According to the local TV news on Thursday morning, my area got around 15 inches of snow overnight on Wednesday.

Some meteorologists were calling it "Snowtopia."  Good Morning America called it "Snowverkill."  Whatever you call it, this kind of storm makes for some of the most-entertaining TV-news moments, if you like things cheesy.

I was awakened at 5:20 AM on Thursday, when the phone rang to tell me that Mr. Third Grader's school was closed.  Since I can never fall back to sleep after the phone rings that early in the morning, I turned on the TV to watch the show.  After the sun came up, we were treated to segments featuring news reporters in front of their homes, wielding shovels and snow blowers and sharing hints on how to hold a shovel (I am not making this up).  Other reporters scaled the mountains of snow left behind by plows.  And they're going to do this all morning long!

I love how they have a Team of Reporters standing outside in the snow with their mittens and rulers. The Weather Guy just said, "And you'll see in a few minutes our reporters, still standing in the thick of that." High drama!

As the morning wears on we will see people who have left their homes for the express purpose of stopping at convenience stores to buy coffee for these reporters who are paid nice money to stand outside in the snow with their waterproof microphones. The reporters will walk up to cars stopped at red lights to ask people where they're heading and how bad the roads are.  The Traffic Guy appears absolutely gleeful to describe the spin-out accidents he's reporting.

Just a typical snow day in the Philly area, folks.  Are other parts of the country like this?