Ice storms and downed power lines. Nothing new here. My NE CT hometown had an ice storm in Dec ’73 that knocked power out for five days. Good thing we had a fireplace—which my father had installed some time back. We had a gas stove, so primitive that it didn’t use electric ignition, for cooking meals during the power outage.

+ Bonus!

“$14 TRILLION NGO EMPIRE: TAX EXEMPT, VOTER PROOF;
“An essay citing Federal Reserve Financial Accounts says U.S. NGOs held $14.12 trillion in assets as of Q2 2025, which is bigger than the combined 2025 GDP of Japan, Germany, and India …”
https://instapundit.com/763895/

“California is the Fraud Capital of America…”—
https://instapundit.com/764090/

…which should certainly make Tim Walz and Keith Ellison feel a whole lot better…

(Gosh! That Harris/Walz—Cal/Minn—ticket was really something!)

But not so fast, Timmy:

‘…”The amount of money that’s been stolen is larger than the entire GDP of Somalia’—
https://instapundit.com/764006/

And then there’s the rain in Maine (and no doubt many other places)….

“Maine’s Medicaid program bilked out of millions of dollars in Somali fraud, whistleblower claims”—
https://nypost.com/2025/12/10/us-news/maines-medicaid-program-bilked-out-of-millions-of-dollars-in-somali-fraud-whistleblower-claims/

File under: (Rotheringham) Rape of America

Ah, rotor! I didn’t mention that. One dare not tempt the gods by badmouthing rotor, and Minden is right under the worst of it.

When I was towing into rotor I was always eager to have the glider release as soon as we felt the first signs of laminar flow, because it was nasty stuff and I knew I’d have to return to the airport through the worst of it. It always made the hair on my neck stand up. The friend who just made the long flight to Kansas used to have me tow him into wave and he was never in a hurry to release no matter how many times I’d ask him if he was ready.

My worst experience was with a pilot who was not confident towing into wave so I went along as instructor/safety pilot. He rolled inverted as soon as we hit rotor and shouted “you’ve got it!” I released around 6,500′ AGL in a column of air that was sinking fast. It took me a full ten seconds (on the logger) to get us out of the dive, at which point we had lost 4,000′. I asked him if he wanted the control back and he said “you keep it. Take me home.” Remembering it still gives me chills.

My worst experience in rotor

I’ll take my snow in photographs, thanks.

After I launched, towed by a light power plane, the tow-pilot landed and taxied to a stop. When he was reminded that more gliders were waiting for a tow, he just said “No more flying today!” and went into his camper and poured himself a scotch. When I got down, after kissing the ground, I joined him!

I believe the story behind the original is it was something Frank Loesser and his wife would sing for fun at their Holiday party and guests encouraged them to publish it.

There are two versions in the film, “Neptune’s Daughter.” The first is the traditional male – female version where Ricardo Montalban is trying to seduce Esther Williams. The second, the one you linked, is a comedic spoof with an eager young woman trying to get a man.