Nearly 35 years after Virginians last experienced the thrills and spills of skiing on plastic, the university-that-Jerry-built announced plans yesterday to build a $1.7 million Snowflex ski slope on Candlers Mountain in Lynchburg. The slope appears to be the first artificial ski surface since Charlottesville played host, during the 1973-74 ski season to a place, now site of Westminster-Canterbury, called Ski Land.
Salmonella fears shut The Tavern
The place where “students, tourists, and townspeople” meet, The Tavern, a venerable breakfast joint on Emmet Street, has voluntarily shut down temporarily amid an investigation by the Health Department after at least a dozen people were sickened by what appears to be salmonella, NBC29 reports. (3)
Snap o' the day: Fast times on the Corner
A peek inside the new burger joint, scheduled to open early fall. PHOTO BY MARISSA D’ORAZIO
Kluge shuts down Bennigan's, Steak & Ale
Just 13 days after the John Kluge-owned Ponderosa Steakhouse auctioned off all of the assets at its Charlottesville location, Kluge’s company Metromedia confirms today that it has shut down all of the company’s corporate-owned Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale restaurants. Metromedia has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy for both of the chains. According to the Chicago Tribune, the move is a sudden one, as Bennigan’s managers all received phone calls at midnight last night to shutter the restaurants immediately. Kluge was the richest man in the world in the late 1980s according to Forbes, and lived in the Charlottesville area until 2001, when he moved to Palm Beach, Florida and donated his Albemarle County estate to the University of Virginia. # (3)
Willie, CSN sell out Pavilion
The economy may be flagging, gas and food prices might be rising, and the Paramount Theater might have recently upped the ante in the grab for the baby-boomer concert dollar with their new fall lineup, but music fans are still plunking down the big bucks to go to the Charlottesville Pavilion. In his weekly playlist e-mail, 106.1 The Corner’s Brad Savage reports that Willie Nelson’s gig tonight (cheapest ticket: $31.50) and Crosby Stills Nash’s show Thursday night (cheapest ticket: $44) are sold out. # (0)
Kaine in 'serious' V-P talks
Despite an earlier protest to the contrary, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who played host to Barack Obama in Charlottesville last year, is in “serious” vice-presidential talks with the presumptive Democratic presidential contender, according to the Washington Post. (0)
This is the perfect wingnut response to global warming: plastic snow. Next up: synthetic rain.
“/cry” Man there is so many better whats to spend that money.
Skiing on plastic, I do that all the time, but snow is usually involved. This sounds novel!