The new Tech Trends column by Nick Lawler is a welcome addition as a regular Business feature. The critical role technological innovation, and the tech world generally, plays in the current business world fairly dictates that every serious newspaper cover technology developments. This introductory column offered quick synopses on several tech topics, with nice, tight writing.
Sam Bresnahan's story on the "running guy" Phil Weber ("Run for your life," Feb. 16) was an interesting piece on a very unusual fellow. More importantly, it was a nice addition to the Life page, with a focus on a member of the larger local community, rather than looking solely within the confines of Grounds. It is all too easy to become provincial as a student at the University, with minimal interaction with people from the surrounding communities who don't work in, at or around the University proper.
Many of these local folks (including myself and Phil Weber) are themselves University alumni, who may be able to offer an interesting and more long-term perspective on University life (this is not true for me, as I am a dullard, but it may well be true of Mr. Weber). Others, while not University alumni, can offer a more deeply-rooted perspective steeped in local tradition, culture and society. While the University is a substantial component of life in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, the Piedmont region of the state is rich in history, blessed with beautiful natural areas and peopled with many accomplished and interesting individuals. The Life page staff could plumb the environs outside the University for a substantial line of stories that would help expand the horizons of many readers.
The Original Stuff
Certain holidays bring out the worst in newspaper columnists. Valentine's Day, however, may lead the field for inspiring tedious work. The columns on the commercialization of holidays, on why true love is everyday and not just one day and on how it feels to be alone on Valentine's Day, among other oft-repeated topics, form the lame core of Valentine's Day commentary in papers throughout the United States.
Kelly Sarabyn's column ("There's hope for hopeless romantics," Feb. 14), however, was a refreshing surprise. Though the headline gave me pause, the column itself was an open, gutsy delight. Ms. Sarabyn's argument for true love is a personal, heartfelt piece of writing - an excellent antidote to the empty and angry cynicism that fills so much of the aforementioned dreaded holiday columns.
Ms. Sarabyn's column may fly in the face of the sociobiologists, anthropologists, psychologists and others who study the human experience, but she never claims to be an expert, only a hopeful idealist. In the process of revealing her thoughts on the topic, she reveals a lot about herself, and not in the sensationalist way of that troupe of professional self-disclosers or journalists who plumb their personal failings and tragedies for column inches. Ms. Sarabyn's work came closer to the form of the personal essay - moving from the individual to the universal, and taking the readers into a limited tour of her inner world - than you typically get in a newspaper column.
A (Very) Minor Complaint
I would hate to disappoint those who believe I live to be a cranky, curmudgeonly critic of all I survey, so here's my picky complaint of the week. The headline on an article on the Feb. 15 Health & Science page read "Medical students hold service to tribute cadavers." After consulting Webster's Universal and the Oxford English Dictionary, I suppose a case can be made for the developing use of this word that was formerly known as a noun: tribute. One must ask, however, why hasten this process? Perhaps "Medical students hold tributary service for cadavers", or "Medical students hold service to honor cadavers", or even "Medical students give tribute to cadavers' service" could have sufficed. Anything else would have done the trick.
Some Clarification
There seems to be some confusion as to what it is I do, exactly. While I love to receive e-mail from readers, I am not the ombudsman for the University, but just for The Cavalier Daily. Problems with actions of the paper, bias in coverage, something on the pages that gives offense - I'm your guy. Problems with the University administration, traffic, the stadium, etc. means you are on your own.
Also, I cannot help you with the following: getting tickets to sporting events, the administration of the bookstore, any one of a number of very strange conspiracy theories, and concerns about secret actions by the federal government that infringe on the rights of citizens. If you recognize yourself on this short list of "no can do's," please feel free to stop writing. Please.
On the other hand, I would like to hear from the rest of you. If you get a chance in the next few days, drop me an e-mail. Tell me about your favorite parts of the paper, and the parts that you like least. Be specific and be detailed, if you can. Range far afield in the scope of your concerns - the advertisements, the layout, the coverage, the writers and myself are all fair game.
As ombudsman, your comments help to keep me fresh, and to see the paper from a different perspective. While I might share the substance of your comments with the Managing Board and others on the paper's staff, it is generally my policy not to disclose the identity of the commentator. So feel free to vent, or to joyously praise, and I'll listen.
(Brent Garland can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.)
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