Business Is Booming

TigerBlog has a few questions about the coming snow.

And they are this: 1) when is it going to start? 2) when it is going to end? 3) how much will there be at any given time?

That's all anyone wants to know, right?

So what do you get when you see the local news on TV? You get three things, none of which answer everyone's questions.

And they are this: 1) pictures of snow removal trucks and salt spreaders, 2) people buying snow shovels at hardware stores, 3) people buying bread and milk at supermarkets.

Who cares about that?

If TB had a network, he'd have someone whose job is to stand there and say "the snow will start at this time. Two hours later, there will be three inches of snow on the ground. Another two hours later, there will be another inch. It will end at this time. There will be this much total snow."

Then they'd just keep repeating it.

Snow shovels? Yeah, people buy them. It's like people near beaches buying beach chairs. Who cares? TigerBlog assumes that everyone who lives anywhere in the Northeast has some idea about snow removal.

Even as late as yesterday afternoon TigerBlog didn't have reasonable enough answers to his questions. Oh well. He assumes it's going to start snowing later and keep going all night, all day tomorrow and maybe into Sunday morning.

The other issue with snow forecasts is that there's the whole "boy who cried wolf" piece. A year ago, there were endless forecasts for epic snowstorms, only to have a few inches fall here or there. Eventually, the public simply tunes out the cries of coming gloom and doom.

If this one turns out to be nothing, that'll be fine with TigerBlog. He actually doesn't mind the snow when it falls, but he hates the way it lingers and lingers, turning dirty and black and ugly and just serving as a reminder that winter is going to be here for awhile.

Plus, what is he supposed to do with all the great snow pictures he has from a year ago from lacrosse?

The Princeton area has seen a few snowflakes to date, but nothing that would count as a storm. All that figures to be changing - just in time for the first scheduled athletic events in two weeks.

The weather has already messed with the sports calendar, as the women's tennis team was supposed to compete in Jadwin tomorrow. Instead, its match against Georgetown was postponed and its match against Delaware moved to today.

The Tiger Open men's and women's track and field meet is being moved from tomorrow to Sunday, to be held after the men's basketball game against Bryn Athyn.

The first game TigerBlog ever covered in the newspaper business was at a high school called Academic of the New Church, which is located in Bryn Athyn, Pa., on basically the same piece of land as the college.

Princeton plays its first Ivy weekend next weekend, at Brown Friday and Yale Saturday. For now, it has the game against Bryn Athyn as prep for that.

Before that game, or whenever you want, check out the videos on the men's basketball page about the freshmen and about Henry Caruso. TigerBlog didn't realize that Caruso went to the same high school as Tom Brady.

One event that won't be postponed by the weather for this weekend will be the Major League Lacrosse draft, though it was moved from 8:30 tonight to 2 this afternoon in Baltimore. Ryan Ambler, Princeton's leading returning scorer after a 51-point junior year, figures to go somewhere around 30-35.

Another event that won't have any problems will be the NFL playoffs. It's conference championship weekend, with Arizona at Carolina and New England at Denver. TigerBlog sees a Carolina-New England Super Bowl. 

Anyway, before that - and the snow and the resumption of Princeton sports - TigerBlog would like to offer a small thank you.

Readership numbers are way up these days. TigerBlog is appreciative.

In fact, in the eight years that TB has been doing this, two of his four most-read entries have been in the last few weeks - the one after the debut of the Chuck Dibilio documentary and the one with Josh Teves' great play against Union.

Day-in, day-out, though, the numbers have gotten to be pretty high.

Why is this?

Well, TigerBlog feels that it suggests that even in these days of 140-characters and less and less of the actual old-fashioned written word, there's still a place for what he does every day.

He's glad you agree.

Thanks for making business so good.