I’m displeased. I woke up at 7AM this morning, ready to start the day off right, but was unable to do that because I looked out my window to the sight of several inches of snowy sorrow.
The snowfall is expected to peter out around noon. It’s still unclear whether we will be getting enough snow to do this or this:
Last finals week, I posted this interview with Toys Koomplee ’17, whose emails never fail to make me smile. Maya and I turned to each other simultaneously during today’s Wesleying meeting to show each other the email, and it was so cute that we wanted to share it with all of you.
[UPDATED: 2/9/17, 11:04AM by wilk and 1:46PM by Maya]
More things you need to know about the storm today:
__________
Hello, dear reader. Are you currently procrastinating your readings, just like I am, in the hopes that tomorrow’s lovely fall of Special Snowflakes will cause classes to be cancelled? Because this post is as far from credible meteorology as it gets. You have found the right place.
So, after checking the super accurate weather app on my phone, my ~intellectual conclusion~ is that the snow will start at approximately 4 AM.
According to some other credible sources, there are some fancy words like “low pressure systems” and “evening commutes” in the reports of Winter Storm Niko. Here’s what you need to know about the storm:
Winter Storm Linus (what kind of a name is Linus?) is coming our way late tonight, which, for the record, sucks. The bright side, though, is that Governor Malloy hasn’t yet resorted to the driving ban he enacted a couple days ago. The midwest isn’t so lucky. Thousands of people are now being forced to stay home thanks to Linus’s rampage. It’s so sad that the stare-at-Tom-Brady’s-face parties are ruined. Wesleyan’s Super Bowl parties are not, however, in jeopardy. But if you’re in your dorm room watching the Super Bowl on your computer because it’s too damn cold to venture outside, nobody’s judging you. The moral of the story is that the climate’s probably fucked and snow keeps happening, and apparently Roth’s determined not to cancel classes this time around. Now that we’ve established that, let’s talk about things named “Linus” that are cooler than a snowstorm.
The announcement(at)wesleyan(dot)edu email address is here to ruin all of your snowy fun:
To the Wesleyan Community:
The University will be open tomorrow, and scheduled classes and events are expected to resume. It will be cold and windy, and we ask everyone to exercise extreme caution when outside on campus. Although the grounds crew is working to clear parking lots, snowy walkways may be difficult, so please wear appropriate shoes. A Middletown street parking ban may still be in effect; extra parking (and shuttle service) will be available at Long Lane.
The first big snow of the school season happened on Saturday, and today we found out the snow thing is going to be a bigger deal than we thought. As we prepare for a “crippling and potentially historic” New England blizzard this week, students just kind of want to know 1) if classes are going to get cancelled and 2) if airwes can brave the storm. (Probably not/probably not?)
The S&C will be closed today due to weather. Enjoy the snow!
Or, Why Wesleyan in 1983 Was Basically Just Like Europe in 1415.
About a month ago, in the aftermath of the megablizzard, Public Safety came under criticism for threatening to tow cars buried under mountains of snow that made it rather difficult for their owners to reach them. If retweets are endorsements, a handful of students echoed the complaint.
There’s not much that’s interesting about the history of Snow Parking Bans (side note: we’re more than midway through March and as I look out my window right now, it’s again snowing), but piecing through the Argives last week I was oddly enthralled by an Argus story that ran 30 years ago last month with the headline “100 Cars Towed as a Result of Snowstorm.” After this particular 1983 storm, Middletown Police Sergeant Wood was unforgiving: “If they’re not off streets, they’re towed. It’s as simple as that,” he told the Argus.
But as then-Argus reporter (and current literary agent) Linda Loewenthal ’85 tells it, the problem was that many students simply weren’t aware that the parking ban was in effect. Why would they be? In 1983, before email or Pinterest or Friendster or whatever, it was damn hard to get information out quickly on a college campus:
Photo via the @Wesleyan_U Twitter account.
Remember that time it was warm and sunny on Tuesday and you thought spring was here to stay and winter as you know it had finally given up for the season? That was cute.
Despite Spring Break officially beginning in a few short hours, Middletown got hit by another minor blizzard last night (in fact, it’s continuing right now) that exceeded 20 inches in some areas of Connecticut. From Middletown Patch:
Public and parochials schools are closed and colleges have cancelled morning classes and the city is under a parking ban. By midmorning Friday, Middletown had 8 inches of snowfall from this storm that meteorologists say will leave the area sometime after noon.
Slippery streets are making driving treacherous in spots, evidenced by a 10 a.m. minor fender-bender on Main Street, at Liberty Street, between a car and truck.
But “don’t expect the snow to stick around too long,” warns the Middletown Press.
Maxwell Bevilacqua ’12 classifies this one as “URGENT!”:
Because of a storm in the midwest, the March 6 Russell House reading by fiction writer A.J. Verdelle and poet Nikky Finney has been cancelled, and rescheduled. The new date is Monday, April 15.
New Date: Monday, April 15
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Place: TBA
Cost: Free
