Allan James Vestal

@ajv.bsky.social

4900 Followers 1955 Following

Journalism, code & politics. Food idiot acolyte and ALX ward system anti-apologist. (Crunchin' those numbers — and probably something with bacon on it too.) He/Him.

Mallory L., sporting a hyper-local “God Bless Alyia’s Wasteland” shirt
Mike Rodriguez wearing Kayla’s “West End Best End” shirt and testifying in front of the ALX T&PB.
The “Guys literally only want one thing” meme, crudely pasted to read “Marta literally only wants one thing and it’s perplexing as hell* “* but hilarious”
A vintage Arby's sign, similar to the one in Lincolnia. We are told that “Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich IS DELICIOUS” — words spelled out within a cowboy hat, which will be illuminated in neon after dark, and the sign appears gloriously contrasted against a blue cloudy sky in the daytime.
Album art for Backstreet Boys’ hit album “Millennium,” which was released in May 1999. Its critical acclaim includes that its Wikipedia pages mentions the word “award” six whole times.
A screenshot of a dril tweet from 2011, which reads: `fuck "jokes". everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this`
An erroneous Bluesky post, removed (and not transcribed here) but preserved for context.
A still from “Miracle on 34th Street” of the intoxicated parade Santa Claus. Superimposed is the line he says between sips of his whiskey — “In this cold, a man’s gotta do something to keep warm.”
Two Black Manhattans in cocktail glasses, on a counter.
Contestants and audience members on a game show, each wearing a somewhat obnoxiously large yellow name tag.
A sheet pan with ten boxty pancakes (mashed potatoes with flour, grated potato, buttermilk, scallion and flour). I might make them thinner next time, and some of the first few were *learning opportunities* in how to shape them, but these look and taste pretty great as-is — and I had to ration how much of our mashed potato stock I was diverting from the general leftovers pool.
Flash the German Shepherd (my sister’s) looks forlornly at the camera with the waffle ingredients in the background. This dog ate a bowl of turkey in 40 seconds on Thanksgiving Day, so he doth protest too much.
A food idiot’s unholy fever dream of a Thanksgiving waffle, cooked and just about to be removed from the waffle iron. Plates, batter and various kitchen implements surround it.
From The Top Rope meme, featuring Pipenv (the people’s champ).
A regal, foot-feathered pigeon sits atop his chosen perch — an Amtrak sign which bears the name “Alex.”
A Very Fancy Bird, clearly hatching some plot or another.
A Very Fancy Bird taking refuge in the rafters of the train station. Not pictured: about four food containers and two water dishes set out for him.
A scruffy young (ish?) man and his lovely wife, sailing on Lake Michigan in the golden hour. The man is hanging onto a rope he’s been assured several times isn’t load-bearing.
Another seasonal special bagel from Call Your Mother (the same strawberries, strawberry cream cheese and Nutella on a challah bagel). The “Challah at Your Mama,” as the menu calls it.
Sir Winston Churchill, noted proponent of the Alexandria Empire
Fresh-from-the-oven Turkey Trot Tater Tot Hotdish circa two days ago. Leftover forecast: super promising.
Cheddar, thyme and chive loaf that may have fallen in on itself just a bit after the initial photo was taken — but which is a) fully baked and b) fully entaste-ilated.
Negroni, focaccia and crudo, somehow enjoyed on a certain ALX establishment’s patio on the 30th day of December.
Advertisement for Taco John’s Apple Grande, a sensible dessert that “features a cinnamon-sugar tortilla topped with warm apple filling, cheddar cheese and cinnamon/candy spice.”
An earlier skeet of Joe's, altered to ask, "Who up doxxing their meat hook-up?"
BAD TAKE is now following me.
A shelf at The Finest Grocery Chain In America’s Middle West, featuring six-packs of something called Donna’s Pickle Beer. It holds itself out to be “The finest brine,” and promises that I will “Relish every sip. “
A text-message thread. Player 1: "I think we need to buy and immediately freeze a bunch of these" Player 2: "Holy god" Player 2: "Which ones?" Jen — oops, Player 1: "I mean pylsur, Gruyère, chistorra and possibly sesame chicken"
A table of how Allan's proposed wards would have voted in the 2024 general election for city council. In all eight wards, all six Democrats would have been elected. The Republican and Independent candidates finished seventh through ninth in all wards.
A map showing precincts that voted for Roy Byrd to be on council (shaded pink). The farthest east and south of those, the City Hall precinct, also voted for the other Republican and Independent candidate to be on council as two of their other six votes.
A map of Alexandria's 32 precincts showing where Roy Byrd won the #1 spot — or won a place in the top six — in the general election for city council in November 2024. One area — between Russell Road, Braddock Road, Cameron Mills Road and Glebe Road (with a little hopping between those last two) is solidly blue. This was the precinct Byrd won. City Hall precinct in Old Town is a lighter blue, as is Temple Beth El further west. These are where Byrd "placed" for our purposes — if the city had voted like these precincts, he'd have won a spot on council.
A table showing the vote counts in the general election for Alexandria city council in November. Sarah Bagley won the most votes of any candidate, with (currently) 15,351 votes. The candidate who had the lowest votes but was still elected won 12,145 votes — a gap of 3,206 between first and sixth place. The next highest-finishing candidate won 7,263 votes — a gap of 4,882 votes between sixth and seventh place.
A table showing how the four precincts most favorable to Vice Mayor Amy Jackson would have voted in the Democratic primary for Mayor in June, relative to the other precincts citywide and the entire city's vote count. Gaskins would have won this "ward" by 2,600 votes, or 7.35 percent.
A similar map, expanded to show the eight precincts where Jackson had the highest vote share in the primary. In addition to what was shaded in the prior image, City Hall precinct near the waterfront has been shaded in, and three other precincts in the city's center have as well.
A map showing the four precincts where Vice Mayor Amy Jackson had the highest vote share among all 32 precincts in the Democratic primary for Mayor in June. Three are toward the center of the city, one is in the northwest corner.
A table showing citywide results in the Democratic primary for Mayor in June. Gaskins won nearly 60% of the vote, Jackson won almost 30% and Peterson won just over 10.5% of the vote.
The same map of possible wards, now numbered 1–8. Of particular note, "Ward One" includes those precincts south of Oronoco Street in Old Town, "Ward Four" captures the Seminary-to-Braddock corridor and "Ward Five" represents the area from the Taylor Run neighborhood to Jordan Street and Seminary Road to the city's southern border.
A map of Alexandria, Virginia, split into eight divisions this time. They are proposed wards, and each ward contains four of the city's 32 precincts. This is a work in progress! But it's meant to measure the extent to which wards do — or don't — change the current political calculus.
Another view of the map showing where Vice Mayor Amy Jackson scored between 35 and 45 percent of the vote in the June Mayoral primary — again, where she was viable as a candidate. Black circles indicate the precincts where Jackson hit that mark between King and Jordan streets south of Seminary / Janney's in the south-central part of the city — and a separate circle highlights the Alexandria View precinct in the far northwest of the city, west of I-395.
Variant of the previously-posted Alexandria precinct map showing where Councilwoman Gaskins did and did not win at least half the votes in the Democratic primary for Mayor in June. This time, the two waterfront precincts where she didn't win a majority are highlighted in a red hoop. These precincts basically extend from the intersection of Washington St. and Oronoco St. south and east to Jones Point.
A version of the previously-posted Alexandria precinct map showing where Councilwoman Gaskins did and did not win at least half the votes in the Democratic primary for Mayor in June. Two of the precincts where she did not win a majority — the two in the north-central part of the city — are circled with a red hoop.
Another Alexandria, Va. precinct map. This one is shaded pink — the darker pink areas representing places where Vice Mayor Amy Jackson won between 35 and 45 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary for Mayor in June. (The highest percent of the vote Jackson won in any precinct was 44.46 percent.) Six precincts in the city's center are shaded in dark pink, indicating areas where Jackson won more than 35 percent of the vote. Also shaded in this manner are one precinct in the city's northwest and one on the waterfront in the east. The remaining 24 precincts are shaded in lighter pink. I'm characterizing those as areas where Jackson was not viably competitive.
A map of Alexandria, Virginia, showing the city's 32 precincts. 30 are shaded green, indicating where Councilwoman Alyia Gaskins won in the Democratic primary for Mayor in June. Two are shaded pink, these are where Vice Mayor Amy Jackson prevailed. Notably for this discussion: The two pink precincts are not contiguous.
Joán Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983), The King's Jester (Le Fou Du Roi), 1926. Oil, pencil and charcoal on canvas.
A map of Alexandria, Virginia, showing the city broken into 32 parts. In this map, 30 parts are shaded in green and two in pink.
The Mushroom Party dish, described as “Grilled assorted mushrooms, rosemary panko, cashew, yogurt, mushroom purée.”
According to VA election results, Jimmy Lewis got 6,706 votes and finished tenth of eleven council candidates.
Per NBC 4 (WRC) Alexandria Mayoral (D): ✅ Alyia Gaskins — 60% Amy Jackson — 29%
Allll the results windows on my Mac
A Magnum ice cream bar. Double caramel, 44% cacao! (Long live Summer Ice Cream Fridays at work)
Bar table at Stracci. Focaccia abounds. (A couple cocktails and a water, too.)
A Penultimate Word and a Spagett! at Old Hat. (Not pictured: cheese curds to be named later.)
A bag of fancy Läderach Swiss chocolates, on a table overlooking midtown Manhattan and Central Park.
A Läderach Chocolatier Suisse store at the base of a 60-story building in Manhattan. Pricey chocolate glories beckon from within.
A late-70s International Harvester Scout II in orange with white accents, with its top down.