Snow!!

We have snow! At last!

This has been such a strange winter--all the cold and none of the fun (snow). We had an inch or two of snow early on the morning of December 16th (I know the date because I was slip-sliding home from a party!), and a trace in January. It's been 75 years since our last almost-snowless January in New York City.

Every time we hear a forecast for snow this year, almost no one believes it. Whatever storm comes our way, it usually heads north at the last minute, leaving us with only rain and dumping loads of snow on Boston. Grrrr...

So this year, on those rare occasions we do get snow, like today, we're pretty excited around here. Today I even skipped taking a bus across town for the chance to walk in the falling snow.

Some animals are loving this (check out the snow leopard at the Bronx Zoo!) while others are apparently wondering what the heck Mother Nature is up to, teasing us with warm temperatures and then bringing back the cold.

Some people took off work early, to head home (and some who live in the city no doubt ditched work for a walk in snowy Central Park!).

But the Naked Cowboy is still working. Snow won't stop him.

 

A Tale of Two Transportation Systems

Amtrak has announced it is stepping up its security measures.

And my thought here is, Security? What security?

After 9/11, the nation's airports practically went into lockdown: no visitors past the security checkpoint, all passengers go through metal detectors, all bags are screened, and uniformed security officials are everywhere. Now people have to take off their shoes, and in some airports, even have to go through air machines to test for chemical residues. By the time you get on the plane, your ticket and ID have been checked a minimum of four times, and both you and your bag at least one time.

By contrast, the railways are FAR too open for my peace of mind. When I took my first long-distance train ride from New York to my aunt and uncle's house in Maryland, I was shocked at how open the rail system is, compared to the airports. You can buy a ticket online and pick it up from a kiosk, go down to the train platform (when the train arrives) after only a cursory ticket check by a gate official, and hop on the train, which starts rolling out of the station mere minutes after everyone boards. (On that first trip to Maryland, the train was almost to Delaware before the conductor came by to punch my ticket.) At no time are you asked for any ID, unless you happen to buy your ticket from a window teller at the station.

What would the conductor do if someone hopped on the wrong train, I wonder? Throw that person off the train halfway to their destination?

I guess there isn't as much need for security on a form of transportation that can't exactly be smashed into skyscrapers for maximum loss of life, but terrorists have targeted trains in Spain, India, Russia, and London, so it's not unheard of. Due to the increased terrorism threat, Amtrak is going to start random bag checks, and officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs will be roaming the stations and the trains. They believe that random checks will deter terrorists more than constant security, because the random checks will be harder to predict (and thus, harder to develop ways around security).

That's about the best they can do, if they want to keep the system as open—and, unlike the airlines, actually on-time—as it is now. I appreciate the punctuality (and yes, not having to wait through a horrendously long security line), but I'd be lying if I said Amtrak's idea of security doesn't make me nervous.

As if hooking up the TV wasn't difficult enough...

A lot of people believe involving the government in anything makes it that much harder, due to bureaucratic inefficiency (or incompetency, depending on whom you ask). Well, that axiom is about to apply to my TV, thanks to the upcoming transition to all-digital frequencies in 2009.

Here's the story: Analog television broadcasting shares the same airwaves with public safety communications (fire and police departments, rescue squads, etc.). In order to free up some of the airwaves for emergency services, the federal government is mandating a switch of all analog broadcasting to digital by February 2009. This means anyone who gets their television signals from an antenna (yes, some of us still use rabbit ears!) will need to either get a digital converter box, or subscribe to a digital cable service.

My roommate and I have cable in the living room, but the TV in my bedroom is not hooked up to it, and it would require more effort than I'm willing to spend to connect it. The living room cable connection is on an interior wall in our apartment, and to avoid running a cable across three doorways—or four, if I took it in the other direction—I'd have to run a cable around the baseboards of nearly the entire living room, through the foyer, across the front door and a closet (there's no way to avoid at least two doorways) and into my room.

Way too much work, when my antenna works well enough for the amount of TV I watch. NBC is sometimes a little fuzzy (which isn't good for Heroes!), but generally the channels I watch come in quite well.

But that's not all. I have TIVO, which means I have more cords to connect than my TV has outlets for. My TV is an older (read: simpler) model, with only "Antenna In" and "Antenna Out" connections, so I need a converter box to hook up my TIVO (or VCR, or DVD player).

So here are the connections I have right now: 

1. Antenna to converter box

2. Converter box to TIVO (two cords here)

3. TIVO to TV, and 

4. The TV, of course, to the electrical outlet. 

There's also another connection: my TIVO has to get its programming from either a telephone landline or the internet. The landline got to be too expensive just for TV programming, and the internet connection, like cable, is in the living room. So my TIVO is also connected to an antenna to get signals from our wireless internet router.

Is it any wonder I never bothered to hook up my VCR?

Now the government wants me to hook up one more box, adding two more cords to the mass I already have behind my TV cart. I'm strongly considering getting a new digital-compliant TV, just to eliminate two boxes and a couple of cords. Maybe when the IRS sends my tax refund, I'll go TV shopping!

Cast your vote... or not

I voted this morning in my first New York primary. The good news was that I was in and out of my polling place (conveniently across the street from my apartment!) in about 15 minutes. No kidding!

The bad news: I'm a bit wary of the voting machines here in NYC. They're creaky, antiquated machines that automatically engender a sense of distrust—is my vote actually counted? You start by pulling a red lever from left to right to start the vote, then you're presented with a panel full of switches next to each candidate's name; turn down the switch next to the candidate you want to vote for. (Did I mention there seems to be almost no organization to this panel?) You finish by pulling the lever back from right to left to "count" the vote.

There's no ballot of any kind, no printout of your vote, nothing. You pretty much have to trust that your vote was recorded...and hope your state's results aren't so close as to demand a recount, because that might not happen if there's no paper trail of the votes cast!

And apparently, these machines really aren't all that accurate: back in 2002, the New York Times reported that quite a few of them malfunctioned. We're talking a significant number here:  "In the 2001 mayor's race in New York City, there were more uncounted, unmarked, and lost votes than in Florida in 2000 because of the city's antiquated lever machines..."

And it's not just New York's lever machines; Ohio and several other states have had problems with the touch-screen machines, and let's not forget the "hanging chad" fiasco in Florida in 2000.

How is it that we can spend billions on defense every year, but we can't develop a reliable nationwide voting system?

So in my mind, the question isn't really "Who did you vote for?" It's more a question of "Are you sure your vote actually counted?"

One Giant Upset!

So much for the Patriots' "Perfect Season"™! I heard some ridiculous rumor earlier this week that the Patriots were trying to trademark the phrase "Perfect Season", and real or not, the rumor is officially null and void, now that the Giants have upset the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII!

I'm not a huge Giants fan, but I do appreciate the sacking talents of Strahan, Tuck (and usually Umenyiora, but not tonight), and the rest of the Giants D, especially as Brady hit the turf not once, not twice, but five times!! (And that was just the official sack count, not counting the times he was tackled just after throwing the ball!) And in the fourth quarter, there was an amazing play--Eli Manning was nearly collared and about to be sacked, but he broke free and lobbed the ball downfield to David Tyree, who made a spectacular catch... on his helmet, as he was falling! If that isn't the play of the game, it should be.

Congrats, Giants! I'll be there for the parade on Tuesday to welcome you back!

On other subjects, not too bad on the Super Bowl ads—definitely better than last year's. Several were laugh-out-loud, and they weren't just the beer ads. But the halftime show with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers...? With the exception of "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" last year (or is it just Prince now?), the Super Bowl officials aren't taking any chances on a repeat of Nipplegate, are they? Let me offer up a suggestion for next year's halftime show: Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. That'll get the arena steamed up!

Why a groundhog? Why not a rat?

I don't know why we make all this fuss on Groundhog Day over a groundhog's weather-predicting abilities (or lack thereof). February 2nd is a day for people in Punxsutawny, Pennsylvania, to get up early to watch two men in tuxes and top hats pull a giant rodent out of his hidey-hole to predict the next few weeks of weather, based on whether said rodent sees his shadow (6 more weeks of winter) or not (early Spring). 

[This is totally ridiculous, given that he'd see a shadow on a sunny day, which usually indicates good weather, but not on a cloudy day, which usually indicates snowy or rainy weather.]

However unimpressed I am by Punxsutawny Phil, as said rodent is known, I have to say I am very impressed with the curly mustache sported by Mr. John Hughes, one of Phil's "handlers" (to the left in the photo above).

Another view of Mr. Hughes's mustache. If he had a longer, leaner face, he'd be perfect as Mr. Mustache-Twirling Villain in one of those old movies where Ms. Delicate Flower is kidnapped and tied to the railroad tracks until Mr. Villain gets his ransom.

But back to the weather-predicting rodent. He isn't even a very cute rodent! My dogs kill one of these pests every so often... and I'm not at all saddened by the loss. No, if you want a cute rodent, why not a squirrel or chipmunk? Even a prairie dog or a beaver will do. But groundhogs?

Um... careful, mister-- You might be happy to see him, but Phil obviously doesn't agree. In fact, he looks like he might want to take your nose off for waking him up out of his beauty sleep.

WTC progress

You're looking at a computer rendering of what might have been a new transit center, down at the former World Trade Center site, to replace the one destroyed when the towers came down. It hasn't been built, and according to the MTA this week, it won't be. Rising costs of steel, concrete, fuel, and other construction materials, not to mention a lack of available contractors and construction workers due to all the construction already going on around the city, and the pricetag for this lovely bit of architecture above was going to considerably exceed the $900 million the MTA had budgeted for it. 

This isn't the first time the city has had to scale back or scrap plans for for the site that used to hold the Twin Towers:

1. The Freedom Tower and several buildings surrounding the original site. Those are still going to be built, but the completion dates keep being pushed back for various reasons: 

     *Problems bringing down the heavily damaged Deutsche Bank building--mold & asbestos, finding remains of 9/11 victims, removing toxic materials, an accident where a pipe dropped on a firehouse, and a fire. If they do manage to bring the building down sometime this decade, that will be the future site of Tower 5.
     *Fighting between developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority over who gets to build what-- the final agreement is that Silverstein is in charge of Towers 2, 3, and 4, while the Port Authority got the Freedom Tower and Tower 5.

     *Security concerns over the proposed floor plans for the Freedom Tower. The NYPD worried about the Freedom Tower's base and its ability to withstand a bomb blast. Understandable, after the last two bombing attempts, but another delay and higher costs. Plans were revised to make the base of the tower a windowless concrete shell, set back farther from the street.

2. The "Reflecting Absence" memorial to honor those who died on 9/11. Like the subway transit center that won't be built, this project ran headlong into rising costs, too, to the tune of $1 billion. With some alterations to bring the costs down about $200 million (that's just what they cut out!), this will still be built, but the finishing date has been pushed back to 2011. [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-18-ground-zero-memorial_N.htm]

3. The performing arts center. Was supposed to be part of the memorial above, but along with the WTC museum planned for the memorial site, would have pushed the memorial cost to $1 billion. As of March 2007, this was still planned (to be designed by architect Frank Gehry), but construction won't start until at least 2010 or 2011, due to the temporary PATH train center entrance on the site now. The LMDC is looking for ways to cut the building's cost to under $500 million. (Translation: they probably won't start building in 2011.)

4. The new rail station at the World Trade Center site. It's still being built, but it's also being scaled back after officials found out the new estimated price for the original design by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (only about $3.4 billion).

The results of all these delays and plan revisions due to higher-than-expected costs? This is what the WTC site looks like, as of January 21st, 2008: 

Yep, they've got concrete laid for the Freedom Tower, but that's about it. We might have this thing done by the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

We Want Your Vote, II

I'd just like to say to Ann Coulter: If you'd truly rather have Hillary (or Barack Obama) in the White House over John McCain, the absolute best way to do that is to Shut. The. Hell. Up.

Coulter, long known for her vicious character assassinations of just about everyone calling themselves a Democrat, has decided that if McCain wins the Republican nomination for the presidency, she will not only support Hillary Clinton, she'll campaign for her. [Gasp! Heresy! See for yourself at http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid52007.asp]

Is she really that ignorant of her effect on the half of the electorate whose views she's trashed with her hatemongering and her racist/homophobic/anti-Semitic/etc. remarks? Or is she doing this deliberately?

If she's going to support Hillary (or anyone on the Democratic side), she might bring some normally conservative voters with her, but that will only turn off independents and some liberals who might otherwise vote for the Democratic nominee (whether or not that happens to be Hillary). Ann Coulter has cultivated a knee-jerk reaction to her opinions among a lot of groups. She's ticked off too many people for her pseudo-endorsement of Hillary to be anything other than an anti-endorsement--and that's why, if she doesn't want McCain to win, she should just stick to trashing him and keep her mouth shut about any Democratic candidate. That would help her cause more than "supporting" any potential McCain opponent.

[And a note here: I'd post a pic, but the best one to post would be one of a woman I would describe as a (rhymes-with-witch), and frankly, I don't think her photo deserves a place on my blog.]