UD‘s sunning in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware right now, but faithful readers know she lives in Bethesda, Maryland, a place UD, following her old friend David’s usage, calls ‘thesda.

In UD’s absence, lots has been happening up there. (Is it up? I think it’s across. I think we’re directly east of ‘thesda.) She’ll mention a couple of items here.

First, one of her ‘thesdan neighbors is going to jail because he did the revolving door dance too fast:

A former top NASA official was found guilty Thursday of breaking ethics laws by helping a consulting client get nearly $10 million of the space agency’s funds.

A jury found Courtney Stadd, of Bethesda, Md., illegally benefited a private client while on the agency’s payroll and lied to ethics officials. He faces up to 15 years in prison at sentencing, scheduled for Nov. 6.

Stadd was NASA’s chief of staff and White House liaison from 2001-2003, when he left to start a consulting business — Capital Solutions — that specialized in advising aerospace clients. But he came back for two months in 2005 as the interim No. 3 official at the request of President George W. Bush’s newly installed administrator, Mike Griffin, who wanted to reorganize the agency that was still reeling over the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

During that time, he steered $12 million in agency funds for earth science research to the state of Mississippi. One of his clients, Mississippi State University, ended up with $9.6 million.

… When Mary Cleave, acting director of NASA’s Earth-Sun System Division and a former astronaut, decided to conduct a nationwide search for bids for [an] earth science earmark, officials at Mississippi State were upset that they may not get the funds, according to e-mails introduced as evidence. Stadd’s contact at the university e-mailed him asking if he could “provide some prodding” from inside the agency.

Cleave testified that Stadd summoned her to his office and told her only $3 million should be put out for nationwide bids. The remaining $12 million, he told Cleave, should go to Mississippi because of an agreement between the state’s congressional delegation.

Afterward, Stadd tried to get the university to raise his fee from $7,000 a month to $10,000 a month, citing his help with the funding.

That last bit’s the ‘thesda Touch, The Mighty ‘thesda Touch (to paraphrase Jule Styne)… Now gimme more money…

Oh, and the second ‘thesdan thing … Actually, a Garrett Park thing — Garrett Park being the specific town where UD lives within the ‘thesdan metropolis… It’s about how despite the US Post Office closing hundreds of post offices across the country, they’re not going to close Garrett Park.

As you know, Garrett Parkers like UD do not get mail delivered to their doors. Everyone has a rented box at the post office. We like it that way. We fought to keep it that way. We like taking walks, and we like greeting our neighbors while picking up our mail.

Here’s a photo of the building
our post office is in.

It’s on the lower level. The first floor’s a restaurant (“It’s in the middle of nowhere off of Rockville Pike. I had to keep tapping the GPS to make sure it was working. ‘Uh, I don’t think there is anything to eat around here…’ ” “It is nestled in the woods, next to a train track, on a cul de sac in some cute little town in Maryland. Thank god for dashboard navigation system — otherwise I never would have found it.”), and the upper floor is town offices.