Biggest change of heart: Supervisor Rodney Thomas questions whether Albemarle's $2.03 million 2008 commitment to the YMCA is set "in stone," Charlottesville Tomorrow reports. Fellow Republicans Ken Boyd and Duane Snow join Thomas in wanting to back out of the deal, citing difficult economic times.

Biggest scolding: VDOT chastises Charlottesville City Council for sending mixed signals that could confuse the Army Corps of Engineers and delay the Meadowcreek Parkway, NBC29 reports.

Latest JADE work: The Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force arrests Keisa Annette Bell, 33, and Leandra Isiah Henderson, 20, in the 800 block of Forest Street March 11, and seizes 20 grams of crack and $1,100. The pair is charged with possession with intent to distribute.

Latest Nelson bust: Also on March 11, Nelson deputies find 5.1 grams of crack, a gun, and $400 and arrest Clarence Edward Tabb III, 35, who picks up four charges. Jeremy Antoine Tabb, 29, and Wanda Faye Wright, 20, are charged with pot possession and released on a summons.

Latest Albemarle police checkpoint: Police stop 473 vehicles March 11 on Gordonsville Road near Klockner Road and issue 19 tickets, the majority for inspection violations.

Most dubious distinction: Jon Stewart targets the gay discrimination policies of Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on "Gaywatch: Virginia Edition" on the Daily Show March 9, one day before McDonnell overrides Cuccinelli's decision that state colleges can't protect sexual orientation in their anti-discriminination policies. 

Most tragic tree trimming: A falling 30-foot oak kills a 60-year-old Stuarts Draft woman who was cutting it down with her husband March 9, WHSV reports. 

Most tragic chase: Alleged speeder Charles Yacklon Jr., 28, tries to ditch Louisa police March 14 after being clocked going 60 in a 45mph zone, and slams into a utility pole, killing front seat passenger James J. Wolf Jr., 22, from Powhatan, the Newsplex reports. Yacklon and backseat passenger Jason Rhoten are airlifted to UVA hospital and are in stable condition.

Most publicized colon: The Reverend Alvin Edwards, a former city councilor, allowed CBS19 TV cameras in for his colonoscopy at Martha Jefferson Hospital during Colon Cancer Awareness Month.

Biggest rampage: An escaped Black Angus runs for about an hour March 11 in Harrisonburg before getting killed by police. The AP quotes an officer who claims the bull was foaming at the mouth and seemed "deranged."

Best photography: The Daily Progress' Andrew Shurtleff wins the Pictures of the Year International competition in the sports action category for his remote-controlled shot of a Hofstra soccer player slamming into the net. Meanwhile, Gitchell Studios' boss Jim Carpenter returns from the Virginia Professional Photographer's Association with six blue ribbons including honors as "Photographer of the Year"-- his fourth time.

Best speller: Waynesboro home-schooled seventh-grader Sarah Anne Allen wins the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee March 13 at Monticello High and heads to the national competition June 2-4 in Washington.

Most debatable: Albemarle High takes the Regional Forensics competition March 13 for the ninth year in a row, according to the Newsplex.

Nuttiest new mascot: Richmond baseball park The Diamond, takes down its Native American warrior sculpture which touted the departed Richmond Braves minor league baseball team and welcome the more-PC Flying Squirrels.

#

Being an expert is not innate. Successful performers "practiced intensively, had studied with devoted teachers, and had been supported enthusiastically by their families throughout their developing years."

You need to work every single day at being great at that one thing if you want to be great. This is true of pitching, painting, parenting, everything. And if you think management in corporate life is an exception, you're wrong. I mean, the article is in the Harvard Business Review for a reason.

It used to be, more than 100 years ago, that you could be a prodigy and come out of nowhere and be great. An example the authors use is Mozart. Yes, he had innate ability, but also, his father was a professional violinist, a skilled composer who wrote the first violin instruction book.

Today, the standard for being an international success at anything is so high that the authors say you need to spend at least 10 years working in a very focused, everyday way on the thing you want to be great at. Evidence: today's high schools swimmers beat Olympic records from years ago.

A lot of being great at something is having the right coaching, and part of the right coaching is someone telling you where you're not gonna make it and where you are.

But the coaching that successful experts get is special. According to the article, usually someone starts with a local coach and then the person moves on to a coach who has achieved huge success himself. And people who practice very hard every day start to have a sense of who can be a coach who is capable of helping them succeed, and who is a coach they have outgrown.

I recall the day I realized that my figure skating coach was an alcoholic. My dad picked me up at the rink. He asked why my skate guards were on. I said I never went skating. I said, "I think Ivar is sick."

My dad said, "Yeah. I've been thinking that for a while."

I said, "I don't think he really can teach me any more."

My dad said, "I've been thinking that for a while."

I remember the heartbreak I felt knowing that I didn't have a teacher. If you are a person who wants to be an expert, the thing you want most is a teacher. I think that's why I carry the magazine with me everywhere I go. To remind me to look. Like my life depends on it.

 ~

Penelope Trunk has started several companies and worked for many more.

#

Undissolved Mysteries By JOHN ALLEN BREEN41@AOL.COM

Slow Wave By JESSE REKLAW
www.slowwave.com

#]]> http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2010/03/18/cartoons.aspx http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2010/03/18/cartoons.aspx Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:35:10 +0000

 What happens with a crooked penis?

 Peyronie's (rhymes with macaroni) disease causes an erect penis to-- well, bend. What's the big deal? Imagine a police officer directing traffic. You know how he holds his arm out with the hand up at 90 degrees? Ok, imagine making love to that.

 In Peyronie's disease, scar tissue or plaque builds up in the penis, usually in the tunica albuginea— an elastic sheath that covers the erectile tissue chambers. Because the sheath can't stretch well, the erection bends-- usually upwards, although it can go side-to-side or straight down. 

 Needless to say, this can be quite painful, making arousal as much fun as a vice grip. Beside the pain, the psychological and emotional distress can be devastating. Peyronie's isn't like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but more like a right-angle ruler. 

Most penises curve or point to some degree, but Peyronie's creates a significant bend. Also, a man with Peyronie's worries about his sexual partner. So needless to say the pain of an erection combined with the psychological distress can be a real downer.

 We don't know what causes Peyronie's. For most men, it's probably from trauma to the penis that has led to scarring of the tunica albuginea. Believe it or not, a man can fracture his erect penis, in particular during sex, causing permanent damage. (Sorry, dudes, for this visual.) But also sports injuries or a kick in the groin can create scar tissue. Folks with hand contractures are more at risk of Peyronie's. Diabetics, smokers, and men with pelvic trauma history are at increased risk of Peyronie's. 

 Genetics seems to play a role because men with a father or brother with Peyronie's are more at risk. (Though honestly, I don't know any father or brother who's going to mention this to relatives. "Son, my erect penis gets a weird bend-- ") And as I have seen in my own practice, older men tend to be the ones affected by Peyronie's. 

 To make things worse: Peyronie's is like osteoporosis of the spine. It shrinks it. Men can lose a large percentage of penis size from scarring. 

 As much as I hate pharmaceutical ads, the Erectile Dysfunction discussions have made it easier for men to talk to their doctors about Peyronie's. Often the scar tissue/plaque can be felt on the back or side of the penis, even when flaccid. After an injection of prostaglandins to cause an erection, an ultrasound can confirm the scar tissue of Peyronie's. 

 The first 6-18 months are the worst because that's when the Peyronie's matures and the pain becomes most severe. But then it tends to level off. ED medications like Cialis and Levitra are used to keep the erections going and stretch the scarred tissue. Colchicine, a gout medication, is used as well as Vitamin E. Verapamil penile injections might help break up the scarred tissue, as well as interferon and collagenase, although results aren't that great. Surgery is a last resort, but I have yet to see anyone go through that.

 This might seem like a bent topic to you, but it does affect quite a few men. A good urologist might be able to help unfortunates with Peyronie's.

~

Dr. Hook cracks a joke or two, but he's a renowned physician with an interesting website, drjohnhong.com. Email him with your questions.

#

Business cheerleaders naturally want to emphasize the positive. They assume the economy runs on optimism and that if average consumers think the economy is getting better, they'll empty their wallets more readily and-- presto!-- the economy will get better. The cheerleaders fail to understand that regardless of how people feel, they won't spend if they don't have the money.

The US economy grew at a 5.9 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2009. That sounds good until you realize GDP figures are badly distorted by structural changes in the economy. For example, part of the increase is due to rising health care costs. When WellPoint ratchets up premiums, that enlarges the GDP. But you'd have to be out of your mind to consider this evidence of a recovery.

Part of the perceived growth in GDP is due to rising government expenditures. But this is smoke and mirrors. The stimulus is reaching its peak and will be smaller in months to come. And a bigger federal debt eventually has to be repaid.

So when you hear some economists say the current recovery is following the traditional path, don't believe a word. The path itself is being used to construct the GDP data.

Look more closely and the only ones doing better are the people and private-sector institutions at the top. Many of America's biggest companies are sitting on huge amounts of cash right now, but that says nothing about the health of the U.S. economy. Companies in the Standard&Poor 500 stock index had sales of $2.18 trillion in the fourth quarter, up from $2.02 trillion last year, and their earnings tripled. Why? Mainly because they're global, and selling into fast-growing markets in places like India, China, and Brazil.

America's biggest companies are also showing fat profits and productivity gains because they continue to slash payrolls and cut expenditures. Alcoa, for example, had $1.5 billion in cash at the end of last year, double what it had on hand at the end of 2008. Sounds terrific until you realize how it did it. By cutting 28,000 jobs-- 32 percent of workforce-- and slashed capital expenditures 43 percent.

Firms in S&P 500 are now holding a whopping $932 billion in cash and short-term investments. And they can borrow money cheaply. Corporate bond sales are brisk. So far in 2010, big U.S. corporations have issued $195.2 billion of debt, excluding government-guaranteed bonds. Does this spell a recovery? It all depends on what the big companies are doing with all this cash. In fact, they're doing two things that don't help at all.

First, they're buying other companies. (Walgreen spent $618 million in Feb. for another New York drugstore chain Duane Reade; Bank of New York Mellon, $2.3 billion for PNC Financial Services; Monster, $225 million for jobs.com; Diamond Foods, $615 million for Kettle Foods.) This buying doesn't create new jobs. One of the first things companies do when they buy other companies is fire lots of people who are considered "redundant." That's where the so-called merger efficiencies and synergies come from, after all.

The second thing big companies are doing with all their cash is buying back their own stock, in order to boost their share prices. There were 62 such share buy-backs in February, valued at $40.1 billion. We're witnessing the biggest share buyback spree since Sept 2008. The major beneficiaries are current shareholders, including top executives, whose pay is linked to share prices. The buy-backs do absolutely nothing for most Americans.

(None of this, by the way, is stopping supply-side fanatics from arguing government needs to cut taxes on big corporations in order to spur the recovery. Their argument is absurd on its face. Big companies don't know what to do with all their cash they have as it is. They aren't investing it in new plant and equipment and new jobs. So why should the government cut their taxes and enlarge their cash hoards even more?)

The picture on Main Street is quite the opposite. Small businesses aren't selling much because they have to rely on American-- rather than foreign-- consumers, and Americans still aren't buying much.

Small businesses are also finding it difficult to get credit. In the credit survey conducted in February by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, only 34 percent of small businesses reported normal and adequate access to credit. Not incidentally, the NFIB's "Small Business Optimism Index" fell 1.3 points last month, just about where it's been since April.

That's a problem for most Americans. Small businesses are where the jobs are. In fact, small businesses are responsible for almost all job growth in a typical recovery. So if small businesses are hurting, we're not going to see much job growth any time soon.

The Federal Reserve just reported that American consumers are shedding their debts like mad. Total US household debt, including mortgages and credit card balances, fell 1.7 percent last year-- the first drop since the government began recording consumer debt in 1945. Much of the debt-shedding has been through default-- consumers simply not repaying and walking away from homes and big-ticket purchases.

This is hardly good news. But here's the Wall Street Journal's take on it: "the defaults are leaving many people with more cash to spend and save, jump-starting the financial rehabilitation" of the economy.

Baloney. As of end of 2009, debt averaged $43,874 per American, or about 122 percent of annual disposable income. Most economic analysts think a sustainable debt load is around 100 percent of disposable income-- assuming a normal level of employment and normal access to credit. But unemployment is still sky-high and it's becoming harder for most people to get new mortgages and credit cards. And with housing prices still in the doldrums, they can't refinance their homes or take out new loans on them. The days of homes as ATMs are over.

Some cheerleaders say rising stock prices make consumers feel wealthier and therefore readier to spend. But to the extent most Americans have any assets at all, their net worth is mostly in their homes, and those homes are still worth less than they were in 2007. The "wealth effect" is relevant mainly to the richest 10 percent of Americans, most of whose net worth is in stocks and bonds. The top 10 percent accounted for about half of total national income in 2007. But they were only about 40 percent of total spending, and a sustainable recovery can't be based on the top ten percent.

Add to all this the joblessness or fear of it that continues to haunt a large portion of the American population. Add in the trauma of what most of us have been through over the past year and a half. Consider also the extra need to save as tens of millions of boomers see retirement on the horizon. Bottom line: Thrifty consumers are doing the right and sensible thing by holding back from the malls. They saved a little over 4 percent of their disposable income in fourth quarter of 2009. In the months or years ahead they may save more.

Right and sensible for each household but a disaster for the economy as a whole. American consumers accounted for 70 percent of the total demand for goods and services in the American economy before the Great Recession, and a sizable chunk of world demand.

So what happens when the stimulus is over and the Fed begins to tighten again? Where will demand come from to get Main Street back, create jobs, raise middle class wages? Not from big businesses. Certainly not from Wall Street. Not from exports. Not from government.

So, where? That question is the big unknown hanging over the U.S. economy. Until there's an answer, an economic "recovery" for anyone other than big corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy is a mirage.

~

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Supercapitalism. This essay first appeared on his blog and is distributed through Featurewell.

#

Katrina Powell
PHOTO COURTESY KATRINA POWELL

Katrina Powell always was aware.

"My father grew up in Madison County," she explains. "Our family wasn't directly affected or displaced by the park, but he thought was important for us to know about the place we enjoyed so much, to know the history."

An avidpark hiker, Powell would spot old building foundations, chimneys, and well-marked grave sites, and she'd ponder the idea that former residents were not given a choice about whether to leave when the government seized their property in the 1930s.

In 2001, Powell-- then at her first teaching job at Louisiana State University-- learned that archives of the Shenandoah National Park were open, and she was moved by the collection of 300 letters from residents who were being forced to leave their homes.

"I was mesmerized about what people wrote and how they felt about having to imminently move," says 42-year-old Powell in a phone interview from Virginia Tech, where she teaches English.

Those letters resulted in two books about the people forced to leave. The first was 2007's The Anguish of Displacement, published by the University of Virginia Press. And in 2009, nearly 200 letters fill 'Answer at Once': Letters of Mountain Families in Shenandoah National Park, 1934-1938.

"What struck me the most," says Powell, "it was a hopeless situation at that point-- the park had already been formed. But they demanded from the government the right to be heard."

And they often signed their letters with "Answer at once." 

In justification for the confiscation, residents of what become Shenandoah National Park were often characterized as illiterates, thieves, and bootleggers.

"People assume that if you don't have formal education, that impacts your ability to communicate with government," she says. "That didn't happen. They were rhetorically powerful even if the spelling and grammar were not standard English. You can hear their dialects, and I found them very beautiful."

"She has a way of giving voice to the people removed from the park," says Richard Robinson, who is making a documentary about Depression-era photographer Arthur Rothstein, whom Robinson and Powell believe stereotypically photographed the displaced to look extra poor. "She understands," Robinson adds, "that the way you frame a situation has a lot to do with the way you see it."

The families of the park were not the first to be removed from their homes, reminds Powell, citing the Monacan Indians. And she's not finished looking at eminent domain struggles. 

The effects of taking someone's land, says Powell, "is very poignant to me."

~

Powell takes part in two Virginia Festival of the Book events: "Appalachia and the South in the 20th Century" at 6pm Friday, March 19, at City Council Chambers, and "Answer at Once: Families Displaced from Shenandoah National Park" at 4pm Saturday, March 20, at the Greene County Library.

#

Kristin Swenson
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

"I'm not trying to teach or interpret," says Swenson, who's in Charlottesville as a visiting fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities on a break from teaching at VCU. "I didn't want to be off putting to people of faith."

Washington Post reviewer Michael Dirda notes Swenson's readability, and her inclusion of pop culture Biblical references in The Omen, The DaVinci Code, and Madonna, as well as a Christian website that sells sex toys.

"This is not your father Abraham's guide to the Good Book," he warns in a thumbs-up review. "Given that the Bible is so often the locus of ignoble contention," he writes, "it's good to read a book that simply presents the facts."

Mostly, Swenson wants her book to be a good read with a "wow factor" on every page from people learning something they didn't know before.

She was raised in Lake Woebegone, or a place "remarkably like that," she laughs. "People are pretty laconic," she says, throwing in a Sven and Ole joke.

More stereotype-defying is that although steeped in a Lutheran tradition, she grew up with ample room for inquiry.

"I don't remember discouragement about asking questions about the book considered God's word," she says. "I've always loved paradox.  The Bible does that a lot."

For instance, the commands to kill-- and to not kill. "I like that it messes with us, but that seems authentic," says Swenson. "It invites debate."

In the Bible, nothing is quite as clear-cut as some insist, according to Swenson. On controversial topics such as homosexuality, abortion, or prosperity, "I'm not arguing for a particular position," she says. "I'm laying out what people use to prove their points of view--" however different those points of view might be. 

She started off studying biology, but an intro to Biblical Hebrew class changed her course.

"The first word in the Bible can be translated in three different ways," she discovered. From there, she went on to study Greek and Aramaic.

"It's clear she's done the heavy lifting because she knows the original languages," says Martien Halvorson-Taylor, another visiting Foundation fellow. "She knows the scholarship, but she's not going to burden her readers with that."

The Bible may look like any other book, says Swenson, but it's not; and that's what makes it so challenging. "It's an anthology, poetry, narration, legal material, letters, apocalyptic texts," she lists. "It's several literary styles that have developed over thousands of years." Not to mention getting written in three different languages.

Although Bible Babel was just released in February, Swenson knows she's just skimmed the holy surface, and she's already working on her next project: supernatural beings in the Bible. 

Can a movie option be too far off?

#

"I'm not a sports writer," says St. John. "I'm interested in people, in sociology, how we organize ourselves socially and find meaning in our lives."

St. John needs to reminding that the word "fan" comes from fanatic.

"People behave around sports in ways they don't behave in other parts of their lives," he explains. "They freak out, they scream and yell, get emotional. They reveal things about themselves you couldn't get over a cup of coffee."

His first foray into the world of sports writing stemmed from a curiosity about the nature of the University of Alabama football team fans. Following the fans who traveled the country to attend every football game the Crimson Tide played one season resulted in 2004's Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer. Five years later, he published his second sports tome, Outcasts United which observed the experience of a refugee soccer team in Clarkston, Georgia, and how the small Southern town responded to the resettling of various foreigners from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, and countless other trouble spots.

"It's really interesting that it was soccer that got the mayor in Clarkston to come out and really reveal his true attitude towards the refugees in town," St. John says. "This issue of soccer and who can use the fields really shook him loose."

An active cyclist, St. John can understand the psychological mindset athletes put themselves in-- and how the pressure of audience can influence an entire community.

"People are allowing a team stand in for them and fight their battle for self-esteem and recognition by proxy," he says. "Some people thrive on that sense of pressure, while others crumble. It's interesting to think of sports in terms of evolutionary psychology, age-old battles of survival."

St. John began his life as a feature writer after graduating from Columbia University in the early '90s and picking up a job at the New York Observer thrown into the fray of fast-paced journalism. The world of newspaper journalists had quite a different look and feel from the troubled model today, according to St. John.

"It was an amazing time to be in New York, a heady, fun time," he remembers. "The Observer had a stable of established, super-talented writers who had an open mind about cultivating young writers as well."

Immersing himself in writing books while balancing the "instant gratification" of newspaper work, the self-styled "conversationalist" doesn't believe in waiting for inspiration to strike. Instead, he says his obsessive and immersive personality rarely allows him to such a luxury.

"There's no excuses really," St. John says. "The only thing I know to do is to get up and go straight to work. All you can do is put words on the page. It's hard to have ideas unless you sit down and say, 'I'm going to make myself have them.'"

~

Warren St. John speaks at several schools throughout the Book Festival Wednesday, March 17 and Thursday, March 18. He hosts a talk open to the public Wednesday, March 17, at CitySpace at 6pm.

#

The man smiles and waves at those in the front as he announces to the crowd, "All ready?" He waits for a response, seems to deliberate if he should press for a more enthusiastic one, then decides against it and lifts the rolling metal door with a flourish.

The faded light of early morning slowly exposes the contents of the storage unit. The press of people move inside, shining flashlights into corners, jumping to see over crumpled boxes and leaning around bent mattresses to peer into dark corners. Couples whisper to one another-- phrases become clear, "picked through," "could be vintage," "organized boxes."

John enters the unit alone, his eyes moving expertly over the dim edges of boxes, piles, and plastic bags heaving with secrets. His mouth moves silently, calculating the worth of what he can see. He quickly decides that this storage unit holds nothing overtly of value, and shuffles out again into the cold. He shoves his hands deep into his frayed pockets and waits while the others scan and guess about the owners of this storage locker, and the worth of if its abandoned contents.

A car pulls up-- black, new, shiny in a way that one knows it would be shiny even if not new. A stout, bundled man steps lightly out of the car, as a hush descends over the crowd.

"It's Dale..." sounds a whisper to nobody in particular as everyone has recognized this man, famous in storage unit auction circles. 

John shakes his head ruefully, stiffening at the nature of luck in the universe. Dale attends these auctions as a hobby; his settled life as a developer provides for him ably. But last month, Dale bid $250 on a storage unit that contained a box of Confederate currency that Dale was able to sell for $6,000. Or maybe it was $60,000-- numbers that high lost their distinction for John who had a hard time fathoming owning a home, or buying a new car, let alone walking around with a roll of 100-dollar bills in his pocket.

His thoughts turn toward pockets-- and his obsession with them as a child, when at school he would regularly indicate his need to go to the bathroom, and then creep noiselessly toward the teachers' lounge. The room was sun-filled and still, and he always paused at the threshold, taking in the smell of stability. He'd close his eyes and breathe deeply, filling his lungs with the scent of damp wool, books, cleaning spray, and canned soup. Then his eyes would fly open, as he became aware of his surroundings, and his need. Quickly and efficiently, he'd root through the pockets of coats and jackets, sweaters and cardigans hanging neatly on the hooks on the wall to the left of the door. Even though he was looking for money, he was always surprised when he found it-- perpetually astonished that someone would have so much money that they would carelessly leave bills behind, quietly nested in the soft folds of their pockets. He worked around the wallets, with photos of spouses and sweethearts and children, his fingers feeling only for the edges of forgotten bills.

These bills he'd tuck into his sock and then he'd creep to the door, open it, peer carefully around the corner, and shuffle quietly back to his classroom. For the rest of the day, his ankle hummed warmly, and his concentration would wander as he'd wrestle in ecstasy with the indecision of where, oh where?, would he escape to after school.

The final bell of the day felt like a warm shower over his shoulders, and his eyes would lighten, the grayish pall that normally permeated his stark features replaced with the glow of expectation. Eagerly, he'd jog out of school and hurry to the market where he'd roam the aisles of food slowly, in a delirium of hunger and craving.

Out of the cashier's sight, he'd secretly remove the bills from his sock. He would then approach the counter with his beef jerky and Snickers bars, pretzels and fruit chews, wait to be told the amount (which he'd already calculated to be certain of a minimum of change) and push this dollars across the counter.

The change he threw into the donation box on the counter. Another child might have done so proudly, puffed with an air of altruism. John did it for self-preservation; any money he came home with would quickly attract his parents' attention. Once they noticed, they would either punish him for secreting money from them, or praise him gleefully as they hustled to scramble additional change and then rush out "to make a visit." They'd return hours later, eyes glassy, speech indistinct, charging about the threadbare room in ways that would be comical in an old movie, but which terrified John in the darkened half-light of his reality. He'd hold his breath, tense and alert for startling sounds, swearing, or sudden odors that would signal destruction to the apartment, and thus put their home at risk. They'd had to move too many times because of damage and fires to an apartment, or for unpaid rent.

At one point, desperate to get out of the cold, they'd moved into a storage unit, not unlike the one John stood before now. Inhabiting a storage space was against policy, but John's parents secured a unit far from the bored manager's office, and limited their comings and goings to early morning or after dark. His parents were smugly satisfied with their clandestine storage unit home-- under army surplus blankets, stiff with use and cold, they congratulated themselves on how much they saved in rent, how much they were able to use for their well-deserved pleasure.

Their boxes of possessions-- albums, and mementos, baby rattles and clothes too dingy to sell, Star Wars sheets too small to use-- were pushed up against the chill; a camping stove and lamp on a folding table served as their living space. And so they eked out a fragile existence, while their son nourished himself in forbidden corners-- a vacated teachers' lounge, the snack aisle of the Lucky 7 Super Mart. 

It was the policy of the storage company to confiscate a unit after two months of unpaid rent. The manager of their unit allowed an extra month because the bills were returned, recipient unknown, from the address the bill was sent-- the address supplied by John's parents. Without a way to bill them, notices were placed on the door of the unit, notes which were burned for warmth and entertainment when the nights became longer and chillier.

One day, a strange padlock greeted John when he returned from school, books under his arm, the coming dark at his back. He hunched against the metal door, unsure of where to go. His thoughts moved slowly; he had not dared to sneak into the lounge that day, and the slowness of his sugar-starved brain bothered him far more than his aching stomach.

His parents returned when the sky arched darkly overhead. They were heedless of him, and of the dangers of their voices as they shouted at each other, hurling curses with frightening speed and anger. When they spotted the lock, their argument cut off abruptly, like a vacuum power cord pulled suddenly from the wall. They yanked John up, and stumbled back across the parking lot, alternately cursing and laughing.

And so John said goodbye to his childhood treasures. For years, he assumed the boxes still lay beyond the padlock, and hoped to one day pay the back rent and reclaim his treasures. His later realization that the contents of those boxes were undoubtedly lining the dump caused merely an aftershock of the pain of that afternoon when his parents carried him away from the last of what he knew to be constant. 

John pulled his hood further over his head to shake off the memory. He had left those confused days behind; his life, though perhaps not the wool and books existence he so craved during his youth, was at least not the drug-addled haze his parents framed for him. He had a home-- granted, a rental, but he paid the rent no matter the circumstances. His girlfriend and her son stayed with him, and he, who was certain of few things, was certain that this home would be his, theirs, until they decided it was best to move. And though his income was not steadily high, it provided for their basic needs.

Every Saturday, John came to these auctions, bid on lockers, and spent the rest of the day rooting through the chaos of someone else's past. He saw the same people at almost every auction, and without meaning to, he got attached to seeing their pinched and eager faces every week. His optimism was beaten out of him at an early age, along with his dreams of finishing high school and his fondness for snack foods, and yet he took comfort in watching the others speculate about the locker's contents. John bid only on what he could see, risking nothing on expensive-looking computer boxes or old steamer trunks. He smiled at those who bid based on instinct, with their certainty that a slit in mattress concealed some forgotten cash or that a dispatched end table resembled an antique. 

The bidding for the storage locker went quickly. There was little inside to generate enthusiasm, and the auctioneer moved on to the next unit. In this one, John noted a crushed box of pots and pans and a curio box full of action figures. John won this locker with a bid of $400, an amount he knew he could recoup just with what was visible. He spent the rest of the day sorting through the unit. One pile to sell, one pile for the dump, and a small pile that appeared worthless; and yet it was separated from the dump pile clearly and carefully in a neat box.

John was pleased with his win. He had enough to make up the cost of the bid, plus items worth enough to pay half of this month's rent. This took the pressure off of next week's auction and removed some of the stress lines from around his mouth. He placed the items to sell in bins in the back of his battered truck and filled the rest of the truck bed with items to haul to the dump on his way home. The smaller box of carefully culled items he loaded gently onto the front seat beside him. 

On his way out of the parking lot, he brought the small armload of items into the manager's office. The manager smiled upon seeing him, familiar with John and his third pile. John pushed the box across the counter, and the manager could make out a small quilted blanket, a few dog-eared children's books, and a stuffed cat with the fur loved off of one of its ears. "Can you make sure the previous owner of locker 5310 gets these, please," he asked softly, the small smile playing at the corners of his mouth at odds with the sadness shining in his eyes. 

John paused, rubbing the lining of his pockets absently, then turned and stepped out into the twilight.

~

This story won the first prize in the 2010 Hook short story contest which was judged by noted author John Grisham.

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Click here to read the winning story: Pockets

But despite the upped ante, the winners of the Hook's 2010 short story contest weren't old hats at the art of fiction. In fact, two of the top three used the contest as their very first attempt at writing for an audience, just to see if they had what it takes. Apparently local literary star and contest judge John Grisham thought they did.

"I'm just really grateful that somebody at that talent level had read two words I put together," says second-place winner John Davidson.

While 2009's round-up of winners all credited a close-knit writing community as instrumental to their writing, this year's finalists were refreshingly untapped in the literary scene. All brought previously unheard voices to the table and were rewarded with the confidence to plunge unhindered into the fray.

Belmont resident Michelle Damiani caught judge John Grisham's attention with her first short story, "Pockets."
PHOTO BY STEPHANIE GARCIA

Michelle Damiani

Michelle Damiani always wanted to write. But as a busy psychologist and mother of three, there was never the time-- or the motivation-- to put pen to paper. After reaffirming a New Year's resolution to write every day for a year-- "to see where I was, if I wanted this to be a part of who I am," she says-- she submitted a food piece to Saveur magazine, only to be turned down.

"I was giving up," she remembers telling herself. "I have neither the talent nor the motivation, so I'm giving up."

But after hearing an inspiring episode of NPR's popular radio show This American Life, the writer in her stirred again, and she found herself jotting sentences and scenes in the car and anytime she had a chance that day. It was four days before the Hook's short story deadline.

"I was just in complete disbelief," Damiani says upon hearing of her win. "I told my kids, and they were so excited-- but they also keep me real. My son said, 'It's not like you are a prodigy.'"

Judge Grisham described her winning story, "Pockets," as a "gritty slice of life."

In a flurry of writing and editing, she submitted the story-- her first fiction piece in years-- and continued with her daily writing resolution. Each day is either journaling memories or finding inspiration from her Quaker beliefs or the connections she makes in her therapy sessions.

"As a psychologist, I'm used to putting myself in other people's positions," she explains. "In Quakerism, metaphors are huge, and sitting in silence helps you get underneath what you live through everyday. In 'Pockets,' I purposefully used many descriptions of light, because it figures prominently in Quakerism."

While admittedly not in touch with the writing community in Charlottesville, Damiani plans to use her prize money to explore the resources for local writers-- while perhaps taking her family to the beach first.

"It's given me more courage. I love the process of writing," she says. "I want to be more committed to the process-- and I think I'll do it for longer than [a year]." 

Second-place winner John Davidson plans to donate his prize money to the Carson Raymond Foundation, a charity he helped begin.PHOTO BY STEPHANIE GARCIA

John Davidson

Life as a busy trial lawyer is no easy task. Combine the everyday duties of defending civil rights with raising three children, and it's not hard to imagine that some goals-- such as writing-- can fall by the wayside. But the bug bit lawyer John Davidson hard when he finally slowed down long enough to take a sick day. As he recovered at home, he stumbled upon a Hook touting the short story contest-- and realized his oft-neglected New Year's resolution to start writing was staring him in the face.

"You're supposed to reinvent yourself every fifteen years," he says. "Writing was something I always wanted to do-- and if there was every a time to try, this was the time."

His piece, "First Church," was written the night before the contest deadline, and yet it won praise as "haunting and frightening" by judge Grisham. The story's central character, a priest haunted by "arrogance of faith," according to the author, was inspired by an image an eight-year-old Davidson had seen at his own hometown church. Accompanying his electrician father to the church late one night, he spied the pastor kneeling alone, praying.

"Praying was something people did in front of each other in church," remembers Davidson. "To see the preacher praying, when no one else was there, I didn't get it. But the vision stayed with me."

As a civil rights lawyer who worked in a big firm and later opened his own, Davidson is confronted daily with "the nature of evil" through his work with sexual harassment or assault victims or victims of discrimination. The question of evil or human nature is one that he's found driving his writing and, spurred by Grisham's praise, he plans to tackle the novel he's always dreamed of writing.

"Seeing someone victimized, it's hard not to take that home," he says. "You see tremendous, true-to-life stories as a lawyer."

Third-place winner and UVA MFA student Megan Fishmann's travels to Japan and consumption of pop culture magazines inspired her winning entry.PHOTO BY STEPHANIE GARCIA

Megan Alix Fishmann

While it's true that creative writing students at UVA have a built-in community and a star-studded pack of mentors, third-place winner Megan Fishmann, 26, looked to another local literary figure for inspiration: judge John Grisham himself. 

"I love what he does-- here is this man who is really excited to do short stories," says Fishmann, who went out and read Grisham's collection of short stories, Ford Country, after Grisham addressed her class last year.

The Bard College graduate and current MFA candidate at UVA was a finalist in the 2009 Hook competition and remained determined that she'd keep entering as long until she stopped walking away empty handed. She didn't have to wait for long. As her story, "The Last Itako," took third third-place this year.

"A marriage continues to crumble after the death of a child. Therapy is not working, and neither will a getaway to Japan," Grisham sums up.

Fishman credits UVA for honing her skills but a magazine article for her inspiration. She read in People about child run over by a car, and after a recent trip she took to Japan, Fishmann was stirred to explore the inner workings of loss.

"I wanted the story to be accessible and draw in the reader, make them feel more connected inside the characters' heads," she explains.

A voracious reader-- Amy Hemple and Lorrie Moore are her favorites-- as well as a pop culture fanatic who can chat about MTV shows, US Weekly, and fashion, Fishmann began her literary career as a publicist with Random House before becoming a copy editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review and entering the UVA's writing program. Now juggling writing most mornings-- a novel she hopes to complete after graduation-- and planning a wedding, the young writer intends to follow in Grisham's footsteps and see her writing hit shelves someday soon.

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Colum McCann
PHOTO BY BRENDAN BOURKE

"Great spinner," of course, refers to the 2009 National Book Award for his novel, Let the Great World Spin, which Esquire called "the first great 9/11 novel," even though it's set in 1974. Actually, Esquire named him "writer of the year" in 2003, and the Dublin-born McCann has written four other novels, two short story collections and his work, both fiction and nonfiction (he started out as a journalist), has appeared in the best periodicals in the world. So it's not like he just popped up out of nowhere. 

But 2009 was the year that suddenly everyone was talking about this book that uses the 1974 real-life high-wire walk of Philippe Petit between the not-quite-finished World Trade towers as the framework that connects his dozen or so characters, from an Irish monk to Bronx hookers to a grieving Park Avenue mother.

McCann was in New York on September 11, and in an interview with 2009 Virginia Festival of the Book attendee Nathan Englander, McCann recalls his eureka moment: "I was wondering how it might be possible to talk about the events of that terrible September, and all the Septembers that followed, and I said, 'Ah yeah, that's it. I should go backwards. Wherever we are now is wherever we once were.'"

And much to the relief of clueless readers (like this reporter), McCann says, "It doesn't have to be a 9/11 novel at all. It could also be a just a book about New York in 1974 and how we are all intimately connected."

Whew.

McCann still resides in New York with his wife and three children, still teaches creative writing at Hunter College, and confesses a growing optimism as he gets older.

"I keep inching toward the point where I believe that it's more difficult to have hope than it is to embrace cynicism," he says. "In the deep dark end, there's no point unless we have at least a modicum of hope."

And he offers one other observation that will be appreciated by Virginia Festival of the Book-goers: "...I think a good novel can be a doorstop to despair." 

McCann is coming to the right place.

~

Colum McCann joins authors Lee Smith, Elizabeth Strout and E. Ethelbert Miller for "American Accents: An Evening with Four Distinguished Authors" at 8pm Saturday, March 20, at the Paramount Theatre. Tickets are $10.

Age: Very surprised to wake up last week and realize I was 45 years old.

What do you like best about Charlottesville? The prospect of being there.  

Most overrated virtue? Virtue itself.  

People would be surprised to know about you: I don't really know what people think, really. I don't worry about it. But I'm probably a lot less "serious" than my books. 

What would you change about yourself? A head of hair would be nice. Drop 20 pounds. But the luxury

of getting older is that we can leave those sort of vanities behind.

Proudest accomplishment? Took a bicycle across the United States in 1986 and '87. 

People find most annoying about you: When I sing. I do sing, but can't.  

Whom do you admire? My students in the MFA writing program in Hunter College. I really do admire them: their tenacity, their desire, their stamina for the writing life.

Favorite book? Ulysses by Joyce.

Subject that causes you to rant? Silly questions. 

Biggest 21st -century thrill? Being alive for it.  

Biggest 21st -century creep out? Having to experience the Bush years. 

What do you drive? My wife and kids mad (especially if I sing).

In your car CD player right now: I don't have a car, but it would be a CD by my friend Joe Hurley. 

Next journey? I journey in my imagination. So it will be the next book. But I can't tell you what it is.

Most trouble you've ever gotten in? A night in the lock-up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  

Regret: I don't believe in them. 

Favorite comfort food: Guinness.  

Describe a perfect day. My birthday recently was perfect. Hung out with the kids, hired a Mini Cooper and drove around the city, across the Brooklyn Bridge, up the Bronx, went out for dinner, watched a silly movie with them, relaxed. 

Walter Mitty fantasy: I want to walk to Tierra del Fuego.

Who'd play you in the movie? John Belushi.

Most embarrassing moment? Answering these questions.  Or rather, actually, in the end, guiltily enjoying these questions.  

Best advice you ever got? "No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."  (Samuel Beckett)

Favorite bumper sticker? "I hate bumper stickers."   

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How did you first meet this Crime Wave character anyway? Have you two known each other long? Where were you between 10am and 5pm during last year's Crime Wave? Maybe we should take this downtown.

Andy Straka
Charlottesville
andy@andystraka.com

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1. Put a portable floor on the rink and use as a.) conference center in league with the Omni hotel, b.) dance hall, c.) indoor farmers' market. d.) wedding chapel. e.) theater. f.) music hall. g.) church. h.) basketball court. i.) badminton court, or j.) indoor tennis court

2 Install an Olympic size swimming pool either below or above the ice rink.

3. Turn it into a multiple indoor ice park (like a water park) with ice slides like a luge or like water slides with nets at the bottom to catch people, and turn the slides into water slides during the summer that end in the swimming pool. Start at the highest point and loop the transparent tube slides around the inside perimeter of the rink walls.

4. Turn the refreshment center into a real restaurant. Or better yet, get rid of the refreshment center (as there are enough restaurants downtown) for a children's jungle gym. Have only one office for all events.

5. Build offices or apartments in the air space above the ice rink. How high does an ice rink ceiling have to be? The structure above the rink could be built as a separate structure (with glass walls) under the ceiling while leaving the space at the outside windows up to the high ceiling. See Architectural Record.

6. There are summer sports leagues, so why not winter sports leagues? Look at all the skating events in the Olympics. Get all the surrounding counties and schools involved. Curling, anyone?

7. Contact the Olympic committees to see if they would partially ($50,000/year) support the rink as a training center to encourage Olympic hopefuls from Central Virginia.

8. Contact the National Hockey League to see if they would provide $100,000/year to support the ice rink to promote hockey.

James E. Shifflett, Jr.
Charlottesville

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But it was discouraging that he claimed we'd asked him for money to fund a protest of John Yoo. Yeah, when?

And it was odd how he suggested media outlets had announced the protest. Have you? It's a march from the Corner to Minor Hall starting at 2pm on the 19th. See hoosagainstyoo.org

Salzman is comfortable believing President Obama has put the crimes behind him (washed his hands of it, if you will), and yet I can't help noticing that the illegal wars are ongoing, the lawless imprisonment is being formalized, the warrentless spying programs are no longer even questioned, and the White House still claims the power to torture and ship people to other nations that torture.

Christlike love for John Yoo is admirable indeed. Failure to deter the ongoing crimes is cowardly.

David Swanson
Charlottesville

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Set in March and April of 2003, Green Zone was "inspired by" a non-fiction book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Reportedly a darkly comic take on the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the book has had the humor drained from it and replaced with action in Brian Helgeland's (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) screenplay. It may be too soon for some people to laugh at Saddam's alleged "weapons of mass destruction," but it's far too late for anyone to take them seriously.

Fortunately, Paul Greengrass is arguably the best current director of action sequences, so the movie works. Barry Ackroyd's shaky-cam keeps you in the center of things, even when there's not much going on.

Matt Damon isn't Bourne again in Green Zone, but he might as well be. His Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is initially as clueless as the amnesiac Jason was in The Bourne Identity (the only one of the trilogy Greengrass didn't direct), but he begins to ask questions when he and his men keep risking their lives in the search for WMDs, only to find they were following faulty intelligence.

The brass are under pressure, which they pass down the chain of command, to come up with evidence that will justify the invasion. Miller's boss, Col. Bethel (Michael O'Neill) tells him what Washington wants: "All they're interested in is something they can hold up on CNN."

Miller is stonewalled by Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear), "the (Bush) administration's go-to guy," but gets help from Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson), a CIAgent who's not much of a "company" man. Wall Street Journal reporter Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan) prints what she's told, including rumors of a "high-ranking Iraqi official," code-named Magellan, who's supposedly the key intelligence source.

While Baghdad explodes, a number of key figures are relaxing in luxury at Saddam's old Republican Palace, safe within the combat-free Green Zone.

Becoming more Bourne-like by the moment as he goes "off the reservation" and pursues his own investigation, Miller is aided by a well-meaning Iraqi who calls himself Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), who sincerely seeks the best outcome for his country.

An overlong climax in which we're not sure what result to root for occurs on the night of Bush's "Mission Accomplished!" speech. It leads to a final message from Iraq to America: "It is not for you to decide what happens here."

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Emilie Rissman: Netherland [by Joseph O'Neill]. It was about an assortment of interesting characters at an interesting time in their lives."

Jared Surasky: "A collection of poetry by Walt Whitman. I picked it up because I hadn't read poetry in a really long time."

Tashia Bowles: "A book by [eroticist] Zane. It was a good book."

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Address: 2138 Jacks Shop Road

Neighborhood: Rochelle

Asking: $749,000

Assessment: $550,100

Year Built: 1996

Size: 2,771 fin. sq. ft., 352 unfin.

Land: 8.43 acres

Agent: Pat Seeberger, Montague, Miller & Co., 540-948-6655 ext. 21 

Curb Appeal: 7 out of 10

Two miles off Route 29 in Madison County, nature is the focal point of "Riverback," an eight-acre estate on the Rapidan River. Rows of large windows in the master suite, great room, and kitchen provide glimpses of Madisonians canoeing, kayaking, tubing, and otherwise frolicking in the ever-changing river. 

A long driveway winds back quite a bit from the road past a small orchard. The first structure is a three-car garage with an apartment above. Quite a distance from the main house, this garage gives mixed messages on its ultimate use. It could be handy for a car collector, as a place to park vehicles for a construction or other business, or the garage bays could be changed to something completely different.

The apartment, with two bedrooms, eat-in kitchen, and bath with stacked washer/dryer unit (plus a deck with mountain views) unfortunately can't be legally rented, but it could serve as a useful as a perch for guests, in-laws, or a nanny. Skylights in the kitchen and bath keep things bright, a feature also prominent in the main house.   

Across from the house is a second garage structure. Above this one, a finished room (closet, no bath) also has plenty of light and a lengthy balcony. Currently, it's painted in pink and white and appears ready for dress-up and tea parties— a perfect little girl's playhouse. 

Beyond the paint, the space has possibilities for grown-ups, perhaps as rehearsal space for music, dance, or an art studio. Alternately, a stinky family member could live in comfortable exile here. What a new owner probably won't use this room for is exercise or office space, since there's plenty of room for that in the house.

In the main house, the one-level living space has some cosmetic plusses and minuses. A few lighting fixtures are dated. The master bath is sizeable but doesn't provide the wow! factor the price tag might suggest. The same goes for the kitchen (Corian counters), although cabinets are solid wood, and it is roomy enough for a table for breakfast or snacks. 

On the other hand, plenty of extra features compensate a bit for the cosmetic drawbacks. Floors are chiefly reclaimed wood with some ceramic tile in the entry, kitchen, and utility areas.

Double-paned windows keep heat and cooling bills manageable. A tiny shelf-lined library connects a den to the great room where an antique mantel is a focal point. The mudroom, with hidden washer/dryer and utility sink, has at least three closets. Two bedrooms, divided by a shared bath, are on the opposite side of the house from the master, ideal for a family with older kids.

An all-season porch with slate floor overlooks the patio, and a spiral staircase leads to raised beds, berry bushes, and a partial basement accessed only from outside. The porch also connects an office to the main house, keeping the workspace private and quiet. With built-in counters and shelving and track and recessed lighting, there's plenty of light and room for a home-based business. A separate structure-- connected by a wooden walkway and spacious enough for a mini gym's worth of exercise equipment-- houses a heated wave pool. 

Riverback is a house for buyers with a very specific kind of lifestyle. New residents will value the surroundings and privacy and will be interested in fitness, family, nature, and water activities. This is an ideal place for work and play. There's not a lot of flash and glam, but its natural appeal and versatility are compensation enough for anyone who wants to live in Madison. 

PHOTOS BY SARAH JACOBSON

Each week, a brave local seller invites the Hook to provide an impartial, warts-and-all look at their real estate listing. E-mail yours today!

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Property: 308 Pleasant Place

Debtor: Andrew B. Lee and Donna K. Lee 

Amount owing: $512,000

Bidder brings: $51,000 or 10 percent sale price 

Info: Glasser and Glasser PLC 757-321-6465

March 18 at 5:15pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 1670 Riding Club Road, Keene

Debtor: Sidney B. and Fay P. Moneymaker 

Amount owing: $144,750

Bidder brings: $14,000 or 10 percent sale price 

Info: Glasser and Glasser PLC 757-321-6465

March 22 at 10am at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 4116 Saddlewood Trail

Debtor: Diane Loyd and Barbara Murphy 

Amount owing: $79,988.79

Bidder brings: $7,512.58 or 10 percent sale price 

Info: Ruhi Mirza, Esq. 301-490-3361

March 22 at noon at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: Map 45, Lot B, Earlysville

Debtor: unknown 

Amount owing: $150,000

Bidder brings: 10 percent sale price 

Info: Bierman, Geesing & Ward 301-961-6555

March 22 at noon at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 3689 Presidents Road, Scottsville

Debtor: Carlos Landazuri and Maria Landazuri 

Amount owing: $180,000

Bidder brings: 10 percent sale price 

Info: ETS of Virginia 888-368-3686

March 22 at 12:30pm at the Charlotteville Circuit Court

Property: 307 Monte Vista Avenue

Debtor: Olivia and Horace Boykin Jr.

Amount owing: $166,000

Bidder brings: 10 percent sale price

Info: Bierman, Geesing & Ward 301-961-6555

March 22 at 12:31pm at the Charlotteville Circuit Court

Property: 2218 Banbury Street

Debtor: Theodore Jeffries II

Amount owing: $266,750

Bidder brings: 10 percent sale price

Info: Bierman, Geesing & Ward 301-961-6555

March 22 at 5pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 901 Stonehenge Road

Debtor: Alvina Toms 

Amount owing: $217,000

Bidder brings: $20,000 or 10 percent sale price 

Info: Friedman & MacFadyen PA 804-288-0088

March 24 at 3:45pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 832 Broad Axe Road

Debtor: Jerry Lee Dudley Jr. and Stacey Ann Dudley

Amount owing: $328,000

Bidder brings: $20,000 or 10 percent sale price 

Info: Samuel I. White PC 757-457-1460

March 24 at 3:45pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 152 Woodlake Drive

Debtor: Carolyn McCauley

Amount owing: $156,400

Bidder brings: $15,000 or 10 percent sale price 

Info: Samuel I. White PC 757-457-1460

March 24 at 3:45pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 950 Grayson Lane

Debtor: Richard E. Lehman and Mona A. Sethi-Lehman

Amount owing: $394,200

Bidder brings: $20,000 or 10 percent sale price 

Info: Samuel I. White PC 757-457-1460

March 25 at 9am at the Charlotteville Circuit Court

Property: 1003 Altavista Avenue

Debtor: Jerry M. and Brenda A. Deane

Amount owing: $193,550

Bidder brings: $15,000 or 10 percent sale price

Info: Friedman & MacFadyen PA 804-288-0088

March 31 at 4pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 1524 Harris Creek Road

Debtor: Martha T. Tyler and Terry V. Tyler

Amount owing: $204,250

Bidder brings: $15,000 or 10 percent sale price

Info: Shapiro & Burson LLP 757-687-8777

April 2 at noon at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 2854 Secretarys Road, Scottsville

Debtor: Deborah Ann Dempsey

Amount owing: $160,000

Bidder brings: 5 percent sale price

Info: Kenneth P. Bucci 434-977-6222

April 7 at 4pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 765 Denali Way Unit 2

Debtor: Lisa B. Hon

Amount owing: $210,320

Bidder brings: $15,000 or 10 percent sale price

Info: Shapiro & Burson LLP 757-687-8777

April 7 at 4pm at the Albemarle County Courthouse

Property: 493 Buck Mountain Road

Debtor: Margaret D. Willis and Charles H. Willis

Amount owing: $125,000

Bidder brings: $12,500 or 10 percent sale price

Info: Shapiro & Burson LLP 757-687-8777

[This compilation was culled from published accounts of auctions scheduled by creditors. Such plans may change if the alleged debt is satisfied.]

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Campus of dreaded bracket-buster Gonzaga
Flickr/cannellfan

If you've ever filled out an NCAA bracket, you know Gonzaga-- along with Xavier and sometimes Villanova-- will most likely be responsible for your untimely ruination. No matter how well you do in the first and even the second rounds, no matter whether you predict the entire East and South, win or lose, Gonzaga will eventually destroy every bit of success you've managed to accrue. 

I hope you took that into consideration as you jumped headfirst into your bracket last Sunday.

It's that time again– time for you to ante up $1 or $10 or even $50 of your hard-earned money and pray you don't end up looking more ignorant than everyone else in your office and/or fraternity/study group/gym/book club. 

If you're like I am, you're hoping Gonzaga loses in the first round to Florida State, their early elimination making the stack of cards on which your bracket is built a little sturdier. If you're wondering how people fill out brackets, here's a lesson.

Are you a studier? They exist, people who don't fill out their bracket until their homework is done. When Tennessee and Kansas meet in the Elite Eight (assuming Maryland doesn't take out the Jayhawks in the Sweet Sixteen-- which is a possibility if Greivis Vasquez can keep his head), will Tennessee win? 

If you're a studier, you know Kentucky beat the Vols by 29 points in the regular season, so Tennessee has little chance of beating the Mid-West's #1, Kansas. Of course, Kansas will never face Tennessee because Georgetown will defeat them in the second round before going on to lose to Ohio State, who barely manages to squeak by Georgia Tech--

Maybe you're a history buff and have no doubt that Duke will beat Villanova in the Elite Eight, but that the Final Four game between the Blue Devils and Kentucky will be a doozy. It doesn't matter if Kansas or Ohio State wins the Mid-West, or Syracuse or BYU wins the West, it's obviously of little consequence one way or the other. 

The South and East are the Big Dance's historic winners. Everybody knows that. The only real question is whether ODU will put Notre Dame in its place.

Some bracketeers are purely reactionary, choosing their winners on gut instinct alone. As they look over an empty bracket, certain names jump out, and that's it. 

New Mexico, for instance. New Mexico looks good. I don't know anything about New Mexico other than that they looked really enthusiastic during a Sunday afternoon interview, and Coach Steve Alford seems like a really nice confident guy. But I get the feeling New Mexico will beat West Virginia, then lose to Kentucky in the Elite Eight. They'll go far, New Mexico; I just feel it.

Perhaps you're one of the millions of people with a fail-safe system. Granted, these systems are often built on superstition, but they are systems nonetheless. 

Does any of this sound familiar? There will be no team worse than a #5 seed in the Final Four. There will always be one #5 seed vs. a #12 seed upset (Cornell over Temple, perhaps?). There can be no more than four upsets per day for the first round, then no more than two after that. The Final Four cannot be all #1 seeds, ever.

Most people incorporate a mix of these methods when filling out brackets. We study a little, mostly teams from our own conference, and we know a little NCAA history, such as Pittsburgh was the one to watch last year. We know ESPN says Tennessee has been underperforming, but we really feel they can get it together against Georgetown. But we also know that if one #1 seed can't make it to the Final Four, it's most likely going to be Duke this year. 

That's how you do it, in case you were wondering: it's pretty straightforward. Of course, you can't forget personal bias, which means West Virginia automatically loses, and Vanderbilt beats Syracuse in the Sweet Sixteen...

~

Juanita Giles lives in Keysville where she makes videos and updates her Sports Doctor site.

#]]> http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2010/03/18/THESPORTSDOC-0911.aspx http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2010/03/18/THESPORTSDOC-0911.aspx Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000