Baldacci returns to sign his latest bestseller

David Baldacci will be at Barnes and Noble at 7 p.m. Monday to discuss and sign copies of his new book, “The Whole Truth.”

Baldacci’s new book, which is No. 2 on the best-seller’s list this week, is a thriller surrounding Mathew Pender, who works for an organization that specializes in managing seemingly impossible situations for its clients. Sometimes, those services extend to managing and creating armed conflict.

Baldacci was born in Richmond and lives Northern Virginia with his family. He has a bachelor’s in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.

For more information, call 984-0461.

  A group of weary travelers sat out on the porch on a warm sunny afternoon, waiting. Once the rest of our party arrived we stepped across Michie Tavern’s threshold and were transported back to a time when it was OK to sleep in the same bed with a stranger, as long as you introduced yourself first.

One of the benefits of making a classic film like “Giant” is that it can be reintroduced in movie theaters every generation or so.

Historian discusses
Gandhi and Churchill
Local author Arthur Herman will be at New Dominion Bookshop at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to sign copies of his new book, “Gandhi and Churchill.”
In “Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age,” Herman offers a look at the rivalry between Winston Churchill and Mohandas Gandhi, set against the backdrop of World War I, World War II, the coming of apartheid to South Africa, the partition of India and the decline of the British Empire.
Herman also is the best-selling historian of “How the Scots Invented the Modern World.”
For details, call 295-2552.

Rumors to the contrary, critics are human, and as such, are prey to prejudice and bias — both of which might benefit from disclosure since discerning readers will discern them. For example, I like my music — classical and jazz — served up with sides of both melody and dissonance. As for paintings, the realistic and stark find equal favor with me.

Fire is non-discriminatory.
  It doesn’t matter what your financial situation might be, a fire can destroy a lifetime of treasures in a matter of minutes.
That what happened to one local woman in early March.

“I think it was that whole experience of growing up in the wild and open spaces that led me to become a meteorologist working with the atmosphere,” said Garstang, distinguished emeritus research professor in environmental sciences at the University of Virginia.

When ancient Greeks, Romans and Persians discovered how comfortable goat skins filled with water were to sleep on, they ushered in a new chapter in beds.
But it wasn’t until the late 1960s that the modern water bed was made available to the general public. We can thank an enterprising San Francisco State University student named Charles Hall for that.

Scout’s visit marks end of this year’s Big Read
This week marks the grand finale of the Big Read, with two events on tap.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” will be shown at the Paramount Theater at 3 and 7 p.m. Thursday.
Mary Badham, who played Scout, will be on hand for a panel discussion following the 7 p.m. screening. Badham will be joined by Denise Lunsford, Cornelia Johnson, Stephanie Commander and Sarah McConnell. Tickets may be purchased at the Paramount box office.
The Brown Bag Book Group at Nelson Memorial Library will discuss “To Kill a Mockingbird” at noon Monday. Piedmont Virginia Community College professor Ben Sloan will lead the discussion.
In other events, the Book Discussion Group at the Greene County Library will meet at 8 p.m. Thursday to discuss “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman.
Call 979-7151, Ext. 211.

The first thing Danny Vigour did with newspapers was take scissors to them to create art projects when he was in elementary school.
  For years the newspaper was simply something that arrived at his Albemarle County home every morning. It had myriad uses from wrapping garbage to cleaning windows, but he didn’t read it.

So you don’t have time to head to the mountains for a hike, but you’d love to duck out of city life long enough to see some greenery, hear some birds sing or maybe even catch a constellation or two?
Once you turn off Earlysville Road into the Ivy Creek Natural Area, an escape hatch from stress awaits.  Just up the hill from a bustling Albemarle County road, the 215-acre Ivy Creek site offers a taste of rural respite. Go ahead — let yourself think you’ve escaped to the countryside. There’s enough unspoiled space and quiet to unfrazzle most of your nerves.

The bad guys came in through the bathroom window.
Unlike the subject of the Beatles 1969 song, “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” these two crooks weren’t “protected by a silver spoon.” They each had automatic pistols.

Emperor will compete
in sushi competition
Bryan S. Emperor, executive chef at Ten on the Downtown Mall, has been selected to compete at the 2008 Sushi Awards, which will take place in October in London.
The event brings together connoisseurs, food journalists and members of the public to taste the original creations of the best sushi chefs worldwide, dubbed the Seven Sushi Samurai.
Expert judges and guests will vote to determine which of the samurai will win the coveted Sushi of the Year Award 2008.
Emperor was selected from the awards appearance after competing in a sushi battle during the National Sushi Society’s Grand Sushi and Sake Tasting in Washington earlier this month.
For details about Emperor, visit http://www.ten-sushi.com.

Every once in a while a familiar household food product graces our TV screens, even though pharmaceutical and car ads dominate these days. This was the case the other day when I noticed an ad for Oreo Cookies, a well-known product of the National Biscuit Company (NaBisCo).

Ganeshananthan looks inside war and marriage
Novelist V.V. Ganeshananthan, the author of “Love Marriage,” will be at New Dominion Bookshop at 5:30 p.m. Thursday for a book signing and discussion.
Sri Lanka has been plagued by more than 25 years of warfare between minority Tamil separatists and the majority Sinhalese government, and was ravaged by the 2004 tsunami.
One of the first novelists to deal with Sri Lanka and its ongoing war, Ganeshananthan examines decades of families suffering from war and displacement. At the novel’s core, a young Sri Lankan-American woman feels trapped between arranged marriages and love marriages and the judgments of her ancestors and the modern world in which she lives.
She received her BA in 2002 from Harvard, where “Love Marriage” began as her senior thesis, directed by Jamaica Kincaid. She graduated from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in 2005, served for a year as the Bennett writer-in-residence at Philips Exeter Academy, and is pursuing an MA in journalism at Columbia University. She lives in New York City.
For details, call 295-2552.

Justice may be blind, but judges usually aren’t.
  Charlottesville Municipal Court Judge Allan Spitzer could see very well. When a young man approach his bench on Nov. 4, 1965, the World War II veteran didn’t like what he saw.
Spitzer apparently felt that people entering court should reflect a certain level of personal grooming out of respect for the venerable institution. When 19-year-old Jonathan Gainsbrugh failed to meet the judge’s standards, it resulted in a legal dustup that grew into a clash of principles.

The helmet Chris Grimm wore hid the fact that tears were running down his cheeks as he rode his motorcycle along the Champs-Elysees
in Paris.
The Albemarle County man and his KTM 640 Adventure dirt bike were about to start an epic journey. The goal was to follow a 5,000-mile route that closely follows the route of the famous “Paris-to-Dakar Rally.”

Keswick offers taste of life from Down Under
Keswick Hall’s Australian Wine Dinner will begin with a reception 6:45 p.m. Thursday, followed by dinner at 7 p.m.

I told you about the importance of Chinese food in the history of world foods. This week I’ll delve into the Greek contribution in food history. As with food of China that of Greece is closely linked to the country’s history, philosophy and art.
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Bake a pie, make a date at Friday’s auction
Charlottesville Food Not Bombs will offer its “pie-date auction’’ at 8 p.m. Friday at Ourspace.
The rules are simple: Bake a pie, and the highest bidder on the pie gets a date with the baker.

I have noticed that more and more people are including chicken, in one form or another, in their grocery baskets. Is this a sign of the times? It is for Allan and I. We have enjoyed chicken for years, and s we grow older, we are eating less and less red meat.

Hills — no, mountains — of books have been written about Thomas Jefferson. Here, in Jefferson country, the man and his legacy are as palpable as the grass covering the University of Virginia’s Lawn. So what, I asked myself, could Alan Pell Crawford’s new book, “Twilight at Monticello — The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson,” add to the store of knowledge already accumulated about his subject?

I found myself reluctant to go — I was 25 minutes late and my hair was wet from swimming. But, the door was wide open and I walked in quietly, slid into a metal folding chair in the back and squeezed my eyes shut tight as it creaked. The room was quiet otherwise, even though about 30 people filled it.

In 1570 a printing press in Venice, Italy, began producing a four-volume set of books that would have a profound effect on architecture throughout the Western world.
It was titled “I Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura,” which translates in English to “The Four Books of Architecture.” The author was Andrea Palladio, who, through his interpretation of classical Greek and Roman architecture, gave the world a style of architecture known as Palladianism.

As a biting winter wind swirled between the canyon-like walls of 125th Street in Harlem, Melanie R. Hill shivered and thought about two graces.
Grace was the name she had given the cherished violin cushioned inside the hard-shell case she held in her gloved hand. The other grace was the type she believes comes from God, and had brought her to the front entrance of the renowned Apollo Theater on a frigid Saturday morning last December.

Wines of Virginia and France featured in gala
The International School of Charlottesville will present its Gala 2008: From Champagne to Charlottesville at 6 p.m. Thursday at the University of Virginia’s Alumni Hall.
The event begins with a silent auction and wine tasting featuring wines from Virginia and France, sponsored by Acorn Hill Winery, Thibaut and Janisson Sparkling Wines and Crush Wine Shop. Dinner and a live auction will follow.

One of my favorite interests is history, particularly food history. The other day I was wondering about who created our cooking techniques and early cuisines. I often had wondered when and by whom national and ethnic foods came into being. Did they start with the Chinese, Greeks or Romans? Or did they start at about the same time from many sources?

It can be annoying. It can be a sharp pain. It can be a constant throb that make you want to drink a bottle of Ambesol and take a long nap.
At times like these, a dentist is your best friend.

The poster children of booster clubs.
That’s how baseball coach Skip Hudgins describes the two women heading up the booster club for the Western Albemarle High School baseball team
“Our boosters club is extremely strong,” he said.

As frame after frame of black-and-white film whirled through the camera, the lens stayed locked on a Volkswagen bug parked at the end of a residential driveway.
Without content, the vehicle was nothing special. But viewers who saw the stark image on their television screens in 1967 knew why the camera lingered on this seemingly innocuous scene.
The car had belonged to Grandville Anthony “Tony” Jones, a young Charlottesville soldier killed in action in Vietnam on Dec. 5, 1965. Two years later when the National Education Television network made the documentary film “Home Front 1967” the forlorn Volkswagen became one of the program’s most poignant and powerful images.