Frosty

Although the snow storm of Sunday and Monday rates as the region's most ample in recent years, the accumulations will not enter the history books -- or even the encyclopedias of hyperbolic folklore. No one will make a fortune flogging t-shirts emblazed with "I Survived the Blizzard of 2009" -- unless, of course, some wicked weather this way comes. The frigid temperatures and power outages might make a different story.

The wetness of the precipitation, the melt, and the subsequent freeze turned the snow crusty too soon; the pristine beauty has not lingered. Selected streets transformed by glistening limbs into cathedral vaults might resemble Chartres for another day or two but the snow under foot or tire has lost its aesthetic allure.

The event may have set a record for snowmen, however; we cannot remember seeing so many -- or so many expertly crafted ones. Toques off to the children (and adults) responsible for these delights. The snow sculptures reminded us of Frosty, who was not, as we recall, an ideological straw man.

This is an era of the jerking knee, so almost every work of man or nature is said to score a political point. Snow storms supposedly prove Al Gore wrong on everything and always seem to coincide with a Gore presentation on global warming. Global warming advocates typically respond that winter weather sustains their theory, as the warming scenario embraces weather swings. Every charge begets a rebuttal, which begets another rebuttal, which is why we endorse a tax on partisan emissions.

A single storm, whether hurricane or blizzard, neither makes an argument nor breaks one. Snow fell in the past; it will fall in the future. The only forecast we will venture is this: The next storm will produce not only gusts but spin.