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N8 SOURCE 11-25-07 DC EE N8 CMYK

N8 Sunday, November 25, 2007 x The Washington Post

RoadTrip The Stately Sights of Massachusetts Avenue

WHERE: The District and Bethesda. $835,000 in 1901-03 but was sold in 1952 to the In- donesian government for $335,000. The house be- Leave the city behind on the 3A-mile WHY: A haunted mansion, the church of Darth came an embassy, and Millionaires’ Row turned into Little Falls Stream Valley Park Trail. Vader and sculptural surprises. .

W Darth Vader may have once lorded over the

I S C HOW FAR: About 11 miles from start to finish. Galactic Empire, but now he oversees the grounds O

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S I of the Washington National Cathedral. The lime- N

A V n Massachusetts Avenue, see how the stone Vader sculpture resulted from a cathedral con- E

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E mighty have risen — and fallen. test in 1985 in which children submitted designs for The 12-mile road, which stretches carvings. Look for Luke Skywalker’s father perched from the D.C. border with Prince amid the Gothic spires on the northwest tower, fac- George’s County into Bethesda, is ing the cathedral’s dark side, of course. MA SS best known for its stately mansions. During the Another fancy Massachusetts Avenue institution, AC HU O SE LITTLE FALLS 1920s, the area around Sheridan, Dupont and Scott the Henley Park Hotel, also features surprising TTS AVE PARKWAY . circles was so gilded with tycoons and socialites that sculpture. Among the 119 medieval-style gargoyles

YLAND it became known as Millionaires’ Row. The Great are the faces of a cigar-chomping man and a bespec-

MAR OF COLUMBIA Depression, however, turned many of those riches tacled woman. The immortalized couple are the ho-

TRICT to rags. tel’s stone mason and his wife. Score one for the Little Falls DIS The opulent beaux-arts-style Walsh-McLean workingman. Stream Valley Park House near , once the most expensive — Phuong Ly home in Washington, suffered the ultimate fall from VENUE M A AC grace. Gold-mining heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean AR TH UR bought the Hope Diamond in 1911 and became af- Road Trip maps are available at www. B EBRASKA LV N ored sculptures in front of theald the landing of aliens. washingtonpost.com/roadtrip, as are D seem to her flicted with its alleged curse: Her son died in a car . The round, pastel-colKatzen Arts Center Museum at the crash, her husband ran off with another woman, her addresses and hours of operation (be sure to American daughter fatally overdosed on drugs and her debts check before you go). Have an idea for a trip? LOUGHBORO University RO A E-mail [email protected]. D piled up. The 60-room mansion had been built for

Look for celestial bodies through the U.S. Naval WEDNESDAY IN STYLE Escapes goes tax-free shopping in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Observatory’s 12-inch refracting telescope. 34TH STREET CONN

ECTICUT AV Take in one of the best views of Washington

during tea time on the seventh floor of the U.S. Naval ENUE MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE Legend has it that gold miner Thomas F. Walsh embedded a gold bar Washington National Cathedral. Observatory over the arch of the Walsh-McLean House (now the Indonesian 16TH STREET Embassy) as a tribute to the source of his wealth.

WIS

CON D AVENUE SIN AVENUE

SHERIDAN Q STREET 14TH STREET RHODE ISLAN CIRCLE DUPONT CIRCLE The Tudor-style Henley Park Hotel was originally an apartment building that housed senators and representatives. M STREET THOMAS 10TH STREET K STREET CIRCLE N.Y. AVENUE Potom 395 a MASS c

. AVENUE N. CAPITOL ST. R i v 6TH STREET

e 21ST STREET 20TH STREET 9TH STREET 7TH STREET E STREET

66 r Congressional Cemetery Trust for Historic Preservation, w namedhich the as National one of 13TH STREET CONSTITUTION AVE. the country’s most endangered histor is experiencing a rebirth, thanks to volunteersic sites, MASS. AVENUE and dog owners, who pay a fee so their pets INDEPENDENCE AVENUE can roam free.

PENNSYLVA 19TH STREET

NIA AVENUE E STREET Fort 395 295 ENUE POTOMAC Congressional

AV D

SOUT AVENUE U F Cemetery Park O

HEAST FREEWAY P O R

MASSA N T The bronze T D statue of Mahatma Gandhi D D BRANCH AVENUE CHUSETTSR AVE.. A led India to f V YLAN I

reedom from British r , who INNESOTA S

M D from India and the Indian Am ule, w R MAR

as a gift . DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA and erican c VIRGINIA PA. stands near the Indian Embassy.ommunity AVENUE River a ti ian's s o c From the Pony Express to e-mail, the Smithson a celebrates the send-off n Driver’s route StartStartStart hereherehere Museum A 295 The hills of Fort 02National Postal of the written word. once provided safety and shelter MILES for runaway slaves.

MAP BY JEROME COOKSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; PHOTOS BY PHUONG LY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

MediaMix A Quick Take on New Releases

TITLE BASIC STORY SAMPLE GRAB WHAT YOU’LL LOVE WHAT YOU WON’T GRADE

How to Spell Despite the kitschy packaging “As many ways as there are to Read in one sitting, the talent divide becomes Chanukah Eighteen youngish writers contribute personal and overabundance of latke spell the holiday, so are there pronounced. Feel free to breeze over clunkers Edited by essays — from the snarky to the sentimental jokes, the best of these essays ways to enjoy, anticipate, loathe, such as “The Only Dreidel in Idaho,” with its Emily Franklin — riffi ng on the ancient grapple honestly with season- B and love the festival of lights.” irritating use of IM-speak. BOOK Algonquin Jewish holiday. — From the introduction » less issues of identity, family — Reviewed by Adriana Leshko $18.95 and consumer culture.

Our Savage Neigh- The Princeton historian “Much of the mid-Atlantic countryside had been turned bors: How Indian explores the ways Colonial « Silver gracefully demonstrates the way that Though packed with interesting stories, the into a crazy patchwork of overlapping War Transformed American culture and the a desire for self-preservation can give rise to book is a dense historical study at heart. The linguistic, cultural, and religious zones. Early America concept of “whiteness” a hatred of The Other, a lesson with obvious end result is far more educational than it is B- By Peter Silver were shaped by European There were no ethnic homelands here, and no entertaining.

BOOK analogies to the modern age. W.W. Norton settlers uniting against their one could doubt they lived in a world that was — Sara Cardace $29.95 Native American neighbors. being radically remade.”

“Been up, been down, paid dues, earned Perhaps stealing a move from With appearances by 17 (count The Boatlift Known for serving up stripes / Been in lawsuits / Welcome to Kanye West, Pitbull injects a ’em!) guest artists, Pit ends Pitbull dance-fl oor scorchers, the my life / I’m too Latin for hip-hop and too refreshing dose of cleverness up sounding like a supporting B CD TVT Miami rapper brings things down to a simmer hip-hop for Latin / Did y’all fi gure out?/ into his predominantly lecherous character on his own album. $18.98 on his fourth album. I’ma keep rappin’ ” rhymes. » — “The Truth (Interlude)” — Chris Richards

Through the “I have a tale to tell / Sometimes Giant Drag’s weepy Wilderness: So, 99 percent of tribute albums are total it gets so hard to hide it well / » “Oh Father” and A Tribute to I was not ready for the fall / Madonna’s ballads translate well, but her garbage, right? Here’s your 1 percent: a gaggle Jonathan Wilson’s ruddy “La Isla poppier fare doesn’t. A banjo-laden version Madonna Too blind to see the writing on the wall” Bonita” should convince you that B- CD of obscure freak-folkies paying homage to a Various artists — Winter Flowers make “Live to of “Borderline”? No, thanks. freaky pop matriarch. Madge is a thriving folk singer in — C.R. Manimal Vinyl Tell” sound like a sublime Richard some alternate universe. $17.98 and Linda Thompson outtake The animated fan fave “I’m a doctor, sir. The mere fact that The movie just isn’t as funny as it Futurama: returns in the fi rst of » I’m blond and have a breathy voice, The seemingly random plotting pays should be, and the whole thing Bender’s Big Score four feature-length full, sensual lips and a steaming-hot body off nicely, and the disc has a great sometimes feels like a number of Not rated adventures, as beer-swilling doesn’t make me a bimbo.” commentary track with the cast and regular “Futurama” episodes stapled B- DVD 20th Century Fox robot Bender comes under “Tell me about it.” series creators Matt Groening and together. $29.99 the control of intergalactic — Crustacean Dr. Zoidberg (voiced by David X. Cohen. Oh, and Hypnotoad! — Greg Zinman scam artists. Billy West) empathizes with a colleague Jenna (Keri Russell, right) is The spirited acting trumps the unnatu- The fi lm’s Southern-fried a waitress with a dream of rally sweetened dialogue, and Waitress “I Can’t Have No Affair Because It’s Wrong and whimsy and pie-as- winning a pie-baking contest. Problem is, she’s the disc offers a generous PG-13 I Don’t Want Earl to Kill Me Pie: vanilla custard commentary motif may pregnant, married to a horrible man (Jeremy helping of extras, including 20th Century Fox with banana. Hold the banana . . . ” trigger a diabetic coma C DVD Sisto) and having an affair a tribute to director $29.99 — Jenna daydreams up a culinary creation or two. with her married gyne- Adrienne Shelly, who « — G.Z. cologist (Nathan Fillion). was killed last year. Journey through one Creed’s stunning graph- The game’s Assassin’s Creed man’s genetic history as ics and animation, as well Each medieval Middle Eastern city in unconventional control PlayStation 3, he inhabits the life of his as its sprawling, historically the game boasts special locations that offer system feels clunky at fi rst; Xbox 360 12th-century ancestor, accurate environments panoramic views to help players plan their more-experienced gamers B- Rated Mature an executioner named and tense cat-and-mouse

GAME political killing. may be turned off by it. Ubisoft Altair who fought gameplay, make it one of the » — Evan Narcisse $59.99 during the Crusades. year’s most ambitious titles.

Conan In an adventure based PlayStation 3, on the original Robert Hey, is that girl Conan This game doesn’t pussyfoot around: Conan’s clean-cut voice is all wrong. Xbox 360 E. Howard novels just rescued topless? From the opening scene you’ll be attacked It’s more Superman than blood-soaked, Rated Mature (not the Arnie fi lms), the Yes, she is, folks. This is on all sides by an onslaught of foes. violence-loving brute. B

GAME THQ barbarian king meets up with a pirate queen, Conan unabridged. » No downtime here. — Christopher Healy $59.99 and they hack and slash their way to love.

KERI RUSSELL BY ALAN MARKFIELD — FOX SEARCHLIGHT

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