From last week’s New York Times: “Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat “office landscapes”) and that messy closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than their tidier counterparts. It’s a movement that confirms what you have known, deep down, all along: really neat people are not avatars of the good life; they are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too much time on their hands.”

Our colleague Adam Ebbin, whose desk makes mine look like the cover of Real Simple Magazine, will never let us forget this.

Virginians are better (and brighter) than you may have been led to believe.

James Martin, of The Virginia Progressive, is entirely too modest to reveal this himself.

So Bob and I want to kvell on his behalf.

James made the Dean’s List. Way to go.

The opening day of a General Assembly session is a scene of barely controlled chaos. Members rush around getting signatures of copatrons on their bills before the 10 a.m. filing deadline. Staff assistants dig through boxes and struggle to get offices set up in working order. New pages and interns try to figure out why the elevators in the General Assembly Building don’t all go to the same floors.

This year will be different, it seems. We’ve decided to take a break from the hustle and bustle of Richmond.

We’re going to Jamestown. On a bus.

Last week the Joint Rules Committee decided to help launch the 400th anniversary celebration of the landing at Jamestown by visiting the site on opening day. So at noon on January 10 we’ll hold our House and Senate sessions in Richmond. Then all 140 of us will pile onto buses and journey 50 miles down the road to Jamestown. There, Governor Kaine will deliver his State of the Commonwealth Address. Vice President Cheney has been invited along to lend some sparkle to the occasion. When we’re done with the festivities, we’ll climb back on the buses and come home.

The last time a lot of us went on a field trip like this was during high school, and we’ve forgotten what you do to make the time pass. So Kris and I have come up with our list of

THE TOP 10 THINGS TO DO ON THE WAY TO JAMESTOWN

10.  Every time you spot a roadside sign with a superfluous “E” (“Jamestowne,” “Shoppe,” etc.), pull over, take a Magic Marker, and E-rase it.

9.  Tell the freshmen that under General Assembly Road Trip Rules, they ride in the luggage compartment.

8.  Speaker leads us in “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

7.  Karaoke contest with the entries to the Virginia State Song competition.

6.  Tie Englin’s shoelaces together and steal his lunch money.

5.  Check out the congestion on I-64, and wonder aloud why nobody’s done anything about it.

4.  When Jack Reid asks to hang his vest on the coathook next to your seat, tell him it’s taken.

3.  If it’s a fancy bus with a restroom in the back, give somebody a swirlie.

2.  Agree with the bus driver that Bobby Orrock’s HB 70 was the best darned bill of the 2006 Session — otherwise, you walk home.

1.  If you see Jack Reid and Dick Cheney having words in the aisle — DUCK!

 

 

Go Ehrlichs!

Every few months I drive from Arlington down to Charlottesville for meetings of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at their headquarters next to the Boar’s Head Inn. I always allow myself enough time to deal with the random delays that crop up when you’re trying to put Northern Virginia in your rear view mirror, and I’ve never been late for a meeting. Until last week. I escaped from Area Code 703 without incident; the hangup was in AC 434. Things may be changing in Charlottesville, and not for the better.

It took me nearly 1/2 hour to go the final mile on 29 South and get onto 250 West. As is so often the case in NOVA, there was no visible source for the backup: no overturned SUV in the median, no burning tourist bus at the side of the road. I’d like to chalk the delay up to holiday shopping or some event at The University, but the next morning a woman approaching from the west was 1/2 hour late due to a similar experience. Some incident on I-64 sent traffic cascading over onto local roads, causing gridlock that would do Tysons Corner proud.

There are those who see Charlottesville as a kind of Little City In The Bubble, magically sealed off from the indignities of urban life such as highway noise walls, Fuddruckers, — and congestion. Those days of innocence may be coming to an end. Sorry, Charlottesville, but welcome to America, and the real world of Virginia. 

 

 

But when you file it.

Monday was the deadline for getting legislation drafted. From now until the Session begins, members will be filing their legislation with the Clerk’s office. Sometimes, it’s worth a little thought on when it’s most advantageous to drop the bill.

Filing a bill early certainly has some advantages. For one thing, the reporters who are in Richmond anyway need to write about something. On a slow news day, they may decide that writing about your bill is better than covering final meeting of the Study Commission on the State Aardvark.

If your bill is very controversial and destined for a swift subcommittee demise, the early publicity may be all you can hope for.

But there are disadvantages to filing early. It gives your opponents a chance to line up their opposition. And sometimes other members (certainly no one we know) may steal your idea and file the same bill with their name on it.

Me? I mostly file late, largely for convenience. Over the years, I have learned to file my bills in chunks. One year, all my bills had consecutive numbers, and I never COULD keep it straight if the school construction bill was 636 or 637. So now I drop some on Monday, more on Tuesday, still others on Wednesday morning.

According to Richmond architecture critic Eddie Slipek, you could tell from the backdrops.

Yesterday, the WaPo reported that Fairfax County would henceforth prohibit volunteers from serving home-cooked foods to homeless people. My phone started ringing almost as soon as the newspaper hit the doorsteps.

We are a community that has always reached out to help homeless people. Nearly 30 years ago, my friend and mentor Eleanor Kennedy went to the Board of Supervisors with the startling news that there were homeless people in Fairfax County.

No one believed her. This, after all, was affluent Fairfax. But Eleanor persisted. She persuaded churches to open their doors to homeless people during the winter months. She was not surprised (although others were) when people showed up. Eventually, she persuaded the County to open one small shelter in southeastern Fairfax County.

Today, we know that at least 2,000 people–many of them children–are homeless each day in Fairfax County. Well-run, professional shelters provide many of these individuals services well beyond “three hots and a cot.” From education to drug treatment to mental health counseling, Fairfax shelters have helped many people end the cycle of homelessness and hopelessness.

But there are still some people who live on the streets. And the churches continue to be involved in serving them. This is where the issue arose. Many of the churches have kitchens that have not been officially “blessed” by the County Health Department. They rely on volunteers to provide nutritious food for people who are spending the night.

That’s what the County has stopped. It’s certainly a policy that is based on good intentions–no one wants anyone to get a food-borne illness. But many of the people who stay in temporary shelters would otherwise be eating food from the trash can or the dumpster.

Several years ago, the General Assembly passed legislation that exempted food sold at bake sales from the same kind of heavy-handed regulation. I will be introducing legislation to do the same for home-cooked food that is served at shelters.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should report that I am a former President of New Hope Housing, the successor organization to that first homeless shelter started by Eleanor Kennedy.