Weather Willies

Something to ponder: If you walk out to get your newspaper at the end of your driveway while it's snowing and you suffer a heart attack and die, is it fair to label your death as being caused by the storm? I think not, yet the crazies over at the Weather Channel are fairly hysterical over the fact that "Winter storm Linus has already caused four deaths!"  Two were from shoveling snow and two were from car accidents. What about the people who die shoveling snow when there's no storm, like just on a regular, sunny day after the snow has stopped? Or in car accidents every day of the year? Who's to blame for those?

Illustration by Chris Piascik

Making matters worse, as if a killer storm is not bad enough, the word on the street -- actually on the TV-- is that the groundhog in Pennsylvania saw his shadow, or at least the people holding him up in the air saw his shadow, and so the prediction is for six more weeks of winter. This is dire news if you ask me, and in direct opposition to my trying to calm down, focus on the breath and turn my mind into an ally.

The fact is that every new batch of snow has a name these days, unlike when I was growing up and it was just "snowing" and actually kind of nice. This particular batch is named Linus for some reason, certainly not for the lovable dog in the Peanuts cartoon. Right now in New York City where it is "super icy," Linus is dumping "waffle-sized flakes" on the helpless citizens! (Personally, I would pay good money to see those.)