Okay. Some people need to be smacked down and sat upon while their stupidity is folded into objects consisting entirely of sharp corners and shoved where the moon don’t shine.
Oddly, I find myself to be just the guy to do that. This is not my usual thing, but I shall endeavor to persevere. Bear with me.
Regular readers know that, here at the Secret Lair, we try to keep the smugness to a minimum. We are aware that we’re making this up as we go along, and that sometimes our failures are positively comical. But I am going to take this opportunity to make an exception to the no-smugness rule.
Why, you ask? I’ll tell you why. It’s because this is completely absurd behavior.
It was a snowstorm. In the winter. Who didn’t see that coming?
People, I am hopelessly ill-equipped for extended rough living. I’m an old, stiff, lazy, going-blind, one-legged city refugee with a regular income of $30 per week. And even I somehow manage to keep months worth of food on hand. Why? Because eating is important. What kind of idiot is forced to panic-buying over a snowbound weekend? What are these people going to do if there’s an actual emergency? Resort to cannibalism? I think they’ll find, in that case, that others have beaten them to that as well, and that they are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Sheesh.
That is all. We now return to our regular self-deprecation, already in progress.
H/T to Claire.
RTWT – if you didn’t have enough in your house to survive however long it takes you to dig out (and I’m from the Buffalo area, so I don’t want to hear any bitching about how long that can be – Blizzard of ’77 MF’s) you have already been found wanting.
“Blizzard of ’77 MF’s) you have already been found wanting.”
Yeah, I attended that party. It had a real effect on how I viewed preparedness thereafter. I’ve never been the same since. The thing that astounded me most during that storm were the 2 women who were found frozen to death in their cars wearing evening clothes. Musta been a real important bash they were off to.
I was young but it made a mark that has affected me ever since.
Some members of my family call when we’re going to get a big storm, worried that I’m going to freeze or starve. The thing that puzzles me is how they fail to understand that I am well prepared and that I live in a small community very ready and even eager to help me if that should be required. They’ve been told this many times. I have never been the sort to run to the grocery store each day, wondering what we’ll eat for dinner. I’ve always been as prepared for an emergency as I could be, and they should know that.
Maybe they’re just projecting their own lack of preparation.
A surprising number of people don’t even know how to cook these days. I suspect a large portion of the panic buyers belonged to this group. Hard to stockpile nonperishables when everything you eat comes in a take-out box
You’re seeing the success of the years-long push to demonize “hoarders” and “survivalists”. To encourage folks to “accept help” from the government. They’ve been taught since earliest grade school to act and plan as children with no responsibilities. Is it any surprise that they now live as they were taught and raised– as perpetual children?
Sad, but nothing to be done about it now. Unless you’re a socialist who can point at this failure — of supposed adults to act as adults — as justification for upping the ante and forcing more people to live as helpless children.
Heck, look at post-Sandy Staten Island where helpless idiots are still waiting for Mommy & Daddy Government to turn on the electricity and send Santa Claus by for out-of-season deliveries. Where people literally cried (saw it in news clips) that they were starving three days after the storm hit.
Evolution in action.
ketchup, no BBQ sauce, maybe.I
Here in Utah people think you’re weird (or an easterner) if you don’t keep at least one to two weeks worth of food around the house.
Live in Wisconsin, so ‘winter’ isn’t an unknown thing. I like cooking, so it’s just a little odd not having ‘stuff’ on hand for at least two weeks, and another two of long-term storage – frozen meat, flour, and so on.
I confess that before each major storm I stock up on perishables, like milk. Not because I fear being stranded and running low on grub but because I hate going out in the snow storm for ‘more milk’.
I was raised Mormon, so a years food storage is the 12th commandment. Missionary service is the 11th. It kind of stuck with me. I get nervous when I get below 20 cases of any canned good. But, I can cook with any dry good, canned good or animal I have just shot. I don’t store it for TEOTWAWKI.
I lived in Tennessee for a few years. The first winter I was there, they predicted a 1 inch snow. I stopped at Krogers to pick up some bologna for lunch. The only thing on the shelves was smoked oysters, which I could live on. I asked what the deal was. I was told a winter storm was coming. UUHHH an inch of snow, I said. Yes, I was told. Everyone will have to stay home Coming from Michigan that is May, not an event. I had to eat soup for lunch, not a bologna sandwich.
Roger
I just read that article and it made me laugh. I live in the country and have learned that life can toss you a curve ball from time to time. My city friends cannot grasp being stuck in a car with no help for “awhile.” I will not boar you folks with tails of my preps except to say I would not need to shop for a month or two and even then, given that dear and other critters are plentiful in my area not so much.
I think the real problem with the city folks is the JIT or Just-In-Time mentality. So long as the trucks keep rolling, farms keep growing and factories keep producing all will be well. When I ask about things like a major flu outbreak like the Spanish flu, I have been told by friends that I worry too much. Bear is right it is Darwinism at its best.