Mike O'Connell

Gotta love a snow day on the first full day of spring. Makes you think this theory might not be so crazy after all.

Nailed it.

It’s always football season in D.C.

Even among March Madness, Spring Training, Champions League games, and cherry blossoms, it’s always football season here.

Yesterday D.C. fans were treated to the first public visit/commentary from Alex Smith, new quarterback of our local football team (that would be the politically-incorrectly-named Redskins). Other deals and signings dotted the news this week as well, making us forget that there’s, you know, Madness out there to see. (Upstate New York still going strong, by the way, with Buffalo’s upset win over Arizona last night.)

It’s not all seashells and balloons coming out of Ashburn, though, remember. Those balloons come with a price. A story in my local Loudoun Times-Mirror (a weekly rag I’m liking more and more) reminds us Loudouners of the price we pay for Skinsmania. The story points to the financial burdens placed upon the City of Richmond, hosts of Redskins training camp, and how it adversely affects Richmond taxpayers. Lest one think this is simply a Richmond problem… “Loudoun drinks burgundy-and-gold Kool-Aid too.”

Ouch.

“As part of an unusual eight-year marketing deal [signed] in 2012, Loudoun’s supervisors agreed to pay $2 million to the NFL team, which practices and has its headquarters in Ashburn. In exchange, the county received “marketing assets” (their italics) that brand Loudoun as the corporate home of the Redskins in on-air mentions, advertisements and news releases, and on the backdrop that appears behind speakers at the team’s news conferences.

“The county also received special access to events at Redskins’ practice facility in Ashburn, pregame field passes, club-level game tickets and the use, one game a year, of a FedEx Field premium suite, which county officials used to entertain business leaders and prospects.”

Must be nice.

And I’m still waiting for my invitation to the premium suite.

You read it in The Washington Post. You read it in the Costco members magazine. You heard about it from @moconnelljr. The latest yuppie status. It’s not driving a Prius or drinking raw water.It’s chicken farming.

You know… chickens. Like, having chickens cooped up in your backyard. Literally cooped up in your yard. Or closet or whatever you can afford in the city.

According to the Post chicken men are ponying up big-city money for their hobby. Unlike farmers of yesterday or modern authentics, status farmers pamper their birds and don’t mind sharing what spend. Then put it on social media so everyone knows how hip you are.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to try to jump in on the next crazy fad.

It’s that time of year. The day when I start out feeling pretty smart, then end it feeling not so much. No, not for my NCAA Tournament bracket… it’s time for the online Jeopardy! contestant test!

Why do I subject myself to this?

Well, you never know.

It’s not to late to sign up.. head here and join me tonight in feeling silly.

The date March 2 means only one thing for me. This was the day, 12 years ago, that I lost my best friend for all eternity, Joe Sullivan, killed in an automobile accident at the age of 23. I’ve talked or written about this event a thousand times, and I’ve described how I’ve felt over the past dozen years just as many. I’ve often wondered (maybe you’ve wondered too) when I’d be able to say I’ve come to peace with it. Not over it, of course, for one could never be “over” such a thing… just at peace with it.

Nope. Never. I’m just as mad about it today as I was in 2006. More mad probably. I think of everything I would have told Joe or done with Joe. Ballgames, movies, life events. Nope. None of that. Missed every single one.

There’s a saying in the theatre that says the show must go on. Life goes on too. You know what else goes on? Silly ideas from politicians. I continue with this post, changing its macabre tone to a lighter one thinking this is what Joe would have wanted.

You are no doubt familiar with the controversy involving Delta Airlines and the State of Georgia. That the Georgia legislature would end its sweetheart with Delta if the airline stopped giving discount airfares to NRA members. (These things are never about politics or “gun rights” or anything like that… they’re about money.) Seems as though this has come to bear. Following public pressure upon Delta (and every single American business) to cut ties with the NRA or to stake out new, more anti-gun political stances (by the way I’m completely fine with this), the airline giant cut its affiliation with the NRA. What followed was the passing of a new tax measure ending the lucrative tax break Delta (and other airlines) were receiving from the state. (“Leveling the playing field” no doubt… ha!)

So with Delta at odds with the State of Georgia and faced with losing a big chunk of the estimated $38 million in yearly tax breaks airlines were once receiving, other states started chomping at the bit. My own governor, a certain Dr. Northam, tweeted at Delta (that’s how you do it these days): Hey @delta–Virginia is for lovers and airline hubs. You’re welcome here any time. Let me translate: We’ll give you some of our taxpayers’ money!!!

Come on, Doc. You don’t want to appear desperate.

With news like this, who needs fiction?

I’d love to talk to you about this one, Joe.