HOH Spring Fever Edition

HOH Public Service Announcement!

Are you burnt out after a week of hacks, flacks and pols shouting at each other? Tired of looking at glowing rectangles all day long? You’re in luck. Congress is out, leaving the city to the rest of us.

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Best Friends Forever

Wednesday night, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was given the Inspiration Award at the 2012 Women to Watch Awards.

The Women to Watch Awards are handed out by the group Running Start, a nonprofit that works with young women to get them involved in politics.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) were on hand to honor Giffords and present their good friend and colleague with the award.

Tom Daschle Ready to Mentor, but America Seems Uninterested

The Trust for the National Mall had a very fun Ball on the Mall on Saturday to raise money for preserving America’s “front yard.”

The evening’s activities included eating good food, drinking good drinks, dancing to good songs and bidding on good things! Dancers got on their knees, fell on their tushes and whirled like colorful dervishes.

But, in our opinion, the real drama of the evening happened off the dance floor with the silent auction.

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Cato Prom: Caviar, Governor, Dissident, Protester

On Friday, the Cato Institute awarded the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty at its biennial black-tie dinner.

The evening started with an open bar and wee caviar potato bites. Also at the event: a man in a bowler cap, several ponytails and at least one marijuana lapel pin.

The Milton Friedman Prize, which we kept calling the Ayn Rand Prize for Public Service, includes a $250,000 cash prize, was presented to Chinese dissident and economist Mao Yushi.

Yushi is the chairman of the Unirule Institute of Economics in Beijing. As he approached the podium to accept his award, a man raced down the center aisle of the Washington Hilton’s hall carrying two protest signs, one of which accused the economist of being a part of “the 99 percent.”

Several men in tuxedos escorted the protester from the hall. In the background, one dinner attendee shouted, “Commie pinko!” Full story

Your Wife Is Lovely: The Hunt to Meet Clooney

A postcard from the weekend from CQ Roll Call’s Eugene Mulero: How the dreams of one reporter’s wife came true this past weekend:

It is said the most important day in a woman’s life is when she meets George Clooney. For Sarah, my wife, that day happened Saturday at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Full story

The Day After (the Day After) Nerd Prom

Contrary to what our livers might tell you, Team HOH survived the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and all the corresponding festivities. And what a ride it was.

The evening was total chaos, a fustercluck of activity most easily defined as roving bands of celebrities — “Oh my god! That was the cast from ‘True Blood!’”; “Chace Crawford, we love you!” — battling against throngs of starstruck Washingtonians.

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Two Kinds of Pool Parties

The Capitol Skyline Hotel’s pool will play host to family-oriented Certifikid and hipster-oriented Brightest Young Things this summer. (Courtesy Capitol Skyline Hotel)

The Capitol Skyline Hotel has come a long way in the past 10 years — from skeevy motel to hipster camp to family-friendly deal on Certifikid.

Certifikid, the Groupon-like service for parents, is offering families the chance to split time at the Skyline’s super-cool pool this summer with the likes of Brightest Young Things.

Just not at the same time.

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At Nerd Prom, First They Brunch

(Neda Semnani/CQ Roll Call)

It felt like every celebrity and pol on Earth descended on Washington, D.C., for the 2012 White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend. The festivities kicked off earlier this week with more dinners and parties then you could shake a stick at, but the actual day of was marked with the annual Garden Brunch. Full story

Nerd Prom Warm Up (and David Arquette Stalking)

At tonight’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, D.C.’s media elite will mix and mingle with everyone from President Barack Obama to multiple Kardashians.

And while there’s a slew of pre-ceptions, after-parties and table-hopping to be done, the festivities began in earnest Friday night at a number of high-profile affairs. Your dedicated HOHs traipsed all around town to check out how Washington pregames.

Along the way, we rubbed elbows with legislative types, professional party planners and a celebrity or two. Full story

Can You Decipher This Logo?

Oh, thank goodness. The Eighth Annual Montana Society Testicle Festival is back.

This year, the “Legends of the Ball” will be Saturday, May 19, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

For $25, revelers can drink their weight in booze and scarf all the bull testicles they can keep down.

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Workhorses and Showhorses

(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

The Humane Horsewoman of the Year, Sen. Mary Landrieu, will raise her glass against animal cruelty this morning.

The Louisiana Democrat will be joined by Willie Nelson’s daughter and granddaughter, Amy and Raelyn Nelson, 1970s pinup queen Bo Derek and Lorenzo Borghese, from season 9 of “The Bachelor,” for the Horses on the Hill event in the Russell Senate Office Building. Full story

Eat, Play, Glug

Not hanging at Nerd Prom this weekend?

One-up the media elite by rubbing elbows with local cheflebrities and basking in the soft glow of TV camera lights at “Class Is in Session,” a charity soiree benefiting aspiring culinary school students. Full story

Rockin’ in the USA

A chorus of lawmakers and musicians sings "Friends in Low Places" at 2010's GRAMMYs on the Hill event. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

The Recording Academy will again clutch personal heroes to its bosom next week, feting Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) alongside award-winning artist John Mayer as part of the annual GRAMMYs on the Hill shindig taking over the Liaison Capitol Hill hotel (415 New Jersey Ave. NW) on Wednesday. Full story

‘Deadline’ Sunday!

Mark Ethridge and his crew will be rolling into town Sunday.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author — and father of CQ Roll Call health care reporter Emily Ethridge — can now add screenwriter to his list of accomplishments.

This is the second Washington screening of his new film, “Deadline,” though it is the first featuring the red carpet strut.

“For the past five weeks, my dad has been on a bus touring the country with the cast and crew of his movie — and on April 8 they will finally be in DC!” Emily Ethridge says in an email.

“Deadline” is based on Mark Ethridge’s own experiences reporting on the unsolved murder of a teenage African-American boy. The film is based on Ethridge’s time at the Charlotte Observer, which was later fictionalized in his novel, “Grievances.” Full story

Investing in a Creative Future

Rep. Louise Slaughter is an honorary co-chairman of a fundraiser organized by the D.C. Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Democratic Reps. John Lewis (Ga.) and Louise Slaughter (N.Y.) have signed on as honorary co-chairmen of the D.C. Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative’s second annual Patriotic Arts Fete, a fundraiser focused on keeping local kids in school and culturally engaged.  Full story