The bears at Maymont do exist.

Even though they are never out when I go looking for them. I have been to Maymont a million times and I have seen the bears maybe twice. So while they do exist don’t get too excited about seeing them. Go check out the bison — way cooler and always around.

Po-white vs. Pow-hite

The great Richmond pronunciation gate! Po-white or Pow-hite? The rich blue bloods raised in the West End find it distasteful to say “Po-white,” as in po’ white trash. While South Siders relish in their white trashy-ness. Where are you from?

3rd vs. 4th street diners

Let’s set this one straight for life. 3rd Street Diner sucks. Last time I had dinner at 3rd Street we asked the waitress what was good, “Nothing really. Everything is pretty bad here” she replied. Not only do the food and service suck, but 3rd street is where crazy high school teens go when they break curfew. 4th street rocks people. It’s quiet and has good food. Only down side is no full bar at 4th St.

There are three universities in Richmond

Yup three (1, 2, 3). One of them is North of Broad St. — awhaaaaa?!

Ukratic Idiosyncrasies

Ukrop’s is the official super market (thats “the store” for you South Siders) of Richmond. Yes they are more expensive, yes they are closed on Sundays, yes they don’t sell alcohol. But this is why we love Ukrop’s. These small annoyances make us feel safe and at home. Plus they own Richmond, you might as well just give in now.

Storm Paranoia

Richmond is reasonably protected from serious weather. Far enough South to avoid fifteen foot snow drifts and far enough north to avoid Hurricanes. Tornadoes and earthquakes (although Charlottesville is build on a fault line) typically aren’t a problem either. But if there is threat, nay, mere mention of an approaching storm DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE! You have a better chance of dying in the mad rush of Ukrop’s bound traffic than you ever would from a weather system. Within hours of the local news covering a storm Ukrop’s will be sold out of bread and water. This is truth. Also, within 2x hours of covering a storm the local news will be covering the lack of bread and water at Ukrop’s.

The Midnight Movie sucks

Perhaps that is an over generalization. The Midnight Movie at the Byrd Theatre is great for high school kids wearing lots of black — but not for people who love movies. Showing cult hits at midnight on Saturday nights may seem like a good idea. I mean, it probably is. But just do yourself a favor and don’t go. People shout out the words to the movie, which I am ok with WHEN THEY GET THE WORDS RIGHT. But these people won’t. Trust me. Stay home.

As a side note, everyone should go see the Mighty Wurlitzer (before the 7pm Saturday movie) at least once in their life.

The Arthur Ashe statue is hilarious

When city council (or whomever) decided that Arthur Ashe would join the Confederate greats on Monument Ave., you can bet quite a few people were ticked off. I mean he’s black. Forget about how he is easily the most famous person to come out of Richmond in a long time! Anyway the statue went up amids much turmoil. Ashe faces west — back turned to the city and its bearded heroes. The caption most Richmonders would give to the Arthur Ashe statue is:

NEXT TIME YOU TRY TO READ THESE BOOKS I WILL SMACK YOU WITH THIS RACKET!!!

Agees bicycle theme song

… Follow the leader! DUN DUN DUN. Its in your soul, now you’re on a roll. Saving money too! Agees Bicycle it brings out the best in YOU! DUN DUN DUN DUN.

Only two more days (not including today) until I quit and start working for PharrOut full time.

Freedom is so close I can see the dimples on its pale buttox. Honestly, freedom should start working out. I understand she isn’t as popular as she used to be, but come on! Don’t let yourself go like that.

Come Thursday I will be self employed. When you ask me what I do I will probably say something like “Oh, I own a small web design and development firm in Richmond.” That’s right Ross Catrow, biznass owner. Kind of crazy no doubt. One of the things I look forward to the most, is the ability to set my own flexible schedule. Hey you want to do lunch sometime next week? No problem! I set my own schedule!

I also will have three new responsibilities when I quit on Wednesday:

1. Read the internet.
2. Post on the Techsideline.com message board.
3. Blog more.

Scott thinks that all of these activities are important for increasing our knowledge of the web and the web’s knowledge of us. Reading the internet, specifically web/css/standards blogs will keep us up to date on trends and such. Posting on the TSL message boards will help us create a presence over there, and since we advertise on TSL the more people know about us the better. And of course anytime people can read a blog I write and learn about PharrOut is a good time. Maybe not as good as beesuit day, but still good.

Tonight the Hokies wrapped up their division championship. Tomorrow they start getting ready for the ACC Championship game against Florida State. Saturday RMSzero and I will be in Jacksonville watching the Hokies trounce FSU. I can’t wait!

Pat Morita died today. RIP buddy, RIP.

This is always the second best weekend for college football in the whole year. Unfortunately, it’s often hard to untangle the mess of games on all sorts of channels. These days it is even necessary to screen FSN and TBS for the potential of good games. And with at least a few good games coming up on Friday, a “wait and flip channels Saturday afternoon” approach isn’t good enough.

What follows is my guide for viewing the Thanksgiving weekend of football with an eye towards BCS implications.

Nov. 24 Thu. Pittsburgh @ West Virginia 8:00 p.m. ESPN

Pitt has turned a few things around lately, and this game is always a brawl. These two teams love punching each other in the face. Metaphorically, of course. This has BCS implications as well, because WVU is in the driver’s seat for a conference championship and BCS berth. Plus, the Hokies need WVU to keep winning for computer purposes. It might not matter, but just in case.

Nov. 25 Fri. Texas @ Texas A&M Noon ABC

This could turn out to be the Vince Young Heisman Extravaganza. Texas A&M does not have the strongest defense, and if Mr. Young is going to score a statue in NYC this year, he needs to respond to that 500+ yard explosion from Reggie Bush on Saturday night. All the poll and Heisman voters will be checking this game out.

Plus, this is the last opportunity to hang an L on Texas before the Big 12 Championship, causing the sort of BCS controversy that we all know and love.

Nov. 25 Fri. Arkansas @ LSU 2:30 p.m. CBS

LSU is a tough, tough 1-loss team that we can expect to see playing in January. Arkansas is a program that has fallen on hard times lately. Watch just long enough for things to start to get out of hand, then switch to:

Nov. 26 Sat. Florida State @ Florida 3:30 p.m. CBS

Pope Urban Meyer the Awesome needs this game badly to salvage his rookie season at Florida, one of the hottest of the hot seats in college coaching. Wins over Georgia and Tennessee don’t look so great anymore. Struggling at Vanderbilt and losing to USC aren’t options for Gator fans. This may be the best possibility for a quality win in his first year.

At the same time, Florida State is a potential (knock on wood-colored plastic!!) VT opponent of the future. They need to halt their current slide if they want a shot on Dec. 3 against whoever they may happen to play.

Nov. 26 Sat. North Carolina @ VA Tech 7:45 p.m. ESPN

First off, go Hokies.

Secondly, if you want to win in Blacksburg at night, you need to bring the game of your life from every position and pray that the Hokies will make mistakes. Absolutely nothing has changed about that. Can UNC play out of their minds for 60 minutes with 140,000 screaming Hokie fans in their face? What will the announcers talk about more: Miami, or Michael Vick? I intend to find out!

Note: MaxPower points out that there are actually 298,452 screaming Hokie fans at the average VT home game, but that in normal college football fan units, it would be measured at 784,599. Thanks for the correction, Max!

Starting today and going on through December 4th, VDOT is holding an online poll to choose the new Virginia Welcome signs. You can go vote here. How exciting!

Some of them look pretty nice. You’ve got to look at them for the next 14 years, so try to pick something good.

The RTD reports that the Morgan Quitno Press’s City Crime Rankings rates Richmond as the “5th most dangerous city.” Wtf?

Obviously something is going on with population groupings or per-capita or something in this study. There is no way that Richmond is more dangerous than DC. No way at all. If someone — not it — wants to figure out the exactly what the study says I’d love you for life. There is more info on their website, but it was hard to parse.

• Morgan Quinto Press’s website

Reading RVABlogs this morning I came across this post about Robert F. Kennedy. RFK would have turned eighty yesterday if he hadn’t been assassinated in 1968. I’ve only read a bit here and there about RFK but what I have read has always clanged on my steely robot heart. America would do well to have more politicians with souls.

• Wikipedia article on Robert F. Kennedy