Happy Turkey Traveling

By Matt Wood in Miscellaneous on Nov 23, 2005 2:53PM

Remember those funny little day calendars our parents had during the 80s with words for all those unexplained every day things in life, like the piece of plastic on the end of a shoelace, or the little dance you do when you run into someone and neither one of you can figure out which way to go? They were called Sniglets. Well, there should be a Sniglet for the sound Chicagoist makes when we take our dog outside first thing in the morning and see that it's snowing, something other than "Shit!" And there should be a variation on that word for when snow appears on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Something starting with an F, followed by 30 U's, and ending in CK.

Tom Skilling says that this might be the coldest Thanksgiving in 50 years, dropping to the teens tomorrow *plus* 30 mph wind gusts. Kinda makes that flask of whisky you'll be packing tomorrow to deal with Uncle Barney that much more practical. Hey, remember two weeks ago when it was 66 degrees?

The snow won't be that bad for Chicago, but our friends on the other side of the lake in Indiana and Michigan (where Chicagoist will attempt to travel tomorrow, of course) are going to get pounded by the lake effect. But traveling anywhere today, by car or plane, will suck hard. At the first sign of a flurry the expressways grind to a halt. Not that you don't already know that. Every TV station in town is sending their B-list reporters to stand on a Dan Ryan overpass in an Elmer Fudd hat and look really, really cold so we don't forget. So from Amy Jacobson, Sharon Wright, and Juan Carlos Fanjul, Happy Thanksgiving!