A helpful colleague points out hurricane John, which is strengthening as it runs up Mexico’s west coast. Happily for the folks living in Baja, most of the models show John living out its life over water. Of course it would be wrong of me to hope that John follows the GFDL model track up into Mexico and Arizona. Of course it would be wrong of me to hope for this newspaper headline: “John Devastates Tucson,” or “John Brings Flooding to New Mexico.”
jfleck at inkstain
A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico
Just be careful – headlines claiming “John Blows…” are also a possibility.
He can also get “John weakens dramatically” or “John fizzles.” I had a friend named Earl in graduate school who wasn’t very happy when he finally got Earl in the late ’80s and all it did was wander around the Atlantic getting avoided by ships.
I looked over the headlines for Ernesto this morning. I am convinced that you are better off with a storm that stays out to sea. If you had a storm that was as bad as Katrina people would frown at your name. If you had a storm like Ernesto you would get something like this:
Ernesto headlines changed to read “John”
John hits without big punch
John fizzles… (too many of these to count)
Weakened John…
John soaks Florida
John packs small punch
John goes easy on Florida
John wimps out (seriously, this from a houston paper)
The only “good” headline I found was this and it relates to my state:
John still a threat