If you know me or read my blog, you may or may not be aware of my love-hate relationship with Bethesda. We moved to Bethesda from a friendly neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia. I was a relatively new mom, staying at home for a while with my toddler and infant. I found it impossible to make friends here — the two local parks, where I’d hope to meet like-minded women with their own young children, held either perfect-haired women that always traveled in pairs (plus kids) or their nannies, most of whom didn’t share a common language with me. The few women in the neighborhood with similar-aged children worked long hours, and didn’t have time to make new friends.

It took until the kids were well into their elementary school years and hours of volunteering for school and community organizations before I began to finally lose the feeling of a “fish out of water”. I think that part of my problem (and I fully accept it was my problem) was that I was the first in my family to not be a blue-collar worker. While that would not have been a problem in an area with other folks like me, Bethesda is a white-collar town.

I still like finding people with a similar backgrounds to me. That’s normal, right? I also like finding people who have the same feeling about Bethesda I do. When I mention that I don’t love Bethesda, most people give me a look of disbelief — how can I not like living here? What about the restaurants? What about the schools? What about the neighborhoods?

So, when I discovered the brand new publication, Bethesda World News (via Susan Coll‘s blog) I rushed to the library where I found the last copy.

Bethesda World News is sort of like The Onion, but features stories about Bethesda. Funny stories about Bethesda. Funny and not-quite-real stories about Bethesda. I especially liked the story titled, Bethesda Elementary Discovers First Ungifted Child. The article describes the taunts other children chant to the child: “Johnny reads on grade level. Johnny reads on grade level!” Another headline, Woman Spotted on Woodmont without Pedicure, made me laugh out loud.

While there is little on the website for the publication, I’m hoping they’ll put up their stories. I also hope that they don’t run out of ideas — but that could take a while. There’s a lot to make fun of in this town.

If you’re on Facebook, you can find them here.