smonster, the nowdothis site is so rocking. I use it when I need something else to focus for me because I can't. Thanks for the recommending it!

Oh yes, I use it all the time too! I have it open in toolbar form on the left of my browser (and I've just noticed I can tick off a list item. Hurrah). I have such trouble concentrating on one thing at a time that it's a huge help.

The basic reasoning behind DC not having representation is that representation is apportioned by state, and DC is not in any state. (The land it's on used to be part of Maryland, and Maryland and Virginia kept having disputes about who had fishing rights in the river, so the federal government took some of the land on each side of the river and said "This is where our capital will be, and it's not in any state." After a little while, Virginia somehow took back their part of it, which is why DC is bordered by straight lines most of the way around and then by the squiggly river.)

My History Can Beat Up Your Politics had a fantastic episode about a month ago that dealt with the issue of DC's representation in Congress. The main political problem with giving DC statehood is that it would add 2 Democratic Senate seats more or less by default, which obviously would make it hard to get bipartisan support for. (One solution that's been tossed around is to grant DC statehood, but also split California into two states on the assumption that South California would probably elect Republican senators and keep the current balance intact.)

Another solution I've heard would be to incorporate most of DC into Maryland, and to keep just a small area around the Mall as the district proper.

Yeah, Ward 3's been trying to defect for years now - MD doesn't want it.

Please tell me I'm not the only murrican who ends up with a bit of the Queen's English in the mouth after watching QI segments. It wasn't so hard to talk like myself after the Fry & Laurie bits but this just creeps in and makes me annoying.

ETA: For values of annoying that equal "bad accent which is not one's own".

Please tell me I'm not the only murrican who ends up with a bit of the Queen's English in the mouth after watching QI segments.

Heh. I wouldn't know - but it's funny imagining you guys watching QI and talking like Stephen Fry.

I did that once reading Nick Hornby and trying to write my Entourage script. And, because NH and Entourage are both sort of about blokes and their blokeliness, it snuck up on me too. Then the next day, I read back and it was like "Johnny Drama has a cell, not a mobile." I guess I find that contagious.

I guess I find that contagious.

The Girl uses a lot of American phrases and terms, having partly grown up in Houston. I 'catch' them so easily. Fortunately she doesn't have an American accent. I picked up bits of that after about a week of my year in the US.

Heh. I wouldn't know - but it's funny imagining you guys watching QI and talking like Stephen Fry.

I just hope I'm not as horrifying as the American accents in Jeeves and Wooster.