I’ve been checking weather.com about Hurricane Frances since about Wednesday.
All week we’re thinking the same thing: it’s huge, it’s wet, it’s vicious and it’s coming. And it’s gonna kick 'em when they’re down. Ruthless.
And, every day, it’s a little closer.
Yesterday it was beautiful. Big and round and tight like fine booty – it looked like it could COVER Florida completely and have a little love left fot Georgia. It had a well-defined eye. Category 4. 145 mph winds. DAYUM! :eek:
Then today I got on the computer, checked out a picture. Man, what a let down. . .it looked like it was falling apart. No eye. I could tell from looking at it what I was about to read, “downgraded to category 3”. :o
Pussy-ass hurricane. Charley should beat you like a bitch.
Winds went from 145 to 120. What the hell can you wreck with 120s?
This thing is hanging out over the ocean. Isn’t that supposed to prop these bad boys up, not chill 'em out.
You watch. . .I bet it’s not above a Cat 2 when it hits. Kite-flying weather.
Pussy-ass Frances. At least Ivan looks like he might be along soon to throw down some hurricane GULAG STYLE!
You really need to quench that appetite for destruction in gaming or some other harmless endeavor and reserve some compassion for the real world and real people. Nothing about what Francis is about to deliver is desirable, nor should it be construed as such.
For all the people reading along who are under 13. . .
rooting for the hurricane is bad.
Nobody thinks that giant earthquakes, volcanic explosions, ice storms, tidal waves, tornados, hurricanes, floods, droughts or plagues are interesting in any way.
That’s why you never see them on the news and why we don’t make movies or write books about them.
I dunno. If you build a roof for 100 mph winds, it’s gonna come off in 120 or 135 mph winds, so cheer up.
If you watch alot of weather stuff, you can always catch the disappointment in the tone of those reporting when a storm’s max sustained winds drop, or when it was just above a Cat4 and they drop it to a Cat3.
We should pit the categories and this OP asswipe.
On the Weather Channel, I’ve heard them some ‘bad news’ and ‘tough luck’ as well as ‘unfortunately’ when storms drop. They always get more bubbly for a Cat 4 and Cat 5.
I don’t know the cutoff, but if a storm reaches Cat 4 status with 135mph winds, and then loses 5 mph and they ‘downgrade’ it to a Cat 3, that’s f-in stupid. Yeah, maybe it went from 4.1 to a 3.9. Let’s round down. Duh.
Why exactly did you start this, Trunk? You had to know the reaction you were going to get. Most people, upon discovering a desire to go down in a spectacular blaze of flaming idiocy, at least pick a hot-button issue about which they have strong feelings – racism, “fat people”, gay marriage, what have you. To initiate the kind of shitstorm you’ve just dredged up about something as pointless as thinking hurricanes are funny smacks of an appalling needlessness.
So, I have to know…why? What about this oh-so-pressing issue did you feel was important enough to singlehandedly piss off 95% (conservative estimate) of the SDMB? Inquiring minds want to know…or at least, I do. Others might just rightfully tell you to fuck off without a second thought.
Your thread is in bad taste, Trunk. I’m laughing but only because I have a perverse sense of humor. There are posters here for whom Frances will be a catastrophic event. While their lives or their loved ones’ lives may not be lost, they’ll be severely impacted and not in a good way, either.
In summary: funny, funny shit but awful, awful timing.
Finally, if it makes you feel any better, my friend in Miami is saying the same thing you are. I’m worried sick about him and his family, however.
I really think it is a fascination with the hugeness of nature. I see this attitude all the time and I often have it myself. It is not about the lives or property damage (well… property damage as in it affecting someone but rather physical damage without the human life angle, if that makes any sense) destroyed in the storm but rather the massiveness of it. The destructive force and what have you. I myself see no problem with the OP but I only live in NC. A friend of mine lives in Floridia, however, and he absolutely loves hurricanes and expresses the same opinions as the OP.
OTOH, you picked one hell of a place to post this Trunk. All my perverse humor that I would love to post I don’t for the fact that the people here are… the people here.
Trunk, Lenny Bruce said “Satire is tragedy plus time.” You have missed the “time” part. While distance helps make false bravado funny in an ironic way I’ve learned it doesn’t help enough when other people don’t share your sense of humor or lack your distance. So, let’s go over what we have learned about natural disasters:
The eruption at Pompeii has both time and distance. It can be funny, especially since there are pornographic mosaics that survived and nobody here had immediate family who were killed.
The eruption at Krakatoa has time and distance AND a funny name. It can be funny.
Hurricane Andrew isn’t funny for people in the areas that got hit hard but twelve years is long enough so if you live on the Gulf coast you can trash talk it, “Is that all you can do? Oh, you’re so TOUGH! :rolleyes:,” but not in front of people who were hurt by it.
Frances hasn’t hit yet so it is bad form to bait it into hitting harder, especially when people are so worried about what it will do. Much like Pres. Bush saying, “Bring it on!” to the Iraqi rebels. (Rule 3: Never work politics into a weather thread)
Commenting on how tough Ivan looks can distract him right when he should be concentrating on working out for the fight. If he gets downgraded early you’ll look stupid. “That dumb fucking Trunk thought Ivan was going to be big. What a maroon!” People who WANT Ivan to take a dive should try to get him laid. Frances won’t be available by then but Hermione or Jeanne will.
Ooops! There I go, violating both the time AND distance rules. Needless to say, though some people here don’t think it is, neither I nor Trunk wish death, damage, or destruction on anybody but the current ability of the weather people to make long-term hurricane forecasts vs. the nasty surprises from out of nowhere that they were a hundred years ago or less, plus the love of TV news to go into Chicken Little mode the moment there is a possibility that the weather could be something less than perfect, leaves the forecasters ripe for Pitting. Trunk just tried to be funny in a bad-taste manner that usually goes over well here but the proximity of some people has left the topic touchy.
A friend down in Florida told me yesterday that I wouldn’t like living there because of the hurricanes. However, my wife is a weather buff and would probably sit outside on a lawn chair as long as she could.
