From a birdie…

from biltmore grill manager facebook status

Sorry for the repeat post, but Biltmore Grill is closed for good. New Owner, may re open in July as the Biltmore Grill. Call with questions.

Ever wonder what happens when a giant turkey flies through your dorm room window and dies on your bed? Second year University of Virginia student, Piyush Srivastava came home to find a turkey lying dead in his bed.  Piyush told the Cavalier Daily that he came home from a weekend at home to find blood and shattered glass were all over his room… and turkey dead in his bed. He was moved to another dorm room while UVA cleaned up the mess.

/You know how badly those hokies wished they went to UVA.  

More pictures, courtesy of Piyush, after the break… »Read More

Susan Carkeek, head of U.Va. Human Resources just released word that new postings for non-essential staff positions have been frozen to external candidates.  Basically, if need be, candidates for positions will be moved from one department to another internally.  Teaching and research faculty postings are exempt to this (but really, they only make up a small portion of the university’s total full time employees).  I think this comes as no surprise to most people at the university considering the current academic climate.  I think that one can reasonably assume that layoffs and forced retirements may be coming next.  The university has repeatedly issued emails stated they plan not to lay off staff, but the emails have become less and less committal to the issue.  The official HR line is that forcing retirements of staff that have been here 30+ years would not save the university money, which is hardly true at all.  This is a pretty big deal since layoffs have not occurred in any of the financial crises of the last 40 years and U.Va. is the biggest employer in Charlottesville.

The text of the email is as follows:

Dear Colleagues:

I write to you with two pieces of news related to hiring at the University –
one item on new procedures for posting positions, and the other regarding new
employee orientation.

First, in order to more closely manage our staffing levels and ensure that only
the most critical positions are filled, only essential positions will be posted.
On the administrative side, Vice Presidents are approving postings; on the
academic side, the EVP/Provost has delegated that responsibility to the deans.
»Read More

The calm in Charlottesville will soon end.

It’s a mere week until Law School starts up again; it’s less than two weeks until undergraduates start classes and I can’t find out when Darden begins classes, but it has to be very soon.  That’s right; your temporary peace (and boredom to some) will end in a few days.

Soon, we will return to a world ruled by Dardenites and their nametages, tazered Law Students and all those sorority girls who invade Mas with their fake IDs.

But guess what?  As much as cVillains make fun of UVA, the truth is Charlottesville is boring without the influx of above average citizens, new faces to the bars and lots more excitement.  What I’m trying to say is that Charlottesville actually thrives and exists because of the University.  If the University weren’t here, Charlottesville wouldn’t be the same.

»Read More

Just about an hour south of Charlottesville sits Lynchburg, Virginia, home to 20,000 evangelical students and now, a YEAR ROUND SNOWLESS SKI SLOPE.

I am not making this up.  Part of Liberty University’s 5,000 acre mountain range will morph into a God-less creation of fake snow. That’s right, the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Center will be a year-round ski center.  It uses a synthetic material which is supposedly a lot like snow. Invented in 1993 by Brian Thomas of Briton Engineering, Snowflex originated in the UK and has been installed in several facilities throughout Europe.

Liberty doesn’t have co-ed dorms and it’s a dry campus, but now, it does have an artificial year-round ski slope. I’ll be egging my kids to apply for early admission.  Liberty officials expect the slope to be completed in early 2009.

Here is a video of Snowflex technology:

Guan Yu Lu:

Bai Chuan Shu:

Perhaps you remember when the UVA engineering students got busted for kidnapping someone in Northern Virginia.

According to the Washington Post, these former students will receive 4 years in the slammer. One of the kidnappers, Shu, said:

I’d like to apologize for my actions. It was outrageous, immature, irresponsible. I never intended to hurt Paul. I thought if I didn’t hurt him physically, I wouldn’t hurt him at all. I was wrong, so wrong.

It’s not fun kidnapping people when you get caught! Do you think they will spend time in US jail, or will they be sent back to China? Still, the question remains.. is this an Honor Code violation?

Summertime is right around the corner, and public school teachers around the country are rejoicing. It is the time of year when we finally look back at the nine and a half months of blood, sweat, and tears, and realize that it was totally worth it. While older teachers have families to attend to during the summer, a younger teacher like myself truly gets to live it up. While my friends have to get up early and go to work on these beautiful summer days, I get to sleep in and do pretty much whatever I want. Many of my friends seem to think that it is unfair that I get paid to do nothing for an entire summer. This is because they don’t quite understand what teachers have to put up with during the school year to earn their time off. While most teachers I know (myself included) love what they do for a living, there are always a few students that will drive even the most composed teacher nuts:

The Kid Who Always Asks To Use the Bathroom: I am a teacher, and because of that I am equipped with a built-in lie detecting device in my brain. I can tell the difference between a kid who actually needs to go, and a kid that doesn’t. If you’re asking me twice a day, every day, it isn’t any easier to fool me, buddy. This isn’t the Lotto…more plays does not increase your chance of winning the bathroom pass game.

»Read More

Some University of Virginia students go on to do great things like be famous politicians, run Fortune 500 companies and book hookers.

Or, wait… There is Tameka Lewis who just plead guilty to money laundering and promoting prostitution.  She’s 32 and has an English major from UVA.  While Tameka’s family couldn’t believe that she did anything wrong, it looks like they have believe, differently.

Tameka is part of the investigation that involved former New York Governor, Eliot Sptizer.

[via NBC 29, NY POST]

On May 17th and 18th, this Friday and Saturday, Charlottesville will face The University of Virginia Graduation Weekend 2008. If you haven’t noticed, zombie week is really just calm before all hell breaks loose. In fact, graduation weekend is such a hellish time, that UVA even has an office devoted to it called (cue deep scary voice) “The Office of Major Events.” I’m not kidding, check out the website. I heard they wanted to name it Office for Hell on Earth, but that offended the religious right.

Oh and if you want to graduate virtually, you can even watch a live internet broadcast run by the Office of Major Events.

So despite this impending nightmare, Charlottesville residents, future worker bees and their relieved parents all storm Charlottesville like it’s June 6th, 1944, only this time it’s May 17th, 2008 and we’re going to call it G-Day. Why do they do it? Who knows, but maybe we can help you out a little…

»Read More

Perhaps you remember the cartoon shown above and our discussion; or, maybe you remember our critique of the Cavalier Daily when it published an article loosely based on Catholic pseudo-science that claimed having sex around a “natural planning cycle” is more effective than condoms. Let’s not forget the “tear down this wall” column which said the freedom wall was “nothing more than a cheap, interactive platitude.” And finally, take an opinion from the same publication about StreakTheLawn.com (now shut down) which explained that exposing seedier aspects of college life was a “risk” to UVA’s reputation.

Do you see a trend with the Cavalier Daily, University of Virginia’s “independent newspaper?” We do… and so do others.

»Read More