Ski

Well, that's only if you go with the site's #1 definition; the second one is better. And Senor was being sort of a dick. Just for fun, I paid the $29.95 for his police record. PM me if you want some of the highlights.

Federal funding was just received for a train from NYC to Scranton...

The contracts are signed and the closing is next week. The new snow guns are being loaded on trucks and will be en route in a few hours, give or take. Everything is good.

IDK, Doug, according to the Urban Dictionary in that link, TIA is "a great chick that is awesome at bj's and is so hot you can't take your eyes off her everyone loves her and if you want great sex you go to a tia". I don't know exactly how that applies, though. DH is sometimes a little cryptic.

The newspaper editorial staff did everything they could to spoil the Sno Mountain deal. They also bashed the idea of the Yankees bringing their Triple A affiliate to Lackawanna Stadium. They actually ended a hugely positive story by quoting a college professor from someplace in Massachusetts as saying, "It won't bring any noticeable economic benefit." WTF? The stadium was over-run with phone calls about season tickets. People are lining up to get weekend hotel/baseball ticket deals. No wonder the Timers-Tribune is bankrupt: they wouldn't know a good business deal if it bit them in their nicotine stained asses. And what's with this belief that if they print it, it must be true? They need to start printing stories about how their ad revenue isn't down 70% and they aren't about to run their paper into the ground. Here's a letter to the editor from Commissioner Munchak: Editor: In Sept. 28 editorials, you listed concerns on two major economic gains secured by our administration for the taxpayers of Lackawanna County

I used to be the world's worst ski instructor at Mt. Snow...my boss once said I made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. It was mostly because I was a Lounge Lizard variety instructor, if you know what that means. I just have to give ski4food shit for dissing Sno Mountain, but I can't say anything bad about his former home hill because it's Zonked's favorite place.

Ha, thanks, SMS...

Well, yeah, if you did all that and lived in those places, then your GF would certainly find WL more of a green circle. Are Stowe and Jay in Vermont? I'll have to look them up somewhere. My assistant soccer coach mentioned several times that they enter their kids in snowmobile races at Windham. I never asked her more about it, but I will if you want. I mean, if they hold races, then there must be some good 'normal person' snowmobiling in the area.

Ha, yeah, your GF straightlined WL on her first day ever, right? Glenn: Denton's old owners had been trying to market early openings and sell packages to race teams, since they have a dorm that sleeps a bunch of people. But it just never worked out. 'Dude's head coach had promised them a few years that he'd get his team out in November, but it just never happened. Then Denton moved away from hosting PA Cups and, now, who knows. The cabins are awesome, with tons of room and really high ceilings, but they aren't exactly ski-in/ski-out...more like a few hundred yard walk, depending on which cabin you get. Denton is far...without looking, I'd guess the Catskills are closer to you. And Belleayre DOES have a high speed lift...brand spankin' NEW.

Gonna be scamming on the snowtubing hotties? Hmmmm, never thought of that...

Ah, great story. Happy ending for everyone but Washo, Speicher, and the T-T editorial staff. So we get the snow guns, but the lodge renovations and water park may be on hold until spring...NO SWEAT!

There's so little that separates the top 10 guys on the World Cup, for instance, that absolutely everything has to line up for someone to win. Over the years, I've seen legends from Lasse Kjus to Bode struggle with not having 100% confidence in their skis. Imagine what it was like for Bode when he first switched to Rossi and his skis simply ejected in an early, shallow rut. Even Alberto Tomba fell apart for half a season and started blaming his skis. To this day, the American announcers on OLN constantly say that only the top couple of downhillers racing for each ski company have any shot at winning, since they get they best extruded material; that the base material alone accounts for a four or five second difference over a 2 minute course. I guess my point is just that it's not a bad idea to truly believe your ski company is the best. Each summer is the time to demo and question what's best, but by October, you have to believe there's no faster boards for you to get down the hill and everyone skiing on something else is at a disadvantage. Confidence starts with your gear and then works it's way to your head.

Ya know, 'Dude, I was just kidding about you bad tempered mods. freeridintre: put a coat of wax on your edges and they won't rust.

'Dude is just knowingly giving Jeff crap. If one ski were right for everyone, then there would only be one ski. Even if everyone raced with the exact same technique, including angles, alignment, and edging, people are all still physically different. So a different flex, sidecut, and things like torsional rigidity all match up to people in different ways. 'Dude will also tell you, when he's not giving Jeff crap, about the old Chad Fleisher saying that in ski racing "Confidence is King." So you're better off totally believing in your skis. I don't understand why these moderators can't just get along.

makin' a list...

Speicher is in panic mode, filing a baseless lawsuit in an attempt to get Sno Mountain to drop their lawsuit. What the heck did Sno Mountain LLC ever do to Speicher? They don't know or care about him, other than that he slandered them. Good luck, Speicher. You are acting like a shithead. Sue me!

And if I was rich I'd have an extra wife that would cook and run bubble baths for me.

It was really funny once we found out you weren't dead.

Stiffer flexing race stock skis are horrible for recreational skiing...like driving to the grocery store in a Formula 1 race car. But get them up to speed, use the proper angulation, get skeletally aligned, stay forward, and they are easier to ski---they won't vibrate, will be stable through cross-ruts, and will hold their line at speeds. You just have to be a good driver.

Snow Time just wasn't all that interested. They came around when Montage was initially offered at a $9.6 million price tag and made this offer: "We'll take it over, run it, but won't pay money for it." They also said that the $9.6 million was about twice the worth of the ski area. When they were rejected, they walked away. If they wanted to buy Montage, they had two years to come up with an offer. Consider that they knew Montage was losing money and that the county wanted to sell...and their reaction was to walk away from it. Make no plans. Make no offers. Then they had the balls to bitch when Sno Mountain LLC barged onto the scene with a million dollar background research and very deep pockets. The founder of Elk was at the Montage public meeting and I'll paraphrase what he said: Owning a ski area is a losing proposition. The way to make money and have a thriving business is to create a year round operation, especially when you are on the far side of the hills and customers have closer options. Snow Time bought, improved, then sold Windham. They would have been good short term owners. But the only people that would have benefitted from a bidding war would have been Lackawanna County. The vendors for the jail would have been paid on time, for once. Pot hole repair work would have picked up. To be honest, I couldn't give a rat's ass about that. I wanted the new owners to get a great bargain and feel welcomed. NOT TO BE SUED. One great thing that the Sno Mountain people showed us was their ability to find the right people to do the work. People that run a business can go two ways: their egos can make them always feel like they need to decide what is best; or, they understand that experts in each field are available for a price and they rely on them. I was blown away by Mr. Carlson's plan. They spent a year interviewing just about everyone and the input was used at every level. Hard to beat that tactic. Oh, and, hey, what's to stop Snow Time from making an offer to Sno Mountain next week? Why does Snow Time seem to need permission to pursue something they want? Ha, their moose also looks like it's from the children's book: "If You Give a Moose a Muffin". If they want a goofy cartoon character and have to lose the moose, maybe Rob will offer his likeness. JK, Rob.

The starting point would be to coordinate group discount passes first. We'd have to show that we can regularly put together 15 non-season passholders during PASR days. The power of PASR is in the numbers. We're really no different than a ski club and we've never taken advantage of discounts ski areas offer them. Pocono ski areas are all very wary and none will take a risk at losing a 'straight up' season pass sale. So the way to attack them is to show our numbers to people in charge of group sales, which are BY FAR the friendliest and most accomodating office at any ski area. The group sales office brings in big chunks of money and they get the most latitude in decision making. For example, I know I could get everyone $10 passes at The Hideout Ski Hill, not that anyone would bother---we're too small. But we'd kill to sell 15 passes and take the $150. My 2 cents would be to put together a combination email/snail mail, with the background of PASR and the opportunity for the ski area to offer us group incentives. When I wrote a ski column for Gannett Newspapers, I use to get so many free lift tickets and food vouchers that I had to give (er, sell) most of them. We already have some mountain reps...why not ask them to forward some group proposals for us?

Yeah, for sure. But Senior will be a TGR moderator before there's a Pocono pass.

No, of course not. They have a comprehensive business plan that covers years...but now that it appears they are about to be the new owners, it's our duty to keep them focused on what our priorites are. Once the closing papers are signed, the cheerleading is over. The Sno Mountain principles are good guys, but we're spending a lot of money, too.