Essays
They hunt, we chase: Why American foxhunting survives
Published on Dec 9th, 2004
0 comments America's culture is a mix of borrowed traditions. Along with tea and textiles, early ex-patriots imported foxhunting and transformed it into a legitimate part of American history. Although it has...
'Parahumans': Do chimp/human hybrids cross the line?
Published on Dec 2nd, 2004
0 comments Esmail Zanjani, a researcher at the University of Nevada at Reno, has been able to grow mostly human livers in sheep. Zanjani achieved this by injecting into growing sheep fetuses either adult stem...
Making the leap: From writing to being a writer
Published on Nov 25th, 2004
0 comments A Hollywood agent called me 10 years ago after reading the first chapter of a novel I had been working on for 10 years before that. "I loved it!" she shrieked. "This could be very big. I work on big...
College girls: Why they outnumber boys
Published on Nov 18th, 2004
0 comments A while ago, my nephew asked me to take a look at his college admissions essay. He was a brilliant, interesting kid with superb grades and boards– a kid who in the past could've sneezed on an...
Grieving 11/2: Where are the casseroles?
Published on Nov 11th, 2004
0 comments When somebody dies, we know how to handle it. We bury the body, then go back to someone's house and take comfort in ham sandwiches and brownies. We commiserate. Neighbors, understanding what a...
Jumbo lumps: Why Geico fears Googling
Published on Nov 4th, 2004
0 comments The sale of targeted advertising is one of the few business models that actually work on the Internet. Google has been an industry leader in creating ways to display relevant unobtrusive advertising...
Dems everywhere: Or so she thought...
Published on Oct 28th, 2004
0 comments It was one of those sweet moments when I get to feel like a genius– something that's only likely to happen when someone else is obviously a dope. It's all relative. Earlier this month, I was...
Fraud-busters: 3,140 polls better than one
Published on Oct 28th, 2004
0 comments There's no such thing as a national election in the United States. This may come as a surprise to people who believe that Americans will vote for a president on November 2 in a "national" election....
Letter from Kabul: Ex-Albemarle registrar watches elections
Published on Oct 21st, 2004
0 comments (Kabul, Afghanistan– October 5, 2004) The weather has turned, and the nights are getting chilly. But the days are still sun and dust, sun and dust. Some Asian bank has just put up half a...
Gun's safety: Drawing a gun can save your life
Published on Oct 14th, 2004
0 comments People are often surprised to learn that guns are used defensively by private citizens at least three times more frequently than guns are used to commit crimes. A question I hear repeatedly is, "If...
Your bong: Basis of 'narco-terrorism'?
Published on Oct 7th, 2004
0 comments Two cheers for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), whose latest public relations effort usefully reminds us that propaganda is not simply intellectually dishonest. It's also morally repulsive...
Apple smash: Stinging good times in the holler
Published on Sep 30th, 2004
0 comments Yellow jackets– potent weapons, workers of an impatient queen hidden deep within her dark paper fortress. Where are they? Her special brood needs attention– the great pale grubs that will...
Listen up, John! Before it's too late
Published on Sep 23rd, 2004
0 comments John Kerry's campaign is an airplane with no right wing. The fear of terrorists and the anger at our country's being attacked are the forces behind George Bush's reelection. How is it possible that...
American slendor: Don't legislate our waistlines
Published on Sep 16th, 2004
0 comments "We're just too darn fat, ladies and gentleman, and we're going to do something about it," proclaimed the formerly plus-sized, multiple-chinned Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson...
Fast forward: Pushing 'send' instead of thinking
Published on Sep 9th, 2004
0 comments Here we go again: another forwarded e-mail that makes me want to bash my head against the keyboard. My Republican neighbor has sent me one of those inflammatory us-versus-them missives that ricochet...
The communist: Questioning embodies patriotism
Published on Aug 26th, 2004
0 comments One spring day, my friend Connie and I rode our bikes down the hill on Oakland Street to Eighth, pedaling hard for a long block, looking for the house that had been described as where a "communist"...
Trash TV: Vicariously making the <I>Clean Sweep
Published on Aug 19th, 2004
0 comments I should have a trash TV– literally. About 10 hours each week, I watch a program called Clean Sweep on the Learning Channel. I'm endlessly enthralled by this repetitious tale of people getting...
JibJab: This song is Arlo's manifesto
Published on Aug 12th, 2004
0 comments It seems like every blog and e-mail list has linked to This Land!, that corny but funny cartoon where John Kerry and George W. Bush trade insults to the tune of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your...
Thumbs up: Don't deny kids this comfort
Published on Jul 29th, 2004
0 comments It's been a long day, and the four-year-old has given into the bliss of sucking his thumb. His face is suffused with satisfaction. Vice presidential candidate John Edwards' adorable son Jack has...
Big Mac attack: What's wrong with <I>Super Size Me
Published on Jul 22nd, 2004
0 comments During the first lunch of his month-long McDonald's binge, Morgan Spurlock is visibly uncomfortable. Eating in his car after stopping at a drive-through, he has trouble finishing his supersize fries...
Coarse debate: 'Defense' of marriage wrecks contracts
Published on Jul 15th, 2004
0 comments On July 1, a new Virginia law, "The Affirmation of Marriage Act," took effect banning same-sex unions, domestic partnerships, and similar arrangements granted by other states. It was passed to expand...
Ron ran: Lebanon sullied Reagan and us
Published on Jul 8th, 2004
0 comments Even after all these years, I'm not sure whether Ronald Reagan knew where Lebanon was on a map, though the diminutive county proved to be the most enduring bane of his two administrations. Yet that...
American-American: I could call him 'Al'
Published on Jul 1st, 2004
0 comments When I was a kid, I didn't know my father had an accent. I knew that he had come to America from Baghdad before I was born, that he was an Arab, that he had grown up speaking Arabic before he learned...
Sellers' paradise: House hunters get the blues
Published on Jun 24th, 2004
0 comments I should have a bumper sticker warning "I brake for House for Sale signs." Numerous times I have had near-death experiences swerving into side streets to pursue a "House for Sale" sign. If you haven'...
Reagan: On the right side of history
Published on Jun 17th, 2004
0 comments The long-expected death of Ronald Reagan is not just the passing of a president; it is also the passing of an era, or rather, a farewell to an era long past– an era of great historical change,...
My guys: The <I>other</I> men in my life
Published on Jun 10th, 2004
0 comments Don't get me wrong, I adore my husband. Bill is funny, kind, smart, and sexy. At our wedding, we danced our first dance to a song he wrote. Every day, he gets up at dawn to pack lunches for our son...
Billions to buddies: Why the U.N. can't run Iraq
Published on May 27th, 2004
0 comments   In Senator John Kerry's world, a place where one can have everything both ways, the way to solve the Iraq "problem" is simple enough: Turn it over to the United Nations. If the Massachusetts...
Snuff film: Zarqawi's suicide note?
Published on May 20th, 2004
0 comments It's a tough call whether Abu Musab al-Zarqawi– the Jordanian "militant" reportedly responsible for the videotaped butchery of Nicholas Berg– is more stupid than he is brutal, or whether...
No mercy: What Alston can expect
Published on May 6th, 2004
0 comments I have some things in common with Andrew Alston, the UVA junior charged with the November 8, 2003, murder of volunteer firefighter Walter Sisk. Like Alston, I once was a UVA student. And, like Alston...
Freelancers: Going after rogue killers
Published on Apr 29th, 2004
0 comments What is the legitimate purpose of the nation-state? Surely its chief function is to protect the lives and property of its citizens. At least that's the best justification for taxing citizens to...