Oh wait, wrong picture. I was referring to the other white horror.

The Blizzard of ‘aught 10 that dumped 30 inches of snow in Baltimore, Maryland, 28 inches in Philadelphia, and 16 inches in New York City. For areas that average very little snow yearly (1.18, .79, and 1.14 inches, respectively), the blizzard left many people extremely unprepared and under-equipped. The terms “snowmageddon” and “snowpacalypse” have been bandied about.

I sympathize with those affected. I’ve always lived in areas that cycled the four seasons to their fullest. Snow is cold, it’s messy, it gets in way, it makes driving or walking impossible at the worst times, an annoyance at other times, and often treacherous for even experienced winter drivers.

My condolences however vanished when people lost their flipping minds and started acting like they are the first people in the history of the world to experience a heavy snowfall. East Coasters, you should know the people living in upstate New York (who average 90 inches a year), are currently telling you to shut your whiney pie hole.

In the past few days, I’ve heard news reports on how the storm has affected all parts of society. The kids that can’t go to school, the people who can’t make it to work. The service industries that have suffered or boomed. The most agonizing (for me) was listening to people complain about the salt that gets tracked in, dirtying carpets, oh the humanity. I take that back, the Today Show clip I just watch telling people how to clear snow off and around their car was the most agonizing, there goes five minutes of my life I’ll never get back. As a point of general reference, it doesn’t matter how much you tell people to use common sense; if you have to explain that one needs to remove the snow from windows prior to driving, then you’re talking to a bag of rocks.

If you want someone to pity, think of the unfortunate Parisians.