Monday Rant: What's That Red Thing?

I looked out my kitchen window yesterday morning while making a mug of coffee and really couldn't believe what I saw. A small flock (is that what we even call that?) of right red cardinals congregating at my neighbor's bird feeder. Maybe I'm stuck in some other dimension, but something tells me that cardinals are one of the first signs of summer.

It has been one brutal five to six weeks of bitter winter weather here in the Northeast. It seemed as if every week there was another storm rolling through. Just as bad as the storms themselves (or even extreme cold which we dealt with twice) was the panic that ensued prior to the weekly arrivals. The news networks were mostly responsible for that by pumping destruction for three days leading up to each run-in with the weather.

When the hell did we start referring to winter storms as names that sound like something out of Greek or Roman mythology? Like two years ago? That has lead me to the conclusion that the news stations have realized how to pull in viewers and ratings. Name the storms just like we do for Hurricanes. Hype everything up, tell everyone that it's going to be so bad that they hinge on everything you broadcast. Maybe make up a few dangerous-sounding new weather terms like "Polar Vortex"? Honestly, it was actually made up. Hence the panic. I don't want to hear the "it's going to be a bad summer" people either because that's the biggest fallacy in the book. By that logic, if a following season was bad because a previous one was bad also we'd have bad seasons for the rest of eternity. That makes no sense.

It's almost a close comparison when you look at the hysteria for important seasonal beer releases. People fight for the opportunity to get some in a few cases. Also similar is the early release of seasonal beers that have got to the point of being out so early that it's completely out-of-season. I've shared my disdain for such situations, but I'm sure many of us that were upset with that would give anything for some spring and summer brews to appear on the shelves quite soon. It might not do the trick of getting rid of all this bad weather, but it would get us that much closer in our minds.