Rain, Wind…Not That Big A Deal
I’ve known disappointment in my life and I’ve seen what disappointment can do to hardened professionals, but I’ve rarely seen the kind of panicky disappointment that CNN reporters are conveying right now. Suppressed but all the more for that. These people clearly realize that Hurricane Irene is a shortfaller, and is nowhere near the aggressive destructive force that the media has been warning everyone about for the last two days. And they don’t know how to play this.
They’re flopping around like beached flounders, the news anchors are. The “we’re in for some big weather trouble!” current won’t fly any more, and they don’t know whether to panic (“Oh, God…the ratings are going to drop and we might be severely reprimanded if not fired for failing to jack up viewer anxiety levels!”) or breathe a sigh of relief and confess to viewers. “Whew…it’s not gonna be that bad! Wet and windy and loss of power, but nothing too scary.” Update: Hurricane Irene is no longer a hurricane but a candy-assed tropical storm.
All the way from California I can sense that the New York harbor seagulls are generally unimpressed. You can hear them calling out to each other, “It’s okay, guys…caw! caw!…it’s cool! It’s just heavy rain and blustery wind…a storm but nothing to sweat that much.”
They are pretty bad, aren’t they? They were worse with that when the Japanese tsunami didn’t wipe out Hawaii.
transmission from someone on the front lines
I’ll probably lose power later because ConEd will over react and shut some of the grid in order to make it easier to restart in case substations get flooded, like they couldn’t have already built a seawall in key places along the shoreline; silly really.
But I’m ******* and watching the Pats play the Lions, grooving on some youtube tunes and enjoying the weekend until the power goes off and its on to the walkman radio for bit of the old ultraweather.
It doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as the hurricane that hit NYC in that two-part season finale of “Night Court.”
not since ‘spiderman: turn off the dark’ has a new york production failed to…….
Back in 2004, there was a running joke down here in Florida with respect to Jim Cantore and Stephanie Abrams. Cantore, was, and is, the big dog hurricane reporter on the Weather Channel. They would always send Cantore to ground zero to report on every big storm, so he could look all macho as the eye wall hit land. He even admitted he would work out for months ahead of storm season to look especially buff.
Abrams at that time was a cute second-stringer not long out of school. They would send her to smaller communities on the periphery of the storm to do more human interest stuff. She is all of 5’4″ and 110 pounds.
The three major storms of 2004 played a nifty trick, though. Somehow, without fail, they would manage to miss wherever Cantore was stationed and slam right into Abrams’ locale. It was always fun watching Cantore standing in a light drizzle, clearly disappointed, while Abrams was doing her “standing on the wind” bit. We joked that if they emergency responders wanted to be prepared, they needed to find out where Abrams was. She became a pretty big deal at the channel because of it. Calamity sells, in more ways than one.
Just curious, Jeffrey: How many people have to die from the storm before you classify it as something other than a “shortfaller”?
Wells to Discman: You’re paying attention to those eleven deaths because they’re Irene-related and therefore, in your mind, part of some kind of grand-scale calamity. I’m very sorry for those eleven people who are no longer with us because of this terrible, merciless, taker-away-of-peace-and-security death stalker that is Hurricane Irene. What you’re failing to understand, perspective-wise, is that we live in a country of 200 million-plus, and people die every day from mishaps. It’s horrible and very sad from the perspective of their friends and loved ones, but from any kind of cosmic, God’s-eye perspective you can only pay these deaths so much attention before you go “well, anyway…whatever.”
People die every day from all kinds of mishaps, but Discman pays no attention to these non-Irene-related deaths because he’s off on his own orbit. But I think we need to call Discman to task for this. Why ARE you paying tribute, Discman, to that infinitesimal micro-speck of humanity hereafter known as the “Hurricane Irene Eleven” when scores of people are dying each and every day from random traffic accidents, drownings, hammers falling off rooftops and striking them in the head, accidental slippings in bathrooms, sudden heart attacks, electrocutions, accidental medication overdoses and whatnot? Do these people not deserve our bowed-head recognition as well?
Is there …what, something extra-special about the Hurricane Irene Eleven? Well, yes… there IS something special about these people, each and every one of them. They all worked and struggled, had fully-lived lives, histories, loved ones and beloved pets, and committed acts of kindness and bravery to point to, etc. But what about the people who died of non-Hurricane Irene-related causes? And who wiil die today of same? What about these people, Discman? These people have a right to be remembered! They were people who lived and suffered and paid their electric and cable bills and suddenly died of this and that, and they’ve earned their moment of solemn fare-thee-well.
Hey, Discman…what about the annual Black Friday death toll? People die due to being pushed and shoved and trampled by crowds pushing their way into Walmarts and whatnot. Here’s the link:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&cp=16&gs_id=2c&xhr=t&q=deaths+on+Black+friday&qe=ZGVhdGhzIG9uIEJsYWNrIA&qesig=BQujodqYUR825Mpji_z9aw&pkc=AFgZ2tmpX0FB9MOcyim1GWJz3jqgYB7kaKOFXghVawonO-Bpru8ymEJGqwJUCX2zjE9LP1pSoj2OjhTqWejBdTNuF4yY-sl-lQ&pf=p&sclient=psy&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=deaths+on+Black+&aq=0&aqi=g1g-v1g-j3&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.&fp=30826624ae1de6f2&biw=1280&bih=615
I will give you one thousand dollars in cash, sent to the address of your choosing, if you, Discman, have so much as blinked your eyes in recognition of these fallen people. Death marches on, Discman…each and every day. Sorry to be the bearer.
12? (do i win something?)…how many times can we enter?
If it bleeds,it leads. If it doesn’t bleed, we’re screwed.
Dear God,
Please find another way to kill off hundreds of New Yorkers, preferably in a really AWESOME way that can be caught on camera — because until then, Jeff Wells can never truly be happy.
Does it have to be about death? How about the destruction this thing caused? New Jersey Gov. Christie was on TV this morning, saying there’s billions of dollars of damage in the state.
My brother-in-law and nephew live in Atlantic City., The entire island was evacuated, and who knows what they’re going to return to, and when? Are their homes under water? Damaged by flooding?
It’s not just about death, my friends.
lbeale — maybe you haven’t noticed, but our economy is doing GANGBUSTERS these days. So what’s tens of billions of dollars lost? Quit being a baby.
Watching flood waters is LAME. The water just sits there. Now, if there’s a wave in all that water that crests and capsizes a boat, causing the passengers to drown… THAT is cool. We need more of that! This overrated “disaster” is making us go to SLEEP!
We should roll our eyes at the overhyped news people, yet there are four posts about this “hurricane” in two days on a movie blog.
It is sickening watching the last two days of “weather-porn” in the NYC area.Lets remember several things. Electric companies should no longer string wires between poles. We are in the 21st century. If you buy a house close to the water, it may get wet. Dont buy a house w/o proper drainage or a basement with tell-tale water signs. The Japanese nuclear plant appears to have fixed itself. BP who? How many wars are we involved in ? Warren Buffett made how much in BOA? stock. The media has ADD. Think for yourself.
It’s the nicest it’s been all week today. Irene ain’t shit
Hollis: excellent – The media has ADD.
and FWIW: one of my sons is a meterologist for the National Weather Service. They sent him to Virginia for a non-Irene incident involving smoke/fire.
This is what he posted earlier:
I’ve evacuated from Irene’s direct path, with the rest of the fire team (I have been on a fire at the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge near the SE VA coast) The fire area just got a tornado warning, too. Tornado? Check. Hurricane? Check. Earthquake? Check. Superfog (smoke + dense fog)? Check. And of course, wildfire? Check. Still impatiently waiting for the meteorite.
I’m sure those CHEEZITS came in handy last night, as the yuppies on their 40th floor apartments watched the football game.
I clearly struck a nerve. I live in a city with severe weather-hype. Everytime a thunderstorm blows in there are grave warnings, weather alerts, and ominous reports during the every-10-minutes weather reports on the local radio. But a hurricane, or something close to it? Gotta take that ultra-seriously, especially in areas that don’t get hurricanes regularly and have little idea of what’s coming. You can read about how scared people in Chester, Va., were after the local media pooh-poohed Irene a bit:
http://www.facebook.com/WxRisk/posts/227275567319709
And another poster is right: It’s not just death. Property destruction can be pretty traumatic. Never had a tree on your house — or in your house? Count your blessings. And don’t take these weather events lightly.
in the past five years there were two mass evacuations of houston for hurricanes (drive time to austin was over 12 hours) …. one was a wise move since IKE totally kicked space city ass and left people without electricity, in some cases for weeks …. but RITA before that was a bust, the hurricane hit over 100 miles east of Houston and it didn’t even sprinkle in the big onion … but during that evacuation people died on the road of heart attacks, natural causes, and in one case a busload of senior citizens from a rest home were burnt to death when their chartered bus caught fire after an oxygen tank on board exploded
“Why ARE you paying tribute, Discman, to that infinitesimal micro-speck of humanity heretofore known as the “Hurricane Irene Eleven” when scores of people are dying each and every day…”
You mean “hereafter.”
Wells to Leydon: Thanks Joe…fixed. I know that you wrote in mainly to hate on me and that correcting my grammar was secondary, but I appreciate the edit all the same and have made the change. Fast writing, not thinking, etc.
Another film writer, Andrew O’Hehir, calls our attention to this:
http://www.watershedpost.com/
Remember: “Rain, Wind…Not That Big A Deal.”
“The Hurricane Irene Eleven” made me laugh.
Reminds me of the Seinfeld where George Costanza finds out the tragedy on a cruise ship didn’t have near the casualties he thought it did.
Thank you for sharing it! Now I am sharing this:
beats by dre review
beats by dr dre
monster headphones
monster beats sale
beats headphones
dr dre headphones
monster beats outlet
monster beats by dr. dre
monster beats by dre
monster beats studio
beats by dre studio
beats studio red
Thank you for sharing it! Now I am sharing this:
mulberry bags
mulberry handbags
mulberry bags sale
mulberry bags uk
mulberry bags outlet
designer bags
mulberry alexa
mulberry alexa bag
Thanks! I love your information very much.
mulberry bags
mulberry outlet
mulberry handbags
mulberry alexa
mulberry sale
mulberry uk
alexa bags
mulberry bayswater
There is now a series of e-mail, fax, if you’re familiar with this process. 2. There are several providers around which give you actually with the on the net fax company. These providers can handle local as well as international faxes, although you may have to pay more for sending international messages. If calling past or possible clients makes you uncomfortable, then try sending them a fax message. Computer Fax Software Windows 7