Doggy Doo and Puppy Pee On Your Doorstep
Is there anything worse than walking along a public city sidewalk and stepping in doggy doo or slipping on puppy pee? Why are so many dog owners irresponsible in taking care of their pets?
The Great Jersey City Whiteout: 23 Inches of Whoopass!
The weekend snowstorm that tackled us into Monday opened 23 inches of Whoopass here in Jersey City, and many pockets of humanity in and around the Tri-State area are still trying to dig out of the drifts. We lost power several times Sunday and Monday and lots of neighborhood trees were tipped into felling by the heavy, wet, snow. Streets are still unplowed. Sidewalks are still impassable. It’s a winter whiteout of neighborhood morality and city leadership.
Continue reading → The Great Jersey City Whiteout: 23 Inches of Whoopass!
Living Life One Foot in Front of the Other
It was a cold winter day on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. There were slick patches of ice everywhere, reminding me of my Charlie Brown New Year. I was walking with a friend of mine to the synagogue for the morning prayer and related the story about how I fell the one day and how fearful I was of falling down as a result. My friend is fantastic at offering good advice when it is needed.
Continue reading → Living Life One Foot in Front of the Other
The Snow Leopard Review
Last Friday, the Snow Leopard upgrade for the Mac OS arrived and I threw down my pencils and paper and started a family-style install across all our computers. This is our story. This is our review.
Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Email
I was raised on the belief that the United States Postal Service delivered your mail anytime and anywhere you needed it. Nothing could stop the delivery of the mail.
Intent on the Internet: The Intellectual Divide Between Knowledge and Information
Over 50 years ago, C.P. Snow set the educational and cultural and political worlds afire as he argued in his ovaric book — “The Two Cultures” — that there was a growing divide between the Arts/Humanities and Science in explaining how the world worked and he warned us against the perils of getting caught in the crossfire of that ashen division.
Continue reading → Intent on the Internet: The Intellectual Divide Between Knowledge and Information
Lion in the Snow: The Untimely Death of James Kim
James Kim was found dead yesterday. 
His life, and his untimely death, were generally overshadowed by the harrowing Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq that, while intriguing, will go nowhere fast because the president and his policy henchmen refuse to confess a mistake or do the right thing.
James Kim was found alone and frozen in the backwoods of Southern Oregon by a search and rescue effort that had previously found his wife and two young children alive in their car.
James Kim set out on his own — like a lion in the snow, uncertain and unaware, but brave in an element that was not his own and strong in the face of nature as he sank into the teeth of the unknown — to seek help for his family.
The Kim family had all been stranded together in their car without much food since Thanksgiving. His wife breastfed the children.
Continue reading → Lion in the Snow: The Untimely Death of James Kim
How Different the Snow is Now
by Nancy McDaniel
Why is it that so many things that delighted us as children now just frustrate and infuriate us as adults?
Like Snow.
Just when we Chicagoans foolishly thought it was safe to start thinking about spring, we recently received the quintessential end-of-the-winter blizzard.
We had ample warning. In fact, we had so much warning that the airlines, who must have been Boy Scouts, overdid their “Be Prepared” credo. They cancelled many flights hours before the first flake ever fell. Just in case. Now that was annoying, I’m sure, to all the people who were stranded at the airport.
When It Rains, New Yorkers Melt
As a child of the Midwest, I’m used to heavy rain and snow. In Iowa, where I was born and raised, eight foot tall snow drifts were not uncommon and every man, woman and child was expected to help shovel that heavy snow from the driveways and sidewalks of our neighborhoods.
Mother Nature
School was never called off because of heavy rain. Falling snow only called off school or work in the most extreme cases — perhaps only once every two years for the first 24 years I lived in Iowa. The weather builds character and facing Mother Nature head-on is a Midwestern rite of passage that everyone must face.
To give in to the cold, wind or fog is to admit defeat at the hands of the elements. If Midwesterners were paused by the weather, no fields would be tilled, no crops would be harvested. The food the nation eats would not be harvested and processed. Schools and stores would close in Iowa only when the snow got so deep that the snow plows couldn’t keep the roads clear. The farmers, on the other hand, never had the luxury of closing due to the fickle weather.
Washington, D.C.
Now let’s talk about Easterners and their relationship with the weather. It was a big surprise when my husband and I moved to Washington, D.C. and discovered that just the threat of rain would close the schools because no one in D.C. knew how to drive in inclement weather! They don’t know enough to slow down, drive slowly, be cautious. D.C.-ers confess to this and don’t find this behavior shameful or strange at all! D.C.-ers drive at all times as if it’s sunny and 60 degrees even when ice sheets pave the road.
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