Stormy Weather

Is the Weather Channel, of all places, trying to compete with the SI Swimsuit Issue? According to former WC meteorologist Marny Stanier Midkiff, its management is at least encouraging a younger, hipper (and hippy-er) look. She charges that she was let go as part of the ubiquitous background station's efforts to appeal to a younger audience and ramp up its ratings, and she's filed an age bias lawsuit (she's 42) against her former employer.

So, what's next? Bumper stickers that read "Forecast naked"? (Add a comma and that could be a forecast in itself.) Jim Cantore, the self-important little guy with the shaved head, employing his gift for melodrama to describe the effects of wind chill on various, er, areas of the body? And will the seasoned Marshall Seese and the assorted collection of real meteorologists (those titled "Dr." or working sans sports coats, the better to show their seriousness of purpose) also be put to pasture?

Stay tuned, if you can stand it.