Note to all nations playing host to the Summer Olympics in coming years: You cannot change the weather. We simply don’t possess the technology … just ask the 12 polar bears clinging to same small ice floe near the North Pole. But, damn it, they’re the British. They have to try.

We all watched with amusement at the Beijing Olympics when the Chinese seeded rain clouds with silver iodide pellets, trying to move the rain and help clear the smog. The British, actually, have no real plans to try and move clouds. Instead, they’re searching the world for a team of crack meteorologists so that they can predict the weather. I see no way this can fail! Read more…

WHY THE BIG RUSH TO GET BACK TO BUFFALO ANYHOW?: WTAM-AM in Cleveland reports on the lost weekend for the Buffalo Bills. First the Bills were eliminated from playoff contention with an 8-0 loss to Cleveland in a blizzard.

After the game, because of the snow, their flight home to Buffalo was canceled. Then Monday morning, their chartered plane could not take off because it got stuck in the mud at Hopkins International.Airport Director Fred Szabo indicated “the Delta pilot was making his way from a runway to a taxiway when the pilot took a turn too wide. That put a wheel and nose of the plane into the mud. The wheels sunk about a foot into the soft ground.”

Time to Go Greyhound!

Why the big rush to get back to Buffalo anyway? Oh, we forgot, they were in Cleveland. And we suppose it could be worse, they could’ve been returning to Detroit.

CONFIRMED: THERE ARE ZERO HOME DEPOTS IN GREEN BAY: The ASSOCIATED PRESS provides a want ad for the Green Bay Packers, as the team looks for help in snow removal from Lambeau Field:

A blizzard dumped massive amounts of the white stuff on the ballpark this week, and the Packers “said they’ll need about 300 shovelers beginning at 8 a.m. and continuing throughout the day. The Packers will provide the shovels. Shovelers must be 15 and will be paid $8 an hour when they’re done.”

This must mean only one thing, there are no Home Depots in Green Bay.

TECH COACH LEACH NOT SUCKING UP AFTER RIPPING REFS: Mike Leach had some harsh words for the officials after his team’s loss to the Longhorns. And taking Tom Petty’s advice, the Texas Tech coach won’t back down:

The DALLAS MORNING NEWS reports that Leach is not apologizing for the heated critiques he gave the zebra crew after Saturday’s 59-43 defeat:”I don’t have any regrets. I wouldn’t change anything about what I said.”

Leach went after the striped shirts, saying his team were victims of “atrociously bad calls“, calling the instant review process “a sham” and wondering aloud if Texas got more breaks because they’re “higher bowl-wise“.

Mike also muttered about referee Randy Christal, who, like the Longhorns, makes his home in the state captial:”This is the second year in a row that an Austin resident has negatively affected the integrity of the officiating. I think it’s disturbing that Austin residents are involved in this.”

Back in 2005, Texas Tech defeated Oklahoma 23-21, aided by a controversial TD call by line judge Kelly Deterding. Both judge and winning school hail from Lubbock.

When brought up the 2005 situation, and asked if he would ban officials from working hometown games, Leach replied, “My comments on Saturday pretty thoroughly answered that question.”

And Leach is not one for keeping his emotions hidden. After the Texas Tech-Oklahoma State contest, only an upstaging by Mike Gundy kept many folks unaware of Leach’s own post-game tirade.This week’s raging could cost the coach and his college a pretty penny, depending on the Big 12’s decisions. If such outbursts end up costing Leach his job, he can always return to his true love -

Meteorology.