Loose Lips is a politics column published in the Washington City Paper

Washington City Paper

The Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...

, a United States of America (U.S.) alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, metropolitan area. It is billed as "The definitive guide to hometown politics in the nation's capital."

History

In 1983, when Ken Cummins started writing it, "Loose Lips" began as a political gossip column, encompassing both local and national politics. Over the next decade, the format eventually became entirely devoted to Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, local politics, focusing on intrigue in the mayor's office, the D.C. Council, and the city bureaucracy. In January 1999, Cummins retired; contributing editor Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple is the editor of the alternative weekly Washington City Paper. He was raised in Schenectady, New York and attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, graduating in 1986. In 1986-87 Wemple taught and coached sports at Trinity Pawling School, in Pawling, New York. In the fall of...

 replaced him. In November 2000, Wemple left the post to become senior editor and was replaced by Jonetta Rose Barras, a longtime contributor to the paper. Barras resigned from the paper on August 13, 2001, and Elissa Silverman held the position from January 2002 until December 2004, when her employment with the newspaper was terminated. Former WAMU-FM reporter James Jones wrote the column from March 2005 through June 21, 2007, when he posted his "last column" as "Loose Lips" and stated that a successor to him would be appointed soon. Mike DeBonis, formerly City Papers senior editor, was named the sixth Loose Lips columnist in July 2007. His first column appeared that September. On April 26, 2010 the News Channel 8 twitter feed announced that Mike DeBonis will be leaving "Loose Lips" on April 28th to join the Washington Post.

Conventions

"Loose Lips" is typically 1,200 to 2,000 words long.

The column is written in the third person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...

; the columnist refers to himself or herself as "LL." From its inception until Barras wrote the column, then again until October 2003, the column was unsigned, lending the a column a gossipy, "hush-hush" feel. Since then, the writer of "Loose Lips" provides a byline

Byline

The byline on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name, and often the position, of the writer of the article. Bylines are traditionally placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines place bylines at the bottom of the page, to leave more room for graphical...

.

Cummins coined the sobriquet

Sobriquet

A sobriquet is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. It is usually a familiar name, distinct from a pseudonym assumed as a disguise, but a nickname which is familiar enough such that it can be used in place of a real name without the need of explanation...

 "Mayor-for-Life" for former D.C. mayor Marion Barry

Marion Barry

Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995...

. Until Barry returned to the D.C. Council in 2005, "LL" columns have almost always referred to him as "Mayor-for-Life Marion S. Barry Jr." Barry's third wife, Cora Masters Barry, received a similar treatment: "Cora Masters Lady MacBarry."

The first occurrence of the name of each person mentioned in the column appears in bold face.

External links

• "Loose Lips". Index page. Includes hyperlinks to previous columns in "Recent Loose Lips" and features last column posted by James Jones. June 20, 2007. Accessed August 29, 2007.