Snow, snow, snow
Cats: Canada|In January we poor wretches of the north climes spend a lot of time shovelling. And as we we shovel, we have time to meditate. And what do we ponder? Well, snow of course.
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Here are a few more types of snow, sent to me by other shovellers who ponder.
1. The “husband had a shoulder replacement therefore I do all the shovelling” snow. This is very closely related to marital-disharmony snow, which always falls when one of the shovellers in the household is not in residence.
2. The “He does the shovelling” snow. Prompts shoveller to dig two wheel ruts into driveway and lumpy path to door. This snow drives Her to distraction because it requires Her to go out and do the job properly.
3. The “She does the shovelling” snow. The driveway is shovelled clean with edges squared off perfectly. This snow makes Him happy because he can sit inside and continue to watch the football game.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Wellllll…the Inuit do have a lot of words for snow. Their language almost demands it. Things we would consider adverbs or adjectives are tacked onto the end of a root word as a suffix. So there will be individual words for things like “snow blowing in the wind”.
You will often hear that there are a certain number of Inuktitut words for “snow” (100 being the most commonly-claimed number). I don’t think anyone could come up with a definitive list. You could come up with a heck of a lot of words for snow, all using the same couple of root words.
I don’t know if I’ve just busted the urban legend or confirmed it. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Megan (from north of 60)
January 25th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I keep it pretty simple. The snow on the driveway is ‘bad’ snow; the rest is ‘good’ snow.
When snowshoeing there is ‘good’ snow and ‘bad’ snow.
There are ‘good’ snowstorms on the weekends, and ‘bad’ snowstorms during the week.
So it depends what you are trying to do. If ones only interaction with snow is removing it from the driveway then it’s all bad.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I am far too familiar with # 3. But that is my own fault for being a snow shovelling perfectionist.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Poor snow!! It’s really being given a bum rap. How about all the good adult snow types (there’s so many good kids’ snow things I wont even mention them) Here’s just a few of the good snow types for adults.
1. More beautiful scenery snow
2. Can’t get to work snow
3. Makes better skiing snow
4. The kids are out of the house playing in the snow snow
5. I’m going to enjoy my Florida trip more snow
So come on folks, lets leave poor snow alone and complain about something more rational, like the stock market or politicians.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Hi Gail: I love your herald column–I skate at the same rink as your dad and have told him how much I enjoy your humor. One question–is bourbon as good as you make it sound? BTW I totally agree with your take on snow. As far as I’m concerned once Christmas is over snow can leave as well and not return until Christmas of the next year. And what’s with this COLD weather? Don’t even get me started!! Shirley Kyte, Sydney, N.S.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Dick, bad snow, good snow, I don’t know snow…
OMP, I like the “kids around going out to play for a week” snow
Shirley thank you. And I think we’re getting more snow tonight
January 28th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I was thinking about your column as I was shovelling snow in the pouring rain at 8:30 a.m. this morning. I was calling it “WTF this snow is like wet concrete snow” although I didn’t use only initials and I certainly didn’t just mutter it under my breath!!!
January 29th, 2008 at 6:59 am
IT was horrible YAM, I’m nursing a sore shoulder after yesterday’s shovelling. Can we sue snow?
January 29th, 2008 at 10:52 am
From my perspective, yesterday was a classic example of ‘pop out for an hour and return to miraculously clear driveway snow’. And my shoulder isn’t sore at all … thanks Gifted Shoveller (sic)
January 29th, 2008 at 10:57 am
How long is your freakin’ driveway? We’re still going outside from time to time to keep at it.
Oh, and by the way, did I mention that the f*&%ing snowplow did a number on the mailboxes???? Ralph the neighbour has his duct-taped back on, I kid you not.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Ugh! the mailbox-wrecker snow.
It’s not very long but dangerous in that it’s on a slope with slopes on each side. You can easily slip and end up under the car.