Field of schemes

Dear Ace, When the D.C. Council rejected a potential lease for a new baseball stadium in the capital, Virginia seemed poised to scoop up the Nationals. Hours later the council overturned its decision, and goodbye Major League Baseball in Virginia. Is all hope lost for big league ballgames in the Commonwealth?—Homer Hungry Let Ace put […]

Flush with success

The Idler, Tom Hodgkinson’s spunky little journal extolling the virtues of the profligate lifestyle, should be a must-read in business schools, if only to coerce the doomed students to wake up and drop out. Especially in his most recent book, How to Be Idle, a manifesto for living the sane life of leisure, Hodgkinson offers […]

Soles stirring

Dear Ace: What is the big deal about the Charlottesville Ten Miler, anyway? I’ve lived in lots of places where there have been many races for runners, but you get the feeling around here that the Ten Miler is the World’s Only Race! Please explain.—Lace Yursneeks Lace: The first thing Ace needs to do is […]

Universal Appeal

McCormick Observatory is a historic landmark on par with the Rotunda and Alderman Library, but unlike those UVA icons, it’s easy to miss. At the end of a narrow, winding road up Mount Jefferson, the 120-year-old domed structure is like some archaic ruin far from civilization. Indeed, little has changed at the observatory, home to […]

All you can cheap

Dear Ace: At a buffet the waitperson only brings beverages and takes away the plates. Is a 20 percent tip recommended or do you leave less at a buffet?—Phoebe Buffet Dear Phoebe: Here at C-VILLE the tipping wars have definitely been a topic of conversation. Any conscientious Rant observer will remember the battle that continued […]

Are you lonesome tonight?

Elvis famously crooned “I can’t help falling in love with you” and millions of hearts beat a little faster. What has been unknown until now is the never-recorded refrain to that chart-topping song: “Yeah, but I can help falling in love with you, pal.”    Aah, unrequited love. It sucks. Even more so around Valentine’s Day. […]

Got a match?

Yo Ace, Whatever happened to Yente the Matchmaker? I’m tired of the bar scene, personal ads don’t work, and now I’m the president of the Lonely Hearts Club. Where’s a matchmaker when you need one? Doesn’t anyone understand?—Anna Tevka Anna: Ace had always assumed that all of you out there in reader land understood Ace’s […]

What price history?

History matters a lot in this town, where people speak of “Mr. Jefferson” as if the third president were still running the show up at Monticello. This reverence for the past is perhaps most fiercely expressed in the debate over how Charlottesville ought to balance preservation of the old with construction of the new.    The […]

The long and winding road

Ace: Jefferson Park Avenue maintains the same name even though it makes two sharp turns to the left. Can you help decipher why JPA runs as it does?—Street Cred Cred, confusing street maps have long been a contentious issue for Ace, who has often found himself lost when trailing a case down Main Street, which […]

Funny pages

Ever since the first cave dweller lifted the first flint to chisel an image onto a cave wall, there’s been a critic standing behind him saying, “That’s not funny.”    Here at C-VILLE, we understand the impulse to second guess other people’s work. In sympathy, we’re turning the choice of our new comic strip over to […]