diff --git a/recipes/wash_post.recipe b/recipes/wash_post.recipe
index 6460104be8..73d869a905 100644
--- a/recipes/wash_post.recipe
+++ b/recipes/wash_post.recipe
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 __license__ = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2011, Darko Miletic <darko.miletic at gmail.com>'
 '''
@@ -28,6 +30,20 @@ class TheWashingtonPost(BasicNewsRecipe):
     publication_type = 'newspaper'
     remove_attributes = ['style', 'width', 'height']
 
+    recipe_specific_options = {
+        'days': {
+            'short': 'Oldest article to download from this news source. In days ',
+            'long': 'For example, 0.5, gives you articles from the past 12 hours',
+            'default': str(oldest_article)
+        }
+    }
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        BasicNewsRecipe.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
+        d = self.recipe_specific_options.get('days')
+        if d and isinstance(d, str):
+            self.oldest_article = float(d)
+
     extra_css = '''
         .img { text-align:center; font-size:small; }
         .auth { font-weight:bold; font-size:small; }