A: Thanks, Backinda. How does this, one of the great journalistic sagas of our time, begin? Well, it was a dark and stormy night… But seriously, the official story credits two skinny kids from that gentlemen’s establishment, Hampden-Sydney College, who had pockets full of lint and heads full of dreams. “Hey,” said Bill Chapman, Charlottesville […]
A: Thanks, Backinda. How does this, one of the great journalistic sagas of our time, begin? Well, it was a dark and stormy night… But seriously, the official story credits two skinny kids from that gentlemen’s establishment, Hampden-Sydney College, who had pockets full of lint and heads full of dreams. “Hey,” said Bill Chapman, Charlottesville […]
Earl Smith thinks big. Straining to hit the highest notes of a Judas Priest anthem, tossing cheerleaders in the air or standing up to the mayor, Smith lives to the tune of a rock and roll chorus. Too loud for you? Too bad. “I thought he was the most obnoxious man I ever met,” says […]
A: Sad but true, Anne (and not exactly breaking news): Virginia has its issues with gay people. The extent of the discomfort, however, does not reach to renaming towns whose highway exit signs prompt pointing and giggling. In fact, according to the Greene County Administrator’s office, the town of Dyke does not even exist. See, […]
A violent encounter at Friendship Court on the night of Saturday, August 21, between two white Charlottesville police officers and Kerry Cook, a black wanted man, ended with one of the cops firing a single shot into Cook’s stomach—that much eyewitnesses and the police department agree upon. But what happened during the struggle off Garrett […]
“All I want to do is fall asleep,”says Matt (not his real name), a new Charlottesville resident. Since moving to town, Matt describes his sleep pattern as “very intermittent. I can’t seem to fall into a deep, sustained sleep.” After a restless night, when morning comes he says he feels tired and “resigned that I have […]
A: Hold your horses, Howard. Redesigning history is not part of City Council’s charter, and when one plaque departs another arrives—or so it would appear. Ace took a turn up Court Square way and, after dodging jackhammers and cement rollers, found himself in front of Number Nothing, Court Square. There, a plaque most certainly marks […]
A: Cry “censorship” if you please, Indie, but it’s the law: No young whippersnappers and their flyers are allowed to put their paw prints all over our city’s sacred utility poles. Maurice Jones, ever civic-minded director of communications for the City, explains the restrictions this way: “A proliferation of flyers throughout the city would take […]
It’s a steamy Friday afternoon in July, and the gates are opening on one of Southside Virginia’s biggest summertime bashes, the Cantaloupe Festival, near South Boston. Cars park on the grass outside of the Halifax County Fairgrounds, just 10 miles from the North Carolina border. The entrance road to the fairgrounds is decorated like a […]
In the late 1960s, when Turner Communications was a business of billboards and radio stations and I was spending much of my energy ocean racing, a UHF-TV station came up for sale in Atlanta. It was losing $50,000 a month and its programs were viewed by fewer than 5 percent of the market. I acquired […]
A:Well, John, take the first clue regarding the personal history of one Claudius Crozet: As we oh-so-continental locals know, “Crozet” is pronounced “Crow-zay” and not “Crow-zette,” indicating a connection to which country? Oui, mes étudiants adorables, vous avez raison! Monsieur Claudius Crozet était francais! To find out about ol’ Claude, Ace took a trip to […]