The Best Of Last Week's News

It has been a fascinating couple of weeks, and not just with my own, self-centered matters. The world still moves for certain, and with it come revelations and changes. In the year or so since I graduated, I've really paid more attention to the news as a whole. I'm not to the point where I think I have time to read the entire Post every day, but I'm gradually increasing my own daily recommended allowance of news items. Since a blog is the perfect sounding board for the new generation, every time I heard of something interesting over the last ten or so days, I thought "hey, I should write about that..." and then I'd have to turn back to whatever task was at hand. So, I think I dropped the ball on these items, but for history's sake, I'm going to crank up the spin machine and give you my short take on the following stories:

• Pluto's not a planet - I'm sorry, what? By Jove, what are we going to do now, redesign all of the solar system party hats and napkins that are out there? And what about My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles, the best mnemonic device this side of the sun? Now, Mom's just going to have to serve an ambiguous nine, but the schoolchildren of the U.S. will never know nine of what. Or maybe she'll just have to serve us niacin instead. Tom wrote a super article that expresses my view of the situation nicely, also.

• William Morva - The initial few hours after learning the true extent of his crimes were tense for me, since I naturally have a vested interest in the safety of several people in the Blacksburg area. But Gina and Katie stayed on lockdown in their apartment, which was slightly uncomfortably close to the section of the Huckleberry Trail where this guy was ultimately caught. Though the loss of life was tragic, thankfully it was not worse and did not develop into a hostage situation. The morbidly fascinating part of this case for me, though, was reading the testimonials of those who knew him from his frequent travels through Blacksburg. They paint the picture of a earthbound, nature-loving, hippie kind of guy - a bit of a tall-tale teller, but on the whole harmless. So what made him snap and do this? Or was he training for it all along in his mind? I'll be interested to see if any further details come out in the trial.
  

• Eddie From Ohio rocks - I discovered one of my new favorite bands on the 17th, when Gerritt and I went to see them at the Wolf Trap. They're just so darn good, plain and simple. My only regret is that I didn't pay closer attention to the buzz from people like Gerritt, Josh C., and Amy during college so I could get on board the EFO train sooner. And Josh, sorry we missed you and H at the show, but I hope you had as awesome a time as I did.
  

That'll do for now, pig. That'll do.