Image courtesy of the Newseum.

On the day the Washington Post unveiled its new design, the newspaper did what it still does best: It published the second in a powerful investigative series about how the District misspends millions to treat AIDS victims. The articles, by Debbie Cenziper, are maddening, saddening, and solidly grounded in documents.

But was it easier to read? Is the new Washington Post easier to read than it was Sunday?

Biggest change for readers throughout the Post is the typeface. The Post switched from Postroman to a version of Scotch Roman, “a sturdy typeface used in newspapers since the early 1800s.”

The new type is thinner and will allow the Post to get more words on the page. Being less bold, it is slightly harder to read, especially for Boomers with fading eye sight, and they make up the bulk of print readers.

Dan Snyder bought the Washington Redskins in May 1999 and at first looked like a savvy businessman who loved the team and might become a great owner.

Little did fans know that his hiring of Vinny Cerrato that year would doom the team to years of disappointment and mediocrity.

There was a brief moment of hope in 2001 when Snyder fired head coach Norv Turner after an 8–8 season and hired a tough, experienced coach, Marty Schottenheimer, and gave him some real power. One of the first things Schottenheimer did was fire Vinny Cerrato.

Who was Vinny Cerrato? He had been the player personnel chief for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1990s, leaving mostly wreckage behind, before he was hired by Snyder in 1999 and fired by Schottenheimer in 2001. But when Schottenheimer’s Redskins went 8–8 in 2001, Snyder fired Schottenheimer and, figuring he could run the team with someone like Cerrato as his yes man, rehired Vinny.

It’s been one disaster after another ever since.

In honor of Washington’s godfather of go-go, Seventh Street, Northwest, from T Street to Florida Avenue has been “symbolically designated” Chuck Brown Way. The honor was certainly deserved, but why stop there? Here are other area routes that could be named after local personalities:

U Street, Northwest: Jim Vance Street. Washingtonians trust this local mainstay as the go-to source for what’s happening. Cleaned up since the early ’90s, U Street now boasts the same swagger that made it a favorite long ago.

I-270: Ben Stein Highway. You’ll need a pair of dry, clear eyes to make it through the tentacles of this stop-and-go artery without falling asleep during rush hour.

Military Road, Northwest: Dick Cheney Road. With plenty of deer creeping on and around the shoulder of this street near Rock Creek Park, there’s unlimited hunting potential, and heavy traffic means innocent bystanders are always at risk.

One thing we can usually depend on our representatives for is that they’re more commonly found on C-SPAN than TMZ. Not this week, however. What with Arlen Specter striking up a friendship with Magic Johnson, Maria Shriver being caught using her cellphone while driving, Keith Ellison bigging up Michael Moore, Russ Feingold chilling with Bon Iver and Denny Rehberg’s employee appearing on Jeopardy, it’s all seeming rather more glamorous than usual. We doubt Abra Belke will do as well as Barack Obama though, who managed to snag the big $1.4 million prize- to the profound irritation of House Republicans.

In other news, Chuck Grassley is faster than all the other over-60s, Arnold Schwarzenegger has an adorable breakfast (and seems to threaten his wife with “swift action”), Joe Wilson won some kind of award (presumably it’s not for rudeness), Jeff Flake is back from the remote island of Jabonwod and Darrell Issa is sucking up to Newt Gingrich again.

Here’s one reason the Washington Post is losing readers: it is in a daily scrum on terrain it once ruled—covering Washington politics.

The snapshot of one day’s news cycle may not offer a broad comparison, but on one Tuesday in October, the Post lost ground on many fronts.

Let’s begin with the coverage of the Virginia governor’s race. The Post did run a page one news piece on the first prime-time debate between Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. It was a serviceable account. On washingtonpost.com, the McDonnell-Deeds story drifted to the bottom of the “More Headlines” section. Chris Cillizza posted a well-reported piece on polls saying Deeds is trailing with strategists describing how he might win.

Meanwhile, over on AOL’s Politics Daily, Jill Lawrence’s column on the debate led the home page, with pictures and a come-hither angle: how will presidential politics play out in Virginia?

Adam Nagourney in the New York Times also casts the Deeds-McDonnell race into the national realm with a smart column asking whether Virginia Dems might have been better off with Clintonite Terry McAuliffe on the ballot. Deeds beat him in the primary.

Politics Daily also ran the news that Hillary Clinton had ruled out running for the White House on its home page under “Top Stories.” The Post played the news on page two with a story by Anne Kornblut and an artsy, bizarre photo of Clinton through a windshield: half of the image was a blurred reflection on a side window.

Ris Lacoste After years away from the local dining scene, the former 1789 chef is getting closer to opening her new place in DC’s West End.

Robert Bennett After 20 years at Skadden, Arps, the legendary white-collar defender jumped to Hogan & Hartson in September, making him the latest of a string of litigation partners to depart Skadden this year.

Helen Mirren The famed British actress (and dame) has been the toast of the town while starring in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s sold-out production of Phèdre.

Van Jones The Obama “green-jobs czar” became one of the first casualties of the administration when he resigned after controversial old comments resurfaced.

Casey Wilson The Alexandria native—and daughter of Republican political consultant Paul Wilson—was recently let go after two seasons on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. What’s it really like working on the show?

Christopher Nassetta The head of Hilton Hotels is moving into his new corporate headquarters in Tysons Corner, bringing approximately 300 jobs to the region.

This article first appeared in the October 2009 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.

Joe Wilson watchers must be thrilled: America’s most notorious heckler was in Washington this week to address the GW Young Republicans. Hopefully his audience treated him with the same respect and politeness that he treated... never mind.

In other news, Judge Carter starts the week by continuing on his bad news bears theme, but by Friday he’s trying to remove Charlie Rangel and doing a lot of retweeting. It’s nice to see that John Boehner has lost none of his passion for biting wit, and that Tony Blair is still useful these days. Denny Rehberg seems to have a lot less fun on his birthday than most people, Mike Honda likes garlic, Claire McCaskill used to be a cheerleader and David Vitter is still fighting Obamacare, regardless of what the Congressional Budget Office thinks. Also, our condolences to Arlen Specter after the loss of his sister.