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#84521 - 04/14/03 09:54 AM Re: pea-souper
Capfka Pooh-Bah Registered: 06/28/02 Posts: 1624 Loc: Utter Placebo, Planet Reebok	Nope, absolutely certain, Faldo. Never misplace things like stray "t"s. According to sjm I DO misplace "a"s in things Maori, especially "Maori"!
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#84522 - 04/14/03 10:00 AM Re: pea-souper
RhubarbCommando Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/23/00 Posts: 2204	Anyone can be forgiven for getting their "aah"s in the wrong place occasionally - but no-one should ever mislay their tea.
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#84523 - 04/14/03 10:12 AM Re: of fogs and storms
WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/13/01 Posts: 4189 Loc: Rio Grande, Cape May County, N...	Seems I missed this thread twice, now...back in October, too. Always loved weather, so I've enjoyed all the offerings. fog When I worked as a mate on a tour boat here we where out on the ocean with the usual large group when a fog rolled in out-of-nowhere, as they often do on the coast. but this was the thickest pea-soup I ever saw. You literally almost couldn't see your hand extended in front of your face...out on the water the fog is much more opaque then on land, even right at the coast. The Captain couldn't see a thing...literally. And this was a good-sized boat, too, the size of a PT Boat. I knew we were in real trouble when the Captain summoned me to the bridge and told me, and the other hands, we had to go to the bowsrpit and keep lookout for other boats. The fog was so blinding there was really nothing to see...I literally couldn't see past the edge of the boat, it was like staring into a blind whiteness. I had heard of such paralysing maritime fogs in literature and meteorological writings, but I never experienced it first-hand. And, folks, it is truly frightening. I knew there was no way we could detect an approaching vessel in time. And this was back in the late 70's before a lot of today's new sound technologies 9though I doubt anything new would help in a situation like this). The Captain just kept blaring his fog horn. And he couldn't head for the inlet because we couldn't see the mile-long jetties there...and the thought of those rocks was always on your mind. Were we near them? We meandered around out there for almost an hour before the fog thinned enough to navigate towards shore again...a truly scary moment. Wouldn't want to go through it again. It was then I learned the significance of the refrain Eugene O'Neill (who spent much time at sea in his youth) used through the character of Kris Kristofferson, an old seaman, in his play Anna Christie..."Dat ol' devil fog." (and a foghorn is an important sound effect, constantly in the background, in Long Day's Journey Into Night. (BTW, I grew up, here in New Jersey, to the expression "thick as pea soup" or "it's as thick as pea soup out there" whenever there was a particulary heavy fog, and driving was dangerous.) slanted rain Here on the East coast we get swiped by many Tropical Storms and minimal hurricanes. I remember my first experience with a Tropical Storm (sustained winds of up to 70 miles per hour with higher gusts and torrential rains) was in July of 1972 when I was vacationing here in Wildwood, NJ. A group of us had gone to an Elton John concert at the Wildwood Convention Hall on the Boardwalk that night which didn't cancel out despite the heavy weather. After a great concert, and a 20 minute encore of Take Me To The Pilot..."na!na!na!, na!na!na!"...(and a few of the usual party embellishments ), we walked out of the hall and onto the boardwalk in the driving wind and rain...and just hung there, suspended, at a 45% angle, the stinging pellets of rain driving into our faces in a horizontal fusillade like machine-gun bullets. Cool! I'll never forget it. Since then, whenever there's a Tropical Storm, or a minimal hurricane brushing the coast, we'd always try to capture that same experience, but, somehow, it's never quite the same as that night... earthquake braggadocio Think you may be reading that "brag" into posting by Easterners about earthquake faults in this region, sjm. While I'm a geology and meteorology buff, and know these faults are extant, and the damage they have done in the past, through studies...and sometimes like to mention their existence as a point of geological accuracy, I have no desire to experience an earthquake and would love it if these East Coast faults weren't extant at all. The main point is, most folks don't know the danger exists, and an East Coast quake, with most cities not built to withstand a tremor (no earthquake codes), could be a disaster and horror, depending on the intensity of the quake, which, I, for one, hope to never witness or experience. Not to mention the prospect of quake generated tsunami tidal waves when I live practically on the beach [shudder]...no thanks. (I'd rather keep playing Russian Roulette with hurricanes...at least you get a running start)
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#84524 - 04/14/03 11:43 AM Re: earthquakes
dxb Pooh-Bah Registered: 03/06/02 Posts: 1692 Loc: UK	Despite frequently visiting parts of the world prone to earthquakes I am glad to say that I have not experienced an earthquake, but I have a couple of tales. Our Chief Engineer flew into San Francisco early afternoon on October 17th 1998, went straight to his hotel (Hyatt-Regency I think) and went to sleep about 4.00pm. At breakfast next morning in response to a question from the waiter he said “Earthquake? I didn’t notice.” It’s just possible that this is apocryphal – but I suspect not. I was sitting in a conference room in Indian Wells a few years ago listening to a presenter talking about the failure mode of various types of buildings during earthquakes. At one point the presenter showed a coloured map of the Coachella Valley, which includes Palm Springs and Indian Wells. There were many more or less parallel red lines on the chart. Pointing at these he told us that these were active fault lines. Then pointing at a spot where many of these lines came together to make a wide red band he said, “This is under where you are all sitting right now.” There was a silence – then a voice from the back called out, “If I don’t stay for dinner do I get a refund?” Everyone laughed, but there were some uneasy glances exchanged.
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#84525 - 04/14/03 03:17 PM Re: pea-souper
sjm old hand Registered: 07/19/02 Posts: 742 Loc: Akina	If you like the smell of sulphur and sulphur-like odorous gasses, I suggest you shift to Rotorua, New Zealand. The place smells like a fart that just never goes away ... Some say it's due to a digestion problem that the mayor has had for years, but most people settle for the obvious - the geothermal zones in the area. The one most people go to is Whakarewarewa. I used to think that it was the home of the Weretewhakawi tribe, but sjm has disabused me of the notion. Having been born there, I never smelled its distinctive aroma until we moved away when I was 10. A month or so after laving we came back for a weekend, and when We got near the place I burst out in horror,"what's that SMELL?" By the way, I haven't heard of the Weretewhakawi tribe, but I do remember William James portaying a reporter by the name of Abe Whakatawhainau.
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#84526 - 04/14/03 03:20 PM Re: of fogs and storms
sjm old hand Registered: 07/19/02 Posts: 742 Loc: Akina	The main point is, most folks don't know the danger exists, and an East Coast quake, with most cities not built to withstand a tremor (no earthquake codes), could be a disaster and horror, depending on the intensity of the quake, which, I, for one, hope to never witness or experience. Absolutely. For an example of this phenomenon, see http://www.allshookup.org/images/ncquake/ncquake.htm When it happened, it was hard to believe that a 5.6 could do so much damage, but it was exactly as you state above.
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#84527 - 04/14/03 08:10 PM Re: of fogs and storms
of troy Carpal Tunnel Registered: 10/17/00 Posts: 5400 Loc: rego park	actually, even tho our earthquakes tend to be 1. and 2. deals, (and are mistaken for heavy trucks speeding by) NYC does have an earth quake standard. its rather new, and it is not manditory, but many building do meet a minimal standard..(and some are build to very high earthquake resistant standards.) way off topic...in white after the Towers came down, one fact that came out was, the designer/engineer/ had thought about a plane hitting the building..(after all a fighter plane had hit empire state building in the 40's) He just didn't plan on the fuel-- and fire... the terrorist thought they could hit them and topple them in seconds. in many ways the best thing that happened to NYC was the attack on the TWC in '93--it took them over 4 hours to evacuate the buildings then..but after that, every one took safety, and evacuation drills seriously, and on that day in September, every one below the plane crash floors was out of the building in 45 minutes! what a change! _________________________ my other obsession
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#84528 - 04/14/03 08:28 PM Slanted rain
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 11613 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky	One of the very earliest questions ever asked on this board was is there a word for slanting rain. Nobody ever found one, to my disappointment.
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#84529 - 04/14/03 09:13 PM Re: Talk about the weather
Coffeebean old hand Registered: 02/11/03 Posts: 725 Loc: Oregon, USA	No term for slanted rain, but would a slanted drip be obleak? Having grown up in Los Angeles, California, and lived there until I was 22, I experienced a great many earthquakes. I remember the big one in '71, -- it happened early in the morning and the great rolling effect woke me up. Truly, they are nothing to brag about. But it's funny listening to you all prefer hurricanes, etc. to earthquakes. I've always said the opposite! We have gobs of fog here in Oregon, in the winter. Pea-soupers, for sure. Rain is rain; drizzle, a little less; less than that is called mist. Sudden downpours are gulley-washers -- at least, that is what I call them. That's a term I heard growing up. There was one major earthquake here in Oregon, about 10 years ago, and it did a lot of damage to old brick buildings. Note: there was one fatality which occurred on the highway, as the result of a rock slide hitting a truck. We have no hurricanes, no tornadoes, very few earthquakes and very few floods. I found it interesting that there were 2 or 3 days last week in which we had sunny skies followed by rain, then hail, then snow, then the wind blew it all away and the sun shone again!
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#84530 - 04/14/03 10:58 PM Re: of fogs and storms
Bingley Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/09/00 Posts: 3065 Loc: Jakarta	From sjm's link: The photographs below are of the rescue operation in the proceeding hours just after the earthquake and the resulting demolition of the Newcastle Workers Club. Do our representatives of the Southern Hemisphere find this use of proceeding at all uncommon? What do others think of it? Bingley _________________________ Bingley
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