At the risk of sounding condescending to my many close American friends,
I feel I should say I was only joking last week when I suggested to
readers planning to attend the SCS conference in Ottawa that there might
be snow on the ground in May. It would be exceedingly bizarre if there
were. There will be tulips everywhere, happy sun in the sky, and
considerable warmth of every sort. My joke came from the fact that we
are experiencing here a warped and horrific winter, with ice that lingers
and only television images of Billy Crystal seeming to be looking at
himself in a mirror as he tells stale jokes to encourage us.
Anyway: there won't be any social or climactological ice in Ottawa!
