Snowzippa?

Unfortunately, all the cool snow disaster names seem to be taken this season: Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, Snowzilla, Snowapalooza, Snow... WAIT! SNOWAPALOOZA! I hereby claim that for the 1-3" Metro Atlanta is forecast to get today, leading to the winter storm warning currently in effect. I'm supposed to participate in a conference call today at noon: given recent ATL snow closings, I'm willing to predict the likelihood that it'll be postponed at around 50/50.

One of the more irritating parts about the storms are the asinine letters that NPR reads during All Things Considered. You know the genre: "I lived through the blizzard of 19**, blah blah blah, and this is nothing..." "Here in [Insert Midwestern State] you know what we call three feet? A dusting. Har har har..." "Waaaaaa, I *hate* New York City's law requiring me to clear the sidewalk in front of my property..."

And the story today on Morning Edition, with people feeling all virtuous about their snow clearing because it's a neighborhood competition? Whatever. Clear it because it's a nice thing to do for the people who live in your city/town/suburb, or leave it there, but clearing to keep up with the Joneses? Just keep out the gigantic fiberglass Santa and his light-outline reindeer all year, and save yourself the physical labor.

Even better is the occasion bringing out the climate-change-denial troglodytes, including Sean Hannity and James Inhofe. These guys are so breathtakingly stupid, you almost wonder if political satirists miss W anymore.

Now, since all the cool kids are doing it, here's my little snow reminiscence: In Anchorage, we regularly cleared our immense driveway for a couple hours, then went across the road to clear our nearest neighbor's driveway. This is when he didn't beat us out there: many, many mornings after a storm, our late-septuagenarian neighbor would be out there and half his driveway done when we woke up and looked out the window, his hand-knitted scarf flapping in the wind. He then had the time to come over and chat and bitch about the muni snowplows pushing up berms from the road into his newly cleared driveway. Ahhh, Alaska: how I don't miss clearing your snow.