If you don't own a car, and you don't have anywhere to go in particular, and you have plenty of books to read, a snow emergency is
is a very pleasant thing indeed. The news is alarming; correspondents standing in the dark with earflaps covered in snow, talking loudly and earnestly into their microphones. They have new graphics: BLIZZARD 2005.
I remember the blizzards of 1996 and 2003. In January 1996, people were skiing down Connecticut Avenue. I remember seeing Marion Wright Edelman trying to figure out how to go to work. The snow piled up outside my office window, looping around the beige metal railings that passed for architectural detail in that building. The firm effectively closed for an entire week -- the managing partner, perplexed, said, "Where did those hours go?" No one fired us, no lawyers did anything, and it didn't matter at all. (I think things would be different today.) STORM COVERAGE.
In February 2003, I walked across town to visit a friend. The snow was piled high in the streets -- plowing was apparently impossible. When I got there, finally, we sat and talked for a long time.
(Picture of Washington Square North from www.nyclondon.com, by R. Gardiner)