Will Texas push Jefferson back to Monticello?
FILE PHOTOS BY HAWES SPENCER

Because one influential education board is swayed by Christian fundamentalists, all American students may soon receive a smaller dose of the Sage of Monticello.

That’s the concern, after the Texas Board of Education voted Friday, March 12, to replace Enlightenment-guided Thomas Jefferson with the more Bible-guided Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and Sir William Blackstone as the thinkers whose ideas helped precipitate some of the political revolutions of Jefferson’s day.

Texas, along with California, is widely seen as setting national textbook standards due to their voluminous population and consequent buying power.

And that’s upsetting to Charlottesville-based historian Coy Barefoot. The author of the 2002 book Thomas Jefferson on Leadership, Barefoot contends that Texas is twisting history and tearing (more)

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Virginia Foundation for the Humanities president Rob Vaughan will not have to announce the demise of the Book Festival this year.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities escaped a House of Delegates proposal to eliminate its state funding the same week its most widely known program, the Virginia Festival of the Book, runs.

“We were never not going to survive,” says VFH president Rob Vaughan, “but we were going to be impoverished.”

The Charlottesville-based organization did not come out of the budget process unscathed, losing $290,000 on top of $550,000 that had already been cut from its current $3.8-million budget. And Vaughan credits the Foundation’s supporters for lobbying legislators.

“I was really delighted with the number of people who said they called, and they called (more)

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Camino’s Sean Thomas, Drew Hart, and Matt Turner.
STAFF PHOTO

On Tuesday, March 9 Camino Restaurant on Market Street is offering a $30 prix fixe menu designed to bring awareness to the plight of the Chesapeake Bay and our local waterways. During the event, staff from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will be on hand to discuss ways you can help, while the folks at Camino serve up oceanic delights such as Rappahannock River oysters, Bay scallops, Hog Island clams, wild striped bass, and poached flounder with blue crab.

Reservations are required and available between 5:30 - 6:30 pm. and 8:00 – 9:00 pm. Parties of four are encouraged. To make your reservation call 434-293-2323.

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Gaines
PUBLICITY PHOTO

As part of the Big Read’s promotion of Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying, the folks at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library are turning fiction into fact, or rather into Cajun-style gumbo. As the main character in Gaines’s novel— a young uneducated black man named Jefferson— awaits the electric chair after being found guilty of killing a white storekeeper; his godmother, Miss Emma, tries to comfort him with her prized gumbo. So, in honor of the book, the library is holding a “Great Gumbo Contest” on March 13 at 1:30pm.

Gumbo

Contestants are being asked to bring a gallon of their gumbo, which is basically a spicy stew of vegetables, meat and seafood flavored with okra and others spices, to the library around 1pm to prepare for a public tasting. There’ll be judges there to pick a first, second, and third place winner. Prizes include $100, $50, and $25 gift certificates for kitchen items. The field will be limited to 20, so if you’re got a special gumbo recipe, give the folks at the JMRL a shout by emailing them at bigread@jmrl.org. But, of course, the real treat awaits the spectators who’ll have a chance to taste some great gumbo for a worthy cause.

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After years of boom times, Albemarle County Executive Bob Tucker presents a diminished budget for the second year in a row, this one 12 percent less than two years ago.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

With the University of Virginia as the big employer in town, Albemarle County has often been thought to be sheltered from the financial pain other parts of the country are suffering. The fiscal year 2010-11 budget County Exec Bob Tucker unveiled February 25 dispels that notion.

Tucker’s $293,850,901 budget is $10.3 million trimmer than last year and nearly $40 million less than fiscal year 2008-09.

The good news for homeowners is that the property tax rate holds steady at 74.2 cents per $100, so while homes lost value in the county on average 3.96 percent, at least those tax bills will be a few bucks less.

The bad news: All those best-place-to-live attributes (more)

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How did Corks & Curls disappear without anyone noticing?
COVER DESIGN BY ALLISON SUMMERS

After a 119-year run, Corks & Curls, the student yearbook first published in 1888, disappeared without anyone really noticing. On Thursday, January 21, following up on rumor that the storied yearbook had been nixed, the Hook asked UVA Dean of Students Allen Groves if it were true. Groves passed the inquiry on to Karen Shaffer, UVA’s director of Student Activities.

“The Corks & Curls yearbook is traditionally published by UVA students, but the group is currently not active,” said Shaffer. “While they may choose to regroup and publish a yearbook in the future, there is no plan to do so in the 2009-10 academic year.”

Yikes! How could a University steeped in history allow one of its oldest traditions to perish? Was it a funding issue?

“Not so much a funding issue, as a sign of the times,” said UVA spokesperson Carol Wood the next day. “Apparently, there was little interest on the part of students to want a yearbook, as more and more students (more)

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The Charlottesville Cooking School tells us there are a few spaces left for this Saturday’s 4pm class with Marisa Catalano called “Flavors of Venice.” For $70 per person you’ll cook and eat Risotto with Pancetta and Radicchio, Pork and Porcini Braciole, Artichokes in White Wine, and Tiramisu. Go to the school’s website to sign up.

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Connecticut College history prof Michael Burlingame, an Abraham Lincoln scholar, discusses the life of the famous President at the Miller Center on February 15 at 11am. He is the author of author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life (2 vols.; Johns Hopkins, 2008) and The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln (University of Illinois Press, 1994).

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Paul W. Cherington Professor of Business Administration at Harvard. Bruce R. Scott, explores how public policy has effected the business environment in the last several years…and how a misunderstanding of capitalism may have lead to the recent economic instability. February 12, 11am, at the Miller Center. Scott’s newest book is The Concept of Capitalism (Springer, 2009).

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From Speak! Language Center:

The stereotypical Russian is most often associated with vodka. Is this accurate? What is the history of drinking in Russia? What is the current attitude in Russia towards alcohol, and towards vodka in particular? Dr. Rachel Stauffer, an expert on Russian language and culture, will explain why, when, and how Russians drink. Attendees will have the opportunity to taste the foods that are most often paired for drinking throughout Russia and Eastern Europe in conjunction with a tasting of premium vodkas from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, and Canada. $25. Reservations recommended as space is limited. 313 Second Street S.E., Suite 109 (Back side of the Glass Building). 245-8255 or info@speaklanguagecenter.com

When: Friday, February 26, 5:30-7:30pm

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No more Corks & Curls? From right to left, the 1928, 1930, 2007, 1908, and 1913 editions of the yearbook.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

After a nearly 120-year run, there’ll be no University of Virginia yearbook for sale this year, say UVA officials.

“The Corks & Curls yearbook is traditionally published by UVA students, but the group is currently not active,” says Karen Shaffer, UVA’s director of student services. “While they may choose to regroup and publish a yearbook in the future, there is no plan to do so in the 2009-10 academic year.”

The news came as a shocker for historian Coy Barefoot, who says he drew heavily on archival copies of Corks & Curls in compiling his own book, The Corner: A History of Student Life at the University of Virginia.

“It’s a prime historical resource,” says Barefoot, who is teaching a local history course this semester. “This is just awful from a historian’s standpoint.”

However, according to Cavalier Daily editor Andrew T. Baker, the yearbook hasn’t been making much of an impression on current UVA students.

“I haven’t seen much publicity or presence from the yearbook around Grounds in the four years I’ve been here,” he says.

“I’ve tried testing the waters with some of my friends, casually mentioning that the yearbook isn’t going to be published,” says UVA student and Hook music writer Stephanie Garcia, “and no one seemed to really care.”

An even bigger shocker, according to Aaron Josephson, who serves on the executive committee of the Class of 2009, was that the historic treasure wasn’t (more)

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The Mechums River closes Browns Gap Turnpike in Crozet.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Albemarle County public schools— which delayed their opening by two hours for threatened-but-undetermined ice on Friday, January 22— are closed Monday, January 25 due to flooding. Alas, the school system hasn’t yet Twittered or even announced the news on its website (only revealing by automated phone message thus far), so there may be a raft of confusion this morning.

Update 7:45am: Charlottesville schools are on a two-hour delay. By 7:45 am– when Walker and Buford students are typically arriving at school– parents had received no alert and the news was announced only on the (more)

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Picket’s Charge from the point of view of the Confederates.
PAINTING BY EDWIN FORBES

In February, feasting meets history at the Michie Tavern when award-winning author, writer and lecturer, Rick Britton offers a dramatic re-telling of the July 3, 1863 attack on Cemetery Ridge (commonly known as Picket’s charge), which is “arguably the most famous attack in American history,” Britton says.

Albemarle County was featured prominently in this celebrated, but terribly failed assault. Over 440 Confederates, the vast majority from Charlottesville and Albemarle (including the great grandson of Innkeeper, William Michie) “marched in lockstep across that valley of death as the 19th Virginia Infantry.” Half of them would be killed.

The lecture, “Albemarle Boys in Pickett’s Charge,” will be held at Noon on Thursday, February 25, and a mere $15 gets you the full Michie Tavern buffet, drinks, dessert, and an education in local Civil War history. Now that’s truly a feast for the stomach and the mind! Make your reservations by calling 434-977-1234.

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