In Like a Lion? Check.
For about a half-hour this afternoon, optimistic flakes of snow swirled around Manhattan only to melt as soon as they landed. Look for more half-assed weather patterns for the remainder of the month.
[Snap a Photo Op–worthy shot? Send it to us at [email protected].]
the morning line
Parking Wars
• A riot is brewing — or, more likely, the tabloids are picking up some easy populist points — over Mayor Bloomberg’s failure to lift alternate-side parking rules during this week’s snowstorm. [NYDN, amNY]
• Guess which single mayoral action is “tragic and misguided”, and will “degrade societal standards” — the smoking ban, LES rezoning, the 2012 Olympic bid? Wrong: it’s those damnable free condoms, according to Cardinal Egan and Brooklyn Bishop DiMarzio. [NYP]
• We all know about the sex-offender registry, but what does one do with homeless sex offenders? Suffolk Country found one, vaguely medieval, solution: put them in trailers that are periodically rotated around the county. [Newsday]
• MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry is even richer than we (and the IRS) knew: In addition to a jaw-dropping salary of $1.28 million a year, Lowry has been getting millions through a murky tax-exempt trust set up by the Museum’s benefactors. [NYT]
• And in parting, this, from today’s OMG-straight-men-can-cook “trend” profile in the News : “I’m constantly bringing wild game back to my apartment, and my girlfriend and I sit outside and pluck it.” Don’t we all?[NYDN]
photo op
You Will Never Be Hungry Again
We had no mail at our apartment when we got home last night, but we’re pleased to see that neither sleet nor snow nor dark of night keeps a Chinese-food delivery guy from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.
the morning line
That’s Why the Steamroller Is a Tyrant
• That was fast: Spitzer has earned the epithet “tyrannical” for the first — and probably not the last — time in his gubernatorial tenure. Apparently, the Spitz now tours fellow Democrats’ districts to individually rip the legislators for reneging on the comptroller deal. [NYDN]
• Late policeman Cesar Borja became the human face of the post-9/11 illnesses befalling first responders. The Times bursts that heroic bubble today by reporting that Borja wasn’t even a second responder; he never rushed to the site on 9/11 and simply picked up a few shifts there, in December 2001, for overtime pay. [NYT]
• The president, meantime, can’t keep his mitts off another hero — Wesley Autrey, our bunny-hat-sporting subway savior; weeks after his cameo at the State of the Union, he is back at the White House for some sort of George Bush Cares About Black People shindig. (Among other invitees: Charlie Rangel.) [NYP]
• Chuck Schumer, Christine Quinn, and Hillary Clinton pile on Clipper Equity, threatening to block its Starrett City purchase unless they see an ironclad pledge to keep the complex’s 6,000 units affordable. Turns out Clipper “doesn’t have a written plan” for its $1.3 billion impulse buy. [amNY]
• And get ready for actual snow, if you remember what the stuff is; a few inches of it are expected this afternoon. But don’t get too excited: This bit of real winter will quickly be replaced by that post-millennial stand-in — freezing rain — by tomorrow morning. [4 Weather Plus]
photo op
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
We’re as confused as this dog is: Snow? In Union Square? Today? (Hell, at all this winter?) It can’t be! Actually, it can. Apparently, the world’s top snowboarders are converging on Union Square at three o’clock this afternoon for a Jeep-sponsored competition. They’ll “participate in a rail jam format on a customized urban rail,” whatever that means, and the winner gets $30,000. But first, the snow. We’ve got none this year, or at least none to speak of, so it’s all been trucked in. Ten tons of the white stuff, says NY1. Which, once Fido has his way with it, will be yellow stuff.
Union Square Street Sessions [Snowboard-mag.com]
Snowboarders Launch Winter Jam 2007 [NY1]
it just happened
It’s Snowing! (Briefly)
After the record-setting dearth of snow this winter, Daily Intel is pleased to report we saw the first flakes fall at 9:49 this morning, in the West Village. Our Carroll Gardens correspondent reported snowfall in that Brooklyn neighborhood shortly thereafter, although our Park Slope correspondent says his location remains unflurried.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
UPDATE: As we were typing, the snow stopped and the sun came out. So much for that.
ANOTHER UPDATE: An email correspondent reports flurries in Park Slope at 9:30.
Wacky Weather Hits New York City as Temperatures Hit Record High [Newsday]
