Pictures courtesy of Catch Light Studio

It was late on an unusually warm June afternoon, and Richardson and I sat alone, talking on the patio of the Common Market Southend. The 26-year-old had spent a few years in a much hotter place, and he had made the drive up from his Lake Wylie home to tell me about it. In Iraq, scalding afternoons topped 120 degrees, and some of the locals weren’t OK with him being there. They proved how they felt by trying to kill him with little pieces of exploding hot metal shot in his direction. In the Marine Corps, he didn’t make a living dodging automatic weapons fire, though; he was paid to seek it out. His job description included finding the enemy and enticing him to shoot at him. And then shooting back at them even harder. Richardson’s eyes are ice blue and serious, and he speaks with a Long Island, N.Y., accent softened by a decade living in the South.

He’s been on the receiving end of no less than 15 IED (improvised explosive device, or roadside bomb) attacks in Iraq. As he explained the “pucker effect” – how certain anatomy puckers in anticipation of trouble when driving through dangerous intersections, serving as an accurate sort of sixth sense, the after-work beer crowd streamed in and quickly filled the surrounding tables. Boisterous laughter began to drown out the rumbles of thunder growing in the distance.

“You always knew something bad was about to happen when all the Iraqi civilians would suddenly vanish from normally crowded areas,” Richardson said.
“The force of an IED explosion is massive,” he continued. “My first one happened in Fallujah. A pretty good-sized IED exploded underneath our truck as we rolled over. When we stopped, everyone checked in on the radio, and there were no casualties. The vehicle was mangled, and there were a couple of concussions, but everyone was fine.

“Then the corpsman (medic) started yelling that he couldn’t feel his feet.”

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Richardson’s 5-foot-9-inch frame is burly, and he could be the all-American good guy in a cable TV action show. He projects an intensity that must have served him well in the Marines. So far he had delivered each of his answers in a methodical, factual manner that would make the Corps proud.

“His feet were fine though,” he continued. “The explosion had blown a piece of shrapnel up through the floor right up between his boots, and they were just numbed from the force of the blast and the vacuum created by the shrapnel. He was back on patrol the next day.”

Richardson did have the benefit of riding in the armored Humvees that were a favorite topic of the media a few years ago. It was a huge improvement over the unarmored “thin skinned” trucks that were easily destroyed early in the war. But getting blown up by an IED is still not ideal, and the armor makes it only about as safe as a face shield protecting a hockey player from bodily harm. He continued talking as dark clouds rolled in overheard.

“Another time we got hit by a pretty small IED. I mean it was so small that our truck wasn’t even really damaged that much. A piece of shrapnel slipped in between a tiny gap in the armor plating, though, and came in through the back seat and hit one of our guys.

“He was talking the whole time, and they got him back to medical pretty fast.” He paused for a minute, looking down, rolling his thumb over the graphics on the can of Monster.
They just couldn’t stop the bleeding.”

“He was fine. I mean, he was talking the whole time. They just couldn’t stop the bleeding.” He nodded his head, looking up, as he repeated this to both of us.

“They told us the next day that he didn’t make it.”

The joke told two tables over was a hit and the group erupted in raucous laughter. A single girl at the next table lit another cigarette, and the first few drops of the summer thunderstorm began to fall.

Richardson’s initial job in Iraq involved keeping one of the most bomb-riddled stretches of highway in one of the meanest places in the world – Fallujah – clear of danger for convoys. The road was a critical supply line for coalition forces.

“We were basically a heavily armed highway patrol,” he continued. “Insurgents would come out almost every night and plant new IEDs, and we’d deal with them the next day. This wasn’t official policy, but it was pretty much understood that if anyone was going to get blown up by an IED, it was to be our patrol and not one of the convoy vehicles.”
When I asked him how he felt about that, he shrugged. “All part of the job I guess.”

A common ambush tactic of Iraqi insurgents is to plant an obvious IED, knowing that an American patrol will stop when they spot it. Insurgents then rake the vehicles with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and the occasional Chinese- or Russian-made heavy machine gun. This was how Richardson’s first firefight began.

“What was that like?” I asked, realizing I had moved toward the edge of my seat. “Did you take it personally when you realized for the first time that someone you’d never met was trying to kill you?”

“Yeah, it got my attention when I could hear incoming rounds hit the truck, but you don’t really think about the danger when you’re in the midst of the fight,” Richardson said. “They weren’t coming that close to me anyway.” He laughed. “For the most part the Iraqis can’t shoot for shit.”  Richardson went on to describe how they identified two MAM’s (military aged males) shooting at them from an irrigation ditch about 200 meters away. Even despite his rigid, chronological delivery of the facts of the story, and frequent use of military terms, I could still see the angry orange muzzle flashes and tracers slicing up a postcard-pretty desert sunset. Palm tree silhouettes swaying in a warm desert breeze.

“We killed one and the other guy took off. We searched a nearby house but didn’t find anything. I remember right after all that happened a really big sandstorm rolled through.

“It was ominous.”

He glanced over at the group of hipsters comparing tattoos at the next table, and back to me.

“I was never really scared during a firefight. Instinct and training take over and you know you have to kill them before they kill you,” he confided. “It’s afterwards that you really think about it. Kind of like, ‘Did I actually really do that?’

There are many earth-friendly ways to make the beast with two backs, and we’re not even suggesting harnessing the power of your lovemaking to generate electricity for your toaster, but just some simple ways to save money, power and space in the landfill.

According to the Durex Global sex survey, 43 percent of us use sex toys – manual, automatic and everything in between. Some of these toys can contain chemicals called phthalates, which are used to soften hard plastic. And when these toys are used as they’re supposed to, they can release toxins and potentially cause long-term health issues. Because of these concerns, folks on the green side of the bedroom have been moving toward toys made from glass, metal, silicone and hard plastics. It ain’t easy being green, and comfort might be a necessary sacrifice if you want to go that extra mile for Mother Earth.

But if your toy buzzes and swirls with the aid of a AA Energizer bunny, then rechargeable vibrators are the way to go. Some suggestions include the Aphrodite Wand and Acuvibe Softtouch massager, which can be found on Amazon, along with hundreds of reviews of these products. And then there is funfactory.de, based in Germany, which is seemingly the online Wal-Mart of sex toys. Award-winning products are listed on its website, and there is an entire rechargeable section, plus all the products are German made so they’ll hopefully last longer than that North Korean assembled Jack Rabbit collecting dust in your bedside nightstand.
When your lovemaking involves two people but is made just for the fun of it, a condom might be the only thing that separates you and a future filled with dirty diapers and burp cloths. So make sure your love sheath works as advertised. Latex is the material of choice for most and is naturally derived from rubber trees. If you’re of the vegan persuasion, however, a normal condom might not do the trick, as there is a milk enzyme that’s added to the latex. Instead, check out Glyde condoms, the only vegan condom available.

Next stop on the green train are those sheets that you’re rolling around in with your spousal equivalent. The cutting-edge fiber these days is bamboo. It is nothing like the razor sharp reeds taking over your backyard, but instead is silky soft with natural antimicrobial qualities and moisture-wicking properties for when things get sweaty between the sheets. The experts say it’s one of the softest fibers in the world, softer than cotton with a drape like silk. Plus, it’s more mainstream than you might think; you can pick up a set from Bed Bath and Beyond these days. Bamboo isn’t just for the bed sheets either; it is making its way into your pants, literally. Bamboo skivvies and clothes are becoming popular, as well.

So whether you’re having a one-person party or entertaining that lovely lady in your love shack, there are many ways to make sure Mother Earth is protected while you get your rocks off.

~ Todd Trimakas

We get hundreds of press releases every day, with the vast majority lasting just long enough for a finger to hit the “Delete” key. But this release caught my attention. It was from someone named Khobi Brooklyn and announced that a “Pure Electric Super Car” was coming to Charlotte. When I saw it I thought it better be the Tesla or someone’s press release was going to get an extra forcefully executed “Delete.” It was, and Brooklyn offered a test drive of the only all-electric (read: no gas at all) high-performance sports car on the market, the Tesla Roadster. The Tesla team was going to be in Charlotte in the next couple of days and wanted to know whether I’d be interested in driving it. Hell yeah.

The typical manufacturer that comes through town offering rides in their cars carries with them a large production of multiple sales reps, factory reps and press agents. Rolls Royce flew through town and brought along eight cars, set up shop in front of the Bobcats stadium, and had an NFL football team-sized entourage. With Tesla I thought it would be similar, so through e-mail I asked multiple times where they were going to camp out, and where we could meet up. They were a bit hesitant about disclosing their location and talked about their schedule being in flux, so we could decide on a location when we spoke over the phone the following week. OK?

Five days later I get an e-mail from Dan and his traveling partner, Shaun, about scheduling a time to meet to drive the car. The day after that I give Shaun a call and it sounds like Shaun is standing in the street somewhere in uptown and I ask whether I can schedule a time to drive the car. “Well”, he says, “I think the weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow, and we’re headed up to Lexington over the weekend anyway, so how about now?” Without hanging up, I grab my stuff, head out the door of the office, and get the location of where they have the car displayed to the public. He mentions a cross street near the Carillon Building and explains they are parked on the street. On the street? Entourage, fireworks, press agents? Nope.
Walking past the Carillon, I see a guy sitting near the park texting. And lo and behold, parked on the street, along with everything else, surrounded by nothing but the curb, is a $157,000 all-electric Tesla Roadster. Wow.

I capture a couple pics of the car and ask to see the “engine.” The Tesla is a mid-engine roadster and all you can see when popping the back hood is the top of its lithium ion (read: laptop) batteries. And of course a week’s worth of dirty clothes for Dan and Shaun. They are literally just driving the car around the East Coast, stopping in cities to talk with potential customers and the occasionally lucky media rep. Just a week’s worth of T-shirts, underwear and shampoo. It’s more like a college road trip than a press junket, except instead of Mom’s sedan, they are driving a car that does 0-60 in under four seconds without a single drop of gasoline.

I sign something I didn’t read, absolving Tesla of all responsibility for my driving, and Dan hands me the keys. Luckily I whitewater kayak and am used to folding my 6-foot-1 frame into tight spaces because the driver’s side seat is similar in size to the cockpit of my whitewater boat. Tiny.

What follows is hard to describe: The engine cranks but there is no sound, no gasoline fumes, and no power steering. The wheel is tiny in my hands, and is similar in size to the go-karts at Victory Lane. I pull out into traffic and jerk into my lane. “Instant on” is the term I would use. The accelerator feels like it’s tied directly to the rear wheels, and there is no lag whatsoever.

At the on-ramp to Independence, we are stuck behind a carbon fuel-based pickup truck from the ‘80s. But after the on-ramp we quickly join the flow of traffic. And I floor it. There is no tachometer, but instead a dial that displays wattage use. I redline that, and with the engine quietly whining in the background we are thrown back in our seats. I think Dan is trying to tell me something but I’m laughing too hard to hear him. Amazing.

~ Todd Trimakas

We are all responsible for a couple things that have been in the news lately. First, the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Every single one of the 42 gallons in each of the roughly 5,000 barrels leaking daily is our fault. And if that wasn’t enough, each of the 29 miners who died in early April in the coal mines of West Virginia should weigh heavily on our shoulders. Both of these incidents are a direct result of our collective decisions.

Starting with the oil spill, and I looked up the numbers to be sure, as of 2009 there were 1.7 million barrels of oil pumped from the Gulf every day. And this oil spill that’s more than likely still going to be growing long after this magazine is delivered is only leaking three-tenths of 1 percent of the daily oil production in the Gulf. In other words, even under these abominable conditions the oil companies in the Gulf are still operating at a 99.7% rate of effectiveness. Statistically insignificant, in most cases it probably wouldn’t even be worth mentioning. Heck, a combination of progesterone and estrogen is only 99.7% effective in stopping unwanted pregnancies but we still call it birth control. So it is surprising that most of the public is focusing on BP and figuring out what they did wrong, and how they should be punished. While I feel just the opposite should be happening, that in light of this oil spill we should be praising the oil industry for such a long history of amazing efficiency and safety. How can we expect any person or organization to be perfect, and 100 percent safe? That seems to me to be completely unrealistic.

I feel like we should instead turn the mirror on ourselves and take responsibility for our complete and utter dependence on oil. Sure we pump gas into our cars and trucks at the average of 20-30 gallons a week, but we also fertilize our yards, pave our streets, clothe ourselves, protect our food, carpet our houses, paint our bedrooms, brush our teeth, shampoo our hair, repel bugs, cover our cuts and bruises, color our lips, protect our heads and the list could go on and on. We cannot wake up in the morning without touching, breathing, drinking and eating oil each and every day. If our dependence on oil wasn’t so overwhelming and complete, the BPs of the world would not be in the Gulf, and we would not be watching with horror as large tar balls wash ashore in the marshes of Louisiana.

And then there is coal, which produces 54 percent of all the electricity in the United States. The 29 miners who died were two miles underground not because of a particularly dangerous hobby, or because of an interest in caving, but because they were extracting coal from the earth. They were in pursuit of coal because we demand our Miller light to be chilled to 40 degrees prior to enjoying, and because we want to watch the latest installment of “Sex in the City” in high definition realism with 5.1 Dolby surround sound in a fully air conditioned theater, and we expect nothing less.

With all this said, I’m not going to be walking home or sweating in my office and this editorial was not produced on an old manual Smith Corona typewriter. I am as much to blame as everyone else; I just think we should be willing to shoulder our responsibility for these events that are destroying the environment.

~ Todd Trimakas

Are our graduates staying in Charlotte, or are they moving away once they’ve earned degrees?
JWU alumni data suggests that they are finding gainful employment and many of them are staying in the area. We also have evidence that some have come back after testing the waters elsewhere. Joshua Cain ’06, executive pastry chef, Ritz Carlton in uptown Charlotte, relocated to Charlotte after working as a pastry chef in Georgia. Shane Pearson owns Savor on Morehead Street. Our grads are showing entrepreneurship. Senior Stephanie Goldstein recently opened Tasty Yo, a yogurt shop in NoDa. Our students and graduates are working in area hotels, CRVA and Levine Museum of the New South, just to name a few. JWU has strong relationships with Harpers restaurants, Bissell Companies, Marriott, Hilton and Compass Group.  Graduate relocation decisions are influenced by opportunities available in their fields. Charlotte continues to offer reasonable opportunities for our students.

Are we providing enough opportunities for recent graduates? What can we do to improve?
The hospitality industry has been affected by the economy with some restaurant closures, low hotel occupancy, but no major chains went under. There is optimism in the air in part due to the upcoming Spring Expo/on-campus recruiting. Thirty-seven employers are coming to campus for the Spring Expo to hire students for internships/jobs, including: Darden Restaurants, Biltmore Company and Kiawah Island Golf Resort. As the financial sector returns to health, we should see more opportunities for our College of Business students. We have an aggressive plan for getting students on internships in their senior year for 2010-2011. The opening of Ritz Carlton, Springhill by Marriott in Ballantyne, Aria, Taste, Siemens, Electrolux…all created/are creating new opportunities for our students and graduates. The opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and new ownership of the Bobcats are indicators of stability and hold promise for the future.

Who are our biggest competitors for undergraduate and graduate applicants, and how do we compare?
There is intense regional competition – fabulous schools in Charlotte and the region, good institutions that contribute to the supply of talent. Availability of talent attracts start-ups and entices others to relocate to the region. JWU has added value to our accounting program by aligning with the Institute of Management Accountants. The program prepares students to sit for the certification exam. The certification prepares students for career advancement. Demand for our culinary and baking & pastry program continues to be strong with the baking and pastry program oversubscribed.

How do our tuition costs compare with our competitors?
The Charlotte area continues to be a great value for education. Plenty of choices for graduate and undergraduate education, and regional institutions that offer great value, in terms of tuition, cost of living and quality of life. Private schools tend to be more expensive than public institutions, and at JWU we continue to make education affordable by making adjustments to expenditures and passing the savings on to students in the form of increased institutional aid (scholarships). This academic year, JWU gave out $17 million in the form of institutional grants, and we anticipate spending $20 million of our funds in scholarships to our students.

Are we conscious of the large number of college-age students in the area, and what does Charlotte offer them that makes us a draw for applicants? What does Charlotte still lack, and where do we lag as far as higher-education resources and selling points?
A draw for applicants? A robust local and regional economy that presents employment opportunities while students are enrolled and after graduation is important for some. (The Ritz Carlton, NASCAR Hall of Fame, Aloft Hotel, Aria, etc.)  New cultural attractions such as new museums (Wells Fargo Cultural Campus); increased retail in uptown; well-developed transportation network; and the fact we live in a safe community all contribute to providing a good experience. More opportunities for students? Heavily discounted tickets at sporting events such as the Bobcats, Checkers and Knights games. The groups partner with JWU Student Affairs to help boost attendance. What does Charlotte lack? A medical school at UNCC, to complement the hospital system. Charlotte needs more college student gathering places that are not alcohol dependent. Center City Partners is working on this with its Vision 2020 planning. JWU lit a spark for more activity when we opened and Charlotte should keep working on creating a friendly, younger generation-focused city environment…more eclectic life…more color, more vibrancy and more character.

What trends can we expect to see in nearby colleges and graduates in the next few years?
Increased synergy/partnerships with the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, graduate education (law school, new business programs), and a JWU online four-year food service management degree. You will also see increased applications for graduate and professional school as long as employment remains tight, as well as large enrollments at community colleges, as people look to update and improve their skills.

~ Clay Whittaker