"to Irene"

[Dan Goncharoff]

The tweet was sent on the Friday before the storm, and so indicates
people stocking up to prepare for a storm that would close most
restaurants in NYC -- public transportation was shut down, so
restaurant workers couldn't get to work.
DanG



On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 11:29 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "to Irene"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Apparently some folks (are there any other kind of people there?) in
> Vermont are saying they've been "Irened out".  This from a friend
> whose daughter lives in Vermont.  But I see others are using it also
> -- 212 Google Everything hits for "Irened out" at this
> instant.  ("Irene out" is too much entangled with a noun-preposition
> usage to look for the verb.)
>
> Then there is one instance (4 hits) of "irening out" (with lower
> case), apparently created by Mary Ann Halford: "New York is "irening"
> out - lined up outside Trader Joes to get their supplies."  I'm not
> sure of the exact meaning of this.  To me it has a flavor of
> "takeout" -- in this case, when you can't cook because you don't have
> electricity.  Or perhaps "supplies" to restock one's uncool
> refrigerator.  But New York City -- where I assume all New York
> Trader Joe's must be :-)* -- didn't lose power much?
>
> * When I ask the Trader for stores in Buffalo, New York's second most
> populous city, the nearest I'm offered are in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
> Michigan, 153 miles or more away.  For Albany, I'm offered Hadley,
> Mass. -- perhaps managed by the Angel of Hadley?  Finally, when I ask
> for White Plains, I find one each in Hartsdale, Scarsdale, and
> Larchmont.  But these are really just outposts of the City -- their
> residents would simply hop on a train to get to a Trader Joe's.
>
> Joel
>
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