And we just keep going in our highly selective tour through the past 20 years of local news and arts in C-VILLE. This week, a “green” story from a perhaps unexpected source: Dominion Power, whose Lake Anna nuclear facility, merely 30 miles from town, creeps closer and closer to expansion. Also, this week, remembrances of birthdays past as TJ turned 250 up at Monticello and the architect of Perestroika took notice. That was some 16 years ago, well before the gorgeous, new, enviro-tastic Visitors Center opened (which is just did last week to some rain-subdued fanfare), giving architects of every stripe reason to celebrate. Stay tuned next week for another not-entirely random stroll down memory lane. In fact, check back every week. All year long we will continue to look back at the accumulated pluck and provocations that will power this free and freethinking institution into the next 20 years.
Paging through the archives
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“GORBY & TJ (OR, THE ADVENTURES OF THE RED AND THE READHEAD). UVa’s seismograph station reported only a 1.5 Richter scale disturbance at Monticello’s graveyard during Gorbachev’s ‘Me and Jefferson Are Blood Brothers’ speech delivered as part of the 250th birthday celebration. According to one local geologist, the 1.5 quake suggests that Jefferson was spinning at fewer than 35 rpm—much more slowly than had been predicted. Gorbachev seemed to enjoy his visit and was only mildly surprised when a religious zealot of some kind with a huge beehive hairdo leaped from the crowd, Brillo pad in hand, and screamed ‘I will wipe that Mark of the Beast splotch off your Commie forehead once and for all!’”—“Critical Mass,” Steve R. Smith, April 21, 1993
Getting covered
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“Pure white clouds float through a blue sky; pine-covered mountains cast their emerald reflections across a clear lake; a child’s muddy hands cradle the precious root ball of a tiny tree.
“This is the new face of nuclear power.
“The images appear against a green-and-purple background on the website for the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. Scroll down, and there’s the smiling faces of Christine Todd-Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Patrick Moore, a founder and former leader of Greenpeace, with the message that ‘today and for our future, nuclear power is a safe, clean, reliable and cost-effective way to balance our energy demands and protect our environment.’ Yes, you read that right—a founder of Greenpeace is a nuke cheerleader.”—John Borgmeyer, May 2, 2006
