BLAME IT ON THE SOX

Coincidence? I don't think so!  As Sports Illustrated likes to say, perhaps this is this week's sign of the apocalypse: Not only was 2004 the year that a certain Boston-based sports team won its first significant victory in 86 years, it was also the first time snow fell on Christmas Day in a small Texas town since 1918:

Reports AOL: *

"(Dec. 25) - Folks in Victoria, Texas, just off the Gulf Coast, weren't dreaming Saturday when they woke up to a white Christmas. They had one - the first in 86 years.

Almost a foot of snow fell overnight to give Victoria a taste of what the country's midsection has been dealing with the past two days: winter weather.

An arctic front that swept through the Midwest hit Indiana and Kentucky particularly hard, bringing record snowfalls that snarled holiday travel and stopped last-minute Christmas shoppers in their tracks. More than a dozen traffic deaths and thousands of auto accidents have been blamed on the storm so far.

The last time Victoria saw a measurable amount of snow was 1973, when a tenth of an inch fell. That's the same amount that fell on Christmas 1918, said Tony Merriman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

'It's a miracle,' proclaimed Hailey Koronczok, who was watching the snow fall as she worked at a Denny's."

*(Note, full-story link only works for AOL members)