"Mabel has a long list of school closings..."

...or she would have on a day like this in the '80s, when snow had fallen in St. Louis, and many schools were closed.  Bob Hardy and Bill Wilkerson read the school closings on KMOX then, and Hardy frequently personified the computer that printed the listings as "Mabel."  (i.e.  "Mabel has been very busy, churning out the school closings this morning...")  Hardy and Wilkerson would divide up the list and take turns reading sections of it, alphabetically.  I remember listening to the school closings and starting to hold my breath when I thought Hardy or Wilkerson would announce my school district.  More often than not, they wouldn't announce it because the superintendent was from Minnesota, and snow apparently didn't phase him easily.  (I understand the district closed more often when his successor, who hailed from Texas, took over.)  I remember one day 30 years ago when ours was one of only two districts open in St. Louis County.  Perhaps a coalition of students should have offered Hardy, Wilkerson, and Mabel cash to say on the air that it was closed.