As we make final preparations for the holidays, 68,000 U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan. On Christmas Day, some might get a decent meal and a little booze at a base where they can Facebook relatives; others will be stuck in inhospitable outposts littering the remote countryside. They’ll wake up, in the morning or evening, […]
Elliott Woods grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the son of a Navy doctor. He attended a prestigious Catholic boys’ school in Bethesda, a Washington, D.C. suburb dotted with exclusive country clubs and peopled by physicians, lawyers, and deal makers. A self-described “rambunctious kid who had some disciplinary problems,” Woods was forced to withdraw from high […]
Charlottesville’s not charming anymore, and it’s partly my fault. You take a college party town in close enough proximity to a major metro area to attract venture capital, weekend homes, bohemians, and commuters, and sooner or later the kinetic energy between the scene and the U turns the place from quaint to charming. Word starts […]
Americans are hungry. We work more hours per week than our counterparts in Europe and we eat more, too. Charlottesville has over 370 restaurants and a grocery store for every palate. We have no staple food, culturally; the cornucopia is our defining principle. Stay hungry out there, a pee wee football coach might say. Eat […]
(VIDEO) You might have seen the members of Les Grosses Erreurs (The Big Mistakes) on the Downtown Mall over the past few days. The Cajun musicians are in Charlottesville from Lafayette, Louisiana, after a stop in Asheville. They’ll be busking and playing house shows until Monday. Here they play “I have a broken heart.” For […]
There are a number of ways to indicate that the population is aging, but perhaps the most relevant is that the U.S. Census Bureau projects the dependency ratio —the number of people age 65 and older for every 100 people of traditional working age—will go from 22 in 2010 to 35 in 2030. In simplest […]
Chronic heart disease and cancer are by far the top killers of American adults, and together with lung disease account for more than half of adult deaths each year, according to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the population continues to age, the money the government spends on health care is disproportionately focused on patients at the end of their lives.
Buy local. Buy local. Buy local. You’ve been hearing it for years, and it’s starting to become like the Salvation Army bell ringer, something you ignore politely, with a pang of guilt that doesn’t linger past the first or second traffic light. About the time it takes to get through the rationale that it’s not […]
Even though apparently every Democrat was reading Nate Silver and knew exactly how the election would pan out, I witnessed a significant sense of relief last Wednesday, and then watched the euphoria build as political analysts unpacked the message President Obama’s victory sent: Republicans cannot continue to be the party of angry white men and […]
It is tempting to imagine that the resurgence of Virginia hard cider had its genesis in a single moment: Monticello’s Director of Gardens and Grounds Peter Hatch and Virginia gentleman Tom Burford kneeling together with their grafting knives to re-propagate the Virginia Hewe’s Crab apple tree in Thomas Jefferson’s north orchard.