Another mystery of modern airtravel

What exactly is the point to "checking in"? One would think that by having passengers "check in", the airline will know how many people are going to be on the plane. Fine. But now, airlines let you "check in" from your home or office computer. A lot can happen between the time I click "check in" and the time I arrive at the airport.

I just bought a ticket on Southwest to fly from Pittsburgh to Chicago (which is the first leg in a 12 hour Planes, Trains and Automobiles odyssey that I'll write about some other time). Southwest has an annoying (imho) practice of not assigning seats. Instead passengers are classified into boarding categories. Theoretically, the first people to sign in get the first priority to board. This leads people to go online upto 24 hours before the flight to "check in".

I'm weird about seats. On planes & trains, movie theaters and stadiums, etc & so on, I want to know where my seat is and that nobody will take it from me (note, I already stipulated that this is weird). But I also don't want to commit until the last minute. Once I'm at an airport, I have no trouble checking in; but it seems wrong to notify the airline of my arrival 24 hours prior to my arrival. Anyway... it's almost time to teach the first class of the day.

Me in 20 years

Country Roads... hip hop style?

I love West Virginia. I am happy to call the State home, despite some odd idiosyncrasies. But this... well this is just weird. (Warning, there is some profanity in the lyrics).