It's pronounced Franken-STEEN...

So anyway, just to see where the hype machine is headed (other than the voters-won't-be-able-to-vote undercurrent), I see this article ...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/27/us/tropical-weather-sandy/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

... with this seemingly innocuous portion:

"Forget about the category with this," said CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. "When you have trees with leaves on them still, this kind of wind and rain on top of that, you're talking about trees that are going to come down, power lines are going to be out and the coastal flooding situation is going to be huge."

Okay, I don't necessarily think that's an incorrect assertion to consider ... however, I ask you, how often do hurricanes roll through when there aren't leaves on the trees? And obviously I don't just mean palm and pine, I mean proper deciduous trees.

So, if my concern is well-founded, why am I supposed to take things at face-value rather than the fear-mongering sensationalism that it appears it is? That's not to say nobody will face difficult or dangerous times because of this storm, but I guess, in the end, I don't see how the exploitation is good for anyone, aside from anyone making money off others' misery .... which I guess answers my question after all.

Sure, reply to me while I'm adding a clarifying positional statement ....

It seems we are still in agreement.

Where I live, we are sold out of generators, batteries, flashlights, etc. I don't know - I guess it's understandable because last year, there was a power outage out here for 14 days in some areas. I didn't yet live here when it happened. Maybe it's why people are so up in arms. We're going to take our chances with candles and old batteries.

Oh, no .... I completely understand and agree whole-heartedly with the concern of losing power for an significantly extended period of time. I just mean (and I assume you get) that there's no positive purpose behind overstating the obvious .... unless there's some ulterior motive, and in some fashion or another said motive has to be profit motivated.

So I'm an idiot and kept skimming through the article and then saw a link at the bottom titled "Stay well-fed in any disaster" ... okay, fair enough, but in that link (http://eatocracy.cnn.com/emergency/) and somewhere in the middle is this paragraph (emphasis added) ....

Mayonnaise may adorn your sandwiches and tuna or chicken salads at the outset, and pre-sealed packets aren't a bad way to go, but after a few hours, mustard is a better safety bet. Avoid flavor fatigue by assembling a sampler pack of yellow, Dijon, deli, whole grain, flavored and honey mustards. Per the good folks at French's Mustard, "There are no ingredients in mustard that spoil. "Refrigerate After Opening" is not required for food safety–we only recommended you do so to maintain optimal product flavor."

Now on this board I should probably consider making a Mac Mustard Belt joke, but I mean let's consider that sentence for a moment .... in a disaster (not a trifling inconvenience, not an overnight snowfall, a fucking disaster .... like Bobby Valentine is your manager type disaster), let's be sure to address "flavor fatigue".

I'd like to say what a wonderful country and time we live in that we can actually conceive of writing such a sentence, but I can't help but just sit with mouth-agape level uneasiness that there's apparently an overriding mental framework in these United States that, in times of almost life-and-death situations, we need to address the issue of not being bored with how one's food tastes, and I say that as a blimp of a man.

I think I will just go back to bed and quietly hope not to wake up.

We've already gotten emails from our power & phone company saying
"so, um we already expect you to lose power and to not have it for a few days, possibly the week."
my wife is already getting the car packed to go to Michigan for the week.

my wife is already getting the car packed to go to Michigan for the week.

Aren't you only in Pennsylvania?

Load up on beer and tell her to call you when she gets there.

My wife went to DC this weekend to visit relatives.

All flights cancelled through Tuesday. I hope she makes it back by Thursday night. We are supposed to fly out Friday AM to check out the University of Nebraska.

I picture Bernsy in black hooded robe doing incantations in a secret room in his basement and sacrificing small animals to conjure up this storm to wipe out PA.

"Abbalah Nostrum Thundratus, decend upon PA and destroy the childrape supporting citizens!"

Good lord. Irene vs Sandy