My Thoughts Exactly.

Republicus was born and raised in the rugged hill and lake country of central NY (practically dead-center, but that's "upstate" to NYC dwellers).

The winters there are practically Canadian in frigidity (Niagara Falls is only a few hours West to the border).

This shot of a wintry wood from the hometown of your august host would not only inspire Robert Frost to write a poem, but is quite the typical jingle-belling scene in them thar parts of the state:

A "snow day" there was caused by nearly a foot of snow dumped overnight-- which was hardly rare, and, last time I checked (but Al Gore apparently didn't), still happens.

Any less than that, the snowploughs could be heard in the wee hours of the morning making sure the school buses would be on time.

Oh, those infernal snow ploughs!




So the infrastructure up there didn't sweat it.

When your scholarly host was enrolled in a university in the Nation's Capital--not too much further south, but just below the Mason-Dixon Line--he realized that he was in an inherently southern town when he experienced his first snowday.

Two inches of snow fell, and...

RED ALERT!

The schools were closed. The goverment was closed. Telephone lines went dead; and power outages were reported...

"Wimps," your yankee host would chuckle, walking over the pathetic excuse of a "blizzard" in bare feet. (Well, not really, but...)

Those sentiments were never expressed by--and perhaps never occurred to-- our last five presidents, who were-- starting with #39 Carter over three decades ago-- from Georgia, California, Texas, and Arkansas, but now a northerner has finally come to town, and had his first snow day today.

And he said this:

Indeed. Welcome to Washington.

P.S. In all fairness, the snow day today here was not due to the fine-particled snowfall that took place per se, but because the streets and sidewalks were encrusted with black ice.