Ladies and Gents,

There was once a village that became infested with rats, so the village elders brought in a few snakes to eat the rats, which they did, but then the village became overrun with snakes, so the village elders brought in a couple of mongooses (mongeese?) to combat the snakes, which they did, killing them, and eating a few, too, but then the village was beholden to the mongeese, and the village elders sat around thinking what to do. "Bring in Muhammad Ali?" they said. "Order an airstrike?" they said. "Pray to the volcano and to the hurricane, simultaneously?" They established a mongoose alert level, and raised that to orange, in that, there was an elevated threat of a mongoose. (Or the threat of an elevated mongoose.) You get the picture. The elders met, and talked, and the elders met, and talked. "This is nice," they said, "this meeting and talking. Maybe we should include alcohol." And pretty soon, their troubles didn't seem too bad at all. And so, do you see the morale of the story?

Whether you have rats, or snakes, or mongeese in your life, join me, Rod Smith, Steph Monte, and Star Emeritus Mel (Melissa) Nichols for another edition of Drink & Walk, the happy hours where there are no problem animals. We will tell some knock knock jokes, we will talk about the School of Hard Equinox, and we will make sense of an ever complex world. The point is, it's nice to sit around and talk. And if you can include alcohol as part of that, well, hey, then, now, yeahhhman.

Remember that this is a "full" Drink & Walk -- from Angles (6:00 to 7:45) we will go to the Black Cat (8:00 to 10:00.) Visit our blog for periodic updates: http://drinkandwalk.blogspot.com/ And we look forward to seeing you there!

Directions:

We will arrive at Angles around 6:00 p.m., where there is a sparse crowd at that hour, a dollar off all drinks, including a wide selection of beers and fancy drinks, a jukebox that features Joy Division and Louis Jordan and just about everything in-between, before, and after, and empty pool tables, if you want to shoot pool. Angles can be found precisely where Belmont runs into 18th Street, in Adams Morgan, a couple blocks north from the intersection of 18th and U, a couple blocks south from the intersection of 18th and Columbia, next to a Jumbo ("there's a fly on my") Slice, up a short staircase. Look for the sign "Angles" above the window or door. We will be in the front room.

We will stay at Angles until about 7:45, at which point, we will walk over to the Red Room Bar at the Black Cat, which can be found on 14th Street, between S and T Streets. Arrival time around 8:00/8:10 p.m., and we will be there, likely, until 10:00. Note: If there is a long line for the Black Cat, don't worry about that (it's probably for a show). Just go up to the door and ask for the bar. They'll card you and you can go in, to your right.

Dan Gutstein