Tuesday, October 24
Psycho-babes
Apparently, you’re never too young to hit the leather couch. Shrinks are now targeting the playpen with new psychotherapies for babies and their parents, a Wall Street Journal article reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today. UVA researchers and others have developed a group therapy called the “Circle of Security,” which studies attachment between infants and parents, targeting issues like separation anxiety. Parents and babies are videotaped for 30 minutes once per week for 20 weeks; parents observe and try to improve their responses. Infant psychology is a growing field, the article reports, with twice the number of regional affiliates of the World Association for Infant Mental Health since 1996. That’s a lot of forcibly well-adjusted toddlers.
Wednesday,
October 25
Cheers!
Bully for Keswick Hall! Today the discerning eye of Condé Nast Traveler, the magazine “de choix” for cultured globetrotters, spotted the luxurious Keswick hotel to be among the best places to stay in North America. The November issue of the magazine includes its annual readers poll, a “giant radar” of notable places. With an overall score of 94.4 out of 100 (maybe the Perrier could’ve been bubblier), Keswick ranked No. 52 in the “Top 100 in the World” category and a sweet No. 10 in the “Top 100 Mainland US hotels.” (Well, if you must stay on the mainland, we suppose it’ll do.) At 52 rooms, the cozy Keswick Hall, about 10 minutes outside of Charlottesville, beat out other chichi American sites such as North Carolina’s Biltmore Estate and Tennessee’s Blackberry Farm.
Thursday, October 26
Hokie smokes!
After being soundly whipped in their past two games, Virginia Tech came out strong at home and toppled then-ACC leading No. 10 Clemson, 24-7. The game’s most valuable player easily goes to Tech running back Brandon Ore, who scored two touchdowns and became the first Hokie to run for more than 200 yards in back-to-back games. Kudos must also go out to the Tech defense for surrendering only seven points to the vaunted Clemons offense—the No. 1 scoring offense in the NCAA—as well as holding them to a mere 76 total yards in the final three quarters.
Friday, October 27
Courting Lady Train
out of the Virginia Senate race, the Associated Press reported today. Parker’s platform stands firmly on two rails and ranges from the logical (trains would reduce traffic in NOVA), to the absurd (her stance on immigration is that we’ll need foreign workers to build all those trains!). The Independent was left out of several debates between Senate incumbent George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb, but is now discussing a potential endorsement with both camps. Allen’s campaign has been receptive to Parker—campaign manager DickThird-party candidate Gail “For Rail” Parker is negotiating whom she will endorse if she drops Wadhams said, “Allen’s always been supportive of rail issues in Northern Virginia.” Parker’s slim campaign budget is pulling her only 2 percent in statewide polls. But, in an extra-tight Senate race, even endorsements that are a little “choo choo” may count.
Saturday, October 28
The Commonwealth’s circus
Virginia’s struggle for senatorial power has garnered the title “strangest Senate race of the year” from this week’s issue of The New Yorker. Though the reporting focuses on challenger Jim Webb, as he raises a whisky toast for his son’s departure for Iraq and gets upstaged by Barack Obama at his own campaign rally, anyone not yet familiar with Allen’s “macaca” gaffe or secret Jewish heritage can get dutiful explanations in that iconic New Yorker font. The final word on Webb: “One senses that if this first campaign also proved to be his last he would survive the disappointment.”
Sunday, October 29
Goode reviews?
The Martinsville Bulletin ran a long, laudatory piece today about Representative Virgil Goode. Which is strange, because, wasn’t Martinsville the town that got the raw end of a deal between the same Congressman and MZM, a crooked defense contractor? Apparently, Goode “has helped to direct nearly $9 million to Martinsville and Henry County, according to documentation from his office.” Of the MZM scandal, the piece spends three paragraphs summarizing Goode’s position—that he didn’t know contributions from the company’s corrupt founder, Mitchell Wade, were illegal, and that a facility he championed was his attempt to give the Martinsville economy a “shot in the arm.” But, the debacle ended up being a shot to the citizens’ pocketbooks, too and could cost taxpayers $500,000.
Monday, October 30
Bambi beware!
In anticipation of the upcoming deer-hunting season, which blasts off November 18, today’s Daily Progress surveys the upcoming free-for-all, and shows a particular enthusiasm for whacking the ladies. Yes, that’s right: Due to Virginia’s rapidly multiplying deer population, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is promoting equal-opportunity aggression against Virginia’s four-legged venison factories. Noting that “the department is pleased to see that nearly half the deer killed in Albemarle County are female,” the Progress goes on to quote “deer project manager” Matt Knox as saying, “That 50 percent number is just about right for what we want to see.” Hmm…we’re guessing that’s one glass ceiling Bambi’s mom would be happy to leave unbroken.
