GREEN & GLOVER: Santa loves the troops

We hear St. Nick is going to visit female soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan a little early this year, thanks to a new program from the USO.

Mark Phillips, vice president of communications for the USO, tells G2 exclusively that for the first time ever, the USO is launching its Care Package Stuffing Parties for Women in the Rayburn House Office Building foyer on Nov. 18.

This is the first time that the party, a tradition since 2003, has packed away goodies “that are uniquely tailored to women,” Mr. Phillips says.

He explains that this year’s stocking stuffers will include skin-care products, lip balm and hand cream — perfect amenities for soldiers braving the onset of old man winter in South Asia and the Middle East.

(Corrected paragraph:) Among the 200 Santa’s elves at the event will be second lady Jill Biden; Sheila Casey, wife of Army Chief of Staff George W. Casey; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; and members of the USO Congressional Caucus.

Mr. Phillips tells us that 2,000 packages will be prepared on the 18th and they should land before Christmas.

We’re also told the ladies overseas can expect “an unexpected” gift from the North Pole, but sorry, far be it from us to spoil a surprise.

Suffice it to say, it’s something on every wish list this holiday season.

Booze man’s baby on the rocks

You’ve probably walked by it a dozen times, admired its Old World, slightly imposing grandeur and moved on, but the keepers of “one of Washington’s best-kept secrets,” the Christian Heurich House, also known as the Brewmaster’s Castle, wants you to get to know this landmark on the National Register of Historic Places and help them restore it to its glory days as a mecca of Washington society.

Sitting on the corner of 20th Street and New Hampshire Avenue Northwest, the mansion was built sometime between 1892 and 1894 by a philanthropist of German extraction, Christian Heurich (HI-rick), who built his considerable fortune primarily by brewing beer.

During his heyday, he was one of the biggest cats around, owing to his being the second-largest landowner in the District and its largest private employer. He ran his brewery, now the site of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, until his death in 1945 at the ripe old age of 102.

Brewing beer wasn’t the only thing that kept Heurich busy late in life. He was married three times, and all of his four children were born to him in his 60s and 70s.

Story Continues →