20 Shades of Snow

At times, a blog post becomes a "me too" undertaking. The blogger concurs with the painfully obvious.

In internet terms, he or she affirms belief in yet another 100 000-plus Google results list. And that's okay.

So, the myth about the incredible number of Inuit words for snow has been put to rest. So much so that I won't even link to a specific website for corroboration.

In German, you could pointedly say the myth has become "Schnee von gestern" (literally: yesterday's snow, or "water under the bridge"). And given that the German language is rich in composite words, where you put two or more together to form a 'new' word, you can claim with some justification that the Germans may have as many words for snow than the Inuit.

A sample:
Neuschnee - new, or fresh snow
Altschnee  - old snow
Hartschnee - hard snow
Schneeregen - sleet
Pulverschnee - powdery snow

Okay, it gets boring.

The single aspect I love about snow in the many small towns and villages is that it furthers social interaction.
The swooshing of brooms and the ear-piercing scratching of metal on sidewalk surfaces becomes an invitation to bundle up and join the neighbors in clearing the sidewalks.

It is the perfect opportunity for a chat about the weather and whatever else you want to talk about. It is a moment during which you can reassure yourself about the good health of the 90 year old lady from across the street, or the perfect setting for finding out which of your neighbors has become so snowblind that they block your driveway again.

And it is great excercise, too, unless you are the guy from one block down who upgraded from shovel to a lawn mover cum snowplough in a vertitable arms race of snow removal.

The irony in this is that German administrations have consciously reduced their snow clearing effort out of both enviornmental concerns (less damaging salt) and financial ones. Hence, what used to be meant as a disparaging joke about goverment incompetence is no longer absurd enough to generate more than a tortured smile:

Q: What do the cities of Cologne, Germany, and Mecca, Saudi Arabia, have in common?
A: They have the same number of snowploughs.