Shel Silverstein Quiz!

Mental Floss' lunchtime quiz today is all about Shel Silverstein! So if you're cooped up at home and need something to do, this will occupy you for a whole five minutes!

Unfortunately, it's not a quiz based on his poetry (which I would be amazing at), but based on his real life, so it's actually really hard. Good luck!

Wonder if Anyone Will Mention Climate Change?

Hurricane Sandy broke a lot of records this year. Also, this is the second year in a row a hurricane has hit NYC. This is not some freak accident or fluke - this is clearly the effect of global warming (more extreme weather events, more destruction, enormous costs, more lives lost...), but I have a sneaking suspicion neither of our presidential candidates will mention it, and that the media will largely ignore it (except for ThinkProgress, of course!).

Eerily Dark Downtown

Check out how spooky and dark downtown looked last night over at TPM. It's really weird seeing the city in total darkness. The sound of the wind through the World Trade Center's new tower was especially creepy.

Jimmy Fallon Also Taped Last Night!

Good for him! It's really funny watching these guys perform with no audience. He's doing a great job!



(Or too bad for him/his staff that his network forced him to tape in a hurricane!)

[via The Comic's Comic]

Letterman - Still Kickin' It!

Even during hurricane Sandy, Letterman taped!



Thankfully, I got to spend yesterday snuggled up in blankets with candles, and the fiance had plenty of "Modern Family" and "California's Gold" on his iPad to keep up occupied.

Baby Red Panda Chases Butterfly!

Sorry I was offline yesterday - I was LITERALLY off line! Hahaha - Yeah, we lost power in Hurricane Sandy. It was a little nuts (and a lot dark), but we're happy and safe now. Phew!

So back to our exciting coverage of all things adorable...



Too cute, right? Too cute.

[via Videogum]

10:25am: Hurricalypse Overcalypse?

Earlier this morning, around seven or eight, the wind and rain woke up the boyfriend and me. We watched it for a little while, but it wasn't too bad or scary. We went back to sleep, and when we woke up again it had all passed.

No more rain, no more wind, just quiet. We just saw a greyhound being walked outside. The weather reporters are commenting on trees falling in Brooklyn (I thought they only grew there?... Get it?) and low level flooding outside of New York. I think their main purpose now is to give kids and joggers a chance to get on TV.

Manhattan seems to have escaped the worst, which is great. The subway may still take a day or two to work properly, which may make businesses slow to reopen, but it looks like we made it!

What are we going to do with all those burger buns and peanut butter? PB BBQ!

1:18am: The Hurricane Hurrican't

So our rain is still moderate to heavy, but nothing crazy yet. Looks like I won't be relaying any interesting coverage tonight.

We've grown tired of Settlers and moved onto The Twilight Zone and laptop time.

I think we're hitting the hay soon, and then who knows? We may be awoken by hurricane sounds in the morning, or it may be so tame we sleep through the whole thing, wake up tomorrow and just hope the power's still on.

We shall see!

10:50pm: The News Really Tries to Make the Hurricalypse Interesting

After two games of Settlers of Cattan, I've lost by the most twice - TWICE! How shameful.

The only good news besides the fact that it's still only raining outside is that it's been pretty fun watching the reporters try to make it sound interesting. The same reporters have been outside with umbrellas and raincoats all day, just standing there and sometimes talking to un-evacuated people watching the storm - I can't imagine how impossibly boring and uncomfortable that must be. How wet are their socks?? Very wet, is my guess.

My favorite moment was when they talked about some guys who were surfing back before the rain got too hard. "Now, I want to stress. No one should be surfing right now. That being said, the waves are the perfect condition for surfing."

Also, watching Mayor Bloomberg try to speak Spanish is gold. His saying that "New York is the greatest city in the world" in a dejected, "Why do I have to do a press conference right now?" voice was also excellent.

8:35pm: The Hurricalypse Slowly Continues

So far, so much of nothing. It's rain slowly and intermittently. We've had a delicious dinner of pasta, vegetables, and bread. Now we're settling in to play a few rounds of Settlers of Cattan. I've never played before, but it's really fun, if somewhat frustrating.

Really I feel like we're more or else having a fun slumber party than anything else, but the weather guys are thinking we're not going to have any real problems until tomorrow morning at high tide.

We shall see!

Climate Change and Irene

In case you're in the mood for a more scientific approach to this hurricane (the rain's been very stop-and-start in New York so far, mainly focusing on the stop. Then again, the hurricane's not supposed to really start getting to us until tonight, so I'm enjoying the quiet), check out this Scientific American article debating the influence of climate change on this year's tropical storms.

Personally, I think that climate change + 24 hour media cycle = every weather event breaks every record in history from now on. The news loves to freak people out about something and make them feel special even when it's 75 degrees and sunny, but also climate change causes severe weather and record-breaking events, which in turn feeds the news beast.

12:00pm: The Hurricalypse Begins

The subways just shut down.

It's official.

Hurricalypse 2011 has begun.

So far, we've had a little rain. We went out to brunch (as did everyone else in Manhattan, apparently). The place was packed. We got our food 45 minutes after we ordered it and we never got napkins, or my order of scrambled eggs on the side. Clearly, they were understaffed and overbooked.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Duane Reade and picked up a few last-minute supplies. The usual: band-aids, matches, Diet Coke, and Starburst FaveREDS (the ones where all the flavors are red: cherry, strawberry, watermelon, and fruit punch - they're awesome). We're all set.

Now we're all settled in to not leave the apartment for at least 24 hours. I'll be posting non-hurricane-related posts, as well, since, quite frankly, I've got nothing else going on today besides sitting at my computer and maybe playing Taboo later.

Artful Stew: Live Blogging Hurricane Irene

Hi Readers!

I've been on vacation the past week, so I thought I'd catch up on posts by live blogging my experience of Hurricane Irene this weekend.

So far, I'm hunkered in my bunker, ready to go with hamburger buns (no bread left), peanut butter, chocolate bars, and several cans of chickpeas (my friend's pick - no idea why, but I like the initiative). We've also got plenty of water and Seltzer (also my friend's pick - I think she wanted to class up the bunker food?). Clearly, we're all set.

I've never been in a hurricane before, so I don't really know what to expect. I'm hoping that it all dies down before it even reaches New York and I end up eating peanut butter burgers just for fun, but I feel good being prepared.

I'll keep you updated throughout the weekend on how Manhattan is holding up, how our food supplies are, and when I've been eaten/eaten someone else for sustenance in our post-apocalyptic world.

And I thought it'd be the squirrels that finally took me down.

Then again, they could have a weather-controlling device that's causing all of this in the first place. Hmm... that may make more sense.

[Image of Hurricane Irene credit: Flickr user NOAA/NASA Goddard Photo and Video]