As an ex-midwesterner, I find the DC snow panic immensely entertaining.
Snow, can I tell ta about snow. Spent two winters walking for three months in tunnels or whatever, six foot drifts on either side of the sidewalk.
One year I walked four miles to work and back every day, because I just didn't want to be bothered with a car;because I liked to smoke several joints on the way home; and because I like to walk.
The car was the neatest I ever owned, a fully loaded 1970 (71?) T-Bird with the wrap-around backseats. Drunk on Manhattans I ran it off the road and got caught with an ounce of sense. They dropped the pot for a guilty plea of DUI. After another reckless driving charge based on alcohol I had too many points, and figured I was stuck with a bad crowd tempting me to drink. I don't like to drive anyway. It was literally buried in the snow for the entire winter, invisible. After the snow melted, I sold it in the spring for 50 dollars a new battery and it started right up. Better off with a kid who would appreciate and take car of it.
Great car, 5000 pounds of smooth ride with an huge engine (454?) to get up to 100 miles an hour without you even noticing.
Last American luxury touring sports car?
Used to just love snow. Hated the cruelest month tho, which is why I am in Texas. Tried on my down jacket the other day, would fit except for my belly. Cost 200 or something in 1980 but was always too warm, even in sub-zero.
I love the snow. I get to wear my goose-down parka only once every 7 years or so.
I admit DC gets weird about snow, but it gets weird about rain too. Heck, freezing ice causes the city to shut down. (Speaking of shut down, DCA is closed until 1300 to clear the field. Google Traffic for the DC area is red and black.) This much snow would probably be a snow day in greater Boston too.
Off to play in the snow and maybe see a movie.
Turned on TWC to get the live feeds.
I wish we would get more snow. We have had unseasonable cold temps, but very little snow so far this year, and I bought new snowshoes this fall. We do not need as much snow as last year though. I really don't want to spend that much time sand bagging again.
Durham seems to be the southern edge of where it snowed, and it has mostly melted now. Disappointing.
So how much or little snow is there, anyway? Are DC-dwellers wimps?
Been snowing since eight or so last night. Maybe 8 inches here just outside of DC.
If the weather reports are to be believed they are looking at 6-10 inches of snow with wind so I wouldn't really call them wimps about this. It could be a fairly decent storm. I don't know what the level of freak out is though.
Should get to be at least 15-20 inches., perhaps more, with 20 MPH winds blowing the stuff. I spent many years living up north near the Great Lakes and this is a real blizzard.
We've got maybe four inches in Pittsburgh, but it's still falling. Mail came on time, but there isn't much traffic on the roads. The city has a snow removal budget of $45.34, so they won't do much on a Saturday.
Yesterday I biked home from the train in jeans and a t-shirt. I had a military jacket with me, but it was too warm for it.
Yesterday, I drove home in a Jeep that is only one mile away from hitting 123456.7 miles.
Well, here, it was 11 1/2 inches this morning at around 7:30 AM. Been snowing ever since. It's added at least four inches, but I'm pretty sure we're at 20 inches. Still haven't finished shoveling the walk. Ugh. Out on the street, it's not quite 3 feet.
I admit DC gets weird about snow, but it gets weird about rain too. Heck, freezing ice causes the city to shut down.
Oh, hell yes. They freak out when the wind blows hard. 'Careful out there, the wind is gusting up to 35 MPH! There's a warning out!'
Great car, 5000 pounds of smooth ride with an huge engine (454?) to get up to 100 miles an hour without you even noticing.
'71 - a 428, I bet. '72 - 460. 454 is a GM number.
max
['Ah, the Decadent Era of American Motoring.']
My dad had a '68 Thunderbird. Once I put it into neutral and rolled it over my brother's arm. Apparently, 5000 pounds spread over a whole tire won't break bone.
Yeah, it looks like it's going to be 1-2 feet in DC/Baltimore-- would have been 1 foot or so, but there's a second front coming in that'll drop another 3-7 inches overnight tonight. So the news says.
It's probably been noted here before, but the snow panic in the mid-Atlantic is mostly to do with the relative dearth of snow-moving equipment, aka plows, and sanding trucks and the like. The Boston area (say) does a hell of a lot better with this amount of snow, just because the plows are out in force, and in continuous rotation, starting at 2 a.m. or whatever. It doesn't pay to maintain a fleet like that around here, where it only snows significantly like twice per winter; so you wind up with roads unplowed for a good two days.
I felt the need to say this because as a native New Englander, I snickered at people's excitable panic for quite a while when I first moved down here, but then I realized: Yeah. If nobody's plowing, it is kind of a problem, innit. (The excitable panic is sort of cute, anyway.)
Let's think of those with real problems due to snow: Short dogs that have to drag their junk through a drift to take a leak.
Heh. I had a cat who was so dedicated to going outside at all times, no matter what, that at one point after a heavy snow, he stepped off the side of the porch onto what appeared to be level (snow-covered) ground, and promptly dropped 2 feet into the snow drift. Nearly buried! Extreme surprise! Flounder!
Rescue operation, while trying not to laugh hysterically, because cats hate it when you laugh at them, and saying that it really was just about the expression on their face, which was, you see, um ... doesn't cut it.
17: I snickered at people's excitable panic for quite a while...
I still snicker, but that's a personality flaw, I guess.
The first or second year we were in Birmingham we had couple of inches of snow. We got up, drove to work on almost empty roads, and found the medical center and the whole town was officially closed except for emergency services. The police were using 4WD vehicles to pick up and deliver nurses, MD, and techs to the hospitals, and so on.
After that one I took snow and ice warnings seriously. It didn't matter if I could cope with the stuff if most of the others on the road were creating random paths of destruction.
The great blizzard of '93 was fun for about four days.
http://www.wbhm.org/News/2003/Blizzard_of_93.html
We had a bunch of friends over as refugees 'cause we had a fireplace.
I think I might have lost my taste for that sort of mild to middling adversity over the years. I've got plenty of below-zero hunting gear in the closet and no real urge to play dress-up.
Back when I was in OH (just south of Cleveland), they'd plow, but it was a mostly symbolic gesture, as they wouldn't really be able to clear anything until the snow stopped. Now I get to snicker at New Englanders. The hand is on the other foot!
My parents and my sister are all buried under a foot of snow up around Asheville and my sister is excited that this means she gets to get all the wrapping done early since she sure as shit can't go anywhere. Me, I am extremely tired of being snowed into places and am glad it didn't do anything in Durham. Seven years ago Rah and I were snowed in with five others for a week in a huge log home on five acres in the middle of nowhere. It was both fun and maddening and I think it broke me of enjoying snow days.
All I want for Christmas is a '70 Thunderbird. Or a '72 Cutlass Supreme. Or maybe a '69 Wildcat. OK, so in my highly-detailed fantasy life I have all three.
Oh, but my original comment: yesterday I happened to go grocery shopping and realized halfway through that I already had bread and eggs (plenty of both around here) and figured I might as well go for the trifecta so I bought Rah some half-and-half in case we were low. It's like an instinctual urge. I was halfway up the French Toast River before I even knew I'd gone anywhere.
We've had some snow here - only about 4 inches, but enough that driving from our house to the main road involves driving on an ice rink, unless we take the naughty option of driving out the wrong end of our street.
Just started snowing here in Brooklyn. I didn't realize it's supposed to be such a storm. Better go out for supplies.
'Ah, the Decadent Era of American Motoring.'
Decadent indeed. The 70 was an outright gift from an uncle around 1982. He had kept it stored for ten+ years.
He stopped buying T-Birds when they stopped being muscle, so I know it wasn't a '72. Moved to Lincolns.
Before that he bought a new T-Bird every year from 1958. I remember as a kid riding in the back seat on a backroad of his 1962 (I think) as he automatically pulled the roof into the trunk and then floored the pedal. 60s were a different time.
Brilliant boy-wonder engineer, but a terrible drunk. I had to get away from him.
17: I snickered at people's excitable panic for quite a while when I first moved down here, but then I realized: Yeah. If nobody's plowing, it is kind of a problem, innit.
It's not cold, no wind. (That last bout was cold.) Just umpty zillion inches of snow. Yow! FREEEAAAKKKKK OOOOUUUTTTTT.
Walkway shoveled. Car almost shoveled out. The five foot of drift there was annoying. Had to come in here to cool off.
max
['Shame I haven't got my snow camo, or I'd do some Leningrad reenactments.']
We've got flurries outside of Cleveland. No accumulation, but we are supposed to drive to DC tomorrow morning. We may have to rethink this.
It's not cold, no wind.
I'm about to head out to dig out a car just to pull it up to the top of the driveway. Do I gotta? Yes. It's 23 degrees with some pretty serious gusting going on. A warm Irish coffee or something will do for when I return - y'all got that covered, right?
Oh, yeah, Rob, I wouldn't drive to DC tomorrow, no.
It's supposed to get to about 70 over here. Windy though.
Some of my best memories are winter memories.
We used to do acid and drive way out into the fields at night.
With maybe the exception of deep desert, there is no stillness like deep winter 3 AM country stillness.
glad it didn't do anything in Durham
Durham is the farthest south I've lived and also the place where I've been stuck most with winter weather. There was the storm in 2000 that dumped 24" of snow and then a few years later there was the ice storm that snapped power lines pretty much everywhere. It was never actually cold, but it got very hard to get around.
I think we've got about 7" here, but that's a guesstimate made with a paint stirrer, and it's been blowing around a lot.
It's a nice dry snow so far, though -- I went out a couple of hours ago because I was bound and determined to get my Christmas tree, and it was easy to brush off my car. Probably not the wisest decision since the car is actually lousy for bad-weather driving, but it was only a mile.
The most notable difference was crossing the township line. Whoa baby, you can see the difference between the richer and the poorer for sure. I don't know whether it's a matter of not being able to afford to plow on Saturdays, or just having fewer plows.
Got the tree, though, and my neighbors even offered to carry it up the steps for me. Now I have to figure out where my file went, since I don't have a saw and the stump won't quite fit into the tree stand.
and the stump won't quite fit into the tree stand.
Braggart.
I'm supposed to go to a house party tonight, at a house that is irritatingly distant from the subway. I will go, but I will be annoyed.
35: It did occur to me while writing 34 that there is a lot of low-hanging fruit in inherent in Christmas-tree vocabulary. And snow.
It just keeps going and going. Very windy though. The cars parked below have funny drift patterns from the air currents.
My family used to live in Nebraska for a while, where the winds were really intense and the snow would pile up in odd ways. One day, we opened the front door of the house to what looked like a 12' wall of snow. But the heat of the house had melted a tunnel in the drift so you could walk to the side of the house through it and get out. Across the street, the lawns barely had a dusting of snow at all.
Parsimon's 17.3 is right. I have quit laughing at people in the mid-Atlantic states for not dealing with snow like New England (usually) does. It only took me 15 years to get over that bias.
Contra to what Max is experiencing, it is windy in my neighborhood. The snow turned to small, sleety stuff. Walking into the wind, it stings. Still, it is pretty and I love it when urban areas slow down. I added some pics to the flickr group.
I guess it's a good thing I flew out yesterday.
My son measured snow depth in our (Alexandria VA) backyard - 8 measurements in a relatively flat portion yielded a simple average of 18 inches.
Wow, that whole grocery-shopping trip was the result of some Mineshaftian suggestion or other. Bread for French toast tomorrow, veggies for duck soup, and a bottle of rye to keep me warm.
A very good thing. My sister was to fly from LAX to BOS on a red eye tonight. It was cancelled and she is now looking at Tuesday at the earliest.
39: I lived at 40° 44.732'N 73° 42.039'W from the mid-Forties until the early Sixties, just over the NYC border in Nassau County. Early on there was nothing to the West but open field from our street until Creedmore. For some reason the houses from our place to the corner would get huge drifts and the other houses on the block almost nothing.
That should have gotten me interested in a career in metereology or aerodynamics but I was too exhausted from shoveling to wonder about why.
Thanks are owed to McManly Pants for the french toast idea: tomorrow morning, yes.
I seem to be able to make just about anything into a moral concern. In this case: I pulled an all-wheel-drive vehicle (inherited from my New Hampshire-residing mom) to the top of the driveway -- which I know is totally exciting -- but I did this effortlessly, or rather the car did, through 2 full feet of snow. The snow was nearly above the top of the wheel wells! Me 'n' my human technology (that's the car), we are unstoppable in the face of mother nature, and that is so cool. And yet it seems wrong to feel smug and triumphant in this way.
I felt so weird about it that I went around and asked the neighbors if they needed anything at the store. (Since me 'n' my car, we can do that if you want.)
37: Yes. Sorry. I'm snowed in with this and sending cards.
42: Here's a map from the NWS on preliminary storm totals in the DC area (not sure what time it was compiled and of course it continues to snow most places in the area).
As discussed in detail a number of times here in the past, fatuous weather preparation snobbery is lower than dirt and the hallmark of an atrophied and self-deluded intellect. The moral equivalent of a YouTube comment thread. And the manifestation of this storm would be significant anywhere except the very, very most snowy places such as Valdez, Alaska or Donner Pass.
39: I used to live in Nebraska on the north edge of town. When the wind blew in the winter, dad would say "Nothing between us and the North Pole but barbed wire." We got a drift so big that I climbed on the roof of the house (one story) from it. There was less than a foot of snow that fell, but the wind seemed determined to put it all in the driveway.
Interesting; Bob's old T-Bird appears to have been copy-catting the Riviera, at least to some extent.
My mom, a roadster devotee, was always offended at what happened to the T-Bird.
50 was me.
Back in college I stayed with my sister in DC between Xmas and New Years. They got like 3" of snow one night, and we had lots of fun driving around the deserted town. In the land of completely wimpy drivers, an even slightly bold driver is king.
One day, we opened the front door of the house to what looked like a 12' wall of snow. [...] Across the street, the lawns barely had a dusting of snow at all.
Wow, the neighbors must have hated you to go to all that trouble.
50: One of the mechanics at the garage I pumped gas for around 1960 had a first generation T-bird he had stuffed with a huge Cadillac engine and racing clutch. The car was beautiful but there was nothing refined about it, the beast burned rubber at every start and at almost every shift up unless he was being very careful.
Now he'd be a public enemy, like SUV drivers, smokers, and suits into three martini lunches.
52: Word is that it's bad sledding snow. Not wet, heavy and slick enough. It's good skiing snow, dry and powdery.
Still, you can sled on a flattened corrugated cardboard box, you know.
DON'T FORGET ABOUT US!!
48. Thanks for the map. I was looking for that.
How cold is it? At Fenway Park the scoreboard lists the Bruins as the home team. Bobby Orr!
French toast alert system: High
I was invited to play a game at Fenway on Monday. $7500/hour for the ice rental, about $350 per person. No thanks. (Seriously, if they kick us off 30 seconds early, can we argue about the $60?)
My kids went toboganning yesterday (on flat plastic roll-up sleds we bought in Canadia two years ago) - they were the only kids in the park.
My roommate has just declared with some disgust that no, French Toast is not wicked simple, as I said it was. This is a guy who whips up pancakes on a whim. He's tossed a scarf around his neck and gone downstairs to paint.
So ... how many eggs to how much milk should one use?
I should say, this is not happening right now, the French Toast. Right now it's black bean chili, which I am totally on top of.
62: I remember the guy on Good Eats said you had to set the bread out overnight to get a bit hard. You want enough milk that you don't get scrambled eggs on the outside of the bread. Also some nutmeg.
I never stopped snickering at Mid-Atlanticians. It snows enough that they ought to be able to get around a lot better than they do, and, while this is a real storm, there were countless instances over the past 21 years of full blown panic with zero snow, or just the lightest dusting.
We need that snow out here, by the way. Now for skiing (although it was better than I expected out on the hill today) and we're going to need it for irrigation next summer.
That does look like a pretty decent snowstorm. It's been awhile since we've had a one-day accumulation like that around here. I miss them. I don't think 15 inches would shut anything down around here except for deep suburban and parochial schools, but 20 inches probably would cancel MPS and Anoka-Hennepin district classes. It would be a toss-up at the U.
My new Xtian punk neighbors mostly shovel snow for a living in the winter ($28/hour!), so they've been bummed that things have been so dry here so far this winter.
I wouldn't mind making some french toast. I can get low-grade fixins for it at the connivance store a few houses down the block though.
French toast does sound pretty good.
64: The bread is basically peasant bread, so it's plenty hard, in its way. I usually wing it, just say half an egg per toast + however much milk seems needed, but not overkill on the milk. We're not making milquetoast. Cinnamon. Not sure if I have ground nutmeg. I wish I had some kind of fruit compote on hand, but alas.
68: Then it sounds like you know more than I do. I don't even get real pancakes because pickier members of the family want "multigrain pancakes" which are basically corn muffins. (They're pretty good, but too thick and chewy to be a real pancake.)
So, I'm driving to Boise tomorrow. Does anyone have any opinions on which way I should go?
One egg + a splorp of milk per two pieces of toast is right. If you forget to leave the bread out, as is my wont, you can always just put it in a low oven for a few minutes while you putter and make coffee. And the one true topping for French toast is molasses.
AWB, go to the party. I met and got a long way towards falling in love with my husband at a party a long way from the subway in a blizzard. You'd be amazed what that does for being annoyed at the initial schlep.
You mean Lolo Pass, not Lost Trail Pass? Google like Monida Pass, but Google is nuts.
And the one true topping for French toast is molasses.
I can't grasp molasses. I just don't get it. I inherited some, actually quite a lot, from my mom's house, and in a waste not, want not spirit, made muffins with it -- substituting the molasses for honey -- and yechh. Blech.
69: "multigrain pancakes" which are basically corn muffins. Of course there's no right or wrong about it all.
I actually like that. These cakey pancakes people are on about are for the birds not to my taste.
70: South-southwest.
More specifically, though, is there an alternative to I-15 to I-84 in winter? Lolo Pass is probably pretty this time of year, if you can see anything through the snow.
I can't grasp molasses. I just don't get it. I inherited some, actually quite a lot, from my mom's house, and in a waste not, want not spirit, made muffins with it -- substituting the molasses for honey -- and yechh. Blech.
Instead of substituting it willy-nilly where it doesn't belong, try making some gingerbread!
Actually, having just looked at the ITD webcam, Lolo looks passable but probably slow. Isn't that the most direct route, 12 to 95?
parsimon, I'm just this side of being a molasses fiend, and the molasses-for-honey swap doesn't sound so promising to me. It's not the thing to use for generic sweetness. But buttery molasses cookies with ginger and cinnamon? Yes please.
Good idea, Moby, I'll take some along.
Thanks, Jesus. I'm kind of intrigues by 93 and Idaho 21. I've never been from Stanley to Boise. Maybe I'll take 95 home.
Interesting fact: they're going to be moving some very big machinery from Korea to the Canadian Arctic next summer. Very big stuff -- three semis abreast and two in height. And it turns out that the best way to go is by boat into Idaho, and then over Lolo, and right through our main commercial strip, crossing the divide by Rogers pass.
77, 80: Ah. Okay. I've really never used it before. I substituted it in a bran muffin recipe that said that either honey or molasses would do. Turned out that wasn't the case. Cursed receipt book! Good to know, thanks.
Gingerbread, and ginger cookies, I love, so okay.
79: Now I am going to be singing "Molasses . . . to rum . . . to slaaaaaaves" for the rest of the night.*
*Maybe not so bad, since CA has been walking around singing "Dick in a Box."
We always use the Silver Palate recipe for molasses cookies:
12 T butter
1 c sugar
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground ginger (I usually have a heavy hand with this; recommended)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350˚F. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Off the heat, add sugar and molasses and mix well. Lightly beat egg and add. Sift dry ingredients together and add, stirring well. Batter will be wet.
Line baking sheets with foil. Drop batter by ~tablespoonsful on foil, leaving 3 inches between cookies---they spread a lot. Bake 8-10 minutes. Let cool on foil.
These are delicious, but they'll stick themselves together like nobody's business when you stack them for storage. Putting them in the cookie jar on edge helps a lot.
Molasses is the sweetener in James Beard's pecan pie recipe, IIRC.
I made some Seville orange marmalade today (and yesterday). Guess what: it is pretty damn bitter. Perhaps I should have been more diligent about de-pithing the peels, though in past marmalade preparations they have gotten nicely translucent and cooked through and yummy, something that didn't seem to happen this time. OH WELL.
85: That sounds terrific, but it's probably kind of bad for me. For me. They're like candy cookies. Everyone else should go for it.
Actually now that I've had some on bread rather than scooped up from the frozen plate used to test the set I can say that it's fucking delicious. Ha! I added some scotch at the end but it seems mostly undetectable, which is too bad, though.
Oh, and all that pectinaceous goop squoze out last night really paid off.
As long as we're talking food, I am sitting here eating this stupendously delicious "beef," quinoa and sweet potato casserole with cranberries. Oh my word is it gooood. Nothing like a warm meal on a cold night.
And we're up to about a foot here. Christmas lights sure do loook pretty in the snow.
86: Molasses to the rescue again! No, really. I made a bunch of marmalade to deal with our clementine bonanza last winter, which was a fine plan except neither of us really likes marmalade. I found a recipe for a gingerbread-y sort of cake full of bitter marmalade and molasses, and made it, thinking what the hell, at least if it's terrible it'll get moldy and then I'll have to throw it away, whereas unwanted preserves will just sit in the fridge forever. It was in fact quite good. The recipe's around here somewhere, if you want it.
Just saw 88. Never mind.
In fact I did add toward the end of cooking the stuff not only scotch but also … honey! ha.
I would like the recipe!
Oh, it's still bitter. It's just not as bitter as I thought it was at first.
Shall I make a batch of caramels, even though I already have enough caramels to give away, since I have this open container of cream sitting here just waiting to be used or else to go bad?
Witt is eating "beef." While I don't know what that is, I did add bulghur wheat to the black bean chili, at my roommate's request. Actually I added it to a set-aside pot of the chili. It's sort of beefy. But not "beef."
Is it normal to eat at 9 p.m.? I think so.
I am warming myself at the moment with a certain Aquavit (#3 on the linked list). Recommended.
neither of us really likes marmalade
I'll have to cast a wary eye upon you in future.
95: Yes, you shall.
96: It is not abnormal.
97: Strong work.
98: It is peculiar.
Witt is eating "beef." While I don't know what that is,
Tube steak. She wanted to be politic, I'm sure.
That was my first thought on seeing that page, as well. I read that it was good.
Damme. I shall not, because the cream has already soured.
I'll have to cast a wary eye upon you in future.
Make the cookies, parsimon. I think you'll find they're a good cure for wariness.
I've lost track of where this recipe came from, neb, but here it is:
1 2/3 c flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/2 t ginger
1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c molasses
2 large eggs
1 c marmalade
1/2 c golden raisins
1/3 c chopped crystallized ginger
Preheat oven to 325˚F. Butter a 9"x9"x2" pan and line with parchment.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger, and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Beat in molasses. Beat in half of flour mixture, then one egg, then the remaining flour, and finally the remaining egg. Mix in marmalade. Stir in raisins and crystallized ginger.
Transfer to prepared pan. Bake 35-38 minutes. Let cool in pan.
Nah, I meant fungus.
The original recipe calls for ground beef, and indeed it's one of my favorite flexitarian meals to make, because you can just about effortlessly do a carnivore/omnivore and a vegetarian version side by side.
Nah, I meant fungus.
I thought that might be what you meant. Interesting.
Hey, is anybody businessy around? I'm writing a recommendation for an MBA program and I want to know if there is anything I should avoid saying.
I've written a ton of recommendations, so I'm comfortable with the basic format, but I'm worried I'm going to say something that I think is praise and they think is the kiss of death.
Links or website referrals also welcome.
109: Just avoid mentioning "big stumps."
I felt the need to say this because as a native New Englander, I snickered at people's excitable panic for quite a while when I first moved down here, but then I realized: Yeah. If nobody's plowing, it is kind of a problem, innit.
Yeah, definitely. Also, I got my comeuppance in the summer, when it was hotter and more humid than I had ever imagined possible, and I was utterly miserable.
"The applicant has excellent handwriting."
Examples from recent recs:
"The boys all refer to her as "versatile" due to her ability at sports"
"I would like to say that the fact that I've known her and her family since she was 3 in no way compromises my objectivity"
"We would sit around and chat about many things: sports, politics, theater"
Oh, and all that pectinaceous goop squoze out last night really paid off.
This is good to know.
I won $6 at the track tonight. I feel, somehow, guilty.
I went to the party, and was glad I did. It was a fun group, and I made some friends. We drank a little Serbian cherry brandy, which is pretty deadly, but just enough that the walk in the blizzard back to the train was sort of fun rather than miserable. Grocery shopped on the way home, all tucked in for tomorrow. Yay!
I like the idea of all of us making French toast tomorrow. It's like we're all having brunch together, alone.
At a party tonight, had some awesome ginger ale from S Carolina. Name escapes me - something long with a D? Anyway, spicy and awesome with bourbon and lemon.
Whereas I am mixing clear creek pear brandy and hot spiced cider.
115: Okay, French toast is on the menu even if snow isn't. I'm having a nostalgia attack for a New York City shut-down blizzard, complete senility can't be far away.
117: Whereas I'm mixing Mount Gay Extra Old rum with... nothing. (Well, except my digestive system.)
It's pretty great. I was afraid I'd be way too unhappy to trudge, since my friend lives a good 20 minutes from the subway and I live 10 minutes from the subway, under normal walking conditions. But it's not too windy, you can walk in the street, the snow is soft and clean...
A young couple in my all-night grocery store were planning their own blizzard French toast brunch tomorrow, so maybe this is actually everyone.
Now I desire to have French toast tomorrow, which is thoroughly impossible, despite having all the ingredients on hand, because I have to be up at the butt crack of dawn to go count birds. Bah! I'm jealous!
French toast is ok, but it's not matzoh brei.
Does anyone believe they really have 60 votes?
We have challah in the freezer expressly for French toast purposes. Tomorrow it is! (Despite the utter lack of snow or coldness here. I've been through at least 3 good D.C. blizzards. I've found that a box of frozen thin mints and a good novel are all the provisions one needs.)
I don't like matzoh brei as much as I'd like to like it.
frozen thin mints
Blizzard food: ur doin it rong.
A Dairy Queen Blizzard would not be particularly good blizzard food either, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't go buy one if I could find an open DQ at this is hour. Which is not to say that MN is experiencing a blizzard. Just snow and cold. Still, not good Blizzard weather.
123:Yes, if the House plays very very nice and doesn't mess up the Senate deals.
If the tone of the web is any indication, the progressives in the house and senate won't be able to handle breaking the deals.
Stupak and McConnell are in constant talks to make the abortion language as bad as possible in conference, to make it the degradation of the progressives as extreme as possible, in an attempt to alienate the Democratic base, or get progressives to take the blame for health insurance bill failure. The House will obey.
My guess us that we get very close to Stupak or worse in conference, but everything moves quickly, and Obama will sign a bill by the middle of January at latest.
But I should stay away, the world's a mirror, and I am unspeakably vile right now. It all feels pagan and barbaric.
Happy holidays.
The National Institute if Health is moving from Bethesda Maryland to Nebraska. Nelson got a ton.
But I think we are thru with bribes and sacrifices in the Senate.
The National Institute if Health is moving from Bethesda Maryland to Nebraska
Is that a joke? Anyway, I think the House is OK: there a fair few reps from ultra-safe districts who are easily punishable should they stray. I'm sure they'll fuck something up, but they know they don't have a lot of leeway.
131:Something I read somewhere. Just checked the manager's pdf, not in there. So maybe a joke, but not mine.
I have not seen any limits at all to what one who would be sacrificed so Obama can get an victory, so I would believe any rumor
Omelas all.
129-132: I feel like I should start apologizing to Nader voters.
Oops. I'm doing it wrong, as I have banana nut bread in the oven. Converting that to French toast just seems even more decadent than I find appropriate.
As for the snowfall: our new apartment has a walled patio, and we were getting drifts. In the end our average seems to be 21", despite the official NWS figure of only 16", but consistent with friends' reports around the area.
I left the neighborhood Safeway around noon yesterday, by which time there was already about a foot of snow on the ground. They had plenty of milk and bread, but only the fancy $4/dz eggs. The Yes! Organic Market a couple blocks north of the Safeway didn't appear to be out of anything.
Did I, in comments, mock snow panic among Virginians on Friday? Yeah, I haven't been home since Friday and am still not there. Yay.
First batch of French toast. Nom. I should have bought coffee, though -- my roommate's pre-ground Dunkin Donuts is not good. I'm not a coffee snob at all, but this tastes like ash somehow. Could the grounds be his grandmother's cremains placed in a most modestly priced receptacle? Time will tell.
It was supposed to start at 10 PM last night, but when I got home at 11:30, it hadn't started yet. This morning at 7, we had a bunch dumped on us.
138: Now? Work. Otherwise, since Friday night? At a hotel near work (put up there by the company). Roads are a fucking joke here.
You can feel virtuous when you use molasses, because it's full of B vitamins and iron--especially good for vegetarians.
Well, thrilled as I am to have inspired french toast in so many lovely people's mornings, it's sunny here and the neighbor's immaculate lawn is as green as a spring bud so I think I'm going to scramble some eggs and fry some sausage. However, last night I warmed myself with lovely wine Rah bought so I was inadvertently in on that trend.
Moby, you happened to be here for the two biggest, most paralyzing winter weather events in the 17 years I've lived here. Glad we could make you feel at home!
Please to open DCA. K thanks.
I'm having an omelette with 4 cheese blend, multi-colored green peppers and red onions. I thought about hiking into church this morning but decided against.
Drinking on Saturday night is a new internet tradition.
144: Hmm, don't tell me the FAA is lying to me when they have DCA green and show only Philly as having a problem.
147: Weather Channel a few minutes ago said still closed because they're having a hard time finding places to put the snow from the taxiways. Friend was supposed to be meeting us in the Bay Area last night. She now has a seat for a flight this evening to Reno, but if that doesn't happen it's looking grim for her making this trip at all.
148: If the government can't even report correctly on airport closings, how do we expect them to run health care? Lieberman is right!
OK, I belatedly followed the link, and can only agree that Lieberman would be an excellent choice to manage the FAA's website. He'd have to give up his current job, of course, but I'm sure his deep love for his country and strong sense of duty mean that won't be a problem.
149: The fact that Sam's Club's parking lot was way better-plowed than our socialized road system? Proof that the free market works better than socialism.
when they have DCA green and show only Philly as having a problem.
I wouldn't be surprised if Philly is the hardest-hit airport. Everytime I'm there, they seem to shut down every flight at the sight of a single raindrop.
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Does anybody know how this exchange language on abortion would affect women who would be terribly threatened if they had the baby, like in the case of serious medical complications.
I don't want women with dead fetuses or people who are at grave risk of dying from carrying a wanted pregnancy to term to be on the hook for a $12K procedure.
|>
Also awesome: the nutter at the hotel who argued that Iraq was behind 9/11, because the hijackers had Iraqi passports. Is this a common nutter belief? It seems more out-of-right-field than typical nutter beilefs.
Snow shoveling etiquette: discuss.
(am seeing some really lame behavior out there, but now am not sure if my notions are correct. E.g. how bad is it to showel snow into a location which adds to another's work?)
more out-of-right-field than typical nutter beilefs
No such animal.
how bad is it to showel snow into a location which adds to another's work?
Extremely bad.
Proper snow shoveling etiquette: Do unto others (as you would have them do unto you, not as they in fact do).
Also, French toast being prepared as I type!
153:Always rake what I say with a grain, but my understanding is that women will be able to, and have to, buy very separate "abortion insurance" on the exchanges. One such policy will always be available. I think.
IOW, a complicated pregnancy would be normally covered up to the point the doctor recommends termination. Then you had better been prepared. Now will young women have the foresight and pessimism to buy the separate "abortion coverage?" How expensive will it be?
Now when the forced pregnancy crowd starts working on the insurance companies, "abortion insurance" ...well, I am still thinking about the medium term politics.
What about the etiquette of parking in a public parking space that somebody else has cleared? In South Boston that will get your tires slashed.
I may be very wrong about 159. I checked Marcotte last night, and she is pissed, but not incensed, AFAICT. I think she thinks it will just be an added layer of paperwork. I think it may be much worse than that in Red States.
Planned Parenthood (Or NOW? Cecile Richards) considers this a dealbreaker, and wants the Senate bill not to pass.
I'll keep looking.
frozen thin mints
Blizzard food: ur doin it rong.
Sir Kraab: Iconoclast under even the most extreme weather conditions.
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A link to a comment at Yves Smith that provides some details and implications to Obama's biography I had not been aware of.
It may help to be aware of the Berkeley Mafia, which was lightly covered by Naomi Klein and a reason I am suspicious of Romer and DeLong
|, which was lightly covered by Naomi Klein and a reason I am suspicious of Romer and DeLong
|
my roommate's pre-ground Dunkin Donuts is not good
Allow me tactfully to mention the possibility that powdered donuts wouldn't make good coffee no matter how good the donuts themselves were.
I think I'm going to do savory French toast, since I have a gorgeous quarter-loaf of olive bread here, some basil, eggs, cheese...
What about the etiquette of parking in a public parking space that somebody else has cleared?
In the storm of aught-three, some pigfucker parked his raised pickup truck in the spot I'd cleared so my del Sol could even move out of the space. Still makes me angry. I had trouble parking for a week after that.
You fuckers are going to mock me if I head out to breakfast in wool socks and Birkenstocks, aren't you?
169: I'm at work wearing the same clothes I put on Friday morning. I say go for it.
Just everything about the Chicago tradition of folding chairs, etc. in parking spots made me incoherent with rage. It's just so, bleh, Republican or something: I will expropriate this public property for my own personal use and give myself a parking spot 24/7 for 2 months! What made me actually go round the bend was the time I dug out the spot my car was in perfectly and then some asshole went out and put chairs in a spot s/he didn't even dig. This prompted me to write a crazy note (all caps! bolding!) and pin it to the chairs. The notes were up for about 5 minutes when someone walking by saw the note, stopped, read it, and then picked up the offending chairs and threw them onto someone's lawn.
Dear snow, please stop that we may fly home. Dear person whose carefully shoveled space we're going to take, we're very sorry but can't come up with a way around it.
You fuckers are going to mock me if I head out to breakfast in wool socks and Birkenstocks, aren't you?
Not if you're really in the Bay Area; that's just adopting protective coloration.
Never has the name of the personal weather station on this page seemed more apt.
174: Yeah, well, you guys still have a budget crisis. And a stupid state constitution. SO THERE.
173: Berkeley, even, or will be shortly. But boots it is, I think.
I kind of envy all you snow-bound french toast–eaters.
I made too much French toast and can't eat it all. I will apparently be having lovely savory olive-bread French toast for dinner as well.
176: Hah. I'll be in Berkeley for breakfast shortly too.
NPH, If you ever make it to Boston, please look us up.
That FAA travel delay website is a really good idea! Unfortunately---This information was last updated: Dec 20, 2009 at 6:12 PM GMT+00:00---they're doin it rong.
Our building has a roof deck. I took pictures at midnight.
I'm thinking of somebody going in for an hour or so.
Wait! That's GMT! okay, I take it back, don't I look foolish, please delete above. Fuck.
This site (which I found for Becks using my wicked awesome research skills during a snowpocalypse a while back) tracks delays by flight, route, airline, and airport. Current delay index at DCA: Excessive.
133: I feel like I should start apologizing to Nader voters.
This is more shocking than anything else to date. As a Nader voter, I, uh, accept the hypothetical apology, but I'm not sure what it would be for. Not for the "not a dime's worth of difference between Republican and Democratic parties" remarks on Nader's part, I imagine. Not for allegedly enabling Bush's election. Not for the insane-sounding view that we needed to see Bush destroy the country before we might be moved to insist upon change. ? (Though someone -- Benen? -- a while back did carefully poke around the idea that without Bush, we wouldn't have been able to get Obama.)
Was it Nader who referred to the single "Corporate Party" ruling the country? He wouldn't have been alone in that sort of talk, though. That could just as easily be, say, Noam Chomsky or a myriad of other people.
Well, it was mostly just frustrated rhetoric. But Nader voters have taken a lot of shit over the past 10 years, and right now their analysis doesn't really look so crazy any more.
without Bush, we wouldn't have been able to get Obama.
A year in, I don't see that Obama is bringing anything to the table that any other randomly selected national Democrat couldn't. Other than increased minority turnout this last cycle, I guess.
their analysis doesn't really look so crazy any more
Which part of their analysis? That both parties have been co-opted by corporations? That was a given. That there's no functional difference between a Democratic and a Republican Administration? Still bullshit.
187.last: Yeah, I included that line deliberately. Strange days.
188: It's worth noting that not all Nader voters agreed with every last one of his sentiments, of course.
That the difference isn't big enough that the Democrats have just automatically earned their votes from here to eternity. Everybody has their primary issue. Mine happens to be separation of church and state, where there's still enough difference to keep me in line. But if corporatism is your primary issue, the Democrats are just offering the same dish with a prettier garnish.
We have no fundamental disagreement, but people (including nearly every* Nader voter I've discussed this with) often overlook the fact that issues aren't addressed only via legislation. Agencies and rules are incredibly important. In fact, nearly every Nader voter I've discussed this with has no fucking idea how the federal government actually works.
*I don't claim this to be a representative sample, nor to necessarily include Nader-voting Mineshaftians. Furthermore, I voted for Nader -- from D.C. -- in 2000 to voice my general disgust with the Democratic party and I brokered a Nader trade to get an Ohio vote for Gore. Had I known how close the 2000 popular vote would be, I would have done the latter but not the former. Had I known what would happen in 2004, I would have taken Nader out.
I would have taken Nader out
With extreme prejudice, I hope.
You don't have to be an Obama apologist to call bullshit on the "not a dime's worth of difference" argument. A Supreme Court with three or four Obama appointees would be no better than one shaped by McCain (or Palin, God forbid)? I don't think so.
"Not a dime's worth of difference" is at best a strong exaggeration. But it's corporatism that's gonna kill us all. (I voted for Nader in 2000 as a Maryland voter and don't feel bad about it; in perfect hindsight, I wish I'd taken a week off grad school to knock on doors in Florida. Of course there's a massive difference between W and Gore.)
143.2: Yes, everybody said it was weird. Ironically, the only person I know who ever got hurt in Durham driving (and he made a full recovery only because he was in a new car with every safety feature) lost traction because of one of the standard "6 inches of rain in an hour" things.
153, 159: My understanding (via TPM) is that women would be able to buy a single insurance policy but that they would pay for it in two separate installments each month--one installment for all health services except abortion, and one installment specifically for abortion services. It seems like it'd be a hassle, but that women would be able to get coverage for abortion services without having to find a standalone abortion plan.
Yeah. My guess is that people who qualified for subsidies would get them on the 'non-abortion' part of the premium, or something like that.
An inexhaustive list of my current weather-related hates:
1. My neighbors, who took all the snow from their driveway and put it right next to their driveway. Normally, not a dick move, but that that piece of land next to their driveway is also known as "my driveway".
2. People driving around without clearing the snow from their roofs. That shit flies off, yo!
2. People driving around without clearing the snow from their roofs. That shit flies off, yo!
Hells yes. Especially large trucks that shed chunks of snow or ice roughly as large as my car.
I witnessed many instances of snow being piled in other people's way. And someone did that to me, sometime after I shoveled with a makeshift implement for a bit more than two hours (only to discover a dead battery).
I shoveled with a makeshift implement
The funniest example of this sort of thing I've encountered: a facebook friend commenting about her brother trying to plow the driveway with a mini-fridge attached to a rope. I have no idea how that worked.
I just re-read the OP. How did Armsmasher lose his shit? Was this in comments? I'm behind, having been without internet since Friday.
Tally so far: one person on my block attempted to save a parking space, but perhaps realizing they were going against the tide they used a carboard box with "PLEASE" written on it in Sharpie, as opposed to a chair or other marker. I am biding my time, my car being secured off-street, and will steal somebody's carefully-shoveled spot tomorrow when the chaos of another work week reigns.
202: better than using an Eagle Talon.
Armsmasher seems to be a man (or man-child) of many neuroses. I recall that he is also freaked out by potatoes, onions, and garlic bulbs that sprout in storage.
I witnessed many instances of snow being piled in other people's way.
The one I saw today was the guy at the train station using the massive snow blower to clear the pedestrian area of the station -- by blowing the snow onto the train tracks. Can you say BAD IDEA?
I used the removable plastic tray from a highchair.
The train tracks will get their revenge.
The video in 205 is hilarious, as is this one from three winters ago, which makes me happy it's only raining here.
The video in 210 is truly amazing. I wish I could figure out how much to attribute to the road being kind of hilly, how much to it being very icy, and how much to Portlanders having zero idea what to do when frozen things come out of the sky.
210 made me yell at my computer. STOP DRIVING. LOOK AROUND YOU.
TURN INTO THE SKID!! Except that probably wouldn't even have helped.
210: SUVs make outstanding bumper cars.
Jesus, do you know where in Portland that is? I'm trying to picture it, with my badly remembered mental map of Portland.
I love driving in the snow. It's like playing Asteroids.
I love driving in the snow. It's like playing Asteroids. watching people that don't get snow driving drive. Seriously, people. Just run the red light if it's clear. The trick is not to stop. No one's going to pull you over. I assure you the police have better problems to worry about.
In my hometown, there's a street that gets really icy, but has nice high curbs on either side of each lane and few intersections. So so pinball. Love it.
218: Once I pushed some foreign student's car so he could get going. He was a nice kid. He stopped to thank me after going 20 feet. He was polite enough about it that I wasn't that mad about pushing him again.
220: Once I made a cab driver, who was blocking our street because he couldn't get up the hill, get out of his cab and let me turn it around for him. But then I couldn't get up the hill either.
I drove from the Zoo all the way to Boise, and not a flake graced my windshield. Saw plenty of rain, though.
For those taking notes, US 95 down from the White Bird summit is truly awesome.
223.2: Don't worry. We have excellent memories and are totally paying attention. We don't need notes.
211 etc.: it's hard to tell from the video how hilly it is. It's pretty steep (Bave, it's around 20th and Salmon in SW, I'm pretty sure). But the drivers' judgment is not unusual here when snow and ice fall, which is why we smug people from snow country stay the hell off the streets.
222: At least you got him where he could go down the hill facing the right direction.
224 -- Just don't pay attention to google. They said it would take 9.5 hours, but I got here in just under 7. I may have driven faster than the speed limit a few times.
227: Many is the time Google has given me false information in an effort to keep me out of Idaho.
225: Cool. I lived for five months at SW 13th and Market. That area on the other side of the freeway has lots of weird hills.
ATL has a major ice storm every 2-3 years, and every time a majority of the drivers forget just how horribly dangerous it is to drive through. People freak the hell out when even a few flakes fall and stay off the roads, but give them hilly roads slick with ice and everyone seems to think their car will somehow be different and they can drive normally.
January of 2000 there was a bad one the weekend we were hosting the superbowl. One of the local channels had a camera trained on one of the freeway on-ramps and we watched for twenty minutes as car after car entered the ramp and bounced off the guardrails and the other cars before skittering to a stop.
So, how many people had French toast? I will confess to switching over to sausage, eggs, toast, and coffee at the last moment. That was my standard get-off-at-midnight-and-go-to-the-diner meal after a shift of towing and snow plowing.
The eggs in my refrigerator were so old that one of them was actually rotten. I've never had that happen before. So I just had toast.
231: When I woke up, CA (unaware of the Mineshaft folkways) handed me a plate of (vegan!) banana/maple/pecan pancakes. They were really yummy.
232: I've never had that happen either. Out of curiosity, how old were the eggs?
Those must be the free-range cruelty-free organic eggs that I won't pay the extra $1.50 a dozen for.
234: Old. I can't remember how old--maybe a month? I've forgotten about eggs before, sometimes for a lot longer than that, and then cracked one, and found it thick and dehydrated. (I hasten to add that, being no Brock Landers, I did not eat it.) This one was dark, sulfurous, grey-green.
238: But did you feed it to a child?
But they were free-range cruelty-free organic eggs, or so they claimed. Maybe regular hens get preservatives in their diets.
240: The opportunity did not present itself.
Like children, opportunities must be snatched, mcmc.
Family lore has it that my eldest sister tried to make me scrambled eggs when I was a toddler (she would have been in her mid-teens) but burned them so badly that they looked and smelled like charcoal and when she put them in front of me on a plate I picked them up and threw them at her in clumps. Moral of the story: if you're going to feed them to a child, do it via a proxy or from a safe distance. None of this should constitute a strong objection on my part.
