We are not snow wimps

The L.A. Times called the people of Seattle “snow wimps.” This is coming from a city that never sees snow, or if they do, it’s digitally enhanced by Pixar Studios. In L.A. you are more likely to see a Charlie’s Angel than a snow angel. [“The winter snowstorm,” Northwest Voices, Jan. 22.]

The L.A. Times called Seattleites snow wimps because the city grinds to a halt when it snows. And we do. Because we have these things called big giant hills! We’ve had two snow falls this last week, leaving us with a foot of snow, an ice storm which laid a shiny glass sheet over the frozen ground, heavy rains, melting snow and 6-inch snowdrifts. I would like to see any Los Angeles denizen deal with these conditions; a yoga mat and the downward dog will be of no help whatsoever.

After a week of snow, we get condo fever. We are in need of social interaction, having facebooked, twittered and blogged ourselves into a kind of isolated hysteria, needing our lattes, handcrafted cocktails and pulled-pork Korean sandwiches. We have built snowmen, snow-women and gender-free snow-people. We have sledded down hills on our recycled, sustainable plastic garbage bags

L.A., you may be able to make bigger movies about our city’s snow plight but remember — we have the coffee roasters from which you drink, the Microsoft-laden words from which you write, the Amazon business from which you mail order and the skill it takes to survive the white stuff. And I’m not talking about the Hollywood Hills kind.

— Julia Kaplan, Seattle