Will time make men more sane?

[austin_dern]

From the department of talking back to the news providers: The first started out with Channel 7's Eyewitness News, during the weather report as the the weather guy warned about incoming severe storms and said, ``if you hear thunder, you're close enough to be struck by lightning, so seek shelter right away.'' Before I knew I'd formed the thought, I asked, ``Did he just tell us to come in out of the rain?'' (My mother agreed with that summary, although in hindsight he did not precisely say that, since lightning and thunder are not necessarily equivalent to rain.)

Also while listening to the news radio report the fire at the Universal Backlot Studio Tour set they mentioned that the ``New York Street'' had caught on fire, and then offered that ``New York Street'' is used when they need a set which resembles an ordinary street in New York. It seemed to me they were over-explaining New York Street.

Otherwise there was an interesting discovery when I switched channels after midnight, and there was a youngish guy in animal-expert garb sitting down and holding a mid-sized coati on a pretty short leash. It turned out to be Jarod Miller, who shows up occasionally on the late night talk shows to demonstrate the existence of obscure species of civets while Conan O'Brien argues he has no control over the animals. The coati was jumping around, as Miller tried to explain what coatis are and where they're found and how they live in tribes, and then he set his hand on the coati's muzzle and explained that while they are sometimes taken as pets, ``You don't want one as a pet because -- ow!'' I'm not sure whether he was bit or clawed, but the coati attempted an escape, and there you are. At the end of the show Miller identified zoos where the various primates exhibited could be found, but did not say anything about where he got the coati.

Trivia: From the reigns of Richard II through John I, the Constable of the Tower of London was entitled to claim all the swans which passed under London Bridge moving towards the Tower. Source: Old London Bridge, Patricia Pierce.

Currently Reading: The Right Hand of Dextra, David J Lake. Okay, I call no way, absolutely no way, to the big climactic gimmick. Absolutely not.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Not that this is of much use to you, but I have it on the authority of Sufi Fargo (who did my first con badge at FCN) that there is a coati exhibit at the Detroit Zoo. I haven't been to the Detroit Zoo in a long time -- maybe around six years -- and I've been thinking of making the trip to take photos. Last time I was there I came away thinking it was overpriced and really didn't compare favorably with other large city zoos I have been to (Cincinnati's is much nicer, for instance). But I'm starting to think it's time to pay another visit.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

There was one time in my life that I was in range to see the Detroit Zoo, and I don't think that I did. I'm certain that I went to the Henry Ford Museum of Deranged Americana, though, which was a good deal of fun.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

There's a beautiful carousel at Greenfield Village, which is the historical-village part of the Henry Ford Museum, and it's the one that started my obsession with antique carousels at a young age. It's kept in wonderful condition, but is unfortunately run very, very slowly.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh! Now that one I do know that I've seen, although I can't say at this remove whether I'd ridden it. The folks I was with were amused enough to see the Insane Americana, but I don't think we did more than glance at Greenfield Village. (We did, however, get to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, which was so up my alley.)

[orv.livejournal.com]

A majority of lightning-related injuries happen immediately after the rain stops, when people go outside before the lightning danger is over. That's why they're hitting the "if you can hear thunder, stay in" message so heavily. There are also rare cases of "bolt from the blue" strikes up to 25 miles from the parent storm.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised to learn the United States gets about 2,000 people struck by lightning every year. This would seem to imply something on the order of 100 people in the New York City broadcasting area being struck every year, which ... seems high, even allowing that lightning isn't uniformly distributed in area. (It looks like the Pacific Northwest doesn't get lightning, possibly because it's too drizzly.)

[orv.livejournal.com]

Lightning is pretty rare here; I suspect the atmospheric conditions don't support large-scale convection very often, which also explains why we mostly get drizzly rain instead of big downpours. I'd guess that Seattle gets less lightning in one year than a typical place in Michigan gets during a single thunderstorm.

Keep in mind that the main energy source for thunderstorm action in the Midwest is warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. There really isn't a source of air masses like that here that isn't walled off by geographic barriers.

What's odd is that the lightning we do get is usually in the winter. Once a year or so we get a snowstorm, and it's usually accompanied by lightning. In 20+ years of living in Michigan I only saw "thundersnow" once, but I've seen it a few times since moving here.

I'd guess a disproportionate chunk of those 2,000 people are in Florida, a state that has high rates of both lightning activity and golfing.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Now, thundersnow, we get every couple of years in the New York City area. I know because every time it happens the anchors tossing to the weather professional get all excited about it, as if they'd never heard of it before, and the weather person points out it happened much like this two or three winters back. I mean, it's neat, but the anchors get worked up about it as though it were the shocking and unforeseeable crowding at malls come Thanksgiving weekend or something.