You want to read a sweet piece of prose, check out Henry Allen’s most recent, and perhaps last, essay for Style. His review of Edward Burtynsky’s photographs of big oil’s beginning, middle, and end starts with the image of an oil-soaked cormorant that became a metaphor for the Persian Gulf War, walked us through the exhibition, tried to tell us something about ourselves, and ended with the oiled water bird.
    
Allen on Friday got into a scuffle with Style writer Manuel Roig-Franzia after hurling this line about a piece written by Roig-Franzia and Monica Hesse: “This is total crap. It’s the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years.”
    
Readers want to know: What was the number one worst Style story?

It’s time to dust off your fisheye lens—we want your best wide-angle photos for our November photo contest.

Rusty on how our monthly contest works? Here are the details: Send your submissions by noon on Tuesday, November 17, and our judges will pick the best shots to advance to the reader-voting round. Then we’ll open it up to you, the reader, to select a favorite. The winner will be published in the January issue of the magazine.

Photos—one per e-mail—should be sent to photocontest@washingtonian.com. Be sure to include the photographer’s name, phone number, e-mail address, and place of residence, along with a sentence or two describing the photo and explaining why it fits the theme. Photos should be 300 dpi and at least four by six inches. And remember, both the photographer and the photo’s subject need to be from the Washington area, which includes the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

Good luck!

Our policy on photo rights: The photographer retains the copyright. However, because the photographer has submitted his or her photo to the contest, the magazine has the right to print the winning photograph in the current issue of the magazine and online as well as in any future issues as long as usage is related to the photo contest. The magazine also has the right to use the finalists online in relation to the photo contest.

Need inspiration? Check out all the past photo contest winners here.

UPDATE: Tell us what you think the #1 worst Style story is here. 

It’s come to this: The Washington Post Style section, for years known as “the sandbox” because it was a playground for sometimes immature writers, has turned into a boxing ring because one of the editors was revolted by a story that came across his desk on deadline.

Details are sketchy, but numerous witnesses report that veteran feature editor Henry Allen punched out feature writer Manuel Roig-Franzia on Friday. The fracas took place in sight of Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli’s office. Brauchli rushed to separate the two.

It should be noted that Allen is nearly seventy, but he served in the Marines in Vietnam. He also won a Pulitzer prize in 2000 for criticism. Both apparently came into play when Allen jumped Roig-Franzia.

Joy Zinoman After 35 years, the head of Studio Theatre is stepping down. How has Washington theater changed? What’s next?

John Lannan The only one of the Nationals’ 30 pitchers to last the entire season, he might have suggestions for a better season next year.

Stacie Turner According to insiders, the Georgetown real-estate agent is one of Bravo’s Real Housewives of DC cast members, so watch out for film crews.

David Ferriero The newly appointed US archivist, who headed the New York Public Library, comes here with a mission of transparency and openness.

Cate Blanchett The Australian actress will be here for a month of performances in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Kennedy Center.

Brian Nutting The longtime Congressional Quarterly editor was fired for asking impertinent questions about mass layoffs at the newly merged Roll Call–CQ.

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

It’s all about healthcare this week, and Joe Wilson knows it: His wife has the dreaded swine (the tweet was written by his son). Will it affect his stance on allowing illegal immigrants to purchase insurance? Probably not. He is, however, “honed” to serve in South Carolina, so we guess he’s been working out to stay healthy.

In other news, Roy Blunt’s campaign against Robin Carnahan takes a lofty tone, Chellie Pingree exposes Louie Gohmert as a horrible punner, Arlen Specter uses fighting words, Robert Menendez introduces the most obvious bill of all time, Zach Wamp had a good time on his birthday (even though he had to, you know, do his job and all), and Bill Nelson is left slightly disappointed. And sorry, Kevin Brady, but we couldn’t help sniggering when we read your last tweet.

In this disheartening Redskins season, a revolt against team owner Dan Snyder has spread through Redskin fandom. In response, Fedex Field security has been ordered to shred, stomp, or seize any protest signs directed at Snyder or the team’s top executive, Vinny Cerrato. (See accounts by the Post’s Dan Steinberg of fans at Monday night’s loss who were allegedly harassed by security and ejected for screaming “Danny sucks” near the ESPN booth.)

Fans in turn have taken their protest to a place beyond management’s control: the Web. From bitter blogs to fiery Facebook tirades, what some describe as Fascist Landover is under attack.

Robert Allbritton says he’s not aiming to compete with the Washington Post.
    
“That’s not the plan,” he says.
    
But what he’s doing indicates the opposite.
    
Taking a page out of his creation of Politico, Allbritton has put his money on a veteran Post staffer -- this time Jim Brady -- to build a web site that could again strike at the Post’s heart. Politico challenged the Post’s command of national politics; the new venture will take on the Post’s coverage of local news.
    
“We have been talking about lessons learned from Politico in news, the web, and the economy,” he says. “Now it’s time to put something together. If we wind up competing, that’s the way it goes.”
    
Allbritton’s new “something” will debut in the spring, separate from Politico. “Different name, different brand, different staff.”
    
Same kind of leader: a journalist who bridled under the Post’s bureaucracy. Two years Allbritton convinced Post political stars John Harris and Jim VandeHei to leave the capital’s dominant daily news operation to start a new venture based on high-speed, high-intensity coverage of political news. Now he’s brought in Jim Brady to apply the formula to local news.