Getting Bogged Down and Sandy

Three cheers for all valiant reporters of the Weather Channel and their colleagues on CNN, and the three major networks, but it was like throwing a wet blanket over any entertainment potential the storm might have had. Every time you’d looked (if you were one of the lucky few who had power) they were up to their ankles, knees, thighs in water. If you were a producer this must have proposed some daunting challenges. While there was excitement about say the hanging crane on 57^th Street--whether it might fall and its potential for damage (and the Schadenfreudian wishes that the 90 story luxury tower , a modern day Tower of Babel built for the super rich, would fall) there wasn't much room for movement, when your basic story is that you and we are getting soaked. The actual losses and tragedies associated with major catastrophe were and continue to be heart wrenching. But the reporting was all a little like Groundhog Day, the movie where a weatherman (Bill Murray) ended up repeating himself. Normally commercial interruptions are anathema to viewers, but the pro bono work being done by television became so monotonous that commercial breaks started to be missed. If only we could hear again about the sale at this or that car dealership, about Cialis and Flomax, even good old General Foods seemed desirable. Once we could again be exploited by advertisers instead of the elements, life would return to normal.