Amid All The Headlines, Snow Was The Big Story

It was a strange week in the news, particularly on the national stage. There was the tragic shooting last weekend in Arizona, which left an outpouring of reaction stories in its wake. There was Sarah Palin, responding to critics in a video released just as the nation paused to mourn the victims. There was President Obama, who paused for almost full minute during a memorial speech he gave in Tucson.

Obama was remembering 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, one of the victims, who had been born on Sept. 11, 2001, the day so much of the madness began.

In Hartford this week, state lawmakers observed a moment of silence, and several local legislators, including state Rep. Tom Reynolds, D-42nd, and state Sen. Edith Prague, D-19th, weighed in on the the shooting and its implications for security and public accessibility. Reynolds saw no need for extra security (especially in this tight budgetary climate) but hoped for a higher level of civil discourse in future campaigns.

Wednesday, Jan. 12, marked the anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince a year ago, claiming at least 200,000 lives and leaving many more homeless. But some of the attention that would have been given locally to that observance was pre-empted by another natural event: The Storm.

Although the one-day total accumulation set records up north, our region received about 15-18 inches. Still enough to close Town Hall for a day and close Ledyard schools for two days. And talk about an outpouring of reaction stories! 

• Cancellations, which were updated throughout the storm (and to which many readers added really cool snow photos).
• There was an explanation of "thundersnow," which was heard around the region early Monday morning.
• There was a parent's snow day survival guide.
• There was our first-ever Snowman Contest, won by Amy Eakin.
• There was a photo feature on getting rid of all that snow.

Even a report on a Boy Scout project to place cannons in front of Town Hall, filed by reporter Tom Fagin, included a photo of cannons half-buried in snow.

We ran a feature on the treated salt used by the town to melt the snow, part of our Going Green series. And next week we hope to run a follow-up on what is left over -- both in the salt shed and in the overtime account.

Finally, we ran this Snow Sculpture in our Where Is It? column. We heard from a couple of residents on this one, including Sally McBee, who knew its location on Lambtown Road all too well.   

One school that didn't close this week was the McKenzie Home School. Judging from the comments, Andrea McKenzie's column, School House, seems to be gaining a real following.

In sports this week, there were a couple of thrilling victories for the Ledyard High School girls' basketball team that almost went unnoticed by Patch except for Larry Kelley's winter sports round-up.  Larry also caught up with Colonels wrestler Brendan Sullivan and sprinter Emily Loy. 

Huskies columnist Mark Osborne opined on why UConn fans should not fret that hoops star Kemba Walker is no longer the nation's leading scorer. Elsewhere in Huskies Nation, UConn hired a new football coach this week, Paul Pasqualoni, a Cheshire native and former head coach at Syracuse. We wish him all the best.

The Patriots take the first big step toward regaining a world championship Sunday when they face the Jets in round one of the NFL playoffs. The Lyons family will be at Foxboro to root for the Pats. 

One of my favorite stories of the week took place Monday morning at the Ledyard Senior Center, where yoga instructor Karen Clark led her class of 16 pupils through their stretches and poses. For me, it was one of the nicest, most relaxing hours of the whole week. I had planned to use Karen's photo to lead the page on Wednesday. But, of course, there was all that snow.

Bonus: If your really can't get enough snow, check out some of these sledding videos, compiled by Montville Patch editor Carrie Jacobson.