DCUM Weblog

I am going to try to continual this series of posts since I kind of have fun writing them. For Monday, I'll look at the most active threads over the weekend. Looking back at the posts over the past two days, we really see the eclectic nature of the forums.

Leading in the number of replies and second in the number of views was a thread in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum titled, "Our elementary school canceled Halloween". This topic which seems to appear at least once every Fall discusses the cancellation of a Halloween parade by an unnamed elementary school. While I haven't read the entire thread, a brief skim of it shows that such cancellation has both opponents and supporters. However, as often happens in such discussions, several posters seized the opportunity to make larger points. Posters with completely opposite perspectives both claim the action proves their previously held viewpoints.

Today I'm going to look at the most active threads throughout the last week, rather than just those from yesterday. I am probably getting into broken record territory with my repeated mentions of how different my personal interests are from the most active topics on DCUM. But this divergence could not be better illustrated than by the two most active topics from the past week.

The thread with the most replies during the last week was titled "Queen Elizabeth Funeral" in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture". The thread with the second most responses was "Queen of E's funeral fashion" in the "Beauty and Fashion". In terms of views rather than responses, these two topics simply swapped places. No other topic came close be either metric. Of course this interest is somewhat understandable given the tremendous press coverage the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II received in the US. But, as I have mentioned before, British Royal Family topics receive an unusual amount of attention on DCUM even in normal times.

In many ways I am unsuited to be the primary administrator of this forum. As is frequently pointed out, while the site is dominated by moms, I am a dad. Beyond that, I often find myself completely out of touch with the topics that are most popular on the website. Let's not get started on the British Royal Family threads that I detest or the Kane Show threads which generated more engagement than any other single topic (I had never even heard of Kane before the threads here and didn't listen to single one of his shows). Just consider yesterday's most active threads.

A thread in the "Family Relationships" forum titled, "My sister-in-law wants to borrow $9600 for emergency" completely clobbered all other threads in terms of views. The thread also led in number of responses. I believe that I removed a couple of posts from this thread that were reported, but I'm not completely sure. I do know that I haven't read the thread and have no interest in reading it. I am dumbfounded that such a topic could be so popular. There have been a rash of these "sister-in-law" related threads and most of them get reported as potential troll threads. It's possible that they are but it seems like such a strange thing to troll about.

Of all the threads created yesterday, the one with the most views and most replies was in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum with the title "Student walkout". The thread is about a planned student protest against Virginia Governor Glenn Youngin's recently announced policy regarding transgender students. I knew this thread would be the most active the minute I saw it and it led the site in replies despite my removing at least a dozen posts that were inappropriate, off-topic, or replies to such posts.

With the exception of the posts I removed, the thread actually managed to generally maintain a fairly high-level, respectful tone. Much of the discussion delved into the wording of the new policy and how it should be interpreted. Threads dealing with transgender issues have become the most controversial on DCUM and seem to go down the drain quickly. However, because this thread tended to focus on the policy rather than opinions about transgender students, the problematic posts that I expected didn't materialize in large numbers.

In this series of posts I'm going to try to look at a thread or threads from the previous day that gained a lot of traction. Human nature being what it is, we are drawn to controversy and, as such, it is not the mundane topics that receive kind and helpful responses that generate replies and views. Rather, it is those topics that generate differences of opinion and/or emotional reactions. One such thread from yesterday was titled, "White teacher reading 'white savior' type book to mostly AA students".

This is the type of thread that makes you wonder why all DCUM posters are not bald from having pulled out all of their hair in frustration. The gist of the original post is that a teacher at a small Christian private school is reading a "white savior" book to her students. The original poster doesn't name the book and is vague in all regards. The thread was originally posted in the "Elementary School-Aged Kids" forum, but since it is about a school topic, should have been posted in an education forum. I moved it to "Schools and Education General Discussion". The thread gets sidetracked frequently by discussions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and there are an inordinate number of requests for more information and complaints about the lack of detail. Nevertheless, the thread generated six pages of replies in less than 24 hours.

The DC Urban Moms and Dads home page has been severely neglected for a long time as I have run out of both energy and ideas for updating it. I am going to try to rectify that by providing regular posts about topics that have received significant attention in the discussion forums.

As longtime DCUM users will know, DC Urban Moms and Dads originally started as a mailing list completely devoted to parenting issues. The website forums were an afterthought and got their initial impetus when we required that "nanny posts" -- posts searching for a nanny or advertising the availability of a nanny -- be moved to the forums rather than the mailing list. After that, the forums grew mostly organically as we added topics due to user requests. I don't remember when the "Entertainment" forum was created, but I do remember that the idea behind it was that it would be used to discuss books, TV shows, movies, and music. So, it is with some surprise and not a little disappointment that it has become a popular forum for discussing the British Royal Family.

Our family is always interested in new ideas for tasty, healthy, and easy-to-prepare meals. Therefore, I was excited to learn that Chaia Tacos ( https://www.chaiatacos.com/) has introduced the Enchilada Family Pack -- 12 fully-prepared enchiladas ready to reheat in an aluminum pan. This week we were able to try a tray split between black bean and braised mushroom enchiladas.

Chaia Tacos is a woman/mom-owned local small business serving up plant-forward tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, tostadas, and a few sides. There are locations in Georgetown, Chinatown, and Bethesda. The restaurant is 100% vegetarian and most items can be made vegan. All products are completely nut-free and, with the exception of beer, gluten-free.

Chaia has limited indoor seating, focusing on take-out and delivery with online orders available through the website. In contrast to the rest of the menu which is made-to-order to be eaten immediately, the Enchilada Family Pack requires reheating. It can be picked up or delivered ahead of time and then popped in the oven for 40-50 minutes before eating. It comes in an aluminum pan so preparation couldn't be easier.

This article was provided by the Park View Farmers Market

Launched in January 2020 in the heart of D.C.’s Park View neighborhood, the Park View Farmers Market (PVFM) aims to provide economic opportunity to local entrepreneurs and increase access to local food through a vibrant community marketplace. PVFM’s unique location, inside of Hook Hall, gives the market a special quality and offers an expansive indoor space for community members to safely and comfortably shop for fresh food, while building lasting relationships with local makers, growers, and neighbors. With Hook Hall’s bar open during the market, you can even sip on a beer or Bloody Mary while you shop!

PVFM was forced to halt operations in March 2020 due to COVID-19 – just two months after its grand opening. Its reopening this past February was met with much excitement from the community, as people are once again able to support the market’s rotation of incredible vendors. With local farmers, bakers, and artisans, you can expect to find fresh produce, pickles, baked goods, hot foods, teas, spices, and foods that reflect our diverse community, as well as skincare, candles, and so much more! This summer, PVFM is thrilled to welcome back family-friendly programming to the market once again, including live music, games, sing-alongs & more!

Brookings recently released a report on DC Public Schools. This report, "We all want what’s best for our kids", uses data from 10 years worth of posts in the DC Public and Public Charter Schools forum. My wife and I own and operate the DC Urban Moms and Dads website and are frequent participants in the DC Schools forum. Moreover, we have two sons who both attended a DC Public Charter School. One attended and one still attends DC Public Schools. Therefore, we know well both the DC public school system and the DC Schools forum.

Having read the report in detail, I believe that the research for this report was lazy, the analysis is flawed, and the conclusions are wrong. The entire report is based on flawed analysis -- word frequency analysis in which keywords are connected to school names -- a technique that does not take context into account. In fact, the report's examples show such context-based errors. The measures of school attention suffer from uncorrected bias due to school size and the uneven geographic sample representation. For instance, Alice Deal Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School are two of the largest schools in the DCPS system and the in-bounds school for a large percentage of the posters. The finding that they are the two most discussed schools is exactly what would be expected.

This is a guest post by Kara Holinski

Many fitness lovers and instructors have had a hard time of late with gym closures and limitations or do not feel comfortable going back to the gym/studios given the current climate. We know that this has been even harder for parents, who have often used fitness as a time for self-care and to improve mental health. Fitness class fanatics and DC residents Kara Holinski and Justin Hunter started OutFit because they wanted to get back to fitness classes, but were not yet comfortable returning to the studio. In addition, they noticed that many incredible local instructors had been furloughed or had reduced classes, as in-person fitness was one of the industries hit hard by the pandemic.

As a result, they decided to develop a marketplace where instructors can post classes in local D.C. parks and participants can sign up. Since things have gotten colder, they have launched a semi-permanent heated tent at Dumbarton House (between Georgetown and Dupont on 27th and Q). Safety is OutFit’s #1 priority, so the tent is completely open so it is property ventilated, masks are required, and stations are distanced at least 8 feet. To keep people toasty, there are 5 industrial grade heaters, which raise the temperature in the tent +25 degrees F, and allow for t-shirts to be worn during yoga in December. In addition, there is parking at the location.