531. When James Oglethorpe founded Georgia (1733), was he motivated entirely by philanthropy and a desire to provide debtors with a "second chance", or was there a business rationale for structuring the settlement as a debtors' colony?
532. We learned that the population of Savannah and the surrounding area is approximately 300,000. Is this bigger or smaller than Richmond?
533. I loved Forsyth Park, and it made me think about how Charlottesville could re-design McIntire Park to make it user-friendly. Will the golf course always remain there, or will the City move towards a park that is more inviting to more people?
----------
The Super Tuesday primaries occurred while we were traveling.
Rick Santorum won Tennessee (a surprise from my perspective), but Romney squeaked by in Ohio. The narrative of the campaign continues to be Romney's inability to capture the imagination of more than 30-40% of Republicans.
I think the media is under-reporting the effect of Romney's Mormonism on his campaign. His views/positions are just not that different from Santorum's or Gingrich's. I think his religion is a significant reason that people aren't coming around to him, but the media seems reluctant to examine the story -- perhaps a form of political correctness in not wanting to raise the possibility of religious intolerance among voters?
---------
While we drove home yesterday, we listened to UVa lose to North Carolina State (67-64) in the ACC Tournament.
Mike Scott had a nice run of baskets during the middle part of the second half (we closed the gap from 9 points to 2), but we couldn't consistently stop State's inside game and missed a couple of chances to tie the game down the stretch.
Poor, poor Virginia - we have now missed the ACC Tourney semis for 17 straight years! This is an amazing accomplishment in futility. Even teams like Wake, State (and even Miami!) have periodically made strong runs in the Tourney. We just cannot seem to do it.
We are (allegedly) a lock to make the NCAA Tournament, but I think after yesterday we are still on the bubble. I hope that we'll make it and win a game or two, in order to make the season a true success.
-----------
And the big sports new this morning is that the Redskins are trading three first round and one second round pick to the Rams in order to get this year's #2 pick, presumably to draft Robert Griffin III. Wow. This is a big gamble. Everything I hear about Griffin sounds great, but that is a lot of draft picks to spend on a single player.
Robert Griffin III
