Althouse: At the Springtime Café...

February 2, 2011

At the Springtime Café...

... can't you see we're almost there?

49 comments:

Richard Dolan said...: If the snow were multi-colored, it would look just like Brooklyn.

E pluribus unum. Or something.; 2/2/11, 11:45 AM
john said...: Meade obviously shoveled that. You can tell by the care in the work (the "precision of the incision"), which is totally lost at the next driveway.

A lot of pride showing in that picture.; 2/2/11, 11:53 AM
coketown said...: Can you build igloos in Madison, or do you have to get permits for that?

We never had enough snow growing up to build an igloo--even if we collected the snow from EVERY neighbor's hard and driveway.; 2/2/11, 12:02 PM
Triangle Man said...: That is some fine artisanal shoveling there. A man of quality should have a good hobby like that.; 2/2/11, 12:08 PM
Tony said...: My blog titled my snow pics as "Global warming my ass".

www.1907montgomery.blogspot.com; 2/2/11, 12:15 PM
Ann Althouse said...: That is Meade's work, but it should be noted that a nice neighbor pushed his snowblower across the sidewalk, making the rest of the work a lot easier.; 2/2/11, 12:23 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @Tony But global warming is responsible for all this snow. Haven't you heard?; 2/2/11, 12:23 PM
Unknown said...: Ann Althouse said...

That is Meade's work, but it should be noted that a nice neighbor pushed his snowblower across the sidewalk, making the rest of the work a lot easier.

I hope you thanked the nice man with some sweet potato biscuits.

PS Instead of a link to the Punxatawney post, how about a nice shot of grassy meadows on a sunny day?; 2/2/11, 12:25 PM
chuck b. said...: "But global warming is responsible for all this snow."

I don't see why it couldn't be. Is the ice not melting in some places? Isn't water going to evaporate and condense and precipitate and accrue in some other place? I don't know much about global warming. Does it espouse violating the first law of thermodynamics about the conservation of mass and energy? Maybe if it was raining instead of snowing global warming would make more sense. A flaw in the design.; 2/2/11, 12:36 PM
dbp said...: I like the way a shoveled driveway looks, so much neater than what a snow blower will do.

I am forced to use a blower though: At around 130 feet long, our driveway is too much work to do by hand. Also, it is very steep and four-wheel drive plow trucks cannot make it up the thing when unplowed.; 2/2/11, 12:42 PM
Irene said...: Five deer flee a truck driving down our street.; 2/2/11, 12:44 PM
Henry said...: omg ... just when I get down on it, pictures like this make me fall in love with New Orleans all over again.; 2/2/11, 12:51 PM
pst314 said...: "an you build igloos in Madison, or do you have to get permits for that?"

Yes, but they have to be at least 1300 square feet, with a concrete foundation, steel studs, up-to-code electric and plumbing, and an entire book full of signed-off permits.

...but since it's an igloo one of the permits is from the local kids who can't wait for you to finish building it.; 2/2/11, 12:52 PM
Toad Trend said...: Damn fine shoveling job.; 2/2/11, 12:53 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Damn fine shoveling job."

It's actually a stage better than that now. There's a broom clean level out there now.; 2/2/11, 1:09 PM
Peter Hoh said...: A broom is an essential tool for keeping a well-shoveled walk.

I take a lot of pride in shoveling by hand, but one of these days, I'm gonna have to give in to the machine.; 2/2/11, 1:14 PM
RHSwan said...: That is why I prefer snow to ice. I've put about 5 pounds of salt on a small part of my driveway and I can't tell I made a difference. It may be weeks before all the ice disappears.; 2/2/11, 1:16 PM
kjbe said...: My husband's that guy who does his neighbors with a machine - been dubbed 'the snow angel', by one.

While he commends those who have the time for the broom method, he also chuckles and says, that's what the sun is for.; 2/2/11, 1:28 PM
Anthony said...: It's like 45 and sunny up here in the pacific northwest and I shall be outside this afternoon recording cemetery monuments. Pbbbblllllt.

Those are the kinds of snowbanks I remember from my youth (through the 1970s). I think we're entering another cool phase and that's about it.; 2/2/11, 1:33 PM
Rich B said...: Now I know what trenches were like in WWI.; 2/2/11, 1:35 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "While he commends those who have the time for the broom method, he also chuckles and says, that's what the sun is for."

The sun is part of the broom method. You expose sidewalk and that absorbs the suns heat, getting everything completely dry, which is the key to avoiding ice. If you let the sun start melting it, you've got water, and it may ice up. It's not just about getting it melted. You have to get it dry. The broom is important!; 2/2/11, 1:35 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: If you want to try Google's netbook for free, you can apply for the pilot program here.

I have been using it for a couple days, and I like it. (And hey, a free computer!); 2/2/11, 1:37 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I hope all you southerners who are posting about how it's warm where you are notice that we northerners don't return the attitude in the summer. Why is that? Is it a north-south etiquette difference or is taunting people who are cold somehow different from taunting people who are sweltering?; 2/2/11, 1:38 PM
Peter Hoh said...: Damn, Althouse. You know the secrets of the broom.; 2/2/11, 1:52 PM
dbp said...: I think it is because when it is sweltering down South, it is also sweltering in the North too.; 2/2/11, 1:54 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "And hey, a free computer!"

It looks like you have to submit to letting them use your name and statements -- as they edit them -- for any sort of advertising purpose.; 2/2/11, 1:55 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I think it is because when it is sweltering down South, it is also sweltering in the North too."

Your October is like our hottest part of summer, I'll bet. We just don't keep trying to make you feel bad about it.; 2/2/11, 1:57 PM
Triangle Man said...: Sweltering?

Not much sweltering going on in Madison. A graphs of 2010 temperature.; 2/2/11, 2:00 PM
MadisonMan said...: Days after a huge snowfall are the best days. Everything is silent (well, once the snowthrowers stop), there's no traffic, and everything outside is clad in pristine white. You really can't beat it.

I don't use the broom method. My sidewalk, however, slopes up to the north, so it's nicely angled for the sun to melt/evaporate any trace of snow I leave behind.; 2/2/11, 2:04 PM
traditionalguy said...: If we southern guys swelter all of the summer, how come so many are fat who live here? It was that invention by a Buffalo NY yankee named Carrier called Air Conditioning. Really, if you are born and raised here, you wont feel that hot in the Summer. That's why we have shade trees, ceiling fans and ice cold Cokes with our Chick-fil-A. May the warming of the globe be with you.; 2/2/11, 2:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Yesterday I noticed a flock of birds flying over just above our Florida treetops - like miniature warplanes trying to avoid enemy radar. This is not the first time I've seen the birds flying low, in fact, they've been flying lower and lower with each passing year.

Now I've figured out why; the view from above is absolutely wretched. I mean, Florida has become the waste-belt of ugly houses and K-Mart decorations - an exercise in bad taste and forgotten manners. All because for a few months each year we're warmer than Wisconsin.; 2/2/11, 2:42 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: This is a good analysis of Winter and Spring seasons, but it suffers the flaw of Hemispherecentrism.

You realize this attitude is completely arbitrary. Please see rotated maps widely in use in the Southern Hemisphere, and get to working on this attitude of yours. You probably hold similar attenuated attitudes regarding your globes and your star maps.; 2/2/11, 2:45 PM
Bob_R said...: With skeeters the size of B-52s it never matters how hot it gets in Madison.; 2/2/11, 2:47 PM
MadisonMan said...: With skeeters the size of B-52s it never matters how hot it gets in Madison.

(Laugh). True.

I find there are about 10 intolerable days with regards to mosquitoes during the summer. These are the really humid, but calm nights when the mosquitoes go crazy.; 2/2/11, 2:58 PM
Kimberly said...: Wow, that's exciting. In two weeks I'll be visiting Madison for the first time (coming from Philly), to see a friend who just moved there and to give a talk at the university. Everyone says Madison is wonderful, but that I'm crazy for visiting in February. I figure that's the only way I'll get the "full experience." I just hope no blizzards disrupt the plane ride from Milwaukee to Madison!; 2/2/11, 3:15 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Two things:

1) I love shoveling snow - especially breaking the ice stuck to the pavement. I don't think less of Meade for letting the snowblower do most of the work, but I would've been cool on that, and did it myself for the workout.

2) Freeman - sweet! I applied, and hope I get one, because this thing's been threatening to die, like, forever. (I have no idea why it's still running.) Thanks.

wv: "demize" - what a new computer will mean to this one's usage, in the ghetto.; 2/2/11, 3:40 PM
MadisonMan said...: 1) I love shoveling snow -

Like Bob Wright, I don't like shoveling snow, but I like having shoveled. There is a sense of accomplishment when the 60-foot-long driveway is all clear.; 2/2/11, 3:47 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: It looks like you have to submit to letting them use your name and statements -- as they edit them -- for any sort of advertising purpose.

True, but you decide what statements, if any, you will submit to them.

So far I've had two aside from the little one on the application (which was purposely pithy so that they might want to use it and would thus have to send me a computer):

"The audio is sometimes garbled." and "Facebook does not seem to recognize the webcam."; 2/2/11, 3:48 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I don't think less of Meade for letting the snowblower do most of the work..."

The snowblower cut a sidewalk path, but the sidewalk path had to be widened, and there was also the driveway and the path to the door, so I think the snowblower did less than 30% of it.; 2/2/11, 4:15 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: You call that snow? Three foot drifts here. Car is buried in driveway. Streets impassible. And the temps are going to drop like a rock tonight.; 2/2/11, 4:45 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: To give you all some hope and a ray of light:

The geese (thousands of Canadian Honkers) in our area are flying northward.... already!! Take heart.

And the seasons they go round and round.; 2/2/11, 4:56 PM
TML said...: I've screwed with people's brains for years with my simple (and correct) observation that December 21st is actually the first day of Summer and June 21st the first day of Winter. Temp, as AA points out, doesn't matter. It's LIGHT. When the days start getting longer, that's Summer. Period. And when they start getting shorter, Winter. Thank you.; 2/2/11, 5:10 PM
The Dude said...: Daffodils are sprouting in my new yard. Saw them yesterday.

WV: hysfilit - breaded chicken womb.; 2/2/11, 5:12 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: I want to frame the predictable Althousian blunderfuck at 12:23 PM where she sarcastically implies that volume of snow is a function of cold temperature and not the increased moisture that's evaporated into the atmosphere. That's a precious one.; 2/2/11, 5:18 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: I'll remember that global cooling is responsible for the torrent of rains we're getting here in the Northeast, in the beginning of February. Yeah. That should mollify her.

Money is more important than science.; 2/2/11, 5:22 PM
The Dude said...: DBQ - how do you know they are Canadian? There as still some Canada geese here, I think some summer over in a nearby pond. Those are American Canada geese.; 2/2/11, 5:37 PM
Meade said...: Thanks to everyone who appreciated my snow shoveling. I'm with MadisonMan - the best part of shoveling snow is when you've finished.; 2/2/11, 5:45 PM
Meade said...: @Kimberly,

We hope you enjoy Madison when you visit in two weeks. If you get a chance, come again in six months and enjoy the Terrace, the bike paths, the lakes and parks. Although, if you cross country ski, snowshoe, or skate, this is a perfect time to visit the city, county, and state parks.; 2/2/11, 5:53 PM
ken in tx said...: I think those who taunt you are not really southerners but rather northerners who have moved south.
Real southerners try to be polite. One time my wife was in line in a store and the person in front of her was very rude to the clerk and had a northern accent. My wife said to her, “I hope you enjoy your visit to South Carolina, I can tell you're not from around here.”; 2/2/11, 7:40 PM