POST Local

The Great Falls Nationals took on the Southwestern Youth Association Mets, both teams of 9-year-olds, in the all-wood bat Washington Nationals Memorial Day Tournament at Fred Crabtree Park near Reston on Saturday. The tournament runs through Monday. (Tom Jackman - THE WASHINGTON POST) For many years now, the crack of a wooden bat slapping a baseball has been largely absent from our ballfields and backyards, replaced by the soulless ping of aluminum. But this weekend, on dozens of diamonds around Northern Virginia, the blessed crack is back, in an all-wood bat youth baseball tournament that is on track to raise a half-million dollars for pediatric cancer research.

The Washington Nationals Memorial Day Tournament was started last year by longtime Centreville baseball coach Rob Hahne and honors his 7-year-old son Kyle, who has leukemia. It had 24 teams and raised about $12,000 through Hahne’s newly formed foundation, Kyle’s Kamp.

Matt Walker, 9, of South Riding’s Loudoun South Eagles, got to experience the thrill of breaking a wood bat. And he beat out the grounder for a hit. (Tom Jackman - THE WASHINGTON POST) “This year, we decided to try to take a big shot upward,” Hahne said, and boy, did they ever: The tournament has 160 teams, with roughly 2,000 kids (and four adult teams), playing at 33 different fields in our area, including three games Friday at Nationals Park for the six teams who raised the most money. Hahne said the Nats were glad to help sponsor the tournament in its second year, donating tickets, souvenirs and the use of their stadium for opening ceremonies and the three games.

None of the youngsters I spoke with Saturday had ever used a wood bat before. Because they break, and are more expensive to make, wood was phased out in favor of aluminum at most levels in the late 1970s, though pro leagues have stuck with wood.

“We wanted to go old-school,” Hahne said, “do something different. The kids can’t hit as well, but they love that it’s different.”

Do what the sign says. An ambulance that leads the runners in the annual run outside the Fairfax County Government Center. (Jan Bohrer - Fair Oaks Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company) A lawyer I know sent me a Facebook invitation to this:

FOVFR Ambulance Chase 5K and Kid’s Fun Run.

Saturday at 8:00am

So, to recap, a lawyer invited me to go chase an ambulance with him. For three miles. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted. Or if I’d get a percentage. Or whether it was a serious thing.

Turns out it’s an annual run at the Fairfax County Government Center to raise money for the Fair Oaks Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company, which has owned the station on Route 50 since 1957. The run was launched by local attorney Hana Brilliant three years ago when she was president of the company, and helps purchase actual fire trucks and ambulances for the station.

“I got tired of all the ambulance chasing jokes around the firehouse,” Brilliant said, “so I decided to use it to the Fire Department’s benefit.”

It’s properly timed and organized, and last year nearly 200 runners raised $7,000. The run is tomorrow, so go here now to learn more.

And then you too can experience the joy and exhilaration of advocacy and representation of a worthy cause, without the heartache of bar exams and contingency fees.

There may be some lawyers in this group, but anyone is welcome to chase an ambulance for a good cause outside the Fairfax County Government Center Saturday. (Jan Bohrer - Fair Oaks Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company)

Author Matt Bondurant, a Fairfax County native and Mount Vernon High School graduate, has published three novels, one of which has been made into the major motion picture "Lawless." Photographed at one of his favorite sandwich shops, the Taco Grande on Route 1 and Cooper Road. (Tom Jackman - The Washington Post) You may not have heard of author Matt Bondurant, the Northern Virginia native and Mount Vernon High School grad whose third novel, ”The Night Swimmer,” was recently published. But you will soon, thanks to his riveting second novel, “The Wettest County in the World,” based on his family’s exploits in the bootlegging business in southwestern Virginia in the 1920s and ‘30s.

Jason Clarke (standing), Tom Hardy (left) and Shia LaBeouf as the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Va., in “Lawless,” which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. (Richard Foreman, Jr. - SMPSP) “The Wettest County” was optioned for a movie even before the book hit the shelves. It now has been made into a major independent film renamed “Lawless,” which debuted Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival and will hit American screens in August. It stars Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain and Gary Oldman; the screenplay was written by rock musician Nick Cave, and the soundtrack features songs by Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Ralph Stanley, who does a bluegrass version of the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.” That alone might be worth the price of admission.

Bondurant wrote “The Wettest County” while he was teaching English at George Mason University in Fairfax between 2003 and 2007, and it was published in 2008 to glowing reviews. While living in Del Ray in Alexandria, Bondurant would trek down to his grandfather’s stomping grounds in the hills south of Roanoke to compile the remarkable detail that infuses the scenes and characters, when they aren’t punching or shooting each other or driving crazily through the back roads to avoid the law.

Here’s the trailer for “Lawless,” which will make you want to go get the book immediately, and the story of Bondurant’s journey from Route 1 to the big screen is after the jump.

Roland T. Smith II, 32, of Spotsylvania, charged with stabbing his girlfriend on May 11, 2012. (Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office)

What Roland T. Smith II allegedly did to his girlfriend in a Spotsylvania County motel room is not funny. Stabbing someone is a serious crime, and it’s being treated as such. But this mug shot is out of the ordinary.

You see this mug shot and the questions just start flowing in your brain. Why Latin? Who will understand the Latin? If you think, wherefore do you stab?

Smith, 32, is from Spotsylvania, that “Rest of Virginia” land [“RoVa”] outside the State of NoVa, where perhaps some folks are dedicated to keeping Latin alive. Unfortunately, Smith was not dedicated to keeping other people healthy, according to the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office. Smith was at the Econolodge Hotel on Route 1 in Spotsylvania one recent Friday night with a young woman, not his girlfriend. His girlfriend arrived, according to Spotsylvania Capt. Mike Harvey, and amidst the ensuing discourse about fidelity and truth, the girlfriend was stabbed in the stomach.

A hotel security guard was on scene in moments and was able to point out a suspect to responding county deputies, Harvey said. Smith was charged with aggravated malicious wounding and held with no bond. Harvey said the victim, 36, did not suffer life-threatening injuries but the knife wound lacerated her liver.

The time in confinement should provide Smith with the perfect opportunity to augment his literary noggin (or consider a visit to the business in the blog post below this one). He’s already got the famed ”Cogito ergo sum” [“I think therefore I am”] and “Alis grave nil” [“Nothing is heavy to those who have wings”]. He’s also got “Articulate,” which you can just hear some Latin teacher bellowing in class, and he has two tattooed tear drops, which either means he has lost loved ones or killed two people.

What belongs on the top and back of his cranial canvas? “Sic semper moronis”? “Semper dumb”? Leave your suggestions in the comments. Keep it clean. Translations welcome.

Life is good in Arlington County, residents say, and you don’t have to be at the fair to enjoy it. (Melina Mara/TWP - The Washington Post) Residents of the greater Washington D.C. area have a lot of complain about when they look at their local governments: corruption in the District, budget cuts in Fairfax County, anger over redevelopment in Alexandria... we could go on.

But not in Arlington County, where a whopping 89 percent of residents surveyed said they were satisfied with local government services and 92 percent said they were happy with the quality of life in the close-in suburb that acts like a city.

This was a real survey, not one of those “click here if you like this” Internet knockoffs. The ETC Institute of Olathe, Kansas does this kind of community research in 48 states and the results are statistically valid, with a 2.7 percent margin of error. Some 3,600 random households were contacted and 1,306 responses were received, which ETC VP Chris Tatham called an astounding level of response.

The results are also pretty amazing, even when you drill down into the details, where consultants tend to hide the exceptions. The happiness (er... “satisfaction” in professional pollster lingo) exceeds the national averages by double digits.