‘Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice,” wrote the poet Robert Frost. If we had to bet on it this week, we’d stake the 401(k) on ice.
Nah, we don’t really think the apocalypse is here. But who’s running this show? And where do we complain? If last week turned the city into a deep freeze, this week has made it the world’s largest and messiest Slip ‘N Slide.
By noon Thursday, we’d seen 4 inches of brand-new snow — which then morphed into an ugly mix of freezing rain or sleet, depending on where you were standing.
During the morning rush, subways clanked along at about 85 to 90 percent of full service. Commuter rail lines were tied into their usual bad-weather knots.
The good news is that 1,700 Sanitation Department trucks and 2,300 workers turning 12-hour shifts were mobilized for snow plowing. And temps were warm enough for the city’s 450 salt spreaders to have an effect.
The bad news is that garbage collection stopped.
Perhaps the worst development of the day came for the city’s more than 1 million public-school children. Come hell or dirty knee-deep slush, or stalled trains, or yellow wheel-spinning, fishtailing buses, the kids were expected to be alert and in their seats when the first bell rang.
About 60 percent actually were.
Nobody caught a break. While the deep-freeze temps abated, moisture in the air meant heavier snow to shovel.
This is weather only a chiropractor could love.
But the part that really annoys us is the forecast for the weekend. Get ready for another massive snow dump.
So could the big chill ultimately mean that climate change is a myth — that the winters are still cold and the summers are still hot and nothing much has changed?
Not necessarily. Despite the momentary evidence on your block, winters in the United States have steadily been warming — particularly in recent decades.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said that, come what may, he was still always glad to wake up in New York City. Broadly speaking, we totally agree. But Florida is starting to sound nice.
