Public Policy

Have you ever wondered where expressions like “Bite the Bullet,” “Mad as a Hatter,” or “Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop” originate?

“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life. And new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before…”

For a kid growing up in suburban Washington, D.C., there were few better years than 1983. That year, the Redskins won the Super Bowl and the Orioles the World Series; Return of the Jedi, Risky Business, Flashdance, and An Officer and a Gentleman ruled at the box office; and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” finished atop the Billboard 100…

Although the NFL’s Wildcard Round of playoffs concluded with several surprises last week, and the Divisional Round will take place this weekend [Go Ravens!], the conclusion of the regular season may have generated the biggest football story of the year—an end to Head Coach Bill Belichick’s run with the New England Patriots…

From Tik Tok to LinkedIn to X, social media has become ingrained in Americans’ daily routines. What’s more, social media platforms are at the heart of several companies that market analysts call the “Magnificent Seven”—Alphabet has YouTube; Meta owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp; Microsoft has LinkedIn; and Elon Musk owns both Tesla and X.

Happy New Year, and welcome to The Washington Connection’s first edition of 2024. What did you do for New Year’s Eve? Times Square in New York? Georgetown in D.C.? Broadway in Nashville?

Although I opted to travel down a more sentimental route this year, I’ve been known to tuck a few gag gifts under the tree. Over the years these have included funny t-shirts, prank gift boxes, and odd tasting candy…I mean, you haven’t lived until you’ve tried a hot dog flavored candy cane…am I right?

A confession…My name is Jamie, and I’m a last minute Christmas shopper. I’ve never participated in Black Friday or Cyber Monday. It is because of this that my son never did get that Hot Wheels Carwash Santa promised him, and that both my kids often had to wait into the New Year before getting the newest gaming platform and/or hottest video game.

This week, I was fortunate enough to travel to Little Rock, Arkansas. The immediate attractions were to attend a Conference Board briefing at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, participate in several programs at the Clinton School of Public Service, and, let’s be honest, possibly spend some quality time with the 42nd president of the United States.

There are two types of people who emerge every year in late fall—you’ve got your Thanksgiving people, and you’ve got your Christmas people. You know Thanksgiving people. They complain about Christmas displays going up in grocery stores the day after Halloween, they sprain their ankles during backyard Turkey Bowl games, and they know which breed won the National Dog Show (the Sealyham terrier). And you know your Christmas people. They put reindeer antlers on their cars, collect nutcrackers, and throw ugly sweater parties.