Boston Globe Small Talk

On the front page.

"The winter that wasn’t; High highs, high lows inspire a regional identity crisis" by David Filipov  |  Globe Staff, March 23, 2012

This will go down as The Year We Had No Winter.

It’s a meteorological phenomenon certainly, but also a psychological test for many New Englanders, who pride themselves on surviving the bitter onslaught that is our calling card, our birthright....  

Speak for yourself.

Something about this balmy March doesn’t sit right.

The things that make us rock-ribbed Yankees have disappeared like a puny snowfall on unseasonably warm asphalt. We pride ourselves on the toughness to withstand frigid, blizzardy blasts. The Winter That Wasn’t took it all away....   

Who is this "we" the reporter keeps referring to?

That which beckons Bostonians to don flip-flops and roll out the Grill Master could spell doom for wood frog tadpoles and spotted salamanders.

While the warmer weather may not necessarily portend 40 years of darkness, earthquakes, and volcanoes, we could endure drought, forest fires, and an invasion of voracious, leaf-devouring tent caterpillars.

Of course, lots of people haven’t missed winter. Maybe something about dashing through the mud just doesn’t cut it, but we also avoided mud season. Does anyone really miss mud? Heating bills? Who needs a spring break in Fort Myers now that Massachusetts has become Key West without conchs?

Retailers are thrilled, said Mike Tesler, of Retail Concepts, a Norwell consulting firm. Stores are stocked with June collections, and people want them. They go to the mall, they buy stuff from other stores, they finish it off with an iced coffee at Panera Bread.

“A year like this, everybody’s happy,’’ Tesler said. “There’s a lot of euphoria.’’

So what of hardiness?

Our hardiness, explained Jere Daniell, a retired professor of history at Dartmouth and a lifelong New Englander, lies in our ability to adapt.

“One of the things that comes from New England is that you accept what happens,’’ Daniell said. “The regional culture is one in which you make do.’’

“Whinyness is not part of our culture,’’ he said.

And so we soldier on, snowless but unbent, with a stoic belief that things will return to normal....

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I'm sorry, I started drifting off as I often do when people are making small talk.

Also see: Snow removal companies facing the unthinkable

"Towns struggle without electricity after tornadoes; Cellular signals, Internet widely unavailable" by Tom LoBianco  |  Associated Press, March 05, 2012

HENRYVILLE, Ind. - Under a patched-up 6-foot hole in the roof, people in the devastated town of Henryville gathered Sunday at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church to worship and catch up on news of their devastating tornado by word of mouth, not with cellphones or e-mail.

At least 38 people were killed in the storm system that struck Friday night, and rescuers were still going door to door in rural areas to rule out more victims. Some of the worst damage stretched on either side of the Ohio River between Indiana and Kentucky.

An Indiana toddler found in a field after the tornadoes died Sunday after being taken off life support, bringing one story of survival to a sad close. Fifteen-month-old Angel Babcock of New Pekin, Ind., was found alive after her family’s mobile home was destroyed in Friday’s storms. Her father, mother, and two siblings were killed.

The storms also thrashed the conveniences of modern life: Cellphone signals were hard to find, Internet was out, and electricity indefinitely interrupted. People went back to basics or got creative to learn about their loved ones and begin rebuilding.

“It’s horrible. It’s things you take for granted that aren’t there anymore,’’ said Jack Cleveland, 50, a Census Bureau worker....

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Also see: Storming Through the Boston Globe

"Severe rains hit Midwest; falling tree kills Calif. girl" Associated Press, March 20, 2012

A heavy snowstorm hit northern Arizona and California over the weekend. Flood warnings were issued from southeast Texas north through western Missouri on Monday, but after a year of drought in much of the region, fears of flooding are not what they otherwise might be in several states, where the ground is expected to absorb inches of rain with ease....

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More:

Storms, tornadoes rip through south-central US

"SNOWY START TO SPRING -- Keaton Young, 12, (left) and Ulises Obledo, 10, enjoyed an early spring snowball fight Wednesday in Corvallis, Ore. The storm dropped several inches of snow on the southern Willamette Valley (Boston Globe March 22 2012)."  

Yeah, no mention of global warming, either.