5.2
This morning I checked cnn.com, as I do everyday, and their headline photo showed earthquake damage in St. Louis. Captivated, I read on. The center of the earthquake was 133 miles east of St. Louis. I did the math and wondered why they didn’t say the center’s in Evansville, Indiana or damn close. Christ, why not say the center is twelve hundred miles west of New York City?
I thought this behavior more appropriate for a Californian.
I wonder when they filmed that, because I heard on the radio this morning that it happened at about 4:30 this morning. I and most people I know in Chicago slept right through it, but a couple of people who I’ve talked to were awake at 4:30 and they noticed.
Also, Michael, the earthquake was described to me as being in “East-Central Illinois”. That’s probably why they didn’t say it was centered in Evansville….
Comment by pesky godson — April 18, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
So THAT’s where you get your understated, often nonplussed, wry sense of humor …
Comment by adam — April 18, 2008 @ 8:31 pm
Hey, I’m a Californian by birth (if not by temperament), and if I had been in front of that TV camera I wouldn’t look worried like that weatherman! Many a time in my childhood, I’d wake up in the middle of the night and see objects sliding around, lamps swinging back and forth, and say to myself, “Hmmm… must be an earthquake,” and go right back to sleep. Daytime earthquakes (under Richter 6) would be even less remarked upon. I’d come home from school and my Mom would ask what we had done during the earthquake, and I’d say, “What earthquake?”
Comment by rakkity — April 18, 2008 @ 8:36 pm
And then your mom would flip a coin and say, “Should I take him to a neurologist or a psychiatrist?”
Comment by michael — April 18, 2008 @ 9:02 pm
burn
Comment by Matt — April 19, 2008 @ 12:35 am
Hey, Matt, instead of sending me videos of rednecks catching catfish with their forearms, why not offer up some of your creative writing class stories for the blog? As a catfish catcher, but with hook and line, from way back, maybe I should say in addition to. You ever see anything like that, Jeffro?
Comment by michael — April 19, 2008 @ 9:32 am
This morning Sac Bee has an AP brief: “The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered six miles from West Salem, Ill., and 45 miles from Evansville, IN.”
I imagine that’s for the native Californians who don’t know where West Salem is offhand, but are familiar with the thriving metropolis that’s Evansville.
Comment by Sacatomato — April 19, 2008 @ 2:51 pm