Wednesday, September 21, 2005 :::
 
A Mind That Suits has been pre-occupied of late. It is the beginning of the school year, several writing projects are due, and it is High Season for special events in Washington, DC. All of that makes life difficult for blogging.

A few thoughts to start with.

It's the nature, stupid.

As meteorologists have pointed out, over the recorded history of hurricane activity, there have been long periods when hurricanes hit Florida and then headed up the East Coast, and long periods when they have crossed Florida and hit the Gulf of Mexico, source of the Gulf Stream that warms the East Coast and Northern Europe. For much of the '80's and '90's, they headed north, wreaking havoc in such places as Wilmington, NC, where a certain pudgy, balding English teacher spends a fair amount of time, and Long Island, home to people who think that tragedies can never happen where people went to Harvard.

But in those times when hurricanes have crossed Florida, they have hit the warm waters of the Gulf, which are a lifeline to many in the Altantic, and a death sentence for others.

With the exception of one in the 1930's which devasted Long Island, where bad things are not supposed to happen because everyone went to Harvard, most of the really nasty ones have crossed Florida, hotted up in the Gulf, and then consumed some poor city or other along the Gulf Coast.

Now, the Gulf Coast is normally a lovely place to live. Just ask a certain pudgy, balding English teacher, who grew up in Florida and often wiled away the time on lovely Sanibel Island. The Gulf Coast is also the source of much of the storied wealth of the United States, as ships that enter the mighty Misssissipi River at New Orleans can make their way to Ohio and Missouri and loads of other places.

Everything, however, comes with a price.

The price of living on the Gulf Coast is, perhaps, an early death.

This comes as news to many of our reporters who, fed on stories of Woodward and Bernstein, always think the "real story" is hidden, when it is often right out in front of their noses. It MAY be that "Global Warming" is hotting up the hurricanes, or it may be that, now that we have entered a period of Florida-crossing hurricanes, the hurricanes themselves get the chance to really hot up, and do so at will.

When you have been through a real hurricane, you have a hard time not assuming that they do things "at will."

Remember: Lovely Rita crossed the Florida Keys as a tropical storm and a Catgory One. It MAY be that Rita benefited from all those carbon-based fuels dragged up out of the Gulf floor, or it MAY--more likely--be that she just hotted up because any hurricane that makes it to the Gulf will do so. At will.

And it is no accident that the Director the National Hurricane Center has said, often, that he is worried that the population is building up on the Louisiana Coast and Long Island, and in Galveston TX, the Florida Panhandle, and the Keys.

That hurricanes may well take out two of those five just this season should turn him into a national hero.

Instead, people will be wondering whose fault it is, and where they can "take action" to ensure the Mother Nature will never again do that which, in the final analysis, man can do nothing to stop.

And man can do nothing to stop guys from being stupid. Why is that every disaster brings pictures, such as this one (click on slideshow) and this one, (click on "next" for images until you get to the one I mean of a strong young guy standing the surf.) None of these quite matches the shot of the --yes, young male--surfer standing in the roaring tide in Biloxi before Katrina, but what do details matter?

Why, guys, do the ladies think we are often dumb as s***?

Because we often are.

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 2:24 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.