Good morning, RVA! It's 62 °F, and you can expect rainy and cool weather for the rest of the day. Deal with it!
Water cooler
The New York Times has a What We Know and Don't Know about the Manchester bombing.
Style Weekly's Jackie Kruszewski has the update on Richmond Public Schools' search for a new superintendent. Informational meetings continue this week where you, the citizenry, can tell RPS what they should look for in a new superintendent.
Richmond Magazine has tasked their army of food writers with creating an entire Cheap Eats section. Here's a list of breakfasts under $5 which includes a giant plate of food from City Diner—but don't sleep on that bagel sandwich from Black Hand Coffee Co., either. Also worth mentioning is this lovely piece by Stephanie Ganz about diner coffee.
TEDxRVA announced the speaker list for their June 23rd event. I've snarked before about how TED-like things are often just an endless parade of White dudes talking about how they invented making sandwiches, but go ahead and check out this seriously diverse and interesting list of speakers. Tressie McMillian Cottom and Art Burton! Melody Barnes, former Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Richmond native, will be the special guest! I'll be out of town, but maybe you should go!
Remember yesterday's story about the total not-bomb at the Whole Foods? The RTD has no fewer than four stories about it! There's the original Ned Oliver piece, an update by Sean Gorman, an anonymous editorial from the editorial board, and even a Michael Paul Williams piece about the situation.
UPDATE: The people have spoken and have named the ospreys.
Episode 37 of the Sam and Ross Like Things podcast dropped the other day. In this episode we talk about reading to our kids, home automation, and a ton of wonderful stuff other people like, too. Subscribe if you haven't already!
How did the color of Mr. Rogers's cardigan change over the course of 30 years? This graph of that very thing raises more questions than it answers.
Quick reminder: I'm in Seattle for the next couple of days, so this is most likely the last time we'll speak until next week. Shoot me an email if something happens I should know about!
Sports!
- Squirrels fell to Binghamton, 4-5. Tonight's game against the Rumble Ponies begins at 6:35 PM—tickets are, of course, available online.
- Nats host Seattle tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's patron longread!
A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite
From Patron Rachel comes this incredibly interesting story about a plot to blow up a casino.
First, the two boxes were lined with aluminum foil sandwiched between two layers of neoprene; if anyone attempted to drill through the outside of the box, the drill bit would make an electrical contact between the steel box and the foil, completing a circuit and detonating the device. Second, Big John had used spring-loaded contacts to booby-trap the screws holding the tops of the boxes in place. Unscrew any of them and the contacts would close, completing a circuit. Third, the lids of both boxes were rigged with pressure switches like those used in car doors to operate dome lights. If either lid was removed, the switches would open, completing a circuit. Fourth, inside the top box Big John rigged a float from a toilet cistern. If the box was flooded with water or foam, the float would rise, completing a circuit. Fifth, beside the float was a tilt mechanism built from a length of PVC pipe lined with more aluminum foil; inside hung a metal pendulum held under tension from below with a rubber band. Big John took a circuit tester and demonstrated to Johnny: Once this was armed, if the bomb was moved in any way, the end of the pendulum would make contact with the foil, completing a circuit. Sixth was a layer of foil running around the seam connecting the two boxes; if a metal object was inserted between the top and bottom boxes to lever them apart, this would complete a circuit.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon. Oh also! Just $546 per month in patron support needed before I start my fortnightlyish newsy interview podcast. Making progress, y'all!
This morning's longread
What is impeachment for?
The Weekly Sift is excellent, and a big inspiration for what I do with Good Morning, RVA. You should read this, and then sign up!
Now, as impeachment talk starts to swirl around Donald Trump, but we don't yet know the full extent of what he did, I think it's important to examine myself for hypocrisy, and do what I can to guard against a similar partisanship. So this week I set myself a challenge: Can I spell out a vision of impeachment that I'm both willing to apply to Trump and prepared to live by the next time there are accusations against a Democratic president?