Opening night crowd at this splendid, brand-new Italian eatery is conservatively dressed, considering the Capitol Hill location. One customer in a tank top, one server with a piercing and tats, but mostly it's long-sleeved shirts of muted stripes. The chef, Justin Niedermeyer, wears a vest. The barman, Gavin Morris, serves Seattlest opening night's first negroni. Sometime later, he makes another negroni, but we spot maitre d' Matthew Lawrence taking it back to the kitchen. No,......

There's a whole wide world out there, and here's the proof: DCist revels in The University of Maryland's basketball triumphs, marvels at Metro's security strategy, and applauds DC local Katie Couric's new gig. Phillyist is all about the Philadelphia Film Festival. OK, not all about -- they still have time for loitering, underage sex, and random wacky news. LAist would have to send a camera around the world to get shots as bizarre as Katie's......

According to news stories via The Globe and Mail and The LA Times (registration required), an accused lawyer by the name of Jules Zalon representing Robert Crumb filed a lawsuit in a Seattle court December 21 against Amazon.com seeking compensation for an older case of copyright infringement whereby the online shopping behemoth allegedly made an unauthorized use of Crumb's keep on truckin' character on its website in 2003. Seattlest finds lawsuits like these kind of......