If there is one word today, it is this one: slush. Perhaps those of you, my fans and friends, who live in the Bay Area of California are not familiar with this. Let me tell you what it is.

Slush doesn't just happen. It isn't like rain or snow, which fall from the sky. Slush requires special and, one would think, rare conditions to come into existance. Slush happens when there is snow on the ground, and the temperature increases to just around freezing. Rain, like what we had today in Ottawa, helps a great deal, as do cars driving around and people walking around.

This morning, we had freezing rain, and it covered everything with ice. This afternoon, we had cold rain, and it mixed with the snow, people drove on it, the drains in the street got plugged, and we have slush. A lot of slush.

Slush is a soup of snow, ice, salt, and dirt. If you tasted it, you wouldn't like it.

The slush brought out the worst in many drivers, I noticed. I walked home today, like the stud I am, and for some reason folks in cars thought they were late or something, and splashing people, did Ueys, and generally went too fast. I saw one lady in a long black coat yell at a Uey-doing driver when he almost hit her.

It is times like this that I understand that we do not belong in this god-forsaken country.