County history activists, with little fanfare, have been busy breathing new life into Fort Ethan Allen, the Civil War-era protector of Chain Bridge from invading rebels. The results, which the public will see this November, combine fresh archaeology with modern museum exhibition techniques in a well-tended natural setting. And like […]

It was a bumpy week for the visionaries of a revitalized Columbia Pike. Arlington got mocked by national media for spending $1 million on the first in a series of fancified bus stops that don’t provide decent shelter (the project was then put on hold). News broke that the Federal […]

The word “radio,” I’m reliably informed, was first used by broadcasters a century ago this year, right here in Arlington. The transition from the quainter “wireless” was accomplished at the Naval Radio Station, the area’s first such facility, located at what is now South Courthouse Road and 7th Street, according […]

The weeping-and-wailing budget season has enveloped Arlington. And though the Columbia Pike trolley and travails of the Artisphere draw much commentary, smaller line items spark debate that drives home at least three observations: Many citizens are suspicious of the county board’s agenda; much commentary abounds with misinformation; and spending is […]

Utilitarian Arlington may not look like a hothouse for musical talent. But over the decades, we’ve spawned our share of tunesmiths and instrumental notables. I’ve assembled a rough list with a little help from my friends. Perhaps most legendary is Virginia-born Kate Smith, the alto who belted out Irving Berlin’s […]

Who knew that Arlington for months has been home to a cutting-edge experiment in cinema innovation? If you’ve caught a flick recently at the AMC Courthouse theater, you couldn’t miss that you were transported to movieland while lying on a plush, Barcalounger-type recliner. Unless you fell asleep (the fault of […]

When the comic video “Arlington: The Rap” conquered YouTube three years ago, one line that got big laughs was the tough guy’s reference to “my book club.” Last week I had the privilege—without a lick of preparatory reading—of being a barfly on the wall at one of those rare literary […]

On the mercifully few occasions when I engaged in boyhood fisticuffs, I had no inkling that my drama was unfolding on soil with a notable history of one-on-one violence. A few steps from my Arlington childhood home, off North Glebe Road just up from Chain Bridge, lies the probable location […]

It is shocking, the gasping audience clearly agreed, to learn that solid-citizen Arlington is home to crimes of human trafficking. A sobering presentation last Wednesday to the Committee of 100 shed light on a rising epidemic of below-the-radar heartbreak brought to our suburban environs in the form of sexual slavery, […]

My ancient grudge against the Lyon Village Community House resurfaces whenever I drive by it. True, I’ve enjoyed some private parties over the years in that quaint facility off Lee Highway. But it will forever be linked to the agonizing hours I spent there as a bewildered preteen attending Cotillion. […]