Science, not silence
At least 500 STEM-lovers came out to IX Art Park on Earth Day for the city’s satellite March on Science. C’ville Comm-UNI-ty hosted the event.
Stonefield death nets $100 fine
Franklin Pollock Reider, 75, was convicted of reckless driving April 24 for hitting pedestrian Bonnie Baha, 57, a California businesswoman who was in town August 21 to drop off her first-year son at UVA and who later died at UVA Medical Center. Reider said he accidentally hit the accelerator rather than the brake.
Let the 2018 races begin
Democratic newcomer Roger Dean Huffstetler, 38, an entrepreneur and former Marine, announced a challenge to 5th District Congressman Tom Garrett.
“Nothing is worse than a Yankee telling a Southerner that his monuments don’t matter.”—Gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart via Twitter, April 24.
“You know what was worse? Slavery.”—Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery in response.
Accused widow bilker files for bankruptcy
Former Farmington Country Club and Virginia Athletics Foundation president Victor Dandridge III filed for bankruptcy, putting on hold the lawsuit filed by his best friend’s widow, Lynne Kinder, who alleges he swindled her out of nearly $7 million. Dandridge now works for Uber, according to a court filing.
Five innocent people
John Grisham hosted a fundraiser for the UVA Innocence Project Pro Bono Clinic April 19 with a panel of the wrongfully convicted, including local men Robert Davis and Michael Hash, as well as Eric Weakley, Thomas Haynesworth and Beverly Monroe. “They were so focused on me, they allowed this man to rape 25 more women,” said Haynesworth, who was convicted of rape and spent 27 years in prison.
Loitering-proof seats nixed
The Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review rejected backless benches on the Downtown Mall April 18 and voiced concern the uncomfortable seating violates designer Lawrence Halprin’s vision of the mall as a public space.
Short-termer
UVA law student Erich Reimer, 26, known for his “Make UVA Law Great Again” campaign during his run for student office last year, was elected new chair of the Charlottesville City Republican Committee April 18—at least until he leaves in a few months to join the US Army JAG Corps as a military lawyer. Sad!
Glossary for alt-right speak
A year ago, many of us had never heard the term “alt-right,” which started popping up in conjunction with former Breitbart News head/President Trump adviser Steve Bannon. That’s because a “language and set of ideas are coming out of a movement that was on the fringe and on the Internet,” says UVA Miller Center’s Nicole Hemmer. Racism and white nationalism are being communicated with a more modern, more millennialist twist, she says. “It’s a new generation of racist.” And if someone has a frog on a website, unless it’s the Muppets, that could be a sign.
Alt-right: Coined by UVA grad/white nationalist Richard Spencer, it’s a far-right ideology that believes white identity is under attack. Urban Dictionary’s top definition: “a politically correct term for neo-Nazi.”
Antifa: You might think being an anti-fascist would be a good thing, but in alt-right land, antifas are PC extremist gangs who only object to racism when it’s done by white people, and who probably sip chardonnay.
Cuck, cuckservative: Cuckold plus conservative equals conservative light—one who doesn’t uphold white preeminence. “Really racist, really sexist,” says Hemmer. Cuck means “race traitor,” she says. GQ defines cuck as a porn term in which a white husband watches his wife have sex with a black man.
Human biodiversity: It’s been called the “eugenics of the alt-right” to allege racial superiority and Forward’s Ari Feldman describes it as “pseudoscientific racism updated for the Internet age.” It’s another example of using a seemingly benign term, in this case “coopting the language of environmentalism,” says Hemmer.
Kek: Ancient Egyptian god of darkness and chaos now symbolized by Pepe the Frog, originally a comic series character that’s been appropriated as the avatar of the alt-right and designated a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.
Masculinist: “An advocate of male superiority or dominance,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Social justice warrior, SJW: Another usage that takes something often seen as a positive—social justice—and turns it into a slam. Wikipedia defines it as “a pejorative term for an individual promoting socially progressive views including feminism, civil rights, multiculturalism and identity politics.”
Snowflake: Unique, but not in a good way. Used to describe a generation of young people who take offense easily because they’re as “weak and vulnerable as a speck of snow,” according to USAToday College, which calls it the new “it” insult.
After the ice rink fact sheet
Jaffray Woodriff’s purchase of the Main Street Arena and the building that houses Escafé means big changes—and big demolition—are in the Downtown Mall’s future. Woodriff’s publicist sent the following info:
Site: 230 W. Main St. and 215 Water St., total .88 acres.
Ownership: Woodriff’s Taliaferro Junction purchased the arena from Mark Brown in March for $5.7 million.
Repurposed:
Charlottesville Technology Center, a multi-use office and retail structure for existing tech companies and start-ups, with LEED platinum certification and green rooftop terraces for tenants.
Size: 140,000 square feet includes 60K for anchor tenant, 10K for retail and 10K for event/common area.
Demolition: Spring 2018, lasting about three weeks.
Ice sports: Will get another season, through spring 2018.