It's happening, again. Not like deja vu, though, since I remember the other time very well. It's not hard, it was just a couple days ago.
We're having another rain event. It's also been called a severe weather pattern and shower activity. I really don't think anything of value is added to the occurence of rain to add any events, patterns, or activity to the term. I guess it sounds fancier, more scientific, but this is the kind of wording that dilutes the impact of the easily understood and completely useful term rain.
I suppose if you're pulling down a hundred or two thousand a year you have to justify that somehow. It's not good enough to say "it's raining," not when Storm Watch 2004 can be called and you can make the lesser weather people and reporters stand on corners in slickers and attempt to create some drama and value from water falling out of the sky.
My favorite moments of local news are always following earthquakes or fires. Without a script to read, these attractive reporters are surprisingly adept at filling minutes with nothing remotely resembling news or knowledge. I think, I hope, most people would expect there to be broken windows, smouldering remains of once-proud structures, the debris of disaster. I think none of us is the better for having it seen and explained to us.
Today they had a closeup of water rushing down the gutter into a drain.
I'm Lucky to be Alive
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2 comments:
I remember after the Loma Prieta quake in SFO I was watching the news up in Eureka. Our cable carried all the Bay Area stations.
The newscasters on the one local station there that were still on the air were basically sitting in the dark, in front of their news desk with flashlights, like they were telling ghost stories or something.
They were truly freaked out - skittish when the aftershocks rolled through. But they did a pretty good job of vamping, much better than the LA folks after the Northridge quakes.
Vamping? I'm not sure what that means.
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