D.C. United's appreciative open letter to fans

We went to my first-ever D.C. United match on Saturday (it was Jaime's second). While the end result was ultimately unsatisfying (a draw that led to the team being bounced from the playoffs), we had a good time, and hope to attend more matches in the future.

The team placed an open letter on their website, thanking politicians, fans, businesses, employees, and local organizations for their support this year. I just wanted to share the print version of it from today's Express to make sure those who didn't pick up the paper saw it. It shows that print still holds the ability to present things in an elegant and beautiful format that the Internet sometimes cannot match.

click to enlarge

Vamos United!

One more example of a horrible map

OK, we're going to have some real, honest-to-goodness posts very soon, but to tide you over try this on for size:

Since the last District Curmudgeon post was about maps, I thought it would be a good idea to point out another one that's been bugging me for months now. The above series of maps is used in the Express newspaper to highlight the locations of news stories, often for the "Weekend Review."

Look at that map on the right, though. I realize this is meant to be a generalization, but there's no good reason for the map to be done as poorly as it has been. Here are the biggest problems I see—feel free to add more critique in the comments below:

• The islands of Java and Sumatra have been merged into one large island.
• Only the North Island of New Zealand is shown. The larger South Island has been unceremoniously deleted. (Not to mention that New Zealand is FAR too close to Australia.)
• The western end of New Guinea has disappeared, while the island of New Britain has become an appendage on New Guinea's east.
• The Philippines, Borneo, and the Sumatra/Java monster have all migrated south and are not close to being in the right relation to Guinea and Australia.

You can find lots of strange things going on in the Eurasia and North America maps as well. Wouldn't hurt to have Madagascar on the Africa map too.

C'mon, Express, spend 5 minutes and make a more accurate map for your readers. There's no need to publish something this inaccurate and misleading.