And Another Thing Or Several On Juno
Monday, 26 January 2015 21:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsMy previous post on the non-weather event here and Juno in New England (DW) -- a few more comments.
This morning they were reporting that Michigan utilities were shipping crews to New York State, staging for potential deployment anywhere.
New York City itself, forecast dropping to 16" of snow rather than 26".
Fascinating watching MSNBC tonight. Chris Hayes at 8pm EST was not in the studio, but it looked like he was riding in the back seat of an SUV driving through the pretty neighborhoods of New York -- all lights and snow encrusted poles and trees... Then Rachel Maddow at 9am, why she's standing outside on a street corner, delivering news on the storm.
The MTA in New York has shut down the subways in advance of the storm for the first time ever. Hype? Over protected government mothering? Well, even if the storm in NYC gets the lower level, it's still a blizzard. Most businesses and schools are closed. So who the hell needs to go out? Give the crews a chance to clean without regular traffic getting in the way.
And just to be clear, on Rachel just now they showed a piece of a press conference. "A food delivery bicycle is not an emergency vehicle" and as such is banned after 11pm tonight. So they ran a cat picture which was given the meme text "I Can't Has Take-Out?" That, by itself, is amusing. But some perspective here. In a city like New York, a whole lot more people depend on take-out. Out here, we don't have the choices. And it's easier to get groceries. We got Thai take-out in Allendale on Saturday, simply because we could. Also that Thai lime soup is spectacular.
While eating lunch today, one of the Mikes from the sports show Mike and Mike was on ABC's The Chew and his opinion was you couldn't live in New York without eating take-out at least three times a week. Not exactly scientific statistics, but there's a whole helluva lot of yummy places to pick up or delivery from in NYC. (grin)
Now Rachel is talking about Jane Byrne and her snowplow driven win over Bland Bilandic in 1979 (DW), in a piece about mayors surviving blizzards politically. And I remember the 1969 blizzard in New York. But living in White Plains, it wasn't specifically the Lindsey Blizzard, after Mayor John Lindsey. Frankly, though John was something of an upper crust type, the clip they showed of him patiently explaining that this wet heavy snow couldn't be moved by mere plows -- it needed bulldozers -- seemed perfectly reasonable, not arrogant.
I mention this because it is 2015, and a friend in Brooklyn had said yesterday that he was planning on spending Tuesday updating PlowNYC -- utilizing the GPS in the plows to see where they are. Wow. How cool. Accountability and having some idea when your street will get it. Plowed that is. All without going outside. Or shoveling two minutes before the plow comes by... (evil-grin)
The one computer forecast model shows New Haven getting the peak, over 31". New Haven was once where trains between New York and Boston had to change from electric to diesel (or steam before that). Part of the billion dollar upgrade to the Northeast Corridor some years ago was to finally complete electrification all the way to Boston. Made things easier -- no wrestling with couplers, air hoses and power couplings in the snow and ice, but electric trains have their limitations, too, in storms.
So, is this really a historic storm? Well, it's certainly a meh event in West Michigan, but that's not fair. And frankly, our 24/7 culture has made us so believing that technology can get us through everything, that sometimes a bit of hype and getting slapped upside of the head with a frozen mackerel and be told to stay the hell off the roads, is exactly what some of us needed. Because the plow operators and first responders really could use a little consideration. Don't you think?
If you're in the hit zone, seven states have declared states of emergency, enjoy the day(s) off. Hope you have power/heat/water/sewer.
Oh, and it's 2015. Hope you have Internet. (cold-icy-grin) And don't even think of going to the airport tomorrow. 6900 flights cancelled and counting.
30,000,000 people.
Stay safe.
Dr. Phil
This morning they were reporting that Michigan utilities were shipping crews to New York State, staging for potential deployment anywhere.
New York City itself, forecast dropping to 16" of snow rather than 26".
Fascinating watching MSNBC tonight. Chris Hayes at 8pm EST was not in the studio, but it looked like he was riding in the back seat of an SUV driving through the pretty neighborhoods of New York -- all lights and snow encrusted poles and trees... Then Rachel Maddow at 9am, why she's standing outside on a street corner, delivering news on the storm.
The MTA in New York has shut down the subways in advance of the storm for the first time ever. Hype? Over protected government mothering? Well, even if the storm in NYC gets the lower level, it's still a blizzard. Most businesses and schools are closed. So who the hell needs to go out? Give the crews a chance to clean without regular traffic getting in the way.
And just to be clear, on Rachel just now they showed a piece of a press conference. "A food delivery bicycle is not an emergency vehicle" and as such is banned after 11pm tonight. So they ran a cat picture which was given the meme text "I Can't Has Take-Out?" That, by itself, is amusing. But some perspective here. In a city like New York, a whole lot more people depend on take-out. Out here, we don't have the choices. And it's easier to get groceries. We got Thai take-out in Allendale on Saturday, simply because we could. Also that Thai lime soup is spectacular.
While eating lunch today, one of the Mikes from the sports show Mike and Mike was on ABC's The Chew and his opinion was you couldn't live in New York without eating take-out at least three times a week. Not exactly scientific statistics, but there's a whole helluva lot of yummy places to pick up or delivery from in NYC. (grin)
Now Rachel is talking about Jane Byrne and her snowplow driven win over Bland Bilandic in 1979 (DW), in a piece about mayors surviving blizzards politically. And I remember the 1969 blizzard in New York. But living in White Plains, it wasn't specifically the Lindsey Blizzard, after Mayor John Lindsey. Frankly, though John was something of an upper crust type, the clip they showed of him patiently explaining that this wet heavy snow couldn't be moved by mere plows -- it needed bulldozers -- seemed perfectly reasonable, not arrogant.
I mention this because it is 2015, and a friend in Brooklyn had said yesterday that he was planning on spending Tuesday updating PlowNYC -- utilizing the GPS in the plows to see where they are. Wow. How cool. Accountability and having some idea when your street will get it. Plowed that is. All without going outside. Or shoveling two minutes before the plow comes by... (evil-grin)
The one computer forecast model shows New Haven getting the peak, over 31". New Haven was once where trains between New York and Boston had to change from electric to diesel (or steam before that). Part of the billion dollar upgrade to the Northeast Corridor some years ago was to finally complete electrification all the way to Boston. Made things easier -- no wrestling with couplers, air hoses and power couplings in the snow and ice, but electric trains have their limitations, too, in storms.
So, is this really a historic storm? Well, it's certainly a meh event in West Michigan, but that's not fair. And frankly, our 24/7 culture has made us so believing that technology can get us through everything, that sometimes a bit of hype and getting slapped upside of the head with a frozen mackerel and be told to stay the hell off the roads, is exactly what some of us needed. Because the plow operators and first responders really could use a little consideration. Don't you think?
If you're in the hit zone, seven states have declared states of emergency, enjoy the day(s) off. Hope you have power/heat/water/sewer.
Oh, and it's 2015. Hope you have Internet. (cold-icy-grin) And don't even think of going to the airport tomorrow. 6900 flights cancelled and counting.
30,000,000 people.
Stay safe.
Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth Crossposted on LiveJournal
