CALL ME SNAKE

I’m not going to complain about the weather because I think there might be something to the theory that New Englanders are no longer the stoic, hardy lot of old but are instead becoming wimpier by the day–a trend arguably fueled by the sensationalistic weather coverage on local TV news in recent years. But I will relate an anecdote: After two snowstorms of nearly 10 inches each, with some rain thrown in too, they told us to shovel snow off our roofs, especially flat ones, to keep them from collapsing, which is exactly what happened to some drugstore (a Rite-Aid?) shown in the Globe yesterday. I was shoveling snow off my deck on Sunday morning as a neighbor behind me was standing on his roof, doing the same. After we exchanged greetings, he said: “This is why we put up with those hot, sticky days in August.”