Category: Virginia

I’ve finally gotten around to posting Jim Heaney’s one-year-after-the-trail catch-up letter, in which he reflects on the people and places he saw on his through-hike of the Appalachian Trail, updates us on the whereabouts of some trail buddies, and finally reveals the origin of his mysterious nickname. If you’re just entering Mothman territory, you can find his other letters here, or read the full story on one gargantuan page.

It’s good to see that, after back to back hurricanes have dumped more water on Virginia than during almost any season in memory, the Bush Administration has decided to prevent ten environmental disasters waiting to happen by scrapping ten of the “Ghost Fleet” ships in the James River. In an article about the disposal contracts for the last four ships, the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote four paragraphs that had a chilling edge for this former Hampton Roads resident:

… the National Defense Reserve Fleet, which holds ships designated as being useful for defense. When the ships deteriorate, they are made available for disposal.

There are 60 such “non-retention” vessels in the Ghost Fleet.

The ships contain oil, asbestos, lead and other toxic chemicals and have been an environmental concern in Virginia for years.

A report prepared for the Maritime Administration in 2001 offered a worst-case scenario in which two ships from the Ghost Fleet break apart in a storm, spilling oil and polluting a 50-mile stretch of shoreline that includes historic Jamestown Island and various nature sanctuaries.

Having grown up seeing the Ghost Fleet anchored just a mile away from my friends’ houses and motoring or rowing past the old ships, hearing adults talk about the ships being ready to be called back into service, and looking up at the rusting hulks and wondering, it’s interesting to get the truth.

Another childhood friend of mine has started a blog, Fury (as in the Eumenides, not the car or the Salman Rushdie novel). Good writing. I particularly like the most recent post about the H2, entitled “I Just Can’t Decide”: “We are back to the same old deal, where if you can shell out $55K for a car, then you can get it tax-free. God bless America.”

Quick link roundup from the land where I was born:

• Richmond Times Dispatch: Winery owner to protect 225 acres in Williamsburg. All but 45 acres of the Williamsburg Winery’s property are being placed under a conservation easement.
• Speaking of Virginia wineries: looks like this could be a really solid year for Virginia wines, despite the last minute soakings.
• Rita Dove, fresh from a stint as the US Poet Laureate, now gets to do the honor for the Commonwealth.
• Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown… and now Hampton: archaeological digs are underway to try to uncover the city’s historic past in time for its 400th birthday.
• Oh, and of course, 51-0. (Though really. Akron??? Wasn’t MIT available?)

A new nickel? Did we really need another new nickel? Nice write-up at Spacetown, complete with pictures (high resolution images here).

The new portrait of Jefferson is ok, though I note that one of the two reverse designs shows a startlingly accurate picture of a bison (zip file of a 1.5 MB JPEG), though possibly not a worksafe depiction.

I saw this in my alumni magazine: Bascom Deaver, my first year physics instructor, major advisor, and the Associate Chairman for Undergraduate Studies of the University of Virginia Physics Department, has won the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Professor Award for teaching. Any man who could help to convince me, or let me convince myself, that I didn’t want to continue in academics after finishing my undergrad degree in physics, certainly deserves some kind of award for managing bullheaded undergrads. Thanks, Mr. Deaver, for the help eleven years ago, and congratulations on a well deserved award.

And orange t-shirts 1, coat and tie 0, according to the Washington Post (thanks to Craig for the pointer).

I’m all for school spirit. But I don’t think it should come at the expense of ensuring that there’s at least one occasion for which a UVa student dresses up (not counting Foxfield).

It’s nice to see other traditions survive, such as pulling the quarterback during the fourth quarter (see third paragraph) when you’re already beating the opposing team by an embarrassing amount. George Welsh used to do that during the 1990 season.

Daily Press: Longtime business prepares to sell out. Wellworth Cleaners was pretty much the only dry cleaner around when I grew up, and I don’t think we had any wire hangers at all that didn’t have their advertising on them. Now, after 62 years of operation, they’re being sold off for defaulting on their bankruptcy agreements.

I also saw but didn’t bookmark a piece on the death of the last living founder of Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que, Dot Pierce, a while back; unfortunately I can’t find the link. Fortunately Pierce’s is still open for business and now even sells its sauce (though sadly not its barbecue) on line—though through a slow-as-molasses storefront.

BoiFromTroy: Princeton Tiger Tones vs. Virginia Hullabahoos. The Boi points out the odd presence of men’s a cappella groups (generally not the same as glee clubs, btw) as entertainment at RNC functions, and rates two participating groups on musical selection, outfits, crowd interaction, and, erm, gayness. Heh. Somewhere some Hullabahoo alums are rolling in their graves. But it’s all good, and it’s good to see a Virginia group get props, even on such nontraditional evaluation criteria.

(Fact-check confidential to Ted B., who comments that the alumni pics show the B’Hoos in “nice frocks”: those are bathrobes, Ted, and come from the fact that fourth-year residents in the original Jeffersonian Lawn rooms have to go outside to go to the bathroom or take a shower. This means on any given morning, you can see the world’s future leaders parading down the sidewalks and steps of a 180-year-old World Heritage landmark in bathrobes with bad bedhead.)

44-14 vs. Bill Cosby’s alma mater. An excellent opener for the season, even if it was a so-called “cruise control” opener. Nice to see the recognition in the poll as well.

I got an out of the blue email from Chris Reeder, who was one of the editors of the Yellow Journal (the scurrilous humor mag at the University of Virginia) when I was a young first year too timid and serious to contribute much but a little paste-up. (Aside: I use the term “editor” advisedly. In my yellowing copies from that year, he is varyingly credited as “First Mate” and “Voice of the Hamster.” So who the hell knows?) As coincidence goes, this was a pretty big one: turns out he’s in Boston, finishing up his MBA at Boston College.

I’m looking forward to meeting him again—I haven’t seen in in a baker’s dozen of years—and also to finishing his travel narrative, which is published online (semi-conveniently) in 101 RTF files as “My Life on Two Wheels” at his personal site. I’m currently up to chapter 24 and already feeling confirmed in my own personal journey.

Just peeked at University of Virginia’s football schedule for 2004. And lo and behold, there is no game against N.C. State scheduled this year!

This is a problem for my parents. For the past umpty years—at least 15, I think—my parents’ gourmet group, which included three N.C. State alums and one UVA alum, would meet at the UVA–NC State game for a tailgate party and a great game of ACC football. Except this year.

But it’s too good a tradition to let die. So shall it be Duke? or (gasp) Carolina? Sadly, no games in the Boston vicinity…

I caught up with two old Virginia friends last night at the All Asia in Cambridge. Daria graduated with me at Sloan, so it had only been two years since I saw her; I hadn’t seen Adam Olenn since I graduated ten years ago. As I mentioned a while back, he’s stayed involved with the Berklee School of Music since finishing his masters, and now plays with a few combos around the area, including both the Homesteaders and a duo with Lindsey Grey. Sadly I missed the latter last night, as I got to the café too late; maybe another time.

Adam and I had a hard time finding each other, as the last time we met we both had goatees (take a look at the photos on the Lindsey and Adam site to see why I was confused). That was a long time ago.

Fellow Wahoos Rob Blatt and Sam Riegel put together a little “Conservative Eye for the Liberal Guy.” Just a touch heavy-handed, but funny.

(Via Tin Man.)

On Friday, Chris Pirillo posted a quotation that was sourced to Thomas Jefferson:

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have… the course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

Having read a good many of Jefferson’s works, I was suspicious. This didn’t sound at all like Jefferson’s diction. A little Googling turned up a couple other suspects for originators of the quotation: Gerald Ford and Barry Goldwater.

And in almost every case I’ve found on line, the quotation is on a conservative forum and the ellipses are intact.

Which raises, for me, some questions:

1. Was it Jefferson, Goldwater, or Ford?
2. Why, when Jefferson had so many other good quotable moments about the limits of government, did someone want to attribute this quotation to him?
3. Who was the first person to make this attribution?

In partial answer to the last point, a search through Google Groups shows a reference in 1996, posted to alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, that cites the second half of the quotation and attributes it to Jefferson, while a 1995 post to rec.arts.frp.marketplace shows the first half of the quotation. But earlier references can be found sourcing the quotation to Davy Crockett.

So what’s the real story here? Jefferson wrote enough during his lifetime that you could find support for just about any liberal or conservative position in his own words. Why bother attributing such a clumsy phrase to him? And why do so many people quote it without question, even on pages that source every other Jefferson quote by date and addressee?