We all know that person. If it's 105° at your house, it's 110° at theirs. If you get two feet of snow, they've got three. If your gallbladder bursts, they get pneumonia. It seems like a basic human instinct to try to one-up each other, but the world would be a much better place without disaster snobs.

It's an American truism that school starts later in the north than it does in the south. Some school systems in the southeast began classes yesterday, while most northern schools won't begin until the day after Labor Day. There is nowhere in the country that provides a starker view of this north vs. south "first day of school divide" than Virginia.