Something from 2008.....

For the past few years, when Tropical Storms have formed in the Atlantic, I've put up tracking maps near my desk at work. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, we have been subjected to media fear mongering every hurricane season. To make things a tad humorous, I add a quotation ( usually unmodified ) to the map.

Tidying my desk at work today, I came across the maps for 2008. I thought it might be useful to summarize them.

So here we go.....

The first map is from July 3rd for Tropical Depression Two and because it was so far away, the quotation was "Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man".

Later, this became Tropical Storm Bertha and because it was still so far away the quotation became: "The ocean is a wilderness reaching around the globe. wilder than a Bengal Jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences"

On July 7th: "To his friend Fox he wrote from Brazil: 'My mind has been, since leaving England, in a perfect hurricane of delight and astonishment."

And on the 8th, I used my first poem for the year:

Why look the distant mountains
So gloomy and so drear?
Are rain clouds passing o'er them,
Or is the tempest near?
No shadow of the tempest
Is there, nor wind nor rain
'Tis Charon that is passing by,
With all his gloomy train.

All the more ironic, given still how far away Bertha was - AND turning more and more to the north.

Then on July 21st we had Tropical Storm Dolly in the Gulf of Mexico.....along with...

the heart
of Mexico sits in the rain
not caring to seek shelter

And on July 23rd as Hurricane Dolly came ashore....

"It just so happens we be Texicans. A Texican is nothing more than a human man way out on a limb, this year and next, maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Someday this country's going to be a fine place to be"

And on my birthday, again in the Gulf it was Tropical Storm Edouard. "We cannot put the face of a person on a stamp unless said person is deceased. My suggestion, therefore, is that you drop dead"

And hitting the Dominican Republic on August 15th, we had Tropical Storm Fay.

The cup of Morgan Fay is shattered
Life is a bitter sage,
And we are weary infants
In a palsied age.

And sticking with Tropical Storm Fay, on August 16th:

And with great joy ride I the last great ride.
I am fey; I am fain of sudden dying.

At this time it looked like it might affect South Florida......

When the storm rattles my windowpane
I'll stay hunched at my desk, it will roar in vain
For I'll have plunged deep inside the thrill
Of conjuring spring with the force of my will,
Coaxing the sun from my heart and building here
Out of my fiery thoughts, a tepid atmosphere.

And then the storm reached Cuba and "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits."

And about to go through the Keys on August 18th, "From a distance the rushing of the torrent delights and uplifts us, but it rocks us in a flimsy boat, we are overwhelmed by despair. The same applies to danger."

And on August 20th Tropical Storm Fay passed by just north of my house:

Goodbye,
you who are, for me, the postmarks again
of shattered towns..

And a week later, Tropical Storm Gustav crossed Haiti, "To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education"

Of course all that referred to me, not generically to the people residing in Haiti.

And later on August 27th:

When the wind comes up from Cuba,
And the birds are on the wing,
And our hearts are patting juba,
To the banjo of the spring,
Then it's no wonder whether
The boys will get together,
With a stein on the table and a cheer for everything.

And then the storm jinked south a bit, looking to miss both Cuba and Florida..

What matters where we dream away
The ages? In the isles of Ind,
In Tybee, Cuba or Cathay,
Or in some world of winter wind?

And on August 29th he was Hurricane Gustav.

Le temps a laissie son manteau
De vent, de froidure et de pluye,
Et s'est vestu de brouderie,
De soleil luyant, cler et beau.

And on the same day, I started to track Tropical Storm Hanna.

In the very early morning when the light was low
She got all together and she went like snow,
Like snow in the springtime on a sunny hill,
And we were only frightened and can't think still.

And on September 2nd we had way out east, Tropical Storm Ike. So of course I could not resist the pun of "I don't like Ike."

On the same day, it was Hurricane Hanna tracking up the east coast of Florida, but staying offshore:

She will not turn aside? Alas!
Let them lie. Suppose they die?
The chance was they might take her eye.

Then Hanna went back to being a Tropical Storm:

Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overflow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last.

The next day ( September 3rd ) still as a Tropical Storm just north of Haiti:

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me....

And still way out east we had Hurricane Ike where "Expectations remain high. Bur realities are disturbing."

And it was still September 3rd and it was still Tropical Storm Hanna when I could say "Court disaster long enough, and it will accept your proposal."

And Hanna on the 4th of September:

O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin, And wonder what you've missed.

And for Ike? Apparently two concurrent storms were grinding me down:

Turn back
back
to the lake of Delos;
lest all the song notes
pause and break
across a blood-stained throat.

Later on the 4th, the track started to show Ike coming my way:

Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come
Nor care beyond today.

September 5th for Ike, "The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death."

And a nice short one for Ike, "And from the south-west came the end of the world."

And then:

The moan of multitudes in woe, -
These were the things we wished would go;

And on September 8th, Ike was on Cuba:

It was only yesterday sick Cuba's cry
Came up the tropic wind, "Now help us, for we die!"

And later that day it was "There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates" ( or hurricanes - my addition )

And on September 9th it was becoming clear that Hurricane Ike was going to miss South Florida so "To avoid doing anything, wait for the right circumstances."

Then Ike was in the Gulf of Mexico because "In nature there are unexpected storms; in life there are unpredictable vicissitudes."

And it was still Hurricane Ike on September 11th and looking at a Texas landfall and as a man once said "Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet America is a poem in our eyes' its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres."

Then on September 26th, harmless to the US and going due north there was Tropical Storm Kyle:

Though Canada be felt in beat
Of summer pulse that enervates:
The Old World and the New World meet

In dial, arbor, tropic heat.

On September 29th way to the north ( near Nova Scotia ) there was Subtropical Storm Laura:

Some beauty unforeseen I trace
In every change of Laura's face.

October 7th, way down in the south-west corner of the Gulf, up popped Tropical Storm Marco:

A land of lutes and witching tones,
Of silver, onyx, opal stones;
A lazy land, wherein all seems
Enchanted into endless dreams;
And never any need they know,
In Mexico.

And on October 13th there was Tropical Storm Nana ( near no land at all ):

They are all gone away
There is nothing more to say.

On October 14t, south of Hispaniola, Tropical Storm Omar. But he was moving AWAY from Florida, back into the ocean:

Upon the huge Atlantic, and once more
We ride into still water and the calm
Of a sweet evening, screen'd by either shore...

On October 15th he was harmless as Hurricane Omar:

Consider the sea's listless chime:
Time's self it is, made audible -
The murmur of the earth's own shell.....

On November 5th, Tropical Depression Seventeen:

Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon.
With the old Moon in his arms;
And I fear, I fear, my master dear!
We shall have a deadly storm.

And on November 6th, Seventeen became Tropical Storm Paloma:

Vengeful across the cold November moors,
Loud with ancestral shame there came the bleak,
sad wind that shrieked, and answered with a shriek.....

And as Hurricane Paloma bore down on Cuba on November 7th all I could think of was Raul Castro with this quote:

What have I done of all the year,
To bear this hated doom severe?

And Paloma went away and died in the Atlantic and Hurricane Season 2008 was over.

I would like to post the quotes for other years, but I'm afraid I may have tossed the tracking maps. ( 2006, 2007 ??)

Of course the tracks for this quiet 2009 season, I am still updating.

More Radio Peace off the air !!

So first it was three hours. Then it was two. Then it was two, but with
the 07:00 AM to 08:00 AM hour in Portuguese ("Happy Days") and now it
is down to one lonely hour.

Yes people, Radio Peace, the Catholic Church's radio outreach in South Florida is now live only from 08:00 AM to 09:00 AM with "Religion, Politics and the Culture" with Dennis O'Donovan.

And how ever much Dennis says he is respectful of opposing views - he isn't.

This show is a standard right wing gabfest with some Catholic ideas you might not find on Glenn's or Rush's shows - namely an anti-death penalty stance and support for illegal immigrants.

Other than those two, Mr.O'Donovan's "show" is indistinguishable from any other ranting nutbag with a microphone.

And that is why he has sponsors. And that is why he is the only one left on the air.

Which actually is rather a shame.

Irony Alert

Yesterday ( 9/10/09 ), the Alliance Defense Fund announced it had received an anonymous donation of $9.2 million to aid it in its defense of the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech - especially on college campuses, where they put equal weight behind the discussion of all speech, like the theory of Evolution and the delusion that is Intelligent Design.

Did no one else see the irony of an ANONYMOUS donation for protecting FREE SPEECH?

Sounds like a donation to protect speech the donor doesn't want challenged or even debated.

I'm sure this point is lost on the lawyers at the ADF who just see a big pile of cash.

The Time Has Come

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come to address a issue that truly frosts this humble correspondent's nads.

I am of course, referring to radio preachers who say "C'mon now" and "Are you still out there?" when preaching their most heretical loopiness before a live audience.

The two most egregious charlatans who keep on doing this on my radio are Charles Capps and Joyce Meyer.



They say these things when they realize they gave gone too far in their latest Biblical distortions and they want the reassurance that they still have the audience in the palms of their grossly manipulative hands.

Charles Capps in particular likes to say stuff like "Don't worry. This will all work out" before he goes on to expound his "teachings" that are so contrary to anything Jesus had to say, that they are in fact simply, lies.

And while we are at this, Joyce, what the heck is a "Practical Bible Teacher"?

Clearly not a pastor or any kind of orthodox ordained minister. This woman has no insight and brings no Biblical revelation. She's just a "conference speaker", telling bad jokes and dropping the baby Jesus' name every now and again.

And the audiences for both of these people laugh nervously because though they want to believe, what they really want is to not look like fools duped by the likes of these people.

C'mon now!