I'll be at Bike Walk Play JPA...all day...so hey hey hey...

Come on by this morning! You should see me with the kid and the corgi...

Want to see the FLOTUS on Friday?

Just wanted to let you know that while I was on line initially and waited about an hour with Mrs. Nevskaya, there's no line now and tickets are still available. Just head over to the Downtown Mall and 4th Street and you'll see the table...

Put your money where your mouth is, or you ain't saying nothin'...

[Started this one when the storm hit, thought I'd go ahead and finish it up. - n42]

I am very heartened to see headlines like these touting the big donations that have come in since President Sullivan has been reinstated to UVa. A few million here and there won't change things too much in the long term, but if the University does manage to close out its capital campaign in the not-too-distant future, it might relieve some of the pressure that Sullivan's facing and silence some critics.

I doubt alumni will be super-pleased with McDonnell's decision to reinstate Dragas, however. More than anything else I find the decision baffling. Colleagues noted to me that McDonnell wants things to quiet down as quickly as possible, and while I agree with that, I fail to see how keeping Dragas on accomplishes that. McDonnell's weak justifications and use of the passive voice ignore that this was a manufactured crisis started by Dragas in the first place, so he either has no idea what's going on or doesn't care. I'm guessing the latter, and as far as that affects McDonnell's future political ambitions, well, maybe there aren't that many UVa alumni in the world.

Happy Independence Day!

Viva Italia! (or something)

Halftime at the Euro Cup, just chillin' with the missus at fry's spring station. Who else is watching?

Holy fuck, what a storm...

Hope you're safe and keeping cool. We lost our power around ten last evening and got it back about noon, thank the heavens. Felt so sorry for our little Monty, that double coat doesn't help you in the summer, and the uncomfortable sleepless night was punctuated with his panting away...

And by the time I got around to try to buy ice in the morning, everything was sold out. All of this has helped to reaffirm my belief that I have no survival skills whatsoever and in a postapocalyptic society I would be one of the first ones eaten. I would be hard-pressed, for example, to build you a fire without matches, unless my coke-bottle glasses could produce a flame a la Piggy's specs in Lord of the Flies. But you would have probably sliced my jugular with your razor boomerang and just put the glasses in your ammo kit, all the while roasting my skin dry for a nice bag of jerky to munch on as you trudge back to your tribe in New Blood City...

It hasn't helped that I just read "The Road" either.

Well, stay cool!

A few more thoughts about yesterday...

- This comment by GT Shin on Cvillenews sums up beautifully the extent of chicanery that occurred at the hands of Dragas and her cohorts, and why her sticking around (for now) is a little hard to swallow.

- Having said that, I honestly have no idea what McDonnell's going to do about it. My first impression was that the vote of confidence (eyeroll) for Dragas at the end signaled she was going to stick around, but I don't know if the guv would necessarily want to reward her for the unnecessary shitstorm she stirred up. Not reappointing Dragas would signal that he has at least a bit of concern for UVa's reputation, but up to this point he hasn't shown much to me beyond a desire to have it all blow over.

- I can't help but wonder how Mark Kington and Peter Kiernan are feeling; it seems that they were helping Dragas with everything, yet they fell on their swords while she (so far) gets off scot-free.

- And almost needless to say, I received a fundraising e-mail from the College today. But I think I'll follow the lead of the Facebook group that formed to reinstate Sullivan and send a token donation to the President's Fund For Excellence.

Well, THAT was surprisingly anticlimactic...

President Sullivan was voted back unanimously; as an obvious sop to the BOV, Dragas was given a vote of confidence as well as a good tongue-bathing by Fralin... Hey, I'm all for moving forward and working together, especially if that's what all the parties involved TRULY want, but I will say that all the forceful assertions that Dragas was a person with integrity wouldn't have been necessary if she hadn't facilitated this unnecessary crisis.

UVa 1, WSJ 0...

As Waldo documented today, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial on the Teresa Sullivan firing that was a crime against good writing and sound logic. The comments section ran like Bizarro Yahoo, as the audience took it upon themselves to correct the numerous errors and false assertions.

The most glaring error concerned a statement signed by ten of the eleven UVa deans calling for Sullivan's reinstatement. The WSJ supposed that since the business school dean was the holdout, it was proof that the faculty were anti-business and saw the Sullivan firing as a threat to their tenured positions. Of course, the only dean that didn't sign was in fact the dean of the undergraduate School of Commerce, Carl Zeithaml, who had just been named interim president and was not asked to sign the letter out of respect for his difficult position.

Meanwhile, Dean Bruner of the Darden Business School provided his own smackdown, noting that not only had he signed the Deans' statement, he was one of its writers.

While the Wall Street Journal has noted the correction, the actual content of the editorial has not changed, with "UVa faculty vs. Dean of Business School" becoming "UVa faculty vs. business in general". When your unsupported conclusion is already in place before you begin to write, shifting and removing inconvenient facts isn't that difficult.

What is all the more galling is that this piece of dreck screams Hill & Knowlton, the PR firm that's being employed by Rector Helen Dragas to repair her reputation and paid for with funds from a UVa foundation. I wonder how donors will feel about their philanthropic dollars being used this way.

And when it all shakes out, I hope McDonnell remembers what happens here should he decide to run for Senator later. Because Virginia will.

I stand with President Sullivan...

I attended the rally today and came away very impressed with those that spoke out in favor of her return. And as shocked as I have been over the past two weeks, I was resigned to it happening, and as excited co-workers talked about the Faculty Senate's actions, I, sad to say, was dismissive and cynical.

"Oooooh, the faculty's not happy! What are they going to do, tear off the leather patches off their jackets? Have sex with their hot grad assistants in protest?"

Shame on me. And good on them for keeping the noise up and making forceful yet reasonable arguments. McDonnell's mealy-mouthed statement was disgusting; the bulk of the letter is spent chastising the alleged "tone" of those seeking Sullivan's return, but the graffiti on the Rotunda was nowhere near as offensive as the action that precipitated it.

I hope against hope (and despite what I think will happen) that President Sullivan will be back. No one deserves to lose their job like she did, but she didn't deserve to lose it in the first place.

UPDATE: Silly me for not mentioning Waldo Jaquith for his fantastic reporting on this issue. The Daily Progress has been surprisingly good as well, but I only look on that site on my smartphone because I'm afraid the malware that pops up on that website from time to time would destroy my ancient computer...

Vote, baby, vote!

And a happy election day to you all! The happiest thing to me is that I won't have to hear those goddamn Bryce Reeves/Edd Houck commercials on the radio anymore. It's not even my district!

State senator and state reps are foregone conclusions; based upon my interactions with candidates as well as the opinions of people whom I love, trust, and are smarter than me to a person, here was my ballot:

City Council: Smith, Collins, Fenwick
School Board: Kadija, McKee, Blount, Neale

I'm not linking or endorsing because I want these guys to win, AND I CAN'T HELP.

Check out Inessa Telefus on the radio today!

I would be horribly remiss if I didn't mention how the gorgeous and brilliant Inessa would be sharing her insights on the "Speaking Forward" program today at 2. The webpage has a "Listen Live" link on the right so you can stream it. A perfect warm-up to your tailgating party!

Can we please stop having earthquakes?

I slept through this one; my wife said "we just had another earthquake!" and I was like "you mean another aftershock?" and she was like "NO. An earthquake!"

And I can't wait for the next round of interminable mocking from the West Coast. "Ooooooh, that was what, a 4.5? We use THOSE earthquakes to get the salt off the top shelf in the pantry! When those hit, we stick our hands down our pants and let the earth serve as a natural vibrator!"

Hope everyone's fine...

...it was just a li'l rumble. In my office, people didn't start freaking out until after it was over.

More local business fluffery...

Because great businesses run by nice people should always be promoted, I give you, Quinn's Barbecue, the new operation run by the faboo owners of the Horse & Hound Gastropub, one of my favorite C-Ville eateries.

Keep them in mind for your next function...

Hey, C-Ville poker players!

As a public service, if you haven't heard about the Cavaliers Against Cancer charity tournament, it's going to be at the John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday, May 7. Registration ends on Saturday, so click on this link to learn more and register.

And remember, it's for charity, so there's no reason to be mad when I knock yer ass out...

JPA Bridge commiseration thread...

OK, it's one day in so far and as a JPA Extended resident I'm ready to officially declare this a big ol' pain in the ass.

The obvious choice for a detour was Shamrock Road, but since a crew is working on THAT road as well, it just made the new commute all the more interminable.

So how are you changing your commute?

Damn, these li'l geniuses are cool...

Mrs. thought it would be cool to take the li'l one to the cybernetics competition at U-Hall today because, hey, robots. It was pretty nifty watching these teams of high school students with their robots navigating the course, but it wasn't until I heard my wife say to my daughter "these are like the robots that go on Mars" that it hit me how fucking awesome these kids are. Dare I say it, it made me proud to be an American. And if it manages to inspire the nipper, all the better.

Another reason to buy WahooQ sauce besides the fact that it's so damned delicious.

I love Charlottesville, just love it. One of the many things I love is that you unwittingly get to know and rub shoulders with so many local successes (for example, the Mrs. is good friends with the owners of the Horse & Hound Gastropub).

A couple of weeks back at my local poker game I noticed the hosts had a bottle of WahooQ sauce on their counter; I had just purchased a bottle myself as a gift and noted that it was really tasty. Turns out one of our players makes the stuff.

So don't just buy WahooQ because it would make a plate of steamed assholes taste good. Buy it because the owner's a real nice guy too.

You can get it at the Organic Butcher or Relay Foods.

My one-word review for Relay Foods? Fanfuckingtastic.

I kept driving by the Relay Foods truck on the way home from work, so we thought we'd sign up and give it a try. After doing that, I don't think we're going to be able to go back.

After a quick sign-up on the website, you basically plan out your shopping, pay for it by Sunday at midnight (or the day before the pick up day you want) and go to your drop-off place the following day. I arrived and the kind gent had everything ready for me in one of those plastic recycling tubs, with the dairy and meat products in a portable cooler. It took about five minutes to confirm everything and I was on the way.

The Mrs. was very impressed with the quality of the produce, which was one of the concerns that we had (actually, they did a much better job of picking stuff out than I ever do). I, of course, liked having another excuse to do something on the internet, and really appreciated the running total the website provides, since I never seem to keep under budget normally.

Any complaints? Not really, save the other customers who were tearing out of the Fry's Spring Beach Club parking lot as if they were rehearsing for CHiPs. It was a pretty fucking awesome experience, and one I'd definitely recommend to my fellow C-Ville residents.

8 Bits O' Nevsky - I'm Not Made Of Fucking Stone Edition

Amazon's doing a sick deal today so I picked up Arkham Asylum for $15. Fifteen fucking dollars.

I also picked up a DS game for the UVA Children's Hospital wish list via the Child's Play charity because when you tie in ridiculous videogame sales with altruism, EVERYONE WINS!

So go pick up something for yourself, or the kids, and even better, click through the Amazon links on the right while you're doing it!