Frozen Chicken

Sure enough, shoveling snow can be deadly. But enough about snow, though we got a little more today. That's no the big weather deal around here anymore anyway. Tom Skilling, weather lord of the Tribune, writes of the Arctic blast that is headed our way (my bold): "Saturday's jarring weather change will develop as 150 m.p.h. jet-stream winds align with the low-level flow to whisk cruelly cold Arctic air into the area. The incoming air mass caused temperatures as low as 72 below in Chicken, Alaska, early Thursday--the coldest to occur in that state in more than eight years."

When you've reached such a low, that's news even in Alaska. More importantly, I've learned of the existence of the town of Chicken (be sure to see the Buy Stuff page at this site). My ignorance of place-names in Alaska is shocking: I never knew about Chicken. There on the Mosquito River, not too far (by Alaska standards) from the town of Eagle. It was worth getting out of bed this morning just to find that out.