The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is being given its first period room. And, as befits a Richmond museum, it is a room with a past. The 1880s Aesthetic Movement bedroom belonged to Arabella Worsham Huntington, a native of Richmond who grew to become the wealthiest woman in the country. It was a few years before she became the wife of railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington that she furnished her bedroom in her Manhattan mansion, and that is the opulent room that is being given to the museum.

Sunshine Cleaning” isn’t quite “Little Miss Sunshine Cleaning,“ though it does share the same enjoyable quirkiness, some of the same themes and Alan Arkin. Written by Richmonder Megan Holley, the film tells the story of two sisters who bond by working in an unusual profession: They specialize in cleaning up bloody and otherwise unsavory crime scenes.

Children scamper through the cavernous halls of the Science Museum of Virginia, followed by parents who, often to their surprise, find they are as interested in what they are learning as the youngsters.

History and house buffs hoping to see one of Richmond’s 16th-century English manor homes have been unable to since early in the year. But Virginia House, 4301 Sulgrave Road, reopens for tours tomorrow.  Virginia House, which is run by the Virginia Historical Society, was rebuilt from materials of a manor house in Warwick, England. It was dismantled and shipped to Richmond, where it was reconstructed in Windsor Farms.

It’s the first compound you learn in chemistry class. One molecule of sodium bonds with one molecule of chloride to form sodium chloride, NaCl—table salt. You need it to live, and the oceans are full of it.

No more the timid cook. Mark Bittman isn’t kidding when he calls his book “How to Cook Everything.“ Now revised and reissued for its 10th-anniversary edition, it is a book no beginning or intermediate cook should be without. Well, either it or “Joy of Cooking.“

When Richmond CenterStage opens in 165 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 23 seconds—as of this writing—it will open with performances by each of the nine arts companies that will call it home. The timing is exact, because officials with the new performing-arts center yesterday unveiled a digital clock, counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the center’s grand opening.

There are yard sales, and there are yard sales. And then there are yard sales at Thomas Jefferson’s boyhood home in Goochland County. Tuckahoe Plantation, where the founding father lived as a child, held a spring-cleaning sale yesterday, perhaps the first in the historic home’s history. Nothing from the sale dated to the time of Jefferson, who lived in the house when he was 2 to 9 years old, from 1745 to 1752. But iron fireplace inserts dated to when the house was heated with coal, and a sled had been left by the house’s previous inhabitants, a family who lived in the house from 1898 to 1935.

The thing about urban legends is sometimes they’re true. This is the kind of story, a sparkling moment of serendipity, that can only happen in New York. And the fact that New York is where it happened makes it all the more unbelievable. My wife and I recently flew to New York, where my mother was meeting us for a weekend on the town. We arrived a couple of hours before she did, and so we grabbed a taxi at JFK Airport and headed straight to Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn, just at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.

It has been 17 years—or, if you prefer, dix-sept ans.  The French Film Festival, which begins tomorrow at the Byrd Theatre, has been recognized by the French government as the largest festival of French films in the United States.  For the 17th time, it will present three days of French movies in every genre, including short subjects. Each will be shown in the original French with English subtitles, and nearly all will be followed by a discussion led by the film’s director, writer or star.

Only a few things to like in ‘Love’ Some good jokes, but the ‘bromance’ film comes up short ILove You, Man” would be better if it were a different movie. The jokes are funny enough, some of them. The performances are relatively winning. The only problem is that the topic is not quite interesting enough to merit an entire movie. You can see why the idea may have seemed clever, at least in theory: Two guys begin a close friendship that mirrors a romantic relationship. It is as if writers John Hamburg and Larry Levin heard the term “bromance” and decide to take it literally.

TV pilot filming in Richmond It’s been awhile, but Richmond is again going to be home to a film project. “Body Politic,“ a pilot for the CW television network, begins shooting in Richmond next week, said Rita McClenny, film commissioner for the Virginia Film Office. Minka Kelly, one of the stars of “Friday Night Lights,“ will star as Hope, who moves to Washington from Michigan. Part of the reason for her move is to reconnect with her father, the new attorney general, played by Tim Matheson. She will work as an aide on his staff.

On an empty coffee cup in the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University is drawn a fantastical creature. Nearby is a map of a city that does not exist.  As it does every spring, the gallery, which is part of the school, is giving itself over to showcasing the work of VCU art students.

As the host of what must be a half-dozen cooking shows on the Food Network, Giada De Laurentiis has proved herself to be a warm and vibrant personality. Fortunately, she turns out to be a pretty good cook, too, as she shows in her fourth cookbook, “Giada’s Kitchen.“

Publisher: Clarkson Potter
  Price: $32.50 Pages: 240 Recipe worth trying: Panini with Chocolate and Brie, page 58