4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Best swan song: Al Groh recites poetry after UVA's crushing 42-13 defeat to Virginia Tech that ends his 3-9 losing season and his nine-year tenure as football coach.
Best golden parachute: UVA sends Groh on his way with $4.33 million.
Worst home invasion: Three masked men break into a house in the 3200 block of Rolling Road in Scottsville November 22, assault the wheelchair-bound resident, and take an undisclosed amount of cash.
Most tragic accident: Dr. Latham Murray, 58, drowns November 29 in a pond at Panorama farm, his childhood home in Earlysville. Murray, one of eight sons in the prominent Jim and Bunny Murray clan, was a surgeon at Martha Jefferson Hospital and served on its board of trustees and as chair of the hospital foundation board.
Most tragic spelunking accident: UVA medical student John Jones dies early November 25 in the Nutty Putty cave in Utah after being trapped upside down for 28 hours. He leaves a wife, who is expecting a child in June, and a 13-month-old daughter. Because of the danger of his position, his body is not removed, and the cave will be sealed.
Most likely to kill Virginians: Family members or intimate partners, according to a Virginia Department of Health study of 1,232 such homicides over nine years. One out of three murders is committed by a family member. Guns are used in 56 percent of the slayings, and blacks and infants are most vulnerable to such violence, according the study.
Most ironic tragedy: Ruth M. Bellio, 74, is struck and killed November 28 attempting to lay flowers at the spot at which her granddaughter was killed a week earlier in Richmond.
Latest Rhodes scholar: Tyler Spencer, UVA Class of 2008, gets a fully funded stint at Oxford. Spencer, who's from Staunton, is the 46th UVA grad to get the Rhodes Scholarship since it was created in 1902.
Most fellowship-laden profs: UVA's Deborah Lawrence and John Quale are awarded Fulbright Fellowships. Lawrence, an associate professor of environmental sciences, also this year has been named a Guggenheim Fellow and a Jefferson Science Fellow. Quale, an assistant professor of architecture in charge of the "ecoMOD" project, is a 2010 Thomas Jefferson Fellow at Cambridge University's Downing College.
Newest I-64 projects: The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to use federal stimulus funds to add a left-turn lane at the Shadwell exit for those turning onto U.S 250, and a right-turn lane to a Fifth Street exit ramp.
Newest Hatton Ferry owner: The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society plans to take the ferry pole after VDOT and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors say they're too broke to run it, Brandon Shulleeta reports in the Progress.
Latest Waynesboro job losses: Ntelos lays off 37 workers in its wireless division.
Biggest listing: Georgetown Farm for $17 million. The Edgar Bronfman-owned estate includes 636 acres and a 7,850-square-foot house.
Zaniest Honor Committee proposal: That UVA students convicted of Honor Code violations can take their cases to the student population and have it overturned with 500 signatures. The Cavalier Daily has the story.
Luckiest: Free Union resident Deborah Lee wins $100,000 in the Virginia Cash 5 Lottery November 14 drawing from a ticket she purchased at J&B's Market in Gordonsville.
Most dramatic change in a local politico: Mayor Dave Norris shears his facial hair November 22 after getting engaged November 21, according to his blog, CvilleDave.
Most confusing holiday sobriety program: MADD and State Farm Insurance launch the "Tie One On for Safety" campaign that wants drivers to sport ribbons rather than have a few pops.
#