Good ol’ Minne-snow-ta is here

Feel free to blame me for this rough wintery weather if you want to.

I do take some of the blame. I broke one of the cardinal rules of being a Minnesotan. I bragged.

Back in December I was spouting off that we had all these 40 plus degree days. And, we didn’t have any snow. In fact, I said to a few people, there is no snow in my yard and my grass is beginning to turn green.

I might have to get out the mower. And put the snow blower away until next year, I said half jokingly.

OK, yes I know. That was a dumb thing to do. Minnesotans never brag. They all know it will come back to bite them.

Of course, some Minnesotans like to actually brag about how bad the weather is here. Yep, they say, it was negative 50 degrees the other day. I actually had to put on a hat and coat, they add.

And when someplace in the U.S. gets shut down with an inch or two of snow? What a bunch of wimps we say. Come to Minnesota and we’ll show you some real snow.

Well, that is pretty darn true this week, you betcha.

I mean, I can handle shoveling snow once a week during the winter. But lately it has been every day.

Actually, it is not just us here in good ol’ Minne-snow-ta. It is all across the Midwest, all over the East Coast, Seattle on the West Coast even in California and Arizona, for crying out loud.

And I think Hawaii had some snow for the first time since, well, since forever.

The truth, however, is that Minnesotans think they own the rights to winter, and are kind of used to this sort of weather in January and February. Heck, we get snow in March, April and even May many years.

And didn’t you find it just so apropos that Minnesota’s U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar announced her candidacy for the presidency of these United States while speaking outdoors in the middle of a heavy snow fall?

It was perfect, I thought.

What better scene for a person from Minnesota to make a national announcement than with a little snow on her head. Or even a lot of snow on her head.

Now the question is, does Klobuchar have a snowball’s chance in H E double hockey sticks of being elected? Or maybe she has a snowball’s chance in Minnesota in February of surviving the crowded race and getting the nomination, then winning in 2020.

The problem, of course, is her lack of name recognition anywhere other than in Minnesota. She just is not that well known across the country.

On the other hand, there are 10 Democrats who have declared themselves as running for president, and they don’t all have great name recognition in Minnesota, either.

Senator Klobuchar was slated to speak at the Minnesota Newspaper Association convention at the end of January, and speculation was that she could possibly surprise everyone with an early announcement of her candidacy at that time.

You know, indoors, in front of a lot of cameras and journalists. But, you know, outdoors in the snow works too.

While Klobuchar could not attend the convention because she had to fly back to Washington for the vote on ending the government shutdown, she did furnish a 15 minute video of herself speaking to the newspaper persons present.

It was a good speech, where she graciously accepted the Distinguished Service to Journalism Award given to her by the newspaper association.

She also spoke about her love of newspapers, her father being a renowned reporter and columnist for the Star-Tribune, and her strong belief in Freedom of the Press and the people’s right to know.

That kind of theme works well at a newspaper convention, trust me on that.

And, speaking of the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press, I have to share what my personal favorite Super Bowl television commercial was.

Perhaps you noticed it as well. It came on right during the 2-minute warning at the end of the game.

The commercial was narrated by Tom Hanks. It started off showing some important events in history, then talked about American’s right to be informed, and the Freedom of the Press. Then it went on to honor several journalists who were killed while doing their jobs including Jamal Khashoggi.

It ended with Hanks saying “knowing empowers us, knowing helps us decide, knowing keeps us free.”

The final tag line was “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Then it was revealed the ad was created and placed by the Washington Post their first TV ad ever.

After all those beer commercials, this one was a breath of fresh air and was filled with a whole lot of meaning.

You could Google it and find it and watch it for yourself, in case you missed it because, you know, you were out shoveling snow.