Nunzsense: No need to wait for Jan. 1

In which I basically explain why I don't make new year's resolutions.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/12/charles-pannunzio-no-need-to-wait-for-jan-1.php

Nunzsense: Perfect card is hard to find

I looked high and low for a box of Christmas cards this year, and finally ended up with something rather benign. On a side note, writing this column helped convince Christina to send me a card.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/12/perfect-card-is-hard-to-find.php

Nunzsense: Devices enliven aviation

After the Alec Baldwin playing "Words With Friends" debacle, I decided to weigh in on using electronics at 35,000 feet.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/12/devices-enliven-aviation.php

Nunzsense: A tweet was not the truth

For some reason this story struck a chord with me that a lot of folks either did not recognize or found insignificant. Either way, I thought that while Sam Brownback's staff went overboard, the student was not entirely free of blame since her lie led to everything else. I have fears there will be a lot more of this without media to check out the veracity of claims.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/12/a-tweet-was-not-the-truth.php

Nunzsense: Different D.C. in the dark

The latest Nunzsense describes a post-Caps game visit to the monuments in Washington on a foggy Monday night. I'll include some photos from the walk at some point, I guess it will be obvious I've done it when photos appear. The column is the first to mention Christina by name.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/11/different-dc-in-the-dark.php

Offbeat: It's how you play the game

I'm going to start posting some old columns from the Page News and Courier as time permits. These are a little tougher to do since I have to type them in. I will not make any changes so these are a bit unvarnished. I think I was better about getting in a few laugh lines since these were supposed to be funny. This one was published sometime in 1989.

The way someone plays a game can tell you just about everything you need to know about him or her.

As some of you may not be aware, I have a degree in game psychology from the H. Ed Shrinker Correspondence School and Deli. I think it’s a degree — it says 37 Celsius on it.

The way you behave during a game says a lot about you as a person. Or maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know. The only thing Mr. Shrinker taught me was how to make a good club sandwich.

Monopoly has probably started more fights than Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ron Hextall. Okay, maybe not.

You might note at this point that I am being quite ambivalent as of late. It’s a characteristic they say the post-Baby Boom generation (1965-1973) seems to be exhibiting. But I don’t think that’s true. Or maybe it is.

Back to Monopoly. The game can give you a good indication about which of your friends you can go to for a loan. The people who end up making you mortgage everything you own on the board to pay off a hotel bill on Boardwalk are louts. I always prefer to bleed my prey dry by forcing them to surrender choice properties to me one by one.

These days, Trivial Pursuit is in vogue. Whoops, I’m sorry, that was 1986. Gee, time flies.

But I recall an evening last fall when a number of us were playing Trivial Pursuit. Personally, I like one-on-one Trivial Pursuit because it is the ultimate test. At the very least, each person playing should have a piece. I don’t go for this team business.

Anyway, it was four-on-four and my team was facing a stern challenge from two former staff writers and the general manager of this esteemed publication. Every time my team finally got to roll, we kept hitting “Arts and Literature,” which should be subtitled, “We knew you didn’t study in 11^th grade English and now you will pay for it.”

We’d get about five seconds to answer and then certain impatient people would start moaning about what was taking so long. Meanwhile, I think I was able to read about half of “War and Peace” before the other team decided that there were three “commonwealths” in the United States. There are actually four.

During a later question, the same general manager and Robert Woodrum began doing impressions of the “Swedish Chef” while the other former staff writer was pondering a geography question about Sweden. He wasn’t too impressed.

It might be added that this general manager also likes to ring in early when he plays “Jeopardy!” on the Nintendo, but don’t quote me on this. He is a good “Password” player, by the way. We once had three correct answers in a row.

Most games only get irritating when someone is not playing fair. But there is a game out there which has irritation written all over it. That game is “Pit.”

Okay, I’ll admit it. I have been an aficionado of this game every since we played it on a field trip to Washington when I was a freshman in high school. We brought it along to irritate people, but by the time we got to Springfield, a bunch of us were hooked.

“Pit” is intended to resemble the Chicago Commodities Exchange. It is played by three to seven people, and the more players, the more obnoxious it can get. For each player, a set of nine cards such as “Wheat 100,” “Corn 75” and “Flax 40” are put into play. Two more cards, “Bull” and “Bear,” are also used.

And let’s not forget the most irritating thing about this game — the bell. It is the same type they have at many business establishments and usually no one comes to help until you’ve rung it eight or 10 times. The bell, by the way, is painted an ugly orange shade.

After the dealer hands out the cards, he rings the bell and says, “Trading is open,” or “Duck and cover.” Immediately, people begin shouting “three, three” or “two, two” as they trade cards until someone has all nine of one type. The he hits the bell about 20 times to tick the other players off. Not to mention parents who aren’t impressed at 2 a.m.

Fights can erupt over such things as knocking the bell out of someone else’s way while trying to get rid of the “bear” and two people going for it at the same time.

There are rules for “silent trading,” but they still require the bell. After all, it wouldn’t be fun otherwise.

DN-R: Valley Town Councils Taking Roll-Call Votes

Here's a longish article from 12 years ago but an interesting take on the inside baseball town councils face.


Valley Town Councils Taking Roll-Call Votes
Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA) - Saturday, February 27, 1999
Ruling By Court Puts Ordinances At Risk

By CHARLES PANNUNZIO News-Record Staff Writer When Dana Marie Conover was stopped by Strasburg Police and charged with driving under the influence last October, nobody could have known the legality of the town's DUI ordinance would come into question.

While Conover's attorney, Jerry Talton, and James Allamong, who handles criminal cases for the town, have come to an agreement that will see Conover charged with improper driving and pay a $100 fine, the issue raised in the case is one area towns have been dealing with for about a year.

Conover, 49, Winchester, was charged with violating the town's ordinance, rather than the state law against driving under the influence. In a motion to dismiss the case, Talton argued Strasburg's ordinance was null and void, because it wasn't approved on a roll- call vote by the Strasburg Town Council, as required by the 1971 Virginia Constitution. Instead, minutes from several meetings where the DUI ordinance was updated simply note it passed "unanimously."

According to Article VII, Section 7, of the Virginia Constitution, "on final vote on any ordinance or resolution, the name of each member voting and how he voted shall be recorded." This was the basis for a February 1998 Virginia Supreme Court decision in the case of Madison vs. Ford. In that case, the town of Madison's zoning ordinance was found to be null and void because the minutes of the Oct. 25, 1972, town council meeting do not indicate who voted for its passage, stating only that it passed unanimously.

"Because we cannot tell from the minutes which of the members actually voted for the adoption of the zoning ordinance, whether any member abstained, or if any member was absent when the vote was taken, we conclude that the minutes simply do not comply with the constitutional requirement . . ." Justice Henry H. Whiting wrote in the majority opinion of the 4-3 decision.

The Madison vs. Ford case was cited in an unpublished opinion by the Virginia Court of Appeals in May, when convictions against Simon Philip Pound and Arnold Karl Zinnecker were overturned because Front Royal's DUI ordinance was found to have been improperly adopted. Talton also noted the Pound and Zinnecker cases in his motion.

Allamong said Madison vs. Ford was applied differently in the two Front Royal cases.

"I cannot believe that the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Virginia would say that criminal ordinances are null and void retroactive, because what a can of worms that would open up," Allamong said. "They said it was prospective in nature, which means all ordinances after they handed down Madison vs. Ford."

Since the question came up, Allamong said Strasburg has passed its DUI ordinance by roll-call vote.

"I suppose I could see this as a problem for any jurisdiction that doesn't pass their ordinances by roll-call vote," he said. "I don't think there's any excuse for any community not to do that now."

Others have taken such steps since the decision last February. Bridgewater Town Superintendent Bob Holton said the town was advised by Town Attorney Don Litten to take roll-call votes on all items.

"Since that ruling, we don't do anything except adjourn by voice vote," Holton said. "We've even said it seems so tedious sometimes that you're always having a roll- call vote on every little thing, but these little things, if they add up to something big, you can really be in bad shape."

New Market has been taking roll-call votes for at least seven or eight years, according to the town clerk. Minutes from Broadway and Mount Jackson also include a breakdown of the voting. Dayton Town Attorney Jay Litten said the council is still polled by voice vote, but the names of each member and their votes are noted in the minutes.

Eventually, several attorneys said, the question of retroactivity is expected to make its way to the Virginia Supreme Court.

"(Talton) was saying if that's the case in Front Royal, then it certainly applies in Strasburg," Allamong said. "Frankly, I think I might have been able to argue otherwise, but rather than open up Pandora's box, I'm just going to let this one slip through."

Nunzsense: Ice puts motorists in scrape

Here's a Nunzsense column from November 2011 in which I praise ice scrapers. I know, I know...

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/11/ice-puts-motorists-in-scrape/

Nunzsense: Power of lost time

This ended up being a recitation of an afternoon where a power outage and computer follies made things interesting. Apparently not interesting enough for anyone to share this column. Maybe I need to write about the Strasburg siren again.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/11/pannunzio-power-of-lost-time.php

DN-R: Collector's `Stuff' On The Block

I'm going to start posting some of my favorite stories that I have written over the past 25 years so I can build an online portfolio. When I decided to do this, this story about two months into my tenure at the Daily News-Record was at the top of the list. Enjoy!

Collector's `Stuff' On The Block
Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA) - Friday, May 2, 1997


Tuttle & Spice Items
Up For Auction Today

By CHARLES PANNUNZIO News-Record Staff Writer
MOUNT CRAWFORD -- What shopkeepers in the Midwest once believed to be junk was treasure to the late Ed Heberlein .

Heberlein put together a vast collection of, well, stuff, during his days as a traveling salesman. In fact, he accumulated so much stuff that he was able to fill an eight-room museum adjacent to his Tuttle & Spice General Store near Shenandoah Caverns, between Mount Jackson and New Market.

Filled with items found in general stores, soda fountains, barber shops and other businesses from the turn of the century, the museum proved to be a popular draw for years. Heberlein sold the land and the store several years ago while hoping to find a buyer for the vast collection. Last November, with his lease at the museum running out, Heberlein arranged to sell everything at an auction.
That auction starts today at Green Valley Auctions.

"The word got out on it before we even got the stuff out [of the store]," said auctioneer Jeff Evans. "Somebody who knew the stuff and knew the sale was coming up showed up there [in November] when we were taking the stuff out."

Evans expects the eclectic array of items to draw a similarly wide variety of people to the three-day auction.

"We'll probably get some people, and I know there will be some dealers, who are setting up restaurants, because that's a big thing now that they can take it off an expense," he said. "Also, people just decorating their den. And there are people who only collect coffee-related items or cigar items. That's another group of collectors that will be coming. And then there's general public, people who have been through the museum and want to get something to remember it by." Items from the museum's general store, soda shop and tobacco store will be on sale today, starting at 10 a.m. Evans said that portion of the collection has a number of rare items, including an 1869 J.W. Tufts "The Arctic" marble soda fountain that is shaped like a cottage, and includes spigots for a variety of extracts.

There's also an oversized oak icebox that includes a water faucet in its door. For that, Heberlein once turned down an offer of $10,000 from Lee Majors, Evans said.
Then, there's a rare porcelain Munsing Wear sign, which could fetch $5,000-$10,000, Evans said.

"Those are the pieces that it's just hard to figure what [they will cost]," Evans said. "If somebody has been looking for that era of a soda fountain, and that's the type of shop they are setting up, they may not have a chance in the next 10 years to get another one."

Other unique items include a pair of cheese "cranes," that have glass domes suspended over the boards through the use of weights, and an oak "post office" similar to the one Sam Drucker operated on "Green Acres." The collection also contains six long oak shelves, hundreds of tins, glass jars, signs and thermometers.

The focus will shift to items from the clothing and music store, the barber shop, the doctor's office and the clock shop on Saturday, also starting at 10 a.m. Included are barbers' chairs, a coin-operated Regina disc music box, a crank-operated mahogany piano, more oak showcases, a pair of kerosene chandeliers and 35 clocks.

Items from the toy and doll shop, as well as a private collection of toys and comics, will be on the auction block Sunday, starting at 12:30 p.m. Evans said a three-day sale of additional items stored at Heberlein 's home is planned this fall.

The collection grew out of Heberlein 's travels in the 1940s and 1950s, Evans said.

"He bought a lot of this stuff back when it wasn't worth much," Evans said. "He knew all the old general stores and he knew people, and he knew this store had an old sign in the attic or something.

"He knew that, when they went out of business, they would have to get rid of all the old stock and he would buy that stuff. He had said numerous times one of the saddest parts of collecting was that there weren't any more old general stores around, and there was no new stock coming on the market."

Heberlein , who lived in Broadway, was still making preliminary plans for the sale when he died last Christmas Eve.

"He loved to collect and he didn't want to get rid of stuff," said Evans. "Collections like this do not come on the market that often."

Nunzsense: Election coverage aided by technology

Catching up on the last few weeks of columns, this one concerns how much easier election night has become thanks to the Internet. Although I do miss filling out the chart.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/11/charles-pannunzio-election-coverage-aided-by-technology.php

Nunzsense: Always a twist to the news

Here's another of my columns from a few weeks ago, talking about how a story can change between the pitch and the actual reporting.


http://beta101.nvdaily.com/news/2011/10/always-a-twist-to-news/

Update as of April 2015. It appears this link is bad, so here is the column:

It was supposed to be a simple advance. Some might call it a puff piece.

But when Northern Virginia Daily staff writer Kaitlin Mayhew started talking to some merchants in town a couple of weeks ago, she found that they were not that thrilled at what Downtown Front Royal Inc.’s Hometown Halloween had turned into in only two years.

An event that was supposed to help promote downtown businesses to the parents while the children collected treats had turned into a free-for-all (except for the people paying for the candy) that drew 2,500 participants last year.

Like any good reporter, Kaitlin knew she had found “gold.” The real story was concern from the businesses, with several owners saying they simply could not afford to participate in the event this year. Her story was balanced with others who said they would still take part, but readers seized upon those who said they were taking a pass, with some going as far as to blame the reporter and this newspaper for running the story.

Reporting news is not always pretty. It is often the third part of the old saw that holds that anyone who likes sausage or respects the laws of this nation should watch neither being made.

Countless times I have gone to a meeting with an agenda packet, figuring I knew exactly what I’d write about. But over the course of two hours in a town council chamber, three other items might turn out to be better fodder for a story. That original idea? Maybe something later in the week; maybe something for the bullets at the end of the story.

One of the big things reporters have to be able to do is think on their feet. In the course of an interview, you might hear something out of left field. Going down a different line of questioning than you might have anticipated, you find the real news.

In his outstanding book “This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You On Television,” Bob Schieffer of CBS News describes the way he figured out how to best do his job while covering the Pentagon. When he wanted to find out what the Army was doing, he went to someone from the Navy. After all, the Navy already knew what the Army was doing, but might be more willing to offer a tip or two.

Some stories are pretty obvious. When a house catches on fire, that’s a story. When a crash shuts down Interstate 81, ditto.

Others require a little digging — sometimes a lot of digging. And where that digging takes us may not please every single reader. That’s too bad. That’s news.

The reporters at this newspaper make every effort to be fair. I know the work they do each day. Sometimes those closest to the story, those with “a dog in the fight” are not going to agree. That’s what letters to the editor and the comment section on the web page are for. I am happier when people stick to the issue at hand rather than go after people who are doing their jobs.

We are not trying to trick anyone into anything.

* Charles Pannunzio is the assistant managing editor of the Daily.

Escaping The White Death

I didn't plan to spend part of this weekend at my mom and stepdad's place south of Richmond. But weather emergencies have a way of changing plans.

I woke up relatively early on Saturday and checked outside. Sure enough, the weather guys were right and there was snow sticking to the cars in the lot. I took a photo, pasted it on Facebook and made a phone call before I dozed off for another hour, with visions of a day of college football and decluttering in my head.

About 9 a.m., I was up for good and turned on the television, watching NBC4's coverage of Snotober. Or Ocsnowber, not sure which one of these will stick. I was falling back asleep again when the power went out. The way these outages go, if the power is gone for more than about a minute, it becomes open-ended. Could be back in an hour, or three, or seven.

With the snow still coming down, I figured Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative might just tell us we had to wait for the weather to improve before a crew could be dispatched. And the forecast called for the snow to continue until 6 p.m., so it would be a long, cold afternoon if i didn't take action.

So action, I took. I figured if I could make it over the Blue Ridge before things got too ugly in the Shenandoah Valley, I could head for Prince George, where there would be heat, power and company. So I had to hatch a plan to get out of the house as quickly as possible.

First things first. Stop trying to turn on lights. They do not work when the power is off. So I grabbed the "electric lantern" I have had since the Y2K scare, and put it in the bathroom. The water heater still had plenty of hot water, so I was able to take a quick shower. That thing about the lights? Well, the bathroom fan works the same way, it turns out.

There was plenty of light downstairs, and I only opened the fridge one time, so I could get milk for a bowl of Cap'n Crunch. Coffee would have to wait for Sheetz in Opal. Then I piled everything I figured I'd need for two days into the car and headed south.

As I expected, the first 30 miles of the trip was the absolute worst despite sticking to Interstates 81 and 66. It was a little hairy on U.S. 17 north of Warrenton, but the rest of the trip was uneventful, save for a near-death experience with a pair of snowbirds from Ontario who felt this was a lovely time to travel south for the winter. Those motorhomes don't do well in good weather, so when one of them decided to try to dislodge me from the right lane, I had to hang on tight.

I managed to get to Prince George in time for the second half of the Virginia Tech-Dook game, and the visit went well, I had not seen my folks in a few weeks, and there was plenty of college football to watch and good food to eat. The power was restored in Winchester about 4 p.m., I am told.

But an unexpected trip home can be good for the soul.

Nunzsense: The News In Texts And Tweets

I wrote this rather quickly while my apartment was being cleaned on a Thursday morning. Thanks to Brad and Christina for the inspiration, and Robert for his company at the Caps playoff game last May.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/10/pannunzio-the-news-in-tweets-and-texts.php

Nunzsense: Books Go The Way Of Music

Trying to deal with changing formats for books is like figuring out while my LPs won't fit in the CD player. Hey you kids, get off my lawn with your fancy e-readers.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/10/books-go-the-way-of-music.php

Nunzsense: Edison First Saw The Light

Another column from The Northern Virginia Daily. Christina gets a nod in this one.

http://www.nvdaily.com/opinion/2011/10/edison-first-saw-the-light.php

Nunzsense: A Siren Calls For That?

While I have not been blogging as much as I would like, I have started writing a weekly column for The Northern Virginia Daily, and figure I can link to my entries. This first one generated a lot of reader complaints, which may be funnier than the few laugh lines I got in this column, but I kind of asked for it.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/10/a-siren-callsfor-that.php

Goodnight Irene

Considering the alternatives, I’ll say I’m happy to be high and dry today. Plus, I already got through Snowmageddon last year, so I’m done with disasters, natural or otherwise.

But Irene’s approach the last few days had me thinking about September 1996, and dealing with the remnants of Hurricane Fran. Actually, we had a big snowstorm the previous winter that was followed by serious flooding, so I wonder if these things do in fact run in cycles.

We were about six months into the regime change at the Page News and Courier when Fran struck, but certain things transcend work environments, poor or not, and covering a big story is definitely one of them. I grabbed my camera about 10 a.m. that Friday and walked to the office, crossing the Main Street bridge over Hawksbill Creek and getting a last look at two buildings that would be part of the waterway about six hours later.

At some point, my compatriot at the paper, Jeb Caudell; WLCC news director Jeff Stapleton and I piled into Jeb’s pickup and surveyed the damage just north of Luray. We were probably out for an hour or so, I remember going out to Jim Logan’s place to see how they were doing out there and then not being able to take U.S. 211 back into Luray because the Hawksbill had already left its banks and flooded Bulldog Field. Jeb got a three-inch-long gash on his arm from a Brookside sign he wanted to use to brace himself as he got one last photo before we used Collins Avenue to get back into town.

But we were shocked…and had to stop…when we could see the football stadium below us was under nine feet of water. After taking more photos, we went to Jeb’s townhouse, next to Hardees, which appeared to be one of the few places in town that still had power. Since the cable was out, we thought we’d try to head south toward Stanley and get more photos, but the creek had left us unable to get out of town. The Main Street bridge was underwater and some loose propane tanks caused police to close the bypass, so we were stuck in town.

The next few hours are a blur. With the power out, we had just one working phone at the Page News. Eventually, the creek went down enough that police allowed me to cross the Main Street bridge and get home about 6 p.m. Within another hour, the power was actually back (one of the great things about living on the main drag). Cable was out until Sunday, but it was restored just in time for the Redskins’ game.

Jeff, Larry and I actually went to Baltimore on Saturday to see the Orioles and Angels, having to use Browntown Road as a detour around the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, which had flooded U.S. 340. So it was not until Sunday afternoon that the true damage outside of Luray became apparent to me.

About lunchtime, while waiting for the Redskins game to start, I got a call from Gov. George Allen’s press secretary, Ken Stroupe, a Stanley native. He said the governor would be flying into Page County later in the afternoon and they would keep me up to date on where to meet up with them. They wanted to land the helicopter at Bulldog Field, but it was still under water, so instead the chose to stop at Mountain View Parks, a pair of private softball fields on the north end of Stanley. There, Jeff and I met up with the governor, two Page County supervisors and a pool cameraman from Channel 12. Escorted by a couple of state police cars, we went back into Pine Grove, where the destruction wreaked by the Hawksbill, fed by a foot of rain up in Shenandoah National Park, was amazing.

I took a few photos of the governor walking along a rocky ledge to get to the front porch of one family. By this time I was also getting a little antsy since I was due at the radio station at 6 p.m., even though the transmitter had been without power for the past two days.

When we got back to Stanley, I headed back up Leakesville Road and got to WLCC in time to relieve Larry. Most of the next five-plus hours was spent answering the phone. “Yes, Wrangler is closed. No, I don’t know when we’ll be back on the air.” About 11:30, they got the power back to the transmitter, so we went commercial-free for the next two and half hours passing along boil water advisories, school closings and the number for FEMA. By 2 a.m., I signed off and went by the emergency operations center for one last conversation before heading home.

It was quite a storm, and we had stories in the weeks and months to follow, but there’s nothing like covering spot news. Sometimes I miss the thrill, which is why it was a blast (I’m sorry) when that guy tried to blowup his house in Stephens City about five years ago.

On the other hand, I’m happy to let the folks in D.C. take the lead on this one.

Blowhards

So I went to Harrisburg with a half-dozen friends on Saturday so we could see Nats prospect Bryce Harper play for the Senators. As usual, I brought along a stack of cards with hopes of getting at least a few signed. I knew early on there would be an issue in this regard.

It was pouring when we got to the stadium, but the tarp was down and they were able to get the field ready in plenty of time for the players to stretch and start playing catch. Standing next to me was a rather large guy with a heavy New York accent who was telling anyone who would listen, as well as those who wanted him to just shut up, that all the players were prima donas and nobody was going to sign. For 20 minutes. Nonstop. All I could think was that if I was a player and heard this guy, I probably WOULD just keep walking.

I managed to get a couple of cards signed by Harrisburg pitcher Cory Van Allen, and was pleased to catch up with him. This caught the blowhard by surprise, but not as much as when he saw Harper sign for about a dozen people near first base before coming back toward the dugout. In front of he two of us, Harper also signed a mini-bat for a little girl before going to the bench. None of this bothered me in the least, I'm always happy when anyone stops to say hello and sign a couple of cards. But this appeared to greatly offend the blowhard.

During the game he kept telling people Harper "blew me off" for an autograph. No, I think he was as responsible for not getting an autograph as anyone else out there.

My perspective on this thing has also been affected by a good experience at a couple of games this week. The main difference? No blowhard getting in the way.

’Appy to oblige

My minor league baseball adventures took me south and west of Winchester last weekend, taking of an opportunity to triple the number of Appalachian League teams I’ve seen in one day.

That’s right. Triple.

First, a little background. The Appy and the Pioneer leagues share the bottom rung of the climb to the majors. Technically, the Gulf Coast and Arizona leagues are lower, but their games are free-admission affairs played at noon on the back fields at the spring training complexes. That means the players who take the field in places like Missoula and Bluefield have begun their trek toward stardom.

But it’s still a long trip, and when you are a Mariner in Pulaski, 3,000 miles from Seattle, it can seem like an uphill climb. And it is, because Everett, Beloit, High Desert, Jackson and Tacoma all stand in your way.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Somehow over the years I had managed to see seven of the eight teams in the Pioneer (I’m coming after you Helena!) but only two in the Appy, despite the fact that the Pulaski Mariners are just 210 miles from here (yes, that IS closer than Idaho Falls). Steven and I stopped in Danville to see the Braves play the Bluefield Orioles eight years ago, and I had been meaning to see more of the teams that are spread between Tennessee, North Carolina and the Virginias, but never got around to it. Until Sunday.

I set out at 10 a.m., and managed to reach Princeton, W.Va., a shade over four hours later. The Rays were hosting the Greeneville Astros, and for $5 I got a box seat, and another $4 got me two slices of pizza and a can of root beer. Greeneville blew the game open with a hit-and-mistake fueled, five-run fourth inning. I had to hit the road at the start of the eighth, but the final score was the same 8-3 it was when I headed down I-77 to Pulaski.

There I found a gem of a ballpark that I cannot wait to visit again next summer. Sadly for the Mariners, they committed six errors in the first three innings, and despite out-hitting Elizabethton, the Twins managed an easy 11-3 win. I also got to see Cory Williamson, a former Winchester Royal, pitch two innings for Elizabethton, so there was a local element to the trip.

By the way, admission to Calfee Park was $4, and a bratwurst and a Coke set me back another $4. Since there was no parking fee at either venue, I managed to hit two games and get eats for $17. Now THAT’s a great price.

The gasoline for a 500-mile round trip on the other hand….

Missing AJ's

Stopped in at the Berkey Creamery at Penn State again over the weekend, and it got me thinking about the late, great AJ’s, which was on the campus of VCU during my time there in the mid-1980s.

Of course, the Creamery is a must-stop for a lot of folks when they are in State College. The lines can be legendary, which is why they must enforce rules similar to those of the “Seinfield” Soup Nazi to keep it moving. There are usually two dozen flavors available, and a cone or cup costs $3.25 these days, while a milkshake is $4. You tell the person at the cash register what you want, he or she repeats it back and then you pay, and go to the dipping station, where they will find the appropriate person to complete your order. It’s all fairly efficient.

And the ice cream is outstanding. They say it’s less than 24 hours from the cow to the cone. If I may recommend a flavor, I would say the Chocolate Chocolate Nut, which was called Palmer Mooseum with Nuts the first time I stopped in the old Creamery in 2004.

Mixing flavors is not allowed at the Penn State Creamery, and only one person has been successful in breaking that rule. President Clinton managed to get strawberry and Peachy Paterno in one order, according to legend. Contrast that to the Michigan State creamery, where they will mix flavors and the line backs up accordingly.

And contrast that to the chief charm of AJ’s, which was the mixing in of nuts, cookies, candy bars and all other kinds of matter on a cutting board. Today, Cold Stone Creamery does that everywhere, but 30 years ago it was the kind of radical thing you’d only find in places like Georgetown.

When I got to VCU in 1983, AJ’s was in the lower level of some building on Grace Street, half a block down from a Haagen-Dazs store that was right on the corner with Shaffer Street. I probably frequented that store for a while before I had heard enough about AJ’s to check it out.

What Cold Stone does these days was called a personalized cup at AJ’s. They started with ice cream made fresh in the store earlier in the day. One of the best flavors was Coffee Oreo, which actually negated the need to get a personalized cup. Occasionally, you could find an entire Oreo in the middle of a cone, although they usually chopped them up fairly well.

Eventually, the Haagen-Dazs closed and AJ’s took its spot at the corner of Grace and Shaffer. It was a good place to slip away in the middle of my photojournalism class on Wednesdays. After all, there is only so much you can do in a five-hour class.

AJ’s eventually opened a location at Cloverleaf Mall around the time I moved to Luray, and I’m not sure when it disappeared from there or campus. If I had to guess, it was sometime in the 1990s.

That wasn’t the first time a Richmond ice cream institution disappeared. I still remember moving to the city in 1971 and Dad taking us to the Clover Room on

Broad Street

.

While many of these places come and go, others, like the Berkey Creamery, endure. Just make sure you know what you want when you get to the counter.

Yeah, I was in Indy for 15 minutes

I’m blaming this on Topper Shutt, although it’s certainly my fault.

Less than 24 hours ago, I drove past one of my favorite ballparks, a place I haven’t been in eight years, but skipped the chance to go to a game.

After spending an awesome extended weekend in Cincinnati, making friends with a bunch of trivia players from across the country, I had a free day before I needed to return to Winchester. What to do?

As soon as it became apparent that I was not going to have to ferry anyone back to town, I figured I’d find a game somewhere on the way home. Of course, most maps are not going to show Indianapolis as being on the way back from Cincinnati, but hey, Victory Field is awesome, I have never seen the AAA Pirates at home (the Indians were a Brewers club in 2003) and, what the heck, I still make the decisions around here.

The run up Interstate 74 was remarkably smooth and I pulled into Indy just after 1 p.m., an hour before the game. Drove past Lucas Oil Field, got closer to the baseball stadium and saw lots of people headed to the park, and plenty of guys who would be glad to give me a place to put the car for five bucks.

I also saw a black sky. I mean, a REALLY black sky.

OK, I got this one figured out. I drove past the stadium and turned onto the road that front the Indiana state Capitol. Having just been in town last year, I remembered where I had parked at a meter, and this would give me a chance to check the radar and make a few phone calls.

First up, check the weather. My phone has a nifty app from Channel 9 that includes a really good radar. When you start it up, the smiling face of chief meteorologist Charles “Topper” Shutt greets you. I had to swipe across the screen a couple of times to get from Washington to Indy. The colors west of the city included lots of red and purple, and some others I can’t properly describe. I was pretty sure one was black. And this IS tornado country. Strike one.

I called a buddy who I often get minor league sets for. “What do you need from Indianapolis, because that’s where I am,” I asked. He needed nothing, just picked up the 2011 set at a baseball card show a couple of weeks ago. Strike two.

I was still undaunted, that is until the wind kicked up. And the rain started to pelt the car.  I started thinking about a trip to Toledo earlier this year, which included two hours in a pregame rain delay followed by no game. And no chance to use the rain check. Did I really want to plunk down $5 to park and another $12 for a ticket to cower under cover for an hour or two, only to find out there would be no game and I was still nine hours from home? Strike three.

I briefly considered a couple of options. Go to the Speedway Museum. Find a mall and wait there for a bit to see if the weather would miraculously clear. But as I got on eastbound Interstate 70, it poured and poured, and I had no idea where I was, so the safest thing was to stay on the road home.

Which is why I cringed a half hour or so later when I found the Indians’ local radio station. They started the broadcast with all of the other International League scores from a handful of games in progress, then went on to the majors, and they don’t do that if they are getting ready for the first pitch.

Twenty miles outside of Indy, still in the pouring rain, I hear the guy say, “They are taking the tarp off the field and they hope to be playing here shortly.” What?

I stopped for a paper, looked at the radar again and somehow all that color west of town had disappeared, draining from the screen the way it did from my face. I’d just gotten out of the worst of the storm and would have to drive back through it if I even entertained the idea of going back. And if I’d go back, who’s to say the game would still be played? So I continued east as the play-by-play guy talked with the official scorer to fill time, putting up with static on my radio every time there was a bolt of lightning. And there was a lot of lightning.

I could still hear the game by the time I got to Richmond, Ind., and the kid for Indy had a no-hitter going into the fourth or fifth. When I got home, I checked the web. He didn’t manage to keep the no-no, but got a 3-0 win over Rochester in a game that was over by 5:30 before a crowd of better than 8,000. Thanks to modern technology, poor decision-making and, yes, Topper Shutt, I wasn’t one of them.