In the Sun-Barrel
It's difficult to see how anyone would expect children to prosper when they are saddled with deliberately hateful names. If that's really part of the 'traditional culture of Zambia' (and not, say, the translator entertaining himself at the gullible white lady's expense), then it's a pathological culture.
*****
Amritsar is going to have a museum about the Partition. I'd love to visit that, but probably never shall. That's one of the great upheavals that blighted the 20th century, yet for all that, it's remarkably difficult to find good English-language histories of it.
One of the things that has always stuck in my mind is a film clip, probably originally from a newsreel, that I saw as a child. There was a train, pulling out from a station, absolutely crusted over with people, hanging out the windows, clambering on top of the cars, terrified that they'd be left behind. People were falling between the train and platform, almost certainly to be crushed, but others immediately took their places to try to climb on to the cars.
*****
We had a tornado go by last night. I heard it, but didn't see anything, and it didn't touch down. NWS reports today:
03/26/17 0734 PM
FUNNEL CLOUD
LOCATION: HILLIARD, OH (FRANKLIN COUNTY)
SOURCE: TRAINED SPOTTER
REMARKS: TRAINED SPOTTER LOOKING WEST OF HILLIARD IDENTIFIED FUNNEL CLOUD
so that's uncomfortably close, but probably not the same one. Ours came by to the south (which Hilliard is to the south of us) but it was about 8:05, too late for it to have been the same funnel.
This happened, inconveniently enough, while the NWS radar was broken:
464
NOUS61 KILN 271349
FTMILN
Message Date: Mar 27 2017 15:14:29
THE KILN RADAR WILL REMAIN DOWN THROUGH AT LEAST MIDDAY TUESDAY 3/28. ADDITIONAL
PARTS ARE NEEDED FOR REPAIR.
I was asleep, and my phone started ringing and popped up the alert message ("NWS Tornado warning. A tornado is approaching you. Take shelter IMMEDIATELY") and of course went to the radar page to try and estimate if I thought it would hit us, only to find that it was down. So then I got dressed in haste, if not actual panic, and went outside and stood ten feet or so above ground, on a sheltered platform over a sunken walkway where I planned to go to ground if need be. I wanted to see it. A tornado bearing down on one isn't something everyone gets to see, and, of course, not everyone who gets to see it lives to relish the memory. I stood there about ten minutes, wondering if this was a dud, and then the rain increased instantly, from heavy to torrential, and then a few seconds later I heard a rushing sound to the south, like a waterfall. It was directional. It moved west to east, and was over and gone in a few seconds. The wind that had been from the west/southwest turned uncertain and stuttery, and blew for a bit from the southeast, before resuming its normal course. Almost immediately, the wind and rain lessened.
So, had that been a touchdown, and headed for me, I'd have had no time to go to ground. I would have had an excellent view, though. I was crying after it was over, not so much from fear as just from the emotional tension of having waited for ten minutes or so and then having had it actually happen.
It's generally safe to allow me to go outside without supervision, but with some things I really can be a dumbass.
*****
Amritsar is going to have a museum about the Partition. I'd love to visit that, but probably never shall. That's one of the great upheavals that blighted the 20th century, yet for all that, it's remarkably difficult to find good English-language histories of it.
One of the things that has always stuck in my mind is a film clip, probably originally from a newsreel, that I saw as a child. There was a train, pulling out from a station, absolutely crusted over with people, hanging out the windows, clambering on top of the cars, terrified that they'd be left behind. People were falling between the train and platform, almost certainly to be crushed, but others immediately took their places to try to climb on to the cars.
*****
We had a tornado go by last night. I heard it, but didn't see anything, and it didn't touch down. NWS reports today:
03/26/17 0734 PM
FUNNEL CLOUD
LOCATION: HILLIARD, OH (FRANKLIN COUNTY)
SOURCE: TRAINED SPOTTER
REMARKS: TRAINED SPOTTER LOOKING WEST OF HILLIARD IDENTIFIED FUNNEL CLOUD
so that's uncomfortably close, but probably not the same one. Ours came by to the south (which Hilliard is to the south of us) but it was about 8:05, too late for it to have been the same funnel.
This happened, inconveniently enough, while the NWS radar was broken:
464
NOUS61 KILN 271349
FTMILN
Message Date: Mar 27 2017 15:14:29
THE KILN RADAR WILL REMAIN DOWN THROUGH AT LEAST MIDDAY TUESDAY 3/28. ADDITIONAL
PARTS ARE NEEDED FOR REPAIR.
I was asleep, and my phone started ringing and popped up the alert message ("NWS Tornado warning. A tornado is approaching you. Take shelter IMMEDIATELY") and of course went to the radar page to try and estimate if I thought it would hit us, only to find that it was down. So then I got dressed in haste, if not actual panic, and went outside and stood ten feet or so above ground, on a sheltered platform over a sunken walkway where I planned to go to ground if need be. I wanted to see it. A tornado bearing down on one isn't something everyone gets to see, and, of course, not everyone who gets to see it lives to relish the memory. I stood there about ten minutes, wondering if this was a dud, and then the rain increased instantly, from heavy to torrential, and then a few seconds later I heard a rushing sound to the south, like a waterfall. It was directional. It moved west to east, and was over and gone in a few seconds. The wind that had been from the west/southwest turned uncertain and stuttery, and blew for a bit from the southeast, before resuming its normal course. Almost immediately, the wind and rain lessened.
So, had that been a touchdown, and headed for me, I'd have had no time to go to ground. I would have had an excellent view, though. I was crying after it was over, not so much from fear as just from the emotional tension of having waited for ten minutes or so and then having had it actually happen.
It's generally safe to allow me to go outside without supervision, but with some things I really can be a dumbass.