Author Archive

Tubing on the Downtown Mall This Saturday


From our friends at the City of Charlottesville:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS EXPANDED THE

* FLASH FLOOD WATCH TO INCLUDE PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL MARYLAND…VIRGINIA AND NORTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA…INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING AREAS…IN NORTH CENTRAL MARYLAND…WASHINGTON. IN VIRGINIA…ALBEMARLE…AUGUSTA…CLARKE…FREDERICK VA… GREENE…MADISON…NELSON…PAGE…RAPPAHANNOCK…ROCKINGHAM… SHENANDOAH AND WARREN. IN NORTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA…BERKELEY AND JEFFERSON.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

Crosswalks of Death

dead bird on sidewalk
I think we have bitched repeatedly on this site about the lack of pedestrian consideration in this town.  There are a couple cross-walks of death in cville:

  • between the Lewis and Clarke building andthe downtown mall.  And no, that crosswalk button won’t save you
  • crossing Monticello Rd at the Carlton Rd intersection.  Cars come blind uphill
  • crossing Levy Ave at Avon St
  • crossing McIntire Rd to get to the C’ville Coffee shopping plaza

This town is not short on areas that can cause serious injury, fortunately the local gov intends to fix this with $700k.  How?

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Local Shopping Delivery Startup

retail relay

What would you use Retail Relay for?
View Results

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Popularity: 18% [?]

There’s A New Sister in Town

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Mayor Norris is in the middle of formalizing a third sister city for Charlottesville, this time in Africa. Currently we are bonded via the powers of the local government’s international relations and Sister Cities International with:

  • Besancon, Franche-Comte, France
  • Pleven, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
  • Poggio a Caiano, Toscana, Italy

Our new sister city is Winneba in Ghana. Winneba is not only a collegiate town a la cville, boasting West Africa’s three best institutions (called the Oxford of Ghana), it is also an amazing tourist destination:

Go there for some nice walks through town and on the beach. Very relaxing if you are stuck in Accra for a while.You will be happy to meet friendly people who are ready to help you do what ever you want to do. You may roam through the town to the beach, one of the best in the country. Winneba has a big stretch of beach that makes it comfortable for tourists to enjoy the environment. It is one of the leading towns in the country and it is blessed with learned people that have contributed a lot to the welfare of Ghana. Winneba was also the second to receive electricity in Ghana after Akosombo.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

When Taxes Bite

WCAV 29 reports that local Outback Lodge owner, Terrence Martin, was arrested for reportedly/allegedly not paying Charlottesville meals tax.  This is the 10th time he is arrested.

Restaurants are required to turn over their receipts to the city every month. The meals tax is set at four percent and is expected to bring in $7 million to the city this year alone.

This follows up with last week’s gossip bit about the Outback Lodge’s suspended liquor license and ensuing luck Terrence had with the lottery.  Apparently the place kicks ass so lets hope it gets up and running again.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Tyler Durden’s POV Through Mind of a Villain

I am sitting here at 30,000 feet above Florida, and the only thing to entertain me besides this precious IBM laptop is the infamous SkyMall in-flight magazine. You turn page after page of supposedly amazingly priced goods that do a couple things like:

  • Charge your iPod with solar panels built into a backpack
  • Promote hair growth for balding men via a laser comb
  • Increase vehicle fuel economy by 30% for only $299.95!

I flip through the last page and have mixed feelings about all the gadget and toys I just read about. Immediately I think of that scene in Fight Club where Brad Pitt is about to create his Army of Anarchy. He says something along the lines of:

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.”

And that’s what I think that magazine represents…a window into a life you need to buy into because you have convinced yourself it Is very hip and cool. So this isn’t my rise to call to anarchy, but it is a wake up call. Lately, I have been craving a Kitchen Aid mixer in some hi-tech color. They are everywhere! The scary thing is I don’t even bake.

What are you craving, and how badly do you not REALLY need it?

Popularity: 21% [?]

Obesity Tax in Virginia, Are You Ready?

obesitygraph
….well, not yet at least. The Alabama State Insurance board thinks state employees with a BMI>35 will be charged $25/month for health insurance (currently free).  IF Virginia followed suit, the 65% of state employees that are currently overweight or obese (not a lie, although this is according to 2004 data) could contribute $3,453,120 back to the state coffers.  This is no laughing matter!

This brings up a host of issues. Firstly, will this rule lead to lower obesity, and how can you quantify that today? Secondly, if obesity is incurs an additional insurance fee, why not other maladies and lifestyle choices that severely impact your health.  Smokers alone are 24.6% of the VA population and could thus contribute $43,532,867 back to the state.

I say go ahead with the additional fees (all you libertarians are snickering aren’t you?).  Our lives are full of additional fees that are not health related, and yet we have learned to change habits or just pay the fees and quit the bitching and moaning:

  • exceeded daytime minutes on XYZ cell phone plan
  • when your car insurance company re-calculates your premium after you caused a rear-end collision…
  • parking in a handicap spot
  • late fee on a credit card

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[source:  Health.com, Census.gov, CDC.gov, Virginia Center for Healthy Communities]

Popularity: 30% [?]

Weekend Preview 8/22-8/24

It has been a crazy week, but don’t think we could let you starve without a rundown of this weekend’s hottest and sexiest events.  So, here, we, go….

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Popularity: 18% [?]

cVillain Blind Date

flamingo love
In our efforts to bring you the best online and offline experience, cVillain will attempt to set you up with other cVillains. Yes you heard right, you can meet and possibly date a real, live cVillain. Here is how it works:
Fill out the contact form
We will try match you up with someone
We will schedule the date/time/location for you
You show up, and pay attention to the details
We will interview you and see how the date went
We will post the blind date story on cVillain

Please fill out the form below to get started!
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Popularity: 60% [?]

Make Your Own Tailgate Fantasy Come True

rf tailgate
Our friends down 29, Crutchfield, want you to create your dream tailgate setup (using a plethora of audio/video components up to $2k in total value from the Crutchfield website). The winner will receive help on putting the system together. Should we create a cVillain tailgator?


How to Enter:

Come up with a cool idea for using A/V gear that we sell on Crutchfield.com to build the ultimate tailgate system. Important: Make sure that your idea is something that you can actually do, and that it’s safe and legal.

* If you don’t already have one, create an account on Crutchfield.com.
* Surf the site and add your contest items to your Wish List.
* Your contest entry must total less than $2,000 (exclusive of shipping and taxes), so make sure you choose carefully and that you include everything that you’ll need to make your idea a reality.
* Go to your Wish List and click on the contest link. Fill out the entry form and submit your entry.

Just imagine the damage we can do at Foxfield (no s) races next year!
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Popularity: 44% [?]