It was a bad winter, all right, no doubt about that. More than six feet of snow fell on our fair Twin Cities, the temperature didn't rise above 50 degrees for 147 consecutive days, and, perhaps worst of all, local residents were subjected to a seemingly endless series of stories from the media about the weather, just in case anyone forgot how bad it was. "A year ago today it was 54 degrees!" "Snowiest winter of e-commerce era!" Sure, it was miserable, but is there anything that a native Minnesotan loves more than being miserable? Well, maybe just one thing: being able to brag that as bad as things are now, they remember a time when things were far, far worse. Any native can easily--and happily--recall bleaker times: the massive snowfalls of childhood, the infamous Halloween blizzard of 1991, the bearish winter of 1996-97, and on and on and on and on and on and on. (Witness one epistle by cranky St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray, headlined "Pantywaisted Whiners Shoulda Been Here in '91.") Pity the poor folks who move to the Twin Cities during the upcoming summer. Come next January, they'll never hear the end of it: "You think this is bad? You shoulda been here last year!"