OK, now this is getting ridiculous.
The TV weather people were saying that we could get up to 18 more inches of snow tonight and tomorrow.
But look at it this way: After this last weekend's storm, 18 inches is nothing.
This morning, the weather guy on Channel 27 presented a computer model called "Futurecast" which forecast 17.6 inches of snow for York.
You know, it's going to be that .6 of an inch that puts us over the edge.
This guy is pretty close. Freak out, my man!
OK, the forecast is calling for more snow tomorrow, between 6 and 12 inches is what the TV people were saying this morning.
Another foot of snow? That's nothing.
The snow is coming. You can tell. It's close. Too close.
I went to the grocery store yesterday at lunchtime. Couldn't get close. Went again last night, at about 11. Only a few people were there. The shelves were barren. It was like the place had been looted.
One of the editors here, asked about the forecast, said, "We're all going to die."
Be careful out there. The horror...the horror...
Comcast is changing its name. Check it out here.
The announcement is expected to come sometime between noon Tuesday and 4 p.m. Thursday. Make sure you're home for it.
Well, not now, exactly. But this weekend, brace for the snowpocylpse.
Get your milk, bread and toilet paper. They're predicting a snowstorm of Donner Party proportions.
Don't know about the Donner Party.
Check it out here.
Now, that's a party.
The iconic motorcycle manufacturer is sending some bikes to Haiti. The motorcycles will allow relief workers to get to areas that may not be accessible by car.
Good for Harley.
Lets hope they send enough to keep people here working.
Shoveling snow.
Need more coffee.
I signed up for text messages from Punxsutawney Phil this morning, before dawn. I received confirmation that I had indeed signed up.
And then, dawn broke and...nothing.
Not one text message.
Stupid groundhog.
That's Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra, playing "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
Every year, Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra wins a Grammy for the best polka record. Every year. Jimmy Sturr has 18 Grammies. Springsteen has 19. The man is a monster.
So this year, how did Jimmy do?
He lost.
But not only that, the Grammy people eliminated the polka category. Jimmy Sturr was nominated in the best traditional folk record category. Traditional folk? Please. The Grammies still have a category for Hawaiian music. But no polka?
He lost to Loudon Wainwright III.
Jimmy was robbed.
This has been big news for the past couple of days.
The Associated Press reports:
"PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - An animal rights group wants organizers of Pennsylvania's Groundhog Day festival to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in.
"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it's unfair to keep the animal in captivity and subject him to the huge crowds and bright lights that accompany tens of thousands of revelers each Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, a tiny borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. PETA is suggesting the use of an animatronic model instead.
"But William Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, countered that the animal is 'being treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania.'"
You know what's sad about that. It's probably true.
And this whole episode is just another one of PETA's public relations stunts. That's what PETA is best at, calling attention to itself. It works and it helps the organization raise money for its worthy causes, and funds even more elaborate publicity stunts.
I'm just hoping, as PETA has done in the past, it convinces some actress to get naked for the cause. That's always good.
Word comes that these two giants have passed. Salinger, best known as a literary recluse, was 91. Zinn, a historian who rejected the notion that history is written by the victors, was 87.
Salinger's contributions to literature are beyond measure. His book, Catcher in the Rye, is easily in the American canon of literary works and a seminal statement on the American condition and spirit. Yet, he was best known for never granting interviews and maintaining his privacy.
Zinn was more outgoing. His major work, A People's History of the United States, was a landmark history, telling history from the point of view of the common man, rather than the elite.
He was also a fan of my friend, and former colleague, Lauri Lebo and her book, The Devil In Dover, an examination of the fight over intelligent design in the Dover schools.
They are gone, but their work will live on.
Here is the lead of a story from our neighbor to the south:
"A Maryland woman who was bitten by an exotic cobra over the weekend may owe her life to the quick action of snake specialists at the Philadelphia Zoo.
"The woman walked into a Baltimore clinic Sunday night reporting she had been in a shopping center parking lot when she bent down to pick up what she thought was a stick.
"The 'stick,' a two-foot monocled cobra, sank a fang into one of her fingers, said Elisa Armacost, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Fire Department."
A cobra? In Maryland? And we all thought blue crabs were about as exotic as it got down there.
Remember the big chunk of ice that crashed through the roof of Perry and Mary All Foster's York Township home in the fall of 2008?
Turns out it was something called atmospheric ice.
It was a megacryometeor, an ice ball similar to a hail stone.
It's never good to have large items hitting your house, but at least it wasn't frozen waste expelled from an airliner.
Read the story here.
This story from the York County Courthouse is pretty good.
Daniel Cohen Johnson, 24, was thrown out of a party for being wasted and playing guitar naked. He returned and threatened some people, but was subdued when party-goers beat him with beer bottles.
One question: What was he playing? What song? Was it "Free Bird"? And if you play guitar naked, is it better to play a Telecaster or a Les Paul? Or perhaps a Gibson J-200 because it's a jumbo?
