Religion, Politics...Weather?

*Another choice retrieval from 2007, wherein I commented in defense of one blogger's column, only to draw the ire of his detractor. Over weather. And it got better: I got a second blog post out of this, and twice the number of comments as this one drew. Sit back and enjoy a blast from the past*

Doesn't matter if you're trying to be funny or serious. Wanna start an argument? Talk about politics. Religion.

Or the weather.

That's what one Southern Humorist writer Rick Rantamaki at http://rantamaki.blogspot.com/ did, both on his blog and in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a major newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia. From some of the responses, you'd think the guy had smeared a national treasure or a sacred religious icon.

He did neither. He poked some good-natured fun at weather forecasting. Few of us over the years haven't. Well, a few of those forecasting types -- or at least a couple, who want readers to believe they are among those weather forecasting types -- were appalled that some they assumed to be ill-educated lowlifes, had actually dared to have made light of weather forecasting.

There was apparently nothing in this tongue-in-cheek humor piece on forecasting that they found amusing, but one thing specific they chose to key in on was this quote from Rantamaki's column: "When a tornado warning is issued, why not invite the trailer park folks down to the TV station? Compared to trailer parks, TV stations are relatively tornado free". More on the dysfunctional duo in a mo'.

For those of you who live in a furiously active tornado zone -- and for those of you therein who live in trailer parks -- you can appreciate both the humor and the reality. A trailer home is about the last place you want to be in an approaching tornado. A ditch or a TV station -- anywhere -- is decidedly better.

At any rate, this column drew a number of negative comments -- perhaps from a few authentic forecasters themselves -- which Rantamaki was tickled to highlight in a follow-up blog entry. That update (on his blog) drew the further ire of two persons of dubious humor/writing comprehension, with sort-of implied weather forecasting expertise, as their comments exemplify:

tis i said writes: "There's nothing funnier than listening to someone who thinks they know about weather talk about weather, but in reality, they don't know a thing about weather and what goes into creating forecasts. I hope nobody interrupts your precious little TV programming anymore to try to save your life though, buddy."

And "a future jerk with a bloated ego" adds in part: "I read your little "article". As far as a cushy job goes, you have it the best! All you do is sit at home, on your bed, and think about something completely retarded to write about. Do you know how stupid you sounded by saying "trailer parks, TV stations are relatively tornado-free". So, by making that remark, your wanting these people to die...".

The latter person threw in some meterological terms in an attempt to (a) impress readers with his alleged forecasting prowess or (b) cover up his badly-written grammar and his inability to properly quote from and accurately comprehend the "article". If he is a forecaster, I hope he can interpret a weather map better than he can the written word, for the sake of his audience.

I decided to throw a couple comments of my own into the fray, making light of two critics thus: "if you could spell and had some ability regarding reading comprehension -- and you need to know both to be a meteorologist, along with being able to walk and chew gum at the same time *gasp* -- you'd have at least one fact right about a tongue-in-cheek article, and you wouldn't look as stupid as you have now let the blogging world see you look".

I know, I know....I didn't learn my lesson with the poking fun at politically correct Xmas (and my two detractors on that occasion, Tom and his "hurls at nativity scenes" friend Michelle), or the infamous (but funny...at least to me) New Mexico scenery flap. Most times, I can treat absurdity with the silence it deserves. But once in a while...I just can't resist lowering myself to the same absurd level, to poke a stick in the eye of the original absurdant by firing back.

So it came as no surprise to me that one of Mr. Rantamaki's critics would take the opportunity to turn his pique my way:

tis i once again said (with his unique brand of logic and eloquence): "Mr. 'Skunkfeathers'...I'm assuming that's a well-earned name..I'm very glad that you can type with a very stupid dialect that really shows your maturity level. Anyway, I noticed you say your an amateur storm chaser. Well, I guess that proves that you know everything there is to know about weather also (this guy's Clintonesque ways to miscomprehend written words is a hoot). It's not like any idiot with a camera can step outside and record a little footage of a storm and claim to be a storm chaser. I'd like to challenge both of you to look at and interpret models and come up with even a half-ass forecast, then get in front of that green screen and deliver that forecast to the viewing public. When you can do better, then try to write your little articles criticizing other people's work. Until then....I guess you need to shut the f*** up."

I especially love his maturity comment, and how he showed his own void of it, but I digress.

Now, I've written a few blog entries on my own experiences with storm chasing, and have been candid about my meteorological training (and considerable lack thereof). And I've never suggested to anyone I know or pretend to know that I can forecast the weather, let alone play a forecaster on TV. At the same time, I can appreciate the environment I live in -- along the NE foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains -- and can, over the 36 years I've lived here, appreciate some of the difficulties the natural anomalies herebouts throw at meteorologists trying to come up with accurate weather forecasting. Even using models, satellite imaging and doppler radar, forecasters are never sure what's going to come from the mouth of a super model.
tis i said, that's, I say, that's a joke, son (not that he'll get it, but what the skunkfeathers...).

I have also been witness to some pretty awry forecasts. I was here on December 24, 1982, when the National Weather Service upgraded a forecast of "snow showers" to "a blizzard warning". They made that addendum to their orginal forecast ten hours after it was evident to the rest of us living in the blizzard. And many a storm warning since, there have been "certain to hit us" storms that failed to appear, having shifted south or north at the last minute. And there have been plenty of forecasts that predicted a miss...and it didn't.

But even with some of the spectacular failures in local weather forecasting, you'll never hear Channel 9's weather maven Kathy Sabine disparaged as much as a conservative politician, right or wrong. Besides, she's too nice to disparage. And a babe to boot.

Okay, I heard those *oinks* out there.

At any rate, when I decide it's time to piss some readers off again -- if this entry didn't do it -- I'll do a "weather forecasting for dummies" edition. That oughta give tis i said and his unable-to-comprehend-what-they-read chums, some more to denigrate my maturity over, or that of fellow humor writers like Rick Rantamaki. All the while taking their own alleged maturity to new lows, by the vice of their own inability to understand what they read.

And that's pretty easy to forecast, dysfunctional computer super models aside.

*Now enjoy the Comments section, as Tis I Said continues the fray therein*