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The snow turned politicians into field marshals. New Jersey's Governor Christine Todd Whitman posed in a snowplow. Hoboken, New Jersey's, mayor, Anthony Russo, closed city streets to all but city residents, conjuring the image of a medieval city with the drawbridges up. Pennsylvania's Lieut. Governor Mark Schweiker confirmed the worst nightmare of the print press by declaring that broadcast journalists qualified as "essential workers" and could therefore drive the streets early in the storm, while newspaper employees could not. Schweiker also announced that Pennsylvania's 2,500-vehicle cleanup was "the largest civilian snow-removal fleet in the free world," an assertion that certainly plays better as a fleeting soundbite, since New York State, next door, mounted a force of about 5,000.
Computer geeks heralded the triumph of the virtual office. One public relations firm sent out a fax crowing that all its employees had made it to work, since they all work at home. It should have included their cure for claustrophobia. Said a Connecticut mother to the New York Times, contemplating yet another snowed-in day with her kids: "Amanda and I are getting along. It's Jordan you are going to see hung up by her toenails."
Of course, the capital of cabin fever was the capital. Monday was the day the government was to reopen. But when the day arrived, the only open shop was the Supreme Court, with Justice David Souter catching a lift to work after failing to dig his Volkswagen Rabbit out of a drift. John Sturdivant, head of the American Federation of Government Employees, speculated, "It's kind of God's revenge on the craziness of Washington."
One hopes there is no more of same in store. But on Friday, fat flakes fell once again along the seaboard. It looked to be a long winter.
--Reported by Sam Allis/Boston, Tamala M. Edwards/Washington, Elaine Rivera/New York and Diana Tollerson/Atlanta