What hurricane?

After all the media-generated hype (and I count myself among those silly reporters who are guilty of this trend), Hurricane Earl brought nothing more than a refreshing breeze, ominous clouds and a handful of sprinkles to Brooklyn.

The storm did cause some potentially serious beach erosion on Fire Island and on Eastern Long Island as it passed off-shore earlier this evening, but the brilliant sunset over the five boroughs tonight provided the perfect send-off for a hurricane that failed to live up to its over-hyped expectations. On the flip side, however, I did enjoy a couple of dark and stormy cocktails as I clipped Fire Island News articles in my apartment earlier tonight.