Archive for 'Columns'

Hobie and Monk: Coping with a 6-year-old food critic

Hobie and Monk: Coping with a 6-year-old food critic

Dear Hobie & Monk, My 6-year-old son is a really picky eater. His repertoire of acceptable foods has dwindled, and he insists on eating the same things prepared the same way. Eating out and with friends [...]

Curtains closed on Virginia 
Theatre after 29-year run

Curtains closed on Virginia 
Theatre after 29-year run

Alexandria’s largest motion picture palace, the Virginia Theatre at 601 First St., opened May 22, 1947, and feature presentation “Carnival in Costa Rica,” starring Dick Haymes, provided the opening-night draw. The new building boasted 1,200 seats, [...]

Running on faith

Running on faith

“Let us run with perseverance the race that is before us …” That line comes from a portion of St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews. The line is oft quoted to help people move through tough [...]

Love Live You: Risks versus benefits with medication

Love Live You: Risks versus benefits with medication

By Dr. Marie Steinmetz This column is the first of a short series on commonly used medications. This month we will discuss antidepressants. LATEST RESEARCH One of the latest surprises, coming out of recent research and [...]

Del Ray’s one-time love of cookie-cutter homes

Del Ray’s one-time love of cookie-cutter homes

The intense development of Del Ray as a streetcar suburb in the early years of the 20th century was aided by the mass production of building materials that could be produced elsewhere and shipped to almost [...]

Hobie and Monk: What to do when the kids aren’t all right

Hobie and Monk: What to do when the kids aren’t all right

Dear Hobie & Monk, I looked back through your columns, and I’m surprised that no one has written in about this topic considering the wealth of restaurants and children in Alexandria. When my son was young [...]

Bidding adieu to Vaucluse

Bidding adieu to Vaucluse

The West End site of Alexandria Inova Hospital, just off Seminary Road at North Howard Street, was once the location of one of the area’s most gracious plantations — Vaucluse, named for the French derivative of [...]

Adding more roads just 
feeds the congestion beast

Adding more roads just 
feeds the congestion beast

By Jonathan Krall Everybody wants to fix traffic congestion. “Our roads are congested! We should do something about it,” say otherwise-sensible adults all the time. And otherwise-sensible community leaders reply by saying they are working on [...]

A second chance

A second chance

It occurred to me recently that I am the recipient of a rare second chance. I say this because I’m reliving the childhoods of my two oldest boys, Jack and Flin — who are away at [...]

Alexandria architect leaves his mark

Alexandria architect leaves his mark

A recent addition to the Virginia Landmarks Register is the International-style Charles M. Goodman House, which sits along North Quaker Lane in Alexandria. Goodman was an influential American architect, educated at the Illinois Institute of Technology, who [...]