"Winter Wonderland"

Several of you used this cliche in describing the cold, wet scene that was UAlbany on Wednesday. Actually some of you used it as a direct quote from people you were interviewing. You see how cliches get around. But here's the question? What does this cliche really describe?

I picture a woodsy scene with towering pines wearing fluffy snow capes when I hear that expression, a rural scene like the photo above. To me the ice-slicked puddles and slippery banisters and shrubs leaking stalagtites on this cement campus did not make for a Wonderland.

It is possible that you or the people you talked to were using the phrase ironically, but you have to make this clear to your reader.

Kudos go to Alexandra Stevens who asked a junior studying in the library this great question: "If you had to describe to a blind person what it is like today when we walk outside on campus what would you say?

She got a nice answer, even if it does begin with that ambiguous cliche that makes it easy to see and feel what it was like here last week:

"It looks like a Winter Wonderland outside. All of the trees have ice on them with icicles hanging from everything. There are huge puddles on the floor and everything is slushie. You have to hold on and walk really slow because there is ice, puddles, and dirty snow all over the ground. The air is freezing on your face and you really have no choice but to wear gloves. Most people have their hoods up or hats on because it is raining on and off and are walking around trying to avoid puddles."

Hope Still scored the best quotes I think when she found Joseph Stepansky walking across the UAlbany tundra. "It's nice, if you find death pretty," he told her.