1 STOOOOOORM National Post has some pics of all the weather craziness.

2 I’M 50/50 RIGHT NOW “Are writers happy they became writers?” asks Avi Steinberg over at the New Yorker.

3 TODAY’S DAILY PUPPY Is Jax.

4 ITALY, OH ITALY What’s happening these days in the country known for its, ahem, eccentric governance? Let’s look at the top of this New York Times article to get an idea:

One candidate promised to drop an unpopular new property tax and refund all prior payments in cash. Another called that proposal a “poisoned meatball,” disconnected from reality. A third suggested that Al Qaeda blow up the Italian Parliament — then backtracked — and the man generally considered the front-runner is campaigning on vague promises of stability, so has often been ignored.

With only two weeks to go before national elections, the Italian campaign has become a surreal spectacle in which a candidate many had given up for dead, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has surged.

That Berlusconi is close at all to being reelected is crazy. Really, read the whole article.

5 IF GREG’S PICK OF THE DAY DIDN’T SUIT YOU Today’s the last day for Sheldon-Williams’ production of the movie-turned-musical Legally Blonde, with performances at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. The show actually came up in some of my reading last night, as I was Googling failed Broadway productions. Legally Blonde was one that eventually found some success overseas, even though they reportedly didn’t change the book or the music.

The N.Y.T. says the director for both the Broadway and London productions thinks

the London version played better because of a more intimately sized theater — 1,100 seats here vs. 1,700 in New York — and also benefited from “an openness on the part of critics to embrace the dumb blonde conceit, which didn’t happen in New York.”

So it should be even better in a high school auditorium.

6 IN OTHER KIDS SINGING AND DANCING NEWS Who’s the host/musical guest on Saturday Night Live tonight? Justin Bieber. Eh. I’m somewhat hopeful.