THE NUMBER of applicants to the University plummeted this year because people talk. They talk to their sisters, brothers, cousins and friends.
IMAGINE a group of 17 adults, most of whom are at least as old as our parents, and many of whom live great distances from Charlottesville.
THE SKY outside may be a drab shade of gray, but the politics of the day quickly have become a matter of black and white.
SIXTEEN percent doesn't sound like much. But a 16-percent drop in undergraduate applications is a lot.
FRIENDLY competition impacts almost all aspects of University life. From the classroom to the Greek community, fine arts organizations and everywhere in between, students strive to achieve excellence and a reputation of superiority.
WHEN STEVEN Spielberg's nephew told Paul VI High School in Northern Virginia he was interested in matriculating, they were delighted.
THE BOUNDARY between church and state has always been subjected to constant probing and stretching.
THEY INSERTED a needle in Raymond Landry's arm. Lethal injection. Suddenly, the needle escaped Landry's arm, spewing toxic chemicals in the direction of the observers.
AS OMBUDSMAN, I have been lucky to receive a steady flow of e-mails and letters from readers, informing me of both general opinions and particular areas of concern.
OH WHAT a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to hate. Bob Jones University in South Carolina specializes in hatred.
IT HIT me on the Beltway. In one brief moment, the naked greed of the NFL confronted me full-force.
UNIVERSITY administrators always are quick to blame Richmond for falling rankings and rising costs.
PART OF the fun of first year was waiting up each weekend for my drunk hallmates, and watching them fall and fumble around before going to bed.
I KNOW how cold you are. I've seen you out there with your galoshes and gloves, scarves and stiff red faces.
CONCORD, N.H.-Concord, New Hampshire is a funky place, existing simultaneously as a small, rural town - like the ones shown in picture books of New England - and as an ever-changing, newly affluent pop culture city of the future.
CONCORD, N.H.-The primary structure, with so much weight on New Hampshire, is an odd system for electing presidential candidates for a nation of this size.
THE LAST shreds have been torn away. Some people had clung to minute slivers of hope that the rumors and evidence of Thomas Jefferson's affair with a slave were unfounded or mistaken.
JUST LIKE the Energizer Bunny, clever advertisements keep on going and going and going. Everyone can connect the lyrics "Da Da Da" with a shiny new Volkswagen.
WHAT'S in a name? Power and politics, that's what! One evening last week my attention was drawn to a radio news story about place-names in Maine.
THERE'S almost no way to avoid it. A presence pervades the dial, lingering over every channel like the odor of dirty gym socks.
