Author: Rauf Aliev

January 23 2016, 11:38

When a journalist from one of the local Washington TV stations wanted to interview people at a gas station this afternoon about what they think of the approaching snowfall, she never expected it to be Alex Ovechkin (video).

I won’t post a photo from the window because it’s an incredibly boring view. Just a typical winter.

Washington and nearby states are declaring a state of emergency. Yesterday at five in the evening, both the metro and roads were closed, and I couldn’t meet with colleagues from SAP (@[1141515488:2048:Andrej Zhukov], hello!). Yesterday, people were panic buying in stores not without reason: a TV interview with a cashier of the only open store in Maryland was just shown (in DC, I think there’s more than one).

“Our” people don’t understand the difficulty—so snow has fallen, and there isn’t even much wind. Most of the winter here is like our early spring. Temperatures are above freezing, people are driving around, and warm winter jackets are hardly necessary. Even if you buy one, you’ll only need it for maybe three days throughout the winter, so people don’t generally buy them for themselves, and stores don’t keep large stocks (well, apart from before the snow, when of course everything was swept off the shelves). We are actually on the same latitude as Tashkent, Ashgabat, Valencia, and Athens; for example, it was 21 degrees Celsius with sunshine here last Christmas. Since snow is rare, there simply isn’t much snow-clearing equipment here, nor, for example, do many drivers have shovels or brushes for their cars. I won’t even start on winter tires and chains. From my hotel window, it seems no car has driven by since the morning, except for snow-clearing machines.

The snowstorm that hit the States is being reported in the local newspapers and on TV as something between Armageddon and the Apocalypse: on one hand, you need to fight, on the other, any resistance to the force of nature is senseless, and it’s better to accept the inevitable with appropriate grief and resignation. Therefore, the anchors laugh, showing people playing in the snow.

So, in the end, the entire city sits at home. TV, books, internet. We’re waiting for Sunday.

January 21 2016, 22:37

Entered the library, saw a book, couldn’t resist and signed up again. Now I owe two libraries – Washington County and Fairfax County.

The realtor asked today, do I have any debts. Now I know what to answer.

The book is cool. Sitting in a café, eating a salad, and reading.

Bad English. A history of linguistic aggravation by Ammon, Shea


preview

In ‘Bad English,’ language scholar Ammon Shea sticks it to the sticklers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/in-bad-english-language-scholar-ammon-shea-sticks-it-to-the-sticklers/2014/06/10/2560e12a-eff3-11e3-9ebc-2ee6f81ed217_story.html

January 21 2016, 16:53

I’ve noticed that the weather forecast in the USA takes up significantly more airtime than on our channels. It’s explained there by some bald guy, not a model girl, and everything is very well visualized. Presumably because there are a lot of natural disasters happening here and they need to warn people professionally.

There is a special TV channel called The Weather Channel.

A certain Winter Storm Jonas is currently approaching Washington, promising a record amount of snow in two years, up to 50 cm, on Friday and Saturday. My family is arriving on Saturday in the afternoon – I wonder if the flight will get delayed, or if it will be diverted to somewhere in New York. And it’s interesting to see how I will make it to the airport. The weekend promises to be eventful)

Here’s a report about it: http://www.weather.com/series/the-lift/video/winter-storm-jonas-expected-to-impact-travel-this-weekend

Interestingly, the forecasts are more accurate in the US than in Europe, because the American continent is more affected by long-lasting ocean anomalies (they are linked to a constant water temperature, which doesn’t change for quite a prolonged period). Hence, here on weather websites, everything is detailed down to the hour, and the weather maps look precise.

It feels colder here than in Moscow at the same subzero temperature. I can’t explain it. The humidity in both Moscow and Washington is about 85% during the winter months. Probably, the question here is about the sea winds – when they are present, the humidity somewhat increases making the cold feel sharper.