Props to you for serving your loyal fan base, but I'd never heard of this place. On Google earth it looks stunningly gorgeous, but it also looks like summertime. Lotsa Michigan is like that.....

The Attack of the Amys in the window pic is quite a nice effect.

Thank you so much. And it is gorgeous here. Used to come up here as a kid with my parents every summer to Camp Michigania (University of Michigan family camp - what nerdy people do on their summer vacation), and generally traveled around here (Petosky, etc.)

We're whining in Washington (and SoMD and NoVA) mostly because we're not used to it, and aren't really equipped to deal with it. That said, our homeowners' association lady has done a real bang-up job getting heavy snow-removal equipment into our neighborhood, so at least our area is pretty clear. Now, if we could just figure out what to do with all that snow lying around in huge piles, we'd be set.

Growing up in Southwest Ohio, we didn't get all that much snow, either, but it would get mighty, mighty cold sometimes, much worse than here.

They're whining because DC is full of pansies. And you are the hottest snow-shoveler ever!

That skirt makes you look... ultra-orthodox. Especially with the hat.

When you get a chance, check out this article, which resonates with many of your pet themes:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/new-dating-game

It is rather funny when the libs in Washington are in a panic over global warming and they get this dumped on them :)

That sort of thing is why I'm a Southerner.

Great picture! We got quite a blast here in NY too and it really is throwing people for a loop. Its NY. Its supposed to snow here!

We didn't get hit as hard here in CT as we thought we would, but even so, I have to laugh at all the people who have to relearn how to drive in this stuff every winter!

Amy, you look lovely, as usual!

Yeah, I think the storm last weekend pretty well petered out by the time it got as far as Connecticut. We got a little more yesterday, along with quite a bit of wind. I understand Baltimore really got nailed, though.

After we finished digging out on Sunday, my wife sent me out for a couple more shovels and some ice melt. As luck would have it, the local home store had stacks of both, right by the door.

Ms. Alkon, you might be better served by one of those new-fangled shovels that has a kind of S-bend in the staff. They're much easier on the back, I've found. And, lovely though you are in that outfit, you might want to consider some wellies.

I loved your book, Amy! Read it on a four hour flight, could not put it down. Even the head flight attendant asked me where she could get one! I should have handed it to the woman who stole my (reserved) seat and asked me if I could sit somewhere else so her family could sit together. Grrrrrrr.....

That is nice of them... "we'll hold a book signing for you but you will have to help us out by shovelling snow before the signing." ;->

I think that's what they do if you can't afford your supper, make you shovel, but I just spotted it outside the restaurant and hammed up.

You do realize that this is really just a cover for a foreign invasion.

Amy, welcome to Michigan! I truly wish I could come to see you, but I have to work tonight here in Bay City. Hope you enjoy your stay.

P.S. I LOVED the book!

Good luck, Amy. Let us know how it goes...

for believing, without evidence, in The Imaginary Friend

There's plenty of evidence. Hearsay is evidence. What there isn't, and can't be, is proof.

Speaking of "evidence":

It is rather funny when the libs in Washington are in a panic over global warming and they get this dumped on them :)

Haven't you heard? Increased snowfall is evidence that global warming is real. Decreased snowfall, when it occurs, is also evidence. And if snowfall levels are perfectly average in a particular place, they sure aren't elsewhere, which is also evidence.

Since every place has either above average, average, or below average amounts of snowfall, global warming is clearly real.

Pseudonym - and others - whatever the arguments devolve into, there are two things which simply cannot be protested or guffawed away: polar ice is receding, and heat is not where it should be.

Treat this as a scientific puzzle, rather than a political mandate or an ain't-we-smart bellow about {insert putative idiot's ID here}, and things calm down considerably.

Your real challenge: discovering why "conservative" apparently means "burn all the fuel I can get". It's right up there with "liberal" meaning "do what I say". There's a lot of oddball human behavior Amy doesn't address!

I'm normally sympathetic to complaints about how whiny people in DC are about snow, and in fact I bitch about them in the same way, most of the time. But if your friend in Michigan thinks I don't have anything to worry about this week, he's welcome to come to my house in Baltimore and shovel the 42 GODDAMN INCHES OF SNOW sitting there.

Amy:
The Orthodox Jewish ladies who shave their heads and wear those little black headcovers don't exactly get into the body-hugging attire, now do they?
- - - - - - - - -
1) Most of them don't shave their heads. This is a myth.
2) Many of them push the standards to the limit, including long but tightly-cut skirts.
3) They also wear dressier, less informal clothes than most people, and a lot of black. Like that skirt.

"Now, if we could just figure out what to do with all that snow lying around in huge piles, we'd be set."

Make tunnels and caves in them!

It was a pleasure having you out in our neck of the woods tonight, and it was great to meet an author who demystified the art of writing a little more. This young writer really appreciated it.

Amy, many thanks for making the trek to Northern Michigan to christen the inaugural TC Writer's Series event on a cold winter's night. I have read your column for years in all the myriad places I've lived and have always found it hilarious, insightful, and reliable. I am a native northern Michigan gal and a writer and I was both encouraged and delighted to learn a bit about your process; particularly the amount of research and writing that happens in order to hone one of your weekly word-sculpture's down to its proper word count. I'm not sure the audience at the Opera House last night was representative of the entirety of TC culture, and would be curious to imagine the same scenario on a different night of the week and with a more diverse demographic. I thoroughly enjoyed everything you had to say and the way you handled a few questions in particular. Thank you again for bringing some sunshine to mid-winter here in our north land. I brought a friend who is now anxious to find your column every week... she'd never read you, but quickly converted.

Pseudonym - and others - whatever the arguments devolve into, there are two things which simply cannot be protested or guffawed away: polar ice is receding, and heat is not where it should be.

Polar ice recedes every year, and grows back every year. Where "should" it be? Where "should" heat be? The answers to those questions are based on a complicated cost-benefit analysis that has not been made, and is probably different for people with different preferences. The Earth's biosphere is a dynamic system, and there is no optimal state that we can, or should, hold it to.

There was less polar ice in 1000 AD than there is today, and conditions then were very good for human beings. Our present warming trend, if it exists, and if it continues, is likely to be a net benefit to humanity.

"Polar ice recedes every year, and grows back every year."

Well, no.

I guess you haven't been following the news. Expeditions are all over the Arctic seafloor now, because they're getting access to areas newly uncovered.

> 2) Many of them push the standards to the limit

Yes. AND THEN THEY STOP.

There's a fascist gamesmanship, a faux playfulness in your comment that I (a long-lapsed Methodist with no great interest in Judaism) find appalling. Yeah, sure; those beguiling little girlies will work their feminine wiles no matter WHAT boundaries we put on this misconduct, I hear you say with a chuckle.

It seems to imply there's no reason NOT to go with sharia....

Creeps me out.

Amy:
2) Many of them push the standards to the limit, including long but tightly-cut skirts. 3) They also wear dressier, less informal clothes than most people, and a lot of black. Like that skirt.

Not in New York or L.A.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Don't know what circles you travel in... but a lot of "Ultra" orthodox women are turned out to the nines and cut quite elegant figures.

Of course they gravitate to classic looks rather than sleaze/grungewear - lotta Chanel suits with skirts that just graze the knee, because that's the minimum skirt length - but your taste for classy retro-flavored stuff is very similar.

My guess is you don't travel in these circles, given your dripping/drippy disdain - and don't know what you're talking about in this case.

"Polar ice recedes every year, and grows back every year."

Well, no.

Ice recedes in the summer and grows back in the winter.

I do not claim that it always recedes the same, or always grows back the same, as the previous year. Obviously it changes from year to year and century to century as the Earth's climate changes.

You, however, have claimed that it's not where it "should" be. Where should it be, and why should it be there?

I think you're a rude person and your hair is stuck in an 80s time warp. I wish the Northern Express would drop your stupid column and pick up something more interesting and useful.

Hi Amy! A tardy post, I know!

I'm an L.A. transplant that grew up in Traverse City I had an office across the street from Horizon Books and Doug and Anne are old friends...small internet, no?

I was back in town on business but had to leave JUST before your event, so I couldn't attend. Catch you next time, perhaps.

- Joseph