Buffalo Gal

We are still in the official time of Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The last one, Hurricane "Ike" was a Monster of a storm as wide and big as the entire state of Texas, to which it gave a heavy blow before it conked out somewhere in the Northeastern part of the country.  

I read a lightly humorous, wry opinion piece by a man called Mark Skousen.  He begins by asking the question of why we should name hurricanes after good people?  HIs major question was why should a hurricane be named after a famous war hero like Dwight D. Eisenhower?   He has a point.

In days before it became too sexist and gender-incorrect, hurricanes got named after women.  I faintly remember reading about hurricanes named "Camille" and "Diana" both of which really packed a wallop and did a great deal of damage to the southern Gulf Coast which suffered so badly from "Katrina" and "Ike".  But naming hurricanes after women or men can take a toll on one’s self esteem.  In Skousen’s piece, he told of a woman he knows who has a daughter named Katrina who has felt badly ever since that hurricane.  This girl has taken a lot of teasing and a lot of heat over the name "Katrina".   Not too many years ago, one of the fairly destructive hurricanes that hit the upper Gulf coast was named "Fran" and a friend of mine took a lot of guff over that one (her name).  So it is not fair to name hurricanes after Good People…like Andrew, Arthur, Bertha, Angela, Sally, Teddy or Vicky. People with those names can be scarred for life having a hurricane bear their name.

Skousen goes on to tell some names that he thinks would be good for hurricanes:  Stalin, Tojo, Hitler, Satan, Lucifer, Osama, Saddam, are some suggestions.  He even  thought that

dog’s names would be better than people’s names.  Can’t you see it now?  Hurricane Fido, Bluto, Rover, Jughead,Trixie, Pal, Spot, Klutz,Tippy or Bowser???  How about some infamous names in our history like Hurricane John Wilkes Booth?     Or name them after crimnals….Hurricane Boston Strangler or Hurricane Jack the Ripper?   How about O.J. Simpson?

One wag quoted by Skousen said Hurricanes should be named after famour Strippers like Cherri, Bambi or Bunny—-after all hurricanes are REAL strippers for property owners in the path of the storm.

I kind of like Hurricane Hugh Hefner or Hurricane Jesse James….?

If I thought about it long enough, I think I could come up with a good long list to give to the Weather Service in charge of Hurricane-Naming or whoever does that job. The U.S. Navy used to do it and they are the ones who picked the female names, the dirty Sexists!

Then Skousen adds one further speculation to his name the hurricane game.  Put the three

major news networks (NBC, ABC, CBS) in charge of naming hurricanes  and we know what the next hurricane would be named: Hurricane Sarah.