Snow 'Nuff

Central and southern New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and many parts of Virginia and West Virginia are under a blizzard warning, with up to thirty inches of snow expected in and around the nation's capital. The New York area is likely to be spared the worst of this storm, but may still get hit with a similar nor'easter later - possibly as early as the middle of next week.

The esteemed New York disc jockey Pete Fornatale once mused on the air why winter songs played during the Christmas season - "Jingle Bells," "Winter Wonderland," and similar songs that don't mention Christmas by name - are never played on the radio in January or February, when most winter weather occurs. This is because when you hear these heartwarming depictions of winter - lyrical vignettes that really nearly are like a picture print by Currier and Ives - during the Christmas season, winter is just beginning, everyone is in a festive mood because of the holidays, and the idea of sleigh rides and glistening snowscapes sounds romantic. By January, and especially by February, many people have strained their backs shoveling snow, driven at three miles an hour through driving hail, possibly lost power in an ice storm, and gone through a lot of other horrors. They're in no mood to build snowmen and pretend they're ministers or clowns, or frolic and play the Eskimo way. They're too busy waiting for spring.

And while we're on the subject, when was the last time anyone went for a ride in a one-horse open sleigh? Or met anyone who did? Dude, I've never even gone for a carriage ride in Central Park.