Satellite Photo of Hurricane
Well, the big wheel has turned back to another hurricane season. And all of the media outlets worthy of the name are sending their newest weatherfolk to report about it.
These hapless heroes will be seen soon, hanging onto street signs, wading through hip-deep parking lots and squinting through heavy rain and hail as they shout their version of What’s It Like Out There? to we huddled and comfortable masses.
Is this necessary? You never see Al Roker out there any more. I don’t remember the last time I saw anyone with any real seniority, like a Willard Scott, standing around outside to prove that it was raining.
Writers starting out are cautioned to stay away from certain ideas. “And it was all a dream” seems to be one that catches a lot of peoples’ imagination, but it’s really a pretty cheap way to tell a story. With all of our amazing 3-D graphics and computers do we really need to put a woman in a raincoat and have her stand outside in the very weather she’s cautioning all of us to stay the Hell out of?
I think a lot of this may be like the old medical school regimen, where doctors-to-be would stay awake for dozens of hours at a time. Older doctors would say “I did it—they should do it, too!” and many times the case was attempted to be made that a long, continuous shift would enable to student to spent the entirety of the time a patient was in-hospital, from admission and diagnosis through treatment and discharge. But that ignores the possibility that I show up 23hrs into your 36hr shift and you’re not only wasted by that time but you’re going home in thirteen hours no matter how I end up feeling by then.
I don’t know if these people are really at-risk or not. I suppose much depends upon the location, the training and resources available to them (and their camera/sound people, if provided). But it seems to me we could be doing a lot better by now.
