I know the "mean season" has arrived and I'm not talking about the weather. Yesterday, I turned on the TV to catch the local six o'clock news and quickly started changing channels. Every station was doing a story on hurricane Chris for crisesakes. Yesterday it was probably a thousand miles away. Today it's just a whimpering blip on the radar.
Is it just me, or do you feel the same way about hurricane coverage? It's way too much information way too soon and for far too long. My God, sometimes they start the coverage when a tropical depression forms off the coast of Africa! The last time I looked, that was on the other side of the freaking Atlantic Ocean!
You have to understand, I grew up here. When the media asks if you are prepared, baby, I've been prepared since Hurricane Donna (1960) with the exception of one additional change: I make sure my remote has fresh batteries so I can find something on TV other than the latest hurricane updates. Back then, before weather satellites and remotes, when weathermen were men and not hot babes in tight-fitting clothes in low-cut necklines (although, I must admit, that is an improvement), we got our info from radar and brave men who flew vintage aircraft into the eyes of hurricanes-- and that was only when it was close enough to read on radar screens. And you know what? We got through it without a lot of hand-holding, 24-hour advice from the media. This was before there were Home Depots in every neighborhood where you could rush out and buy your supplies. There were a few Lindsey Lumber stores around (now history) but most of us just lowered our window shutters, hunkered down, and waited for the storm to pass. As far as I'm concerned, the media is making Florida a state of wussies. That's my opinion. What's yours?
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