Month: March 2013

Categories
News

What’s Happening at the Jefferson School City Center?

Wordplay Winners
Eric Swanson, Ankit Tejani, and Pat Antkowiak represented McGrady's Irish Pub in the annual Wordplay competition benefitting Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/ Albemarle. Photo by Ray East.

Forty trivia teams, including four teams of high-school teachers, squared off last Tuesday in Wordplay, the contest that benefits adults learning to read, write, and speak the English language at Literacy Volunteers. Since moving into the Jefferson School City Center, Literacy Volunteers has seen an increase in the demand for services. Funds raised from this event will support between twenty-five and thirty students at the Jefferson School City Center.

In the live game show presented at The Paramount, McGrady’s Irish Pub gained an early lead and never let go.  The second place winner was NBC29 and the third place winner was T&N Printing.

McGrady’s was one of two local restaurants that promoted Literacy Volunteers’ Wordplay event at their regular Tuesday night trivia games. The exposure helped bring in a record number of teams. Team fees account for most of the income from the event.

“We take our trivia nights at the pub very seriously,” McGrady’s owner Scott Roth said. “But we know the most important responsibility of a local business is supporting our community. We tip our hats to all of the literacy volunteers and are honored to be a part of supporting their dedication to the people of Charlottesville.”

McGrady’s team member Ankit Tejani is a former board member of Literacy Volunteers. “After having served as a volunteer at Wordplay in past years, it was both fun and fulfilling to play on a team while supporting such a worthwhile cause,” he said.  “Ensuring a literate and well-informed public is the best way to help families step closer to achieving the American dream. LVCA is at the forefront of this movement.”

Common Ground Healing Arts hosts Spring Wellness Festival at Jefferson School City Center

Common Ground Healing Arts is preparing for its Spring Wellness Festival this weekend. The Spring Wellness Festival will feature 17 workshops such as “Align for the Springtime: Intro to Alignment-Based Yoga,” “Chanting in the Yoga Tradition,” “Mindfulness Meditation” and “Ecological Gardening Practices.” Sessions run from 9 am Friday, March 22, through 5 pm Sunday, March 24, at the Jefferson School City Center. Most of the sessions can accommodate beginners or those new to the healing arts. All sessions will be open to the public on a donation basis. Income received from donations will help Common Ground continue offering a sliding scale of fees.

Free Blood Sugar Screening and Diabetes Education

The Martha Jefferson Starr Hill Health Center at the Jefferson School City Center is offering a free blood sugar screening 10 am to 6 pm on Tuesday, March 26.  No appointment is necessary, and no fasting is required. Two days later, on Thursday, March 28, there will be a free education session with Barbara Martin, Certified Diabetes Educator, from 5 to 6 pm. For further information, call Martha Jefferson Health Connection at 434-654-7009 or 888-652-6663.

Call for Artists at Vinegar Hill CaféVinegar Hill Cafe

As part of JABA’s dedication to local food, music and arts, Vinegar Hill Cafe at the Jefferson School City Center will be featuring the artwork of artists of all ages from our community. Artists interested in displaying their work should send an email to atvinegarhillcafe@jabacares.org. Include your name, artwork medium, and samples of your work. Vinegar Hill Cafe is open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 3 pm, and Saturday, 9 am to 3 pm.  All proceeds from sales at the cafe benefit JABA’s programs for at-risk seniors.

Walk it Out

The Women’s Initiative will host weekday walking groups focused on building community and providing mutual support while relieving stress and gaining energy. The “Walk it Out” program will kick off on Saturday, March 30th from 2 to 4 pm at Martha Jefferson’s Starr Hill Health Center. This event will feature Mark Lorenzoni of the Charlottesville Ten-Miler training program and Ragged Mountain Running Shop; Nurse Practitioner Miranda Trent from Martha Jefferson’s Starr Hill Health Center; and Mike Inge, yoga instructor from Common Ground Healing Arts. Stop by to hear tips for training and staying motivated, learn about free health assessments, see a stretching demonstration, and sign up for a walking group with routes starting from the Jefferson School City Center. For more information, contact Eboni Bugg, LCSW, at 434-202-7692 or ebugg@thewomensinitiative.org.

JSCCLogoOneInchWideJefferson School City Center is a voice of the nine nonprofits located at Charlottesville’s intergenerational community center, the restored Jefferson School. We are a legacy preserved . . . a soul reborn . . . in the heart of Cville!

Categories
News

News from Grounds: What’s up at UVA this week

The University of Virginia. Photo: Dan Addison/UVA Public Affairs

Here’s a look at some of the most interesting news coming out of UVA in the last week—and a few things coming up.

Still talking Sullivan

Recent weeks found governance at UVA again under the microscope as the New York Times and the  Washington Post dug into BOV-President relations. Last Thursday, the American Association of University Professors issued a report based on their investigations into this summer’s leadership crisis at UVA. The AAUP’s report points to Helen Dragas’ failures as Rector and her lack of transparency during the firing of President Sullivan, according to the Daily Progress. The Washington Post on Monday also remarked on the report and suggested that the BOV should focus more on making sure the University educate its students to the fullest, rather than solely paying attention to new technological trends. It noted that the Board should diversify its membership and that many other esteemed universities have more faculty and university administrators at the table—not just business people.

Last Friday, the New York Times called the fight between the faculty and university administration and the BOV a “proxy war” for the nationwide debate over the control and administration of public universities. Governors and university board members are becoming increasingly more involved in their public universities as questions regarding funding, privatization, and online education loom.

 Gridiron goes indoors

Monday was the UVA football team’s first day of spring practice, yet winter hit again with snow and ice. Fortunately, the team wasn’t thwarted, since the day also marked the opening of the new George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility. According to NBC29, the new 80,000-square-foot facility holds a full 100-yard football field and cost $13 million. The project faced a setback last year when a welder’s torch sparked a fire that burned for hours.

 Med school gets new leadership

Nancy E. Dunlap has been named interim dean of UVA’s School of Medicine, UVA Today announced this week. Her post will officially begin on May 1 and will last 18 months while the University looks for a new executive vice president for health affairs after which the search for a permanent dean will begin.

Dunlap replaces Dr. Steven T. DeKosky, who announced in October that he would be returning to full-time teaching. The interim dean holds a B.A. from Wellesley, an M.D. from Duke University, a Ph.D in microbiology from University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an MBA with distinction from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. As Dean, Dunlap will be in charge of the general operations of the Medical School, including the budget and academic development.

Long-distance language

UVA students will be given a chance to study Haitian Creole next fall through a new partnership with Duke University, according to UVA Today.

Through new video conferencing technology, Cisco TelePresence technology, UVA students can take a class in Haitian Creole offered by Duke while Duke students can take advantage of UVA’s Tibetan language courses. Students will earn credit for these classes from their own schools. The partnership gives students the opportunity to study languages that aren’t often offered at universities. Duke Today mentions that only 135 and 109 college students in the U.S. took Creole and Tibetan respectively in 2009.

Read on

Charlottesville’s hosting of the 19th annual Virginia Festival of the Book kicked off Wednesday, and UVA is well-represented throughout the five-day event. At least 50 of the 400 authors participating in the festival are affiliated with the University, according to UVAToday. Here are a few upcoming events that feature UVA authors and professors:

  • On March 22 at noon, a group of UVA alumni who received MFAs from the Creative Writing program will read their recently published poetry and fiction at noon in the UVA Bookstore. Authors include Mark Harrill Saunders, interim director of the UVA Press, who will read from his spy thriller, “Ministers of Fire”; and Paul Legault, whose collection “The Emily Dickinson Reader” is subtitled, “An English-to-English Translation.”
  • A discussion of issues about masculinity, both classical and contemporary, will be held March 24 at 1:30 p.m. in the UVA Bookstore. Richard Holway, history and social sciences editor at U.Va. Press and author of “Becoming Achilles: Child-sacrifice, War, and Misrule in the Iliad and Beyond,” will talk with David McConnell, co-chair of the Lambda Literary Foundation and author of “American Honor Killings.” Holway also teaches in the politics department and Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program at UVA.—Allie Cooper
Categories
Living

Let them eat sweets: A little bit of indulgence goes a long way

Photo: Entertainment Pictures/Entertainment Pictures/Zumapress.com

I knew of a boy whose mother would give him cottage cheese with peaches and call it an ice cream sundae. He gobbled it down until the first time he went to a friend’s house and was given an actual ice cream sundae. Obviously, it blew his mind—not only how much more delicious ice cream is than cottage cheese, but also the realization that his mother had lied to him. I thought it was a mean and pointless (albeit funny) trick to play on a kid. After all, it’s just a matter of time before even the most sheltered of children are exposed to Count Chocula and Fun Dip.

As parents, should we teach our children to abstain from sugar? Or how to practice safe sugaring?

Children enter the world with a sweet tooth. Breast milk tastes sweet, and evolutionarily speaking (from our nut-and-berry cave days), sweet means good and bitter means bad. Now, books advise new parents to offer puréed vegetables before fruits to “train” their children’s palates beyond sweet.

Of course, fruit isn’t the problem—nor is sugar in moderation. It’s eating too much sugar too often that leads to cavities, obesity, diabetes, and, in some circles of belief, behavioral issues and hyperactivity. And, because sugar-heavy foods tend to contain empty calories, they displace the nutritious foods that children need to thrive, and often set up a cycle of cravings.

But where’s the joy in a lollipop-free childhood? I took a middle-of-the-road approach to introducing sugar into Maisie’s diet, giving her smaller tastes of higher quality sweets, yet never using it as a reward for finishing her dinner. Five years later, while she’ll still make fast work of a blue Ring Pop if given the opportunity, she tends to choose desserts that are less sweet and will often choose cheese, baguette, fruits, or veggies if she’s still hungry after her evening meal. I’m careful not to label foods as good or bad, but rather distinguish between those that just taste nice and those that actually nourish us.

Occasionally, when we are out together, we’ll stop for a “special treat.” Luckily, we live in a town that values quality over quantity, because seeing grotesquely large cupcakes and cookies is the quickest way to grow eyes bigger than one’s stomach. The mini cupcakes at Sweethaus, the honey bunches at Java Java and C’ville Coffee, and the bambino cones at Splendora are all perfectly child-sized (and priced).

So much of parenting is about laying groundwork and then letting your children make their own decisions. The last time I took Maisie to Paradox Pastry—even when faced with a case full of towering layer cakes and face-sized cookies—she chose a pear and almond tart. It was big and rich and probably meant for two. Even though I had visions of her gorging herself and then regretting it, I didn’t offer any words of caution. I just watched her enjoy exactly half and then say: “I’d like to save the rest for tomorrow.” Then I did a happy dance inside.—Megan J. Headley

Great-Grandma Violet’s Apricot Spice Bars 
These wholesome, not-too-sweet bars that my grandmother makes are Maisie’s all-time favorite. Even at Christmas time when new frosted, sprinkled cookies were coming in by the dozen, she’d choose one of these, relishing every last crumb, often with her eyes closed—how she shows that she’s “savoring” something.

1 3/4 cups flour plus extra for dusting
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground clove
1/3 cup butter plus extra for greasing
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 eggs
6 ounces dried apricots, finely chopped
1 cup chopped pecans

For the glaze:
¾ cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tbs. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves in a small bowl and set aside. Cream butter, brown sugar, and honey with a paddle attachment or electric egg beater. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, then stir in the apricots and nuts by hand. Spread into a greased and floured 10″x15″x1″ pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Make glaze by adding lemon juice to powdered sugar. Allow bars to cool for 15 minutes before drizzling them with the glaze.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Michael Clem Trio

The multi-talented Michael Clem frequently breaks from his duties as an Eddie from Ohio member to play area gigs with his trio. Image: Daniel Glass Photography

Folk lure

According to the bio section on Michael Clem’s official website, he doesn’t take himself terribly seriously. The self-conducted interview posted there provides plenty of wit, and plays off of the overt self-promotion that permeates the business side of music. He hardly touches on his vast musical accomplishments—a long career with the popular folk-rock group Eddie from Ohio and his ongoing solo work. For the next gig on his calendar, Clem draws from musician friends to play “ornery Americana” in the Michael Clem Trio.

Saturday 3/23 Free, 6:30pm. Plank Road Exchange, 6624 Plank Rd., Batesville. 823-2001.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: RAW Road to Wrestlemania

Hit maker John Cena (standind) appears in another WWE farcical phenomenon RAW: Road to Wrestlemania at John Paul Jones Arena. © 2013 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Slammer time

In case the new Die Hard flick didn’t cut it and you still need your fix of action with little to no plot, World Wrestling Entertainment brings us RAW: Road to Wrestlemania a great one. All the big names, from the perpetually shirtless John Cena to the cleverly named The Miz and the mysterious Kaitlyn, are bringing the body slams, complete with a six man tag team match. The road is a brutal one, but the beat-down goes on.

Friday 3/22 $17-97, 7:30pm. John Paul Jones Arena, 295 Massie Rd. 243-4960.

http://www.wwe.com/videos/playlists/raw-highlights-march-18-2013

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Emily Dickinson After Party

The career of Emily Dickinson takes an abbreviated twist when she appears posthumously at The Bridge PAI to trade lines with author Paul Legault. Image: wikimedia commons

Modern English

Because Emily Dickinson could not stop for death, she’s making an appearance to celebrate her own work. This is excellent news for the poet Paul Legault, the man behind translating Dickinson’s 1,789-poem collection into modern, one-liners in The Emily Dickinson Reader. At the Emily Dickinson After Party commemorating his book’s publication, Legault takes the surreal opportunity to swap verses with his muse (played by Mendy St. Ours) before he deejays at the ensuing dance party. Victorian dress and a fascination with morbidity and hyphenation are strongly encouraged.

Friday 3/22 Free, 8pm. The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, 209 Monticello Rd. 984-5669.

 

Categories
Arts

Film review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Steve Carell turns a few magic tricks as an aging Vegas performer in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Image: Warner Bros.

Magically funny: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone exceeds low expectations

The advertisements for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone make it seem like it will be the least funny, most egregious, and patience-trying movie of Steve Carell’s career. A movie comedy about Las Vegas performers and street magicians? News flash: The David Blaine jokes stopped being funny the moment he first appeared on ABC News in the early aughts.

There’s another movie out there that, on paper, seems like a losing proposition: A bunch of guys play sexist newsmen at a San Diego affiliate in the late 1970s. The ads were unfunny, even if the players were people audiences knew and liked. It’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which has since entered the pop culture lexicon, and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone takes some cues from it. Similarly, it seems like a terrible idea.

How refreshing it is to report that The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is hilarious, and often can’t-stop-laughing hilarious. It’s no Anchorman—the characters aren’t as broadly over-the-top funny, and it has a weakness for sentimentality that Anchorman doesn’t—but it largely gets things right, even when he it takes wrong turns.

For example, Carell mostly abandons his you-must-love-me persona that he’s been using since he became a movie lead. That obnoxious sincere-guy thing he does in Dan in Real Life and Crazy, Stupid, Love. pops up here, but for most of the movie he plays Burt Wonderstone as a self-absorbed lout, akin to his characters in Bruce Almighty and “The Daily Show.”

Then there’s Jim Carrey, who plays a jerk street magician named Steve Gray with a combination of gusto and restraint. Carrey disappears into Gray as much as a giant movie star can (and quite well), and his portrayal of Gray trying to fall asleep on a bed of hot coals is uproarious.
http://youtu.be/FeU1ILHi_Lo

That leaves the not-so-great moments in Burt Wonderstone. The story itself is for the birds (and, because this is a movie about magic, there are plenty of birds). Carell and Steve Buscemi are lifelong friends and magic partners who have been a big draw on the Las Vegas strip for a decade. Now their magic is stale, their audience is dwindling, and Gray threatens to, figuratively and literally, steal their show. The fun is watching these guys play off each other and nearly kill themselves (on screen) in the process.

Buscemi has a rougher go of things. He’s mostly on screen to be made fun of (and it’s pretty easy to make fun of Buscemi’s appearance, even when he’s not sporting a terrible wig), but he seems game, so give him a pass.

But Olivia Wilde gets a raw deal. Whereas Christina Applegate in Anchorman got plenty of jokes, Wilde is the straight man here. It’s a stretch to say a funny woman would threaten the men on screen—who knows what filmmakers were thinking?—but she’s not much more than window dressing. It’s a drag.

However, it’s hard to dislike a movie that acknowledges the magicians’ best trick is highly illegal. When it’s operating on all thrusters, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is nearly incredible.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone/PG-13, 101 min./Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Playing this week

21 and Over
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

A Good Day to Die Hard
Carmike Cinema 6

Argo
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Call
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Dead Man Down
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Emperor
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Escape From Planet Earth
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Carmike Cinema 6

Identity Thief
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Jack the Giant Slayer
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Last Exorcism Part II
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Life of Pi
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Lincoln
Carmike Cinema 6

Movie 43
Carmike Cinema 6

Oscar Nominated Short Films 2013
Vinegar Hill Theatre

Oz the Great and Powerful
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Parker
Carmike Cinema 6

Quartet
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Safe Haven
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Silver Linings Playbook
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Snitch
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Warm Bodies
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Wreck-it Ralph
Carmike Cinema 6

Zero Dark Thirty
Carmike Cinema 6

Movie houses

Carmike Cinema 6
973-4294

Regal Downtown Mall
Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14
and IMAX
244-3213

Vinegar Hill Theatre
977-4911

Categories
News

Green happenings: Charlottesville environmental news and events

Buford's City Schoolyard Garden
Students nibble carrots at the Buford City Schoolyard Garden, one of two Charlottesville community gardens recognized by the Piedmont Environmental Council following a yearlong contest. Photo courtesy of PEC.

Each week, C-VILLE’s Green Scene page takes a look at local environmental news. The section’s bulletin board has information on local green events and keeps you up to date on statewide happenings. Got an event or a tip you’d like to see here and in the paper? Write us at news@c-ville.com.

Hoophouse hopes: City Schoolyard Garden, the three-year-old organization that provides hands-on gardening education to City students, is raising money for a hoophouse at Buford Middle School. The structure will allow students to start their own seedlings, and will provide an outdoor gathering space protected from the elements.  The group launched a kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising $6,000 to cover the cost of the project.

Lit lecture: Head to the Ivy Creek Natural Area’s Education Building at 1pm Thursday, March 21 for a lecture from author and Dickinson College English professor Ashton Nichols, who will offer a talk on his most recent work, Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting. The book chronicles shifting views about nature in 20th and 21st century thought, and will be discussed by a special environmental panel at the 2013 Festival of the Book.

Testing the waters: The Rivanna Conservation Society (RCS) will hold a noon talk on bacteria monitoring in the Rivanna River on Thursday, March 21 at the Central Library on East Market Street. Rose Brown of StreamWatch, Leslie Middleton of the Rivanna River Basin Commission, and Robbi Savage of RCS will speak.

Deer under threat: The National Park Service is gathering public input as it develops a plan to manage the threat of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer populations in Shenandoah National Park. The prion disease—similar to Mad Cow, but known to appear only in deer—hasn’t been found in the park yet, but has been observed in Franklin County south of Roanoke. Learn more and add your voice at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/shen.

Categories
Living

Mixed manners: Bone up on your bar etiquette

File photo.

I don’t care if you’re at a speakeasy, a restaurant bar, or a dive—there are unspoken rules of conduct to which one adheres when you belly up to the bar. Many of them can change with the type of joint you’re hanging in for the night, but all have basic codes that are very much appreciated. A recent article in the New York Post had me hot for a few days—and not in a good way. The author said that, as servers and bartenders, we are basically servants. This could not be more untrue. Yes, we serve. Yes, we make your nights magical. Yes, we provide an escape from the normalcy of the day. But we do all of these things because we like you.

The article had me thinking about how, as a bartender, I not only serve, but I might also make or break the difference between a mediocre and amazing night for you and your friends. But it’s a two-way street. Just as you hate having to wait too long to be served, I have a few grievances of my own. Here are some points of etiquette that can make both of our nights more enjoyable.

Make eye contact. Waving money in my face on a busy night isn’t the best way to get my attention. If you don’t walk into a barbershop and wave money in the barber’s face, logic follows that this will not work at the bar either. Let me acknowledge you with my eyes, and know that if we’ve made eye contact, I’ll be with you shortly. If it’s really busy, it means I’m working to make sure that every single person is taken care of and everyone is equal. I want everyone to have a blast and a drink.

Learn my name. Especially if you’ve started a tab, as soon as I get you your first drink, I’m working on memorizing your first or last name. Take the time to learn mine. It’s Nick-—not Yo, Fella, Barkeep, or Dude.

Start a tab. Multiple runs on the same credit card make no sense. If you know that you’re going to be at the bar for multiple drinks, do everyone a favor and start a tab. Even with the most advanced data systems, it still takes time to process a card. Add up all those minutes and you’ve just wasted a lot of time when I could have been serving you and your friends.

Buy in bulk. If you’re in a large group, buy rounds. It makes everything go more smoothly on a busy night.

Don’t get sloppy. Are you supposed to have a drunk customer at the bar? Not really. Does it happen? Yes, from time to time. I want to see you again, but not making out on the bar.

Accept help. I don’t have to tell you not to do something stupid like drink and drive, but if you have had a few too many and I offer to call you a cab, take me up on it. Purely from a customer retention standpoint, I’d like to see you get home safely so you can come visit me again. Your wellbeing, believe it or not, is always on my mind.

Praise me. If you’ve had a great night, let me know. I love hearing that you had a good time and it helps me know when I’m doing something right.

Have fun and be courteous. I’ll be waiting for ya on my side of the bar.

Categories
News

Ask Betty: Local guru answers your green living questions

Got paperbacks to unload? McIntire Recycling Center's book swap is one option. File photo.

Teri Kent runs Charlottesville’s Better World Betty, a non-profit organization and online resource for locals looking to shrink their impact on the environment. Betty—Kent’s ’50s-housewife-meets-earth-goddess alter ego—will answer the most burning eco-questions from our readers every month. Send your own queries about energy use, water, waste and recycling, transportation, and green buying to betty@betterworldbetty.org.

Question: I know it would be good to add more insulation in my attic, but I store a lot of boxes up there. How can I keep my storage space while increasing my energy efficiency?

Betty: The Department of Energy recommends that attics be improved by air sealing around bath fans, ducts, etc. on the attic floor and then adding a total of 14″ of insulation, for a preferable R-value (a standard insulation measure) of 50.

I talked to Laura Fiori and the folks at the Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP). She recommends a plywood storage platform be built above the attic floor with 14″ of clearance underneath. This allows you to get the full insulation depth in all areas and still have your storage. It is important not to put anything on top of insulation or it will compress and become less effective, she warns.

Q: I have a pile of cookbooks to get rid of. Are there any local organizations that take them or book swaps to recommend?

B: There is a book bin at the McIntire Road Recycling Center, and I know that the SPCA Rummage Store on Preston Avenue likes books, too.

There are also some cool book exchange websites out there, including bookmooch.com and paperbackswap.com (though I admit, I haven’t tried them myself).

Of course, you could also have your friends over for a media swap—books, CDs, DVDs. Only risk there: You could be left with a bunch of old romance novels nobody claimed!

Q: I’ve heard CFL bulbs have a trace amount of mercury in them. What am I supposed to do with them when they burn out?

B: That’s correct. They contain trace amounts —about 4 milligrams—of mercury sealed within the glass tubing. By comparison, older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury.

Let’s not forget that coal-fired plants in the U.S. account for about half of all mercury emissions from man-made sources. CFLs reduce the demand for power, which in turn reduces the amount of coal burned by power plants and the amount of mercury emitted when coal is burned.

When it comes to getting rid of spent bulbs, you have three options. Lowe’s on 29 North will collect them from you free of charge (no fluorescent tubes, however). You can also take them to van der Linde Recycling in Zion Crossroads. Or you can wait for the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority’s next household hazardous waste disposal day, which is Friday, March 22 from 2-6pm and Saturday, March 23, from 9am-2pm.—Teri Kent