Greets and saluts from the shaken and stirred NYC metro area. Seeing as I didn’t actually think anything of yesterday’s quake, lots of people are still talking about it and the media is still in a frenzy mode. Guess there’s nothing else to talk about?

Sorry, but the quake did minor damage overall, although a few landmarks in DC and Baltimore remain closed due to cracks and other minor damage including the National Cathedral and Washington Monument.

Far more consequential is the possible landfall of Hurricane Irene this weekend along the East Coast - perhaps hitting NYC metro area as a cat 1/2 storm. The models are putting the storm well East of the NYC metro area Sunday midday, but they could shift based on how the hurricane interacts with a cold front crossing the region. Right now, it looks like the Outer Banks are under the gun for Saturday. If Irene does make landfall, it would be the first major hurricane to make a US landfall in about 3 years. More imminently, the Bahamas are under the gun and it will cross Grand Bahamas with significant force and large wind field.

Oh, and there’s this little war going on in Libya, and the rocket battle between the Gazan terrorists and Israel.