Friday, August 26, 2011

My Hurricane Stories

1985, Hurricane Gloria - I was at work during the brunt of the storm, such as it was. There were a lot of windows either boarded up or X'd over with masking tape. The hurricane came close to the Jersey Shore, but we did not suffer any damage to the radio station I was working at at the time. Our tower (and I don't remember if our new tower had been constructed at the time) continued to stand tall. We called it "the castrated feeble hurricane" thereafter.

1989, Hurricane Hugo - The hurricane affected me indirectly, because I was working at WOBM at the time, and the station organized a relief effort. Bekins/Sea Cure Moving donated their trucks and drivers to bring supplies down to South Carolina. I helped pack boxes. No, I didn't go down to South Carolina, because I had to stay behind and schedule the commercials for the station.

1992, Unnamed Noreaster - I spent most of that fall renovating a house that was flooded. Not a lot of happy memories for about a year or so afterward.

1999, Hurricane Floyd - I have no memories of that one, unfortunately.

The story of Hurricane Irene has yet to be written. I fear for the safety of friends and relatives close to the shoreline, and hope they can all find safe harbor. We are shoring up our house and making tentative plans to get out of Dodge if asked. Sunday should be the day. Several of our church committee chairs, myself included, made the unanimous decision to cancel services on Sunday. We'll report back later. Please stay safe.

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Jerry Lewis Out As MDA National Chairman



The Muscular Dystrophy Association issued a press release yesterday, tersely stating in two neat, short paragraphs that Jerry Lewis has "completed" his duties as MDA National Chairman, and stated in no uncertain terms that he would not be appearing on this year's telethon, which has been cut from 21-1/2 hours to a mere six, and will be mostly tape-delay segments with live local cutins.

"Completed"? Exsqueeze me? An awful nice way of saying "clean out your desk" as an armed guard watches over you to make sure you don't take a few pads of Post-Its with you.