WMTV (Ch. 15) in Madison has received a spirited reaction to a T-shirt it developed with the University Book Store commemorating the brutal winter just past. At least, we hope it is almost past.

The shirts originally read: "I Survived the Winter of '08 — Barely." But when the snow kept falling, the wording on the shirts was changed to reflect that our total snowfall had exceeded 100 inches.

The station has been giving away the shirts as a promotion and, as of midweek, more than 5,000 people had sent in entries hoping to win one of them. The shirts will also be for sale for $10 at the University Book Store.

It is clear that this winter will loom large in our memories, except for those who are lucky enough to somehow suppress it.

And while I think the WMTV T-shirt promotion is a good one, my personal reaction to the winter is such that the T-shirts could have been a bit more expressive. "I Survived the Winter of '08 — Barely" doesn't quite do it for me, or, I suspect, some of you.

The winter brought forth a number of different emotions. I would, for instance, enjoy seeing a T-shirt that reflected anger:

"I Survived the Winter of '08 — I Won't Die Until Al Gore Has to Give Back His Global Warming Nobel Prize."

Or there could be one with a "how to" theme: "I Survived the Winter of '08 — It Was Easy; I Fell In a Pothole In December and Hibernated."

There might be a rueful T-Shirt: "I Survived the Winter of '08 — Which Is More Than I Can Say For My Roof."

And even a harrowing one: "I Survived the Winter of '08 — My Neighbor Gave Me Permission to Eat Him If He Died First (I Also Got His Snowblower)."

Actually, the "I Survived the Winter of '08" T-shirts may be only the second best Madison-themed T-shirt to surface recently. The best one wasn't produced here and wasn't even intentionally about Madison, although we should definitely appropriate it. Some Madisonians already have.

This T-shirt was called to my attention by Steve O'Neill, an Eastsider who is best known as the commissioner of the annual Harmony Bar Golf Outing to benefit the Atwood Community Center.

The commissioner gig is O'Neill's full-time job, and basically involves playing cards at the Harmony. When he's questioned about this, O'Neill quotes the late Chicago sage Slats Grobnik: "If work is so great, how come they have to pay you to do it?"

O'Neill is originally from Omaha, Neb., and was back there last weekend when the Badgers made their successful run into the Sweet 16. While he was in Omaha, O'Neill heard about some Badger fans who had stumbled on a T-shirt that was so great they bought the store out of them.

On Wednesday, I spoke with Debbie Meyer, who owns a century-old retail store called the Nebraska Clothing Co. in Omaha.

She said that a week ago today, just as she was opening the store, a couple of women from Wisconsin, Badger basketball fans, came in the store and said, "You had some T-shirts made up especially for us!"

Meyer didn't know what they were talking about, but she smiled pleasantly. The women proceeded to buy several of the T-shirts, and then started making cell calls back to Wisconsin and getting instructions from friends to buy more and more of the shirts.

The T-shirts are red and white, and read: "I'm a BOliever."

"I sold 30 of them that first day," Meyer said. She estimated she sold more than 50 total for the weekend and has been getting calls this week from Madison and has sold dozens more over the phone.

The thing is, the shirts have nothing to do with Bo Ryan or Wisconsin. They are the brainchild of a University of Nebraska alumnus named Steve Spriester, who told me Wednesday that the phrase came out of a text-message discussion with a friend over who should be the new Nebraska football coach. Referring to Bo Pelini, Spriester texted: "I'm a BOliever."

When Pelini got the Nebraska job, Spriester and his buddy had the shirts made. "We didn't expect to sell any until football season," he said.

Now, Spriester said, "I've become a huge Bo Ryan fan." Badger fans who would like to order the shirt can do so through Meyer's store (402-346-6114) or Spriester's Web site,

I think what Madison really needs is a T-shirt that could kind of morph the two I mentioned today. How about:

"There Will Be No Winter In '09: I'm a BOliever."