Just in case you spent the past ten days sequestered in a windowless bunker without wi-fi, the Louisville metropolitan area has been engaged in full ceaseless gabfest with regard to an approaching winter storm.
Contrary to my personalized brand of cynicism (Kroger engineered it all, don’t you know), this winter storm has proceeded almost exactly as predicted. The unplowed street outside my house hasn’t been this quiet since the opening days of the pandemic.
In short, both snow and states of emergency have blanketed the region, and it’s best to stay at home if at all possible.
On Sunday, social media mirrored the current American social divide, offering two opposing camps at war with each other. Half the people were asking which restaurants and bars were open, as the other half excoriated them (as well as those establishments electing to operate) for risking the lives of hospitality workers.
As an aside, there is more than one way to open a can of tuna fish without electricity.
Soon I’ll be venturing outside to test my recently reverse-engineered left hip by commencing the excavation. It brings back memories of 1977 and 1978, and weeks-long school closings that didn’t benefit me in the slightest because varsity basketball continued without interruption.
But these are the days of our lives, and I dunk only doughnuts; working from home spares us both the commute, leaving ample time to daydream about being trapped in a Yorkshire pub with cask-conditioned ale and “enough food for about a month.”
The Oasis cover band isn’t necessary; I have all the CDs, anyway. Our cats may need to seek shelter of their own.
‘It makes you feel like a kid again’: snowed in at Britain’s highest pub, by Robyn Vinter (The Guardian)
On Saturday night at the Tan Hill Inn, Britain’s highest pub, the snow is falling and the crowd of about 30 people inside know they are probably stuck here for a couple of days. Throughout the place, at the northern edge of North Yorkshire, drinks are flowing and friends are being made.
Weather warnings for snow are in place across much of the UK, and the Met Office has advised the public to only make necessary journeys, with road closures, train and flight cancellations, and rural communities becoming cut off.
That is something the staff at the Tan Hill Inn, which is 528 metres (1,732ft) above sea level, are used to. The pub has a history of what people call “snow-ins” – in 2021, 61 punters who had come to watch an Oasis tribute band were trapped for three days.
Today’s cover photo, borrowed from Tan Hill Inn’s page at Facebook, was taken following that 2021 snowfall, and yes, as those with sharp memories will attest, we have all been here before.
Hip Hops: Brown bars, snowed-in pubs, Kingfish at OLPH and Winterfest in Indy
