Cold case
That's the scene here at Detectives Beyond Borders world headquarters: 30 to 45 cm. of snow (12-18 inches) since yesterday, 70 cm. (28 inches) over the weekend, and all this on the heels of 59 cm. (23.5 inches) in a day a month and a half ago.I think I'll head to the Southern Hemisphere for my next bit of crime reading.
© Peter Rozovsky 2010
Labels: images, miscellaneous, Philadelphia, Philadelphia views
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 9:38 PM
41 Comments:
Wow, I haven't touched snow since I was a youngster! Are those cars under those snow lumps? I hope you are enjoying mexican style hot cacao with all that snow!
Those are indeed cars. Later I should take some pictures of the streets that are really snowed in. What is Mexican-style hot cacao?
Damn that global warming.
Yep, the skies have dumped 70 inches of snow on my globally warmed head in the last month and a half. All that shovelling and salting is a bloody inconvenient truth.
Brooklyn under snow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnh/collections/72157623400271620/
It lacks the glamour of being inundated with lava, I know, but it's the best we can do in this part of the country.
That's some snow! Makes me want to run under a warm blanket with a nice cup of hot tea and a good book.
Makes me want to slip under a warm blanket, period. I'm afraid I'd spill the tea.
Come on over. It's been around 40C here this week (about 104 of your degrees).
I'd gladly hop a plane.
Ach, I had a feeling this post would draw comments from Hawaii, California and Australia. But temperatures were up today -- just enough that chunks of melting snow kept falling on my head as I shoveled the sidewalk, or footpath to you.
There's no escaping the weather! As Bernadette said, it's been HOT in Australia, and since everyone was moaning and complaining about the heat, we were given one hell of a thunderstorm yesterday - people were swimming in the streets of Melbourne!
I'm just finishing the last pages of Peter Temple's Truth, which has some eye-popping descriptions of our summer weather and the bushfires it causes. Come on Autumn/Spring!
Everyone here moans and complains about the snow, and we may be given some more next Monday -- a dusting of just a few inches., though.
Come on, spring/summer!
Arthur Upfield offers a harrowing description of a fire's heat and speed in one of his novels, The Sands of Windee, perhaps. You'll know how highly I think of Peter Temple; I can well imagine that his descriptions of fires would pop some eyes. And I know you've just had a sad anniversary of what Australian brush fires can do.
Yes, last weekend's anniversary of Black Saturday gave everyone pause for thought, especially as the weather seemed to want to mimic that horrible event. Luckily we have had enough rain this summer to keep that from happening, but while reading Peter Temple's harsh descriptions I felt the need to keep a close eye on the weather. I wonder if his next book will feature flooding as the main environmental feature.
A friend in DC says she is managing OK under the snow, but her dogs are suffering badly from cabin fever. I hope the sun comes out for you all soon.
Peter,
In Dublin we had more snow in January than we've had in 40 years so I've an inkling of what you're going through right now.
I'm just a few chapters into Peter Temple's Bad Debts and it's good fun so far. Most of the books I've read recently were third person narratives, with rather flat prose and flat characters. So the sprightly first person narrative of Jack Irish feels like drinking some of the hard stuff after being on a dry spell.
I thank you, Pat. The sun was out today and the temperature was comfortably high for the time of year - high enough, as I mentioned above, that chunks of melting snow fell on my head from the trees as I cleared the front of my house.
Upfield's account conveyed a sense of vulnerablity in the face of the environment. I expect Temple's will do the same.
Solo, Bad Debts got me started reading Peter Temple, and I'm not sorry. Sprightly is not a bad word for Jack Irish. Sprightly and tough is a good combination.
I understand Peter, the piles of snow along my driveway are almost 5' high.
Bernadette it's about -20C here in Minneapolis so 40C sounds really good tome right now. A friend from down there told me last night that the humidity is high too. I'd rather sweat than shiver any day.
I'd rather swelter than shovel any day. John, I was wondering how you folks were doing out there in Frostbite Falls.
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I'm not sure that's the weather story you intended, unless you wanted to let me know that your ambassador-designate to the U.S. slipped and fell on the ice in Washington and needed surgery on both knees. I hope the incident does not create bad blood between our two nations.
Well, everybody, this is what one of our downtown Melbourne streets looked like yesterday afternoon when a 5-day heatwave finally ended in violent thunderstorms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8k1YwZVl7w
It just goes to show that no matter where or when you travel anywhere in the world these days you've got to be prepared for anything.
I just finished Peter Temple's Truth and without giving away the story I can say that the threat of environmental catastrophe was woven into every layer of the story. Sweat running down the pages. A terrific read and I'm tempted to return to page 1 and start reading it all over again; but Salander has been waiting in the wings for some time now and I'd like to read at least book 1 of Larsson's trilogy before I see the movie.
Thanks, solo, for the recommendation. I read one of the Jack Irish books too many years ago to remember, so I'm adding them to my TBR list as I'm sure I would enjoy them even more now.
Sorry about the 'slip up' - it's been a bad news day!
Good god, they look they're having fun.
I'm glad someone was having fun, but it's a wonder he didn't get cooked. The amount of lightning activity going on at the time was apocalyptic! Flooding, transport stoppages, a house on fire, roofs caved in. A real mess!
Nice and cool now and more rain on the way.
I'd have figured that the water might be too dirty for safe bathing. Didn't his mother tell him not to swim in the street?
It's OK Peter - our ambassador (and former leader of our federal government opposition party) is kinda clumsy so we won't hold it against you. In fact you can keep him if you like - most boring speaker I ever heard so he could cure insomnia for you.
As for the weather - it's much nicer here today (30C) but you're all still welcome over - I've got Peter Temple, cold beer and a barbie planned for this weekend
Yes, and there's the worry, too, that he could have been sucked down a storm drain as some of these pictures show: http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/environment/heavy-rain-strikes-melbourne/20100211-nupa.html
Bernadette, that is just about enough to get me to sneak off for the weekend. Ans even though you soon-to-be ambassador may be a bore, it takes more than that for me to wish a man pain.
The article to which Pat had originally linked said he had keyhole surgery on both knees, which sounds a hell of a lot more painful than what I presume it's a colloquial term for: arthroscopic surgery.
Pat, getting sucked down a storm drain -- that sounds a lot funnier than it probably is.
Unfortunately, storm drain incidents are an all too frequent source of death by misadventure during summer thunderstorms here.
Bernadette, you are very fortunate to be having Peter Temple as a guest for Adelaide Writers Week in a few weeks' time. I hope that he will return to speak at the next Crime and Justice Festival here in Melbourne next July. Any of you Northerners in need of a thaw should hop on the next available plane to Oz.
Yikes, I never thought of a storm drain as something that could pose a danger to humans, though my most recent post does contain a clip of a man being chased through sewers. But that was just a movie.
Australia is a bit far for a weekend jaunt, but one of these years ...
DBB's "world headquarters," huh? Appears to be very cleverly disguised as a residence. No one would ever guess at the “criminal” activities taking place inside.
I don’t suppose there’s anything you can do, pirsona pirsonalmente, to see that this white stuff is all gone by the time I get to Philly at the end of the month??
Just got back from 9 days in Vienna/Budapest where temps were in the high 20s-low 30s (and I panicked at the 1-2" of snow on the ground in places) and come back to L.A. where it is, what else, 80 degrees. A shock to the system. And I, for one, always prefer to “shiver” rather than “swelter.”
DBB's "world headquarters," huh? Appears to be very cleverly disguised as a residence. No one would ever guess at the “criminal” activities taking place inside.
Yep, I try to present as unassuming a facade as possible to the outside world. The snow is well on its way to melting, which means just a few more days for my paper to publish weather stories before it's forced back to the tedious business of finding real news.
Let me know the dates of your visit so I can try to swing a schedule change and get you to Giancarlo's, Luigi's or both.
Peter, I will be in Philadelphia the nights of Feb 27, 28, and Mar 1. On the 27th I should be at the Hyatt Bellevue by 7 PM, if the plane arrives at PHL on time. But the next 2 days (Sunday and Monday) I'm out of the conference by 4:30 PM. But I'm guessing that Giancarlo's and Luigi's restaurants may not be open on Sun and / or Mon...?
Io credo che la ristorante di Giancarlo e aperto la domenica, but I'll check. Your hotel is about a three-minute walk from the restaurant and even closer to La Villa degli Stronzi, otherwise known as the Pen & Pencil Clun.
Dio mio! Your Italian is much better than mine right now. My brain's still on Deutsch-sprache.
Danke schoen! Ik moet maandag naar werk, maar zaterdag en zondag werk ik niet. (Now, don't tell anyone that most of that is Dutch, not German. I want to keep up the mystique.)
I took 1 1/2 years of Dutch in grad school. Ho capito.
I learned that you knew some Dutch when I inadvertently sent you an electronic edition of NRC Handelsblad that I had intended to send to myself.
Oh, that's right, I remember now. Didn't I say you had a mind like a steel trap?
You might have. I'm not sure.
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