Bitters

In honor of Barack Obama, Tyler Cowen says "If I think about what makes me bitter, it is highway and roadway construction and bad airports and the attendant delays." What makes you bitter? I'm bitter about the way Meridian Hill Park and the street design in Adams Morgan makes it so difficult to get from my house to the Amsterdam Falafel Shop even though it'd be really close if i could fly.

UPDATE: NB, the map here assumes I'm driving, but since I don't have a car I would actually be walking but this is more-or-less the route I need to take even on foot.

Comments

Ride your bike, don't drive. Then you can ignore the one-way traffic and get there in less than five minutes. Also: easy parking!

Posted by Damir | April 13, 2008 1:36 PM

1. No one goes from home to Amsterdam Falafel. You go to Amsterdam Falafel when drunk and then you go home.

2. Get a bike and cut through the park.

3. lazy ass.

4. ChixDC is much closer and better. He should eat there.

5. Amsterdam Falafel is a one trick pony. It has marginally more charm than Jumbo Slice.

Posted by nattyb | April 13, 2008 1:36 PM

It isn't even Meridian Hill Park that makes it difficult. Its the goofy roads up there. I think the whole city should be designed like downtown (or, ya know, New York). Grids all the way. And you can leave in the circles just in case someone tries to take the capital...

Posted by kim | April 13, 2008 1:42 PM

I am bitter about the Buckeyes losing the BCS Championship game two years in a row.

Of course, I doubt my bitterness matches that of a Michigan fan, whose team has now lost to the Buckeyes four years in a row.

Also, not having universal health care kind of sucks.

Posted by Matthew Struhar | April 13, 2008 1:45 PM

I'm bitter about the media making so much about these "bitter" comments. Since when has showing compassion on people for recognizing their hurt been defined as looking down on them?

I'm bitter that more has been made about these innocuous comments by Obama than the several mistakes John McCain has made in confusing Sunni, Shiite, and Al Qaeda in Iraq.

McCain's conceptual errors could cost the US several thousand more lives and several hundreds of billions of dollars if he were ever president.

Obama's comments hurt no one and in fact show a willingness to help people if he were elected president.

Posted by cm | April 13, 2008 1:51 PM

I am still bitter about No Country for Old Men beating There Will Be Blood.

Also, why the fuck hasn't Peter O'Toole won an academy award?

Im bitter about Kobe coming third in MVP voting two seasons ago.

Bitter about the band Violent Femmes not playing there good songs at a concert I went to a million years ago because they had found Christ.

And, most bitter of all, because for some absurd reason eat Red apples, even though they are objectively disgusting and Green Apples are undeniably wonderful- albeit somewhat bitter.

Posted by bend | April 13, 2008 1:58 PM

I'm bitter that somebody with the means to live anywhere on the earth and chose Chappaqua, NY is talking populist smack to somebody who chose to live and work on the southside of Chicago when they had nothing.

For all the talk of the Obama's mansion in Hyde Park they are still only a block or two of a walk from an honest to goodness pub where regular people knock back a cold one over a beer. The Clintons live in a suburban wasteland where the only regular people within a mile are the help (see map in signature). The median household income in Chappaqua is 400% higher than it is even in so-called tony Hyde Park, IL.

Posted by joejoejoe | April 13, 2008 2:01 PM

Falafeltime IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!

and, yeah. park the car and pedal there. cars r the suxxorz for that kind of travel.

Posted by idiotic | April 13, 2008 2:03 PM

I'm bitter that the Clippers suck as much as they did when I first started going to their games. I would probably be less bitter if they had sucked steadily all the time. But they had to go and make the playoffs two years ago.

Maybe I should be bitter that they made the playoffs two years ago?

I'm also bitter that the absolute shittiest seat in the house for a Lakers game is over a hundred bucks. Which is why I started going to Clippers games...

Posted by Roddy McCorley | April 13, 2008 2:08 PM

I'm bitter that I can't think of a way to shamelessly plug my blog in this thread.

Mmm. falafel...

Posted by How Insane Is John McCain? | April 13, 2008 2:09 PM

Matt, you hate the gym. You don't play sports. And you eat too much. The only way you are going to stop gaining 10 pounds a year is to get a bike. Otherwise you will be fat as a house before you're 30 and dead of a heart attack at 60. Go over to City Bikes (corner Champlain & Euclid, just off Columbia Rd) right this minute and let them fit you out.

Posted by Bloix | April 13, 2008 2:11 PM

it makes me kinda bitter when otherwise intelligent people create absurd fantasies to rationalize support of factory farms.

Posted by John McCain: More of the Same | April 13, 2008 2:17 PM

Let's put this one in the category of "Worst Articulated Intelligent Thought Since John Kerry Last Opened His Piehole".

Yes, I get it. People vote on these social issues, because neither party is assisting with the economic crises that have afflicted them. Therefore, they end up voting against their economic interests, since the Republicans are at least offering them some red meat on guns, religion, gays, and immigrants. It's the Thomas Frank argument, and it's true.

That said, where to begin with your formulation here, Senator? Did you have to tie "guns" to "religion" to "anti-immigrant sentiment" to "anti-trade sentiment", all in one frigging sentence? Do all gun owners in Pennsylvania hate immigrants? Do all of these small-town folk "cling" to religion merely because of their economic problems? Are the steel workers' problems with trade policy just some emotional diversion?

These aren't the arguments Obama was making. But the extremely poor choice of words, now available in audio, certainly makes it easy for his rivals to hammer home that impression. It will come off to many as the height of condescension.

Here is this young, urbane, highly educated, wealthy black politician from Chicago\Hawaii\Kenya, explaining to even wealthier liberal donors in California the kooky ways of the 12-gauge loving, bible-thumping, 'spic-hating hicks from the sticks of Pennsylvania. Thank God this at least didn't take place in San Francisco. Oh shit, it did.

Oddly, the Clinton campaign didn't seize on these unfortunate particulars. Instead, they focused on his choice of the word "bitter". Obama swung at this lob, and, much like the way he did with the Philadelphia speech on race, chose to own the "scandal" on his own terms, rather than run from or apologize for it.

It's unusually good luck that the other campaigns are more interested in his labeling lower-income Pennsylvanians "bitter", than in the frame he provided for the social issues. I mean, come on, we're all bitter. We've had George W. Bush as president for 8 years—it's a no-brainer. I think this was a wisely deployed rebuttal.

But it wasn't necessary. He's just opening up yet another nationwide "conversation". This time, instead of it being about what black people really think, it will be about what religious, gun-owning, hard-pressed white people really think. And that's not a topic Barack should pretend he is an expert on, nor is it one he really needs to have going into the final stretch of the Pennsylvania campaign.

His remarks weren't condescending. Worse. They were Kerryesque.

It's exactly 10 days until the Pennsylvania primary. If Barack can continue closing in the polls, and win this one—even by 1 measly point—the nomination will be his. It's time to decide, Senator. Are you running to become Professor Obama, or President Obama?

Posted by Will | April 13, 2008 2:17 PM

I'm bitter that they built that apartment building at the base of Meridian Hill park, so that an otherwise fantastic view of the city is blocked.

Posted by John Horowitz | April 13, 2008 2:27 PM

I'm bitter that Viridian on 14th and P closed.

And I'm bitter that no one reads my immature scribblings.

Posted by southpaw | April 13, 2008 2:29 PM

I'm bitter that Viridian on 14th and P closed.

And I'm bitter that no one reads my immature scribblings.

Posted by southpaw | April 13, 2008 2:30 PM

Oh, I'm also bitter about having the Browns taken away from me at such a young age, Jose Mesa blowing the World Series when I was 11, the Ben Wallace trade not working out so well for the Cavs, and Fox cancelling Arrested Development and Firefly.

Posted by Matthew Struhar | April 13, 2008 2:30 PM

Oh, I'm also bitter about having the Browns taken away from me at such a young age, Jose Mesa blowing the World Series when I was 11, the Ben Wallace trade not working out so well for the Cavs, and Fox cancelling Arrested Development and Firefly.

Posted by Matthew Struhar | April 13, 2008 2:33 PM

I'm really bitter that I never got to sleep with J. even though it all looked so promising at the time.

I'm bitter than Kerry continues to be made fun of, having put in a valiant effort -- There was no way W wasn't going to take it in 2004. Amazing the Kerry came as close as he did.

I'm bitter because for all the talk about the importance of education in this country as soon as a candidate displays any form of erudition (or even basic commons sense) he or she becomes unelectable.

I'm really bitter because given a choice between falafel and a couple of good slugs with the boys on a Saturday night, I'm all about the whiskey and I don't care where it came from. Where they came from for that matter.

Posted by charlotte | April 13, 2008 2:41 PM

I am bitter that the Democratic party abandoned the fight against the Wall Street Pigmen. Clinton embraced Greenspan and Rubin and the rest is history. The banking and financial realms will now become full partners with the government, explicitly as opposed to implicitly. Ten percent or so will be lopped off a defined down middle class and in a few years we will have Dow 36,000 as tribes of homeless litter the land.

The non homeless indebted middle class will be bitter about the lower class losers, more than ever.

Posted by rapier | April 13, 2008 2:53 PM

I'm bitter that I had to leave New York for California to go to grad school and now find myself surrounded by hippies and nature, rather than the industrial wasteland that is my natural habitat.

Posted by justaguy | April 13, 2008 3:08 PM

I'm bitter it took me two years to figure out Lauriol Plaza sells mini pitchers.

Posted by Nate | April 13, 2008 3:10 PM

I`m bitter that Matt hasn`t written up a response to Tyler Cowen`s review of HITS. We want our "vast interactive new media experience."

Posted by phensley | April 13, 2008 3:20 PM

I'm bitter that it's 42 and as gray as old socks in Columbus.

And, Matthew Struhar, think how bitter the national sports pundits will be if the Buckeyes beat USC this fall and have the inside track to another national championship berth. Heh...

Posted by sluggo | April 13, 2008 3:25 PM

I'm bitter that Viridian on 14th and P closed.

I'm bitter that Viridian closed a month or so after I bought a $100 gift certificate from there which I ended up keeping (I gave the recipients something else).

I'm also bitter that after Obama says there's too much cynicism and bullshit attacking in politics and too little attention paid to actually solving problems that face us, he has to defend himself against bullshit and cynical attacks from Hillary, McCain, and some in the media.

Posted by Dave K | April 13, 2008 3:28 PM

sluggo, I second the bitterness about the Columbus weather, especially considering how beautiful it has been the past week. Also, seeing Pat Forde grimace on national television in the event of a Buckeye victory over the Trojans would probably make my decade.

Posted by Matthew Struhar | April 13, 2008 3:43 PM

sluggo, I second the bitterness about the Columbus weather, especially considering how beautiful it has been the past week. Also, seeing Pat Forde grimace on national television in the event of a Buckeye victory over the Trojans would probably make my decade.

Posted by Matthew Struhar | April 13, 2008 3:47 PM

Based on this map, I conclude that your claims to living in "Shaw" are highly exaggerated.

Posted by Tyro | April 13, 2008 3:49 PM

I'm bitter that I'm so turned off by contemporary Democratic politics I can't even enjoy my West Wing DVDs any more.

Posted by otto | April 13, 2008 4:25 PM

You can use the Gmap Pedometer to illustrate walking or cycling paths:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

Posted by agt | April 13, 2008 5:16 PM

I'm bitter that Democratic Party leaders could end this stupid Clinton-Obama showdown TOMORROW if they wanted to, yet they won't. Reid, Pelosi, Edwards, and Gore could release a joint statement, tell Clinton she's lost it (because she has) and let's get on with things. Hillary is a cancer.

Posted by Bill | April 13, 2008 5:32 PM

I've never even been to DC, so excuse my ignorance. But why can't you walk through the park?

Posted by dbeach | April 13, 2008 5:41 PM

I'm bitter that "Singin' in the Rain" wasn't even nominated for Best Picture.

I'm bitter that I can't find a Grape Nehi.

I'm bitter that children don't taunt Rush Limbaugh with a chorus of "Hey, Drug Addict, Sex Tourist! Why Aren't You in Jail?"

I'm bitter that Lucinda Williams isn't in the running for President and that Jerry Douglas isn't better known than Britney Spears.

I'm still bitter that Rocky Colavito was traded from the Indians.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | April 13, 2008 5:57 PM

Re: Ride your bike, don't drive. Then you can ignore the one-way traffic

It's just as illegal to ride the wrong way on a one way street as it is to drive. Not to mention it really pisses drivers off and is dangeous since people pulling out of driveways, side streets etc may not think to look the opposite way (since no one should be coming that way) and you can easily end up a hood ornament.

Posted by JonF | April 13, 2008 6:49 PM

Why don't you just stay on V St NW to Florida Ave.? Geometry suggests that would save you some real distance. Potholes?, Ex-girlfriends house?

Posted by craig | April 13, 2008 6:53 PM

Tyro:

I think he can technically claim to live in shaw (depending on which side of the street he lives on) since Florida Ave is the neighborhood's northern boundary.

On another note, while I personally enjoy Petey's unhinged commentary (agreeing with a number of the substantive points he makes), I think this map might give him the opportunity to go "trust-fund scumbag" hunting. Much as Hillary did as a wee lil girl.

Posted by jeff | April 13, 2008 7:00 PM

I'm bitter that a pol can point out that working-class folks maybe are a bit bitter about how they have been royally screwed by The Man ... but that they sometimes respond by embracing social conservatism.

And then a former corporate attorney for The Man and presumed social liberal of the exact sort about which working-stiffs are bitter ("why does share care about the rights of icky people to do icky things but not about my jerb? shows you what so-called liberals really think of actual working people!") complains about said pol's rhetoric and the so-called liberal media keeps trumpeting that complaint over and over?

And people wonder why working-stiffs are bitter and think the so-called liberal media is out of touch?

HRC -- ya think Obama is elitist? I got a message for y'all: it's called projection! Look it up sometime.

Posted by DAS | April 13, 2008 7:30 PM

I'm bitter that a pol can point out that working-class folks maybe are a bit bitter about how they have been royally screwed by The Man ... but that they sometimes respond by embracing social conservatism.

And then a former corporate attorney for The Man and presumed social liberal of the exact sort about which working-stiffs are bitter ("why does share care about the rights of icky people to do icky things but not about my jerb? shows you what so-called liberals really think of actual working people!") complains about said pol's rhetoric and the so-called liberal media keeps trumpeting that complaint over and over?

And people wonder why working-stiffs are bitter and think the so-called liberal media is out of touch?

HRC -- ya think Obama is elitist? I got a message for y'all: it's called projection! Look it up sometime.

Posted by DAS | April 13, 2008 7:30 PM

Hey, I used to live right across Meridian Hill Park on 15th Avenue. I witnessed my first drug deal there. Fun times!!

Posted by LMM | April 13, 2008 8:25 PM

"Meridian Hill Park and the street design in Adams Morgan"

I can't get behind that.

Posted by rickhavoc | April 13, 2008 8:26 PM

I'm bitter that Mudcat Saunders, who worked for John Edwards, said that he would work to defeat Hillary Clinton until the last dog died, but Obama hasn't picked him up off the floor. Instead, Obama still keeps these effete academics still on the unpaid staff. Where the hell are you, Mudcat? Get your crazy butt to Chicago and help my friend, Barack. She's killing him and the Dems.

You, at least, would have been better on 'Meet the Press' today, than Kerry's old manager Shrummy. Please get there and help out. Our nominee needs you.

Posted by Elle Hamm | April 13, 2008 8:58 PM

I'm bitter that Metro provides much less frequent service on the Green Line than they do for the Red, Orange, Blue, or even Yellow Lines.

I'm bitter that the city plans on reconnecting the two halves of Champlain Street, shortening Matt's trip to Amsterdam Falafel, but can't or won't do the same thing for people in Southwest and Navy Yard who are walled off from the rest of the city by the Southeast-Southwest Freeway.

Posted by cminus | April 13, 2008 9:39 PM

I'm just bitter.

Posted by Rihilism | April 13, 2008 11:09 PM

I'm not sure posting a map to where you live on the internet is the smartest thing you've ever done.

Posted by Reality Man | April 13, 2008 11:51 PM

I'm bitter that Metro provides much less frequent service on the Green Line than they do for the Red, Orange, Blue, or even Yellow Lines.

I share your pain.

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | April 14, 2008 12:15 AM

I'm still bitter about having to eat steaks cooked medium and hamburgers cooked medium-well ever since Ronald Reagan relaxed cleanliness standards for the meat packing industry.

Posted by Gary Sugar | April 14, 2008 6:47 AM

I'm not sure posting a map to where you live on the internet is the smartest thing you've ever done.

'Augusta Gregory seated at her great ormolu table,
Her eightieth winter approaching: “Yesterday he threatened my life.

I told him that nightly from six to seven I sat at this table,
The blinds drawn up” '

"Beautiful Lofty Things" by W.B. Yeats

Of course, the immediate prior lines are:

Standish O’Grady supporting himself between the tables
Speaking to a drunken audience high nonsensical words;

So, it evens out.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | April 14, 2008 9:07 AM

Don't be such a wuss - walk across Meridian Hill park. It's a damn nice park anyway. Beautiful fountain. Green trees.

P.S. And there's a Greek falafel place on New Hampshire and P anyway. Come on, I'm sitting here in Bucharest with the absolute worst traffic on planet earth and I'm telling you how to grab a bite to eat? Sheesh. Yuppies these days!

Posted by Richardson | April 14, 2008 10:39 AM

Champlain breaks on google maps because the road comes to a cul de sac at the southern end, but it's open to pedestrian traffic.

Walking, it's a pretty straight line:

Florida->W->Florida->Champlain->Kalmorama

You're bitter for nothing

How long have you been living in Adams Morgan?

Posted by whiskey | April 14, 2008 10:56 AM

Was walking my dog in Meridian Hill park yesterday.

It is kind of cool, but even in the day (and yes, yesterday was a dreary day), it has an odd, depressed feel to it.

The three statues - Joan of Arc, Dante and President James Buchanan - are pretty cool, despite the incredible random feeling to it.

The fountain was off and there was construction on the top level of the park, so the large(ish) fields were closed off.

But still - a pretty interesting park, and hardly prohibitive in terms of walking through on the way to 18th street from the East.

But as long as we're throwing in some falafel recommendations, also consider the Old City Cafe of Jerusalem on Columbia (in the old KFC storefront) - on the way to 18th. Run by a Palestinian Christian family, their falafels are awesome.

Posted by SoCalJustice | April 14, 2008 10:56 AM

Don't be bitter about the Green Line ! Long ago I decided the Green Line is far superior to the Red, etc. even if it comes less frequently. It is a)less crowded, b)frequented by more interesting folks, c)runs new cars, and d)driven less wildly than other lines. Despite Metro's disregard, take solace in knowing you are riding the best line in town.

And really I think I am most bitter about the Met's record-breaking fall from first place last season. It leaves me less than stoked about cheering for them this year. I'm bound to be disappointed yet again.

Posted by Little Choward | April 14, 2008 11:02 AM

But you have like a 3 block walk to Ben's Chili Bowl!

Posted by Ethel-to-Tilly | April 14, 2008 12:50 PM

I'm bitter that the Giants somehow won the super bowl.

Posted by cbc | April 14, 2008 2:36 PM

Little Choward, what I want from a Metro line is that it gets me from Point A to Point B in as short a time as possible. If they replaced a Metro line with one of those high-speed moving sidewalk systems from Asimov's "The Caves Of Steel," I'd be so stoked to never have to wait for a train again, even with the increased risk of breaking an ankle trying to get off the sidewalk.

Whatever advantages the Green Line may have over the other lines (and I'm not as sanguine as you are that it's any less crowded or driven less ineptly), the level of service or lack thereof trumps all other considerations.

Posted by cminus | April 14, 2008 2:46 PM

I'm bitter that the chickenhawks beat my Tarheels in the Final Four.

I'm bitter that I am wasting time worrying about Obama beating McCain when we all know that we don't really know. I'm bitter that no one reminds us that Dukakis was beating Bush by 17 points a couple months before the election.

I'm bitter that no one pays me $109 million over 8 years to make speeches. I'm bitter that I am not A Rod's agent...

Posted by Blue Moon | April 14, 2008 3:05 PM

I'm bitter about automatic radar/camera devices that send you a speeding ticket through the mail for going 11 mph over the speed limit.

Posted by FearItself | April 14, 2008 6:24 PM

On a similar not to Matt, I used to be bitter that it took 40 minutes to get from Kentish Town to Islington by bus when it only took 11 minutes by train (and it took 20 mintutes to walk to the train station). Then I became bitter that they put in a new bus route to Islington going straight past my door two weeks before I moved away from the area.

Posted by Ginger Yellow | April 15, 2008 5:49 AM