Weather As An Inconvenient Football

When my expectations are exactly fulfilled, I feel that something uncanny has happened.Mason Cooley (b. 1927), (1994).

Porcupine has spent much of the last two days watching the various football playoff games. The Colts over the Ravens was especially gratifying, as Peyton Manning, who Porcupine despises, was not allowed any glory in that game, while the Patriot's Adam Vinitieri won the game with five field goals. The Saints finished a fairy-tale season in their Super Dome victory over the Eagles. The Bears were able to nose past the Seahawks, making the first round draft pick which the Patriots got in return for Deion Branch a little more valuable. Likewise, the Patriots were able to prevail today over what is a superior Chargers team with cunning and perseverance.

However, in between games and analysis, Porcupine was treated to a series of weather related newscasts and warnings, showing cars in Oklahoma strewn about upon ice coated roads like child's toys, and deepening snow throughout the Midwest. However, when he strode into his own snowless front yard this morning to get his paper, even the gray looking day was reasonably warm. It was while listening to Shannon Sharpe say something exceptionally foolish even for him that the thought struck him.

Everybody is getting the winter they are expecting.

With the release of 'An Inconvenient Truth', the debate about global warming has gotten even more intense. Here in the northeast, where the lightest words of Al Gore are received truth, we are having a snowless and warm winter. In the Midwest, where global warming faces a much more skeptical audience, repeated blizzards will impact any credibility the film might have.

One point the movie makes is that snows and storms which are unexpected are a part of global warming just as much as unseasonable warmth, but it is a much harder case to make to a man under an avalanche.

So, as even the weather conspires to deepen our national divide, Porcupine will return to football. At least until February.