'Snowmageddon' in D.C. -- The Politics, Talk Shows and Snowball Fights Go On

Some time around 5 pm Saturday it stopped snowing, more than 30 hours after the first flakes had fallen. Within minutes the world was transformed. I was no longer slogging through a cyclonic snow globe where everyone around me was downright giddy. I was, just before twilight, alone and looking up at a clear blue sky, the horizon slashed by orange streaks of winter sunset.

Today, with the entire area still in a snow emergency, the High Def sunny, icy whiteness all around me cannot conceal some truly bad news. The two to three feet of snow in the suburbs, and a near-record 18 inches in Washington, felled countless trees and knocked out power for more than 200,000 area homes and businesses.

The snow collapsed the roofs of a church in Maryland and a private jet hangar in Virginia, at Dulles International Airport. Mercifully, no one was hurt but there have already been deaths, including a Good Samaritan father and son killed by a trucker as they stood on the shoulder helping a stopped motorist. The blizzard closed mass transit systems, and will cost local governments millions of dollars they don't have, for snow removal.

But throughout Saturday, the weather brought people out of house, where for too long they'd been cooped up. For his part, President Obama -- who last year dissed the city for its reflexive weather-wimp halt during what he deemed a pale version of a Chicago storm--gave a Saturday morning shout-out to Democratic National Committee members who'd braved "Snowmageddon" to attend their winter meeting at the Capital Hilton Hotel. Then he sought to light a fire under party leaders.

But one man's Snow-Mageddon -- a phrase loved to death by the media - is a siren call to others, including those hoping to create a downtown snowball fight. Two friends in Dupont Circle, a hip neighborhood of gracious old rowhouses and apartment buildings, sent out the first word Thursday night. By Saturday afternoon, owing to Twitter and Facebook, as many as 2,000 people, from infants in Snuglis to retirees on skis, converged at the iconic fountain that rises from the center of a park circled by a roundabout long favored by chess players, dog walkers and bike messengers. In a nod to litigious Washington's surfeit of lawyers, the cyber-invite carried a liability disclaimer: "The people spreading the word about the happening are not preparing any special equipment or conditions and may not be held responsible for your decisions and/or actions."

No problem. This vastly entertaining crowd brought none of the drama of the city's last mass snowball fight. In late December, a DC cop in civilian clothes in the gentrifying area of 14th and U Streets, pulled a gun on winter revelers after he and his red Hummer were pelted with snowballs. Other officers arrived. Things were tense.

By contrast, Saturday's scene was all benign chaos, with optional cocktails. The Cafe Dupont set up a makeshift outdoor bar, where folks willing to stand in line for a very long time could buy a drink; or they could just pose for pictures next to a pair of carrot-nosed snowpeople and shuffle along to the next event. Several cops kept an eye on all the action, including all the pedestrians walking down the center of plowed but still snow-packed streets, which were used sporadically by fire engines, 4x4s and TV satellite trucks.

Ah yes, television. Weather stories are always big, of course, but with storms come production problems. This being a weekend and Washington being the talking head capital of the cosmos, there was also the business of getting high-profile anchors, hosts and guests on the air, by whatever means.

At CNN Candy Crowley and the "State of the Union" crew booked into a hotel Friday night a few blocks from the mother ship and the US Capitol. Better yet, Crowley's interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been pre-taped, meaning one less logistic to sweat. I personally loved that Republican strategist and CNN yakker Alex Castellanos, appeared on screen via Skype, to discuss Sarah Palin's Saturday night speech to the Tea Party Convention. He wore bright red, which popped nicely against what looked to me to be a lot of rustic white railings. (Alex, where were you?)

Sunday morning, from dawn on, I tuned into local news, grateful for the deftly-layered reporters and their measuring sticks for gauging snow depth, who told me all about school closings, trash collection updates and reminders that shoveling snow can cause heart attacks. As the afternoon wore on, talk sometimes turned to the Super Bowl.

Area football fans without power have scrambled to make sure they're in front of someone's working set by kickoff.
Over at the White House, the Obamas are having a few dozen folks over to watch the game, including service men and women injured in Iraq or Afghanistan, and their families. Although several Republicans lawmakers --including Sens. Dick Lugar and Richard Shelby--were invited, only one, Rep. Joseph Cao of New Orleans, said yes. If he makes it through the snow, be surrounded by Democratic cabinet secretaries, House and Senate members, and administration officials. All the kids get their own party with First Daughters Sasha and Malia.

By late Sunday, the talk will continue to be sports and weather. How many more times do I need to be told that Washington is just ten inches short of an all-time-ever snowfall record? Or be reminded, yet again, that snow is expected Tuesday night and Wednesday.