The Silver Spring Penguin

I don’t know about you, but The Penguin newsroom had a busy weekend.

Penguin photog Ron Pace spent Saturday afternoon wading through the sweat-stained tailgate that was the jazz festival. The guys in The Penguin mailroom barely made bail. And The Penguin’s legal staff argued before a federal court that the endangered-species act did not apply to our feral Penguin intern.

I was also busy in The District attending this year’s Online News Association conference. The intense, two-day powwow brought together hundreds of journalists (sans sweat stains) with a desire to make online reporting the absolute shizzite. For some of them, it’s a mission accomplished. I still have a ways to go.

To that end, I took the advice of one media guru and got The Penguin a Twitter account. For those not in the know (and up until Saturday, I was one of them), Twitter allows one to “microblog” — to send short updates on what’s happening.

Of course, no one gives a rat’s ass if The Penguin newsroom is at lunch or is taking a collective pee break. (It’s my solemn pledge never to tweet from the toilet.) But Twitter should come in handy for live blogging from the Quarry House.

Hit The Penguin’s Twitter site, get yourself hooked up with a free account, then brace yourself for this crazy freakin’ week:

Monday

9:30 a.m. The county council’s transportation committee kick around the idea of funding state transportation projects with county money. The flap goes down at the county council office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) and is open to the public.

7:00 p.m. Silver Spring’s transportation and pedestrian-safety committee catch up on the county’s pedestrian-safety initiative. Hit it at the Silver Spring Regional Center (8435 Georgia Ave). It’s open to the public.

Tuesday

1:30 p.m. The county council hears an assload of public testimony on a proposed increase to building heights and densities in order to squeeze in workforce housing. The free show hits the county council office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) and is open to the public.

7:00 p.m. Silver Spring’s arts and entertainment district advisory committee does its first monthly meeting thang at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center (930 King St). It’s free and open to the public, so what the hell.

7:00 p.m. The planning department’s Purple Line advisory committee mulls over possible routes for the mass-transit project. The debate rocks planning HQ (8787 Georgia Ave) and is open to the public.

7:30 p.m. The Silver Spring Library Book Group discusses Linda Greenhouse’s “Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun’s Supreme Court Journey”. Skim the dust jacket, then let everyone else at the Silver Spring public library (8901 Colesville Rd) fill you in on the details. It’s free and open to the public.

Wednesday

The Penguin newsroom gets 24 hours of something resembling peace.

Thursday

9:00 a.m. The county planning board slices, dices and juliennes site plans for Midtown Silver Spring, a proposed mixed-use development in the Ripley District. The flap rocks planning HQ (8787 Georgia Ave) and is open to the public.

9:30 a.m. The county council’s health and human services committee dissects the regs regarding farmers markets. Hit the county council office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) for this public display.

10:30 a.m. The county council’s planning, housing and economic-development committee talk about the county’s economic-development role in these economic times, as well as home foreclosures. The double whammy hits the county council office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) and is open to the public.

11:00 a.m. The county’s planning board looks into expansion plans at the East Silver Spring Elementary School, and all the traffic-related growing pains that might come with it. The yap drops on planning HQ (8787 Georgia Ave) and is open to the public.

3:30 p.m. Silver Spring’s urban-district advisory committee does its monthly thang at Discovery Communications (1 Discovery Pl). Take the day off and check out this public meeting. Or just take the day off.

3:30 p.m. The county’s planning department mulls over MoCo exec Ike Leggett’s road code, a game plan for safer drives and smoother rides. Listen to the finer points of jaywalking and reckless driving at planning HQ (8787 Georgia Ave). It’s free and open to the public.

Lead photo courtesy of Flickr user Tvol.