Dear Ace: All of my local short cuts involve railroad tracks, but sometimes I find that I end up wasting a lot of time waiting for the trains to go by. Is there a train schedule so I can plan a way to keep my short cuts short?—Impatience Railhopper Railhopper: To shortcut his detective work, […]
C-Ville 20
Your Starting Lineup. Some of them are well known. Others are strictly behind-the-scenes players. Some make life more livable. Some make us shout back at our TVs (and some give us more to look at on those televisions). Among them are actors, sculptors, teachers, politicians and businesspeople. They come in all shapes, sizes and ages, […]
Hide Receiver
Dear Ace: Like, where did all the pay phones go? I need to make a call, but can’t find a phone and don’t want to get a cell. —Anita Dialtone Good question, Anita! Even though Ace upgraded to wireless communications for his investigative calling, the dwindling numbers of local public phones have not gone unnoticed […]
The kids all write
Click here to read the story at sfweekly.com
When push comes to shrub
Dear Ace: I’ve been doing a considerable amount of plant dodging while strolling along the sidewalks around town. Obstacle courses can be nice, but it’s starting to ruin my walks. How do I make these homeowners keep their plants off my path?—Bush Whacked Ah, Bush. Ace understands your woes—plants can be a pain. If they […]
Road to recovery
Road to recovery “Opium teaches only one thing, which is that aside from physical suffering, there is nothing real.” —André Malraux The wild monster The Toyota hatchback that Dwaine bought for $100 shuddered as it hit interstate speed. Smoke curled from the Marlboro between his fingers and slipped into the air rushing outside his […]
Duval or nothing
Hey Ace: You seem like a guy who knows what’s up with local TV. What ever happened to NBC Channel 29 morning anchor Bill Duval? Is he coming back or did he split town?—Earl E. Riser Earl, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the anchor-folk at NBC29. They seem to come and go […]
Boyd in the hood
Dear Ace: I was just wondering, who is Boyd, and what does he serve at his tavern?—Thirsty for Answers Thirsty: Reading your question, poor Ace felt an insatiable need to wet his whistle. So, he hopped in the Acemobile and headed toward Boyd Tavern, at the junction of Route 616 and Three Chop’t Road, just […]
Absent minded
When summer creeps through the front door, that’s the time some of us creep out the back. Playing hooky is a time- honored tradition; even bike-riding presidents are doing it these days! In celebration of the season, we’ve culled 10 ideas that will spice up your illicit time away from work or other obligations. Whether […]
Make the connection
Dear Ace: What’s happening on the Bypass near the 250 exit? I see lots of construction and dirt movers. McMansions? Rest stop? —Rhodes Scholar Rhodes: With all the earth-moving going on around town (or earth scorching, as the case may be—the first time Ace drove by the Hollymead Town Center site he thought a nuclear […]
Be Fruitful
The double doors of an A-frame barn open to an empty hall ending in a wall of windows. The intervening space is bathed in gentle southeastern morning light. The view looks northwest toward the forested backside of Carter Mountain. Charlottesville’s there somewhere, but it’s hidden behind blue mountains that overlap in rising layers. Red bud, […]
Sitting pretty
They may be homegrown fellas, but Stefan Lessard and Boyd Tinsley are having trouble navigating Belmont. The bassist and violinist for Dave Matthews Band are late for a Monday afternoon interview at Mas, the tapas restaurant on Monticello Road that’s owned by their manager. Tinsley finally pulls up in a yacht-sized Escalade and later Lessard […]
Mouthing off
Dear Dr. Ace, What’s this I hear about area dentists getting together to organize a dental clinic for low-income families? Where’s it going to be and how can I help?—Pearl E. White Well, Pearl, you ask an important question. Because if you aren’t born with good, healthy teeth you gotta buy them. Ace, for example, […]
Trickle down theory
How did that happen? Every time you sign the check for your water bill, you’re paying the price for years of misadventures in water supply planning. Our water rates include money for two water expansion plans that have since been flushed, even though the debts remain. Now the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority is under […]
Sloppy seconds
Dear Ace: What’s with those recycling boxes at Central Place? Some City project or what? And how can we be sure the plastics and glass bottles get to the recycling place, anyway?—Sierra Klubb Oh, my fine Sierra! Ace detects a sliver of skepticism in your query. Could it be that the one and only Sierra […]
Sonic Booom
Angst and network news go together like—oh, like Simon and Garfunkel, whose popularity peaked around the same time that Walter Cron-kite was signing off with the comforting fiction “that’s the way it is.” For more than a quarter of a century, the audience for the three evening network newscasts has been both shrinking and aging, […]
Who’s got your number?
Ace, it’s not an emergency or anything, but I’m curious about this community phone system that can alert the community to crisis by calling everyone in an imperiled area. Who gets to use it and for what? Earthquakes? UFOs? A GOP invasion?—Chatty Cathy Cathy, Cathy, Cathy, talking dogs are more likely to take over our […]
Where do we go when we die?
A recent online survey showed that more than one-third of us think that once we die, we end up in some kind of merit-based afterlife, like Heaven or Hell. Another 29 percent figure we go nowhere—we’re just dead. Well, yes and no. No matter where you think you’ll end up in the long run, you’re […]
Speech therapy
“Freedom of expression cannot be limited without being lost.” Thomas Jefferson Robert O’Neil takes TJ’s words very seriously. As executive director of the Pantops-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, each year he oversees the awarding of Jefferson Muzzles. The search for censorship in America brings a wide swath of culture within […]
Seeing red?
Dear Ace: I am very, very busy with many phone calls to make and errands to run. So many, in fact, that I have to eat and get ready in the car and sometimes I wind up running red lights. I’ve heard horror stories about how, in some cities, the cops have cameras attached to […]
Rebuilding Westhaven
Our leaders love to trumpet Charlottesville’s progressive spirit and the world-class quality of its city life. The sales pitch rings hollow in Westhaven, though, where ambitious plans for “urban renewal” have literally fallen apart. Now the Housing Authority hopes to overcome 20 years of neglect with a new version of urban renewal. But can yuppies […]
There's still time to fix the city schools
It was past 11pm on Thursday, March 3, and after four hours of deliberation the Charlottesville City School Board remained divided over how to balance the 2005-06 budget due the next day to City Council. Six of the board’s seven appointees were present, along with Dr. Scottie Griffin, the division’s superintendent. The sour atmosphere in […]
Bicycle built for you
Dear Ace: Whatever happened to those yellow bikes that were set up around town for anyone and everyone to use when in need of a little free transportation?—Schwinn Dixie Ah, Schwinn, Ace remembers fondly that age of innocence when the sweet, idealistic liberals of Charlottesville still believed that the concept of community bikes might help […]