Hot Times in the City

If I may delve into water-cooler talk a little bit here...

Where is winter? I love warm weather but this shit is ridiculous. It's the second week of January and we've only had trace elements of snow. While I don't relish snow, I do like snow football, sledding, the carte blanche to be late to work, the hush it gives the City, and the fact that I can bitch about something other than the T. Depending on who you ask, there are many factors that could be causing this. The woman I babysit for called this year a "statistical anomaly." Al Gore thinks it's the global warming he's been trying to stop with his pie charts. I personally take the moderate route out and think it's part global warming, part just a warm winter thus far. (I'll take bets on it snowing about 20 feet when I have to move out of my apartment at the end of the month. Winner gets to help me find stray dogs to act as my dogsled team.)

The Globe has a great opinion piece today by a media critic named Monica Collins that accuses the local news media of playing dumb on the fact that this weather is really out of the ordinary and not mentioning the possibility of global warming. Of course, she rags on my boy Pete Bouchard a little bit, but even I have been screaming at the TV. "For the love of God, man, can we at least discuss the possibility that the ocean could flood the rats out of my apartment at any time? I AM AFRAID, PETE!"

Some choice highlights (I would tell Ms. Collins to tone down the Big Words a little, but that's just me)...

By design, the weathercast is a temperate zone, a bastion of prognosticative bromides [WTF?] without any controversy. Weatherpeople tell you to watch out for drizzle during the morning commute. This has been the extent of their cautionary role. They are promotional tools, teasing their forecasts throughout prime time. They are encouraged to chat chummily with the anchorpeople in calm periods and go into full froth during blizzards, thunderstorms, and other disturbances. Each local TV meteorologist presents the image of a weather jockey who loves the ride in severe conditions. ...

In these times, you do need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing. TV meteorologists are uniquely positioned to make sense of what's happening outside our windows. They have the tools to put the weather into climatic context. With global warming an omnipresent threat, their role becomes more crucial.

Come on, Pete. Don't let that Ken Barlow jerk make you look a fool. Teach us the ways of climate change, O Bald Chief Meterologist, and how we may look to change things now before the bar graphs become more disturbing.