Tailgaters, many with vintage cars, produced tables with crisp white linens and enjoyed shrimp cocktail, tea sandwiches, and Champagne—not exactly the same set that floods the parking lots of FedEx Field. On Member’s Hill, a gated section where race sponsors and other businesses set up tents, crowds enjoyed Southern-style fried chicken, spicy pork loin, and more tasty bites by Grand Cuisine caterers. Each tent also included a bar with wine and beer and a flat-screen TV for watching the races in comfort.

Photographs by Chris Leaman. 

Dozens of people every week send e-mails to Michelle Singletary, the Washington Post’s chief personal-finance columnist. They come from CPAs, who pass her columns to clients, from brides, who worry about ballooning wedding budgets, from boyfriends, who fret about free-spending girlfriends. This one launched a book:

A woman wrote that her boyfriend asked for a loan. She dipped into her 401(k) retirement plan for $10,000. They split. She asked for the money back. He got hostile. “Should I pursue it?” she asked Singletary.

Singletary’s response: “What were you thinking when you lent that amount of money to a boyfriend? Of course he’s not going to pay you back. Let it go. Use it as a lesson.”

Another Friday, another Harry Jaffe vlog! In today's video, Harry talks about US News and other newsweeklies; are they on their way out?

For more Harry Jaffe videos, click here.

• Laurel Colless —The wife of the Finnish ambassador (she’s actually a Kiwi) is working with area developers to prove Washington can be a green-building leader.

• Pietro Sambi —The Pope’s man in Washington has stories to tell after the Pontiff’s visit—but will he share the good ones?

• Colin Powell —Whom does the former secretary of State favor in the November presidential elections? Would he reenter government under President Obama?

What: Dubbed “The Secretary’s Reception for Donors to the Diplomatic Reception Rooms,” this two-hour cocktail party honored more than 200 donors who contributed more than $850,000 to conserving and maintaining the rooms where Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney meet with foreign officials.

Where: The Department of State

When: Friday, April 25, 6 to 8 PM

Who: Rice was the main attraction, hosting a receiving line on the way in to shake hands (and score us a great new Facebook profile picture). We were one table away from Attorney General Michael Mukasey and wife Susan, who looked sharp in a pinstripe suit and black-and-white patterned dress. Marcee Craighill, director of the diplomatic reception rooms, also joined the donors.

Miss out on some of our blog posts from this week? Worry not—we're here to fill you in on what the most popular blog posts were from the past seven days. See below for our top five.

“You know that man that stands outside the Vatican Embassy every day with the sign?”

“Sure.  ‘Vatican Hides Pedophiles.’  I see him out there all the time.  Saw him on the Metro a few times too.  When I lived in Dupont Circle we used to get off at the same stop.”

“He’s got a new sign for the Pope’s visit.  It’s a big day for him.  You should check it out.”

“Sure.  Plenty has been written about him, but I’ll see what I can see.”
 
This was the conversation between my editor and me on Tuesday, the day of Pope Benedict’s arrival in Washington.  I left work and walked to Dupont Circle to take the bus past Embassy Row and to the Nunciature of the Holy See.  But Massachusetts Avenue had been spliced in half to assure maximum papal security and the bus crawled along slower than I could have walked.  I got out halfway up the hill and finished the journey on foot.

I made my way through a motley assembly.  The devout, dressed in black solemnity, fingering their Rosaries with the nervous excitement of a child at First Communion.  The indignant, banding together with signs and shouts: “The Pope is a Criminal.”  “Celibacy has failed!”  The indifferent, jogging up the hill with iPods and heartrate monitors, picking their spots through the crowd. All set against a paradox of a spring day, almost chilly and almost warm, windswept and sundrenched.