Tuesday, May 16
Grisly car accident claims elderly woman
WCAV reports this afternoon that a collision at the intersection of Ivy and Garth roads killed 75-year-old Mary May, who was driving an Accura that swiped one car before hitting a tractor-trailer awaiting a chance to turn. She then hit another car. Although the other three drivers were not injured, May’s husband was “badly injured.” May herself was thrown from her vehicle and decapitated, according to the TV news report.
Hoos boo-hoo over Hoo Crew
When the Virginia Athletics Foundation, the fundraising segment of UVA’s athletic department, organized the “Hoo Crew,” an officially zany assortment of orange-attired fans, some Cavs-watchers were not amused. After all, the group’s stated goal—to create a “rabid, hostile” environment for basketball games—will be achieved, oddly, through adherence to rules about attendance and outfits (body paint is allowed). Today’s Virginian-Pilot reports that the group will get preferential treatment once the John Paul Jones Arena opens next semester, and will be granted exclusive access to 492 of the arena’s best sidelines seats. If the Hoo Crew successfully keeps these seats completely occupied, they can get another 216 seats behind one of the baskets. Unfair? Bummer, says Dirk Katstra, a UVA sports official. “Anything that can be done to motivate students to come on a consistent basis is good for our team,” he told the V-P. “Our goal is to create this mindset of ‘students, we need you there.’”
Wednesday, May 17
Hatcher stays, Dempsey moves: Bonus for Gray TV?
ABC has some of TV’s biggest hits on the air—”Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy”—but despite that success the network felt compelled to tinker with its lineup, according to today’s Wall Street Journal. The change, if it works to stem declining viewership for some of the big programs, could be good news for Gray TV, which moved into the Charlottesville media market 19 months ago, bringing local ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates to the spectrum in an uphill battle to win viewers from the Richmond affiliates. “Desperate Housewives” will remain in ABC’s Sunday 9pm slot, but “Grey’s Anatomy” will move to Thursday 9pm. Replacing it on Sundays: “Brothers & Sisters,” starring Calista “Ally McBeal” Flockhart.
Thursday, May 18
Another day, another “Best of” list
Need convincing about how great it is to live here? The June issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranks Charlottesville No. 39 on its “50 Best Places to Live” list in the June issue. Among other Virginia cities, Richmond and Virginia Beach bested Charlottesville, but Lynchburg ranked No. 42.
Friday, May 19
Standing O for $4M gift to UVA Drama Department
News hit today that plans for a 300-seat thrust-stage theater—part of a proposed addition to UVA’s Drama Building—got one step closer to realization with the announcement that UVA alumnus Mortimer Caplin and his wife, Ruth, are donating $4 million to the $26.3 million project. This brings the current total raised for the project to $7.6 million. Both Caplins have a long-established love of theater. Mortimer was president of the University Players when he was an undergraduate in the 1930s; Ruth wrote the screenplay for Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, starring Joan Plowright.
Saturday, May 20
World’s oldest living New Journalist tells all
Tom “no, the other famous author” Wolfe, resplendent in a double-breasted white suit with a powder-green tie, addressed a crowd on the Lawn in honor of the 6,000 graduates of the Class of 2006. In his brief, funny speech, the new voice of the “Charlotte Simmons” generation spoke eloquently of the “glockenspiel ping of beer cans on pavement,” recommended the regular release of sexual tension, pooh-poohed modern art and architecture, pointed out that the Middle East is becoming rather important, blamed low European birth rates on an “erosion of religion,” claimed that evolution had probably ended, and declared that the world was “wide open for the words of a prophet.” Later at a reception at Carr’s Hill, he signed autographs, including one on a toy school bus.
Sunday, May 21
Times notes UVA architecture dust-up
What would Jefferson build? The New York Times explored that question in today’s Magazine section. Reporter Adam Goodheart came here to probe the conflict between traditional and modern architecture that boiled over as UVA designed the $100 million South Lawn project (“like putting a wing on the Taj Mahal,” according to member of UVA’s Board of Visitors). Goodheart found something to like in the South Lawn design, but concluded that it’s akin to “the mediocre buildings constructed on many campuses, not just Virginia’s, in recent years. These additions, he said, are too often “post-modern pastiches of old and new, whose highest aspiration is to offend no one.”
Monday, May 22
Grisham humble at small-town graduation
Local author of 18 best-selling novels (and all-round good guy) John Grisham did his part this weekend to send off a crop of new graduates. As the Pine Bluff Commercial newspaper reported today, Grisham spoke to the graduating class of the Episcopal Collegiate School in Little Rock, Arkansas, telling them that he is no great Southern novelist, because “I’ve sold too many books to be taken seriously as a literary writer.” Grisham grew up in that area of Arkansas and still regularly visits relatives there.
