Do you want to keep your love of Pat Benatar to yourself? Keep an eye on your stuff. (Photo: Associated Press)

• Howard Schneider found an iPod Shuffle on Sligo Creek Parkway and then humiliated its owner by posting its playlist online (I have to admit, I did not read this post; after reading the hed I thought it was one of those non-local clicky things ArtsPost has been doing lately!). That didn't root out the owner of more than a few Pat Benatar AACs, so Ryan Kellett dove in and found the owner's Apple ID. She is happy to have her iPod back. 

• TBD tried to reinvent local news, and maybe that didn't really take, but we saw an opening in this weekend's think piece in the New York Times about the Internet becoming more physical. "Perfect!" went the thinking. "Let's mail the Internet to readers!" So we sent around-$10 gifts to a few of the people we've written about this year. We ran out of money before we got to 10 recipients, but among the lucky seven are Dan Zak, Emily Miller, and Betsy Rothstein.

• D.C. bigs announced, sorta, their plan for the Lincoln Theatre, reports Benjamin R. Freed. Not a lot of specifics on what follows the four-week run of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (which starts today), but the longterm vision does seem to involve Michael Kaiser standing around in the shadows tut-tutting about the physical plant like a car dealer trying to shake your confidence in your trade-in.

• Two things you should know about Carl Sagan: 1) You can watch "Cosmos" on Netflix, and if you aren't doing this, the holidays are a perfect time to get started. 2) He died 15 years ago yesterday, and the "Sounds of the Earth" record/disk he got included in the "Voyager" spacecrafts are wending their way ever further from the Earth. You can see a replica of Sagan's gold record at Air & Space. 

• Government increases cultural funding. Really!

• Hey, Eric Hilton: How is that decision to make fun of Ally Schweitzer's salary working out for you, press-strategy-wise? Because it sort of seems like you've got a friend for life now!

• Mike Paarlberg takes on the Sisyphean challenge of deciding the winner in a Washington Chorus-Choral Arts Society cage match. He finds in favor of the "animal magnetism" of WashChor director Julian Wachner ("the evening started out with some inappropriate touching: Wachner instructed the audience to stand up and give each other backrubs") but he also goes all wobble-kneed for ChorArts' Irina Shishkova. I'm not gonna tell you who wins (trying to keep my aggregated peeps happy!) but unaddressed in this otherwise fine piece is a discussion of the fact that ALL CHORAL GROUPS SOUND EXACTLY THE SAME. Listen to these, blindfolded, with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir thrown in, and if you can tell one from the other you're a much better listener than me. Also you are lying. 

• Jessica Goldstein polled local theater machers on their favorite local theater moments of the year.

•  HR-57 is moving again, reports Michael J. West.

• W Jacarl Melton looks ahead to the "fortnight in hip-hop."

• Tom Jackman aggregates some new local Christmas music, including a too-sweet-to-be-believed Hannukah song by some young boys from Fairfax.

REVIEWS: Dulani Wallace on the Yellow Dubmarine at State Theatre. Kelly Kettering on Woods at Rock and Roll Hotel and on Black Cobra at the Black Cat. Debbie Jackson on "Knuffle Bunny" at KenCen (remarkable DC Theatre Scene restraint here: The lede is not a meditation on doing laundry). Mariya Danilenko on "Parfumerie" at 1st Stage.

• NOT ARTS, BUT: Arlington's robot tax collectors will steal your license plates if you've been naughty.

THINGS TO DO, COMPILED BY KIM CHI HA

Pop: White Wives w/ Beasts of No Nation at DC9. DC Traffic at Jammin’ Java. ‘Know Your Status’ concert w/ Chuck Brown and many special guests, hosted by Wale at 9:30 Club. Level 7 at Velvet Lounge. Glide, D.C.’s premiere New Age DJ night at U Hall. Holiday Concert w/ Leon Harris at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church.

Classical, jazz: Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree-O at Atlas. “A Redd Christmas” with the Redd Brothers at Blues Alley. The Washington Chorus: A Candlelight Christmas at Strathmore. The Music Pilgrim Trio at Strathmore Mansion. The Macarooms at Millennium Stage.

Theater: John Waters Christmas at Modell Performing Arts Center.

What-have-you: South Park Christmas episodes paired w/ $5 Great Lakes Christmas Ale! at Black Cat. My So-Called Jewish Life at Sixth & I. Erin Jackson (from "Last Comic Standing") at DC Improv. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” opens at Lincoln Theatre. French cinematheque: “The Three-Way Wedding” at Avalon. Andy Hendrickson at Riot Act Comedy Theater. Film: “Rubber Tramps” at Artisphere. Film: “Mysteries of Lisbon” at National Gallery of Art.

Cheap tix! TICKETPLACE has “Pride and Prejudice” at Round House, more. Goldstar's got “Equivocation” at Arena Stage, “Holiday Follies” at Signature, more.

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