Having taken a beating for trying to set up evening salons where reporters could mingle with corporate types who’d pay big money for the privilege, the Washington Post now is attempting a more benign way to raise revenue: wine tastings—with reporters as guests.
    
This week’s event is scheduled for Thursday from 6 to 8:30 PM at the Post’s downtown DC headquarters.
    
The failed salon plan would have brought reporters together with politicians and businessmen for “off-the-record” chats, sponsored by corporations for as much as $25,000 a pop. This time the main event is the tasting of the wine; reporters are invited as an added attraction for the event, which is open to TastePost members.

When W. Mark Felt, the onetime number two at the FBI, unmasked himself as Deep Throat in May 2005, a few close observers weren’t surprised. They had suspected that Felt was Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s fabled Watergate source: In 1974, just two months after All the President’s Men disclosed Deep Throat’s existence, Washingtonian editor Jack Limpert fingered Felt as the likeliest Deep Throat.

What remains a Watergate mystery is how the Nixon White House learned in October 1972 that Felt was the Washington Post’s source. Decades later, it’s apparent that the White House had a secret source of its own inside the Post, a person who might be dubbed Richard Nixon’s Deep Throat.

Nixon realized early on that someone in the FBI was leaking to the Post. In a conversation captured on the President’s voice-activated tape recorder on October 19, 1972, four months after the break-in, White House chief of staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman told Nixon that the culprit had been identified. “It’s pretty high up,” Haldeman said. “Mark Felt.” After a flash of anger, Nixon asked Haldeman how he’d found out.

Jason Samenow launched Capital Weather Gang, a blog about Washington weather, in 2003. Back then, he was the only contributor. “I immediately recognized a blog’s potential to facilitate a two-way dialogue between readers and forecasters,” says Samenow. “I also liked the dynamic nature of blog content given the dynamic nature of weather.”

In 2004, Samenow enlisted weather techie Jamie Jones, who converted the site into a group blog and helped add contributors. Last year, the Washington Post picked up Capital Weather Gang to host on its own site. Entries run the gamut from daily weather forecasts (obviously) to weekly commentary on climate-change issues. Says Samenow: “We try to write accurate, informative, and entertaining posts for the Washington-weather consumer.”

Today the site has more than a dozen contributors, almost all of whom have other full-time jobs. We sat down with Samenow, Jones, and lead meteorologist Dan Stillman to get their bests and worsts on Washington weather. Read on for their predictions about everything from government snow days to Thanksgiving Day weather—and find out what they’ve promised to do if they’re wrong.

 >> To see more photos from the event, head to our photo slideshow

What: A night filled with more than 25 food-sampling tables, silent auction items, and a fast-paced live-auction finale.

Where: The Ritz-Carlton hotel ballroom in downtown DC.

When: November 2, 6:30 to 10.

Why: To benefit March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization committed to preventing premature birth, birth defects, and infant mortality.

Ticket prices: $200 per person, $2,000 per table.

Who: The evening was a who’s who of the local restaurant scene. PS 7’s mixologist Gina Chersevani, chef Travis Timberlake of Art and Soul, and Restaurant Eve bar wizard Todd Thrasher manned their food stations while ABC 7’s Leon Harris, former Top Chef finalist Carla Hall, and Hell’s Kitchen winner Rock Harper hosted the auction ceremonies. Redskins defensive end Andre Carter was called out from his seat by the audience, and Citronelle and Central’s Michel Richard was rumored to be milling about, though we never saw him.

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.