Recent Comments

I didn't see a good angle of that play but I have to imagine the coach at 3B needs to take some of the fault.

Hotels in and around blacksburg have been an absolute shit show since around 1998. Same time most people started wearing maroon and orange to the games instead of green coats was when you had to start staying in Salem or Roanoke to go to a game due to cost, 2 night minimums, etc. Absolute shit show to this day

This. If I had his buyout the only thing that would bring me back is ego and/or a whole lotta $$$. He may have decided that he's got enough and that the stresses that come with the HC job simply aren't worth it.

Sounds like you grew up in my house with my five older siblings. My Dad would also occasionally mete out 'table justice' with the sharp rap of an iced tea spoon on the crowns of our unsuspecting heads or the firm jab of a fork in our elbow.

RIP Prince of Darkness. You will be missed.

Who are you and why did you hijack dcwilson40's account?

All very good points. A lot of things I easily forget and take for granted because I live in the area. Unfortunately, I-81 will probably never catch up to traffic (especially truck) volume to make it a pleasant drive...Virginia missed that boat by at least a decade.

It'd be great to see local government enact some legislation to keep sports/university event lodging costs within a certain percentage of the average rates for the rest of the year. Is that something that would even be legal?

I think this is the path all live events are going... they're catering to the select few who spend heavily; not the masses. That means more expensive tickets, but a better (or at least more... luxury? instagramable?) experience.

I haven't been to Lane since 2017. I didn't have any complaints about the facilities beyond poor cell service.

My biggest frustration about going to games has nothing to do with Lane, and everything to do with getting to Blacksburg. There's just not enough lodging within a short distance of campus, which drives up demand/costs... a 2 day trip for a family can easily be a couple grand, and 75% of that is lodging. I understand that's a tough problem to solve due to a variety of competing stakeholders.

Anyways, the days of live events being accessible to all/most are long gone. I'm fortunate enough that I can afford to go to these things. But it really doesn't sit well with me that if I was born two decades later, some of the fun stuff I did in high school/college would be cost prohibitive to me now.

Anyways... rambles

It sure hurt a lot. Both directly and indirectly. Directly, places had to stop. Some went out of business because of it (one in the town next to me, sorry, the name is escaping). Others just dropped that part and it never came back. Still others - Prospector's in Mt Laurel, NJ was one of them - wanted to bring it back later on but couldn't because they could not hire enough people to staff it.

Too many people got used to getting paid to sit home and do nothing. Prospector's was eventually able to open the salad bar back up once people started having to go back to work again after the money flow dried up and they realized it was not going to start up again.

For what it's worth, near where we live, the high school kids have struggled to find jobs and some are not working even though they actively have been trying to get hired. My daughter has a huge advantage over others her age in that she is a lifeguard. Where we live, if you (1) have up-to-date lifeguard certification and (2) can pass a background check, you don't even need to look for a job. The summer camps and pools find out about you, and they come hunting for you. She had 2 jobs last year when she was still 15. Both of them told her they would hire her at least a couple of years before she was eligible to work.

My mom could and would (whether at the family dinner table at home or out in public) simply snap her fingers loudly underneath the table which would cause each of us kids to immediately: a) stop talking with food in mouth; b) not chew with mouth open; c) remove our elbows from the table; d) not reach across the table for something and instead ask politely for someone to pass us the item. We were always known for being the best behaved kids on the (very few) occasions we went out to eat(military family made it hard to have the finances to eat out much).

Also, we had it drilled into us that our behavior impacted-for better or worse-the position and reputation of my dad as a military officer.

Wolves of Glendale are so good. I just recently discovered them when "Ricky" showed up on a playlist. Vapin' in Vegas is also really good.