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February 05, 2007

It kinda goes with the territory...

Sometimes I really wonder about how much journalists understand the topics that they're reporting on. Take a recent CBC article on an a vegetable-head snow sculpture (from Canadian Press), for example...
"Despite the subzero temperatures Saturday, the sculptors said they enjoyed the camaraderie and enthusiasm of the crowd."
"Despite the subzero temperatures"? It's kind of hard to have a sculpture competition without them!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha Ha.... I saw that story as well. Nice catch on your part.

I had more amusement from the front page story on cnn.com "Arctic blast across North". About schools in Ohio, New York, Wisconsin, etc shut down today due to temperatures that were between 5F above and 4F below zero.

Anonymous said...

-5F is actually pretty cold for an area that should be in the 30s during this time of the year. -5F=-20C With wind chill and humidity it should be even colder. That's actually quite cold for even our part of the world up here!

Also, maybe i'm naive... please explain to me why we aren't able to have snow sculptures above sub zero temperatures? For instance, I'm able to go to Blackcomb/Whistler for spring skiing and the temperature during those times are +20C... Wouldn't it be possible to build a snow sculpture above zero and just have the thing melt slowly? For instance, haven't you seen ice sculptures that just sit there at parties or cruises for decoration? They still last for quite some time!

Anonymous said...

Hehe. Reminds me of the time when I was up in Dawson an American tourist was flabbergasted about the idea of an ice bridge.....then asked where we kept the ice bridge in the summer.

Or in Whitehorse, when another tourist, from Texas commented on how many electric cars were in town.....because all the cars had electrical plugs on the front of them.

Meandering Michael said...

Shockr, Carving warm, wet snow is a miserable experience. -20oC is the best snow carving temperature, in my opinion, for both "wet" and "dry" snow.

Anonymous, too funny. It reminds me of the time the manager of Acho Dene Native Crafts in Fort Liard told me about the tourist (from who knows where) who, while looking at some moosehair tuftings, asked, in all seriousness, what time of year you need to collect the moose hair to get all those different colours.