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Illustration by Kristy Heilenday
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Illustration by Kristy Heilenday
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Illustration by Kristy Heilenday
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Illustration by Kristy Heilenday
A poster-board photo of an AK-47 wasn't quite enough shock value for Virginia Del. Joe Morrissey in January when he proposed a state ban on assault-weapons. The dramatically gifted trial lawyer raised up an assault rifle in the state House chamber to prove, if nothing else, that Fightin' Joe's arm is still strong enough to hold up a big gun with only one arm.
Ah, the heart of the summer, a great time for some Mexican-inspired fare and a cold beer … eaten in a former porn shop? In July, the taco restaurant En Su Boca opened at the former Triangle Book Store on Boulevard, near West Broad Street. Yes, it's all-in-all a better use for the little wedge-shaped building. But we're hoping the owners gave the whole place a wipe down with Clorox towelettes.
Sorry, Chesterfield voters, but you get a Dead Dogwood for your short-sightedness on the meals tax vote. You OK'd projects costing more than $350 million but rejected a 2 percent meals tax to help pay for it. But here's the kicker. You are going to get those projects one way or another. We bet that penny on your Extra Value Meal doesn't sound so bad now, huh?
Oh, Huguenot Bridge. Gone are your lovely iron railings, your patchwork asphalt, the holes that expose the river below. We don't hold our breath crossing the river anymore, but sadly since the view has been severely hampered by the new bridge, we don't lose our breath either. All the new bridge does is get us where we are going. Where's the fun in that?
We knew it was coming, and like a slow train, arrive it did on Nov. 11, when Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones and a host of hangers-on staged the big reveal of a downtown baseball park proposal. Despite a Richmond Times-Dispatch poll showing that most local residents oppose Shockoe Bottom as the location for (potentially) the world's largest soup bowl, Flying Squirrels Vice President and COO Todd Parnell declared, "The time for discussion on (ballpark) location is over. The mayor has made his decision." Funny, we don't exactly remember any true public "discussion" about the plan.
Is it a racist flag or a flag of Southern heritage? Does it reveal Virginians as deeply proud or deeply divided? None of that seems to matter anymore, since the hotly debated Confederate battle flag erected by the Virginia Flaggers is barely visible from I-95
OK, so it's not totally Bill Bolling's fault (though we are sure he would have trounced Cuccinelli and McAuliffe if he'd run as an independent). The blame rests totally with the Virginia GOP, who engineered Cuccinelli's nomination by going back to the old backroom convention nominating process. And were you serious with E.W. Jackson? We are beginning to wonder if maybe Terry McAuliffe isn't an evil genius who infiltrated your ranks as far back as the convention. It might be the only plausible explanation.
Drag-racing strip? Check. A half dozen or so slightly pissed off bulls? Check. Runners so lazy they need to be chased by an aggressive ungulate to run a few hundred yards? Check. This was the formula for the way-bizarre and totally contrived Running of the Bulls event in August near Petersburg. Our hunch: This isn't quite how it works in Pamplona, Spain.
Terry McAuliffe may have emerged the winner, technically speaking, of that back-alley, hair-pulling, open-handed slap fight called the governor's race, but he lands here on the Dead Dogwood list for a couple of reasons. One, no one really wanted him in the first place. There's a huge difference between pulling the lever for McAuliffe and not against Cuccinelli. Second, even with more money (bushels of it from out of state), more starpower and a sane lieutenant governor running mate on his side, he still couldn't knock the Cooch out. A 1-point margin of victory? Please...
During a concert at May's Dominion Riverrock festival, reggae singer Frederick "Toots" Hibbert is hit in the head by a bottle tossed by 19-year-old William C. Lewis, who shortly thereafter came to the stunning realization that he was missing his bottle of vodka. Cheers to a memorable day on Brown's Island!
Here at the Richmond International Raceway, we like to have some friends over a couple times a year for a few spins around the oval. But is this how you do your friends, Michael Waltrip Racing and Front Row Motorsports? Your cheating and race manipulting in September connected our name and your NASCAR scandal in the same breath
Calling Dr. Muhammed! Calling Dr. Shonda Harris-Muhammed! Please report stat to pick up your Dead Dogwood for impersonating a doctor of philosophy as a member of the Richmond School Board. Well, maybe not impersonating really — just telling people you had earned your doctorate degree when you really hadn't and insisting that they call you "Doctor." Actually, yes. Impersonating.
