It was lunchtime on a gray and unseasonably cold Friday, with a touch of snow in the air. Our winter intern and I were heading to a business lunch with an account executive from the Fox TV network at Pietrasanta, a nearby restaurant at the corner of 9th Ave./46th St. As we walked the four blocks from our office at Worldwide Plaza (we worked at ad agency NWAyer) we noticed a plume of smoke rising in the distance from lower Manhattan. There was also a lot of noise from the blaring horns and sirens of fire trucks racing down the street.
After we returned from lunch I heard the news about a truck bomb exploding in the underground parking garage of the North tower of the World Trade Center and realized that was where the smoke was coming from. It was chilling to hear speculation that the goal of the bomb was to collapse the North tower and have it fall into the South tower. Unfortunately, as bad as this attack was (six died, more than 1,000 were injured), it was just a prelude to the horrors of the attacks on 9-11.
February 22, 1987 was an unusually social Sunday for me. I spent the early part of the afternoon at a brunch in the West Village at the apartment of my friend Marc, a fellow I dated briefly the previous year. (We met when he walked up behind me at Uncle Charlie's bar and snapped the back of my suspenders). After brunch a group of us went to a mid-afternoon tea dance at a club in Chelsea called Tracks. From there I taxied down to SoHo to attend a 5th anniversary celebration for GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis) held at the Puck Building. That was followed by dinner at Taste of Tokyo and then a brief visit to the club Palladium on 14th St.
I didn't get home until late and when I sat down to watch the 11:00 news I was shocked to learn of Andy Warhol's death. He died from complications after having simple gallbladder surgery. He was just 58. (Somewhat overlooked was the death on the same day of talk show host David Susskind.) A contributing factor to his death was the fact that he put off the surgery for so long, which took a toll on his overall health (he was deathly afraid of hospitals.)
I felt somewhat of a connection to Warhol because, like me, he grew up in Pittsburgh and was of Slovakian parentage (my maternal grandmother was born in Slovakia). Seven years after his death, while I was in Pittsburgh to attend my father's funeral, I visited the newly opened Warhol Museum with my brother, his fiance and my two young nephews. It was ironic that the museum (at the time the only one in the US devoted to one artist) was here because Warhol apparently was ashamed of his Pittsburgh roots. And in present-day Pittsburgh, a number of Warhol's silk screen creations can be found in one of the concourses at the city's airport.
Entrance to the Warhol Museum
Works of Warhol at Greater Pittsburgh International Airport
(Many books are available about Warhol's life and his body of work. One in particular that got a lot of press when it was published in the early '90's was The Andy Warhol Diaries.)
Please note that since writing this post back in 2013, this storm has been supplanted as New York's biggest snowstorm by the blizzard of Jan. 23, 2016.
Despite a cold start, the winter of 2005-06 had turned into a relatively mild one. In fact, during a seven-week period beginning just after Christmas temperatures averaged nearly ten degrees above average - and January was the third mildest on record. So it was somewhat of a shock when a major snowstorm came calling.
The first flakes began falling Saturday evening just as I was leaving a movie on the Lower East Side (Steven Soderbergh's indie film Bubble). By midnight about three inches had fallen. The snow continued until mid-afternoon Sunday, but the bulk of it fell in a 6-hour period between 5-11AM when an incredible 18 inches fell (a ski resort-like snowfall rate of three inches/hour). The storm's total was 26.9", breaking the old record from Dec. 26-27, 1947 by one-half inch. In a rarity, New York was in the "bulls-eye" of the storm's heaviest accumulation, so no other locality received nearly this much. At around noon on Sunday I ventured out with my camera and spent an hour or so in Washington Square Park snapping photos.
Interestingly, although the blizzards of January 1996 and the post-Christmas blizzard of 2010 dumped seven inches less than this 2006 storm, the City seemed more crippled by them. And to me this record snow seemed no deeper than those storms. It could very well be that the accumulation in my Greenwich Village neighborhood, about three miles south of Central Park, was less. This record-breaking accumulation would be the only snowfall of February. It ended up accounting for two-thirds of the winter's total snowfall.
If you'd like to read about other New York City snowstorms, I've written a post on my weather blog, New York City Weather Archive, that recaps the snowstorms we've experienced since 1970. To go to it, double click here. And below are links for other posts from this blog about specific snowstorms in New York:
Renowned environmental artist Christo's widely publicized outdoor installation known as "The Gates" was unveiled in Central Park on Feb. 12, 2005 (a Saturday). At my friend Tom's suggestion we hopped on the #1 subway at noon and went up to the park to experience it for ourselves (that's me in the photo). I didn't quite know what to make of this "art", and didn't find it particularly aesthetically pleasing. The "gates" were made from a canvas-like fabric which was a safron/orange color, giving the gates somewhat of a harsh, industrial look (but ING Bank was probably delighted to have its corporate colors on display without paying for a sponsorship). Nonetheless, there was a sense of wonderment to this ambitious undertaking and its 7,500 fabric gates covering twenty-three miles of the park. Tom and I each got one of the small square fabric samples handed out as keepsakes.
Because the sky was overcast the colors really popped. This was great for picture taking and it's likely that most everyone living in Manhattan has a stash of photos snapped or video clips posted on You Tube at this out-of-the-ordinary exhibit. After spending nearly 90 minutes wandering park trails, a chill eventually settled into our bones and we took our leave and went to lunch. We were two of the estimated one million visitors who had come to gaze at "The Gates" in its opening weekend. Later on during the installation's second, and final, week it took on a softer look after two significant snowfalls blanketed the park. All in all, it was a unique and pleasant diversion in the dead of winter.
I was 11 years old at the time and living in Pittsburgh - and greatly annoyed that we got hardly a snowflake from this snowstorm. Meteorology was a new interest of mine and I didn't yet understand the dynamics of weather systems, e.g., East Coast storms often don't affect Western Pennsylvania because the Appalachian Mountains act as a barrier. (As was the case with the post-Christmas blizzard in 2010.) The 15.3" that fell on New York beginning Sunday, Feb. 9, 1969 brought the city to a virtual standstill for a number of days. It was front page news in the Pittsburgh papers, and I eyed the photos enviously. (Like the one to the right showing mostly foot traffic on 2nd Ave. near 45th St.)
This became known as the "Lindsay snowstorm" because New York's mayor John Lindsay (below) was blamed for not getting streets plowed quickly enough, especially in the borough of Queens. It nearly cost him re-election later that year, but he won, running as an independent. (10 years later a series of crippling snowstorms in Chicago was largely responsible for the defeat of its mayor.) At the time it was the City's tenth biggest snowstorm - since then ten subsequent storms have had larger accumulations (through the winter of 2021).
This snowstorm was the inspiration for two episodes of the sitcom That Girl (starring Marlo Thomas). In a two-part storyline Ann and boyfriend Donald were stranded at JFK by the snowstorm after accompanying her parents to the airport. This threatened a Broadway audition Ann had later that day - which she eventually did over the phone. Later, Donald, a writer for the fictional Newsview Magazine, wrote a story about Ann's experience. These episodes aired on ABC on October 30 and Nov. 6, 1969. (They are from the show's fourth season which is available on Amazon.)
To read about other New York snowstorms, please double click here for a recap I've written on my blog New York City Weather Archive. And below are links to posts from this blog about other New York snowstorms:
Anyone who had a teenage sister probably has memories similar to mine when the Beatles made their first American TV appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, i.e. shrieking, screaming, perhaps even sobbing. I was in the first grade at the time and on that Sunday night (February 9, 1964) I was sitting in the living room behind my 13-year old sister, Linda, who was seated on the floor in front of the TV set. Occasionally I'd look up from my coloring book. Even if I wasn't interested how could I not look up to see what was creating such a commotion?
Even before this telecast I was aware that the Beatles were a big deal. (I remember my mother returning from a shopping trip to downtown Pittsburgh and bringing back the Beatles' first LP, Meet the Beatles, for Linda.) I was 6-years-old at the time and completely unaware of any same-sex inclinations, yet I remember thinking that Paul was cute. (When I turned 13 and preparing for my Confirmation I wanted my Confirmation name to be Paul, but instead I was talked into choosing George, which had family significance.)
Of course, the telecast drew a huge audience. Today, 50 years later, its 45.3 Nielsen household rating still ranks as one of the 25 highest rated telecasts of all time. (Nowadays only the Super Bowl gets that kind of rating.) The following week the Beatles made a second appearance on Sullivan's show and it provided another ratings bonanza. (The complete telecasts are available on Ed Sullivan: The Beatles' Telecasts. Additionally, a documentary by Albert & David "Grey Gardens" Maysles, The Beatles 1st US Visit, is also available.)
The verdict in the civil suit brought against OJ Simpson for the wrongful deaths of his wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman coincided with President Clinton's State of the Union Address on the night of February 4, 1997 (the first of his second term). Word that a verdict had been reached came shortly before 7PM but the reading of it was delayed for more than three hours until all interested parties arrived at the courthouse in Santa Monica.
It was Tuesday night and I was preparing dinner after doing a weight workout at the gym. Since both events were of high news value NBC resorted to a split screen to show both unfolding. And although it seemed somewhat disrespectful to the President, truth be told, the verdict was largely the reason I switched on the TV. Finally, at the conclusion of the President's address the verdict came in. Reporters inside the courthouse signaled to the crowd gathered outside that the verdict was - guilty! On one side of the split screen President Clinton was shown shaking hands while and on the other side a defeated Simpson was show leaving the courthouse followed by the triumphant Goldman and Brown families. I let out a cheer.
For me, this verdict took some of the sting out of the contentious not guilty verdict reached in the criminal trial in 1995. Shortly afterward I called my friend Marina down in Baltimore to share the news. She had passed the Maryland bar six months earlier so I asked her to explain why this type of suit could be filed after a verdict had already been rendered in the criminal case, in other words a do-over. (I still don't understand the legal reasoning.) Thus ended a tragic case that had been part of the nation's zeitgeist for nearly three years. (However, it wasn't the last we'd hear from OJ.)
February 1, 2003 was a gray and chilly Saturday and I was immersed in my winter project, which was a makeover of my apartment. I did it with the help of my friend William. I supplied ideas and the capital and he made it happen, which involved painting the bedroom Arctic Blue, California Gold in the living room and the kitchen Antique White; hanging artwork; assembling a glass TV stand for my new plasma TV and drilling decorative shelving into the living room walls. We had just returned from breakfast when we heard the news on the radio about the disintegration of space shuttle Columbia. It happened over the skies of Dallas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere - just 15 minutes before it was scheduled to land in Florida. All seven astronauts on board were killed. By eerie coincidence NASA's two previous fatal space accidents also occurred in the dead of winter: On Jan. 27, 1967 a fire on board Apollo 1 as it sat on the launching pad killed the three astronauts on board (pictured), and on Jan. 28, 1986 the Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff, killing all seven crew members.
For the most part, I watch the Super Bowl for its commercials and the game but I usually don't stick around for the halftime show. However, I have seen a few of them, e.g. Diana Ross leaving by helicopter after her performance in 1996; U2 performing in 2002 as the names of 9-11 victims were displayed on an electronic banner; Prince stoically prancing around in the rain in Super Bowl XXXI. But halftime is usually when I'm in the kitchen preparing dinner or washing pots and pans. And that's where l was when halftime festivities of Super Bowl XXXVIII began (Feb. 1, 2004). Although I could hear Justin Timberlake singing his hit song Rock Your Body, I missed "the incident" when he aggressively exposed Janet Jackson's right breast to the night air - and to 90 million viewers nationwide. In fact, I wasn't even aware of it happening until the next day when I went into the office and overheard the water cooler chatter.
Although Janet Jackson's career went into somewhat of tailspin after her "wardrobe malfunction" Timberlake's wasn't hurt one bit. By the way, there was a football game played that evening as well, one with a thrilling ending. After the Carolina Panthers tied the game with one minute left to play the New England Patriots won the game on a field goal with four seconds remaining.