Category: Virginia

The Colonnade Club, that is. I got a circular in the mail today about an auction at Harlowe-Powell in Charlottesville of many antiques and art objects that have been “deaccessioned” from the Colonnade Club at UVA, the faculty club that sits in Pavilion VII.

This was the first pavilion, or professorial residence and lecture hall, that Jefferson built in his original suite of buildings for the university, but it has long since become the permanent home of the faculty club and is now reopening after a long renovation. Apparently the club has to auction some of the items that it’s accrued in the intervening 180 years to pay for some of the restoration work.

The details of the auction are here. Although I’m a member, I haven’t spent much time inside the club, but I do remember a few of the pieces, in particular this spectacular sideboard.

Craig spills the beans by pointing to a Washington Post article: Pep Band’s Last Stand. Apparently a rich alum has decided to finally settle the argument over whether the University should have a Pep Band or a bunch of blown-up loonies in uniforms—oops, I mean a marching band.

Chalk up another blow against self determination and for those who lack senses of humor. The irony that the gift comes with money for the performing arts center is not lost on me.

New addition to Hooblogs: Kim Everitt, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences graduating this year, whose blog goes by a certain shade of [green]. This is of course interesting for two reasons: not only is it, like Mr. Greene’s blog, another Blogspot blog with “green” in the URL, but it also features brackets ([]) in the title.

Of course, her more compelling claim to fame is being linked by Dave Barry. You’ll have to take her word for it, as Dave’s archives (being hosted by Blogspot) are not working, and you’ll have to go to her home page and scroll to April 1 to take her word for it, as her permalinks (also hosted by Blogspot) aren’t working quite right either.

Somewhere in here there’s a lesson about getting what you pay for, but I’m not quite sure what it is.

Anyway, welcome aboard, Kim.

Thomas Jefferson was born 260 years ago today in my home state of Virginia. Ten years ago, I spent the day at Monticello with the Virginia Glee Club, singing on the Today Show (and standing at a urinal next to Willard Scott, but that’s another story (and, speaking of other stories—Aven, if you have the photo of Stancil, Tyler and Scott holding Katie Couric aloft as she wears her VMHLB cap, I’d pay money for a scanned copy!)), before riding on a bus to Washington to sing at a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial and shake Bill Clinton’s hand.

For those of you who don’t know who Thomas Jefferson is (e.g. apparently most members of the current Presidential administration and leaders of the Justice Department), he wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, was ambassador to France, and founded the University of Virginia. Oh yeah and he was president too.

In the spirit of Jefferson, then, a few of his words:

• “I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.”
• “If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.”
• “I have much confidence that we shall [Col 2] proceed successfully for ages to come, and that, contrary to the principle of Montesquieu it will be seen that the larger the extent of country, the more firm its republican structure, if founded, not on conquest, but in principles of compact and equality.”
• “The government of a nation may be usurped by the forcible intrusion of an individual into the throne. But to conquer its will, so as to rest the right on that, the only legitimate basis, requires long acquiescence and cessation of all opposition.”
• “Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”
• “The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.”
• “It should ever be held in mind that insult and war are the consequences of a want of respectability in the national character.”

Oh, and check out this year’s winners of the Jefferson Muzzles awards, given to those who seek to abridge freedom of speech and press. This year’s awards included many of the usual suspects at this blog, including everyone’s favorite singing ex-senator, John Ashcroft—and the 107th US Congress, who passed the PATRIOT Act.

New York Times: In Richmond, Lincoln Statue is Greeted by Protests. I love and hate this about Virginia, my home state: the places where history happened have a tendency to become trapped in pivotal moments and hold onto them for identity long after all the original participants have crumbled to dust. A prime example: Bragdon Bowling, Virginia “division commander” of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans:

“They have no concept of history and how it might be the wrong place to put the statue,” said Mr. Bowling, whose great-grandfather John Stephen Cannon fought for the Confederacy. “As a Southerner, I’m offended. You wouldn’t put a statue of Winston Churchill in downtown Berlin, would you? What’s next, a statue of Sherman in Atlanta?”

I think Mr. Bowling is perhaps not the right person to criticize someone else’s grasp of history.

Much to my amusement (and everyone else’s chagrin), almost everyone in my March Madness group except one is out of the running. We crashed and burninated, indeed.

My good friend Jim, who I sang with at UVA and in the Cheeselords, is getting ready to hike the Appalachian Trail. As a management and technology project manager for the last few years, he has found the right way to go about the planning: tongue in cheek.

I have ultimate confidence in my ability to walk this thing because I have engineered a most excellent AT Planning Spreadsheet. I have an Executive Dashboard up front, based on my company’s “7 Keys to
Success” management methodology; a risk log; a menu planning tool measuring such dimensions as “calories per dollar”; and a pace-o-meter, which will allow my support team at home to track where I am at any given time, whether I’m at risk of missing milestones, when I should pick up my next mail drop, and so on. I only need to do the actual walking now.

Jim leaves Sunday. Godspeed, Jim, and maybe I’ll be able to get East to see you at some point along the trail.

The Cavalier Daily reports that Daisy Lundy’s opponent in the race for University of Virginia Student Council President has withdrawn, conceding the election to her. The Daily Progress notes that the FBI investigation into the attack on Lundy continues. So no closure in this ugly chapter of the University’s history, nor is there likely to be for some time until all people of all races feel that the University and its community is a safe and fair place for them.

I expected some commentary on the Daisy Lundy problem, but not total denial. That’s what this comment writer gave in my discussion:

And how do we know that this attack even occurred as claimed. The entire investigation is based upon Daisy Lundy’s word alone.

-The relatively minor injuries suffered by Ms. Lundy (no black eyes despite allegedly being slammed into the steering wheel forcefully, no other marks/scratches around the face, broken bones or wounds; leaving open the possibility of self infliction or having a friend do it with reluctance, so as not to cause serious physical harm).

-The absence of vandalism to her vehicle (if someone were lying in wait, they could very well have tires slashed/car doors keyed as a threat or act of intimidation, however this was not done).

-The unusual circumstances of their encounter (how would her whereabouts away from her own residence be known at 2 am and how could someone lurk around her car for potentially several hours in cold weather without being noticed and reported to the police as a prowler/potential rapist by concerned residents).

I was at first stunned. Who could even believe that Daisy Lundy would blow out her own knee, I thought. Then I remembered something I had read on the Sabre discussion of the attacks. Sure enough, the exact same points (word for word) are made here. This combined with the similarly abusive stuff discussed at WahooPundit suggests that there’s someone who’s really threatened by the thought that people care about what happened to Daisy Lundy.

Race relations at Virginia have been complicated since the beginning; after all, the school’s founder wrote the Declaration of Independence but kept slaves.

But the execrable actions of the as-yet-unidentified assailant who, in the words of the Cavalier Daily report, “allegedly grabbed Lundy by the hair and slammed her head against the steering wheel… [and] said, ‘no one wants a nigger to be president’” aren’t complicated. They’re stupid, hateful, and unworthy of the school I called home. (They’re also ignorant; I seem to remember a few black student council presidents at Virginia while I was there, and they were popularly elected.)

Esta has some strong words on this and is following the unfolding reactions; apparently Casteen has issued a statement but it’s not on his web site yet.

Update: Esta forwarded the letters that went out from the offices of the President and Vice President for student affairs. Pending online availability on the Virginia site, I’ve posted the letters here.

It looks like Greg was able to have a constructive discussion with his boss about his Black Dog. Definitely something to be celebrated.

I was wondering where Greg had gotten to; turns out it’s a Black Dog issue. Glad to see you back, Greg, and don’t apologize for taking time off. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

He also points to a possible source for the Black Dog metaphor: Winston Churchill. I didn’t have any idea that Churchill was depressive, much less that he used this analogy, but I dug deeper and found a book about it:
Churchill’s Black Dog, by Anthony Storr, a series of essays on the success of creative individuals and their motivations.

New on the Hooblogs page: Jason Michael Chin. Good and funny stuff about life at the University as a fourth-year undergrad, as well as various other, well, horndoggery. But it’s all in good fun.

If anybody else out there is a UVA blogger who I don’t have listed, let me know…

My old friend and mentor Poulson Reed was my first section leader in the Virginia Glee Club. I credit him with my early vocal realizations about the importance of listening and blending one’s vocal tone with the section around you, as well as just generally showing me that it was possible to enjoy (and participate in!) the hijinx of the Glee Club while still remaining a gentleman.

I had lost touch with Poulson since he graduated, so it was an unexpected joy to see this note from fellow alum Dave Ryan:

On January 18th, Christopher Corr and I had the distinct pleasure of attending Poulson’s ordination and installation as Canon of the St. John’s in the Wilderness Episcopal Cathedral in Denver, CO. It was an amazing and inspirational event, with many in attendance, and angelic choir and orchestral music.

You can see Poulson at his new gig on the cathedral’s staff page. Congrats and Godspeed (or something), Poulson.

I was sitting in my office one day last week when someone stopped by to ask the way to Building 4. This isn’t uncommon, as our buildings are a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. But something about this guy seemed familiar. I could see he had a contractor badge but not his name. What was it? Joe something.

I hit the company directory and found the answer. There was the name I remembered, apparently now working for McKinsey. And in Redmond.

This was so uncanny. Joe and I had been at Virginia’s Governors School for Science and Math together in the summer of 1989; had gone to the University of Virginia together; and had started work at American Management Systems at the same time. Now, a year and a half after completing his MBA at Michigan, he was in Redmond on a consulting engagement.

Parallel lives. Really parallel: Joe and I never hung out much in college, he was in a different business unit at AMS and spent much of his time in Germany, he did his MBA at a different school a year earlier, and he won’t be in Redmond after next week.

But the final coincidence is that he was at Michigan with my friend and former AMS co-worker and teammate Larry Weyer. If three coincidences are a conspiracy, what are four???