Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow

there was an old couple that lived on a farm,in an area of Russia,bordering Poland and,depending on who won the political battle of the day,was either declared Russian or Polish.   One morning,as they ate breakfast, the husband said "I am glad we are polish again.  I don't think I could stand another Russian winter..."

My Grand Dad had a Recipe, that was handed down to him from his own Great Grandfather, who lived in the remotest area of the Tundra, in Russia ....... Grand Dad said, "I'll Guarantee it will wake your bony ass up in the mornings, and keep you going till Dinner Time" (Dinner is the Noon Meal in the South ... Yankees call it, Lunch)  Boil up a pot of water till it is hurtful steamin' ... In a large Cup/Mug, put one rounded Tablespoon of Powdered Coffee, one rounded Tablespoon of Powdered Tea ... One Ounce of Cream(or Half & Half) and pour the cup/beaker/tankard/Mug  3/4 full with the steamin' hot water, and stir well ... When it has gotten down to where it will not burn the hair off your tongue or scorch your Tonsils, stir in a Double Shot of Vodka, mix well, and enjoy it !!!  I have tried it several times, and have found that real, Powdered Tea(Leaves that have been dessicated and pulverized) ... NOT Instant Tea ... work best, and give the potion a most excellent, Authentic Flavor ... And it will do, as promised ... It WILL wake one up, and until one becomes accustomed to it, DOES HAVE some dangerously violent laxate properties, like Chicory, until one's System gets used to it ... It WILL ... wake one up ... and for a while, make one afraid to cough ... but soon, one forgets how cold it is .......

Stoney,

Now, do you see what we have been saying?

Funny to happen upon this discussion-just today I finished reading The Irrational Journey, Pauline de Rothschild's diary of her visit to Russia in the mid-1960's. Here's a bit that will stay with me: "Before we went to sleep, we observed with interest the first sign of the great Russian cold. Double windows, of course. What was interesting was a strip of paper two inches wide, glued all along the cracks and hinges on the inside of the outer window. A man comes and puts these strips on about October fifteenth. The windows remain sealed till spring. All windows. As you walk along the streets, you see that a few adventurous souls have an occasional pane that can be opened. But it is usually sufficient, to cool or air a room, to open the inner window."

So when the Mayor of Moscow says he can move the clouds somewhere outside of the city, he means somewhere in Russia, right?   He doesn't plan on sending his his bad weather to New York, does he? 

I was in Russia this past July and asked people in Moscow and St. Petersburg when they would receive their first snow. Everyone gave the same answer, October 14th. Well, on October 14th this year it was 60 degrees F. in Moscow and 45 degrees F. in St. Petersburg. Maybe, just maybe....

That's amazing considering the news did predict that  the NYC area could see its first snow fall last Wednesday, October 14th.  Coincidence?  I have to go read the inscription on the side of the Statue of Liberty to see if  "give us your tired, your poor ..." has been revised to say give us your bad weather too.

JALOPKIN, In light of the side effects of the drink you mention, I'm thinking I'll just stick with ordering a White Russian, in the Club Car, tonight.

The mayor's plan gives a new meaning to the phrase 'every cloud must have a silver lining.'

I read where China seeded the clouds over Beijing, so it would not rain during the opening ceremonies of the 2008 summer Olympics. They also restricted automobile traffic and closed factories in an attempt to lessen air pollution. Wouldn't rain have actually helped to clear the air?

What kind of environmental and health issues will occur from the Russian Air Force routinely using cement powder, dry ice or silver iodide to spray the clouds? What if the winds change and blow the weather the wrong way? Would it dump more snow on the city and less where it is needed for farming? And how does global warming fit into the picture - will Moscow continue to have the severe snows of the past? I know the heavy snows of my childhood, in New England, now seem to be the stuff of legend.

Good intentions aside, I do worry about the domino effect. Who is to know if this one seemingly small change will cause a problem much larger than the original?

I'm all for working with nature, not against it.

We're not getting snow but the rain hasn't stopped for a few days.
 
The tides are very high and the finger piers across the canel are under water at high tide.
 
The highway between Betheny and Dewy beaches in Delaware is covered with water and traffic is a mess.
 
My friend and I went to Rehoboth outlets yesterday. There was almost no beach left at the Indian River Inlet because of this N"oreaster which is now moving toward New England.
 
The plants on the deck keep blowing over and need to be taken in but they are soooo wet I'll have to wait till the rain stops. Maybe Tuesday?
 
Give me back the sun.

I  remember  the  USSR  during  the  Cold War.   They  always  had  a  "5  year  plan,"   promising  prosperity,  full  employment,  peace.   The  plans   never  worked,  but  they  were  replaced  by  successor  5  year  plans ..... with  the  same  agenda.

Almost every entitiy expends the equivalent of many man-years of effort to develop their finely tuned five-year plan which is good for at least twenty-four hours into year one, because by then, all of the assumptions that the plan was based on have been proven to be wrong, false, or just a combo platter of hopes, wishes and dreams.  and that's the good news......

KINDLEE:  The SideAffects don't last long ... just until the body gets used to the potion ... Its really lovely otherwise ... of course, a Good White Russian ain't bad !!!  Nor a Black one either .......
 
Anyone who was reading either, Popular Science or Science & Mechanics in 1947AD would have seen the glowing reports of how the Russiand and the Americans were working together to learn to, and eventually control the weather ... Ostensibly it was for purposes of positively effecting Growing Periods for Agriculture, but in truth, both sides wanted to learn how to turn the weather into a weapon ....... Combine that concept with the things that nature does on its own, in various Cycles ... and the explanation for a lot of things will become clear ....... Here Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies  .......

I think we recieved the Moscow Oct 14 snow fall here in Wi.. Thank goodness its gone now. It's too early for snow.  
 
I also don;t seem to understand WHY they are spending 6 million dollars to this though. Around here we just have the TV/Radio weather guys talk about the HUGE storms that will be arriving about 2.5 days before they arrive & about 1.5 days before the arrive the schools & church groups ffreak out, cancel all classes, meetings, for the that day and then the BIG SNOW DAY HITS and it's not really as HUGe of a storm as was predicted. Only about 2 out 10 times do the preditctions seem to come true. think of all the money Mother Russia could save though.
 
Perosnally I would love to see Moscow & St. Petersburg in the winter..   
 

We got that first hint of snow last night.  When we woke up this morning, there it was -- the dreaded white on the cars and grass.  I might vote for a mayor who would prevent it (we live at the top of "Mt. Andy" in the tundra part of MD....my house).  Our driveway becomes impassable as soon as it snows and oddly enough, also a seasonal thing, I start whining.

I love snow.
 
We take the boat out in the snow; I play Bing's "White Christmas" CD.
 
It's never too early for the white stuff.
 
 

It isn't raining today but, the tide is very high and is halfway from the back fence to the patio.  Sometimees it gets all the way to the patio. I probably shouldn't say this but, the house has never flooded.  It is fun to have ducks and herons in the back yard.  Confuses the zoo though.

"Let us walk in the white snow

In a soundless space;

With footsteps quiet and slow,

At a tranquil pace,

Under veils of white lace..."

That's just how silent the Eye seems tonight...as still as snow falling in the woods...

Here in  the city a steady  rain is  washing the maple trees.  Down by  the little pond, the mallards are hiding.  From my window  I'm watching a brown rabbit  peering out of his hole. We didn't get the predicted snow... just a noreaster.   

...as if we are all walking in velvet shoes...

I mind in the 60s when we couldn't make snow ice cream because of the atomic fallout.
It is said that we all have some plutonium in our adipose tissue from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.
I remember as a child, thinking "I love snow ice cream...those darn Russians!"
But it was us...

SINGLE PAYER
 
I shamble in the snow
Through the sideways blow.
I wander mickle slow
Past the old haymow.
All are asleep, and none shall know
When they wake in the light, where I did go.
My time will be past when you hear the cock crow
And the sun look down on remains below.
Wrapt in white in some long meadow,
Lost in time's eternal flow
Who could pay for this weakness' woe?
How to fight the febrile foe?
Better to fade in a frozen furrow.
Best to forbear the medicine show.
Weakly wandering to and fro
Gone in a gyre of future flow
Whirled in a swirl of cleansing snow
Achieved my goal at last, the snow
Will erase any trace of me, the snow
Makes me no burden now although
I'll miss them through this wall of snow
And on I go, so warm the snow
And so to rest, and so, and so...
 
 
 
 
 

I am in a bean field...well,actually alongside that field,in an area of Illinois adjacent to Peru. Dr.Who is on  the TV. one of my favorites. I am in the Roadyacht,the aloneyacht.Well, Faithful Farfel the dog is at my side. Pinky's ashes are in a brown cardboard box(that I have not as yet opened)and I am hesitating;do I leave them as I leave? (her wish to be where we enjoyed our ....)but we had never been to this place....should i plant them as i park? Knowing we would have had a good time?. . The FMCA group has made me feel a part of them, they knew her. . . .I guess I just miss her and feel lonely...I have had a cocktail...and somewhere it is snowing...

If the mayor's got a cool six to spend on snow prophylaxis, I'd say that Moscow's already confiscatory property taxes are being used to help nonreformed socialists party on!

From my time in Moscow during a chillblains-inducing Russian winter, I'd say the mayor might do better to use public rubles to help fix the fact that during winter, some water main below some street in Moscow freeze-bursts every single night.

The Russians have played hand-of-God so many times with Mother Russia that the Aral Sea is now gone. Preventing snow is arch-hubris and somehow in some way, nature will lash back viciously.

I'm just wondering if the Mayor of Moscow has a clone of himself known as Mini-Me??