Unrequited love

My first true love was Lauren Pardini, a pig-tailed brunette, in the first grade. My first true sports love was baseball. I’ve loved it since youth, played it and collected baseball cards. (If you need an extra for your softball team, my e-mail is listed above.) And unlike my courtship of Miss Pardini, baseball has […]

We caught you looking sweet!

Maggie McGraw Occupation: Splendora’s Gelato manager; retail salesclerk Where we spotted her: Just off the Downtown MallStyle sense: McGraw says she draws inspiration from observing other people. Today her study in Audrey Hepburn leggings and flats stays fresh with a lingerie-inspired top from Pearl.

Everything you always wanted

Back before “Seinfeld” made it a house-hold name, I was a total sucker for the J. Peterman catalogue. I would read those pages like I would read a book, imagining trips to Tangiers, Australian cowboys, Hemingway’s cufflinks, that kind of thing. I was in seventh grade then. Now, I think back on that catalogue and […]

Safety first

Here’s a personal admission: NASCAR never interested me growing up. Sitting, during an afternoon, watching cars go round and round on TV was somewhere between golf “pre-Tiger Woods” and observing grass growing. Oddly, with age comes open-mindedness. NASCAR is no longer the sport of the stereotypical slack-jawed redneck. From a marketing standpoint, there might not […]

Built to last?

“Past season” read the markdown tag on the flouncy linen skirt that Sweet Cakes was trying on at her favorite bargain retailer. “Harrumph,” Sweet sweetly harrumphed to herself. With a new belt (something bold and scarf-y) and a boat-neck tee, what was past will be new again. An intuitive shopper with innate fashion flair knows […]

Chilled, dilled  and thrilled

Yes…warm-weather soup that’s not gazpacho! Super quick and simply prepared, Fuel Co.’s chilled cucumber concoction kick-starts the appetite—though on a hectic day in the heat, it’s a perfect meal alongside a crisp salad and some nice sourdough or flatbread. Thomas Abrahamsson, the company’s new executive chef, suggested the soup as a late-spring and summer standby. […]

Put this on your plate and smoke it

Charlottesville’s a city that loves to eat, located in a state that loves to smoke. Though you can certainly order up a mean shrimp veloute in this town, depending where you order it, its flavors will be tempered with the subtle essence de Marlboro wafting over from the bar area—for at least another year, that […]

Craft singles

I am pretty much convinced that I have one of the worst periods known to womankind. Cramps, headaches, joint aches, mood swings—the whole she-bang (pun intended, of course). I dread my time of the month the way other people might dread nuclear war, and when it comes, nobody better mess with me (although it’s hard […]

Insecurity checkpoint

Cavalier football fans need another quarterback concern like they need a hole in the head. Sophomore Jameel Sewell, who took over the position last season in the third game of the year against Western Michigan, is recovering from off-season wrist surgery that has left the team with questions rather then security. “I think anytime a […]

Good Zinc-ing

Despite its seemingly auspicious location next door to the high-traffic Main Street Market, the former gas station at 420 W. Main St. has proven a tough row to hoe for several