That zip code is for somewhere in New Orleans - looks like the correct one is 11249

113 North 7th Street Brooklyn, NY 11249 ​drinkgoodstuff@gmail.com 718 218-6006

Evil Flash site, but it's in Williamsburg.

I'll be there from about 5:30pm-6pm

Uh? Only half an hour sounds a little hectic for beer and chat... Two beer, two questions and then off again?

Idiom: means I'll be arriving between 5:30 and 6pm -- probably there all evening!

A mere eight-hour drive away from where I am.

Perhaps some other time!

Reminds me to ask, are you going to be at Picocon?

One would hope so, given that he's one of the Guests of Honour. (Together with Sarah Pinborough and Professor David Southwood)

Yes, but no thanks to Air France for cancelling my flight home; as it is, I get home at 9pm on the Thursday and need to catch a train to London on the Friday before Picocon (becuase the Tu/Wed flight home I'd originally booked ain't happening).

So I may be a bit jet-lagged. And if there's a second Air France cancellation I may not make it.

Hi Charlie:

I just wanted to thank you for having a text-based site with no ads, flash, or crazy JS applets. This ancient work computer times out on most websites, but now I can read your archives to my hearts content (or shift's end).

(Also, thank you for the Laundry Files--they're brilliant, and I think I'm going to start the Merchant Prince as soon as I scrape together some more book-buying money.)

I may have to swing by and see if I can convince a buddy to come along. I'll gladly buy you a round if I make it.

Heh, that's just round the corner from a friends apartment. I didn't know there was a dba there (I did like the one on 1st Ave, Manhattan, although I guess the beer garden probably isn't a good place to be this time of year!).

I'll have to see how it goes; my boss from England is over this week and I'm out drinking with him on Wednesday. Maybe I can survive two consecutive nights and then fight transit back to darkest NJ :-)

The temperature in NYC is projected to be below 32F/0C from Monday evening until Friday during the day. Plan accordingly.

This is going to be a brutally cold week for 70% or more of he US.

I have been following the weather news and you should note that I regularly travel to the USA in January/February -- I've got some idea what I'm getting into. (Mostly thermal underlayers and winter boots with YakTrax for added grip.)

I figure you know the typical winter weather. But this year, typical it isn't.

It ain't typical over here either. It started raining over 40 days ago, and as one of the weather commentators remarked this morning, it hasn't really stopped since.

Seriously, where I live we've had two days so far this year when I have no evidence that it rained. This, in a place where the usual annual rainfall is comparable to parts of Jordan. In other wetter parts of the country, the flooding is so bad that there are villages that have been cut off since early January.

So, forty days and forty nights of rain, and nobody's started gathering animals in pairs?

Put in an order with the local hardware store for lots of gopherwood.

Gopherwoord, guv? Sorry, no demand for that these days. Last guy I had ask for it, he bought a huge amount, tons of it, so I laid in plenty of stock. Not sold any since, so I sent it back.

Here in Raleigh NC we typically get a temp under 20F/-7C for a week or so of nights every year or so. Under 10F /-12C one night every 5 years or more.

We are headed for our 2nd or 3rd under 10F night SO FAR. And at least 5 days so far under 20F for a high with more to come this week. And Feb is normally the coldest month. I moved from Pittsburgh to get away from all of this.

It's just plain cold over here this winter.

Whereas we're getting the other end of climate instability - I think we've had one, maybe two, decent frosts this winter, and the only white stuff from the sky has been hail.

(Speaking for Eastern England here. Other parts of the island have seen snow, but this time last year we down here had had some weeks of it. This year I'd be unsurprised to see none.)

In Yorkshire (I'm just back from a visit there) the squirrels aren't hibernating and the daffodils are already coming up (they usually emerge in March).

And seriously, Alan Bellinghman isn't exaggerating the flooding. I was in Malaysia last spring and got to see some monsoon storms. While I was in Leeds, we got ... well, not a monsoon storm, but it was about the right amount of rain for a regular monsoon day. Two days running, out of three.

Similarly here; ok, snow is rare in the Western Isles, but I've needed to defrost car windows twice, which is less than usual.

Here in central Scotland the grass is still growing and the daisy's are out too. All the frost was last November, hardly any this month, and the daffodils are growing nicely, only 2 months ahead of their usual date.

I got my gas/elec bill yesterday. Helpfully they include a table at the back that has average temperatures for the past 3 months (how they calculate that I dunno) along with my usage, and a year-on-year comparison.

Jan/Dec/Nov 2013/2012: 36, 44, 50F Jan/Dec/Nov 2014/2013: 31, 37, 50F

My gas usage is definitely up this year (208thrms for Jan vs 183), but my electrical usage is down (542kWH vs 618kWH). The bill runs Dec21->Jan22 so includes Christmas; I was away for 10 days which'd account for the lower electrical usage. I left the heating on (didn't want a frozen home) so the increase in gas make sense given the lower temperatures.

I assume that Charlie has been warned of a certain ridiculously large sporting event this Sunday, known as the Stuporbowl? It's actually in New Jersey, but being promoted as if it were in Times Square. Assume it won't effect his plans much other than, perhaps, tighter security at the airport.

I am aware of it, yes. $WIFE is enough of a fan that we're in a suite that night so she can hole up with beer, popcorn, friends, and a 42" TV while I try to ignore it.

The nice thing about the stupidsports thing is that it's so popular everything else is empty.

It's a great time to go to malls. Avoid sports-themed restaurants, of course.

My sympathies, enjoy the beer at least. Unfortunately, one of the teams is kind of local, so there's been plenty of talk about the game--more as it gets nearer. Most businesses here tend to close early on Sundays anyhow, and others are planning to this weekend.

Tough. I'm in a hotel on Times Square: FOX Sport already have a broadcast unit with satellite uplink stationed there to interview random passers-by, and I think some of the biggest TV screens in the world will be showing it live right below my window.

Luckily I'm on the 29th floor, with curtails and double-glazing.

I think that is a fine way to enjoy it: as spectacle.

It is caring about a team and all the off the field process that can be dreary to a non sports fan.

I remember how entertaining it was to turn on a tv during a spell of insomnia and randomly see Australian Rules football or Sumo wrestling. (Playing basketball with a rugby ball on grass and occasionally kicking it away at random or shoving each other--how awesomely mad! Better than watching an ant hill.)

With the Superbowl, you even get Dinosaurs (of music) !!!!

And what better way for the Australians to experiment on us: what if an Australian Rules football player runs to the wrong stadium or eats the wrong bit of vegamite or keels over unexpectedly from Myxomatosis.