The Bestish of Blacksburgish

Year after year, the Virginia Tech school paper does a fun little Best of Blacksburg survey thing. Personally, I think it's a bunch garbage. Here's why (this is where I bitch for a little bit). The Best of Blacksburg list is determined by a reader response for a number of categories. Sounds good right? Not quite. The formula follow to another point at which I feel it fails. If your choices match the final number 1's, you win. Not just praise and glory, but cash.

So... while many people will be selecting what they truly feel to be the best, there are still those that will just select what they feel others will choose to be the best. This is most noted in the cases where people are choosing things from categories that they know nothing about. If I have no idea what place does the best manicures in town, I might as well pick some place I've heard of. Who knows I could win some money.

Here's a brief summary of my views of the 2004 choices.

• The best restaurant in Blacksburg does not have a menu with roughly 70 sandwiches on it
• The best haircut is not available at the place with the largest turnaround in workers
• The best cheesteak is not made from frozen meat at a dining hall.
• There is no restaurant in Blacksburg called The Nerv.
• Selections for best winery, should be winerys, and at the very least be in the same county as Blacksburg
• Establishments in Christiansburg do not belong in the best of Blacksburg.

Lets go over the categories shall we?

So. What now? This might take some time. But I will do my best to be as fair as possible.
I'm going to tell you the best of Blacksburg. And I'm going to let you tell me too.

Stay Tuned!

Here are the 2004 winners for you to review while I work on this