Tuesday, June 26
The good sip
Though sometimes overlooked by wine and travel connoisseurs, Virginia’s wine regions get some love this month in Travel+Leisure magazine, which names Barboursville among five emerging wine regions. Though the photo spreads give more play to exotic regions like Chile’s Casablanca Valley and Majorca, Spain, the magazine’s domestic mentionables include Barboursville Vineyards’ 1999 Nebbiolo, described as “deep, dusty, slightly tangy.” For food, Palladio restaurant’s Italian offerings were “revelations,” which, in wine editor-speak means: It was very good.
Wednesday, June 27
Free condoms!
Normally, we look to city spokesman Ric Barrick for information about public service campaigns and updates on how our sister cities are doing. Today, Barrick and his friends from AIDS Services Group were peddling a different product—condoms and lube to support free AIDS testing day. Dozens of Mall-crawlers scored a convenient pack of free Durex, and people could report to the Gravity Lounge for a confidential swab test, with results back in 20 minutes. The organization also offers free testing in its office on Second Street SE every weekday.
Thursday, June 28
Virginians on immigration
Today, the U.S. Senate killed the second version of a bill that opponents say would have granted “amnesty” to the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Though the bill would have revived the nation’s tired immigration laws, Democrats and Republicans alike had distaste for the measure, defeating it 53-46. How did our esteemed Virginian senators vote? Warner and Webb both voted no, but Webb didn’t go down without a fight. He offered an amendment that said legal status could be granted only to aliens who had lived in the U.S. for at least four years. Sensing a last-ditch opportunity for a domestic accomplishment, President Bush was characteristically articulate in supporting the bill, saying, “On a piece of legislation this complicated, the question people have to answer is: Are we going to sacrifice for the good for the sake of the perfect?”
Friday, June 29
iPhone mania
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…the most expensive piece of unproven technology one could possibly use to call one’s grandmother! iPhone mania hit the country and Charlottesville today, as Apple rolled out its $500-$600 touch-screen phenomenon at precisely 6pm. People started lining up around 6:30am, and by the evening, about 70 people were waiting outside the AT&T Wireless store on Route 29N. Our local camp-out looked wimpy compared to the days-long body-odor fests of cities like New York and San Francisco. Among the iPhone’s desirable features—its user-friendly Web browser, the ability to play music formatted for Apple’s iTunes and four or eight gigabytes of storage.
Saturday, June 30
Useless celebrity update
Did you hear? Two things we can relate to in Charlottesville—golf and local boy Rob Lowe—collided in a most unseemly fashion this month when Lowe had a “golfing accident” that killed a bird during a celebrity pro-am tournament at a country club in Iowa. The Associated Press reported the 43-year-old Charlottesville-born actor was hitting an approach shot on the fourth hole when his ball struck a goldfinch, Iowa’s state bird. If his reputation can recover from the 1988 sex tape scandal, we’re sure Lowe will get over this “birdie.”
Sunday, July 1
Blind ambition
Following the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision that racial factors can never be allowed in school admissions decisions, there’s speculation among conservatives that the decision will have the same “color-blind” effects as Brown v. Board of Education. UVA law professor Michael J. Klarman, quoted in today’s New York Times Week in Review, sees it otherwise: “Brown didn’t transform society very much.” Rather, desegregation was motivated by the Johnson-era Justice Department’s enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the threat of funding getting cut off if schools didn’t integrate. So, this recent decision, Klarman says, will affect only a few school boards that use race and, anyway, “there are so many opportunities for committed school boards to circumvent it.”
Monday, July 2
It’s the little things
You know that annoying bleeping sound that happens when your cell phone gets too close to your computer when it’s next to your clock radio when you’re trying to charge your iPod? Sensitive electronics require shields to prevent interference and, with technology ever-approaching miniscule, finding materials that are lightweight enough to do the job has been a problem. But, a team of UVA engineering researchers used nanotechnology to develop a material that’s lighter than plastic, yet as conductive as metal, snagging a Nano50 award from Nanotech Briefs magazine. The UVA Patent Foundation is in on this small finding, which has the potential to make it big in areas like aerospace, lightning protection and thermal insulation.
