Quotulatiousness

August 23, 2009

Toronto’s recent brush with tornado weather

Filed under: Cancon, Environment — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 17:29

I was deep in downtown Toronto when the storm started to move in, and listening to the professional pants-wetters at 680PanicNews was initially disturbing, but eventually hilarious. Not to minimize the genuine damage caused in Vaughan and the town of Durham. This is how I summarized the weather-related experience in an email to Jon:

I barely made it home before the storm hit . . . it chased me all the way, with the ProfessionalPantsWetters at 680Panic Radio getting more and more excited as the time went on.

I got out of the truck, picked up my laptop, walked to the door, and less than a minute later the storm hit. The power went out about five minutes after that (and didn’t come back on until about 3:30 in the morning).

No obvious damage around the house, thank goodness, although the gazebo tried to go walkies around the yard. It wrapped itself around the patio set, which will take several pairs of hands to disentangle and find out if it’s still usable.

From a follow-up email, specifically about the radio coverage:

At first, they didn’t seem too bad. I turned on the radio just as traffic came to a stop on the DVP just south of the Bloor Viaduct. By the time I got as far as Lawrence, the woman reporter who got all verklempt over the TORNADO ON JARVIS!!!!! wasn’t able to draw a breath without sounding like she was panting or gasping. I was starting to laugh at them by that point.

The meteorpanickologist who started to repeat (several times) that everyone should get into the basement — or lower — or into a closet (aren’t most people’s closets on the upper floor if they’re in a house?) or cower in a bathtub (aren’t they usually upstairs too?) . . .

I also found amusement in the repeated definition of the terms “tornado watch” and “tornado warning”, where almost every time, the description of “tornado warning” was to “_watch_ out for imminent tornado formation”. They just don’t listen to themselves, do they?

I thought it quite telling that one of the better reports was from their entertainment editor, who reported from her car on the way up Victoria Park Avenue. She, at least, sounded calm and reported only what she could see for herself.

Chris Taylor brings some actual data to the discussion of tornado frequency and writes “It can be tempting for Torontonians — who generally think of themselves as an island of tranquillity free of severe weather — to overreact a little.”

Happy 5th anniversary to Gods of the Copybook Headings

Filed under: Cancon, Media — Tags: — Nicholas @ 17:12

Publius notes the fifth anniversary of the blog:

The critic, of which this blog has many, may say that The Gods of the Copybook Headings is Publius’ Star Trek V. Publius being Publius. Rambling historical asides. Rants against the government. Circuitous pieces of logic that somehow link obscure references to The Fountainhead, Reflections on the Revolution in France and a rather too detailed understanding of Trek arcana — though I am piker compared to people I have met. Trust me. It all makes sense. Just another few paragraphs, it will all come together. As we note this blog’s fifth anniversary — or blogversary as I called it after year one — one is compelled to ask how have we lasted so long. I say “we” not referring to Publius’ multiple personalities, or imperial sense of self, but you and me.

I keep writing because I’m an eccentric. It’s either this or talk to the TV. Whatever person is sitting next me, they tuned out awhile back. I sometimes have no idea why any of you keep showing up. Some of you, I know, are fellow eccentrics. Objectivists, monarchists, atheists, non-mainline Christians, Anglophiles and others caught in a kind of time warp. Pardon the pun. I say eccentric as in “deviating from the recognized or customary character.” Ever been told you were born at the wrong time? Yeap, I get it about once a week. Right now JS Bach’s Concerto in C Minor for 2 Harpsichords is playing on my iTunes. Exactly. The word you’re looking for, the WFB word anyway, is discomfiture. Sometimes you’re embarrassed, sometimes you’re embarrassed for other people.

On the road again . . .

Filed under: Administrivia — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 08:39

. . . in transit to just outside Pittsburgh, PA. If I can manage to reconnect when I arrive, blogging may resume. If not, it’ll have to wait until I return.

It’s been 19 years since I last visited Pittsburgh . . . I wonder if it’s improved since then. 1990 wasn’t a good year in the area, as most of the heavy industry had closed down, but nothing had moved in to replace it yet.

Update: Just arrived in the delightfully named “Cranberry, PA”. This particular area is looking much better than the last time I was in the area. I haven’t been into Pittsburgh proper yet.

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