6/14/2005: Head for safe ground, but wait for a commercial
So I'm sitting here at my computer, attempting to move on from a really crappy day.. the tv is on over there, reunited 80s bands are competing for (something?) and rehashing their old hits. Or hit, in the case of the Knack, who was on screen when I happened to look up. I noticed a newscrawl just ending.. hmm what's this? I waited through a few more m-m-m-m-m-m-m-my sharona's and it comes again: A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE ENTIRE COAST OF CALIFORNIA.. wha???
Does NBC break in to their riveting programming to announce this for folks who may not be staring at the skinny tie guys? Nope.
So I'm off to Google News where I find a couple dozen 8-minute-old links from China, Winnipeg, Brisbane, Myrtle Beach, Oklahoma, Maine, Columbus, etc. - nothing from west coast news sources - about a 7.0 quake off the coast of Crescent City. The tsunami warning is for Mexico to Vancouver Island - whoa. "A tsunami has not been confirmed, but it could happen." Well, tsunami is a news buzzword now.
Meanwhile the Motels warble about the lonely, on to commercials, and a news teaser comes on to stay tuned for the 11pm news later. They mention a new budget for San Jose and "a Hollywood superstar's big plans for Oakland." More commercials, and apparently somebody woke up at the station: news chick comes on with "our big story of the night," adding that the tsunami warning has been cancelled. Which means the lead story on the 11pm news will be "Could a tsunami happen here?" with lots of colorful diagrams.
And we go back to Vanilla Ice rehashing "Ice Ice Baby".. remember when he busted up the "Surreal World" house over that? Said he'd never ever do that song again and didn't even want to hear the title or be affiliated with the song. (Who did "Money Changes Everything"? Maybe they should make an appearance on this show.)
Scientists disagree, but I've always believed in the earthquake ping-pong theory. There was a 7.9 yesterday in Chile which has killed eleven.
