Bromance in action: After awards and remarks, Clint Eastwood and Senator Patrick Leahy take a seat to watch some film highlights. “We have a lot in common,” said Eastwood. Photograph by Jeff Martin.

Even though they are ten years apart in age, director/movie star/icon Clint Eastwood and Vermont senator Patrick Leahy could be brothers—or at least bros. Not only are they somewhat similar in height and appearance, but they both speak in that creamy rasp that’s instantly familiar to Eastwood fans. And they were practically inseparable Wednesday night when Eastwood was honored at a gala at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Leahy, a member of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, presented the Oscar winner with the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal for distinguished contributions in film.

Eastwood arrived in town Tuesday, and he and Leahy had dinner that night. What the senator came away with was that “the trait Eastwood most detests when he encounters it is racism,” a theme that threaded through Eastwood’s 2008 film Gran Torino. Praising it, Leahy said, “That movie alone would be enough for any moviemaker.” Okay, Senator, we asked, but do you think you could be his stand-in? Or at least loop his voice? Leahy became the diplomatic man of the Senate that he is: “Oh, he’s fine on his own. I don’t want to go there.”

Can Brady’s lead feet conquer the Giants’ pass rush? Photograph by Flickr user Jeffrey Beall.

It’s supposed to be all about the quarterbacks. Tom Brady bested Dan Marino’s record-setting 1984 season, and he didn’t even lead the league in passing. Eli Manning declared himself one of the league’s elite, and he backed it up by coming within a few of his no-look bombs of breaking Marino’s record himself.

The defenses, which ranked 27th and 31st in the league during the regular season, were just along for the ride. Yet in the playoffs, the teams who have gone up against the Giants and Patriots have averaged under 14 points per game.

That brings us to the most pivotal story lines heading in to Super Bowl Sunday.

Photograph by Flickr user xxjoyceeyxx.

Maybe it’s the approach of Valentine’s Day, or the pseudo-spring weather, but it seemed a good time to check in with the “Missed Connections” on Craigslist. They’re alternately weird, entertaining, and even endearing. It makes one wonder: Is Washington a city of lonelyhearts? Or has OKCupid become our love lifeline? Regardless, we pulled a collection of standouts, and will have more as February 14 approaches. All ads appear as posted (spelling errors and all).

Photograph courtesy of Brett Haber.

It wasn’t by design that I spent two extra days in Australia by myself. Let’s call it a travel SNAFU. My wife had intended to join me down under for some leisure time during and after my work at the Australian Open. But when a work commitment scuttled her trip, I found myself staring at a $5,000 fare difference in order to move up my return flight from Wednesday to Monday. As much as I love my kids and wanted to get home early to see them, I would need to have several dozen children to sufficiently amortize the cost of their affection against the $5,000 fee. (It’s right there on the standard actuarial tables—check for yourself.) And that’s how I wound up in Oz for two extra days.

But it afforded me the chance to do something I’ve always wanted to try, in a place that’s famous for it: surfing.

I rented a car (I could write a separate column about the perils of driving on the left) and ventured to a town called Torquay (pronounced “tor-KEE”). The tiny seaside village sits about 60 miles southwest of Melbourne at the gateway to Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. Torquay is to surfing what Cooperstown is to baseball—it may not be the precise birthplace of the sport, but it is the source and guardian of much of its culture.

Jason Samenow. Photograph courtesy of The Washington Post.

Unless you live in a bunker and haven’t come out in weeks and weeks, you’ve noticed something wacky is up with the weather. Washington is experiencing what feels like springtime in winter. It’s been more warm than cold. The only significant snow, oddly, happened back in October. This week, temps have been in the high 50s and even the 60s. The ten-day forecast, including the February 11 anniversary of 2010’s “Snowmageddon,” is also predicted to be relatively mild, though a little cooler than this week.

To document the phenomenon, members of our staff snapped photos showing random signs of warmth around the city. We also checked in with Jason Samenow, chief meteorologist of the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang. The daily weather blog, which began as an independent site and was absorbed by the Post in 2008, is written by 15 contributors that provides the forecast, insight, and even some humor. Samenow has been interested in the way weather works since he was ten, and now he’s the Post’s first full-time weather editor.

Here’s what Samenow had to say:

Most of DC’s largest and most powerful law firms are named after lawyers who are retired or long dead. But in a few cases, real people with those names are still working in the buildings.

Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. is a K Street legend. His law and lobbying firm, Patton Boggs, has the biggest lobbying presence in the District. Boggs—who joined the firm then called Barco, Cook, Patton & Blow in 1966—was one of the first lawyers to start a lobbying practice at a traditional law firm. “Boggs” was added to the name in 1967. He is still chairman. Founding partner James Patton Jr. retired in 2000.

Robert Strauss founded the firm that would become Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld—one of Washington’s largest law and lobbying firms—in 1945. At 93, he remains a partner at the firm, where he splits his time between the Washington and Dallas offices. Of Akin Gump’s other name partners, only Alan Feld, who joined in 1960, remains at the firm, though he’s based full-time in Dallas.

Douglas Henderson is the only remaining founding partner of the intellectual-property behemoth Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner. Ford Farabow, Arthur Garrett, and Donald Dunner also still practice at the firm. Henderson started the firm in 1965 with Marcus Finnegan out of an office overlooking Farragut Square. Henderson, 76, still oversees some client relationships.

Dickstein Shapiro was founded in New York in 1953, but by 1956 Sidney Dickstein and David Shapiro had moved to Washington, which became the headquarters. Today, Dickstein Shapiro has 235 lawyers. Sidney Dickstein still has an office at the firm and is involved with one client, though he’s mostly retired. Shapiro died in 2009. Dickstein’s favorite memories are of defending clients against McCarthy-era loyalty-security reviews in the 1950s.

Of Washington’s major law firms, Wiley Rein is one of the newest. It began in 1983 when Richard Wiley and Bert Rein, along with 37 other lawyers, broke from Kirkland & Ellis because Richard Wiley’s communications practice conflicted with a Kirkland client. Wiley Rein now has about 300 attorneys, 80 of whom focus on communications law. Both Wiley and Rein have active practices.

This article appears in the February 2012 issue of The Washingtonian.

Paul Vodra. Photograph by Erik Ueke.

Paul Vodra is a band geek. A Washington-band geek.

Vodra grew up in Falls Church playing drums and has always been in bands. He has DJ’d, both on the radio and in local clubs, as P.Vo, what he calls his “JLo name.” Now he has launched an Internet radio station dedicated to music from the area, called Hometown Sounds (hometownsoundsdc.com). The project grew out of a 2009 DJ gig Vodra had at DC’s Argonaut at which he played only local music.

We talked to him about what makes Washington rock.