what's up the pike: the bag is pink

- Tonight, talk to county planners about the future of Long Branch at a community meeting for the Long Branch Sector Plan, which will lay out a vision for the neighborhood when the Purple Line opens there at the end of the decade. The meeting starts at 7pm at the Long Branch Library, 8800 Garland Avenue at Arliss Street.

- Meanwhile, the Forum Theatre troupe kicks off their latest production Amazons and Their Men, a play "loosely based" on the life of German propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. The show opens this Thursday and Friday at 8pm and will run through March 20 at the Round House Theatre on Colesville Road. Tickets will go on sale an hour before the show starts.

- If you like to write, don't forget to enter Bethesda Magazine's short story contest, open to residents of Montgomery County and parts of Northwest DC (of course, only the zip codes that border Bethesda. Guess Shepherd Park and Takoma aren't literary enough.) Winners will receive $500 ($250 for their "high school" category), a gift certificate to the Writer's Center, and of course get published in Bethesda Magazine. Submissions for both the adult and high school categories are due this Friday.

- Celebrate the deliverance of the Jewish people from Persia at a Purim Festival this Sunday in Downtown Silver Spring. Hosted by the Ohev Sholom synagogue in Shepherd Park, the festival will include live music, a magic show, pony rides, and free hamentashen. (Mmm, triangle-shaped cookies.) The festival is from 1:45 to 3:30pm on Ellsworth Drive between Fenton and Georgia.