Stilettos, Stoli & Scribbles ~ Served With A Twist

The calm before the storm – lovely images of the remnants of Friday’s snow

Good morning and Happy Monday! I hope you all had a grand weekend. We here in the frigid northeastern portion of the United States are bracing for a winter storm. It is, afterall, technically still winter. Of course the way Mother Nature has been careening through the seasons like a pinball trapped in an arcade game, it’s sometimes difficult to tell. In any case, the talking weather-heads on television are predicting a storm of biblical proportions.

According to AccuWeather.com, “nothing seems to strike fear into people like snowstorms.”

So, while the storm is supposed to be severe, it will be fast-moving, quickly dumping up to 18 inches of the white stuff in the next 24 hours. There is wall to wall coverage of people gassing up their cars, getting extra wood and fuel delivered to maintain the heat in their homes and of course, stocking up on essential items.

This brings me to the question: what the heck are people doing with all of that bread and milk and why are they the first things that people grab whenever there’s an impending “weather” event?

One theory maintains that they are symbolic. Bread after all, is “the staff of life”. Milk – I don’t know, other than it “does the body good”. (Actually, the psychological theory has more to do with the fact that it’s the first sustenance any child receives from its mother. But if this true, it is probably buried in a sub-subconscious level. I really doubt that anyone in a grocery store check-out line is going to give you this answer.)

Another theory suggests that buying perishable items before a storm is our way of exhibiting control over an uncontrollable situation. We think to get milk before a storm because we may be out or think we may need it, which is followed by the compulsion to stockpile it. Even if we end up throwing all that surplus bread and milk away, but it’s our choice, so we still get to believe we’re in control. Armed with enough bread and milk for a small army, we’re prepared, we’re ready, but we also don’t believe it will last long. (Otherwise we’d be hoarding cans of soup and tuna fish.)

Or it could be that we do it because it’s what our mothers did and their mothers before them, etc. etc.

Pffft. “…New Englanders can take credit for the purchasing of milk and bread prior to {a} storm. It was the monumental blizzard in 1978 that trapped many in homes for weeks that gets at least some credit for the current tradition.”*

All I can think of doing with all of that bread and milk is French Toast, in which case I’m gonna need more eggs. I’m goin’ back in!

No matter to what the phenomenon can trace its roots, comedian Vic Dibitetto has hilariously put himself on the map because of it.

pt 1

pt 2

pt 3

But you know things have really gotten out of hand when the apocalyptic runs on bread and milk have spawned their own Facebook page.

Meanwhile, this is my “Emergency Preparedness Kit”. Catch y’all on the flipside.

How are things shaping up for your week?

*same Accuweather post