Archives - Weekly Update

Last weekend, when the temperatures hovered in the 50s, I took some nice walks and thought about gardening and some outdoor projects. Thus the news of a “major snow event” this upcoming Sunday through Tuesday is being greeted by me with a groan --- and I know I am not alone. The snow is so deep around our woodpile that I was not able to get near it last weekend as planned to get wood for the fireplace. I am not great at judging distances/depths (must be something about being better with words than with math and science), and thus my plan to trudge over there through the snow in my high boots was nixed by my husband, who told me there was two feet of snow next to the woodpile, which would make it thigh deep. I clearly need a new plan for this lest I spend another weekend burning those “logs” that one buys at the store. I’m dreaming of a green spring. Who’s going to write that song?

Looking at the weather forecast for today and tomorrow, I am seeing numbers with 5s in them. Two 5s as in 55! I like double 5s better than single 5s. It’s been a brutal lesson in math this winter, where days were measured in single digits while snowfalls were captured with double digits. The New York area does very poorly at passing for a ski area; there are no gondolas or lifts at the curbs! Yesterday I drove down the street to my parking garage near the office, and it was closed for plowing. Nice to see them doing this extra-special cleanup two days after the storm and a day before it warmed up. Right now, bets are on about how long the snow sticks around here. April 1st is the over/under date.

I need some color in my life. There is way, way too much white and gray. Due to the weather, we all have not put in a full week at the office in weeks, and while we all can work anywhere, I am a tad tired of the stress of wondering what the week’s weather will bring and the lack of rhythm that accompanies that. Yesterday, Greg, Nikki and I spent almost two hours on the phone ironing out some promotion plans for the sites. Tom Donadio, our Editorial Director, was the only one who made it into the office on Thursday --- and it was his birthday! Given that Tom is the person who shapes so much of what you see on these pages, I am sharing his email address here so you can shoot him a belated birthday greeting --- and your own thanks to him for all he does! It’s Tom@bookreporter.com.

My three commentaries on last week’s Super Bowl. First, our good friend Cathy joined us, bringing 23-year-old Ze, a young guy from Portugal who just started working with her. This was his first football game, and my husband was eager to explain it to him. It proved more difficult than he planned. It’s hard to start the game with a safety and share that this “rarely happens” and then describe what the play is and why it mattered, especially as it happened 12 seconds into the game. Second, when the Coca-Cola commercial came on, the controversial thoughts it stirred up about immigrants never entered my head. Instead, I assigned Ze to tell us if he heard any Portuguese. He did not. As for the rest of the game, I sum it up like this. If Peyton was an author, it was like someone took his manuscript and then edited in a different outcome to every scene as he looked on in horror. Congrats to the Seahawks and their fans!