Ice and snow

We've got a nice freezing rain storm going on here, with me slipping and sliding as I took the garbage to the end of the driveway. Hollywood doesn't show this sort of storm very much, as far as I can think. There are lots of hurricanes, especially with ships at sea.

As for winter weather, snowstorms come on Christmas Eve, bringing everybody a white Christmas. There are also more severe snow storms, which usually serve the purpose of having somebody trying to travel through it and getting in an accident as a result. Misery comes right to mind, with James Caan playing an author whose car goes off the road in a winter storm, only to be rescued by deranged fan Kathy Bates. By the same token, June Allyson loses the baby she's carrying when the car she's riding in goes off the road in The Glenn Miller Story.

Snow affects planes, too. Airport is set at a major midwestern airport socked in by a snowstorm, but still having to deal with all sorts of disasters heading. Poor airport manager Burt Lancaster. This was, of course, parodied in the first of the Airplane! movies. A different sort of movie with airplanes and snow would be Island In the Sky, in which John Wayne pilots a cargo plane that has to crash-land somewhere in snowy Quebec, forcing everybody to try to find him and his crew in a race against time. Snow even forces planes down in screwball comedies. Robert Montgomery plays host to stranded Myrna Loy and Reginald owen in Petticoat Fever (unfortunately, not available on DVD).