The town of Nibelungen, Pennsylvania, is a meteorological curiosity. "The fog came

in on a Monday in May of 1914," Nibelungen mayor Fred Welles relates, pointing

to a framed newspaper clipping from that year, "and it never went out. Nibelungen

has been wrapped in fog ever since. You get used to it after a while," he continues.

"When the fog is shimmery and bright, almost like a steam bath, you know that it's

right around noon. When it's thick as wool and the town looks dank and dark as London

in one of those old black and white versions of A Christmas Carol, you know that the

sun has set. It could be worse," he points out. "It's been raining in Altenburg since the

Great Depression, and dumping hail in Wilton ever since the Dodgers moved to Los

Angeles. You move here from Wilton or Altenburg, it's like moving to Shangri-La."