問候同歡迎 (Greetings and Welcome) Today is Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. It’s National Walk Your Dog Day.
1455: The estimated date when Johannes Gutenberg printed his first Bible.
1836: The Alamo is besieged for 13 days, until March 6, by the Mexican army under Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna; the entire garrison is eventually killed.
1886: The Times of London newspaper publishes the world's first classified ad.
1896: Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.
1927: President Calvin Coolidge creates Federal Radio Commission (FRC).
1940: Walt Disney releases his animated movie Pinocchio.
1945: U.S. Marines raise the flag of the United States on top of Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.
1960: Demolition begins on Brooklyn's Ebbets Field.
1981: People magazine features the drug ordeal of Mackenzie & Papa John Phillips.
Birthdays today include: George Frideric Handel, director Victor Fleming (The Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind), Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets (who flew Enola Gay over Hiroshima), Majel Barrett, Peter Fonda, Johnny Winter, Viktor Yushchenko, Howard Jones, and Michael Dell.
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I’m watching the snowfall totals in New York City this morning with great anticipation. If you will recall, in New York, Mayor Mamdani’s first real test as Mayor, a mere 21 days ago, when the city caught (officially) 11.4 inches of snow, he failed in dramatic fashion.
The thing is this: That storm, 21 days ago, is nothing compared to what we’re seeing in the city today and tomorrow under the storm, which is named Hernando. It seems nigh on hopeless, thinking that this time it'll work out better.
As this is written at about 0730, there are, by some reports, 14-24 inches of fresh snow on the ground, and they are forecasting 11 to 15 MORE inches of snow. That, on top of the snow and trash, they haven’t managed to clear away from the previous storm. Except, of course, in the streets surrounding Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence. (Gee, I can’t imagine why that would be true…)
This new storm, if the mayor's containment of the old one is the standard, will keep the city crippled for a week, at least likely longer.Freehold, in Monmouth County, N.J., has recorded 19 inches as this is written. The 60 mph winds and heavy snow have already placed some 568,000 gas and electric customers on candle power, according to PowerOutage.com. And that cell is moving to the northeast, and right toward the city. Sections of Long Island, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts have been seeing winds of over 70 mph.
As of 9 p.m., cell phones in New York City were showing an emergency alert essentially banning all travel, according to reports from the New York Post. The ban is in effect until noon today, apparently based on the predictions by the weather folks that the storm will lessen about then, though this may be extended. Meanwhile, Fox is saying that on the order of 10,000 flights have been canceled. LaGuardia Airport is showing a cancellation rate of over 97% today.
And so, now what to do to prevent the failure last time from becoming the failure this time? Mamdani's answer is amusing, if ineffective. They're recruiting citizens to shovel snow. Of course, they need two forms of picture ID and their Social Security card to shovel snow. (Those same people will not be asked to show ONE picture ID, much less two, to vote, of course, but that's another story.) What interests me is why we're not using illegals to clear the snow.
The truth is that New York City has not had sufficient snow removal capacity for decades now, against any kind of major storm, much less two in a few weeks. A goodly number of the snowplows being used are actually garbage trucks. When you're using them to plow snow, you're not going to be using them to remove trash. Thus, the huge trash piles you saw in the first video. And, of course, once those trash piles are covered by this new round of snowfall, you won't be able to determine if it's snow or trash you're plowing. And the situation continues to deteriorate.
In fairness, Mamdani is faced with several systemic inadequacies. Like most American cities, Democrats have run New York City for ages. Thus, the current administration can't blame the previous administration, since the previous administration was Democratic as well. So I'm not at all convinced Mamdani is going to come out of this without additional political scar tissue. After all, previous city administrations have dealt with problems like this in the past without all the whining.
As for what to do if you live in those areas, you could always vacation in Mexico. Well, maybe not.
I guess all you can really do if you live along the I-95 corridor is keep repeating to yourself that we don't have earthquakes, and we don't have hurricanes, and we don't have alligators.
Take care, my friends. Don't overdo your shoveling.
Thought for the day: To wear the crown of peace, you must wear the crown of thorns. —Gordon Lightfoot
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