I'm okay, as is my family. Is every East Coaster here and their loved ones okay?

Margie?
Merat?
Herbie?
Miko Iko?
John A. Lang?
RevdKathy?
Adam Bomb?

Sound off, please. Hope everyone's okay.

Blue? Luigi?

Yeah, I guess you're OK, huh, Luigi?

Slaps forehead in 'DUH' mode

Not that anyone cares, but I am fine as well. Though without air conditioning, my room temperature is at a "comfortable" 33 degrees celcius.

I was lucky -- twice. In 1965, with the blackout all around, Newark somehow still had power. And this new one did not reach down as far the Atlantic City area, though many of my relatives still up in North Jersey have had to "make the best of it."

and Now...

The Blame Game Starts________


NEW YORK?
OHIO?
CANADA?

Next on Judge Judy!

Blame Canada!

I'm not effected. I live in Illinois.

Didn't know you were behind the Electronic Curtain, Rene. We just mentioned people that we knew lived in or near the affected areas.

Glad to hear you're OK (if hot).

Yes, Rene, I forgot that Canada was also affected (and that TomM lived in NJ, that John Lang lived in "Chicagoland" and not the NYC area, and or even that Massachusetts, where Blue Berry lives, was affected), and didn't know offhand where Ontario was in relation to the area affected.

Shows you how much I know.

ScottN: Yeah, I guess you're OK, huh, Luigi?
Luigi Novi: No, unfortunately, I was killed by a looter. Luckily, I still managed to get a computer (one that was mysteriously powered, btw), and create this board.

Welcome back, guys. I was thinking about you, Luigi.
(I had no idea who else was in the area.)

Oh, I wasn't offended or anything. I just wasn't sure if anyone cared.

Rene: I didn't even know you were an east coaster. Did it occur to you no one else did either? I mean, I don't receive a deluge of conerned e-mails every time something goes down in Colorado. With the exception of Columbine, no one asks about me whenever a plane goign to or elaving from DIA crashes (not that it happens often; 9 out of 10 Colorado related plane crashes involve privately owned jets, which is why I go commerical. Actually safer), or when there's a brutal slaying that manages to get natioanl coverage (although I'm sure most of you were able to figure out that the 4 year old girl in Boulder couldn't have been me ). Relax dude.

I'm rather removed from the blackout zone at the moment (yay!) so I'm glad to see that everyone's more or less okay. But the thing that's interesting to me is that all the news programs have been getting sound bites from Our Fair Governor Bill Richardson about this mess. Richardson, as you may know, served as Secretary of Energy for Bill Clinton, and now he has the effrontery to blame the "greedy utilities" for the current mess. Oh, really, Bill? Well, when power demand starts to skyrocket but you won't let the utilities build any more transmission lines, the existing lines tend to get somewhat over-burdened. Oy. Of course, since he's really just trolling for the Democratic Vice Presidential nomination...

I'm OK, as a matter of fact, I had it easy. I recently moved to Staten Island (a mixed blessing, but that's another story.) We walked down six flights (with emergency lights on the stairs) to get out. I saw my co-worker Marie onto a bus so she could go uptown, then I hopped the S.I. Ferry. The buses from the ferry were running OK. I stopped at my folks, then went home and to sleep about 11:30. I woke up cold at about 3 a.m.; the central A/C in my apartment had kicked in, and I was freezing. So I grabbed a blanket and went back to sleep. I kept my freezer closed, and nothing there went bad.
I went in to work on Friday, without knowing we were closed. So I split, and went to the Seaport. All events were cancelled. Since the buses were free, I hopped an express bus and went back home.
For some reason, Staten Island was not affected in 1965, although we got hit in '77.
It's a shame that so much food had to be thrown out. The supermarket I bought food in yesterday said that their stuff is fresh. I sure hope so. I've had food poisoning; it's not very pleasant

A little off-topic, but it ties in with Adam's comments about food... I hate to see food wasted (especially for a "cheap" gag on tv, but that's another story). On the other hand, having suffered through two different cases of food poisoning myself, I won't hesitate to pitch anything in which I have doubts about the freshness.
Glad everyone seeems to be OK. Now, take care eating!

>CR, who was nowhere near the blackout
Umm, nobody was accusing you, Craig...

"Speak for yourself, Sophie", Tom said accusingly!

The second comma should come before the second quotation mark, Scott. (Pick, pick! )

I'm back! I haven't turned on my computer at home since the blackout, so I had a lot to catch up on while here at work. Everyone in my family is fine. I was on a bus, almost home from work when it happened, so I didn't notice it right away through my closed eyes!
Our power came back on around 8:15 the next morning, my mom tells me. I was back on my way to work, which turned out not to have power yet, so after hanging around for a half hour, my sister, boyfriend & I just walked around a while, then packed on the bus home.
We didn't open my fridge or freezer at all, so no food spoiled I didn't have any meat in there, but I had an almost new container of ice cream which I was very concerned about! Luckily, it didn't even melt.
I still don't trust buying fresh food & meat prodeucts, including fast food places. I know they're supposed to replace all the stuff, but I doubt they all will. I'll probably wait a week or so.

I was in the Rideau Centre in downtown Ottawa when the lights went off; we didn't realise how widespread the blackout was until we got to the car and turned on the radio. Thankfully, though, we went to my aunt and uncle's across the river in Quebec where they had power to spare. We got power back the next morning, so we didn't have quite the same sort of experience as some others.

Curcuit breakers stopped it in CT or some place far west of here.

Another argument for bigger government regulation of the power grid.

If the power went out all over the country, would
everyone go ape####? Will banks shut down, and roving squads of goons go around throwing people
in cages and prisons?

boo that year suckith

The 2003 elephant
sat on a power line.

The REAL blame belongs on Oliver Wendall Douglas of Hooterville who plugged in his fusebox into a power line on top of his pole.

(Ref. "Green Acres" season 1)

Samantha Stevens from Bewitched 1966 did it,or Andora, or Uncle Arthur

No! It was Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap!

I thought it was two Mafia goombas plugging in a hair dryer at a frat house in Buffalo. Okay, Sam Beckett told them to. :-)

Der ain't no mafia.

Just a guy, who accidentally shot hiimself in the back a duh head forty or fifty times.

Nuttin' more.

It was a message saying how bad 2003 was