Winter Comes to New York City: When it Comes to Cold the City's Not so Hot

When winter arrives in New York City, it's very much like any other place: Each night the darkness arrives a bit earlier, the air grows a bit more

chilly. The sun can no longer beat back the nippiness in the air. Winter is a tough season. And New York is a tough town, right? Maybe. Now, normally we New Yorkers are perceived as rough and tough. We pepper our speech with quaint sayings like, "Hey, I'm walkin' here!" "What are you lookin' at??" or "Do I amuse you?" We can handle hard times and hopeless situations. An accident on the way to work, no problem.

We just push it off onto the sidewalks and get back to commuting. But New Yorkers have an Achilles heel. We do have our kryptonite. We'll turn on the late news and catch the weather report, something like..."And tonight's weather, we have clouds moving in with a chance of flurries---"

Flurries! Snow! Snow is imminent! Quick, wake up! The weather man said flurries! Flurries! Oh, jeez, gotta get the snow tires on!

Snow. Unlike our upstate brethren, we urban folk don't deal well with snow. At the first sign of a flake hitting the ground, we hurry down to the deli and buy all the bread and milk we can. I'm not sure why these two items are considered the most important items to have if we get snowed in, but my

parents have informed me that it was good enough for them then if should be good enough for me. I've been told the Donner Party had little if any bread and milk and well, you know what happened to them.

Any snow strikes terror into the heart of the city dweller. And no where does the terror become more apparent then in the express line at the supermarket. Say you find yourself standing in the check out line and the cashier happens to point out that the cash register is only 10 items or less. Naturally you point out you only have one item. Toilet paper. Sure, you have 50 rolls of it but it's going to snow! Whereupon the cashier will get on the PA system and announce to the shoppers it's going to snow and that they should please add 40% to all purchases.