Heeding all the dire warnings about the on-coming blizzard that would paralyze the entire northeastern corridor of the United States of America (last Friday), I set up the Champagne-o-Meter at dawn:
But the morning’s flurry did not last, and it mostly rained all day until around 3 o’clock in the afternoon:

Then the snow stated coming down, icy and fast and heavy:

The dark of night fell early on this day, the day of ye wrathful blizzard nameth NEMO:

And lo, next morning across the land all was calm and white and verily I say unto you that the breakfast beverage was finely chilled indeed:

When this storm got serious — that is, around 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon, all the local TV stations went berserk, into Full Panic Mode:

Wall-to-wall coverage of the flakes and all possible flakes, all futures flakes, rumors of record-breaking flakes, etc:

Does this happen where you are? Over a measly blizzard? All regular programming on all network channels was pre-empted by Storm Team coverage (they took off Judge Judy!!!) and we are treated to weather alerts for the NYC subways (that’s tube, or metro, for all you readers in the UK, France, or Rio):

This is Jennier Lopez/ sister updating the latest delays on what New Yorkers call “the trains” — not “the subway. eIf would enjoy seeing how provincial New York City TV can be — all it takes is a snow storm:

NOBODY takes a TV crew to Staten Island except in cases of potential disaster. Other reporters are forced to stand out knee-deep in the flakes in the distant suburbs:

And forced to go live from the front seat of their news vans:

And as if having to report from New Jersey wasn’t bad enough, they made one guy cover the Bergen County jail, where the prisoners were allowed to have extra “yard” time to shovel the sidewalks of their home-away-from-home:

But hey…New York is still The Big Apple and one lucky reporter got to cover the kids waiting on line outside NBC Studios…

… for stand-by tickets to see Justin Bieber on Saturday Night Live the next night.
It was a long, long line and there were even parents on it!

No matter how far back the reporter went, there were always more people who were nutty enough to stand out in a blizzard (some had even set up camp from the day before):

I once waited on line for five hours (in 1974) to buy tickets to see Elton John, but it was a mild day, and it was inside a Sears store (the local Ticketmaster franchise). I do hope some of those little girls got their dream tickets for SNL.

Then the news van drove up Riverside Drive, my old stomping grounds on the awesome Upper West Side:

This, my dear readers, is Grant’s Tomb…

…(resting place of U. S. President Ulysses S. Grant and answer to every first-grader’s favorite joke: Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?)

Yes, twilight brings out the best of a snow storm in the big city.
And up north, in the Westchester suburbs:

And way out on the East End of Long Island:

And closer to home:

Penelope watches the snow falling in our back yard.
Thank you, one and all, for your fabulous Comments on last week’s post about The Barnes Foundation. Everyone had such thought-provoking things to say that I want to do a follow-up post next week. We will, as the great joan Rivers says, “tawk”.