Light & crumbly blog.

As predicted, the big snow came Friday night, thoughtfully after most of the evening commute was over. I arrived home just as the snowfall was hitting full cascade, just enough to coat the streets. Driving on snow isn’t that hard, really. The trick is to not drive like a moron. Which is why it must seem so hard for some people.

By Saturday afternoon, a foot of new white powder covered the ground. Later, as Lilly and I were working on an anthropomorphic snow figure, I noticed that unlike the last big fall, which left wet and heavy, this snow was light and crumbly. Not very good material for a snowman, but we improvised by using a former popcorn drum as a thorax. That’s the spirit: adapt, reuse, make do. This drum, brought to our apartment as a party offering about nine years ago, has been a popcorn container (briefly), all-purpose container, trash can, water bucket, and now snowman part. It may have other uses, till it’s completely rusted out.

For someone I never met, Johnny Carson had a curious resonance, which only shows the reach of television in its network heyday, before fragmentation set in. I think I started paying attention to him when I was 10 or 11, largely because I wanted to see him do Carnac the Magnificent. I was always delighted when I was able to catch that bit. Later, ca. 1974 to 1977, I watched regularly, but usually only the monologue and the gags between the first set of commercials and the second. Then as now (on Letterman or Leno), the celebrity guests didn’t have much appeal. I lost interest in Johnny long before he retired, but I’m not sorry I spent those hours watching.