As I’m sure everyone is well aware (those on the East Coast and not), we had a major storm here yesterday. My mother still doesn’t have power at her house. Brooklyn was power-less. I was on the Jersey Shore yesterday which got particularly hard hit. Trains weren’t running. Planes weren’t landing. Huge trees pulled out of the sidewalk and crashed into the street. Ahhh, gotta love a nor’eastah.
My friend Patrick took a series of photos last night, detailing a specific brand of carnage. These photos come from a one-block radius. But the destruction is total.
The Great Umbrella Massacre of 2010.
Holy crap! That kind of crazy weather reminds me of the subtitle of that Jincy Willet book: “A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather” haha! That’s set on Rhode Island, right? Somewhere in New England anyway… We get bad weather in Ireland too, but it’s been ages since I’ve experienced a really severe storm, and certainly nothing ever like what you guys just went through. I might have to prepare myself for it, though – I found out last week that I got accepted to study in Boston College, starting this September. I’m moving there for a year! So psyched.
Happy Pi Day, Sheila! :)
Catherine – congratulations!!!! That’s my dad’s alma mater! Good Jesuit school.
And yes, God, Jincy Willett – I LOVED that book. She just totally gets Rhode Island and its over-panic about weather.
So happy for you about Boston – good luck!!
My dad donated his Francis Stuart collection to Boston College:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/ulib/Burns/irishamerms.html
Wow, Sheila, that is so awesome that you have a personal connection to BC! Looking through that page they certainly have an extensive Irish manuscript collection, which is neat – and then there’s your dad’s name! William T. O Malley, right? That’s so cool – I can go into the library and wander around the old Irish manuscripts whenever I get homesick, hah.
“Good Jesuit school”. Ha, that’s exactly what my dad said! “They’ll take care of you. Good Jesuit school.” I’m so excited, you have no idea.
hahahahaha The Irish and their Jesuits. It’s programmed into our DNA.
Yup – William O’Malley, that’s my dad. He was probably the foremost “collector” of Francis Stuart in the world. He published a Bibliography of all the works that mentioned Stuart – theses, dissertations, articles, scholarly essays etc., an unbelievable task done before the days of the Internet. An amazing reference volume. If you said anything, anywhere, about Francis Stuart – my dad would find out about it.
I always find that kind of intense scholarship so inspiring, and formidable. How did he become interested in Stuart? He wasn’t the most famous of names.
Catherine – Sadly, I don’t know the answer to that. I wish I did.
The Francis Stuart thing even pre-dates me, as a human being – we grew up with a house where entire bookshelves were devoted to Francis Stuart. All of his books, multiple editions – rare and in some cases very expensive. My dad had a great eye. He carried on a voluminous correspondence with people from all over who either knew Stuart, or helped publish him – his editors, colleagues – I think all of that stuff is in the donated archive at BC as well.
Having just read the Maud Gonne-Yeats letters – Stuart is a big chraacter therein – he was Maud Gonne’s daughter’s husband (after she had her tragic fling with Ezra Pound) – and Stuart does NOT come off well. A big man-boy.
But what a writer.