Rep. Coble’s annual summer cold

Some people conduct annual cleanings of their basements. But Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) has had an annual summer cold for the past eight to 10 years.

With a slight nasal hint in his voice, he explained by phone from his district office in Greensboro that he gets one “just about every year, and they appear to be far more agonizing than winter colds because you’re not supposed to have summer colds.”

When ITK spoke with Coble, he was on his second week of the cold and said he was about to get over it. “I’ve just been plugging along,” he said. “I may have some chicken soup tonight now that you mention it. I will have some orange juice, and I may lace it with a shot of bourbon.”

Coble’s a trouper and didn’t hide under the covers once the cold struck. “When this summer cold first came to me, I should have gone to bed, but … you keep going to work. I think that’s self-defeating.”

Coble promised to go home and go to bed as soon as the interview ended. He also promised to continue taking care of himself in other ways: “I always take a flu shot, so I never get the flu, but these summer colds come to me regularly.”

Dingell fancies peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the House, has been known to enjoy a peanut-butter-and-mayonnaise sandwich. According to his office, the 79-year-old has been cutting back on them in recent years but still eats them every so often.

Dingell confirmed through a spokes-person that he has eaten the sandwiches. The reason he eats them, or how it started, is much less clear. Some defenders speculate that the veteran congressman began eating them as part of a Depression-era mentality. The congressman, however, has not endorsed such reasoning.

A former aide to Dingell, who used to be on peanut-butter-and-mayonnaise-sandwich detail, described being sent regularly to fetch bread and mayonnaise packets from the cafeteria.

Young turns himself into ‘old fur face’

No, he’s not preparing for a role as Santa Claus or as Father Time.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) has loftier ambitions: to win the annual Fur Rendezvous in Anchorage in February. The contest started in the 1930s and gathers trappers together for the fierce competition.

As anyone who has seen him recently can attest, the usually scruffy Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman is looking scruffier than ever, sporting a beard that looks to be approaching 6 inches in length. The former trapper and Yukon tugboat captain — who just wrapped up his work on the long-stalled highway bill before heading home — is growing his beard in hopes of claiming the longest-beard title, i.e. the furriest face, by the time the competition begins.

When asked if the congressman intends to grow the beard for the next seven months, an aide in his Anchorage office replied that “it’s a personal matter. Just like you deciding when to shave.”

Foxx to appear at CBCF’s conference

The Congressional Black Congress Foundation’s annual legislative conference (Sept. 21-24) is getting some serious star power this year, as comedian and actor Jamie Foxx is slated to be the “goodwill ambassador” for the conference, a position that didn’t exist until this year.

To promote the conference, Foxx has shot public-service announcements for radio and TV and is allowing the conference to advertise him on all its materials.

“He’s going to support us in any way he can,” said Patricia Clarke, whose agency is handling public relations for the event.

How did the conference land such a big name?

“Well, we just asked him,” Clarke said, chuckling. “His management was very gracious.”

Stars who participated in the past include comedian Chris Tucker and Vivica Fox.

Aside from Foxx, this year’s list includes Harry Belafonte, Kanye West and the beloved “The Apprentice” star Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, who may be on one of the panels. “She’s actually pretty heavily involved [in politics], which I guess a lot of people don’t know,” said Clarke.

Other potential stars who have not yet been confirmed include singers Babyface and Mary J. Blige. Clarke insisted that this year’s conference will be “bigger than ever because we’re taking it to another level.”

Capitol Hill bars want their Nats TV

Some Capitol Hill bars are feeling cheated that they cannot air Washington Nationals baseball games in their watering holes.

And they’re fighting back. On Aug. 27, seven coalition bars — Kelly’s Irish Times, Hawk ’n’ Dove, Bullfeathers, Uncle Jed’s Roadhouse, McFadden’s and the Crystal City Sports Pub — will protest by attending a National’s game wearing “I want my Nats TV” T-shirts.

At issue is the fact that these establishments cannot get DirecTV and Comcast will not show the games because of a money war with Peter Angelos, who owns the Baltimore Orioles and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which has cable rights to the games.

“Because of where we are located, we cannot get DirecTV,” said Brendan Kelly, owner of Kelly’s Irish Times. “We are a one-story building with high rises all around us.

“If we lose $100 in revenue a game, times 162, that’s a $16,200 minimum.”

Kelly added, “It seems sad when I can walk to RFK Stadium and watch the games but I can’t get it in my restaurant.”

About 50-60 people from Kelly’s Irish Times will participate in the protest, Kelly said. “We have people coming in every day looking for the games,” he said. “When we say no, they won’t necessarily walk out but we feel they are going back to the office and saying, ‘Well, the Irish Times doesn’t have Nationals games on,’ so I think it affects us.”

Linda Farmer, general manager of Ramparts, a sports bar in Alexandria, said the protest began one afternoon when the Nationals were playing. “People got irritated and walked out,” she said.

Ramparts gets DirecTV but didn’t know it had to purchase a special $34.99 package to get the games. “The [money] isn’t a big deal,” Farmer said. “I just wish somebody had told me.

“There are those restaurants that cannot get DirecTV, so they are completely screwed, if you will forgive the phrase.

Announcements

Staffer leaves Hill for England

Jonathan Orr, spokesman for the House Office of Compliance, will leave his post to attend graduate school at the London School of Economics, where he plans to earn a master’s degree in public policy and administration.

He and his wife, Cara, will move to London with their newborn son, Flynn Davis. “It will be fun to not have a regular job for a year,” he remarked over e-mail. “No more suits: I can dress casual for a year – woohoo!” Orr is also a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve.