Det_Munch: They seem to be OK; most have "checked in". My brother & sister-in-law in NE PA, however, haven't checked in yet. Their area loses power if someone sneezes so that could be it. Just keeping fingers crossed.

mred: "Most people don't live on the dumpy East Coast".

Really? And how did you come to that conclusion?

Det_Munch: That's what I told someone yesterday. And now Brooklyn & Queens are under a tornado watch. Some of us have family & friends back there; no way to check on them with power out. We can only hope for the best.

And leave it to someone to somehow manage to turn this political. Go away.

I just love the armchair quarterbacks. If "the gubmint" had done NOTHING you'd sit there and complain. Instead you complain because they actually DID something. FYI, NYC's MTA reported it would take a full EIGHT HOURS to shut down the entire transit system. Were they supposed to wait until something happened? Were they supposed to risk the lives of, e.g., thousands subway riders during a possible storm surge? Or is a bit of inconvenience maybe in order here?

I think it would be quite interesting (to say the least) to see some of these people even STAFF an OEM during an emergency, let alone be responsible for making decisions.

As to the storm "flaking out", it isn't the storm per se that is the reason for the evacuations; it's the potential for FLOODING along low-lying coastal areas. The Weather Channel estimated storm surge to be close to FORTY FEET. Yes, FORTY FEET. So yeah, "flaking out" is a good way to describe it. Shaking head in utter disbelief.

I used to go all the time when it first began. But over the years it's become more than a nightmare, IMO. Where are the local microbreweries? Why aren't some of the better restaurants offering up $5 plates of their signature dishes? What happened to all the vendors? There used to be pottery vendors but no more. The costume place used to be open for browsing. The little antique shops on that same street used to be open for browsing. Now it's yet another corporate nightmare (really - Bud? this is "art"?).

They need better food offerings (it IS called "culinary ARTS"), better refreshment offerings (pretty sure the local microbreweries would be happy to be represented -- and those beers are "crafted"), vary the vendors -- no offense but much of what is there really can't be considered "art" by any stretch of the imagination (and it's the same ones every time no matter how much time elapses in between my visits to the festival), vary the music, etc.

I don't understand why we don't have more street fairs here. We have the perfect climate to hold them nearly year-round, yet we ignore it. I love what First Friday has done for that area; now expand upon that to other areas (Fremont East, anyone?).

And speaking of Fremont East, we went down there last Friday (07/29) because there were supposed to be all these food trucks. There were three. The lines were close to 45 minute wait times. What happened? (If I missed a story on it, my apologies.)

Uh, Michael? I DID comment on what you wrote. Anything else you'd like to protest? Need I add the Shakespeare quote to this?

Frankly, I don't much care to engage you because your "beliefs" are anything BUT "center right". Forgive me if I'm a bit suspect of anyone who consistently pulls out the false equivalency to show his/her
impartiality.

And again, THAT is a "comment on what [you] write".

racer56: My apologies for incorrectly thinking you are an "R" and my apologies for not getting back to you sooner as I've been out of town for the past three weeks.

Michael Casler: It's the DemocratIC Party, NOT the Democrat Party.

Your true colors are showing.

What I find most amusing is the following:

From "Robert2": "I have only seen a little of the Tea Party people on TV and I did not see racial signs or anything you espouse. Can you give an instance or picture?"

Each time the teapartywackos are (correctly) accused of "racism", we are treated to exactly the same response. The respondent appears to not be a teapartywacko, claims s/he's only seen/heard a little of the teapartywackos, and then demands an "example" of the racism, despite the innumerable examples for all the world to see. But somehow, some way, this non-teapartywacko never saw any of them.

To borrow from ShannonK, this happens every.single.time.

Chunky: Hillary saw it. Pretty sure that was about three years ago. Sorry the press release didn't get to you.

At what point, if any, does this butthead have his license revoked in perpetuity? Seriously; all things being the same, but Joe Blow in place of this idiot, and can we guess what the outcome would have been? Joe Blow would still be rotting in jail, license revoked, job lost, etc. etc. etc.

I'm so sick of useless celebrities (redundant, I know).