What: A party celebrating the publication of novelist Gioia Diliberto’s latest, The Collection.

Where: The Georgetown home of Maureen Dowd

When: September 15, 6:30 to 8:30 PM

Who: Gioia Diliberto and her husband, Chicago Magazine editor Dick Babcock, were in town for the party, which was attended by a small but boldfaced crowd, including Bob Schieffer, Gwen Ifill, Howard Kurtz and his wife, Sherri Annis, Linda Douglass and her husband, super-lawyer John Phillips, Franklin Foer, and Ben Bradlee. For many of the guests, the event was a quick neighborhood popover.

Scene: With Politics & Prose selling books in the parlor, the party spilled out of the house into the tiny, well-maintained garden out back. The weather was perfect, and the fashionable set befit the book’s subject (see below). Guests mingled, laughed, and maneuvered through the tight quarters even as the event’s hostess appeared fashionably late to her own fete.

Food: Indoors on Dowd’s dining room table were plentiful snacks, dips, and spreads.

Drink: The backyard bar served drinks so stiff that even Christopher Hitchens asked for more soda in his scotch and soda.

Book Synopsis: The Collection, Diliberto’s second novel, is set in post-World War I Paris and focuses on a fictitious young worker for none other than Gabrielle Coco Chanel herself—think “Devil Wears Prada” with a more serious and literary historical flair.

Ratings (out of 5):
Boldface names: 2
Swankiness: 2
Food and drink: 2.5
Exclusivity: 4
Total score: 10.5 (out of 20)

Dan Snyder’s Six Flags corporation lost $51 million in this year’s second quarter, sending the stock down to a 52-week low of $3.18 a share.

But Six Flags president Mark Shapiro is a graduate of the Snyder school of eternal optimism. Even as Snyder’s Six Flags investment had very big paper losses, Shapiro was ebullient. He called a 3-percent rise in attendance “encouraging” and said some of the problems were caused by “unprecedented rain in the state of Texas.”

According to SEC documents, Shapiro has some 560,000 shares of Six Flags—500,000 granted to him as compensation. Last year, Shapiro bought 34,485 shares with his own money, at an average price of $6.58. After the selloff of Six Flags stock in July, Shapiro bought another 7,700 shares at an average of $3.65 per share.

Snyder holds about 11,500,000 shares of Six Flags that in 2006 were worth $137 million. In early August, the shares were worth $41 million.

If the Redskins lose to the Cowboys this fall, will Dan Snyder’s excuse be too much rain in Texas?

You might be eligible to vote at 18, but at Lotus Lounge this fall you’ll have to be 21.

Looking for a fun way to involve itself in the upcoming presidential election, Lotus Lounge (1420 K St., NW; 202-289-4222; www.lotusloungedc.com) has unveiled a “Pick the POTUS at Lotus” drink menu. The idea is for customers to order drinks named after their favorite Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

The lounge will keep a tally of all the “votes cast”—that is, drinks ordered—for each candidate. Winners will be announced before the Iowa caucus in early January. The Lounge says it plans to keep the competition going with the actual Republican and Democratic candidates’ drinks through Election Day in November 2008.

Each of the 17 drinks on the menu alludes to the personality or background of the candidate it’s named for.

For example, Rudy Giuliani’s apple martini refers to the former mayor’s tenure in the Big Apple, even though Hizzonner would likely be met with a Bronx cheer if he ever sipped such a drink. Senator Hillary Clinton’s “Hillartini” is actually a cosmopolitan—a drink that’s pink and feminine, yet strong and bold, the Lounge explains. Barack Obama’s “Obama-rama” includes Malibu rum and tropical fruit mixers, relating to the senator’s Hawaiian roots, while Fred Thompson is connected to Jack Daniels, a whiskey distilled in his home state of Tennessee.

The most creative mixture is the brandy-based “Milk Dodd”—a milky white drink that alludes to Senator Chris Dodd’s full head of white hair. Each drink costs $7, with the exception of the non-alcoholic “Romney” tailor-made for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon who doesn’t consume alcohol.

Not affiliated with a major party? Don’t worry. Votes are only tallied from 5:30 PM —when happy hour begins—until around 10 PM, coinciding with the Asian-inspired restaurant’s transformation into a late-night hotspot.

Bumper stickers and buttons proudly display political messages, but with 220 million cell-phone users across America, how about gaining support for a campaign through the mobile legions?