1977
While the rolling brownouts California experienced one recent summer were the result of corporate malfeasance, it appears so far that the blackout presently occurring in the middle of rush hour in the Northeastern U.S. is a “natural” disaster, with a power plant fire disrupting the energy grid from Detroit, across Ottawa, and down to NYC. It appears the heat this summer and the demand on the system have combined in just the way Con Ed has been warning everyone lately. The nice Russian lady who sells coffee at Central Station broke the news to me, after she’d gotten off the phone with her family in Brooklyn, so they’re not completely cut off, although apparently cell phone networks are out. As much as I’m glad not to be there (I remember ’77, not to mention more recent events), I’m also a little sorry, wondering a little how Buffalo is getting on and our friends in Brooklyn and Queens and Manhattan, my former colleagues. . . . I hope no one’s caught in the subways or an elevator.

Update: "A normal day" tomorrow is being predicted by the Mayor. Except there won't be an ice cream anywhere, I'll bet, and there will be a pervasive odor of spoiled milk. And that many more people will be a little more nervous heading down to the subway.