October 31, 2014

To you, this may be Halloween.

To me, it was the last day I could win my snow bet with Meade...

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... and I won.

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41 comments:

m stone said...

Nothing like a good gloat.

Except a compliment.

Unknown said...

I had to wear a light jacket in this a.m. (motorcycle commuter) in Austin. Got below 60 last night.

Bob Ellison said...

Nice bet! Wow!

Meade said...

I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.

Anonymous said...

That is how we know you are not a Democrat at heart, Meade

MartyH said...

According to something I read on the Internet, Madison gets its first snowfall in October about 25% of the time. A good bet by Meade if he did not offer odds, even if he lost. Unless he was counting on some of that global warming that has failed to materialize to increase his chances...

Shanna said...

Snow already?

It got cold here last night, it's in the 50's today. Saturday it was high 80s.

Ann Althouse said...

LOL, Meade. Then what explains your effort to argue that the standard of what counts as "snow" was higher than what we saw sticking and showing on the ground this morning.

My friends, he actually argued that the standard was enough that the sidewalks would need to be shoveled!

Would I have picked "under" when he chose November 1st if that had been the standard?

And to attempt the subtlety of merely putting up a hoary old quote about cheating… and to seem to portray that as "failing with honor"…

Hmmmph. I was all: "Who said that? Nixon?"

rhhardin said...

We had that much in Central Ohio a month ago. None since.

Original Mike said...

Have they closed the schools?

Meade said...

Ha. You misremembered the standard, my delicate little remontant flower. Let me remind you — the snow must be enough to need removal from the sidewalk.

It's practically in the constitution.

MadisonMan said...

My friends, he actually argued that the standard was enough that the sidewalks would need to be shoveled!

We did have frozen precipitation earlier this month, too -- on the 4th, I saw it falling! -- but that was recorded as ice pellets at the airport.

Sidewalks haven't had to be shoveled because of snow here in October that I can remember. Why shovel when the snow will melt by itself in a day?

gerry said...

Pesky global warming.

Meade said...

There. Forgive me my appeal to authority but after all, if MadisonMan is not the Weather Authority®, then no one is.

Ann Althouse said...

I hope you readers perceive the distinction Meade is making at 8:53 AM.

It's the shovel/broom distinction… in response to my "he actually argued that the standard was enough that the sidewalks would need to be shoveled."

The standard was only whether some tool would been needed on the sidewalks.

Some tool.

gerry said...

A new word for me: remontant. A perpetually flowering rose...how romantic!

Meade said...

She parses just like a little girl.

Original Mike said...

Meade is a tool if he cleared the sidewalk this morning (sorry, Meade).

Patrick said...

My first Halloween in MN had a snowfall that left us with over two feet on the ground. No dispute there.

Anonymous said...

It isn't snow unless you can make snow angels.

Awww.

Ann Althouse said...

Not perpetually blooming, but repeatedly blooming.

The flower in the picture is liriope, and it's remontant because it bloomed in the spring then bloomed again in the fall.

Ann Althouse said...

Literally: remounting.

Meade said...

Yeah. Perpetually would be a rather high standard.

Anonymous said...

Snowy Day Women #12 & 35

Everybody must get snowed...

Meade said...

from Wikipedia: The term originated in the nineteenth century from the French verb remonter or 'coming up again'.

madAsHell said...

Dare I ask......what was the wager?

Meade said...

my dear sweet friend...

when the roses fade
and I'm in the shade...


Warning: NSFDH (not safe for Dylan-haters)

tim in vermont said...

The standard here in Vermont is that it isn't snow unless it at least drifts enough for my lab to swim in it.

chickelit said...

Althouse gloats "I won."

Meade, get the shovel ready.

Meade said...

And to attempt the subtlety of merely putting up a hoary old quote about cheating… and to seem to portray that as "failing with honor"…

Hmmmph. I was all: "Who said that? Nixon?"


"... and I won."

And I'm all: "Who said THAT?"

FleetUSA said...

Meade sounds like he wants to move the goalposts.

Ah and also, the end of AGW is increasingly clear.

Meade said...

"goalposts"

heh heh.

LYNNDH said...

I go with Meade. That's not snow. Snow Completely covers the ground, like a good pizza is completely covered in peperoni.

MadisonMan said...

If you ask anyone today in Madison who was up before 8, and who looked outside, if it snowed last night, they will say Yes.

If you then say "Well, it doesn't count because you didn't have to shovel it" you will most likely get a patronizing single lifted eyebrow. (Think Mr. Spock).

Thankfully, I brought in most of my plants last night for overwintering. I doubt the Sinningia would have survived. I did leave out the rosemary -- that comes in tonight.

The Savage Noble said...

"the snow must be enough to need removal from the sidewalk."

I focus on the word "need". Had it been a foot of solid cover snow, would Mead have pointed out that with snowshoes, the sidewalk would not need clearing?

Anonymous said...

Patrick,

Are you talking about the Halloween blizzard of 1991? I had just moved to St. Paul in September. It was a brutal wake-up for someone not from the upper Midwest.

David said...

It is snow, Meade. And the only way for it to get there was to fall.

You needed a lawyer when you made the bet and you didn't do it.

(Althouse, you did advise him to get his own counsel, right?)

Meade said...

The Savage Noble said...
"the snow must be enough to need removal from the sidewalk."

I focus on the word "need". Had it been a foot of solid cover snow, would Mead have pointed out that with snowshoes, the sidewalk would not need clearing?

"Need" in the sense of IT'S THE LAW. And then I would appeal to her love of self government.

If that didn't work, I would then ask her to educate me in the meaning of the phrases "spirit of the law" and "shadow of the law".

Finally, I would appeal to her unflagging sense of wifely duty, at which point she would say (not necessarily in these exact words): "You are so right, my dear husband. Let me show you just how right you are."

Snow what I mean?

Unknown said...

The United States government precludes any seminary from discriminating against any religion if that seminary enters its prison system to educate prisoners.

Southwestern Baptist Seminary has the choice to allow Muslims into the Baptist Seminary or opt out of prison ministries.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

If the standard is that "the snow must be enough to need removal from the sidewalk", there is a threshold question of what "need" means.

For a snow falling overnight here in Cambridge, Massachusetts, you would have until 1pm to remove it. You do not "need" to remove it if it melts before then.

Ann Althouse said...

"Snow what I mean?"

Yeah, I do.