ANNOUNCING: THE BIZZIES!

Start the drum roll: Our long promised list of top lawyers is around the corner. We’re also thinking of naming the best brokers by region and specialty, though that’ll be a little farther down the road.

Any resemblance to living publishers or columnists is purely coincidental

As with our Power 50, we’re not so scientific as to do this by adding up data or turning to judging panels. What fun is that? Our method is just to get our nose out into the community and sniff around. So far, we think there’s surprising consensus about who has the juice in real estate. And even if we’re wrong, eh, isn’t that what the First Amendment ’s for?

Anyway, instead of doing these in rank order, we are going to name several in each category — but only a very sparing number so it’s terribly exclusive — and confer upon these exceptional personages the highly coveted and prestigious “Bizzy.”

What?! You’ve never heard of the Bizzy? Do you live under some rock?

Oh, that's right, we just invented it. We believe it’s like an Oscar, except you don’t have to make a movie or wear anything low-cut to receive it. In fact, it may not even be a physical prize (we’ll check prices at the local trophy stores), and you may have to settle for merely the universal spiritual approbation of humankind. So, stay tuned — or what would be the online expression? Stay URLed?

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Couple more things, while we have your attention:

Have you noticed, we are now publishing — gasp! — THREE times a week! Oh, my, is there any end to the momentum of this vast media empire? You readers are just insatiable and tell us constantly (or at least two or three of you have mentioned it once) that you hunger for our fine editorial product. So we aim for a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule, with occasional extras as news requires.

Little wrinkle: It wouldn’t seem very apt to call this a Weekly anymore. So we are thinking up very clever new names, although at the moment we have thought of none. As always, suggestions and comments are welcome. It is possible that the winner who suggests the best new title will receive an all-expense paid trip to a chateau in the Loire for a group of 18. And then again, it's possible they may not.

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Finally, we are postponing our Dec. 13 confab with Jeff Neal, Michael Darby, and Diane Hoskins. Michael got called out of town, and while Jeff offered to go solo, we believe the sizzle of this session was to be the rare joint appearance of the two co-founders. We are going to try to reschedule this for January or February, details to come.

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Well, we said “finally” a paragraph ago, but where would we be without party pictures? Wednesday night, CEO Ed Nussbaum of Grant Thornton paid a visit to its Tysons office, and we are always happy to attend a sponsor’s party, especially when it features lots of great food. The night was a crowded success, and here’s what we learned: they have 49 offices and are about to open a 50th in San Antonio, which was actually driven by government business they picked up here.

Cassidy & Pinkard's Curt Leger Wednesday night with Grant Thornton CEO Ed Nussbaum and local managing partner Rich LaFleur celebrating their beautiful new building in Tysons.