About that Party ...

I often have a lot of reporters around me at parties. I had many at my birthday party this weekend. But I didn't expect this to land in the (web)pages of the New York Observer. What I didn't expect was for them to insult my house:

ON SATURDAY EVENING, in a mostly undecorated house in rapidly gentrifying Columbia Heights, some of the city’s young, left-leaning blogger elite were celebrating. Matthew Yglesias, the 27-year-old Think Progress blogger, reclined on a shapeless couch, drinking a can of Miller Lite. On the wall, under a clock that looked to have been lifted from a diner, was a poster of Obama and the words “Yes We Can.” By the stairs, a knot of bloggers discussed a party thrown by The New Republic earlier that evening, featuring a performance by the cellist Yo Yo Ma.

“He was sponsored by pharma,” said one blogger.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What?” said another.

“We should’ve gotten Canadian pharma sponsorship like Yo Yo Ma!” said the first, adding, “He played my cousin’s bar mitzvah.”

Okay, so first my beef is a factual one. My house is not located in Columbia Heights. It's just not. I live on Florida Avenue, and it seems to be under dispute which neighborhood it actually falls into (Shaw or U Street), but Columbia Heights is definitely not one of them. If New Yorkers can be picky about their neighborhoods than so can we.

My second beef with the article is more one of taste. Apparently I live in a "mostly unfurnished" house. Um, it's a rental. And we had cleared out furniture for the party. Geez, that's the last time I give reporters from the Observer free beer at my birthday party.