Encyclopedia Virginia: The Blog header image

Entries Tagged as 'Around the State'

Wilderness, Wal-Mart, and the WaPo

August 3rd, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

The Washington Post weighs in on Wal-Mart and the Wilderness this morning. It’s one of those staff editorials obsessed with balance and being fair—not that there’s anything wrong with that!—but not particularly interested in actually making an argument or having an opinion. Preservationists are right to want to protect some of the battlefield. However, if [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State

D-Day Memorial Update

July 27th, 2009 by brendanwolfe · 2 Comments

The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford is in danger of closing due to financial problems. A bill designed to help is wending its way through Congress: An effort to save the National D-Day Memorial has made some progress, as the U.S. Senate passed a defense-spending bill that instructs officials to consider making the monument a [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State

The Times-Dispatch's 'Massive' Apology

July 22nd, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

The Richmond Times-Dispatch published an editorial on July 16 headlined “Our Past,” in which it apologized for its support of Massive Resistance during the 1950s and beyond. (Our entry on Massive Resistance provides the requisite background.) The newspaper admitted its complicity in championing segregationist policies, writing that “the record fills us with regret.” Massive Resistance [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State · Virginia History

Anne Spencer: The Dance

July 9th, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

Well, almost. Yesterday we called attention to our Anne Spencer entry. Back in March, the Legacy Museum in Lynchburg screened a film by Keith Lee about the poet called Anne Spencer Revisited. Turns out Lee had originally wanted to do a dance, an idea that came to him after visiting Spencer’s Lynchburg home. Keith Lee [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State · Virginia Literature

Grisham and the Norfolk Four

July 8th, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

The Washington Post reports this morning that John Grisham is writing a screenplay about the so-called Norfolk Four, four sailors who claim to have been wrongly convicted in the rape and murder of a Norfolk woman in 1997. The men confessed to the crime, but following their guilty verdicts, recanted, claiming they had been coerced. [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State · Virginia Literature

Are All Men Really Created Equal?

July 6th, 2009 by brendanwolfe · 2 Comments

In time for the Fourth of July, a new poll asks Americans whether they still agree with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Turns out . . . that 89% of American adults agree that “we are all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights among them life, liberty, and the [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State

And the Pursuit of Jefferson

June 26th, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

Over at BackStory, they’re considering the Fourth of July and the Declaration of Independence, prompting a detailed accusation of “BS” from one commenter, who objects, among other things, to the Declaration being referred to as “propaganda.” Meanwhile, at the New York Times, artist Maira Kalman, author of the forthcoming And the Pursuit of Happiness, considers [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State · Virginia History

Wal-Mart in the Wilderness

June 26th, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

I suggested just the other day that . . . you can do like Cushman, and go to the Wilderness yourself. Cut the language screen down and try to feel what it’s like to just be there. Now, when you’re done just being there, you can just be yourself off to Wal-Mart. A split Orange [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State

A Stand-Up Moment for Sacagawea

June 23rd, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

A historical marker was dedicated last Friday to Sacagawea at the statue of Lewis and Clark on West Main Street in Charlottesville. The statue’s image of the Shoshone Indian woman has long been controversial; she’s kneeling, which some people have interpreted as being too subservient. According to the Daily Progress: The statue was erected in [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State · Virginia History

Looking for Work @ the Miller Center

June 16th, 2009 by brendanwolfe · No Comments

If you will be in the Charlottesville-Albemarle neighborhood of Virginia on Friday afternoon, please take note: Attention Virginians:  On Friday, June 19th at 5:30 PM, BackStory will be staging a rare, live event. The History Guys will be taping a live performance of the show at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, [...]

Click to continue →

Tags: Around the State