Another milestone on the steady decline of the US to a second-rate power? Not some dire economic indicators. Not a failure of diplomacy. No, it is the unwillingness of the NFL to go forward with a game in a howling blizzard.
Where, oh where, is the rough and ready US which bestrode the world like a colossus in the 20th century? Gone the way of the dodo, to hear the governor of the state of Pennsylvania tell it.
Ed Rendell is the tough-talking executive of the state where the Philadelphia Eagles play, and he went ballistic after the NFL decided to postpone the Eagles' home game with Minnesota on Sunday and reschedule it for yesterday because a huge snowstorm (the one that paralysed New York) was coming in.
Said Rendell: "My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country. I think we've become wussies."
An interesting statement considering the US has a military presence in nearly every corner of the globe.
If Rendell sounds a bit nutty, we should recall that American football fans (and Rendell is one) pride themselves on their game being played in any weather.
The Ice Bowl of 1967 at Green Bay kicked off in temperatures of minus 25°C, and if several players suffered frostbite, well, so be it.
Rather than see the NFL carry on with a game at which fans would have been miserable, if they had been able to get to the game at all, perhaps we should celebrate this as a victory. For common sense.
