Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and, whoa, that was a weird weather afternoon, was it not?? I spent about an hour in my basement waiting out tornado warnings but didn't end up with much weather at all in my part of town—for which I'm thankful! For future severe weather situations, here's a helpful pneumonic for remembering the difference between a Watch and a Warning: Warning has more letters so its more scarier. See? So easy! Anyway, today you can expect less drama, temperatures around 60 °F, and the start of a pretty springlike weekend. Enjoy!
Water cooler
Katelyn Jetelina, aka Your Local Epidemiologist, has a really nice Fourth Dose Q&A. The whole thing's worth reading, but I wanted to highlight two parts. First, should you try to time your fourth dose/second booster to line up with some theoretical, future coronawave? Here's Jetelina: "I would caution against trying to time a booster right before a wave...We know that this virus continues to mutate and a variant of concern could pop up. We also know that boosters take time to work to their full potential. Finding a timing sweet spot of boosting before a wave is possible, but potentially risky with not much added benefit." Second, if you are or have a J&Jer in your life, scroll down to a new graph of vaccine effectiveness for various combinations of J&J mix-and-matches. One J&J dose plus one mRNA dose is 79% effective at keeping folks out of the emergency room and 78% effective at preventing hospitalization—that's compared to 83% and 90% for three mRNA doses, respectively. Seems pretty good!
Today at 1:00 PM City Council will host their fifth budget work session—they're just moving right along, aren't they? Council will hear from Kevin Vonck, the director of Planning and Development Review, and handful of folks who handle the City's vehicle fleet (with a focus on potential "green fleet options"). I know I always say to tune in to these sorts of things, and of course I find them all to be fascinating and worth the time, but, if you enjoy this email in any way whatsoever, you should definitely make the time to listen to the head of Planning talk through his department's needs and priorities. That's basically like a GMRVA bonus episode!
Richard Hayes at RVAHub reports that the Greek Festival won't happen this year due to "an abundance of caution, supply chain limitations, and other concerns." I have no love of standing on sweltering asphalt surrounded by hundreds of people while trying to juggle plates of baked goods and glasses of wine, but, that said, a lunch date at the Greek Festival is such a really wonderful Richmond thing. They do plan on hosting a Mini-Greek Festival in September with a drive-thru and indoor dining. Don't get too disappointed, though, because if you have a deep, unmet hunger for in-person baklava, the Lebanese Food Festival—also extremely legit—is still set for the weekend of May 13th.
Yesterday, Maymont announced that Peggy Singlemann, Director of Park Operations and Horticulture, will retire this coming June. If, like me, you've come to really enjoy Singlemann's gardening column over at VPM, worry not! From the release: "In the future, Peggy plans to continue to share her extensive knowledge of gardening and landscape management as host of Virginia Home Grown, produced by Virginia Public Media, as well as through writing and speaking engagements, and looks forward to traveling and spending more time with her family."
Reminder! Today is April 1st, which means some of the things you read on the internet may be terrible lies! I think, generally, the internet has moved past every tech company and brand feeling compelled to put a ton of time and effort into an April Fools joke that then gets picked up by unsuspecting humans (and, sometimes, reporters). I'm glad to be mostly done with that phase of online culture. Still, though: Remember to stay vigilant.
This morning's longread
The Ugly History of Beautiful Things- Mirrors
Does this genre of writing have a name? Where you pick something mundane—like mirrors—and do a cultural deep dive into the history of that thing? I love it and will read anything like it set in front of me. Tell me everything there is to know about anything!
Some scientists have theorized that our attraction to reflections has an evolutionary purpose. Supposedly, we like gemstones that sparkle and objects that reflect because they remind us of life-giving water. This is just one theory, but I find it interesting. It explains, in part, the seemingly global allure of glitter, polished metals, and atoms arranged in a crystalline structure. Even infants are more likely to shower attention on shiny plates (which they show by picking them up and licking them) than on dull ones, according to a 2003 study from UC Davis. Even cultures that never had to compete with their neighbors for resources hoarded gold and gems, although they had no need to accumulate symbols of wealth or worry about trading. For these people, gold should have been just another rock. But it wasn’t, because we like shiny things.
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