Shock: It Snowed in New England... in Winter

Our friend Tom Glennon writes:

On the East coast, they give their snowstorms cute names, like Nemo. Here in the Midwest, we give them names like "Friday's forecast".

 

 

 

And there's this, from Keith Koffler at WHD:

.... A few days ago, following Obama at the podium, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney found that Obama had left his glass of water at the podium. Instead of having it removed, he left it, mentioning something about its potentially empowering effects.

 

I know he was joking. But it’s not a joke any of the Clinton or Bush press secretaries would have made. Because it just wasn’t the culture in those White Houses to be quite so impressed with the boss.

 

No mention of whether the glass was half full or half empty.

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

Re: Tom's remark about naming snowstorms: It seems to me that when a culture stops believing in a personal Divinity, it starts to personify everything else. When I was a kid, we called our planet Earth -- and let it go at that. Since then, Earth has acquired a personal name -- Gaia (actually a rip-off from Greek mythology). We haven't quite returned to the nature worship that characterized so many ancient cultures, but we're getting close. My guess is that once weather-casters in Iowa and Missouri start talking about Rainstorm Raymond and Heat Wave Helen, Gaia Worship will be declared the official religion of the United States. Obama will become its High Priest -- which will give him something to do when he leaves the White House.

[Mannie Sherberg]

Aha! So now we know whence cometh Obama's prodigious rhetorical puissance: Before opening his mouth to declare and declaim, he sips a magic potion! This is dreadfully disappointing news to those of us who thought the man was the bearer of a remarkable gift. Not so. He simply quaffs a wonder-working liquid and -- voila! -- the limpid phrases start to flow. Imagine how history might have changed if Mitt Romney had gotten hold of this spellbinding fluid. As Whittier lamented: "For all sad words of tongue and pen/ The saddest are: 'It might have been.'"

[Tom Glennon]

One of my rural Iowa friends described Obama on Saturday as follows. "He has a big hat, but no cattle." This was the same man who, after Obama's last State of the Union address, remarked: "Just goes to show that an empty wagon makes the most noise." There is a lot of wisdom out on the farm.