IT'S like Nietzsche said: What doesn't kill us, immobilize us, congeal us or bury us makes us stronger.
Snow happens. Especially here in Winterpeg. The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts that Manitoba is due for an above-average snowfall this season. The heaviest dumps will reportedly occur in mid-December, late January and early to mid-February.
Lisa Lynn, an expat Canuck living in Hermosa Beach, Calif., is envious. Lynn misses the white stuff so much that she helps stage that community's annual Snowman Building Contest.
"The snowmen are built out of sand but are shaped like the traditional character," she says of the December competition.
That Paris Hilton is the closest thing to a flake the Pacific locale will ever see is beside the point. "One year we did truck some (snow) in. We created a sled run and a snow pit on the boardwalk, adjacent to the beach."
They need not have gone to the trouble. Greg Andrews of the Massachusetts-based SnowSource General Store (www.snowsource.com) says his product, SnoWonder Instant Snow, looks and feels just like the real, frigid McCoy. Pour a bowl of the just-add-water compound over the genuine article and you won't be able to tell the difference, Andrews boasts.
"Orders come from all geographic regions, not just warmer climates where it doesn't snow. Our largest order to date was for $800 worth of snow for a Christmas party in Washington, D.C."
No offence, Greg, but you could probably count the number of Winnipeggers who would pay for snow on one gloved hand. Most of us have a been-there, shovelled-that mentality. But given the time of year, we thought it would be appropriate to take a closer look at snow, in its many shapes and forms. Hold onto your tuques, here we go...
Twenty below (par)
TIGER Woods wannabes who can't wait until spring to tee it up will want to pay a visit to Canada's first regulation snow golf course, opening in January 2007 near Quebec City's renowned Ice Hotel.
Owner/chief architect Tina Blomme says the 18-hole public layout should remain in play until April, weather depending.
"We will be hosting the first official snow golf championships, March 10-11," Blomme says. "Snow golf balls will be used and the rules will be released to the players at the course once they are ratified. There will be a golf pro at the course, as well."
Blomme drew inspiration for her venture from the snow golfing hot spot of Uummannaq, Greenland. That particular setting -- located 600 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle -- has hosted the World Ice Golf Championships every year since 1997. (The 2006 tourney was won by Australian Jason Cunningham; next year's event runs March 22-27.)
"The infrastructure, the weather conditions, very dry climate and only few millimetres
of snow makes Uummannaq the best place in the world to play ice golf," brags Preben Kaspersen,
project manager for the World Ice Golf Committee. "You can play in other places but never
on a fjord between icebergs."
Don't eat the yellow snowflake ice
SNOWFLAKE Village, a roadside food stand in Tokyo, is creating a culinary buzz with a product that apparently tastes just like freshly fallen snow.
Trendhunter.com, the online magazine that monitors all things fab, reports that xue-hua-bin, or snowflake ice, looks like ice cream but replicates the sensation of catching snow on your tongue because of its texture, "...dry, powdery crystals that crunch lightly in your mouth before quickly melting." One serving costs 400 yen (about $4). Popular toppings include mango with fruit chunks and green tea powder.
Baby, it's cold inside
ENGLAND isn't the first (second or third) place that springs to mind when you think winter sports. Xscape, a 430,000-square-foot indoor entertainment mecca in Castleford, West Yorkshire, is looking to change all that. Not only is Xscape home to a huge skating rink and Europe's tallest ice-climbing wall, it also features an indoor ski hill that's accessible 365 days of the year. The snow slope is 190 metres long and is covered with 1,500 tonnes of real snow, says promotions director Tania Berry. Prices for recreational skiing and snowboarding start at £13; lessons are available daily.
From the Dutch 'snoo,' meaning cunning, subtle
LOTS of folks share some variation of the surname Snow. See if you can match 'em up.
1. Brittany Snow
2. Garth Snow
3. Snowball II
4. Snow
5. Olympia Snowe
6. Hank Snow
7. J.T. Snow
8. Erastus Snow
9. John Snow
A. Considered the founder of epidemiology, s/he was named the greatest physician of all time in a 2003 poll of British doctors.
B. Portrayed troubled teen Susan Lemay on the soap opera Guiding Light from 1998 to 2001.
C. This country crooner spent 21 weeks at the top of the charts in 1950 with the nomadic single I'm Movin' On.
D. Talk about a surname match made in heaven! Together with chum William Jordan Flake, this pioneer founded the town of Snowflake, Ariz.
E. This ex-NHL netminder is the New York Islanders' current general manager.
F. Earlier this year, Time magazine named this politico one of "America's Top 10 Senators."
G. Scrappier, livelier version of the Simpson TV family's first feline pet. (May s/he rest in peace.)
H. Former Giant, Angel, Red Sox and Yankee first baseman with a career .268 batting average over 15 big league campaigns.
I. Canadian rapper who enjoyed one of 1993's biggest hits with the patois-laced ditty Informer.
Tall, cool one
HOW to create the perfect snowball, courtesy webtender.com.
Ingredients:
1 oz. Advocaat
8-10 oz. cold lemonade
Slice of lemon
Ice cubes
Mixing instructions: place one cube in glass and add Advocaat. Fill up the glass with lemonade and decorate with lemon slice. Serve at once.
Catch my drift
ON average, Winnipeg is the recipient of 110 centimetres of snow per annum. That's a drop in the ice bucket compared to Syracuse, N.Y., oft dubbed the "snowiest major city on Earth." On average, Syracuse gets pummeled with 300 centimetres of snow. Little surprise, then, that it is the four-time defending champ of the Golden Snowball Award, a prize awarded to the New York State burg that nets the largest seasonal snowfall.
"Meteorologists in Rochester started the contest for fun back in the late '70s," says Peter DeCoursay, a Syracuse native who maintains a website -- www.goldensnowball.com -- documenting the history of the competition. "There's a trophy that sits in the mayor's office."
Global ambitions
ANDY Zito is one of the world's pre-eminent collectors of snow globes -- those kitschy souvenirs that conjure up blizzard conditions when shaken just so. At last count, the California native had more than 5,000 different globes from every corner of the, ahem, globe.
"I am the leading distributor of news and information for other collectors around the world," Zito says. "I've developed an international e-mail network and am interested in eventually writing a badly needed book on the topic."
At any one time, Zito has 1,000 or so globes on permanent display in his house. "I live in La La Land where there are palm trees and sunshine all year long, but this way I can still have snow any time I like." (To view Zito's collection, visit his website at www.andyzito.com/snowdomes/)
There's no business like snow business
A good old-fashioned snowstorm is the perfect time to curl up with a flick. See if you can figure out which wintry tale is which by matching the movie title to its theatrical tagline...
1. Fargo
2. Snow Day
3. Ice Storm
4. Ice Age
5. Jack Frost
6. Cool Runnings
7. Avalanche
8. The Abominable Snowman
A. The coolest event in 16,000 years.
B. He's chillin... he's killin...
C. One dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty below zero.
D. Small town. Big crime. Dead cold.
E. It was 1973 and the climate was changing.
F. A timeless terror to freeze you to your seats!
G. Roads closed. Schools shut. Rules were made to be frozen.
H. Six million tons of icy terror!
The fast and the flurrious
HERE'S just the ticket for those who've been honing their snowball-hucking skills on Transit Tom all these years. The 19th annual Showa-Shinzan International Yukigassen tournament will be held in Sobetsu, Japan, Feb. 24-25, 2007. The term yukigassen consists of the Japanese words yuki (snow) and gassen (throw). The competition is precisely that: a snowball fight, albeit with rules. Last year, 152 teams took part. Some travelled from as far away as Norway, Finland and Russia.
Yukigassen involves two teams of seven players each. Both squads are armed with 90 snowballs. The game is played on a field 36 metres wide by 10 metres long. In a nutshell, the first team to nail everybody on the opposite side with a snowball wins.
Good luck besting Japan if yukigassen ever works its way into the Olympics: the sport is already being taught in Japanese schools.
Quiz ANSWERS
Snowy surnames
1) B; 2) E; 3) G; 4) I; 5) F; 6) C; 7) H; 8) D; 9) A.
Flaky films
1) D; 2) G; 3) E; 4) A; 5) B; 6) C; 7) H; 8) F.
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