Publisher's Notebook

Music legend Paul Simon played DAR Constitution Hall in DC last week. Near the end of the show, after a rousing version of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” (a highlight from the stellar 1986 album “Graceland”), Simon launched into another tune from that record, “Gumboots.”

Only Simon, 69, missed the cue.

A guy in the front row called out the first lines to jog Simon. The master said, “Well, why don’t you come up and sing it?”

So another Paul – a lawyer named Paul Fournier – got his moment in the spotlight, in all his buttoned-down-blue-shirt splendor. Fournier delivered a dead-on “near perfect” rendition of “Gumboots,” according to the Washington Post.

Simon apparently has a practice of inviting fans on stage to sing or play with him, reports the Post’s Reliable Source. In Toronto, he met a woman who said she learned to play the guitar by practicing Simon’s “Duncan,” so he asked her to join him on stage.

Back to Fournier – he practices patent law with Drinker, Biddle & Reath in the District. He told the Post the chance to harmonize with Simon was “an amazing experience.”

The performance is, of course, available on YouTube.

Trend Alert: Here’s one you may not have seen yet, but odds are, it will make its way into your life soon.

There is a movement, mostly spurred by social media such as Twitter, to start referring to the Metropolitan DC area as “the DMV” (as in District/Maryland/Virginia).

What’s wrong with “Nation’s Capital” or “Metro DC,” you ask? When you’re limited to 140 characters a post, those titles take up much-needed room.

The Washington Post first flagged the development with an article back in July. The Post writer’s take was generally positive, likening the need for a cool regional nickname along the lines of “H-town” for Houston, or “the 612″ for Minneapolis (taken from the area code) or “the ‘nati” for Cincinnati. OK, Cincy needs to work on this.

TBD, the TV station/news website covering the Metro DC area (I’m not succumbing yet), notes that “the DMV” has been pretty controversial. TBD has solicited comment from Twitter users with alternate hashtags, #dmv and #nodmv.

The “no” votes are winning. Reasons for the thumbs-down:

One guy tweeted, “@TBD #nodmv, mostly because I live in #NoVA and want nothing to do with Maryland. #EffMD”

Another woman said, “@TBD No DMV. Don’t associate my favorite city with the most god-awful place on earth: the Department of Motor Vehicles.”

That sounds pretty reasonable.

Thanks to the lingering February snow dump, here’s a tradition that is apparently old hat in cities up north such as Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, but somewhat new to our region: Marking your dug-out parking spot after a snowstorm.

In places that get a lot of snow, residents will patiently dig out their cars along a city street, then claim the spot with a lawn chair. Yes, a lawn chair. Animals are known to use somewhat different methods to mark their territory, but a lawn chair is somewhat more civilized.

One can imagine the arguments and even fights that ensue. Maybe it’s a test of neighborly good intentions. As the mayor of Philadelphia told a local radio station after the latest wallop, lawn chair and parking space etiquette are “generally agreed to things between and among neighbors.”

We’ll keep you posted as to when cases of lawn chair rage end up in the courts. Could be a whole new practice specialty if the snow hangs around much longer.

Donna Childress, our friend and one-time associate editor, now runs her own writing and Web business in DC, Childress Communications. She reports in a post on the blog “We Love DC” that her neighborhood is “short on patio furniture and long on creativity.”

Instead of a lawn chair, one person placed a cute smiling stuffed monkey as his/her personal parking space sentinel, practically daring someone to mess with Curious George.

Then at the other end of the spectrum, another of Donna’s neighbors placed an urn in a hard-won space. Yes, an urn. The message: “Take this spot, and your ashes go here.”

Here’s hoping for a quick thaw…