You don't even have to think back that far. The California blackouts a couple years ago(?), post-deregulation. Not to mention that August is a terribly common time for blackouts and brownouts.
I do know large scale power failures happen. It's not entirely unreasonable for people with little or no information to wonder what the hell was going on, especially when they are standing on the corner of Avenue C & 3rd, watching the smoke from ConEd drift over the city.
I turned it into a snarl in my own LJ, then got called away and didn't get to kill the comment over here.
And really, what I said here wasn't intended as snarky. It's more the despair of middle age and long memory watching the world repeating itself.
I think the government and the media have done a lot to create a sort of expectation of terror amongst the folks, and so even ordinary problems become tainted with the suspicion that it might be terrorism.
My wife was able to call me from Manhattan. She said things are crazy, in the sense that the streets are full of people and you can't get anywhere, but sane in the sense that people have yet to go nuts or start burning or smashing things.
Oh, yes, she did: that's where I spoke with her. Her office is just over two miles from our apartment, so I expect the walk was just under the threshhold of being really fucking annoying. Meanwhile, because our apartment is relatively central, it's become a drop-in center for our friends who can't make it back home.
Reporting in: hiked from the West Village to Park Slope. Have swollen aching feet and aching back (was carrying pounds and pounds of stuff), but made it home. Am tired and cheerfully cranky.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 02:58 pm (UTC)My phone line is down until I charge teh battry. Catch me on AIM
no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 05:40 pm (UTC)Nobody ever remembers anything or pays any attention
Date: 2003-08-14 03:03 pm (UTC)We been there before. Twice, even.
The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965New York Blackout of 1977
Re: Nobody ever remembers anything or pays any attention
Date: 2003-08-14 03:51 pm (UTC)Re: Nobody ever remembers anything or pays any attention
Date: 2003-08-14 04:11 pm (UTC)Yeah. Rolling black outs nad brown outs are a way of life out here.
kindly snark in your own journal
Date: 2003-08-14 05:40 pm (UTC)Actually, I did that
Date: 2003-08-14 08:54 pm (UTC)it's not unexpected
Date: 2003-08-14 10:14 pm (UTC)It's alrighty really.
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Date: 2003-08-14 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-15 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-15 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-15 12:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-15 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-15 02:46 pm (UTC)