Let's hear it for February!

The conventional wisdom in New England is that February is the worst month of the year. It's cold, stormy, and even though it's the shortest month of the year, it seems to take the longest to complete.

I would disagree with that. For whatever reason, March seems longer; and January is much colder, and much darker. Actually, as months go, December is probably the toughest one on me emotionally because the days get inexorably darker, whereas once you hit January, and especially February, things lighten up.

But this essay is on February. And while everything everybody says is true ... it's cold, it's stormy, and all that ... there are also aspects about it that -- to me -- make it go by faster.

Some of these things are local; some are national, and some, believe it or not, are meteorological. But put them together, and you have a month with plenty to look forward to.

First, the local. The first two Mondays of February feature the Beanpot Hockey Tournament. This is one of those parochial, local events that pits Boston's four Division 1 colleges -- Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern -- against each other for the city championiship.

On one hand, the Beanpot has been a constant bane of my existance. I went to Northeastern (graduated in 1976) and while I was there, we never won it. In fact, we didn't win it for the first time since 1980 when Wayne Turner scored an overtime goal to beat BC. We won it three more times in the 80s (the last championship being in 1988) and haven't won it since.

Usually, Boston College or Boston University (mostly BU) win it. Now, before I go one, what -- you may ask -- is the difference between BC and BU? One's Catholic and one's not. That would appear to be it. They're both private institutions, both cost a fortune, and both award doctorates.

BC is, at the moment, the largest Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States. That is correct. It even has Notre Dame beat. There are two very large, and very prestigious, Catholic colleges in Massachusetts: BC and Holy Cross, which is in Worcester. Holy Cross is older, and at the time BC was established, Holy Cross was considered a school for elites while BC catered to the sons and daughters of Irish immigrants.

That's certainly not the case today. BC is every bit as elitist as Holy Cross. They're both extremely difficult to get into, and if you graduate from either institute, you're set for life unless you're the world's biggest moron. As with Harvard, you reap the benefits of at BC or Holy Cross education for the networking that results from it, if not the actual LEARNING.

Boston College is also an athletic factory -- at least in comparison to the other three. Actually, in comparison to other, REAL athletic factories in the United States, BC is probably a lot more responsible about its connection between athletics and academics. It has rigid standards for acceptance, and that includes athletes. Naturally, coaches complain about that, but I'm on the side of the school. If you've paid close to $200,000 -- by the time it's all said and done -- for a BC degree, you certainly don't want it cheapened by some idiot who can't spell Boston getting a scholarship.

BC borders Boston's suburbs of Brookline and Newton. It's on a nice piece of land, with a beautiful campus. On a picturesque autumn day, it's postcard perfect.

Boston University is a city school, as is Northeastern. Acutally, they're not that far apart, nestled in the bowels of Boston's Back Bay (on either side of Fenway Park). BU, in its own right, is a very prestigious university -- every bit as academically challenging as BC. Tuition at the two schools is comparitively similar. The only thing it really lacks is the sports pedigree BC has. The two schools are rivals only in hockey, where BU has poured virtually ALL of its athletic money. When the U.S. Olympic hockey team won the Gold Medal in 1980, four of its players -- including captain Mike Eruzione -- were BU graduates (so was goalie Jim Craig, as well as Dave Silk and Jack O'Callaghan).

BU and BC are the only schools that, year in and year out, can compete with the Minnesotas, Wisconsins and North Dakota States of the country.

Northeastern has worked awfully hard to re-establish itself as an institute of serious learning, and seems to be getting there. For a while, it was definitely No. 4 out of 4, with a huge gap between itself and No. 3. When I went there, it as old, bloated, and -- I think -- out of touch with the city and academia in general. To give you an example, three of these four schools had extensive plans on how to celebrate the country's bicentennial in 1976. Northeastern had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing something.

Now, there's less of a gap academically. NU and BU contain two of the best journalism schools in the Northeast (right up there with Syracuse and Columbia Universities). BC and Harvard are more business and law oriented.

Of course, there's Harvard. It's not REALLY a Boston school, per se, as most of it is in Cambridge (with parts of it that spill over). Like BC and Holy Cross, the biggest advantage in going to Harvard is the opportunity to network. Graduate from Harvard and you've got it made. It is also one of the better schools athletically ... not so much for the power rankings of its teams, but for the fact that Harvard treats athletics as something to do to round out your education. The school does not award scholarships based solely on athletic ability (though if it finds a kid who can play quarterback, it'll certainly HELP him). All of its teams compete in the Ivy League, which will never be compared favorably to the Big Ten.

As it so happens, there is only one sport in which these four schools are equally competitive, and that's hockey. BC surpassed the rest in football and basketball years ago, and BU doesn't have football or baseball programs. Hockey is the only sport that unites these four schools.

So each year, on the first two Mondays of February, we have the Beanpot Hockey Tournament ... and every year, Northeastern loses (which it did this past Monday -- one day after the Big Super Bowl El Foldo by the You-Know-Whos).

February is especially interesting this year because it's a presidential election season. Ordinarily that means nothing in Massachusetts, but this year it actually did. First, Mitt Romney is not wildly popular in Massachusetts, even if he was our governor for about a minute and a half. A lot of Massholes (like me) took out Republican ballots at last Tuesday's primary and voted for McCain just so we could case one FINAL vote against Mitt).

That's the Republicans. As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton won our state and it's significant because both she and Obama need every vote they can get to stay afloat. Rarely in this political culture is Massachusetts ever a player in the elections because a) it almost always goes Democrat (remember "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts?); and b) by the time our primary takes place, there's usually a clearly-established front-runner and we just hop on board.

That wasn't the case this time. There is no Democratic front runner, and perhaps there will not be one until the summer. All of which makes every primary from hereon out crucial to both Clinton and Obama. So it was refreshing, for a change, to be in a political atmosphere that radiated excitement instead of resignation.

Valentine's Day falls right in the middle of February. Now don't look at ME if you're trying to find some hopeless and helpless romantic who sees Valentine's Day and gets all kinds of lumps in his throat. It's definitely a Hallmark Holiday.

But it falls RIGHT SMACK in the middle of the month, and in my mind, anyway, once Valentine's Day passes, I consider it the turning point of winter. It's all downhill from here, baby.

This doesn't necessarily mean winter's over. But in most years, the worst of it is over. Not always. But usually. Besides, by February 14, the sun's higher in the sky, the days are longer, and whatever snow you DO get melts faster.

Which brings me to another thing about February that people tend to forget. Unless it's snowing, or unusually cold, you get spectacular weather in February. It's great month of you're an outdoors person of any kind. You get crisp, clear days, all the fresh air you could ever want, and they last right on through the work day (as opposed to December and January, where it's dark by 4 p.m.). And this is going to sound absolutely perverse, but there are years (and many of them, too) where the weather's better in February than it is in April.

Finally, and this is strictly local, the high school winter sports tournaments begin in February. If you do what I do, this is the most fun you have all year. Throw a pro sports event at me, and the tournament has it beat. It's three weeks of absolute madness, and by the time it's over, we're on the threshold of spring.

I don't know whether it's because these games are indoors, which rachets up the intensity, or what it is. But all I know is that there's nothing quite as exciting as seeing a bunch of boys and girls playing for the honor of their school. In many ways it's a throwback to a (perhaps) more innocent time in this country. It certainly has a small-town America feel to it. And you know? Sometimes, especially in this day and age, that's pretty cool.

And, on top of everything else ... the truck left Fenway Park today for Ft. Myers, Florida. It's time for baseball!!

So that's my hymn to February.