A bunch of unusual formations pockmarked the beach, including several ice volcanoes, which are created when wind and waves propel water up through tunnels under the snow, causing it to spurt out and then freeze in a conical shape.
Pretty cool, huh?
Showing posts with label wisconsin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wisconsin. Show all posts
Monday, February 14, 2011
Milwaukee: North of Java
My friend Alyssa stopped by for a visit this past weekend, and one of our excursions took us to the shores of Lake Michigan. The Snowmageddon created an icy white beach that extended for a few dozen yards over the frigid waters.
A bunch of unusual formations pockmarked the beach, including several ice volcanoes, which are created when wind and waves propel water up through tunnels under the snow, causing it to spurt out and then freeze in a conical shape.
Pretty cool, huh?
A bunch of unusual formations pockmarked the beach, including several ice volcanoes, which are created when wind and waves propel water up through tunnels under the snow, causing it to spurt out and then freeze in a conical shape.
Pretty cool, huh?
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Snowpocalypse Now
The Midwest was walloped by a blizzard Tuesday night. Wisconsin was right in the bullseye, and one of the consequences was closings all around. I was called off work on Wednesday, leaving me with plenty of time to measure the snow (and, of course, help shovel it).
While the paper says we got about 15 inches, my own estimates place the number around 18. This was certainly the biggest snowfall I'd seen in years. The local weathermen were constantly calling the thing the "Storm of the Century" and comparing it to the blizzard of '47. I don't know if any records were broken, but the storm provided a lot of opportunities for some great pictures. Below are two such photos, the storm around 11pm Tuesday night (top), and then twelve hours later Wednesday morning.
Here is a helpful fatherly figure shoveling snow while his son records the event for posterity:
And finally, while watching the storm from my window on Tuesday night, I noticed the startling sight captured below. A man was walking down my street in the middle of the night, in the middle of the biggest storm in years. He was smoking a cigarette all the while. I managed to capture his ghostly shape before he disappeared:
Comparisons to Bigfoot photos are welcome.
While the paper says we got about 15 inches, my own estimates place the number around 18. This was certainly the biggest snowfall I'd seen in years. The local weathermen were constantly calling the thing the "Storm of the Century" and comparing it to the blizzard of '47. I don't know if any records were broken, but the storm provided a lot of opportunities for some great pictures. Below are two such photos, the storm around 11pm Tuesday night (top), and then twelve hours later Wednesday morning.
Here is a helpful fatherly figure shoveling snow while his son records the event for posterity:
And finally, while watching the storm from my window on Tuesday night, I noticed the startling sight captured below. A man was walking down my street in the middle of the night, in the middle of the biggest storm in years. He was smoking a cigarette all the while. I managed to capture his ghostly shape before he disappeared:
Comparisons to Bigfoot photos are welcome.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Snowing on the inside
Two weeks ago some ice built up on the freezer door where we keep all the ice cream tubs. As a result, the freezer door could not close properly, and the moisture mixing with the below-freezing temperatures inside caused an unusual weather event: it was snowing inside the freezer.
That's right.
I wish I had some pictures or video to show you. When I opened the freezer door last week (the ice incident did not occur on my watch), you can imagine my shock at seeing a six-inch thick ice chunk on the floor and condensation building up on the top of the freezer. All of the ice cream tubs were covered with a fine white powder.
Hammers and chisels were useless on the ice. Maintenance was eventually able to turn off the freezer to melt the ice, but not after the valiant concessions workers moved out all 15 tubs of ice cream to auxiliary freezers. And once the ice melted, I had to mop up all the water from the freezer and the floor outside...not to mention move every ice cream tub back in the freezer.
The lesson here: winter will find you anywhere in Wisconsin.
That's right.
I wish I had some pictures or video to show you. When I opened the freezer door last week (the ice incident did not occur on my watch), you can imagine my shock at seeing a six-inch thick ice chunk on the floor and condensation building up on the top of the freezer. All of the ice cream tubs were covered with a fine white powder.
Hammers and chisels were useless on the ice. Maintenance was eventually able to turn off the freezer to melt the ice, but not after the valiant concessions workers moved out all 15 tubs of ice cream to auxiliary freezers. And once the ice melted, I had to mop up all the water from the freezer and the floor outside...not to mention move every ice cream tub back in the freezer.
The lesson here: winter will find you anywhere in Wisconsin.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Grammatical craziness
OK, a little bit of politics. There was a political ad I saw on TV not a half hour ago that featured a glaring grammatical error:
RGA TV Ad: Tom Barrett - Wisconsin
The ad, critical of gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett, features two bar patrons arguing whether Barrett was responsible for "Higher Taxes" or "Less Jobs." I cringed when I saw this commercial, because the latter claim should read "Fewer Jobs." The word "less" refers to something that can't be counted, as in "I'm in less pain than I was yesterday;" meanwhile, "fewer" refers to something that can be definitively quantified, as in, "If only I'd taken fewer doses of epinephrine."
Way to go, Republican Governor's Association. A focus group thought of this commercial, editors approved it, and a bunch of actors read their lines without anyone noticing? Or were these naysayers dismissed for being too grammatically elitist like they came from the East Village or something?
And perhaps it wouldn't get my goat so much if "Less Jobs" wasn't screamed repeatedly throughout the ad, and featured in two additional TV spots where it is also shouted at the top of everyone's lungs. Come on, RGA.
This is what I get for reading the Language Log.
RGA TV Ad: Tom Barrett - Wisconsin
The ad, critical of gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett, features two bar patrons arguing whether Barrett was responsible for "Higher Taxes" or "Less Jobs." I cringed when I saw this commercial, because the latter claim should read "Fewer Jobs." The word "less" refers to something that can't be counted, as in "I'm in less pain than I was yesterday;" meanwhile, "fewer" refers to something that can be definitively quantified, as in, "If only I'd taken fewer doses of epinephrine."
Way to go, Republican Governor's Association. A focus group thought of this commercial, editors approved it, and a bunch of actors read their lines without anyone noticing? Or were these naysayers dismissed for being too grammatically elitist like they came from the East Village or something?
And perhaps it wouldn't get my goat so much if "Less Jobs" wasn't screamed repeatedly throughout the ad, and featured in two additional TV spots where it is also shouted at the top of everyone's lungs. Come on, RGA.
This is what I get for reading the Language Log.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
