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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Panic God Irene Fails to Impress New York

Posted by Charles Mudede on Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 9:22 AM

Tropical Storm Irene's swipe at the Big Apple proved Sunday that New Yorkers can be a tough crowd to impress.
"I slept through the whole thing," said James Trager, a writer who said he was nonplussed by nature's display of fury that took place outside his windows overlooking 58th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown. "Nothing. It's exaggerated."

A friend (Jamie Keeling) on Facebook:

Boring! Nothin to see here concerned friends and family. It's a weak ending to all the hype. My state of emergency sleepover cohorts are sorely disappointed. Our survival skills were not tested. The skies are grey - in our unheroic hearts

New Yorkers were, however, very impressed with what we in Seattle could only see as a joke of an earthquake.

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I am quite happy it was a disappointing. Why people DESIRE destruction is beyond me! I live in upstate NY (the Capital Region) and it's still raining very hard and the wind is whipping and there is lots of damage, mostly from downed trees - falling straight out of the ground from the roots. Our neighbor's tree came down in his front yard (part of it landing in our front yard) and we're just so very thankful it did not fall on either of our houses.

Posted by xina on August 28, 2011 at 9:36 AM

Glen Beck and his right wing hate mongers so wanted to claim Irene was God's punishment on NY for gay marriage. Too bad, so sad, fucktards!

Posted by Vince on August 28, 2011 at 9:44 AM

Good for New York. Meanwhile, my dad is in Virginia, very close to the water, and I have yet to hear back from him. But good for New York and their boredom.

Posted by suddenlyorcas on August 28, 2011 at 9:47 AM

Godless New York City is fine, yet godly gay marriageless NC, VA and NJ got socked and it now looks like a nightmare scenario is forming for gay marriage-banning Maine.

Posted by Baconcat on August 28, 2011 at 9:50 AM

"exaggerated" and "boring" are better than "dead" and "drowning".

Posted by DOUG.

on August 28, 2011 at 9:55 AM

So God has now endorsed marriage equality.

Posted by seatackled on August 28, 2011 at 10:02 AM

What @1 said. The people I've talked to so far - those with working phone lines, that is - have been anything but unimpressed. Maybe it didn't live up to its billing, but it was still a nasty storm.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on August 28, 2011 at 10:12 AM

@3: Surely he is fine. The phone lines or cell towers might be impaired. Do let us know when you hear he's all right, will you?

Posted by TVDinner

on August 28, 2011 at 10:16 AM

This is the first summary of the storm I saw this morning:
"Above south street: Lots of Rain. No public transpo. Few people on the streets. Some bars open. So apparently in a hurricane, nyc becomes...Seattle??"

Posted by SPG on August 28, 2011 at 10:33 AM

Nobody ever uses 'nonplussed' correctly.

Posted by Nitpicky on August 28, 2011 at 10:45 AM

I'd like to offer my services as editor: "Nonplussed" means baffled--not, as your writer would imply, "nonchalant."

Posted by Neal

on August 28, 2011 at 10:50 AM

I'd like to offer my services as editor: "Nonplussed" means baffled--not, as your writer implies, "nonchalant."

Posted by Neal

on August 28, 2011 at 10:56 AM

@11/12 - I was thinking that maybe a writer should know that.

Posted by MacCrocodile

on August 28, 2011 at 11:15 AM

Dear Seattle,

Please stop playing, "Me too, right?" with New York.

New York doesn't even know who you are.

Love,

Your Big Sister, Canada.

Posted by L.A. Sleeps Through 6.8 Quakes. on August 28, 2011 at 11:34 AM

11, 12, 13, I hate to break it to you, but between the time we three learned it and the present day, "nonchalant" has beaten its way into recognition if not acceptance as a secondary use for the word. The OED describes it as "North American informal".

In North American English a new use has developed in recent years, meaning ‘unperturbed’ — more or less the opposite of its traditional meaning — as in he was clearly trying to appear nonplussed. This new use probably arose on the assumption that non- was the normal negative prefix and must therefore have a negative meaning. It is not considered part of standard English.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition…

Posted by gloomy gus on August 28, 2011 at 11:53 AM

@8: Thank you for your concern in the face of my snark. I'm sure he'll send word as soon as he's able to.

Posted by suddenlyorcas on August 28, 2011 at 12:21 PM

http://www.atbreak.com/wp-content/upload…

Posted by T-Kins on August 28, 2011 at 12:28 PM

Hah, @17. As a recent resident of NY, I must say, the NYers I have come across are a bunch of self absorbed pansies who feel the need to complain about everything that is a slight inconvenience.

Posted by erasedk on August 28, 2011 at 2:06 PM

@17: We did most things on both sides of the list. We weren't all that worried, because our buildings aren't made of flimsy materials like so many other places, but we still prepared. There isn't a grocery store within miles of where I am in Brooklyn that has any survival supplies left. And I have no idea what a French Press is. Besides, it turned out to be nothing. Why shouldn't we go on with life? And since the MTA (our mass transit system that works) shut down, for many people there will be no work Monday, because they can't get there.

As for the earthquake, the East Coast experiences earthquakes rather differently from the West Coast. We don't. It was the novelty of it all that got us talking about it. And the fact that our "little" 5.9 was felt hundreds of miles away where your 6.8 won't even be felt in the next town.

@18: And people complain about things. It's what we do. You complained about the fact that New Yorkers complain at all. Is anyone's life really so perfect that they can't complain at all ever? Maybe, but it's probably only a handful of people.

And if you're not sure what a word means, either use a different one or look it up before use.

Posted by Boring Hurricanes are Good Hurricanes on August 28, 2011 at 3:24 PM

Okay, so this is a little nitpicky, but GODDAMMIT CNN, nonplussed means confused, bewildered, etc. It does not mean unconcerned. Rabble rabble rabble!

I'm glad it didn't end of being the apocalyptic event that all the news organizations led us to believe it would be.

Posted by no catchy name on August 28, 2011 at 4:46 PM

On the other hand, all the hype did shake some quarters out of the EVACUATE! people, pumping up the NE economy.

The center of the storm had almost completely disintegrated this early AM while it was still 200mi S of NYC.

Posted by tunanator on August 28, 2011 at 4:49 PM

Former Seattle-ite now Long Islander who had to wake up at 4am this morning for a tornado warning.... Yeah. No, it was still pretty fucking scary.

Posted by LongGuyland on August 28, 2011 at 5:13 PM

The real news is Vermont. My hometown is under water. Historic covered bridges as well as roads are being swept away, along with a few unlucky houses :(

My social networks are abuzz with sad photos and stories via friends from home; the athletic fields at my high school are under 10 feet of water.

Fuck NY, VT is the real story here. For such a landlocked state, it really is swimming.

google: vermont irene

Posted by femwanderluster on August 28, 2011 at 7:29 PM

Hometown news from VT:
http://www.vnews.com/08292011/8005793.ht…

Posted by femwanderluster on August 29, 2011 at 12:06 AM

Gus, I would think you of all people would know that common usage is no excuse for being so common.

Posted by MacCrocodile

on August 29, 2011 at 8:26 AM

@3: Yeah, I have a friend in Virginia I'm quite worried about. Haven't heard from him since the storm and he's an insulin-dependent diabetic. Until I find out he's okay the snark about Irene being no big deal is going to ring a bit hollow for me.

Posted by Orv on August 29, 2011 at 11:22 AM