Me 'n' Maddy Down at the Ballyard (Again)

The house at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville was nearly full^

The teams in a group hug after hostilities ended^

Maddy above the fray^

Maddy and Christina ("Don't call me Mamaw!")^

Sleepy Maddy and "Don't call me Pampa!" (above)^

If the Orange fits, wear it!>

This grandpa thing seems to be taking hold. Yesterday, we took Maddy up to Charlottesville to see the University of Virginia play the University of Tennessee in women's basketball and did we ever have a blast! The kid loved the game (as did her parents and grandparents, save for Christina, who has two degrees from UVa--and she didn't mind all that much because we all knew Tennessee would win--77-63).

I'm a fan of women's college basketball, the game that Coach John Wooden--quite possibly the best coach (with UT's Pat Summitt) ever in any sport--said was the best and purest form of the game played today. The UVa-UT game underscored that. Tennessee is, frankly, a better team, but UVa is a Top 20 outfit and played with a high degree of talent and flair.

This was a game UVa wanted to sell out and it came oh-so-close (11,895) with the largest crowd in Virginia (the state, not the school) history for a women's basketball game. We got there a little early and with general admission tickets were relegated to one of the corners in the upper deck. The seat was fine, but I couldn't even buy box seats downstairs. They sold out in a hurry.

This was Maddy's first women's game of any kind and my guess is she'll be playing something similar to basketball soon enough. She was as riveted as a four-year-old gets with this one and did a lot of smiling, clapping and asking of questions ("What was she doing, Pampa?").

So the reluctant grandpa is sucked in a little farther and the enjoyment of this little status is sinking deeper. But, hey, you are what you are and Pampa is what I are.

Way Too Many Pix from Grandin Xmas Parade

The boys of Roanoke City Council bonding^

Mayor David Bowers and his significant other^

Mary Bishop and Dan Crawford wish for peace^

Patrick Henry High Militia has corks in its guns because it is anti-war^

A young father takes a photo of his child^

A handsome young man is ready for Christmas^

This is a Presbyterian Church group, but I'm not sure which^

Some people like dogs, some cats, some llamas, some camels ...^

The Little Rascals has nothing on these little ones^

Nobody told Miss Roanoke Valley that if she holds this pose too long, she'll get stuck in it^

Oh, you think this is just a bunch of ties? Nooooo. It's a turkey's tail^

Big Gulps and Slurpees and hotdogs (the back of one, anyway) and a cup of coffee brought to you by 7/11, which is not to be confused with 9/11 unless you're talking about health food value^

Raleigh Court has its own Vikings^

The World Famous Norman Fishing Tackle Choir^

Here's our favorite movie theater. My wife and I get to walk to the movies^

Local Roots Cafe shows off its healthy foods^

Diane Elliot of Local Roots is a potato in her off hours^

He'll grow up to be a Boy Scout some day^

Scouts today, soldiers tomorrow? Let's hope they don't have a war left to fight^

OK, ask him if he really made this car (like the Little Rascals)^

A Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful and doesn't pick his nose during parades^

Raleigh Court is a hotbed for transportation^

Pretty girl, pretty music, pretty flute^

Low fiving the Wild Things^

Santa got to ride the fire truck, which most of the kids wanted to do^

The Grandin Village Children's Holiday Parade, which kicks off the Christmas season and is the highlight of the social season in these parts, telling you a whole lot about what an adventure we're all living. This one's straight out of a Rockwell painting and wouldn't you love to have the freckles concession?

Today, as always, there were just about an equal number of people watching the parade and walking or riding in it and my guess is that just about every one of them had a good time, especially when the Norman Fishing Tackle Choir strolled by.

Southeast Industrial Sites Head Endangered List

This old steam train engine was one of the RVPF's successes. It was salvaged in 2009>

The Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation’s 2009 list of endangered sites and buildings this year is causing a special level of angst among its members because so many of the buildings are either being used or easily could be with minimal care.

(I will mention here that I am a member of the RVPF board of directors.)

The Foundation each year lists buildings it considers to be an important part of our heritage that are threatened with being erased from the landscape. This year an entire neighborhood of industrial buildings and facilities in the southeast section of the city is on the list. That grouping includes sites within the new Carilion Clinic expansion area, as well as buildings moving on toward downtown.

Among he threatened within this grouping are Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal Company, the Adams, Payne & Gleaves livery stable, Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works and street car barn, and the old Heironimus warehouse, which has been targeted for renovation for some time. Money has not been available for the Heironimus work.

Foundation spokesmen George Kegley and Mike Kennedy say the RVPF would like to see these facilities renovated and brought back as a commercial center.

The other sites are:

• Roanoke Fire Station No. 7 on Memorial Avenue. It was built in 1922 and is being considered for demolition.
• The former Roanoke Photo Finishing (RoPho) and a movie theater, most recently Downtown Learning Center on Luck Avenue and Second Street. It is owned by the Methodist church next door and could be torn down.
• An 1888 parsonage on the Hollins University campus.
• A bridge in Montgomery County built of steel truss, dating to 1917.
• Daleville’s Boaz-Denton House, dating to the 1870s.
• A Victorian home on Union Street in Salem, built in 1801.
• Mountainsides that include 12 O'Clock Knob, the Dixie Caverns area, Fort Lewis Mountain, Stewart's Knob and Buck Mountain some of which are being logged.

The RVPF, which was founded more than 20 years ago, has seen the preservation more than 20 percent of he properties on its lists in past years, most recently the Patrick Henry Hotel and a group of steam train engines at Roanoke Scrap Iron and Metal.

'The Blind Side' Scores a Touchdown

OK, so we're two-for-two with movies this week. First, "Pirate Rock" scored nicely and now "The Blind Side" is everything the previews and publicity boys promised: a good story, told with heart, humor and without resorting to cheap tear jerking tricks.

It's the story of the Tuohy family of Memphis--a comfortably wealthy white Republican family--that virtually adopts an outsized African-American boy who is without a home and raises him (to become a pro football player). The story is ultimately a vehicle for Sandra Bullock, who carries it well as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the beautiful, tough, compassionate former Ole Miss cheerleader. She is the centerpiece of the family and she insists on bringing along Michael Oher and raising him with her son and daughter.

Director Michael Lee Hancock (who also wrote this from a portion of a book on recruiting) throws in some touching moments, but resists schmaltz and syrup, often resorting to humor in a movie with plenty of laughs and just enough tears to make it all feel real.

The recruiting scenes with all those Southeastern Conference coaches are fun for an SEC fan like me (Oher almost went to Tennessee, which makes me wonder if he might have saved Philip Fulmer's job). But at the heart, this is undeniably Sandra Bullock's movie. I've been thoroughly impressed with her as an actor since "Crash," but this is the SB we know and love: the bright, easy-to-watch, funny woman who can take over a light movie like this and leave you smiling as you leave the theater.

A Group Effort for Railroad Tourism

Frankly, it’s been a long time coming. The announcement by six rail-related museums and historical societies in in the region yesterday that the Virginia General Assembly has designated this as Virginia’s Rail Heritage Region has been in the works for some time.

The designation includes C&O Heritage Center, O. Winston Link Museum, National Railway Historical Society/Blue Ridge Chapter, National Railway Historical Society/Roanoke Chapter, Norfolk & Western Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

The effort has not always been fully coordinated and has not always been pointed in this specific direction, but the dream has been there since probably before what is now the Virginia Museum of Transportation was founded in the 1960s. The designation formalizes the group’s ongoing cooperative relationships with the goal of attracting more tourists—and more tourist spending—to the region.

The goal is joint promotion of the region’s significant rail heritage tourism assets: multiple museums, active rail lines, historic sites, and the activities of the historical societies. According to research by the Virginia Tourism Corporation, visitors to museums in Virginia spend 4.5 nights in Virginia, compared to an average of 3.2 nights by non-museum visitors. Museum visitors also spend more in Virginia: traveling parties that visit museums spend an average of $968, more than double the $449 spent by traveling parties that do not include a museum visit.

On the national level, according to research conducted by the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Commerce, fully 40 percent of all leisure travelers in the U.S. actively engage in cultural and heritage travel, and 24 percent of U.S. leisure travelers (36 million adults) plan to take a cultural/heritage trip within the next 12 months.

As evidence of the national and international draw of the partner organizations: The O. Winston Link Museum reports New York, D.C. and London as its second, third, and fourth top cities of travel party origin. Sixty-five percent of visitors to the Virginia Museum of Transportation originate from more than 100 miles away, with half from out of state or out of the country.

While the Norfolk & Western Railway operated in only six states, the Norfolk & Western Historical Society has members in 40 states and 16 foreign countries. The recent excursions hosted by the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society included passengers from Canada and many states across the U.S.

Blowing Away the Beauty in the Plaza

This old boy's blowing away one of the prettiest views in the Roanoke Valley^

In a Nov. 3 blog, I promised you a beautiful fall scene on the plaza in front of Fire Station No. 1, as soon as the leaves started falling off the Ginkgo trees. I've waited until now to follow that up with the "Hey! Get down there and look at it" entry because it wasn't ready yet. The leaves seemed to be falling, but my guess that the wind was blowing them away.

As you can see from the photo above, it's not God who's depriving you of one of the prettiest sights in the Roanoke Valley every year; it is the City of Roanoke, blowing the leaves off the brick walkway and wasting all that beauty. With the leaves in place, we have a golden carpet leading to the fire station. With them blown away, we have what we have all the time. A nice little courtyard with a bunch of people sitting at tables smoking cigarettes.

The guy doing the blowing didn't want me to take his picture and I suspect he'd seen the leaves as a carpet in the past and knew exactly what he was doing to this little spot of specialness. But it's his job, so we can't blame him.

Too bad, though, that the city, in all its efficiency, doesn't have a little space in there for a speck of rare beauty.

A Re-thinking of Roanoke's Priorities Organized

Three Roanoke activists who are among the new media leaders in the area have finally jumped into the political fray, but without party affiliation. It’s an effort to create an active citizen base in the Star City and it’s being called rethink Roanoke.

The organization is being led by Legal Aid lawyer and new journalist Hank Bostwick, Beth Deel of MyScoper and upUpPeriscope and Jeremy Holmes of Ride Solutions.

Says Bostwick: "People tell me that maybe at no other time in recent memory have the grassroots and netroots been so active in Roanoke. Every night in the Star City one community group or another is meeting, organizing, entertaining, or educating," says Bostwick. "An energy emanates from our City and people from all walks of life are starting to feel it."

Think Roanoke’s founders stress that they will work across party lines to create an open forum designed to spur creative commitment to civic responsibility regardless of party affiliation; so long as citizens understand the power they have to shape their communities, the group will be a success.

"We want participation," says Holmes. "We understand that, at the local level, party politics play a very small role. At this level, our leaders are also our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends and family members. They should be chosen because they are the best qualified to address the problems and opportunities that face us. But first, we all need to talk about and decide on what those opportunities are."

To get that discussion started, reThink Roanoke is organizing its first Star City Summit on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, at The Water Heater, 813 5th Street SW in Old Southwest Roanoke.

Those attending should begin to gather at 7:45 p.m. with the forum to start around 8 p.m. More information is available at rethinkroanoke.org, reThinkRoanoke.org or the reThink Roanoke Facebook group.

Joe Dashiell Takes a Look at The Roanoke Times

WDBJ7 television in Roanoke has been running promotions for respected journalist Joe Dashiell's impending reporting on The Roanoke Times and I'm eager to see what one of the best news reporters in this region's TV history comes up with.

My guess is that The RT will try to explain its dramatic circulation losses during the past two years with explanations of "penetration" and "readership," both good gauges, but neither a true balance for combined circulations losses of 11 percent between Sept. 30, 2007 and Sept. 30, 2009 (the drop is from 88,267 to 77,816, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations). The Times has lost 9,000 readers in the last year and 4,000 in the last six months combined total circulation.

"Readership" (the number of people reading the paper as a whole, and there are often more than one per subscription) is down 3.3 percent weekdays and 4.4 percent on Sundays, according to ABC, representing the loss of 13,213 sets of eyes on Sunday.

The numbers online are better, up 12 percent during the past 30 days from 104,000 to 111,000. That seems to be a saving grace for many papers. I hear complaints that The Times' site is difficult to navigate and that it doesn't run certain stories. The difficult navigation, I have dealt with and on occasion I can't find a story that I know is in the paper version.

We (Valley Business FRONT) did two long pieces on The Times this past February (by Alison Weaver, who once worked there) and you can find them here and here. The first is an interview with Publisher Debbie Meade and the second a look at the paper's impressive losses among experienced personnel under Meade's regime.

Watch for Joe's story. He'll do a good job with it.

Another Good Friend Loses Her Job

The layoffs and firings just keep striking and many are hitting close. My dear and long-time friend Sue Lindsey, who once saved my life, has been separated from* her job with the Associated Press. She ran the bureau in Roanoke from 2005 to Tuesday and AP apparently will close it.

I haven’t talked to her today, so I don’t know what’s up next for her, but Sue and I are the same age—63—and options for our age group are limited in a job market. She’s one of the most talented writers and editors I’ve ever known and one of the bravest, most compassionate and very best people in my experience.

She has been a journalist, it seems, forever, including 19 years with The Roanoke Times. She was a reporter and editor and wrote a column for the editorial page for a while. Sue has always been private and was never totally comfortable with the high profile of an editorial columnist. She finally gave it up.

AP says it plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce across the globe and blames much of its problems on the fact that newspapers, who pay for its services, are suffering. Revenue is down six percent, it reports.

Sue’s job loss is the third among people I call friend that I’ve learned about in 24 hours. Last night at the VB FRONT Open House, a friend who is in public relations for a local college says she is a victim of budget cuts and my old pal JoLynn Seifert, who worked with us in ad sales at the Business Journal, has been severed by The Roanoker Magazine.

On a better note, our office manager at the Business Journal, Susan Cousins (one of the most competent people I know), went to work today for the Creekmore Law Firm, which is getting a dandy in Susan.

But Sue. I’m really sad about this one. And, no, I’m not going to tell you how she saved my life because she would object. But she did and I’m forever grateful to her.

(*I say "separated from" here because I don't know what technical term AP used, but it's all pretty much the same. She won't be working for AP. A few weeks ago my pal Elizabeth Parsons was told by the Blue Ridge Business Journal that she was "laid off" on a Friday. The following Tuesday her replacement as editor was announced. Not sure how that fits in with "layoff.")

Is TV Trying To Kill College Football?

It is becoming evident that television's insatiable thirst for "content" is having a serious detrimental effect on college football. just minutes ago, I flipped the TV by a game between the University of Miami (Ohio) and the University of Buffalo, attended roughly by the population of a small dorm at Roanoke College. It was sad to see.

I can't find the official attendance at this point (the game's still being played), but the crowd is tiny on the side we can see and quiet on the side we can't in 30,000-seat Yeager Stadium. My guess the numbers are in low four digits.

Schools in Division I must average 15,000 per home game every other year if they are to stay there. That's a one of a number of requirements to be at that top level. In 2007, three MAC teams, including Buffalo, averaged fewer than 15,000 customers. Kent State was at 9,000. Last year Buffalo had a good team and went to a bowl. Those averages were without Tuesday games.

These are a couple of also-ran Middle American Conference teams that would draw decent crowds to their Saturday day games, but have no chance at large attendance on a Wednesday, school-night in a northern climate.

Earlier this season, the University of Memphis, which plays in the 62,000-seat Liberty Bowl, has a student body of more than 20,000 and is in Conference USA played before about 4,117 people in a Tuesday, rainy home game that was made for TV. Low attendance helped get Memphis' coach fired. (In an unrelated matter, UM's president is my former sister-in-law, a lovely woman named Shirley Raines.)

With college football on television virtually every night of the week now (Mondays seem to belong to pro football, but I'm not sure that will last), the product has become extremely thin and uninteresting, especially to the fans of the schools involved in many of these second-level games. The Tuesday and Wednesday games are especially sad and my guess is they're detracting from Saturdays because of saturation.

It would be lovely if television would exercise a little bit of thought and caution before televising these games, but that would certainly be a first.

A Stiff Sentence for Drunk Drivers in NY

I'm not sure how much of a threat the law has to present before drunk driving is curtailed, but New York seems to have taken a pretty serious step in the direction of dulling the enthusiasm of the imbibing crowd. The NY House today passed a bill that would make it a felony to drive drunk with a child in the car. That could mean four years in jail if it passes the Senate and is signed by the governor.

There's more to the bill: A first-time conviction requires that the drunk driver install a device in his car that would measure his booze intake before the car would start. Other states have that stipulation, but usually after two or more convictions. The felony is virtually unheard of. A felony is a serious crime (think murder, rape, robbery) and to my mind it is proper in drunk driving cases. Virginia classifies drunk driving as a Class I misdemeanor with maximum punishment at $2,500 in fines and a year in jail (rarely imposed). You also lose your driver's license. That's serious, but it's not the hammer presented by the NY law.

New York would join Arizona if it passes a law classifying driving drunk with kids in the car as a felony. Statistics have shown that the alcohol-level device installed on cars reduced repeat offenses by 65 percent, according to the NYTimes.

As one who used to regularly drive drunk (I'm a recovering alcoholic, as I've said before), and one who has driven drunk with children in the car, it is my opinion that I would not have driven drunk had penalties been as harsh as the four years in prison for a first offense that New York is considering. My guess is that most drunk drivers are good citizens otherwise who simply don't think about what they're doing. They'd think a little longer if they knew they were going to the clank for four years or more.

I don't normally believe that draconian sentencing does much beyond overburdening prison populations, but in this case, considering the offenders, my guess is that it would work much more readily as a deterrent.

There's no excuse for drunk driving. No logic for it. No explanation for it other than mindless, thoughtless stupidity. The prison sentence would serve as the 2X4 between the eyes that got the mule's attention.

A Genealogy Lesson at the Library Saturday

The Virginia Room at he Roanoke City Main Library on Jefferson Street, which every researcher in this region worth his salt knows well, will have two classes on genealogy Saturday, 1:30-3:30 p.m.

The classes are: "Beginner Genealogy" and "Finding Your British Ancestors Across the Pond." Experienced genealogists Don Vaughan and Karen Kappesser will teach. The Virginia Room staff will help conduct your research. For more information, e-mail varoom@roanokeva.gov or call 540-853-2073.

A Driving Literary Force

Your favorite editor (center) with Sharyn McCrumb and Adam Edwards^

Novelist Sharyn McCrumb, who lives in Roanoke County, and NASCAR driver Adam Edwards were well received last night with their presentation about working as co-authors at the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge's monthly Writers Workshop event.

The pair worked together in writing Faster Pastor, which is due out in the spring and we'll have a complete account of how they worked together in the January issue of Valley Business FRONT by David Perry. It's a good read (David's already turned it in, bless his heart; editors love early copy). Betsy Ashton will also have a review of an advance copy of the book.

A Not-So-Subtle Message

Back in the old days of the Blue Ridge Business Journal when our publisher Jim Lindsey was driving me crazy on a daily basis with a degree of micromanagement unknown in the annals of man, I came up with the above poster and put it on my door. I thought the hint would be meaningful and it was to the degree that Jim said of it, "Oh, I know people I'd love to say that to."

Sometimes the message is just marvelous, but it misses the target audience.

These days I'm dealing with several different projects where approval of a wide variety of people is necessary and I'm on the verge of suicide again, so I thought I'd re-acquaint my peeps with Clint's not-so-veiled threat. Won't do any good, but, hey, I'm trying. Sanity is a good thing.

Suppertime and the Meatless Table: Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash soup adds a seasonal balance to the meal^

Major life changes mean challenges that are, as often as not, quite pleasant. Becoming a vegetarian of sorts (fish excepted on occasion) means considerably more attention to what I'm cooking and how it goes with the rest of the meal. Getting those whole proteins and all the other vitamins and minerals I need is the goal and it's hard to meet at this point, while I'm still learning.

One of the dishes I've run into in the past few weeks that adds a lot of nutrition and a good bit of pleasure to dinner is butternut squash soup. I served it tonight with too much other food (salad, steamed squash and onions, grilled salmon) and it'd make Homer Simpson salivate. Mmmmmmmmmm, butter-nut squash sooooooooup.

Here's how you do it:

2 pounds butternut squash (one good sized squash; organic is best, but it's twice as expensive)
4 medium apples
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 onion
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Cup of cream
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 cups of vegetable broth (or fat free chicken broth if you're not a veggie boy; truth is, the chicken broth tastes better)

Sweat the onion in butter; cook the squash until it's tender; and do the same with the apples.

Put all that cooked food and the spices into a blender with the cup of cream and blend it smooth. Pour that into the simmering broth and let it all cook at that temperature for about 15 minutes.

It's good stuff, especially this time of the year.

My Favorite Movie So Far This Year

We now have the movie bar set for the year. It's "Pirate Radio" and it's funny, likeable, has marvelous music and plays to a crescendo of an illogical and perfectly delightful ending that leaves even the sourpuss smiling and saying to disbelievers, "Hey, shut up; it's a movie."

It's a movie the bad guy steals (Kenneth Branaugh, who plays a sinsiter government official with the task of, in effect, killing rock 'n' roll) and in which an ensemble cast is so thoroughly entertaining that it doesn't matter which of several plot lines is being followed, you'll be engaged. Bill Nighy and Philip Seymour Hoffman (with a delightful cameo from Emma Thompson) are the names in the cast (nobody else was familiar to me), but the Brits were perfectly cast as a motley crew of guys (and one lesbian allowed on what would normally be a single-sex boat). Into this happy home enter various white boot, mini skirt clad young women and all the while the music plays (with great shots of people excitedly listening).

At the baseline is a true story (though this is a thoroughly fictionalized version): the British government banned rock 'n' roll from official radio for a period in the 1960s when the country was the leading force in the music. Branaugh's character represents the government view and the overkill here is hilarious. The music, of course, is forced offshore--and outside British authority--and it is Branaugh's task to figure out how to turn it off.

The selection of tunes from 1966 is just about perfect and when, near the end, we see one of the DJs trying to save one album from disaster, it is the Joplin vinyl, "Box of Pearls" (says my pal Fred Campbell, who keeps up with things like that). Joplin sings over the closing credits, so my guess is Fred's right.

It helps some if you're a 60-something, unreconstructed rocker, but it is not required in liking this movie. It's genuinely funny for the reasons anything is funny and if you're a kid, go see it. You'll see yourself somewhere in here.

Sign of the Times: Murray Run Upside-Down

Dan Wright, who helped build Murray Run, was honored on this sign, which wood bores are eating as we speak^

The new Murray Run sign where top is bottom^

The Murray Run Greenway in Roanoke has a new sign and it's a dandy ... with a small flaw: the map is upside down. But, hey, we can't always be perfect.

The big, honkin' sign, mounted in concrete and bearing what I'd guess to be a significant expense, replaces the small wooden sign that wood bores got hold of. These little guys invented the auger, I hear.

The new greenway sign is quite a nice little stopoff, but it takes a minute to understand that you're at the top going down, not the other way around, which has a lot more logic on its side, considering where you walk the minute you leave the sign. But if you orient yourself a little bit, the photo with the red mark through it gives you a picture of where you're going and it's pretty interesting, frankly.

The Confluence of Art and Function in Roanoke

Chris McBride paints the bus stop sculpture at Patrick Henry High^

Chris thinks the school kids will swing on this part of the shelter. I agree^

Art students made this scene with tiles. Guess where their minds were?^

The City of Roanoke, in a noble effort, is pushing art toward its citizens and some of its effort is working. As with all art, some works, some doesn't--depending on the critic--but it's all worthwhile. One of the more interesting efforts coming from a department headed by Susan Jennings, who for years led the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, are the two school bus stops under construction.

The one here is at Patrick Henry High School (explaining the colors) and will be dedicated Monday, Nov. 23 at 11:45 p.m. This is a school bus stop the likes of which I've never seen and I'm not sure how to feel about it. The artwork is certainly interesting, but is it functional? If you have a question about whether function is important, join the students waiting on a bus one rainy morning.

The roof of this structure, composed of a kind of plexiglass, spreads out like a fan, but there are no sides to break wind (so to speak) and the roof doesn't cover much space. But, hey, beauty often has its shortcomings.

This shelter is an effort led by Basset artist Ed Dolinger, working with Patrick Henry students and teacher Jennifer Fowler. Restoration expert Chris McBride and brick mason John Johnson also contributed significantly. John put together the marvelous tile scene (with heavy phallic overtones) made by the PH students.

I like the idea, the delivery and the look. But I'm not so sure it's going to do its first job: keeping students warm and dry as they wait for the bus.

Health Food at the Health Fair

Here's a loaded 'dog; note the bacon. Mmmmmmmmm, health fooooooood^

I was driving through Franklin this morning, listening to some bluegrass on a local radio station when the announcer started promoting the Franklin County Health Expo to benefit the Free Clinic. "Come on over and get some good hot dogs and nachos," he said, apparently totally oblivious (as the organizers must be) of the health benefits of said dogs and 'chos.

There was no word on whether cigarettes and beer would be sold.

Sarah Palin Gets Even (After a Fashion, So to Speak)

Oh that Sarah Palin! She's at it again in her new book, hockey-moming the rich and powerful, telling us how frugal and honest she is and how that mean old John McCain wouldn't let her talk about important stuff.

It's all right there in the book, how Fox News is the only reliable source, how Obama let the banks off the hook (during the Bush Administration), how she really didn't want all those Republican clothes and how she gave that ungrateful bitc...uh...woman Katie Couric a career break only to have her be a wretched meanie.

The Associated Press has read the book, checked the facts and, guess what!?! You can find out all you need to know here and it's just dandy.

Giving the Health Care Bill an Abortion with a Coat Hanger

Abortion politics may well sink us as a nation before wars and banks do. We're going down, probably within a generation or so, but I think the torpedo that sinks us has still to be selected. My bet's on abortion.

It is an issue without a solution. We can probably come to compromises on our wars and our finances (we won't have any money, so there won't be much to compromise), our national infrastructure, our food supply, potable water, the Fairness Doctrine, international relations, Guantanamo, Sarah Palin, Lane Kiffin, the date newspapers disappear, the value of Twitter and a myriad of other pressing issues. There's no compromise on abortion. You're either hard after it or hard again' it.

People like me--who detest abortion, understand the need for it, appreciate a woman's protective instinct for her own body and agree that the decision is lonely and nobody else's business--don't count. We have no voice because we waver, try to find common ground, seek compromise on an issue that won't be compromised.

We're getting ready to lose what is already a criminally weak health care bill because of the zealots who want to tack abortion riders on the bill, where they have no business. It's a legislative tactic, not good law for the people. It's an effort to impose a minority view upon a majority of people. And it's winning because our chicken shit legislators are letting it win. This bill--and dang near everything else they are touching these days--has so much less to do with the good of the people of the United States than with whether these jerks can get re-elected.

It is more appalling than the graft that keeps them in office, than the sell-off of integrity that begins the day after the election. Wonder why we're disillusioned (regardless of whether we're on one side of the political aisle or the other)? Look at this specific bill and this debate and just exactly where it's going with absolutely no chance of changing anything that is wrong.

Cynical? You're damn right, I'm cynical. Congress has given me ample justification*.

(* Let me note a significant exception here: the heroic Congressman Tom Perriello of a district going from Danville and Martinsville, through Franklin County and up to Charlottesville--talk about gerrymandered. Republicans have targeted him and think he's politically suicidal. His legislative assistant says Perriello "didn't come to congress to get re-elected" and the Huffington Post reports, "Inside the Beltway, this behavior is generally regarded as insane." That is a good thing.)

Seinfeld in Roanoke March 12; Tickets on Sale Nov. 20

You people don't deserve me^

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is hitting the road in a return to stand-up comedy and will be at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theater Friday, March 12 at 7p.m. Tickets are $65 and $78 and will go on sale at the Roanoke Civic Center ticket office Nov. 20 at 10 a.m.

They’re also available online at roanokeciviccenter.com or by phone at 877-RCCTIXNow (whatever the hell that counts out to; you figure it out). Recently called “the master stand-up comic of his generation” and “the best comedian of our time” by comedy-challenged critic Tom Shales, Seinfeld jokes about the little things in life that relate to audiences everywhere (he calls it “nothing” and most often that’s what it is).

Truth be told: I never got Seinfeld and have never found him even remotely funny. But, hey, that's me. I'm a Jonathan Winters guy with a little Steve Martin, early Robin Williams, Stan Laurel and Joe Queenan tossed in. That gal Kathy Griffin does it for me, too. Funny, funny woman.

Seinfeld? Don't get him. He needs a pie. My understanding is that the last time he was here he made some indelicate inferences about the state of intellect of the citizenry in our mountains ("dumb rednecks" comes to mind). I wonder if that'll be recalled by his fans.