Snow in Virginia

[Gary McGath]

I hope everyone's OK with the recent Virginia snowstorm. The LinkedIn
news article says 14 inches of snow fell and that the storm was
"unprecedented." I don't know in what sense it was unprecedented; the
Blizzard of 2010 had more snow than that.

Perhaps it's unprecedented in the same sense that physical fighting over
the result of an election was unprecedented a year ago: If you have to
look it up in the archives, it didn't happen.

We're expecting a little snow here in New England Friday.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

[Kevrob]

We had freezing rain in Connecticut overnight into the morning .
The roads were reported to be treacherous. State officials
claimed weather conditions were such that the treatments to
minimize icing could not be used.

[quote]

Garrett Eucalitto, a deputy commissioner with the DOT, said conditions
were not right for effective treatment.

“It’s kind of like the Goldilocks zone of ineffective options,” he said.

The DOT couldn’t put down a liquid brine solution because the temperature
was too cold in the last two days, Eucalitto said. It would have frozen, vehicles
traveling over it would have crushed it and it would have dispersed, he said.
And the rain would have washed it away.

The other option would have been to put down rock salt, he said, “but you can’t
do that on a dry road.” Traffic would have blown the hard granules to the side.


Trucks were sent out to wait for conditions to change, but by the time rain started
falling, it quickly froze and it was too late, Eucalitto said.

[/quote] - Hartford Courant | 5 Jan 2020

https://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-br-hartford-connecticut-weather-forecast-wednesday-ice-friday-snow--20220105-mnhednrbb5c4tiiixsq3unexui-story.html

I stayed in, just as on almost every day in the past two years! I had hoped
to make a shopping trip. Maybe Thursday, unless I order for delivery. I
still have some food in the house.

--
Kevin R

[Keith F. Lynch]

Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> I hope everyone's OK with the recent Virginia snowstorm.

Metrorail reduced service everywhere, temporarily closed the Metro
Center station (which is on the Red, Orange, Blue, and Silver lines,
but at least it isn't on the Yellow or Green lines), and advised
riders to take Metrobus instead.

Metrobus reduced weekday service to the same as Saturday service, and
advised riders to take Metrorail instead. They also announced that
any bus stop at which someone wasn't wearing a mask would be bypassed,
even if people wearing masks were also waiting alongside them.

When I went to my bank, I found it was closed indefinitely, and its
ATM had an out-of-service sign on it. I then went to Target, just
wanting to quickly get in and out with just two items (paper towels,
for the first time in nearly two years, and N95 masks), but found that
it had no N95 masks, and had very long lines, with most registers
closed, and no express lines.

Oh, wait, you were asking about the *snow*. None of the above had
anything to do with the weather. It had to do with short-staffing
everywhere, with supply chain issues, and with yet another fire on
Metro. This time the fire department couldn't find the fire, so
they just chased everyone out until the unexplained smoke dissipated.
(The lone lines at Target were more than 24 hours after the storm
ended. Who ever heard of people stocking up *after* a storm?)

The storm began overnight as rain, and turned to snow around sunrise
on Monday. We got about a foot (30 cm) of heavy wet snow, ending
around noon. On Sunday afternoon I had done a Goo... a web search,
which confirmed my guess that the temperature was still in the 60s,
but which also predicted the snow. I wrongly figured it must be a
page from years ago. We had had no snow so far this season, and had
had almost none last winter or the winter before. I didn't really
need a winter coat while attending the DC Worldcon last month. I
didn't even need to wear a sweater on Christmas day.

Due to the storm starting as rain, roads couldn't be pre-treated.

I read of, but didn't experience, a 50-mile (80 km) traffic jam on
I-95. Motorists were trapped in their vehicles for up to 20 hours.
It was partly due to jackknifed tractor-trailers (ObUK: HGVs), but
it had a new cause too: Electric vehicles that ran out of juice,
leaving people dressed for a short ride in a warm car to instead
spend the night in sub-freezing temperatures, regretting their
choices to spend extra to buy electric.

At my brother's house a tree limb fell on his clothes lines, bending
both supports at 45-degree angles, which in turn pulled the TV antenna
out of position. (Two years ago, I tied a rope from a clothes line
support to the back of the rooftop antenna, to keep it aimed at WTTG
Fox channel 5's antenna, since The Simpsons on that channel is the
only thing either of us ever watch on live TV.) A hard plastic awning
over his back door also collapsed, breaking in two, and completely
disintegrating when I tried to fix it. It had become as brittle as
potato chips. At least we never use that door.

I shoveled his front sidewalk, and a path to the two front doors. His
daily newspaper had been thrown into the wet snow, and a pinhole leak
in the single plastic bag got every page of the paper wet. I very
carefully completely disassembled it and spread out the separate pages
all around the house until they were dry. At least that only took a
couple hours since the indoor air was so dry.

That afternoon, and the following day, there was melting, as the
temperature got above freezing. Both nights it dropped below
freezing, resulting in lots of slick black ice everywhere.

About half of all sidewalks were cleared, but most of them weren't cut
through to roads, so most pedestrians walked in the streets rather
than repeatedly climbing over icy irregular berms to move between the
streets and the uselessly cleared segments of sidewalk.

Also, when there were long sections of cleared sidewalk, they were
monopolized, as always, by heavy-breathing maskless joggers, but this
time with no quick escape route for those of us who value our health
and that of others.

My landlord/housemate hasn't bothered to clear the outdoor stairs,
even though I warned him that if he waited it would get harder. (Have
I mentioned that he's the laziest person I ever met? I knew full
well that he will never remove that snow. He'll either wait for it
to melt, or have his elderly father clear it while he sits indoors
playing video games and listening to Alex Jones angrily tell more lies
every hour than most criminals tell in a lifetime.)

The good news is that the place across the street from me where dump
trucks compete to see how noisily they can dump dirt has been quiet.
Also, vehicle traffic is down and foot traffic is way down. And
neither my brother nor I had our power go out. And his TV reception
is somehow *improved*.

And JWST continues to successfully deploy, despite the snow. No snow
in space? True, but there's plenty in Baltimore where JWST is run
from (as is Hubble).

> The LinkedIn news article says 14 inches of snow fell and that
> the storm was "unprecedented." I don't know in what sense it
> was unprecedented; the Blizzard of 2010 had more snow than that.

Maybe in the sense that every snowflake in this storm was a new and
slightly different shape than ever before? I'm just guessing.

> We're expecting a little snow here in New England Friday.

We may get another 3 inches on Friday morning. ObFandom: There's
another hybrid PRSFS meeting that afternoon. I will be attending
virtually.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

[Keith F. Lynch]

Keith F. Lynch <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
> I read of, but didn't experience, a 50-mile (80 km) traffic jam on
> I-95. Motorists were trapped in their vehicles for up to 20 hours.

Make that up to 30 hours. The motorists included former governor and
current senator Tim Kaine, who was trapped for 27 hours. He was also
Ms. Clinton's running mate in 2016.

> We may get another 3 inches on Friday morning.

We did, followed by high winds. At least it's sunny today. Sunny but
not warm.

Tommorow freezing rain is expected. That's even worse than snow.

[Gary McGath]

On 1/8/22 4:13 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:

>> We may get another 3 inches on Friday morning.
>
> We did, followed by high winds. At least it's sunny today. Sunny but
> not warm.
>
> Tommorow freezing rain is expected. That's even worse than snow.

We got about 8 inches of snow in NH, but it was fluffy. We have an
interesting routine at the condo, where we move our cars in rotation so
that all the parking spaces can be plowed. It works better than it
sounds it should. Text messaging is used to alert everyone.

While this was going on, I threw together a song lyric and texted the
link to everyone, getting some positive comments:
http://www.mcgath.com/songs/SnowplowSong.pdf

[Wolffan]

On 2022 Jan 05, Gary McGath wrote
(in article <sr47pu$84o$1...@dont-email.me>):

Hmm. I spent a lot of time in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan during the late
1970s-early 1980s and there were some serious snowstorms. 20 inch, 30 inch,
more. If 14 inches caused chaos, what would have happened if the Blizzard of
78 had hit Virginia? Ah, those were the days... I remember Calamity Jane
Byrne riding a snowplow in deepest Chicago... and riding to victory in the
Dem primary, which meant the election, becuse she was seen to be Doing
Something while those in authority vegetated. I remember going down I-80 in
Indiana, following a Caddy whose driver seemed to know where he was going,
passing snow plows parked on the side of the interstate. I remember assorted
rivers freezing over. I remember cars sliding off Lake Shore Drive in Chicago
and not sinking to the bottom of the lake because the ice was so thick. I
remember snowdrifts piling up to the third or even thge fourth floors of some
buildings. I remember snow still being in shopping centre parking lots in
July.

I remember leaving Indiana, which was having 15 inches of snow falling with
temps in the teens Fahrenheit, but was still functioning, and arriving in
Baltimore, to snow which didn’t even stick and temps in the middle 30s F...
which caused mass panic.

Here in Deepest Florida the word is that there were some snow flurries in
some of the northern counties. Some locals down in Dade and Broward, where
the temps never fell below 52 F, got out their parkas and gloves and scarves
and heavy boots. Snowbirds from Canada and New England and New York were
walking around in tee-shirts and jeans...

[Wolffan]

On 2022 Jan 08, Keith F. Lynch wrote
(in article <srcuqj$kd1$1...@reader1.panix.com>):

> Keith F. Lynch <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
> > I read of, but didn't experience, a 50-mile (80 km) traffic jam on
> > I-95. Motorists were trapped in their vehicles for up to 20 hours.
>
> Make that up to 30 hours. The motorists included former governor and
> current senator Tim Kaine, who was trapped for 27 hours. He was also
> Ms. Clinton's running mate in 2016.
>
> > We may get another 3 inches on Friday morning.
>
> We did, followed by high winds. At least it's sunny today. Sunny but
> not warm.
>
> Tommorow freezing rain is expected. That's even worse than snow.

Errm... it’s bloody _January_. Did no-one think that there might be snow?

[Ninapenda Jibini]

Wolffan <akwo...@zoho.com> wrote in
news:0001HW.278A524801...@news.supernews.com:

It' a bit more than usual for the time and place.

Plus, of course, there shouldn't be any at all, what with global
warming and all.

--
Terry Austin

Proof that Alan Baker is a liar and a fool, and even stupider than
Lynn:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration


"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <srd4hg$l7f$1...@dont-email.me>,

Very good!

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

[Kevrob]

On Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 7:46:43 PM UTC-5, Ninapenda Jibini wrote:
> Wolffan <akwo...@zoho.com> wrote in
> news:0001HW.278A524801...@news.supernews.com:
> > On 2022 Jan 08, Keith F. Lynch wrote
> > (in article <srcuqj$kd1$1...@reader1.panix.com>):
> >
> >> Keith F. Lynch <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
> >> > I read of, but didn't experience, a 50-mile (80 km) traffic
> >> > jam on I-95. Motorists were trapped in their vehicles for up
> >> > to 20 hours.
> >>
> >> Make that up to 30 hours. The motorists included former
> >> governor and current senator Tim Kaine, who was trapped for 27
> >> hours. He was also Ms. Clinton's running mate in 2016.
> >>
> >> > We may get another 3 inches on Friday morning.
> >>
> >> We did, followed by high winds. At least it's sunny today.
> >> Sunny but not warm.
> >>
> >> Tommorow freezing rain is expected. That's even worse than
> >> snow.
> >
> > Errm... it’s bloody _January_. Did no-one think that there
> > might be snow?
> >
> It' a bit more than usual for the time and place.
>
> Plus, of course, there shouldn't be any at all, what with global
> warming and all.
>
> --

Haven't you heard? All extreme weather events are attributed to "climate change,"
even though, were climate not to change at all there would still be events that would
be considered outliers. Even given CC being indisputably real, how can we know if a
particular event, that would be an outlier in a normal range, is that, or an event that
lies closer to the mean within a new set of boundaries for what is "the new normal."
Seems like that would require a good chunk of time .

Note that I am not saying this couldn't be happening, just that a foot of snow in these
here parts is not that weird for January. Feb 2013 we had a storm that dropped
3 feet or more on towns near the Connecticut shore, and inland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2013_North_American_blizzard

That was 38" where I was living at the time, and 40" in the town just North
of New Haven, less than 10 years ago, highest in New England.
[40" = 1.016 m]

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Hamden-gets-40-inches-of-snow-highest-total-in-14534200.php

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/February_08-09%2C_2013_Blizzard_Storm_Total_Snow_Accumulation.gif

NWS predicts, for Sunday, nearest airport to my house:

[quote]

Freezing rain likely before noon, then rain or freezing rain likely between noon and
1pm, then rain after 1pm. High near 39. Wind chill values between 20 and 30. {degrees F}
Southwest wind 7 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation
is 90%. New ice accumulation of less than a 0.1 of an inch possible.

[/quote] - https://www.weather.gov/

Temps should drop below freezing for the rest of the week, so we are counting
on the state DOT and the towns and cities to treat the roads so that rain
and melting snow don't freeze on the roads. That's all pretty normal for this time
of year.

As Gary McGath noted, the snow was fluffy. Skiers on TV described it as "powder."
My guess is that the water content was unusually low, compared to the wet mess
we'd get from a Nor'easter, or Lake Effect Snow in the range from Duluth, MN to
Niagara/Buffalo, NY.

--
Kevin R

[Gary McGath]

On 1/9/22 2:32 AM, Kevrob wrote:
> As Gary McGath noted, the snow was fluffy. Skiers on TV described it as "powder."
> My guess is that the water content was unusually low, compared to the wet mess
> we'd get from a Nor'easter, or Lake Effect Snow in the range from Duluth, MN to
> Niagara/Buffalo, NY.

The water content of snow is usually close to 100%. :)

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <sreacn$c39$1...@dont-email.me>,

Yes, if you exclude the content of leaf mould, asphalt scraped up
by the last snowplow that went by, to say nothing of the content
of stranded vehicles and their contents

But not if you include the content of air trapped by those pretty
little hexagonal flakes as they drifted earthward. Cf. above,
"powder" vs. "wet mess."

[Keith F. Lynch]

Wolffan <akwo...@zoho.com> wrote:
> I spent a lot of time in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan during the
> late 1970s-early 1980s and there were some serious snowstorms. 20
> inch, 30 inch, more. If 14 inches caused chaos, what would have
> happened if the Blizzard of 78 had hit Virginia?

If Virginia regularly got that much snow, it would presumably get
better equipment, supplies, people, and training.

It wasn't until maybe a decade ago when I saw a Mythbusters episode
involving a snowplow that I even knew there were dedicated machines
for that purpose. Around here a snowplow is just an ordinary pickup
truck with a plow attachment temporarily bolted on. And the snow
isn't hauled away, but just shoved to the side of the street.

Last Monday's twelve-inch storm resulted in icy snow berms that are
often hard to climb over lining both sides of most streets. The trash
bag my brother put out to be picked up was buried by plows after
Friday's three-inch storm. I saw a corner of it sticking out after
the trash collectors had come and gone.

Heavier storms have resulted in hours of heavy labor shoveling
sidewalks and clearing routes to fire hydrants being totally
obliterated in seconds with much deeper, denser, and dirtier snow:
Snow that can't be moved with a snow shovel, but only with a regular
shovel, or sometimes only with a pick and shovel. It's a perfect
example of government making conditions slightly better for some only
by making them much worse for others.

> I remember cars sliding off Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and not
> sinking to the bottom of the lake because the ice was so thick.

Given how slippery ice is, both on roads and on lakes, how were those
cars recovered? With a winch to a tree?

> I remember snow still being in shopping centre parking lots in July.

That's the downside of hauling snow away -- it has to be piled
up somewhere. Especially since dumping it in a nearby river is
apparently no longer allowed.

Are you from the midwest originally? Or from Florida? I don't recall
people there, or anywhere else in the US, spelling "center" as "centre."

> Here in Deepest Florida the word is that there were some snow
> flurries in some of the northern counties. Some locals down in
> Dade and Broward, where the temps never fell below 52 F, got out
> their parkas and gloves and scarves and heavy boots. Snowbirds
> from Canada and New England and New York were walking around in
> tee-shirts and jeans...

I was at a con that was actually comfortably warm once. A French-
Canadian woman in the room with me passed out due to heat exhaustion.

People differ. That's why so many, including me, were unhappy when
President Carter told us where to stick our thermostats. I'm much
greener than most Americans. I never use air conditioning, I don't
drive, I haven't flown since '99, I don't use power tools, and I don't
mine cryptocurrency. But I refuse to spend all winter every winter
miserably cold and completely non-functional.

It's raining fairly heavily, and has been for hours. The good news is
that it isn't freezing rain. At least not yet.

[Kevrob]

On Sunday, January 9, 2022 at 3:50:53 PM UTC-5, Keith F. Lynch wrote:

[snip]

> Are you from the midwest originally? Or from Florida? I don't recall
> people there, or anywhere else in the US, spelling "center" as "centre."

There's a town on Long Island named "Rockville Centre." It uses the
unusual-for-the-US spelling.

[quote]

When the first post office opened in 1849 in what is now the village, postal officials chose
the name Rockville Centre from among several suggestions, setting in place the ''r'' before
''e'' spelling that has confounded spellers ever since. The ''Rock'' honored Mordecai ''Rock''
Smith, a prominent Methodist minister.

[/quote] -

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/10/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-living-rockville-centre-community-not-easily-pigeonholed.html

Additional, from Stack Exchange:

[quote]

Americans do not use normally centre. But you can name a building or place whatever you like, and plenty
of developers think unusual, vaguely archaic or foreign spellings will add some flair, hence the chronic
infection of Shoppes, Centres, Olde Townes, Pointes, and so forth. And let me tell you: The Olde Tyme Smoak
Shoppe in Centre Pointe at Olde Towne is not of the caliber of the old-time smoke shop near the center point
of old town, plus it's on the far side of the watre. – choster | Jun 13 '17 at 18:25

[/quote] - https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/393798/centre-vs-center-among-americans

[snip]

> It's raining fairly heavily, and has been for hours. The good news is
> that it isn't freezing rain. At least not yet.
> --

We got rain overnight which will freeze as the cold snag hits this afternoon .
Your going to get some of that cold.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/01/10/dc-area-forecast-an-early-week-bitter-blast-before-cold-eases-some/

Since I stocked up before last week's snow, I don't have to go anywhere.

--
Kevin R

[Wolffan]

On 2022 Jan 09, Keith F. Lynch wrote
(in article <srfhrc$jao$1...@reader1.panix.com>):

> Wolffan <akwo...@zoho.com> wrote:
> > I spent a lot of time in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan during the
> > late 1970s-early 1980s and there were some serious snowstorms. 20
> > inch, 30 inch, more. If 14 inches caused chaos, what would have
> > happened if the Blizzard of 78 had hit Virginia?
>
> If Virginia regularly got that much snow, it would presumably get
> better equipment, supplies, people, and training.

Calamity Jane Byrne got elected precisely because the authorities in Chicago,
which regularly gets that much snow, screwed up. Badly.

>
>
> It wasn't until maybe a decade ago when I saw a Mythbusters episode
> involving a snowplow that I even knew there were dedicated machines
> for that purpose. Around here a snowplow is just an ordinary pickup
> truck with a plow attachment temporarily bolted on. And the snow
> isn't hauled away, but just shoved to the side of the street.

Snowplows in most of the north and the midwest are massive beasts, especially
the ones which run on major roadways and airports and such.

>
>
> Last Monday's twelve-inch storm resulted in icy snow berms that are
> often hard to climb over lining both sides of most streets. The trash
> bag my brother put out to be picked up was buried by plows after
> Friday's three-inch storm. I saw a corner of it sticking out after
> the trash collectors had come and gone.

that’s why trash should be in wheelie bins. Well, that, and raccoons and
coyotes and, further south, opossums. If you leave trash in bags overnight,
it will be scattered all around before daylight unless the local dogs are
active. And sometimes especially if the local dogs are active.

>
>
> Heavier storms have resulted in hours of heavy labor shoveling
> sidewalks and clearing routes to fire hydrants being totally
> obliterated in seconds with much deeper, denser, and dirtier snow:
> Snow that can't be moved with a snow shovel, but only with a regular
> shovel, or sometimes only with a pick and shovel. It's a perfect
> example of government making conditions slightly better for some only
> by making them much worse for others.

1. wait for the plows to go by before finishing up; do the bits near the
house, but wait to finish.

2. get a snowblower

3. in times past you could hire local teenagers to do the work. A pack of a
half-dozen teenagers, who might have their own snowblower, will do the work
much faster than one guy.

>
>
> > I remember cars sliding off Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and not
> > sinking to the bottom of the lake because the ice was so thick.
>
> Given how slippery ice is, both on roads and on lakes, how were those
> cars recovered? With a winch to a tree?

get one of those big tow trucks, the ones big enough to haul a bus, and have
it drop its jacks for stability and use a winch to haul the car up. Lake
Shore Drive is notorious; every year that I was in the vicinity at least one
car slid off the double S bend into the lake. Mostly the ice couldn’t hold
the cars and they went to the bottom, with their passengers. A few times the
ice froze really thick and the cars didn’t fall through. Here in Deepest
South Florida, for some reason there are often water retention ponds and/or
canals near offramps from major highways, and many is the car which ends up
at the bottom. One such car was recently recovered after being under water
for 30 years.

>
>
> > I remember snow still being in shopping centre parking lots in July.
>
> That's the downside of hauling snow away -- it has to be piled
> up somewhere. Especially since dumping it in a nearby river is
> apparently no longer allowed.
>
> Are you from the midwest originally? Or from Florida? I don't recall
> people there, or anywhere else in the US, spelling "center" as "centre."

not born in the US. Spent lots of time in places belonging, or formerly
belonging, to the Empire Upon Which The Sun Never Sets. Some of those places
had snow, too.

>
>
> > Here in Deepest Florida the word is that there were some snow
> > flurries in some of the northern counties. Some locals down in
> > Dade and Broward, where the temps never fell below 52 F, got out
> > their parkas and gloves and scarves and heavy boots. Snowbirds
> > from Canada and New England and New York were walking around in
> > tee-shirts and jeans...
>
> I was at a con that was actually comfortably warm once. A French-
> Canadian woman in the room with me passed out due to heat exhaustion.
>
> People differ. That's why so many, including me, were unhappy when
> President Carter told us where to stick our thermostats. I'm much
> greener than most Americans. I never use air conditioning, I don't
> drive, I haven't flown since '99, I don't use power tools, and I don't
> mine cryptocurrency. But I refuse to spend all winter every winter
> miserably cold and completely non-functional.
>
> It's raining fairly heavily, and has been for hours. The good news is
> that it isn't freezing rain. At least not yet.

Around here most of the locals can’t drive when it rains. I have this
vision of what would happen if they ever had to drive in Nairobi in April.

[Gary McGath]

On 1/10/22 7:21 AM, Kevrob wrote:
> Additional, from Stack Exchange:
>
> [quote]
>
> Americans do not use normally centre. But you can name a building or place whatever you like, and plenty
> of developers think unusual, vaguely archaic or foreign spellings will add some flair, hence the chronic
> infection of Shoppes, Centres, Olde Townes, Pointes, and so forth. And let me tell you: The Olde Tyme Smoak
> Shoppe in Centre Pointe at Olde Towne is not of the caliber of the old-time smoke shop near the center point
> of old town, plus it's on the far side of the watre. – choster | Jun 13 '17 at 18:25

Another oddity is Dutchess (with a T) County, New York.

[Peter Trei]

In Winnipeg, they have a much better system. They plow the snow into the
*center* of the road, then send a giant snowblower down to deposit it into a
dump truck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOWimxSfzTY

pt

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <86a9864f-1f41-4c23...@googlegroups.com>,

Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>On Sunday, January 9, 2022 at 3:50:53 PM UTC-5, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>> Are you from the midwest originally? Or from Florida? I don't recall
>> people there, or anywhere else in the US, spelling "center" as "centre."
>
>There's a town on Long Island named "Rockville Centre." It uses the
>unusual-for-the-US spelling.
>
>[quote]
>
>When the first post office opened in 1849 in what is now the village,
>postal officials chose
>the name Rockville Centre from among several suggestions, setting in
>place the ''r'' before
>''e'' spelling that has confounded spellers ever since. The ''Rock''
>honored Mordecai ''Rock''
>Smith, a prominent Methodist minister.

The divergence of Yank from Brit spelling is usually blamed on
Noah Webster.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/about-us/americas-first-dictionary

"He believed fervently in the developing cultural independence of
the United States, a chief part of which was to be a distinctive
American language with its own idiom, pronunciation, and style."

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <0001HW.278C6DE501...@news.supernews.com>,

Wolffan <akwo...@zoho.com> wrote:
>
>Around here most of the locals can’t drive when it rains. I have this
>vision of what would happen if they ever had to drive in Nairobi in April.

In the Bay Area, where in "normal" times* it doesn't rain from
March until maybe November, the first rain causes about 90% of
drivers to have forgotten how to drive on wet pavement. The
other 10% drive defensively.

_______
*In "new normal" times it doesn't rain from 1998 until 2022.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <8a31bcb9-dc4c-415d...@googlegroups.com>,

That's actually ... sensible.

[Gary R. Schmidt]

Well, to paraphrase Zaphod Beeblebrox, "Plus ten points for idiom, but
minus several million for pronunciation, and minus several billion more
for style".

Cheers,
Gary B-)

[Paul Dormer]

In article <86a9864f-1f41-4c23...@googlegroups.com>,

kev...@my-deja.com (Kevrob) wrote:

>
> There's a town on Long Island named "Rockville Centre." It uses the
> unusual-for-the-US spelling.

There was an episode of Warehouse 13 set at a race course in England
where there was a building labelled "Race Center". Conversely, on an
episode of Supergirl, there was an "Amusement Centre", presumably filmed
in Canada.

[Keith F. Lynch]

Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> Another oddity is Dutchess (with a T) County, New York.

There's also a Roslyn in New York, not to be confused with Rosslyn
in Virginia.

And there's a Loudoun County in Virginia, not to be confused with
Loudon in New Hampshire.

And lots of other spelling oddities.

[Keith F. Lynch]

Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:

> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> It's raining fairly heavily, and has been for hours. The good news
>> is that it isn't freezing rain. At least not yet.

> We got rain overnight which will freeze as the cold snag hits this
> afternoon . Your going to get some of that cold.

We did. Fortunately, the rain had ended early Sunday evening. By the
time the temperature dropped below freezing, nearly all pavement was
dry. The rain, followed by today's sun, also helped get rid of the
remaining snow. Snow now remains only in perpetually shaded areas and
in areas where plows piled it up.

> Since I stocked up before last week's snow, I don't have to go anywhere.

Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, I've been shopping as rarely
as possible. When the Lidl opened across the street last summer and
mailed everyone coupons good for large discounts on all purchases, I
stocked up on non-perishable food. So I last shopped there in August,
and won't need to shop there again until March or April.

[Kevrob]

On Monday, January 10, 2022 at 4:29:18 PM UTC-5, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> > Another oddity is Dutchess (with a T) County, New York.

Of course, the Hudson Valley was settled by the Dutch.

[OBSFcriticism: LeGuin's "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie"
Western Publishing had a huge operation there for decades.
Dell and later Gold Key comics. Golden Press ]

> There's also a Roslyn in New York,

A Long Island village, formerly "Hempstead Harbor." When I was a schoolboy,
the joke was that so many of the girls from there got nose jobs that we
called it "Noslyn." Supposedly named after:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roslin,_Midlothian

> not to be confused with Rosslyn in Virginia.
>

Which has a separate etymology.

> And there's a Loudoun County in Virginia, not to be confused with
> Loudon in New Hampshire.
>
> And lots of other spelling oddities.

--

Kevin R

[Kevrob]

Lidl hasn't moved into Connecticut, yet. They bought 24 stores on
Long Island, however, so I see their ads on NY TV stations. If they
make a go of it across the Sound, I expect they'll start up here, eventually.

https://www.aldireviewer.com/how-are-aldi-and-lidl-related/

--
Kevin R

[Keith F. Lynch]

Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
>>> Another oddity is Dutchess (with a T) County, New York.

> Of course, the Hudson Valley was settled by the Dutch.

And the burough Queens was named for a queen from Portugal.

[Keith F. Lynch]

Wolffan <akwo...@zoho.com> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch wrote

>> Last Monday's twelve-inch storm resulted in icy snow berms that are
>> often hard to climb over lining both sides of most streets. The
>> trash bag my brother put out to be picked up was buried by plows
>> after Friday's three-inch storm. I saw a corner of it sticking out
>> after the trash collectors had come and gone.

> that\342\200\231s why trash should be in wheelie bins. Well, that,

> and raccoons and coyotes and, further south, opossums. If you leave
> trash in bags overnight, it will be scattered all around before
> daylight unless the local dogs are active. And sometimes especially
> if the local dogs are active.

Fortunately it turned out that the buried trash was just newspapers
for recycling. The actual trash, and the plastic recycling, were
picked up. Also not picked up, though plainly visible, were two
barrels full of sticks, branches, twigs, and limbs. As such, I have
no place to put the new tree debris that I removed from his wrecked
clothesline today.

Well, the clotheslines are actually fine. It's one of their two metal
supports that is wrecked. Maybe I should bend it back and forth a
few times until it snaps, then get a slightly larger pipe to act as
a splint to keep the two halves together and aligned.

>> Heavier storms have resulted in hours of heavy labor shoveling
>> sidewalks and clearing routes to fire hydrants being totally
>> obliterated in seconds with much deeper, denser, and dirtier snow:
>> Snow that can't be moved with a snow shovel, but only with a
>> regular shovel, or sometimes only with a pick and shovel. It's a
>> perfect example of government making conditions slightly better for
>> some only by making them much worse for others.

> 1. wait for the plows to go by before finishing up; do the bits near
> the house, but wait to finish.

I did. They had cleared one lane in each direction. It wasn't until
a week later, long after I and the neighbors had shoveled sidewalks,
did they come along and decide that clearing more lanes for cars that
already had clear lanes was far more important than the ability for
pedestrians to be able to get around or for fire trucks to have access
to hydrants. So pedestrians had to walk in the street. I'll give you
three guesses how motorists felt about sharing one of their several
perfectly clear lanes with pedestrians. (Again, this was several years
ago, when there was a much heavier snowfall than last week's.)

> 2. get a snowblower

There are lots of inventions where I either wish I'd thought of it,
or *did* think of it. The snowblower isn't one of them. Even had I
thought of it, as soon as I assembled it, turned it on, and heard how
much noise it makes, I would have immediately concluded that that was
a stupid idea, and torn it apart.

Also, I strongly doubt it could blow snow that had been turned into a
sidewalk glacier by a plow. A blower that could do that could also
blow away the concrete. Not to mention the recoil on whoever is
holding it. Its user might want to wear a parachute in case he
suddenly finds himself way up in the sky.

> get one of those big tow trucks, the ones big enough to haul a bus,
> and have it drop its jacks for stability and use a winch to haul the
> car up.

Drop its jacks on an icy road?

> Lake Shore Drive is notorious;

Yes, for Al Capone's brand of lethal hospitality. :-)

> Here in Deepest South Florida, for some reason there are often water
> retention ponds and/or canals near offramps from major highways,

Where else could alligators hang out?

> and many is the car which ends up at the bottom.

And how else could they get fed?

> One such car was recently recovered after being under water for
> 30 years.

How much was the dealership willing to give in trade-in value?

> not born in the US. Spent lots of time in places belonging,
> or formerly belonging, to the Empire Upon Which The Sun Never
> Sets. Some of those places had snow, too.

And one of them has a Serbian tennis player to whom the anti-covid
rules don't apply, because he's a really *important* tennis player.

[Peter Trei]

Next summer, he's due to play in the US Open. If the current rules are
in place, he won't even allowed in the plane.

Pt