Whiskey was cause for celebration at Wednesday night’s rare-spirits auction, held at George Washington’s estate. The Spirit of Mount Vernon has held its annual Industry Heritage Dinner and auction since 2002 to raise money for education programs at Mount Vernon, and this year’s event brought in more than $200,000. Auctioned spirits came from the recently reconstructed distillery at the Virginia property, reopened to the public in 2007 to give researchers insight into Washington’s ahead-of-his-time distillation techniques.

The most sought-after item went to an anonymous bidder from the United Kingdom, who took home five gallons of George Washington Distillery Dedication Rye Whiskey for $25,000. The spirits were specially produced in honor of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, to mark his ribbon cutting at the distillery.

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.

Could Judge Wood be promoted? Photograph courtesy University of Chicago Law School and Harris School of Public Policy

President Obama’s first Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor, is likely still unpacking, but high-court observers are placing early bets on the next new justice. John Paul Stevens, 89, has hired just one law clerk for the 2010–11 term, bolstering speculation that his retirement is imminent. In the past, Stevens—the oldest member of the court—had by this time of year hired all four of his clerks for the next term. Retired justices can hire one clerk.

Lots of names get bandied about anytime a spot appears poised to open up. Predictions from Supreme Court advocates and former Stevens clerks include Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, US attorney general Eric Holder, and DC Appeals Court judge Merrick Garland. Court watchers think Obama will go for a woman, a minority, or someone whose credentials would diversify the court, such as a governor.

Endless Simmer might be a cooking blog, but persnickety cooks should beware: The writers post recipes, but they never include measurements—only ingredients. “To us, one of the best parts of cooking is being creative and a little dangerous with ingredients,” says Stefanie Gans. "We like to explore, even if that means messing up every now and then."

Gans—known as Gansie to readers—is one of the blog’s founders. She and her former coworker Brendan Spiegel started the site in June 2007 as an outlet for their growing obsession with food and cooking. “It started as a bunch of coworkers bringing in the previous nights’ dinner to share tastes, recipes, horror stories, and successes,” says Gans. “A blog was the next logical step.”

Spiegel, who still contributes to the blog, has since moved to New York City to pursue food and travel writing, so Gans holds down the fort in Washington; she’s both a writer and an editor. In addition to original recipes, the site includes entries on local restaurants, cooking shows, celebrity chefs, breaking foodie news, farmers markets, and seasonal cooking. “We’re basically somewhere between regular consumers of pop food culture and total snobs,” says Gans. “We can just as easily enjoy offal or destroy a Dunkin’ Donuts egg-and-cheese croissant.”

We convinced Gans to take a timeout from her busy eating schedule to answer our cooking questions. Favorite recipe? Biggest disaster? Advice for novice cooks? Read on for her answers.

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.

• To see the full slideshow of photos from the night, head here.
  
  

What: Human Rights Campaign National Dinner.

Where: Washington Convention Center.

When: Saturday, October 10. The opening reception kicked off around 5—though many attendees got there earlier to leave time for Secret Service security lines—and the event ended around 10:30, when guests hit the downstairs after-party.

Ticket price: $250.

Dress code: Black tie.

Who: More than 3,000 members and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities flooded the convention center for an evening of fundraising and entertainment for the Human Rights Campaign. Highlights of the sold-out event included the cast of the popular and gay-friendly Fox series Glee, led by the very hilarious Jane Lynch; a performance by pop star Lady Gaga; Gavin Creel, star of the Broadway revival of Hair; comedian Dana Goldberg; and one last-minute addition to the program who brought live CNN coverage, fresh off his Nobel Peace Prize: keynote speaker President Barack Obama. Also in attendance were Tipper Gore and Representative Patrick Kennedy, who presented the National Leadership Award in honor of his late father, Senator Edward Kennedy, to Judy and Dennis Shepard, 11 years after their son Matthew was murdered. The event also boasted 32 corporate sponsors and 50 dinner sponsors, such as Paul Hastings, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Accenture, Microsoft, and Lockheed Martin.

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.