Last semester I was talking with some friends about the incoming winter and our expectations. Some people were afraid that this winter was going to be even worse than the last one, as was predicted by the Farmer's Almanac. I was somehow convinced that we were going to have a pretty nice one, of course, better than the last one. As I am writing these lines, the weather forecast calls for temperatures in the 60s and lots of sunshine for the next days, even though we still have two more weeks of "official winter."

So, although I was expecting a pretty nice winter season, this one exceeded by far my optimistic predictions. The last few days I have been looking for the reasons why Mother Nature was so kind with us. After all, just a year ago we were buried by the biggest snowstorm in the history of this town.

Here is my explanation. The 1994-95 version of the Nittany Lions turned out to be the most potent offensive machine in the 125 years of college football. They won all their games, only two of them were close (sorry Hoosiers, but you guys scored two meaningless touchdowns). As a result of such a successful season, people in State College were really happy, smiling always, talking about how good our football team is. So, it is no wonder that the skies smiled back at us instead of "crying" huge amounts of snow as they did a year ago. So, let's thank JoePa and his team not only for a perfect season, but also for preventing a few blizzards around (I am sure one of the blizzards died in that slant pass from Kerry Collins to Bobby Engram in the Michigan game; another was slowly killed in the 96-yard drive against Illinois.)

So, my friends, this in my advice. Let's hope that the Nittany Lions go again undefeated and get the National Championship that was unjustly denied to them last season. This way we will have another peaceful and beautiful winter season. But, if the Lions lose a couple of games, let's still keep a smile in our faces. That way the skies will smile back and ...