As regular readers know, The Pond is located near Chicago. If you believe the forecasts, we're currently staring into the barrel of Snowmageddon. A foot or more of the white stuff by noon on Friday, with the worst hitting in the morning.

In preparation for this beast, United Airlines and American Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights into and out of O'Hare for Friday. I saw some quasi-panic buying at the grocery store on the way home from the Duck U. Bookstore this evening ("The End Is Nigh... I need 48 cans of Red Bull!").

This looks like a bad one, but nothing will equal the worst storm I was ever in. Back 15 years ago, I was attending grad school in Minnesota. I Was There during the Great Halloween MegaStorm. The link shows the official numbers, but the real numbers are worse: The Pond (Northern Edition) got 24-1/2 inches of snow in 12 hours.

And after that, the wind jumped to 40-50mph, picked up the top inch or so, and caused blizzard conditions despite it not snowing at the time.

Ever since then, I've not been intimidated by any Illinois storm... but this one looks naughty.

UPDATE 827am: There's six inches or so on The Pond's balcony, and the worst of the storm is reportedly still yet to come. Duck U. is opening at noon.

ANOTHER UPDATE 1101am: Duck U. isn't going to open today, which is smart. Took 'em long enough to decide that, considering that there's another three inches of snow on my balcony since the last update. The town of Duckford has declared a 'State of Emergency'. I think that's a little extreme, but then, I haven't left The Pond at all. Nor do I have a particular desire to do so. Maybe to brush off the Duckmobile later.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE 1235pm: And the snow stopped, as predicted, at noon. Now the shoveling begins...

STILL YET ANOTHER UPDATE 110pm: The Duckmobile is cleaned off, but I'm not going anywhere. The parking lot of The Pond hasn't been plowed yet, and the idiots around here can't understand that if they try to get out of the KNEE-DEEP SNOW with their riddly-plink POS cars, they're gonna get stuck... and they have. The way to get out is to take it in small bites, a foot at a time or so, not to take it all in one go.

And to wait for the plow. Now, if the internet goes out, or even worse the power, I might be able to get out, but only in that level of an emergency. more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:27 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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From sunny and 70 degrees on Thanksgiving to 35 and pouring tonight. And Thursday?

Snow.

Ah, Midwest, could I love you more?

For what it's worth, Anime Night (featuring The Librarian) is Tuesday night; another CCS update should follow along shortly thereafter.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...from the entire Wonderduck family!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:26 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Back in mid-October, I threw up a post entitled "...Just Nod If You Can Hear Me...", which consisted of a lyric from Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb, to whit: "...is there anyone at home?"

SDB replied, "Ain't nobody here but us chickens, Boss."

Flash-forward to today, mid-November. I'm notified that there's a new comment to that post... which these days usually means 'oh boy, new comment spam, whee." But no! It appears to be a real person named Jody, who asks:

"Can anyone tell me where the quote "Nobody here but us chickens, boss" comes from?"

Which I can answer! It's from a song (though the saying probably predates the tune) called "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens." Which, it goes without saying, has been done numerous times by numerous bands, my favorite of which is The Bobs... aka "The World's Greatest Acapella Band." You can see a video of them doing "Chickens" RIGHT HERE!

Actually, the only videos of The Bobs that I can find online truly don't do them justice. For example, I first saw them perform in 1995 or so (at which point, I'd been listening to them for 10 years), with their best lineup: Janie Bob, Joe Bob, Matthew Bob, and Richard Bob. Seeing Janie and Joe just shred on their cover of "White Room" (done without any microphone tricks) was amazing.

And puts THIS version of "White Room" to shame. Amy Bob and Dan Bob are quite good, but watching Joe Bob Finetti do the guitar solo without any electronic trickery (or Janie Bob slamming her mic stand to the ground as she tore into the lyrics) was a special treat.

For more info on The Bobs, go to www.bobs.com, or search myspace for them.

You'll be glad you did.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:45 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Steven had some time to kill today, and in doing so, asked this:

*Look out the window and wonder why there aren't any ducks out there today

It's Sunday... they were all watching football.

By the way, Bears win over the Jets, 10-0. 9-1, baby!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm not really blogging a lot right now. Lack of motivation, mostly. I AM working on an AMV post, but that won't go up until Sunday, like as not.

Just don't have a bunch to say these days, I guess.

I know quite a few peope who would be cheering after reading that last sentence...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:28 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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20061116.1155: Canada detained a man at the Montreal airport that is thought to be a Russian spy. My question is this: what has Canada got that anyone would want to spy on?

Beer.
Moose.
Hockey.
Spider Robinson.
Trees.
Did I say 'Beer'?
Half of Niagra Falls.
Loonies.
...and, most importantly: YOUPPI!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:38 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I've gotten nigh on 60 pieces of comment spam here at The Pond today. This is frickin' ridiculous.

Hey, Comment Spammers... Osaka's got something for you:

Bastiches! All of 'em, bastiches!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There was a post here about something, but I've taken it down. In exchange, here's a picture of my favorite moment from Kanon 2006 so far.

Treehugger? Nope, just Ayu.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:16 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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No Anime Night with The Librarian this week. Not much going on, actually, and I've got no particular hankerin' to blog anything at the moment.

I'm open to suggestions, though. Got anything you folks would like The Pond to look at?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:21 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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