0-bd9b-de10f60ef26f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.728Z"},
{"section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","publication_date":"1983-04-20","article_text":"Page Smith, a Georgetown University Hospital nurse often has been kept awake by the sound of loud music coming from university students who live near her on Whitehaven Parkway in the Blureith neighborhood of Northwest Washington.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/04/20/the-noise-annoys-campus-neighbors/6d6a9879-1d35-466d-9973-90d698670d43/","title":"The Noise Annoys Campus Neighbors","authors":"KARA SWISHER","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/04/20/the-noise-annoys-campus-neighbors/6d6a9879-1d35-466d-9973-90d698670d43/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.214Z"},
{"section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","article_text":"Every year Lloyd Prosise, a Washington area Coca-Cola distributor, throws a party for a group of Georgetown University students at the swimming pool of his Manassas home.\n\nAnd with good reason, apparently. These students run a million-dollar-a-year company that buys 60,000 cans of Coke every month. His commissions from that account helped pay for the pool, he said.","publication_date":"1983-09-29","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/09/29/million-dollar-georgetown-corp-is-run-by-students-for-students/abeffa00-6d45-422e-bd1e-dc2cdf74dacd/","title":"Million-Dollar Georgetown 'Corp' Is Run by Students for Students","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/09/29/million-dollar-georgetown-corp-is-run-by-students-for-students/abeffa00-6d45-422e-bd1e-dc2cdf74dacd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.227Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/11/17/student-rescue-squad-assists-in-gu-crises/30eec6da-630f-4e4c-bf04-d5698d28e6da/","article_text":"Georgetown University junior Scott Kimmel severed a major artery in his arm when he and a friend crashed through a ground floor window while play wrestling at a campus party last April.\n\nBlood poured from the wound. The D.C. Fire Department, called to the emergency, got lost on the circuitous campus for 20 minutes.","publication_date":"1983-11-17","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","title":"Student Rescue Squad Assists in GU Crises","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/11/17/student-rescue-squad-assists-in-gu-crises/30eec6da-630f-4e4c-bf04-d5698d28e6da/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.247Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","article_text":"The phone calls from parents distraught \"at the prospect of their child living off campus in the dark reaches of Washington\" were always the most disturbing to William Schuerman, director of Residence Life at Georgetown University.\n\nGeorgetown recently has spent $15 million to ease such fears. The university has built new dormitory space to house nearly 500 students, and there are plans for another building with the capacity for an additional 500. The completed dorms mean that 3,800 students can now live at the university--the same number of students who applied for campus housing last year.","title":"The Superdorms of Georgetown U.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/01/12/the-superdorms-of-georgetown-u/0013b0d0-dc7b-4025-aea6-09a605f5f6d4/","publication_date":"1984-01-12","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/01/12/the-superdorms-of-georgetown-u/0013b0d0-dc7b-4025-aea6-09a605f5f6d4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.256Z"},
{"title":"Restaurateur Caters To Georgetown U. Area","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Richard McCooey runs the only three restaurants in the western part of Georgetown, so he caters to all tastes, ranging from the voracious appetites of university students to the cultured palates of Georgetown's chic.\n\nOn most evenings The Tombs restaurant at 1226 36th St. NW, in the midst of Georgetown University, draws a casually dressed crowd of young professionals munching after night-school classes, preppily dressed college students, and nearby residents eating out, all packed into the pub-like basement restaurant.","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/05/03/restaurateur-caters-to-georgetown-u-area/14c1e095-1634-4514-847a-036acb2f9c6f/","publication_date":"1984-05-03","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/05/03/restaurateur-caters-to-georgetown-u-area/14c1e095-1634-4514-847a-036acb2f9c6f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.280Z"},
{"publication_date":"1984-08-02","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","article_text":"\"I'll get by with a little help from my friends,\" has become the unofficial theme of the D.C. Public Library system.\n\nFor 11 years, each of the city's 20 branch libraries has been adopted by groups of neighbors who have organized to help the library system weather a gradual but steady series of budget reductions.","title":"Where Would the Library System Be Without Friends?","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/08/02/where-would-the-library-system-be-without-friends/f2b52f91-3fb3-4f0b-9489-a395a442a3af/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/08/02/where-would-the-library-system-be-without-friends/f2b52f91-3fb3-4f0b-9489-a395a442a3af/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.289Z"},
{"title":"SOME NEW MATERIAL ON THE BOARDS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/12/10/some-new-material-on-the-boards/b912e5f9-7591-4a55-b2f9-6d4a75752ee7/","publication_date":"1987-12-10","article_text":"Unlike movies or television shows, all moments spent at the theater are new, the live action unfolding in different ways each time it's played. But plays seen over and over tend to get familiar. So, good or bad, there's something distinctively exciting about seeing the premiere of a new show.\n\nThe experience is doubly pleasant when the play is as delightful as \"Rootabaga Country,\" now at the Wordstage Theatre, or as riveting as two one-acts, \"The Home Visit\" and \"Fieldstones,\" winners of Little Theatre of Alexandria's One-Act-Play Competition. All three plays, newborns on the stage, are fresh, entertaining and thought-provoking. Though they suffer from some clumsiness that is the mark of first plays, the rough spots are only mildly bothersome, slight turbulence on an otherwise smooth flight.","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/12/10/some-new-material-on-the-boards/b912e5f9-7591-4a55-b2f9-6d4a75752ee7/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:24.518Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1989/10/26/theater/89460f66-4baa-4e02-8c41-324814bdb0b1/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1989-10-26","article_text":"There are certain familar signposts in the extraordinary work of America's premiere lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim: brooding moods, dark messages, dissonant sounds, pretty melodies and building crescendos. And, always, a bittersweet hopefulness in his characters, who strive mightily to reach a better way of living, oftimes failing painfully.    But as Sondheim wisely writes in his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical \"Sunday in the Park With George\" about making those efforts: \"The choice may have been mistaken. Making the choice was not.\"    Happily, all the right choices have been made by The Arlington Players, as it stretches its limits by mounting the Washington premiere of this challenging musical. To add further to this well-wrought production, TAP has purchased the lovely sets from the original Broadway show and rented its creative costumes.    The story is pure Sondheim style -- an artist going against the grain of an overwhelming society, star-crossed lovers who do themselves in by their own weaknesses and lives rife with compromise, wrong choices and unexpected detours.    The plot centers around one of artist George Seurat's greatest paintings, \"A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,\" a popular natural island park near Paris where urban-weary city dwellers went to escape. It is here that Seurat found many subjects for sketching studies.    The people caught for eternity by Seurat's brush and oils had stories of their own, and the stage is rife with them. One man tries to cheat on his wife, ungainly American tourists wallow around, two young girls fight over the affections of a soldier. Also captured on canvas is Seurat's mistress, Dot. Seurat, obsessed with his vision, cannot commit to her and she leaves him to go to America with his child to marry a man who will take care of her.    The second act lands the viewer in the present day and centers around Seurat's great-grandson, also an artist, who has lost his vision in the modern world's race to get ahead. He produces pictures that sell, but have no soul. As he says, they are \"more and more about less and less.\" It is no surprise to fans of Sondheim that the modern George will find the way to a lasting achievement by reaching into the past to his roots, rediscovering the important things in art -- design, tension, composition, balance, order, tone, form, symmetry, light and harmony. Important too in life.    As the old and new George, Buzz Mauro has a compelling presence with a fierce and sad intensity. As Dot and Marie, the new George's grandmother, Judy A. Walstrum has a sweet voice and endearing nature.    The real star is TAP's technical crew, which handles the complicated sets with ease. Trees drop out of the sky, dogs roll on stage, dresses become mechanical. Director Eric D. Schaeffer handles all the action smoothly and firmly, something this play needs most of all. He meshes it all in harmony.    This is the 10th Sondheim production by TAP and its affection for him is evident in the care and attention given to this show. The dedicated troupe has gone all out -- financially, technically and, most of all, creatively -- to deliver a special performance, and audiences should reward that effort. \"Work is what you do for others./Art is what you do for yourself,\" says George Seurat in \"Sunday in the Park With George.\"    TAP has done a lot of work, to be sure. And the players have done a work of art, for themselves and for us.","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","title":"THEATER","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1989/10/26/theater/89460f66-4baa-4e02-8c41-324814bdb0b1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.096Z"},
{"title":"AFTER 40 YEARS, W. BELL CO. CLOSING","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1991/07/18/after-40-years-w-bell-co-closing/642e002a-c930-4ae1-a8b1-94bea25289de/","article_text":"W. Bell & Co., the ailing local chain of stores that sold everything from pearls to tennis balls to toasters at discount prices, is shutting down -- closing its last 10 locations, throwing hundreds of employees out of work and ending more than 40 years as a retailer in the Washington area, according to an internal memo distributed to employees this week.","publication_date":"1991-07-18","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1991/07/18/after-40-years-w-bell-co-closing/642e002a-c930-4ae1-a8b1-94bea25289de/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.357Z"},
{"publication_date":"1993-04-01","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/04/01/sears-site-attracting-interest/00266806-9a30-48c3-800b-6e4d28a588a6/","section":"D.C., Md. & Va.","title":"SEARS SITE ATTRACTING INTEREST","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The doors are closed and 175 employees cleared out, but the Sears building in Tenleytown has become the center of intense activity in recent weeks.\n\nSeveral national and local retailers and developers have looked at the two-acre site, retail industry sources said, and Hechinger Co. and another major retailer have expressed strong interest in buying or leasing the 190,000-square-foot space. Five other retailers also are seriously considering the site in the affluent neighborhood in Northwest Washington, the sources said.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/04/01/sears-site-attracting-interest/00266806-9a30-48c3-800b-6e4d28a588a6/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.780Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/07/18/we-love-lesbians-or-do-we-hot-subculture-or-just-new-hurtful-stereotypes/c04ac909-7af7-4fe6-965f-546c72f768dd/","section":"Opinions","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"AFTER DECADES of invisibility in this nation's overwhelmingly straight male culture, lesbians are caught dead center in the kleig lights of American pop culture.\n\nThere on the August cover of Vanity Fair is the Amazonian model Cindy Crawford ecstatically \"shaving\" ambisexual singer k.d. lang, who is dressed in a man's three-piece suit. This comes only weeks after a Newsweek cover with the big fat headline \"LESBIANS\" and a New York magazine cover, again with lang as lesbo poster girl, called \"Lesbian Chic: The Bold, Brave World of Gay Women.\" Rolling Stone's recently released annual \"Hot List\" even named lesbians \"The Hot Subculture,\" gushing, \"You're in if you're out.\"","title":"WE LOVE LESBIANS! OR DO WE? 'HOT' SUBCULTURE -- OR JUST NEW HURTFUL STEREOTYPES?","publication_date":"1993-07-18","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/07/18/we-love-lesbians-or-do-we-hot-subculture-or-just-new-hurtful-stereotypes/c04ac909-7af7-4fe6-965f-546c72f768dd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.790Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2010/05/09/keyboards/0c65b944-33d7-4a29-b05c-8eb114e91c9d/","publication_date":"2010-05-09","title":"Keyboards","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Opinions","article_text":"The first computer mouse -- which got its name because of the wire that trailed it -- was invented by Doug Engelbart in 1963 http://www.dougengelbart.org/firsts/mouse.html.\n\nYes, nearly 50 years ago.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2010/05/09/keyboards/0c65b944-33d7-4a29-b05c-8eb114e91c9d/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.299Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/05/09/smithsonian-approves-indian-museum-pact/e19b71c9-e529-4111-aef4-dfcf1084ba28/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1989-05-09","title":"SMITHSONIAN APPROVES INDIAN MUSEUM PACT","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/05/09/smithsonian-approves-indian-museum-pact/e19b71c9-e529-4111-aef4-dfcf1084ba28/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.524Z"},
{"section":"Politics","title":"IN D.C., BIAS ON WOMEN'S SHIRTS IRONED OUT","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/07/01/in-dc-bias-on-womens-shirts-ironed-out/b27d5d3d-c9f6-424d-b332-b62bbe088abc/","publication_date":"1989-07-01","article_text":"Two major Washington dry-cleaning associations have agreed to urge their members not to charge more to launder a woman's shirt than a man's, in a breakthrough settlement reached yesterday with a group of George Washington University Law School students and their professor. The agreement between the Metropolitan and Korean Dry Cleaners associations and the Coalition Against Discriminatory Dry Cleaning is said to be the first nationwide that calls for equal prices, despite size differences between men's and women's shirts. It also ends a formal citywide investigation of dry cleaners by the District government. \"I am delighted that the two organizations have come on board. It will make D.C. the first city where we have eliminated sex discrimination by dry cleaners, as we had with men's clubs,\" said John F. Banzhaf III, the GWU professor, in referring to a complaint settled last year by another group of GWU students. \"It serves as a catalyst and precedent for women all over the country to seek the same protection.\" \"We care deeply about the industry, and realized fast this was going to be an issue stirring up a lot of emotion,\" said Ed Boorstein, of the Metropolitan Dry Cleaners Association. \"Some parts of the pricing systems have been up in the air, so we settled because we want our industry to be respected and live in peace, harmony and good will.\" Documents compiled by the GWU students showed evidence of arbitrary pricing, including up to 200 percent more charged for women than for men, with varying prices for \"oxford-style\" cotton shirts ranging from 25 cents to $4.60. The group also found that the sex of a person bringing the shirt into a store sometimes determined price. The settlement springs from a complaint to the D.C. Office of Human Rights brought last March by three students -- Walter North, Heidi Halleck and Sara Nichols -- as part of a project in a legal activism class at the university. They accused two area dry cleaners of \"sex-based pricing discrimination\" -- that woman pay more to have their shirts cleaned than men. After the complaint garnered nationwide media attention, the group, strongly backed by the Human Rights Office, filed complaints against 25 more local dry cleaners and the biggest industry association, the International Fabricare Institute. It also threatened to file complaints against the Metropolitan and Korean Dry Cleaners associations. On June 23, the original complaint was settled with the two dry cleaners, who agreed not to charge more for women's shirts. And Wednesday, the Human Rights Office brought additional pressure on dry cleaners to settle by sending copies of the complaints to offending dry cleaners, named by the group in its investigations. Dry cleaners asserted that it was labor, not discrimination that prompted higher prices. They argued that most women's shirts were too small to fit on automated presses, some of which have been in use since the 1950s, and had to be hand done. The students' argument rested on the \"immutable characteristic\" of smaller women's sizes and the D.C. Human Rights Act, which states discrimination \"cannot be justified by increased costs to business efficiency or comparative characteristics of one group as opposed to another.\" But the dry cleaners associations did admit that they would not have settled had the Human Rights Law not been in place. \"We would not have thought about it without the D.C. Human Rights Law. Throughout the country this broad law is not part of any statute,\" said Boorstein. \"They're trying to cure one inequity by making another one toward dry cleaners. Eventually the public does absorb the costs, and too much regulation hurts businesses.\" Officials at the Human Rights Office disagreed. \"We think it's entirely appropriate. The statute does protect discrimination without justification, something that offends us all,\" said Jim Mercer, associate director of the Human Rights Office. \"We commend the trade associations for taking the lead, and urge and expect Washington dry cleaners to follow it.\" Mercer said the office will continue to investigate the remaining complaint by the students against the International Fabricare Institute, which is accused of \"aiding and abetting\" discrimination. \"There is no place for prices based on gender,\" said Norman Oehlke of the International Fabricare Institute yesterday. \"But the prices charged should reflect time, skill and effort expended, when servicing individual garments.\"","authors":"By Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/07/01/in-dc-bias-on-womens-shirts-ironed-out/b27d5d3d-c9f6-424d-b332-b62bbe088abc/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.628Z"},
{"title":"RETAILER GARFINCKEL'S FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY","publication_date":"1990-06-22","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/22/retailer-garfinckels-files-for-bankruptcy/7c951df6-00fc-4606-9aff-1b535bdf9980/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/22/retailer-garfinckels-files-for-bankruptcy/7c951df6-00fc-4606-9aff-1b535bdf9980/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.384Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/10/14/consumers-show-signs-of-becoming-more-cautious/ad794bd2-867e-4a98-bbc8-6aa6d244dc9e/","article_text":"Medium-priced suits are moving while more expensive ones sit on the rack. Home sales are down, but sales of books about home renovations are up. Fancy electronic equipment goes wanting, yet basic stereo systems are still selling. And car dealers are seeing customers come back dozens of times before making a purchase.","authors":"Kara Swisher, Paul Farhi","section":"Politics","publication_date":"1990-10-14","title":"CONSUMERS SHOW SIGNS OF BECOMING MORE CAUTIOUS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/10/14/consumers-show-signs-of-becoming-more-cautious/ad794bd2-867e-4a98-bbc8-6aa6d244dc9e/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.300Z"},
{"authors":"Michele L. Norris and Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/07/05/are-retailers-selling-pr-georges-short/fd3f7952-9047-454f-840d-c3a441c620e0/","title":"ARE RETAILERS SELLING PR. GEORGE'S SHORT?","publication_date":"1991-07-05","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/07/05/are-retailers-selling-pr-georges-short/fd3f7952-9047-454f-840d-c3a441c620e0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.594Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/09/21/let-the-buyer-beware/50968b9f-57c9-476c-9ab6-639da99cc5f9/","publication_date":"1991-09-21","authors":"Liz Spayd and Kara Swisher","section":"Politics","article_text":"Maribeth Harper has spent countless hours trying to get a $2,000 ring returned to her from Gouterman & Sheffey, a small jewelry chain that closed its doors last month.\n\nMichelle Galler-Abramson is still waiting to see what will happen to the $1,121 she paid Reliable Home Appliances for an oven and vacuum cleaner that have yet to be delivered because the retailer filed for bankruptcy protection shortly after her purchase in January.","title":"LET THE BUYER BEWARE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/09/21/let-the-buyer-beware/50968b9f-57c9-476c-9ab6-639da99cc5f9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.799Z"},
{"publication_date":"1991-11-04","title":"RETAILERS TRY TO TEMPT WARY CONSUMERS AS HOLIDAY SEASON NEARS","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/04/retailers-try-to-tempt-wary-consumers-as-holiday-season-nears/3e19acf3-c090-4260-8b50-bb6b9db7e3cd/","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Politics","article_text":"As if retailers didn't have enough to worry about with the pernicious recession, weak consumer confidence, tighter credit, government spending cuts and substantial layoffs, the late date for Thanksgiving on Nov. 28 has shortened the prime Christmas selling season by nearly a week.\n\nAll the bad news has spurred merchants here and across the nation to search for strategies to encourage jittery consumers to spend money.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/04/retailers-try-to-tempt-wary-consumers-as-holiday-season-nears/3e19acf3-c090-4260-8b50-bb6b9db7e3cd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.568Z"},
{"title":"CAUTIOUS SHOPPERS BEGIN HOLIDAY RUSH","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/30/cautious-shoppers-begin-holiday-rush/ef8ad631-4051-4cfa-b267-98193d0fb5be/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1991-11-30","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/30/cautious-shoppers-begin-holiday-rush/ef8ad631-4051-4cfa-b267-98193d0fb5be/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.532Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/25/macys-faces-dilemma-on-payments/549726ac-dc0e-469d-8fcc-cfd91f6da08a/","title":"MACY'S FACES DILEMMA ON PAYMENTS","authors":"Brett D. Fromson, Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-01-25","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/25/macys-faces-dilemma-on-payments/549726ac-dc0e-469d-8fcc-cfd91f6da08a/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.310Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/26/macys-likely-to-file-under-chapter-11/474b8b8b-f947-4263-abdc-cf66f3782d47/","authors":"Kara Swisher, Brett D. Fromson","publication_date":"1992-01-26","title":"MACY'S LIKELY TO FILE UNDER CHAPTER 11","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/26/macys-likely-to-file-under-chapter-11/474b8b8b-f947-4263-abdc-cf66f3782d47/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.412Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher, Brett D. Fromson","title":"RETAILER MACY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/28/retailer-macy-files-for-bankruptcy/0b8a892e-d187-48ef-8fb0-698692104183/","publication_date":"1992-01-28","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/28/retailer-macy-files-for-bankruptcy/0b8a892e-d187-48ef-8fb0-698692104183/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.437Z"},
{"publication_date":"1992-05-14","section":"Politics","title":"TOY STORE IS ENDING THREE DECADES OF JOY","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/14/toy-store-is-ending-three-decades-of-joy/971f1a61-6d19-4a30-b1af-2da924bee455/","article_text":"Toys R Us never had a real bumper car, a roller coaster car or a carousel horse. It never had an old-fashioned ice cream parlor with cones for a quarter. And it never had Sarah Yaffe, who has sold so many toys at Lowen's toy store in Bethesda over three decades that her customers grew up and brought their own kids to ogle the Nok-Hockey and Madame Alexander dolls.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/14/toy-store-is-ending-three-decades-of-joy/971f1a61-6d19-4a30-b1af-2da924bee455/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.335Z"},
{"section":"Politics","article_text":"\"Whaddaboutthosecolors! Whaddaboutthatdress! WhaddaItellya, exciting, right?\"\n\nMarji Eckert didn't wait for an answer as she raced through Woodward & Lothrop's Montgomery Mall store in a retail whirlwind. Cosmetics, Lingerie, Children's, Women's Ready-to-Wear, Housewares all blew by -- caught up in Eckert's whoosh of enthusiasm.","title":"WOODWARD LOTHROP AIMS AT A RETAILING TURNAROUND","publication_date":"1992-06-13","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/06/13/woodward-lothrop-aims-at-a-retailing-turnaround/11d4d539-a52b-492e-8197-61f63c3a32fc/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/06/13/woodward-lothrop-aims-at-a-retailing-turnaround/11d4d539-a52b-492e-8197-61f63c3a32fc/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.343Z"},
{"title":"GERMANY'S NEO-NAZIS HAVE TO TAKE TO ROAD","authors":"Steve Vogel and Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-08-16","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/08/16/germanys-neo-nazis-have-to-take-to-road/5bfec925-3746-40ad-954c-bad3a269c743/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/08/16/germanys-neo-nazis-have-to-take-to-road/5bfec925-3746-40ad-954c-bad3a269c743/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.568Z"},
{"title":"RIGHT-WING YOUTHS IN GERMANY CLASH WITH POLICE FOR 5TH NIGHT","article_text":"ROSTOCK, GERMANY, AUG. 26 -- Racial violence erupted in this Baltic port city for the fifth straight night as several hundred rampaging right-wing youths set a car afire and threw bricks, rocks, bottles and molotov cocktails at police.\n\nMore than 1,000 police officers in riot gear, using water cannon and dozens of trucks, made at least a dozen arrests and managed to disperse the crowd by midnight.","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-08-27","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/08/27/right-wing-youths-in-germany-clash-with-police-for-5th-night/07f69275-0e63-4d40-b58d-8e6d3b4c2cf4/","section":"Politics","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/08/27/right-wing-youths-in-germany-clash-with-police-for-5th-night/07f69275-0e63-4d40-b58d-8e6d3b4c2cf4/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.752Z"},
{"title":"SWEDEN'S 'CRAZY' 500% INTEREST RATE","section":"Politics","article_text":"STOCKHOLM, SEPT. 17 -- \"What is 500 percent?\" asked retiree Pers Lundgren as he pondered Sweden's shocking new interest rate while sitting in Kungstradgarden park today. \"It is what needs to be done,\" he answered in stoical Scandinavian fashion, \"so we do it.\"\n\nAfter surprising the world and themselves with sky-high interest rates of 75 percent last week, Swedes spent the day getting used to the ozone-busting 500 percent rate announced here Wednesday.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/09/18/swedens-crazy-500-interest-rate/c3750e89-8fa8-44f4-9028-49f3c0d6c61c/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1992-09-18","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/09/18/swedens-crazy-500-interest-rate/c3750e89-8fa8-44f4-9028-49f3c0d6c61c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.351Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"RECESSION-HIT SWEDEN FACES NEED FOR CUTS IN SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM","section":"Politics","article_text":"STOCKHOLM, SEPT. 18 -- Iva Kvanta said she is solidly behind plans being formulated among Sweden's political parties this weekend to cut the government's $31 billion budget deficit in the face of a growing recession.\n\n\"It is not good that the state spends so much,\" said the pregnant, 35-year-old doctor, who was shopping with her 4-year-old daughter at the downtown Gallerian on Hamngatan today. \"Their costs are much too big and they should not be paying for everything.\"","publication_date":"1992-09-19","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/09/19/recession-hit-sweden-faces-need-for-cuts-in-social-welfare-system/e0bb2f0b-ac35-4f19-8ca0-0a8563616bf2/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/09/19/recession-hit-sweden-faces-need-for-cuts-in-social-welfare-system/e0bb2f0b-ac35-4f19-8ca0-0a8563616bf2/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.360Z"},
{"section":"Politics","title":"ATTENTION, CZECH AND SLOVAK SHOPPERS!","publication_date":"1992-09-26","article_text":"PRAGUE -- K mart Corp. is about to invade Eastern European retailing in a big way.\n\nIf all goes as planned, the big red \"K\" will hang over the center of downtown here and throughout the country by next year.","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/09/26/attention-czech-and-slovak-shoppers/7fb86660-fc7b-4d23-a135-ba9a1e096346/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/09/26/attention-czech-and-slovak-shoppers/7fb86660-fc7b-4d23-a135-ba9a1e096346/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.368Z"},
{"publication_date":"1993-01-26","article_text":"Sears, Roebuck and Co. yesterday announced dramatic steps to reverse a steady decline in its multibillion-dollar retail operations -- eliminating 50,000 jobs, closing more than 100 unprofitable stores and shutting down its famed 97-year-old catalogue operation.\n\nSears's only remaining location in the District, on Wisconsin Avenue in Northwest, will be closed within two months, after 51 years of operation, the Chicago-based company said. Several catalogue outlet stores in rural Virginia and Maryland, and a 1,000-person telemarketing unit in Roanoke, also will be shut.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/01/26/sears-to-cut-50000-jobs-in-shake-up/ef4b84fb-32f1-49ad-b644-615cfad7e2dd/","title":"SEARS TO CUT 50,000 JOBS IN SHAKE-UP","section":"Politics","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/01/26/sears-to-cut-50000-jobs-in-shake-up/ef4b84fb-32f1-49ad-b644-615cfad7e2dd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.396Z"},
{"title":"DISCOUNTERS GIVE BRAND NAMES THE BLUES","publication_date":"1993-04-15","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/04/15/discounters-give-brand-names-the-blues/0f3bbd32-b8a3-4ad9-9fd5-f51805e2e6b1/","authors":"By Kara Swisher","section":"Politics","article_text":"Pressed by cost-conscious shoppers and increasingly popular discount and generic brands, some of the nation's best-known consumer product manufacturers are caving in and cutting prices to keep their share of the market.\n\nFollowing the turbulence caused by Philip Morris Cos.' recent price cut of Marlboro, the world's most popular brand of cigarettes, the maker of one of the world's best-known disposable diapers -- Pampers -- said Tuesday it would cut the product's price by 5 percent.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/04/15/discounters-give-brand-names-the-blues/0f3bbd32-b8a3-4ad9-9fd5-f51805e2e6b1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.669Z"},
{"section":"Politics","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1993-06-08","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/06/08/haft-ousts-wife-son-from-darts-board/20e9d1f1-07f5-4eda-9d8d-089bd901f7d9/","title":"HAFT OUSTS WIFE, SON FROM DART'S BOARD","article_text":"Herbert H. Haft ousted his wife and son from the board of the family holding company Dart Group Corp. yesterday, making them casualties in the widening feud over the leadership of the locally based retail and real estate empire.\n\nHaft is the 72-year-old family patriarch and majority shareholder of Dart, the multimillion-dollar company that controls the Crown Books, Trak Auto and Shoppers Food Warehouse retail chains.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/06/08/haft-ousts-wife-son-from-darts-board/20e9d1f1-07f5-4eda-9d8d-089bd901f7d9/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.449Z"},
{"article_text":"The arguments between her husband and her son had been building for weeks, but at an acrimonious, five-hour board of directors meeting April 19, Gloria Haft held her tongue. She helped restrain herself by writing over and over on a note pad: \"Do not speak. Do not speak. DO NOT SPEAK...\"","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/07/25/father-son-struggle-splinters-dynasty/65dd5ed4-4d0a-4600-9d1e-24e51defe20b/","section":"Politics","publication_date":"1993-07-25","title":"FATHER-SON STRUGGLE SPLINTERS DYNASTY","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/07/25/father-son-struggle-splinters-dynasty/65dd5ed4-4d0a-4600-9d1e-24e51defe20b/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.789Z"},
{"section":"Politics","title":"RIFT IN THE BOARDROOM LEADS TO FAMILY PURGE","publication_date":"1993-07-26","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/07/26/rift-in-the-boardroom-leads-to-family-purge/208ba910-ac4e-46e3-9870-3df4809d8cc5/","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"Herbert Haft kissed his son full on the lips.\n\nThe kiss, a bearhug and a teary-eyed speech came at Robert Haft's 40th birthday party at downtown Washington's Bice restaurant in November. In front of 80 family members and friends, Herbert gave a sentimental talk praising his son for everything from his Harvard degrees to his leadership of the sprawling family retail and real estate business worth hundreds of millions of dollars.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/07/26/rift-in-the-boardroom-leads-to-family-purge/208ba910-ac4e-46e3-9870-3df4809d8cc5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.816Z"},
{"section":"Politics","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/11/hafts-take-fight-to-divorce-court/7a2a4a8b-1f19-4a87-89a3-f60cc0bc3dfc/","publication_date":"1993-08-11","article_text":"The Haft family feud burst into divorce court yesterday as Gloria Haft filed for legal separation from her husband, Herbert.\n\nIn her filing yesterday, Gloria Haft accused her husband of numerous affairs with other women, physical abuse and a financial \"blitzkrieg of illegal activity\" in recent months to maintain his control of the family business empire.","title":"HAFTS TAKE FIGHT TO DIVORCE COURT","authors":"By Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/11/hafts-take-fight-to-divorce-court/7a2a4a8b-1f19-4a87-89a3-f60cc0bc3dfc/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.620Z"},
{"publication_date":"1993-08-20","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"HAFT SELLS STOCK TO SON","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/20/haft-sells-stock-to-son/c895e1d0-fd2a-4998-acc8-53cc57dac939/","article_text":"Herbert Haft has sold his majority stake of voting stock in Dart Group Corp. to his younger son Ronald, which may have moved control of the Haft family holding company beyond the reach of Herbert's estranged wife Gloria.\n\nIn an unusual twist in the transaction, made public yesterday, Herbert retains the right to vote the shares he sold to Ronald. He therefore still has sole control of the company.","section":"Politics","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/20/haft-sells-stock-to-son/c895e1d0-fd2a-4998-acc8-53cc57dac939/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.404Z"},
{"article_text":"When it comes to retail gimmicks, Santa Claus just doesn't seem to be enough anymore.\n\nFor example, there's the pet psychic who talked with the animals at P.T. Moran Co. in Alexandria, the Flying Elvises who parachuted over Potomac Mills and the circus that's coming to the tony Galleria at Tysons II.","section":"Politics","authors":"By Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/10/12/new-spins-on-the-pitch/e02aeb23-431b-4e47-acc3-86fc3e178898/","publication_date":"1993-10-12","title":"NEW SPINS ON THE PITCH","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/10/12/new-spins-on-the-pitch/e02aeb23-431b-4e47-acc3-86fc3e178898/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.593Z"},
{"article_text":"Everybody knows.\n\nTall men do better than short men. Homely people suffer societal prejudice while life's lovelies prevail. You look different, you pay. And if you are very overweight, you can pretty much forget about climbing that corporate ladder to the top.","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"OVERWEIGHT WORKERS BATTLE BIAS ON THE JOB","section":"Politics","publication_date":"1994-01-24","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/01/24/overweight-workers-battle-bias-on-the-job/716d3825-79a4-445a-a792-0ad0874e3ad1/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/01/24/overweight-workers-battle-bias-on-the-job/716d3825-79a4-445a-a792-0ad0874e3ad1/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.815Z"},
{"article_text":"Karen Nussbaum remembers hearing about Secretaries Day on a radio ad for flowers when she was working as a secretary in 1973. So a year later, when she founded 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, the slogan they decided to use then was: \"Raises Not Roses.\"\n\nTwo decades later, on today's 43rd annual observation of Professional Secretaries Day, it's still the battle cry, said Nussbaum, who now heads the Women's Bureau at the Department of Labor. She and other employee advocates and secretaries said that while many surveys show that technological leaps and corporate restructuring have made secretaries' work more demanding than ever, pay and respect for the occupation remain stagnant.","title":"SEEKING 'RAISES, NOT ROSES'","section":"Politics","subtitle":"Company","publication_date":"1994-04-27","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/04/27/seeking-raises-not-roses/abf955ee-ec49-427b-8eef-846b7c758c67/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/04/27/seeking-raises-not-roses/abf955ee-ec49-427b-8eef-846b7c758c67/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.456Z"},
{"title":"HAFTS REACH SETTLEMENT IN COURT","section":"Politics","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/18/hafts-reach-settlement-in-court/e8b91f87-9e0e-4412-b367-d0ca4318f92f/","authors":"Kara Swisher","publication_date":"1994-05-18","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/18/hafts-reach-settlement-in-court/e8b91f87-9e0e-4412-b367-d0ca4318f92f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.489Z"},
{"title":"HAFTS SHARE THE WEALTH","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Politics","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/19/hafts-share-the-wealth/653c7f2b-d966-46d5-b6b2-63a0125b7056/","publication_date":"1994-05-19","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/19/hafts-share-the-wealth/653c7f2b-d966-46d5-b6b2-63a0125b7056/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.481Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/08/31/haft-family-feud-escalates-in-new-father-son-fight/c5719e70-1ed4-4458-a46c-904c17b1cb8f/","section":"Politics","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"HAFT FAMILY FEUD ESCALATES IN NEW FATHER-SON FIGHT","publication_date":"1994-08-31","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/08/31/haft-family-feud-escalates-in-new-father-son-fight/c5719e70-1ed4-4458-a46c-904c17b1cb8f/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.497Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/09/07/ronald-haft-bids-to-depose-father-at-dart/3c1eca7e-fe2b-419e-bf8a-6d2d6c5f552c/","title":"RONALD HAFT BIDS TO DEPOSE FATHER AT DART","section":"Politics","publication_date":"1994-09-07","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/09/07/ronald-haft-bids-to-depose-father-at-dart/3c1eca7e-fe2b-419e-bf8a-6d2d6c5f552c/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.515Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/09/12/in-power-play-ronald-haft-proves-fathers-apt-pupil/0b82c8eb-64d8-45fc-be3d-f86e3370bcd7/","article_text":"The latest war for control of the Haft family business empire began this past summer, when Ronald Haft invited his father, Herbert, for a lunch of lobster and salad on the sun porch of his Kalorama home.\n\nThe topic of discussion that day was how to share the spoils of the previous Haft family feud, in which Ronald had allied with his father against his mother, Gloria, and his brother and sister, Robert and Linda. Herbert and Ronald had ended that battle against the \"PCs\" -- short for \"problem children,\" as they called them -- but at the cost of a settlement that would run upwards of $80 million.","subtitle":"Company","title":"IN POWER PLAY, RONALD HAFT PROVES FATHER'S APT PUPIL","section":"Politics","publication_date":"1994-09-12","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/09/12/in-power-play-ronald-haft-proves-fathers-apt-pupil/0b82c8eb-64d8-45fc-be3d-f86e3370bcd7/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.491Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Politics","title":"JURY AWARDS ROBERT HAFT $34 MILLION","publication_date":"1994-09-21","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/09/21/jury-awards-robert-haft-34-million/ce52c338-6cfd-4740-9549-46545264a1ad/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/09/21/jury-awards-robert-haft-34-million/ce52c338-6cfd-4740-9549-46545264a1ad/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.505Z"},
{"article_text":"International Business Machines Corp. yesterday made an unsolicited $3.3 billion offer for one of the pioneering names of the computer age, Lotus Development Corp. Analysts said the move could touch off a 1980s-style bidding war on Wall Street if other companies try to top IBM's offer.\n\nLotus's management said it would consider the $60-a-share proposal, which is nearly double the price Lotus's shares were selling for on Friday on the Nasdaq stock market. Investors, apparently believing a sale would go through with or without Lotus management's blessing, furiously bought stock in the Cambridge, Mass.-based company.","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/06/06/ibm-makes-hostile-offer-for-lotus/e75396e4-a434-4f0a-abea-dfd415b3e200/","publication_date":"1995-06-06","section":"Politics","title":"IBM MAKES HOSTILE OFFER FOR LOTUS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/06/06/ibm-makes-hostile-offer-for-lotus/e75396e4-a434-4f0a-abea-dfd415b3e200/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.090Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"LOTUS AGREES TO IBM BID FOR BUYOUT","publication_date":"1995-06-12","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/06/12/lotus-agrees-to-ibm-bid-for-buyout/6619025f-13b7-448e-a2ab-6ab0d7531ab0/","section":"Politics","article_text":"Software pioneer Lotus Development Corp. surrendered to International Business Machines Corp. yesterday after six days of maneuvering, agreeing to be acquired for $3.52 billion. Lotus stockholders are to get $64 a share, more than twice what the stock was worth a week ago.\n\nIn extended negotiations in New York, Lotus executives persuaded IBM to increase the unsolicited offer of $60 a share that it made for the company last week. The agreement heads off a \"hostile\" takeover attempt, in which IBM would have tried to buy Lotus against the will of its management.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/06/12/lotus-agrees-to-ibm-bid-for-buyout/6619025f-13b7-448e-a2ab-6ab0d7531ab0/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.082Z"},
{"publication_date":"1995-07-24","title":"GETTING RICH ON THE BACK OF INTERNET","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/07/24/getting-rich-on-the-back-of-internet/97f7f280-f2d4-47e5-90a2-80a45551b154/","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/07/24/getting-rich-on-the-back-of-internet/97f7f280-f2d4-47e5-90a2-80a45551b154/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.055Z"},
{"article_text":"Steve Case's decisive moment as chief executive of America Online Inc. may have been on a Seattle business trip two years ago when on a single day he said \"no\" to not one, but two billionaires interested in the start-up company he ran.\n\nAny sale of the Vienna-based company would have brought Case millions of dollars, and some of America Online's powerful board members favored a deal. But with the support of his top managers, Case, then 34, held his ground.","section":"Politics","publication_date":"1995-08-27","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/08/27/steve-case-tries-to-hold-a-place-on-line/870372ff-22c7-44fd-9f71-c2b346bdb375/","title":"STEVE CASE TRIES TO HOLD A PLACE ON-LINE","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/08/27/steve-case-tries-to-hold-a-place-on-line/870372ff-22c7-44fd-9f71-c2b346bdb375/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.063Z"},
{"article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/09/14/on-line-child-pornography-charged-as-12-are-arrested/c4be340c-c069-494b-b28a-3ac5f3c508e5/","authors":"Kara Swisher","title":"ON-LINE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGED AS 12 ARE ARRESTED","publication_date":"1995-09-14","section":"Politics","article_text":"The FBI arrested a dozen people nationwide yesterday for transmitting pornographic images of children and soliciting sex from children on computer networks run by the Vienna, Va.-based America Online Inc.\n\nCalled \"Innocent Images,\" the two-year undercover government investigation included searches of more than 120 homes and offices and was aimed at the millions of users of America Online, the nation's largest commercial on-line service. But sources said other on-line services also will become part of the ongoing probe, and the Justice Department said more arrests are expected.","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/09/14/on-line-child-pornography-charged-as-12-are-arrested/c4be340c-c069-494b-b28a-3ac5f3c508e5/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.109Z"},
{"authors":"Kara Swisher","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/10/31/internets-reach-in-society-grows-survey-finds/81ab7f3c-dbf8-4da6-bc15-e68fcee644fd/","publication_date":"1995-10-31","title":"INTERNET'S REACH IN SOCIETY GROWS, SURVEY FINDS","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/10/31/internets-reach-in-society-grows-survey-finds/81ab7f3c-dbf8-4da6-bc15-e68fcee644fd/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:28.757Z"},
{"publication_date":"1996-03-13","article_text":"America Online Inc. of Vienna, the country's largest on-line services company, yesterday took new steps to embrace the Internet and keep itself at the top of the booming on-line industry.\n\nIt signed two alliances with competitors to give its 5 million customers easier links into the global computer network that reaches more than 100 countries. Growing at a speed that few foresaw, the Internet is proving a make-or-break challenge for on-line companies such as America Online, which began life by creating \"closed communities\" of computer users who could only get the service's information on their screens and communicate with each other.","title":"INTERNET GETS NEW ALLIANCES","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/03/13/internet-gets-new-alliances/4acd0e83-2ca8-4082-9407-6d6a1b29bba3/","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Politics","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/03/13/internet-gets-new-alliances/4acd0e83-2ca8-4082-9407-6d6a1b29bba3/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.029Z"},
{"section":"Politics","publication_date":"1996-07-01","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"The Buzbee clan now has global reach.\n\nSwitch on a computer in Washington or Buenos Aires or Hong Kong, or any other spot that's linked to the World Wide Web, and you can summon images of John and Sally Buzbee to your screen. There they are enjoying a meal, mugging for the camera during a family celebration. You can read about the recent travels abroad of the District couple or their time as students at the University of Kansas.","title":"THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE A HOME PAGE","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/07/01/theres-no-place-like-a-home-page/8e9a051f-a062-46ca-8165-8a03043ac179/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/07/01/theres-no-place-like-a-home-page/8e9a051f-a062-46ca-8165-8a03043ac179/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:27.188Z"},
{"section":"Real Estate","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/1990/02/24/building-on-faith/cbd5c3d4-1c7f-4d91-b969-ebe6ae428a45/","publication_date":"1990-02-24","authors":"Kara Swisher","article_text":"\"Kids, go take out the garbage,\" Anne Thorward told her two daughters, 13-year-old Kathleen and 14-year-old Mindy, last Saturday morning.\n\nThough the parental request might make most teenagers recoil and start whining, the pair quickly grabbed the edges of the green tub and happily hauled its heavy contents to a dumpster outside. Not a typical response from adolescents, but then neither were the contents of the garbage can: cement rubble, drywall and mortar.","title":"BUILDING ON FAITH","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/1990/02/24/building-on-faith/cbd5c3d4-1c7f-4d91-b969-ebe6ae428a45/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:25.144Z"},
{"section":"Opinions","article_text":"You can’t throw a hammer in Silicon Valley these days and not hit a gender or race bias controversy. And believe me, I’d like to throw a lot of hammers, aimed squarely at the still-thick heads of most tech leaders on this most important of topics. The problem is everywhere: Uber. Oracle. Google. And VC firms, so many VC firms.\n\nMy biggest gripe is about their convoluted and costly efforts to address lagging hiring and pay for women and people of color. These self-described masters of quantification have all kinds of hurt-feelings excuses. “But the pipeline!” they cry, as if people were oil and talent was a dwindling resource that couldn’t be made again and again.\n\nThe worst excuse is what is widely called “unconscious bias” — bias that kicks in automatically, with our supposedly unthinking brains making often-inaccurate snap judgments.\n\nWhile I am fully aware of the science behind the concept — which basically boils down to the fact that we are all beasts at heart — it’s pure laziness by some of the world’s smartest and most innovative people to pretend they are unconscious of something so glaringly clear. It both abrogates the responsibility of leaders and fobs it off on training and classes that never seem to solve the problem, no matter how much money is spent. Studies suggest these programs may actually backfire, conveying that stereotyping is normal and, therefore, okay.\n\nHere’s a suggestion for tech execs: Pick up your head and look. If you see 10 white men on a board of 10, or an engineering staff that’s 80 percent white and male, with no faces unlike your own, you’re not building a meritocracy. Instead, it’s a mirror-tocracy, and what’s reflecting back at you is neither pretty nor unconscious.\n\nKara Swisher is a technology journalist and executive editor of Recode.\n\nGovernment nutrition guidelines and magazine advice columns have long promoted healthy substitutes for everyday foods. Whole industries have been built around alternate foods that are supposed to make us feel better and live longer. But in many cases, the healthiest choice is to forgo the “healthy” substitutes.\n\nConsider the egg-white omelet. We were told for decades to avoid yolks and limit our dietary cholesterol to help protect against heart disease. Yet in 2015, the U.S. dietary guidelines dropped the daily cap on cholesterol. It turns out that studies since the 1950s had found that dietary cholesterol had little meaningful effect on blood cholesterol. What a shame for all of those delicious omelets we never got to eat. And, more seriously, for all the vitamins we missed — egg yolks are far more nutrient-dense than the whites, with super-rich amounts of biotin , choline and lutein.\n\nIt’s the same story with low-fat foods: For decades we’ve snacked with abandon on low-fat cookies and pretzels, exactly as the American Heart Association advised . Yet health officials no longer recommend a limit on total fat — that was more non-fact-based advice, it turns out. A low-fat diet is now “associated with dislipidemia,” according to the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which means it’s linked to heart disease. Whoops! Hello, guacamole.\n\nAgave syrup, too, can go. Agave is marketed as a natural sweetener because it comes from a plant. But so does sugar — from sugar cane or sugar beets. And both sweeteners are a combination of glucose and fructose. Agave happens to have far more fructose , which is directly implicated in fatty liver disease.\n\nAnd soy milk? It’s extracted from soybeans using pressure, heat and hexane, a solvent. The resulting rancid mixture must be steamed to eliminate bad odors, bleached to remove the gray color, and then enhanced with sweeteners, artificial colors and synthetic vitamins. No, thanks.\n\nNina Teicholz is the author of “The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.”\n\nMy view of what’s in your closet is accepting and democratic: I don’t care what you wear, provided that you accept responsibility for wearing it. But there are some items for which nobody should shoulder responsibility, including leggings-as-pants (how? why?) and the dreaded dropped-crotch trouser (horrors). Still, my No. 1 offender is the cropped pant. It’s fashion’s Bronx cheer.\n\nBecause the only fit issue is in the waist (rather than the length, too), I see these monstrosities more and more. Universally unflattering, they are neither here nor there; they’re too long to be shorts and too short to be capris, with which they are often confused. They are loose and fall straight from the waist at the widest part of the hip, unlike capris, which are snug and slightly tapered. The male version is misleadingly referred to as “manpris.” Balderdash!\n\nThe key to getting fashion right is the harmony and balance of silhouette (your true shape), proportion (think of yourself as divided into thirds from shoulder to ankle) and fit (neither voluminous nor tight), in concert with color and pattern. In terms of proportion, your thirds are the following: shoulder to waist, waist to knee, knee to ankle. Your apparel should conform to those demarcations. Proper shorts will fall to just above the knee. Proper pants will extend roughly to the ankle.\n\nThe cropped pant wreaks havoc with proportion. Because the hem falls between the knee and the ankle, usually at the widest part of the calf, the cropped pant succeeds in making you look shorter. I don’t know anyone, female or male, who strives for that goal.\n\nWorn thoughtfully and strategically, clothes create a positive optical illusion, suggesting that you are longer and leaner than you actually are. Worn carelessly, clothes — particularly cropped pants — can do the opposite.\n\nTim Gunn is a design educator, author and co-host of “Project Runway.”\n\nJust 364 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes to go until The Washington Post publishes its 2018 Spring Cleaning issue. In the meantime, we ought to ditch the countdown clock.\n\nThese days, it seems like news channels are always counting down to something. But I can’t quite agree with the networks about what’s considered a clock-worthy “event.” New Year’s? Sure. A presidential address? Possibly. Rachel Maddow’s Trump tax return “exposé”? Hardly. In fact, cable news networks use the clock to plug so much of their own programming that they end up promoting themselves far more than actual news. Consider: Last year, CNN hyped one of its presidential debates with a clock that counted down to 8:30 p.m . But just as viewers tuned in, the network aired 30 more minutes of programmed punditry — and then started the debate for real at 9 p.m. Like so many other cable news clocks, it was a countdown to a letdown.\n\nBut there’s a more serious point here. A well-informed public is essential to democratic self-government. And the countdown clock reflects a frenzied, over-caffeinated news culture that ill serves a vigilant citizenry. It lowers important topics to the realm of entertainment and raises quotidian trivia to the status of “breaking news” — which is often neither breaking nor news. That makes it harder for us to think about what’s going on in the world in a deliberate fashion. It plays into the hands of politicians, who benefit from a distracted public. It defeats a main purpose of reporting the news — to inform and educate.\n\nBREAKING: And we would be better off without it.\n\nTom Cotton is a Republican senator from Arkansas.\n\nIt’s been official for a while now: Washington is a great place to eat. Across the city and at every price point, food fans can find cuisine to talk up.\n\nSomething less appetizing is also true of the District. Customers are increasingly asked to stand in line for the opportunity to taste the handiwork of top chefs. On any given night, queues stretch from the doors of Bad Saint, Little Serow and Rose’s Luxury, among many other fashionable food destinations, for the flavors of the Philippines, northeastern Thailand and contemporary America. None of these tastemakers take reservations.\n\nRestaurants that hew to this policy say it frees them from the tyranny of latecomers and no-shows — bad guest behavior that eats into their profits. The practice also has a democratic ring to it, since theoretically anyone has a shot at a seat. Rank and money don’t carry much clout in restaurants that don’t let you save spots.\n\nThe problem is that whole swaths of us are relegated to dreaming about clams and sausage in XO sauce rather than experiencing it firsthand. If you’re a person of a certain age — unable, say, to leave work early, or go out after dark, or stand for long — too bad. These restaurants are not for you. Nor are they welcoming of suburb dwellers, who run the risk of coming into the city for dinner and not being fed, or parents of young children, who hesitate to shell out babysitter money for time spent outside a dining room.\n\nNo-reservations restaurants defend themselves by saying not all establishments are meant for everybody. True, a steakhouse is the wrong place for a vegetarian to reach nirvana. But as someone whose first priority is diners, I’d like to point out that “restaurant” is derived from the French word for “restore,” and restaurants that don’t let you plan in advance are anything but fortifying.\n\nTom Sietsema is the food critic for The Washington Post.\n\nFor six months last year, the Washington Capitals were the best hockey team in the world. For two weeks in the early spring, they weren’t. So their season ended after a second-round playoff loss to the Penguins, and the LOL-L-L-L narrative persisted: This was a Washington team that just wasn’t good enough.\n\nLeft mostly unsaid: Actually, they were good enough! They won 12 percent more games than any other team. In any rational league, they would have been rewarded for their season-long excellence with something grander than a second-rate trophy and a dumb commemorative T-shirt destined for the Salvation Army.\n\nBut Americans remain wedded to their maddening playoffs — just as American owners remain wedded to postseason ticket, merchandise, hot dog and beer sales. Short playoff series are rocked by more statistical noise than a Wisconsin presidential poll, yet we bestow “greatness” on teams that get hot for a few weeks at the right time.\n\nIn no league is this as cruel as the NHL, where just twice in the past 13 years has the most successful regular-season team celebrated a Stanley Cup title. It’s self-defeating for the sport, too; why care about a result in October or November when lasting judgments are formed over coin flips in May and June?\n\nBut it isn’t just hockey, as Washingtonians well know. In 2012, the Nationals won the most games in baseball but lost a first-round playoff series to St. Louis. Then we all had to pretend that the Cardinals bled liquid bravery and the Nats were fatally flawed, rather than accepting the obvious: Over a short playoff series, existential randomness often plays a starring role.\n\nThe solution is simple. Make like domestic European soccer leagues and give the biggest trophy to the best team, even if it limits hot dog sales. The chances of that happening? About as good as the chances of the 2017 Capitals — who again boast the best record in hockey — finally winning a Stanley Cup.\n\nDan Steinberg is a sports columnist for The Washington Post.\n\nIf you want empty affirmation at any price, peruse BuzzFeed’s list of “self-care tips so extra they just might work”: “Buy yourself a fancy-ass robe and sit around drinking tea out of [a] goblet like some decadent royal.” “Get yourself a whole cake.” “Book someone to deep clean your home, go out for a massage while it’s happening, and then come back and enjoy pretending that you’re a relaxed human who actually has their life together.”\n\nIn other words: Self-care is for people who can afford fancy-ass robes, cleaning services, massages and goblets. A once-radical act has become a marketing opportunity.\n\nIn the 1960s, therapists and academics coined “self-care” in part to help trauma therapists, social workers and activists avoid burnout by talking through their feelings and connecting with others in similar circumstances. In the ’70s, self-care became more overtly political as a way for people on the margins to fortify themselves in an oppressive system. In a 1988 book, black poet Audre Lorde wrote that “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”\n\nBut as the term has made its way into the mainstream, it has lost its connection to radical politics. Folded into commercials and marketing guides, and used to sell products from “wellness retreats ” to Korean skin-care routines , self-care has become something you deserve when you’re feeling blue, no matter the reason.\n\nIn this new understanding of self-care, keeping yourself strong isn’t about your role in a movement: It’s just about you. As feminist author Laurie Penny wrote in the Baffler last year, the “obsessive ritualization of self-care comes at the expense of collective engagement, collapsing every social problem into a personal quest for the good life.”\n\nThe modern concept of self-care is no longer useful; it has become shallow and selfish. Let’s get rid of it.\n\nAmanda Erickson writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post.\n\nMade famous (or maybe notorious) by the likes of thinker and essayist Jeet Heer , perfected by bumptious billionaire Mark Cuban and Eric “Guys, it’s time for some game theory” Garland, the tweetstorm is now normcore.\n\nI refer, of course, to the long, linked, numbered threads of Twitter posts strung together to form an essay, one scrolling sentence fragment at a time. You’ll find these threads on dog Twitter and cat Twitter, the kids are alt-right Twitter, Oxford comma Twitter and on and on, through the 140-character infinities of the Twitterverse.\n\nBack in the day — two years ago — Twitter was all non sequitur and pictures of sandwiches, and if we wrote 27 tweets on a single topic we expected you to read them up the page in reverse until some stranger ran them through Storify.\n\nBut brevity is the soul of twit, so if you want to write an essay, maybe just write an essay and send us the link, k?\n\ncuz as alwys pnctuation and cap’zation are the rl vctms as we dscvr & dply nw cntrctns 4 mkng sns in lmtd spcs\n\nOr maybe these threaded tweets are simply serial telegrams stop an old idea on a new platform stop in the same way the top 10 list really began with the stele of Hammurabi stop.\n\nOr old-time tabloid gossip columns in which every sentence was a new paragraph, and starcrost woosome twosomes were seen dining justthisclose at Ciro’s or Sardi’s or the Stork Club.\n\nMichel de Montaigne, 16th-century inventor of the personal essay, would be proud of its persistence and adaptability. Unless he was trying to read one on the bus, on his phone, in 38 parts.\n\nIn which case — like trying to read the Lord’s Prayer inscribed on the head of a pin — his question for the engraver wouldn’t be how, but why?\n\nJeff MacGregor is a writer-at-large for Smithsonian Magazine.\n\nAccording to lore, the wedding registry was born in the 1920s, at Marshall Field’s in Chicago. It was simplicity itself: A young woman could list her china and silver patterns, and guests could select a gift they knew she’d like. Was it a bit gauche to direct people to buy you a particular present? Probably. But it was the ’20s. If a girl wanted something, sometimes she had to take matters into her own hands.\n\nThe registry as we have come to know it, however, was born in 1993, when some marketing whiz at Target realized a new use for the barcode scanner. Engaged couples could walk through the store scanning things they might need or want: towels, sheets, smart TVs. The technology immediately reshaped private behavior and social mores. Zapping things with the scanner is fun! It’s like a shopping spree with no bill and an element of surprise — which of these things will actually arrive as gifts? Today, the creation of a vast and highly specialized registry (at high-end housewares stores, Walmart, department stores) is as much a part of wedding custom as pretending you’re Lutheran to get the church you want.\n\nYou can’t be invited to many weddings without realizing there’s a lot of junk on registries. Couples zap far more than they possibly need, without ranking items by level of desire — so we log on, find a good price point and plug in our credit card numbers.\n\nThe function of a wedding gift is to let the couple know: We support you in this new life together. The function of the online wedding registry is to wedge corporate America into that exchange of goodwill. Better to Venmo some cash and let them get what they actually want — perhaps a chance to pay down their credit cards or student loans — than to add more weight to the marital landfill.\n\nCaitlin Flanagan is the author of “Girl Land” and a contributing editor to the Atlantic.\n\nImagine you’re running a national university. Your athletic department has a modest proposal. It would like to add a varsity sport that has a tortured relationship with academics, carries a significant risk of physical injury and of triggering litigation against your institution — and will invariably result in about 100 of your male students being hit in the head, repeatedly.\n\nThanks, but no thanks, you’d certainly say. What kind of school needs a boxing team in 2017?\n\nWhy do we treat football any differently? Universities are supposed to advance knowledge, nurture young minds and protect students. Football runs contrary to all three. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the sport can be very bad for the brain; it doesn’t take peering through a neuropathologist’s microscope to know it also can be bad for bones and ligaments, leaving participants with lifetime ailments and expenses. Through the antitrust-law-violating sham otherwise known as amateurism, big-time campus football exploits the labor of uncompensated athletes, turning hardworking makers into government subsidy takers by annually transferring billions to the coaches and administrators who call the shots. (Is it really surprising that the on-field workforce is predominantly African American, while management is overwhelmingly white?) Meanwhile, the system too often fails to deliver decent educations to the same players it pickpockets: Half of the black male players in the top programs don’t graduate within six years.\n\nThen there are the sport’s ancillary benefits: sex assault scandals, academic malfeasance, class-action concussion suits, strength coaches who make $600,000 and Xanadu-like football facilities. Oh, and because athletic department donations and college sports season-ticket purchases are largely tax-exempt, everyone else in society is helping to pick up the tab.\n\nWhen the University of Chicago dropped its powerhouse football program in 1939, school President Robert Maynard Hutchins argued that the sport had become a distraction. That has never been more true than it is today.\n\nPatrick Hruby is a D.C.-based journalist and contributing editor at Vice Sports.\n\nThe daily shower, out-of-office messages, friendly waiters and more.\n\nOffice chairs, football helmets, crowdfunding and more.","title":"2017 Spring Cleaning: 10 things to toss","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/opinions/spring-cleaning-2017/","publication_date":"2017-04-20","authors":"Kara Swisher","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/opinions/spring-cleaning-2017/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.383Z"},
{"title":"How Trump pushed Silicon Valley off the rails","article_text":"Kara Swisher is the host of the podcast “On with Kara Swisher.” She was the co-founder and editor at large of Recode. This essay is adapted from her forthcoming “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.”\n\nAs it turned out, it was capitalism after all.","publication_date":"2024-02-23","authors":"Kara Swisher","section":"Opinions","subtitle":"Did tech titans have an option? I thought so.","article_url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/15/kara-swisher-burn-book-silicon-valley/","_key":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/15/kara-swisher-burn-book-silicon-valley/","_updatedAt":"2026-08-28T18:53:26.308Z"}
]