MLK Weekend News Notebook 1.16.21
An Arc Too Long, Stones of Hope and... Dèjá Snow?
Sunday-morning greetings, and welcome to newShrink this holiday weekend! I hope all in the predicted swath of winter-storm Izzy will stay safe with minimal impacts.
Meanwhile, memory is certainly speaking more loudly on some days than others: Even before coffee Friday morning, three different, sharp-eyed readers of online Axios texted me this 38-year-old, bylined blast from my storm-covering-journalist-past. (More below from that Axios story.)
By Friday morning the storm — particularly its forecast of treacherous ice with widespread power outages affecting as many as 750,000 customers in the Charlotte region alone — seemed likely to put a different thrust and at least a new top on this weekend’s Martin Luther King-themed News Notebook already underway. (During quirky schedules in recent weeks I’ve found value in the rhythm and ritual of posting on Sunday mid-mornings — and from your responses and data that seems to work well for you readers, too.)
At least in fairly routine weeks.
Given the large number of us dealing with Izzy-uncertainties over the next 24-36 hours — and to give appropriate attention and tone to issues surfaced in the King piece — I’ve decided to hold the MLK-related news and psychological reflection portion of this newShrink until at least the Monday holiday depending on storm effects.
Note: Meanwhile, headlines, links and sources for the MLK edition are posted on the website. They’re organized under similar categories taken from King’s speeches and writings such as “The (Too-) Long Arc,” and “Some Stones of Hope,” and include stories with psychological and soul dimensions. Also included are some advance readings for future editions. You can access this by either clicking the couch logo at the top of this email or going directly from a browser at newshrink.substack.com. The post is titled “News Haul MLK Weekend 1.16.22.”
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icy news, then and now…
Much like in 1984 — although our ice and other winter storms didn’t yet have house-pet names — mega-storms like Izzy, and even much smaller ones across the Southeast and Atlantic coast, are news.
The last icy one close to this projected magnitude was in 2002. And that news can range from the disastrous and deadly, through delightful and right over into the downright silly.
At Saturday writing time anticipating Izzy’s overnight arrival, here are a few comparable images — mostly from the greater Charlotte area, which forecasts indicate is likely ground-zero for heavy ice accumulation and damage. A Canadian friend and fellow former Observer colleague expressed concern for us in the path of Charlotte’s storm forecast after seeing it on TV news… in Canada.
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A glimpse at this year’s version of the story (all from The Observer):
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about that dèjá… snow?
From the Friday, 1.14.22 Axios story, “Dèjá vu: Snow Edition” (which requires scrolling down to item 2 in the link):
“Today, 38 years ago, the big news in Charlotte was an ice storm.
Cue the Twilight Zone theme song.
Why it matters:
A snowstorm is expected to hit Charlotte and much of the East Coast this weekend.
The last time Charlotte recorded more than one inch of snowfall was 1,132 days ago on Dec. 9, 2018, according to WBTV meteorologist Rachel Coulter…(etc.)”
(This story would have been during my time as a reporter on the Observer state staff covering greater Charlotte adjoining counties from the Gaston bureau.) Friday morning it tickled me to have this spotted and shared from a longtime close friend from newspaper days, from a reader, and even from a former client who never knew me either as journalist or by byline name. Speaking of which, it’s a treat to see my birth-name here, although I’ve kept the Stoker part of my full name as tribute to my late dad. Seeing the original-me form was a bit like a wink and a smile from him!
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now, to the downright silliness…
Across the Southeast our, um, enthusiastic preparations in response to a hint of anything frozen in the forecast is the stuff of much lampooning if not quite legend — mostly according to those arriving from elsewhere to first experience us, and our very real winters when they hit. Long before supply-chain issues or pandemic-driven clearing of grocery shelves we were known for clearing the stores of bread, pasta sauce, bottled water, toilet paper etc. before the first flake or ice pellet.
Newcomers are puzzled or angered by massive and long school closings due to icy roads across large city and county school districts. Those accustomed to driving routinely in lots of winter snow are stumped when transportation pretty much halts across the entire region, often for days. (The recent days-long snowbound traffic jam along I-95 in Virginia is a vivid example.)
Stories are exaggerated for comic effect. And there are some logical facts involved — eg. weather patterns tending toward debilitating ice rather than powdery snow and the region’s relatively low tax bases that are otherwise so desirable, but do not fund snow-removal equipment and services beyond thoroughfares for winter storms that are rare.
That said, we do more than a little of that snow-dance-frenzy. For a clear picture to those of you reading from outside the South, East Coast or the States: Right now we are a region full of baying hounds, rambunctious Labradors and high-energy Jack Russell pups.
And someone just whispered, “SQUIRREL!”
It passes. (Eventually.)
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Again with wishes for your safety, warmth and uninterrupted power, I’ll leave you with this from Detective Jimmy Perez of Shetland, my current favorite Brit-box binge-streaming: Do take care and let’s keep our powder dry. (The highlighted expression has some interesting story and origins. Later…)
And, that is all I have! Talk to you on the other side of storm Izzy, Monday as possible and by next weekend for sure.
🦋💙tish
… it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
— William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”