Seven Deadly Sins

How to Commit Them (Without, You Know, Doing Anything Wrong)

By Dan Zak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 22, 2007; M01

Hot as hell out there, isn't it?

The summer heat amplifies our vices, but we're sinners year-round. Doesn't matter if you're religious or not. We harbor scandalous thoughts about our married sunbathing neighbor. We seethe with jealousy over a co-worker's promotion. We allow ourselves to descend into a rut of laziness and file stories well past deadline. Ahem.

Seven sins in particular have fascinated us for centuries. They're the deadly ones: envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth and wrath. They sprang from the minds of 1st-century monks and were codified by Pope Gregory I at the end of the 6th century as behavioral markers on one's earthly route to heaven or hell.

Although grandiose and Dantean in name, the sins are as applicable to us today as they ever were, says Solomon Schimmel, author of "The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian, and Classical Reflections on Human Nature."

"The purpose of civilization is not to deny human nature," Schimmel says. "But one has to figure out a way to civilize [the sins], so to speak. Not to sublimate them, but to channel them or direct them."

We're nothing if not civilized here at the Sunday Source, so we thought it might be purposeful (or fun, at the very least) to indulge the sins without harming ourselves or others. A little redirection, if you will. We tested seven innocent ways to "commit" the seven deadly sins. So let's ascend Dante's Mountain of Purgatory, terrace by terrace, sin by sin, until we reach our metaphorical paradise. Or, in my case, the completion of this story.

ENVY

A resentfulawareness of an advantage enjoyed by another ... Ogling Jewelry You Can't Have

They come in as if they might buy something. They try this on. They try that on. They pretend to be in the market so they can see what it feels like to wear one-of-a-kind $13,000 Peruvian opal earrings. And that's more than welcome at Tiny Jewel Box.

"That happens all the time, and I really like that we can serve that purpose for people, because there should be a degree of fantasy in the store," says Matt Rosenheim, the store's president. "That's how a lot of people develop their taste and their appreciation for unusual things. We love that, and we're happy to indulge them."

Tiny Jewel Box started 77 years ago in a 6-by-6-foot space on G Street NW and now makes a grand six-story building home on Connecticut Avenue NW between Farragut Square and Dupont Circle. It carries exclusive items from both prominent and smaller designers, and it sells double brilliant diamonds -- meaning they have 108 facets instead of the normal 54.

They're really sparkly.

"The first floor has what I like to call serious bling," says Paola Domenge, the store's marketing director. It doesn't get much more serious than a certain piece in the vintage section of the first floor. It's a set from 1925: a brooch and two bracelets made of moonstones, sapphires and diamonds that combine into one necklace. Price tag?

$145,000. Bam.

"If it's not special, it's not here," goes the store's motto.

After trying on the opals, moonstones and other new or vintage items (ranging from the Victorian era to retro), you can take the elevator up to a higher floor, where purchases may be more fiscally feasible: fashion-savvy gifts such as wallets, umbrellas and vases, plus jewelry by David Yurman. You can drop as little as $150 on a pair of quality earrings or revel in a fine selection of watches. Just don't give the first floor a second thought till you make your first million.

Tiny Jewel Box, 1147 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-393-2747, http://www.tinyjewelbox.com.

GLUTTONY

Overindulgence of food or drink ... Bellying Up to the Buffet

One price + no limit on servings = the ravenous splendor of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Take the Sunday Champagne Brunch at Beacon Bar & Grill, where $24.95 will get you bottomless mimosas, champagne and bloody marys, plus an extravagant breakfast spread featuring made-to-order omelets and teeming tins of brunchy goodness.

Let's quantify the gluttony: About 144 bottles of champagne are consumed every Sunday, general manager Kamran Vakili says, and it's not uncommon for parties to park themselves at 11 a.m. and gorge for the full four hours.

Then there's dinner at the area's premier all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. A quartet of folks from Las Vegas -- the buffet capital of North America -- was starting dessert recently at Phillips Seafood's flagship restaurant on the District's Southwest waterfront (lunch is $14.99, dinner $26.99). Do they feel the need to gorge themselves to get more than their money's worth?

"Absolutely I do," Darren Gagnon says instantly.

"I can't breathe right now," Jim Kennedy says, leaning back in his chair and patting his tummy.

The restaurant can seat 1,200 people in its 40,000-square-foot space, and it goes through 500 pounds of crab legs per day (and 2,200 pounds on Mother's Day alone), says executive chef Ben Opitz, whose kitchen must keep up with diners' limitless appetites.

"I've seen a woman with two full plates, and she said it was her seventh and eighth plate," says Opitz, who in his 20 years at Phillips has seen people's buffet habits tend toward "grazing," or filling a plate with just a little bit of everything. Ask any diner who is strategically apportioning his plate, and he'll say the point is to take advantage of both the volume and the variety.

Brunch is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Beacon Bar & Grill, 1615 Rhode Island Ave. NW, 202-872-1126, http://www.beaconbarandgrill.com.

Phillips Seafood, 900 Water St. SW, 202-488-8515, http://www.phillipsseafood.com.

GREED

A selfish desire for material wealth ... Betting at Rosecroft Raceway

"Discover the winner in you!"

So says the sign outside Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, just off the Capital Beltway. Since 1949, people have gambled there on harness racing, where a driver in a cart steers a horse in a mile-long sprint around the track.

"Everybody that comes through the door -- though they won't admit it -- thinks they're going to come out a winner," track announcer Pete Medhurst says while preparing for a 7:20 p.m. post time last weekend. You need bet only $1, though Medhurst has seen several wagers in excess of $150,000 this summer.

Dozens of televisions (even on tables in the upstairs restaurant) show simulcasts of horse racing across the country. Audiences gather around the screens, shouting at horses in New Jersey and Louisiana, slapping their own haunches, scampering back and forth to the betting booths to put down and collect money.

The main event is the twice-weekly live racing at Rosecroft, which draws families and grizzled old-timers into the humid trackside twilight. Last weekend, father-and-son team Tim and John Ellis snagged front-row seats as the first of 15 races got underway. It was the fifth time this summer that they had made the 40-minute trip from Centreville.

"I love to gamble," says John, 19.

"We bring our whole paycheck," jokes John's friend Rajan Sagar, also 19.

So is it about greed?

"It's about recreation," Rajan says.

"Recreation, my butt," Tim scoffs. "He likes to win money."

"We're college students with a gambling problem," Rajan deadpans.

"I just try to keep them away from the ATM," Tim says.

Live racing Tuesdays at 5:35 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:20 p.m. through Sept. 29, and Nov. 3-Dec. 15. Simulcasting daily at 11:30 a.m. Rosecroft Raceway, 6336 Rosecroft Dr., Fort Washington, 301-567-4000, http://www.rosecroft.com. $3, simulcasting only is free.

LUST

An obsessive or excessive desire, usually of a sexual nature ... People-Watching at Ibiza

There are a dozen reservable tables throughout the new dance club Ibiza, but the costliest one is next to the main dance floor and underneath a transparent glass platform on which go-go dancers gyrate in skimpy white feathered bikinis. In short, it's a prime location for ogling flesh and fashion on both the X and Y axes.

But so is anywhere else in Ibiza, a classy 30,000-square-foot leviathan of a club that opened two weeks ago and strives to reproduce the hyper-trendy complete entertainment experience of rock-star venues in Los Angeles and Miami. It's designed for watching and being watched -- from the tables adjoining the dance floors, to tiered terraces from which you can gaze down at objects of attraction, to a giant open-air dual-level rooftop. On a recent Friday night, men took cellphone videos of the go-go dancers, whose duty is . . .

"To entertain," says dancer Jenni Rodriguez, 20, who lives in Springfield. "The dancers are there to make people dance."

And to inspire desire?

"I try to always smile," she says. "I try to flirt with my eyes, but as soon as they go -- " she pantomimes someone trying to grab her arm " -- nuh-uh."

Justin Reid, 25, stands a few feet away with a bird's-eye view of the vast main dance floor. "I approach a girl, and whatever happens happens," says Reid, who lives in New Carrollton. "I'm looking for a connection. A lot of people come for lust, but I think you can find love here."

Or at least a clot of smartly dressed clientele. Ibiza is the kind of place that brings in a supermodel to be a guest DJ and hosts a Nicole Miller fashion show in the middle of the dance floor, both of which happened last weekend. At 12:30 a.m., all eyes turned to the catwalk, lusting after the clothes on the women or the women inside them. Cameras flashed. Necks craned.

All of a sudden it was over, and Amy Winehouse blared, and everyone went back to appraising one another.

Ibiza, 1222 First St. NE. 877-424-9207. http://www.dcclubhost.com. Thursday is college night (18 to enter, 21 to drink, $10 cover). $20 cover Friday and Saturday.

PRIDE

Inordinate self-esteem ... Ego Alley in Annapolis

Pride floats in from the Chesapeake on million-dollar boats and idles into Ego Alley -- a narrow inlet that runs 300 paces from Spa Creek to the foot of Main Street in downtown Annapolis. Here's where boastful boat owners parade their shiny white trophies in front of gawking pedestrians. They tie up for lunch, gamely field questions from tourists ("What kind?" "How much?") and bask in the grandeur of their vehicles.

To understand this maritime pride, you need only look at the names painted on the boats: Perfection from Riva. My Boat and Show Time from Annapolis. Sometimes the boats are so big they have to back out of the alley to get to open water.

"You come down here on a Saturday, and it's a constant parade of boats," says Tom Van Huben, a dockmaster for Fawcett Boat Supplies. "But no matter what size your boat is, you're always going to find someone with something bigger."

On a recent sunny afternoon, a man and woman stroll by Pool Man, a 48-foot Sea Ray that B.D. and Penny Laderberg have just ridden in on from Virginia Beach.

"I love your boat," the woman gushes.

"Beautiful boat," the man echoes curtly.

The Laderbergs bought it a couple of months ago. It's a step up from their previous boat: a 42-foot Sea Ray.

So why the six-foot upgrade?

"Aw, c'mon," Penny says. "Men and their toys. It's his baby. Ask him."

B.D. demurs. "I saw this boat and fell in love with it," he says.

Ego Alley is bordered by Compromise and Dock streets at the foot of Main Street in downtown Annapolis.

SLOTH

Disinclination to action or labor ... Tubing on the Potomac

Then there was the time a group of tubers fell asleep on the Potomac and drifted 11 miles downstream from their pickup point.

"They were sunbathing and relaxed too much," owner George Heffner Jr. says, shrugging. He started Butts Tubes 13 seasons ago with his father. The venture has since spawned a yearly pilgrimage of people who plop their behinds in an inner tube and let the water do the work.

On any given Saturday this summer, a thousand people descend on Butts Tubes at the northern tip of Loudoun County about an hour from the District. They put on life vests, shuttle to the river, sit in a tube, enjoy the passing scenery and get picked up again a few miles downstream.

It's the perfect way to revel in slothfulness, right?

"Ohhh, no," Gaby Sardo, 7, says while waiting for the bus to the banks earlier this month. She's quick to refute the notion that tubing is for the indolent.

"You've got to paddle and get into the right stream," she explains. "It's a lot of work."

"It's not a lot of work -- c'mon," says her mother, Kathy Jenkins.

Gaby and her mom, who live in Fairfax, went flatwater tubing with other family members, but Butts Tubes (under the umbrella moniker BTI Whitewater) also offers whitewater tubing and rafting for the more industrious.

For non-river time, there's a picnic area, charcoal grills, a horseshoe pit and live bluegrass music on Saturday afternoons. So there's a range of recreational options on the sloth scale, but the mission is the same: a little invigoration couched by a lot of relaxation.

"That's what we're aiming for," Heffner says. "For people to come out and relax."

Tubing is available into September at Butts Tubes, on Harpers Ferry Road off Route 340, 800-836-9911, http://www.buttstubes.com. $18-$28 per person for a whole day.

For other tubing options, check out River Riders (800-326-7238, http://www.riverriders.com) in Harpers Ferry and River & Trail Outfitters (888-446-7529, http://www.rivertrail.com) in Frederick County.

WRATH

Strong vengeful anger or indignation ... Paintball in Bowie

Paintball changes people.

You'll see this when the white-collar crowd takes an office field trip to Outdoor Adventures in Bowie. With their ties off and workplace manner shucked, they get into it. Paintball referee Ron Williamsen, 21, has seen it firsthand.

"They're cooped up in those offices, and they're all suited up and stuck in that little environment of theirs," says Williamsen, who lives in Anne Arundel County. "This is almost primal for them. It's a great release. . . . I've definitely chilled out since I've started playing."

"It's great for that," echoes Gambrills resident Russ Battaglia, 32, who plays at Outdoor Adventures several times a week. "Go out there and shoot the boss. If you're having a bad day, it's hard to leave here with a frown."

On a recent Tuesday night, Battaglia was a walk-on, or a solo paintballer who shows up for night games on Tuesdays and Fridays (6 to 10 p.m.) or on weekends during the day (9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) to be grouped into a random team. With the sun setting and the wrathful humidity waning, a dozen walk-ons darted behind bunkers and pillars, firing rounds of paintballs at speeds up to 300 feet per second on a 120-yard-long field. Blebs of yellow paint zipped off obstacles and goggles as referees called people out.

"Almost every paintballer comes out here to get out aggression," says referee Quay Bright, 19, of Bowie. "It keeps kids out of trouble."

Outdoor Adventures has been around since 1988 and has seen a surge in attendance since ESPN began featuring paintball competitions a few years ago. More than 100 walk-ons show up on the weekends to play on any of the 14 fields on the 88-acre spread. The excitement and the teamwork are big draws, the referees say.

"Most of these guys are high on adrenaline," Williamsen says while watching a group of 25 friends on one of the playing fields in the woods. "Then they'll go home and sleep like babies."

Outdoor Adventures, 16698 Governor Bridge Rd., Bowie (take a left on the dirt path after the Toyota dealership and drive about a mile), 800-456-6636, http://www.oapaintball.com. $35-$65 for a rental package (includes admission, paintballs, a semi-automatic air gun, compressed air fills, goggles, face mask and a two-pouch harness for extra paintballs).