Quite Wonderful Day In NYC Until 5 PM

[lennygoran]

We were doing great on the first day of our NYC trip what with fabulous oysters and clam chowder at the famous grand central terminal oyster bar and a very nice Dutch art show at the Met Museum of Art-then we encountered this. Len

Freak snowstorm causes commuter hell, shuts George Washington Bridge, Port Authority Bus Terminal, slides buses and trains to a halt



https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html

[John F]

It's not as if we had a real blizzard. The snowfall was pretty gentle and while it accumulated, I don't believe there was more than 2-3" on the ground. It's not like NYC to panic just for weather like this.

[jbuck919]

Yes, thank you, mother nature, for the surprise. Good thing I have food in the house, because the weather alert is telling people up here not to go out on the roads.

[lennygoran]

It's not as if we had a real blizzard. The snowfall was pretty gentle and while it accumulated, I don't believe there was more than 2-3" on the ground. It's not like NYC to panic just for weather like this.

John absolutely agree-at 5:15 with the museum closing we decided it was best to walk back the 3 blocks to the lexington ave suway stop at 86th-the rest of our journey would be under ground until we got back to secaucus-walking east on 83rd st there was snow on the ground but it was passable-we couldn't help notice how many large tree branches with their leaves still on had snapped off and hit parked cars but we made it back to the port authority-then the surreal experience began-when we first got there the first floor was very crowded and not moving-we could see people on the second floor-no one was moving there either toward buses-every once in a while a group of people from an arriving bus walked down and out of the port authority but no one was moving for the departing buses-no announcement at first but finally people were told the true nature of the dilemma. You may ask how we made it back to our hotel-subway to penn station and got a train to the nj transit secause junction stop-for us and others no taxis could be gotten-luckily an amazing couple living close to where our hotel drove us back to our hotel about 2 hours after we just sat there in the secucus station-as the man drove we could see just how bad driving was and the tie-ups were some of the worst I'd seen in a long time. Len

[lennygoran]

Yes, thank you, mother nature, for the surprise. Good thing I have food in the house, because the weather alert is telling people up here not to go out on the roads.

John as I just said in my message to John F the roads were just terrible when that amazing couple took us back to out hotel-the amount of cars and trucks just sitting out in the roads unable to move was just amazing-this storm caught us completely off guard-the NYC area was not supposed to get more than 1 to 3 inches but what a heavy soggy mess it turned into-hope it clears up because we have to be back in nyc for julliard's turn of the screw tonight. Len

[jbuck919]

BTW, Len, my first visit to the Met Museum was a field trip when I was in sixth grade, and was immediately after they had acquired Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer, an impossibility now unless an extremely generous donor was in the position to gift them another Rembrandt. I had motion sickness then, something I have long overcome, and threw up on the bus, for which I was greatly ridiculed by some other kids. When we finally did get to the museum, I found a lot of it a bit of a dump. Maintenance standards were not what they are now. Of course I saw the Rembrandt, which was cordoned off in spite of the fact that in those days there was no line for such a thing. (Just try doing that with the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.) Still, my happiest memory was the gorgeous old food court, long replaced with other options, where a very kind attendant saw to my comfort, as small as I was. I did not throw up on the way back.

[lennygoran]

John B, i was face to face with Aristotle and a lot more of his paintings-also 4 vermeers! Len

[lennygoran]

Here's one for the CMG music forum-a party like those we don't see today! Len

[jbuck919]

John B, i was face to face with Aristotle and a lot more of his paintings-also 4 vermeers! Len

Vermeer only has about ten important paintings that survive, and as I'm sure you know, the Met owns more of them than any museum in the world. The catalogue raisonée of Rembrandt, on the other hand, includes thousands of paintings, scattered among the great museums. You should watch, if you have not done so already, the movie about Rembrandt starring Charles Laughton. It seems to be quite true to life.

A gigantic sadness is the situation related to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, involving as great a crime of mistaken caretaking as the death of the NYC Opera. If one researches stolen items of great art, the results are astonishing. There is a lot gone, but the Gardner had Rembrandt's only seascape, Christ Calming the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and after all these years, though it is still an open case, it is probably gone forever.

[lennygoran]

John we've been to that museum quite a few times over the years-sensational-gotta get back there some time-we used to go to boston more often. Len