Tuesday, October 23
Dylan rides in style
Less than a month after appearing at John Paul Jones Arena, troubadour Bob Dylan debuts in a TV ad for Cadillac. As reported by the New York Daily News, the singer-songwriter is shown in a Western get-up tooling down a desert highway in an Escalade. Trippy music plays as he surveys the landscape through aviator sunglasses. Next, he is standing at a dirt crossroads, apparently trying to hitch a ride, Escalade nowhere in sight. "What’s life without the occasional detour," he croaks.
 Bobby Bling: Dylan goes from folk to glam in a new Cadillac ad, complete with stylish shades and an Escalade. |
Wednesday, October 24
Anti-apocalypse
When the countries of North America merge and the apocalypse is nigh and the three horsemen are waiting for the fourth to mount up, the country’s going to have some problems, according to a story in The Arizona Republic. Such as, what the hell will we call the newly merged currency? The deso? The pollar? (The amero, speculates the Republic.) And right in the middle of the big, boiling pot of crazy is Virginia’s own Virgil Goode. The story notes that Goode introduced a nonbinding resolution (and really, what other kinds are there?) opposing a North American Union.
 Virgil Goode: leadership for a new, single-government, postapocalyptic era. |
Thursday, October 25
Freedom isn’t free
No, DeParis Redinger, LLC, isn’t Paris Hilton’s own personal PR firm. It’s a Charlottesville company that offers "boutique investment banking solutions," and it’s just announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in the "gossip" website, cVillain.com. The deal will give the folks at cVillain freedom to focus on keeping the website’s anonymous content flowing, while DeParis Redinger works to develop the business side. Seems cVillain is lucky to have this kind of support: Francesco DeParis and Kyle Redinger were recently featured in Business Week magazine as finalists in their 2007 Best Young Entrepreneurs. And get this: both are only 24 years old.
Friday, October 26
Staunton reporter fired for plagiarism
Staunton’s News Leader fired sports reporter Blair J. Parker on Tuesday, October 23, for plagiarizing at least four stories from different Internet sources, that paper reports this week. The article that triggered investigation into Parker’s work was about hunting and fishing and appeared on the front page of the paper’s sports section. "We have determined that the top section of the story was copied from an Illinois newspaper’s Web site," writes New Leader Executive Editor David Fritz. "The person who in our story was identified as working for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries actually works for a similar Illinois agency."
Saturday, October 27
Hard rain falls
Saturday morning lifted the spirits (and, most likely, the self-imposed shower restrictions) of more than a few citizens as the heavens opened up and soaked our city with a resounding downpour. From Friday, October 26, until Saturday morning—roughly 8am, according to the end of the National Weather Service’s three-day weather observations—rain soaked downwards into soil, asphalt and, even better, our reservoirs. On Friday, the Abemarle County Service Authority’s (ACSA) website listed the Sugar Hollow reservoir level at – 14.8′ and the Beaver Creek reservoir at -2.7′. By Saturday, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) had recalculated the Sugar Hollow reservoir level at -12.4′ and Beaver Creek to -1.7′. It is our assumption at this time that the ACSA did not adjust their website following the downpour because they were using their Slip ‘n’ Slide.
Sunday, October 28
The fall of Groh-liath
Cavalier football fans are venting on TheSabre.com today, trying to realign expectations after a surprising hot start to the season came to an end Saturday against N.C. State. The UVA football team was looking for its seventh straight win against a team that didn’t have a single conference victory prior to yesterday, but with quarterback Jameel Sewell injured late in the game, the ‘Hoos couldn’t muster a last-minute drive and fell 29-24. It’s the first conference loss for UVA (7-2), which still can win the ACC Coastal Division if the Cavs can beat remaining opponents Wake Forest, Miami and Virginia Tech.
 No last-minute magic this time: UVA suffered its first ACC conference loss to N.C. State after ‘Hoo quarterback Jameel Sewell was injured. |
Monday, October 29
Past-life researcher leaves this life
The current issue of What Is Enlightenment, a quarterly magazine about spirituality, contains a brief obituary for Dr. Ian Stevenson, the founder of UVA’s Division of Perceptual Studies (formerly the Division of Personality Studies), an arm of the Department of Psychiatric Medicine. Stevenson’s research focused on children around the world who claimed they remembered recent past lives; other projects of the DOPS include near-death experiences and after-death communication. Stevenson died February 8 at the age of 88. "Despite his unorthodox interests, he was the embodiment of academic rectitude in both dress and demeanor," writes his colleague Emily Williams Kelly in another obituary, this one on the DOPS website.
