The Washington Post has a fun article featuring Obama's opinion about weather-related school closings. Coming from Chicago, where the ability to trek through knee-high snow at twenty below is a matter of civic pride, Obama is skeptical of a school closing brought on by "some ice."

The article also mentions that CPS hasn't had an official snow day since 1999. I'm currently working at a high school in Little Village and I seem to recall a snow day two weeks ago, but perhaps it was specific to our campus and not a citywide closing.

Where did you grow up and what kind of weather-related closings did you enjoy as a kid? As a fifth grader in a suburb of Cleveland, I remember the absolutely holy feeling of having five snow days in a row cancel the first week of classes after winter break.

The Blog that Works is out of winter hibernation at just the wrong time-- today's subzero temperatures are making any activity that doesn't involve hot chocolate and my living room seem entirely unappealing.  This morning my car refused to budge out of its iced-in parking spot, giving me a personal snow day and lots of time to think about how to get around without it. Here's a roundup of Chicago transit and winter news, brought to you by my temporary homeboundedness.
Hyde Park Progress considers the pros and cons of adopting various parking meter rate schemes. Chicagoist analyzes last year's big increase in CTA ridership, but a commenter suggests an alternative interpretation. The Tribune documents some clever techniques for maintaining a parking space-- if only they'd published yesterday, I might have made it out of Hyde Park today!  A fourth-grader in Hammond fell victim to a triple-dog-dare and ended up with a tongue injury.  The Chicago Foundation for Women is honoring an important anniversary this week with a spoken word event.  And for a nice healthy dose of winter escapism, check out these nifty shots of fractal river deltas near the Mediterranean coast.