What? I can’t hear you guys over the sound of my AC!
You may or may not know this, but there’s a blackout going on here and it’s been on, or off I guess, for a week now. You might not have known it even if you lived here because it’s going on in Queens. That’s that piece of land to the east of us here in shiny Manhattan. You may remember it from such shows as “The King of Queens†(I’ve never actually seen that, but I can read a title as well as the rest of you) and “All in the Family.â€
Yes, many of the folks in Queens have been without electricity in the steaming heat of July for a week. No phones, no lights, no motor car, not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it’s primitive as can be. Well, I take that back, they have phones and cars, but I really love Gilligan’s Island. Also, no AC, no fans, no refrigerators, no grocery stores, no take-out food, no elevators, etc. Some have no water and/or no functioning toilets. Yesterday, I blew a circuit breaker and lost power to my fridge for 4 minutes and almost had a panic attack. I can’t begin to imagine a week of juicelessness.
The remarkable thing is, no one seems to care. Being who I am, I find the fact that no one cares even more interesting than the actual blackout. Today, for the first time, it made the front page of the NY Times. After a week. And I don’t ever hear anyone talking about it. They give it the lead story on the news and then move on. A few years ago, the entire city (and nearly a quarter of the country) didn’t have electricity for one night and everybody went nuts. That’s all that was on the radio news all night long. I know because I was up all night sweltering by candlelight listening to it. Now, they’re lucky if the mayor gets a word in about it.
But I guess it’s all location, location, location. I saw a woman in Queens on the news the other day saying indignantly, “if this was Manhattan, it would have been fixed by now!†Damn straight. I pay eight times as much as you for the same apartment. I expect my fridge to run, OK?
I just hope it’s fixed in time for the US Open. Because then I’ll care a lot.
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Bec – I have been reading the Daily News, and I am completely amazed that this has gone on as long as it has. Thankfully, my cousins and THE METS are in Flushing, so they aren’t afflicted. But, yeah, you guys sure do rate in Manhattan. Always make us islanders feel like 2nd class citizens. sniff sniff.
LOL
I first read that as “my cousins, the Mets” and I was going to say, “wow, you’re cousins with Billy Wagner AND El Duque?”
Oh wait, I did just say that.
If my cousins were the Mets, hmmmmm. I would hope that one wasn’t David Wright, cause he’s too cute to be related to.
I celebrated my 18th birthday in the middle of a full week without power due to a hurricane. I actually did my homework by candlelight, just like Abe Lincoln or one of those other dead presidents. I totally feel for the residents of Queens. Oh, and A-Rod too. He is having somewhat of a power outage himself. Coincidence??
We lost power for 2 hours Friday night smack dab in the middle of the Sox game. Soon to be Mr. Soxy thought we should use the opportunity to talk, I wanted to go to bed. Unfortunately, the smoke alarm beeping every 30 seconds prohibited me from sleeping, but luckily, we got bored of talking.
I might change the name of the site to Magic Baseball.
Oh Becca, If only I had time to come here daily I would. One day I will again have an office job and a regular internet connection and I will be able to puruse magicjewball on a daily basis.
You are right on about the black out. If it were Manhattan people who be going nets and it would be fixed. Today Alex and I saw that the swings had been painted in the Hippo Park on the Upper West Side. Alex said, “I wonder if they painted the ones in Harlem too”. I’m guessing not…
Becky, the Jewball misses you!
Yeah, you’re probably right on that score. Sad, really.
I blame the liberal media.
I only read the New York TImes on line, and the story made what I imagine would be “above the fold” on the web site on the 21st, when I asked Liz a/k/a “eachtay” if she had power and she quite snarkily told me that if she didn’t she wouldn’t have been posting.
I am so old I lived through “the big one” in 1965. That was a fun blackout.
Oh, my, that was me, just now. No one will know who I am. Hey, y’all! Nice to meet you!
RE: Magic Baseball/Magic Jewball.
In my favorites, I have Jewball right next to mlb.com. I’ve been debating recently whether I even need any other favorites.
All signs point to no.
And see, I’ve been thinking that if magicjewball gave me the latest scores and standings, my world would be almost complete.
I see a convergence of opinions here.
Silly Sarpon, there are readers here who don’t know I met you in another online community. Let’s keep that forum out of this one, shall we, so we can have everything be all neat and clean.
I keep petitioning mlb.com to link to me. So far, no dice. It’s a shanda I tell you.