So it is officially winter in New York. Double officially. NYU sent out a nice message last night warning us that although the university would not close, some operations might be impacted. When I got up this morning, the snow was coming down lightly. Going to class was rather exciting, what with the half-blocked streets, partially buried cars and whatnot. Walking in the snow was actually much better than walking on the sidewalks that were cleared, as the latter were quite slippery and gave no traction whatsoever.

I returned to my nice warm apartment for lunch (particularly warm because we’ve been keeping the window closed, and haven’t figured out how to turn down the heat). Evening class was cancelled, not on account of the snow, but because the professor was sick, so that left me plenty of time to ponder and read. It finally stopped snowing right around sundown. In the grand scheme of things, 3-4 inches of snow seem hardly an adequate explanation for the muted, nearly tranquil atmosphere around Washington Square, but there it is.

Among the more pleasant diversions of the afternoon was an article by Matt Taibbi on alternet: “Time’s Joe Klein: A Supreme Suck-Up.” The thing about Taibbi is that he has a complete lack of respect for the Washington establishment and its consensus. Moreover, while the topic was a bit pedestrian (a three year old could eviscerate Joe Klein given half an hour on Google), Taibbi’s polemic has such poise and style that you’d read it even if it was talking about monkeyfishing.

One of the things I find supremely irritating about blogs, particularly since Billmon and Michael Berube quit, is the writing quality. Most of the time, it sucks. It’s formulaic. It’s boring. And it’s repetitive as all hell. The politico-blogosphere basically feels like an echo-chamber of third rate hacks (with a few notable exceptions). If you want to know what the libloggers are up to, read Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein and maybe DailyKos and you’re good. If you want to know what the wingnuts are thinking, have a peek (if you dare) at Glenn Reynolds. There, done.

Finally, it’d be really nice if everybody stopped calling liberals leftists. They’re not, and it’s an insult to real leftists, not to mention political speech.

Happy Valentine’s day. Snowstorm made my day. Hope something made yours.