While waiting for my car to be inspected

I looked at my windshield yesterday and noticed that my inspection sticker was expired. Oops! So I tried to get it inspected but everywhere I went (OK, so I only went to 2 places) couldn’t take me. I was advised at the corner gas station to get in line early so I headed out about 7:30 this morning and was the 4th car in line. This station is not one of those quickie places, so I got done around 9:30. While waiting, I read the Virginian-Pilot. Interesting stuff after the jump:

• Former mayor and Norfolk visionary Mason Andrews died
• Vote NO ad on the air
• No further report on Darden
• Hip-hop music but not the clothing
• “Thy Kingdom Come”
• Editorial on Webb
• HRBT lane closure
• Pilot political blog
• Why pay to have your car washed?

Former mayor and Norfolk visionary Mason Andrews diedCan anyone imagine what Norfolk would look like without the efforts of Andrews? He was instrumental in getting EVMS here, as well as nearly all of the downtown projects, among them Nauticus, Waterside and MacArthur Mall. A public celebration of his life will be held at Nauticus at 5:30 pm Wednesday.

Vote NO ad on the air

OK, so I knew about this one. Still, it is good news that the Commonwealth Coalition has the ad, called Burning, on the air. Help keep it up by contributing today! And today must have been Vote NO day for the letters to the editor, as all of the ones printed were against the amendment. (Which probably means tomorrow’s batch will be all voting yes.)

No further report on Darden

Nothing further will be released from the State Police regarding their investigation into the shooting of Norfolk Police officer Seneca Darden. While I understand the tradition of not making such reports public, I think this was a case where doing so would have put to rest (or not) the lingering sentiment that something was covered up. From the standpoint of open government, I have to disagree with the decision to keep this from the public eye.

Hip-hop music but not the clothing

The owners of clubs and bars want to play the music but don’t want the patrons to dress the part. I don’t quite get hip-hop anyway (just like I don’t get heavy metal) but lots of people like it. In any case, I don’t think a charge of racism is appropriate here. If the only patrons of hip-hop were black, then the charge would be appropriate. But I’ve sat parked at too many stoplights next to white guys with the same boom-boom thing going to know it ain’t a black thing.

I will say that having dreads or corn rows is not the same as the “hip-hop look” so the club who turned that woman away – assuming she was otherwise dressed appropriately – is out of line.

“Thy Kingdom Come”

Seems that more and more evangelical Christians are attempting to distance themselves from the “right wing zealots.” Today’s Religion page features an interview with Randall Balmer, author of Thy Kingdom Come. (Link to be proved later once ePilot works). This falls right in line with former Senator John Danforth’s book, Faith and Politics. Danforth was on Real Time last night.

Editorial on Webb

Not much to say about this blistering editorial. Webb’s wrong on this point, as Governor Tim Kaine pointed out.

HRBT lane closure

In case you missed it, a westbound lane of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel is going to be closed at 9pm Sunday, with both westbound lanes closed by 11pm. Use the Monitor-Merrimac instead.

Pilot political blog

OK, so it wasn’t in the paper but I’ve been meaning to mention that the Pilot has launched a political blog. A day late and a dollar short, in my opinion. Why reinvent the wheel? Instead of launching their own blog, why not just include a link to Virginia Political Blogs or BlogNetNews? That would give their readers a heck of a lot more information on Virginia politics than the lame, one post a day (if that) stuff that they have there. Face it, Pilot – we do a better job at this stuff than you do.

Why pay to have your car washed?

OK, so this wasn’t in the paper either, but after I got my car inspected, I decided to have it washed. I took it to a place I won’t name but one I won’t be visiting again. This place used to do a great job on my car, because although it is an automated wash, they vacuumed it out and did the windows and drying by hand. I first saw a drop off in the quality of service when they went from having one person complete the backend drying and stuff to having a team of people do it. Still, I rarely have the time to wash my own car so I figured since I was out, I’d stop there.

After they “finished” I went to get in the car and noticed that the vacuuming was pretty pathetic. And then I noticed that the wipe down was equally bad. I asked for a rag and wiped down the dashboard, the doors, and the console myself. The supervisor directed me to take it back to the vacuum area, where another supervisor re-vacuumed the car. While he was doing that, I got paper towels out of my trunk and wiped down the body and the lights – areas they didn’t bother to do. After I pulled out into the sunshine, I was struck by the streaks on my windshield. I’ll have to redo the windows just to be able to see.

I don’t expect somebody to wash my car the way I would. I do expect to get my money’s worth. Today I didn’t get that. I would have rather given my money to the kids washing cars for their school (who I saw down the street on my way home) . At least it would have gone to a good cause.

As an aside – many of the workers there were non-English-speaking, a topic also discussed on Real Time last night. I’m not sure how you instruct people on what to do with such a language barrier. If you are going to hire non-English-speaking staff, might I suggest that your supervisors be bilingual.