Obama Incredulous Over School Closing, Says DC Needs To Toughen Up
At a meeting in the Roosevelt Room with business leaders to discuss the economy, President Obama asked to make an unrelated comment -- on the weather.
"My children's school was canceled today, because of what? Some ice," Obama said, and all at the table started laughing.
"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," he continued. He said that in their old hometown, "you'd go outside for recess in weather like this. You wouldn't even stay indoors."
The President said he would have to bring "some flinty Chicago toughness" to Washington.
Asked if he was calling Washingtonians wimps, Obama responded: "I'm saying that when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."
More on topic, President Obama said he is "confident" the stimulus package will pass.
I dunno - I think if a city doesn't get ice on a regular basis, they might not have the equipment, material or experience to deal with it as well as, say, Chicago. OTOH, it's cool to see Obama telling Washington folk how awesome Chicago is....
I dunno - I think if a city doesn't get ice on a regular basis, they might not have the equipment, material or experience to deal with it as well as, say, Chicago.
That's totally DC's problem -- they are always caught completely by surprise when there's any winter weather there.
Is this common? Anyone here feel the same way/notice other women reacting like this?
It seems kind of odd to me. I notice when I am the only woman on the the elevator in my office building, but that's because it's pretty uncommon -- but it doesn't make me feel unsafe at all.
Doing this [link]
Sorry, not on FB. So I'll just have to use my imagination I guess.
I dunno - I think if a city doesn't get ice on a regular basis, they might not have the equipment, material or experience to deal with it as well as, say, Chicago.
True, but DC is particularly lame when it comes to snow.
A woman on another board (prompted by this) said that she always feels nervous/hypervigilant when a man comes onto an elevator she's been alone in. Another mentioned she'll leave the car on those occasions. This completely startled me. Is this common? Anyone here feel the same way/notice other women reacting like this?
Where the hell are they riding elevators? Speed-rapist conventions?
they are always caught completely by surprise when there's any winter weather there.
I see the problem as being DC not deploying its very limited resources (plows, trucks) before the ice/snow actually begins. Only when a storm starts to they start to deliberate how much of the precious salt stash to put on the roads. So everything has to get kerfucked before they get serious.
That's DC's problem -- then there are the people who live here who don't have salt for their own sidewalks, etc.
A woman on another board (prompted by this) said that she always feels nervous/hypervigilant when a man comes onto an elevator she's been alone in. Another mentioned she'll leave the car on those occasions. This completely startled me. Is this common? Anyone here feel the same way/notice other women reacting like this?
I think the only time I've been conscious of being the only woman was when I lived on the edge of Crown Heights. At my subway stop I was often the only woman and/or Caucasian (the neighborhood being primarily Orthodox Jews and West Indians).
I certainly never occured to me to "do" anything about it. But it was something I noticed.
DC has one snowplow, and I'm pretty sure they have to share it with Maryland and Virginia.
That said, the DC area schools (including NoVA and MD where I grew up) are TOTALLY WUSSY when it comes to snow. I remember school closings over less than a quarter inch of snow growing up.
I do step out of the way like that woman, though. But it doesn't matter who gets in. What else are you supposed to do? It's only polite.
Space shuttle control panel. This is why I'm skeptical when they show someone controlling an alien spaceship first time at the controls. Though I'm not sure I can conceive of that many variables to control successfully. How do they manage? It's worse than the TARDIS.
Only when a storm starts to they start to deliberate how much of the precious salt stash to put on the roads.
Chicago knows that you've got to get your plows out there before the snow starts to fall and get everything presalted, and then keep plowing and salting to keep up with the weather. Mayor Daley learned last month that doing this on the cheap (he tried to keep the plowing on the sidestreets to 9-5, M-F for a month to save on overtime pay) just pisses off the voters and makes plowing worse after the snow on those sidestreets have turned to sheets of ice.
Sure, the salt's expensive (and getting more so every year) and so are the manhours, but you do keep the voters happy.
