Remember, more people die from drowning than any other aspect of a hurricane. If I had a nickel for every time I heard that during Irma’s run, well, I would have a lot of nickels. If you weren’t contributing to the massive box office for the movie ‘it’ during its opening weekend then maybe you watched something just as scary, the 24/7 coverage on cable news channels of Hurricane Irma. In fact the past few weeks for cable news have been golden, for them it’s like winning the lottery, their Super Bowl on steroids. Two hurricanes, a big earthquake, and possibly the start of World War III! These news directors must’ve been wetting their pants, but in the end Irma was the money shot. Houston coverage was dropped like a stoplight in 100mph winds when Irma went category cinco. It is no secret that cable news only spikes in the ratings when there is a major event and stripping away the breaking news, that usually isn’t, there aren’t that many big stories every year. Therefore when you have a cornucopia of tragedy or possible tragedy like we’ve had the past weeks, cable news becomes like a kid on Christmas morning facing a 3-foot high stack of gifts. That kid will rip open a present eye it for 2 seconds and move on to the next package. Houston? Haven’t heard a word in days, is everything back to normal? Don’t know. One of the biggest earthquakes in Mexico ever. Well they got a few mentions but we’ve got Irma. What about North Korea? What? Yeah weren’t we on the verge of a nuclear war? Oh ok we’ll get back to that. While watching the satellite image of Irma in the corner of the screen I half expected it to start hot-dogging when it slowed down around the Keys. I thought I saw the eye wink as if to say “look at me, I’m in charge now.” However, let’s acknowledge the real heroes, the reporters. These are the people who stand in the rain and wind to bring us information that is pretty obvious. I love when they tell each other to “be safe.” Hey nobody is forcing you to stand outside and tell others to watch out for flying roof tiles. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE STANDING OUT THERE, EVERYONE ELSE EVACUATED DAYS AGO! My favorite moment came when a reporter said someone in a shelter asked her Saturday night “when is the hurricane going to arrive, why is it taking so long?’ Yes it’s like waiting for a pizza delivery. A great visual was the reporter wearing goggles pointing to a stop sign that was a bit wobbly saying “it might fall down.” But you haven’t lived until you’ve watched coverage wearing your solar eclipse glasses.

Gunga Galunga,

Garry