DAMON RUNYON

i really hate computer passwords. And i hate this computer we have at home because of course its very different from my computer at work. So it took me far longer to log on this morning than it should have. The whole process was complicated by not remembering my password for this computer -- My passwords are Shaker-like in their simplicity but that doesn't seem to help either -- and then because of the snow all my family were within sight of my struggles to log on. Many helpful suggestions, some snarky conversation and 10 minutes later I am on. Thanks to the help of my husband.

Everybody in New York has been yearning for a serious snow storm that would produce the magical cry of SNOW DAY but for far too long it's been a string of highly publicized snow dustings rather than snow storms. Until today. And even then I have an uneasy feeling about this snow storm. I think it's something of a fake. Everybody was in position, poised and ready for this 10 inches of snow. I woke up at 3:00 am to check it out and while it looked ok, it didn't seem to me that there was enough snow on the ground. The sidewalks were covered but the actual streets looked passable. The snow ploughs kept going up Madison Avenue and then I could hear too many cars travelling at pretty fast speeds. A perfect snow day is quiet. unnaturally quiet and the lone vehicles that you hear are travelling slowly - very slowly. Then you can make snow angels in the middle of Madison Avenue....But the school cancelled classes, the public schools cancelled clASSES which meant Alice would not be able to come, and so I cancelled that other part of my life. And soon we are going to go out and enjoy this SNOW DAY in the Park like the New Yorkers that we are.

Speaking of New Yorkers I read something about Damon Runyon's language and the force of his prose this weekend. They quoted a sentence that I've been hugging to myself all weekend about "Moose Molloy who stood out on a Los Angeles street like a tarantula on a piece of Angel Food Cake."

I wish I could write like that.