Will It, or Won't It?

An annual North Texas ritual began this afternoon with the confirmation that the rain we had been experiencing most of the day was about to turn to snow. This guarantees that people who don't normally watch or listen to the news on TV or radio will be huddled by the nearest electronic device, hoping to find out whether or not we'll get a snow day tomorrow.

True winter weather never makes enough appearances in this area to lessen the excitement factor of having it in the forecast. Even the snow we had right before Christmas almost didn't "count," because most people were already off from school or work, and half the fun of a snow day is getting an unexpected holiday out of it.

More often than not, the forecast of snow in this area is much ado about nothing, because it so rarely pans out at all, much less give anyone a day off. If I were a betting man, I'd say that this one would fall into that category, just because it's not supposed to get below freezing tonight. (Part of this is wishful thinking, too, because this is "pay week" for me in the public schools, and Wednesday is an awfully long teaching day to miss collecting all those checks for a whole week. Besides, it's solo and ensemble for the high schoolers this weekend, and I don't want to miss their last lessons before the competition.) The only sign that favored the snow so far was that, when I left the college a little bit ago, the sky just looked like snow was on the way; I can't describe it any better than that.

So, like just about everybody else around here, I'll plan for a school day, with the only change being that I'll look out the window and turn on the radio right when I wake up. Time will tell...

NEXT DAY UPDATE: No snow at all; not diddley squat. Pretty much what I expected.

Silly signage update: Last school year, I devoted a fair amount of space on this site to making fun of a local restaurant for its badly-spelled or poor-grammar-ridden signs. That place has gotten much better since then, but in the past week, I've seen some new ones:

At a McDonald's in the area: TRY OUR NEW McGRIDDELS
(this did get fixed a few days ago)

At a local middle school: BENCHMARK TESTING THIS WEEK. DO GOOD.
(One hopes that English was not among the subjects being tested, if the goal is for everyone to do "good." Unless, of course, the students are expected to exhibit outstanding citizenship in addition to doing well on the tests...)

Joke of the Day: (actually from yesterday, but still funny)
A beautiful student goes to a male professor's office and says, in a breathy voice, "Professor . . . . I'd do anything to get an A on your exam."

"Anything?," the professor asks, conspiratorially.

The student leans closer. "Anything," she says.

The professor says, "Would you . . . study?"
(from a recent post on the Volokh Conspiracy)

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my frat bro James; hope to see ya soon.