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The time it snowed knee-deep to a Galveston stevedore

Anyone who has read Sebastian Junger’s book “The Perfect Storm,” or have more likely seen the film starring George Clooney adapted from the book, probably understand the title’s meaning. The story tells of the events leading up to the “Great Halloween Nor’easter of 1991” with its title born after a conversation by Junger and Boston National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Case after the weatherman has spoken of just the right conditions converging in order to form “the perfect storm.”

This afternoon I was looking at some snowfall records for my area — on the upper Texas Gulf Coast — and wondered about just what perfect storm had formed that gave this area its greatest snowfall ever and one it hasn’t seen since.

NWS records show that the most snow ever recorded for Beaumont was the 30 inches that fell on Feb. 14-15, 1895. The second greatest was one in 1960 during which 4.4 inches fell. I don’t remember that one because it happened when I was only 4 years old and living about 60 miles to the northeast of where I now live. The third greatest snowfall, though, I do remember. It was in 1973 and was still growing up in my hometown. Beaumont received 3 inches during that January snowfall and since we got so few snows we really didn’t know how to properly measure it. But from what I can remember of it, I’d say it probably was around that depth. I do remember it was my first time to drive in snow. Luckily, the streets were empty that evening.

Now I’m sure you who live where a lot of snow falls during the winter would scoff at even the 30 inch snow. Nonetheless, that is a boatload for this area and it was part of a storm that affected the Gulf Coast all the way to Tampico, Mexico, to Pensacola, Fla. Beaumont and Orange must have been “ground zero” during that 1895 snow because this area seemed to have recorded the most snow with a dusting in northern Mexico on one end to several inches in Florida on the other.

The fact that there has never been a snowfall to equal it has to be somewhat significant in meteorological terms, or so I’d think.

As some seem to believe the liberals push the idea that every aberrant weather event is caused by global warming there nevertheless had to be some extraneous factors going on for a large snowstorm this far South back near the end of the century-before-last. A column I found about that winter storm written about Galveston plus an Internet comment made by a reader advances the idea that the 1895 storm might have indeed been the perfect storm for this area.

A gentleman writing in response to this most interesting column by Galveston weather expert Stan Blazyk on the Galveston County Daily News website surmised that material blasted out of the violent Indonesian volcano Krakatoa might have played a part in this great snowstorm. I have heard of and read about such effects from volcanoes and have seen as much myself from the Philippine’s Mt. Pinatubo’s in 1991.  In fact, the volcano released more aerosols and sulfur dioxide than any other eruption since Krakatoa in 1883.  Pinatubo lowered the global temperature by almost 1 full degree Fahrenheit.

Blazyk said Krakatoa most likely did have an impact on temperatures although an emergence had begun to take place from a cooling trend that had lasted until the middle part of the 19th century. I am naturally skeptical so the fact that the effects from both the cooling trend and Krakatoa happening years apart from massive Southern snow make me wonder if such is possible. Yet, I have to say, probably so, because I am sure anyone knows more than I do about the scientific aspects of the atmosphere.

I would hate to get on the roads with others who are even more cold-weather driving-challenged that myself though I must admit I wouldn’t mind seeing 2 1/2 feet of snow falling on this part of Southeast Texas. That is, I wouldn’t mind it if it required no labor or extreme exercise to get through it on my part. In other words, I wouldn’t mind watching it but little else.

 

 

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Cannons to the left of me, cannons to the right … of my minivan

A story on CNN caught my attention this morning as I brushed my teeth. I started to laugh in between molars and a few rugged bicuspids until I caught myself as the short news brief was read.

It seems an errant cannonball fired during the filming of a Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” episode went on a wild ride through a San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood. The show was taping at the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department bomb disposal range, where 50 previous episodes were previously filmed, when the 6-inch projectile went “zing” off a hillside and then went “zang” through two stories of a suburban home before blasting through the windows of Toyota Sienna minivan parked in a driveway. Remarkably, no one was hurt which is even more remarkable since the shell flew through a neighborhood where children were coming home from school, and through an upstairs bedroom where a man, woman and child slept through it all before hitting the minivan in which a man and his 13-year-old son sat.

“Mythbusters” is a show in which the hosts use weird scientific experiments to debunk myths, often at the expense of some automobiles and crash-test dummies including one named “Buster.” Of course, in this case it was at the expense of a house and someone’s minivan. It can be a pretty funny show sometimes. But I couldn’t help but think, looking into the mirror with my bed-creased face, that this must have scared the crap out of folks especially once the adrenalin was no longer there to smooth the edges. I’m talking the almost victims’ edges, not my bed face.

I once did a story about some artillery shells raining down in the back yard of some folks who lived in the tiny community of King, Texas. Those 155mm projectiles had flown some seven or eight miles from Fort Hood, where they had been fired from a M-109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer engaged in training by an artillery battalion of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division. Army officials said after the incident that an improper compass reading was fed into the big gun’s computer, causing the cannon shells to fly off course. The guns were firing 180 degrees off target.

“Uh, sorry Sarge, wrong way.”

Some pretty large holes were made in the ground near a couple of houses and the foundation of at least one home cracked as wells as glass from windows and a chandelier was shattered.  A lady who lived in a house near where one of the shells landed told me she was in the bathtub when the shells started coming down. Imagine that, sitting and enjoying a nice bath when artillery rounds started falling in your yard. Luckily, no people, pets or livestock — this was a ranching area — were hurt.

It was incredibly lucky for those folks who took the errant rounds both in Texas and California. It is the type of happening one might hope they can laugh about someday. Some might be even laughing all the way to the bank!

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Dreaming of a Red, white and green Christmas?

Call me a cynic if you like — I will plead guilty although to lesser charges — but I have discovered the real truth about the “Faux War on Christmas.”

Each year around this time you hear the stories. This school banned decking the halls with boughs of holly. That city council cancelled the Nativity scene. It is all, of course, because a school or government body decides after getting some heat from one group or the other that the celebration of Christmas crosses the forbidden line between church and state. One will find the stories, perhaps, with some truth while other times the state-mandated Grinchdom may have some totally different reason behind such actions. Those reasons, in such case, will be conveniently left out by those who seek to perpetuate yet another great American myth.

You want specific instances? I don’t need no stinkin’ specific instances, or double negatives either! You all know what I am talking about.

For all the years I have heard such stories, I wondered what was behind this “War on Christmas” which finds such ire from right-wing pundits like Bill O’Reilly. I saw some figures that got me thinking. Now, it should come as no surprise what is most important to conservatives (and many, many liberals alike.) That would be money.

Yes, dear friends. Are you dreaming of a “white Christmas” or a “green” one? And even worse, it isn’t just the American 1 percenters who are raking in the dough. Consider these interesting facts from the U.S. Census Bureau:

–$983 million was the value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from China between January and September 2011. China was also the leading foreign source of artificial Christmas trees shipped to the United States ($79.7 million worth) during the same period. Holy chop sticks, Batman!

–$27.2 billion, yes, billion, was  the amount in retail sales by the nation’s department stores in December 2010 alone.  This represented a 44 percent jump from the previous month (when retail sales, many holiday-related, registered $18.8 billion). And what does the Santa outside the store receive? Maybe minimum wage plus a kick in the shins by some “cute” little tyke.

–$34 billion was the value of retail sales by electronic shopping and mail-order houses in December 2010 — the highest total for any month last year. Want to buy a Grecian urn? And just what does a Grecian earn? Not much these days.

–$2.5 billion was the amount of U.S. toy imports including stuffed toys (including dolls), puzzles and electric trains from China between January and September 2011. China was the leading country of origin for stuffed toys coming into this country, as well as for a number of other popular holiday gifts. These include roller skates ($24.6 million), sports footwear ($253.8 million) and basketballs ($38.9 million).

Need I go on? I need not, indeed.

Between those wily Reds and those humble folks at Spendalottamoney-Mart and Shoptillyourfingersfalloff-World, Christmas means a whole lot of moohlah! Good grief! Will we let the Chinese become the world basketball-making power? And skates? Who’d have thought?

Would it not make sense that a common enemy helps ensure that folks go out and spend, spend, spend before all those schools and governments require that everyone celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa (during which many candles are lit that were among the $1.5 billion in shipments of candles in 2009)?

No, you say?

Oh well. It was just a theory, like E = mc2 or perhaps like E=mcdonalds. Big Mac anyone?

 

 

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Smart like Newt. A new Earth. Footsball galore

It’s Monday, if you needed a reminder. Rather than having to use my brain cells one iota more than needed — like that was going to happen — I thought I would pass along a little interesting reading.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

A lot of stories are coming out about front-runner de jour of the GOP presidential pack, former House Speaker Newt “Newt” Gingrich. Many such articles deal with subjects such as his ego and pomposity. Those are not exactly high crimes and misdemeanors but for a party with a solid know-nothing wing it is uncertain how the Newt might fare against, say, a Mormon. As an article I read yesterday, sorry, I don’t remember where I saw it, pointed out, G.W. Bush had a bachelor’s degree from Yale and an M.B.A. from Harvard. Had that not been such public knowledge one would have never known it because he didn’t just play dumb, he played dumb to perfection.

Newt’s business dealings may be the one really difficult spot as a presidential candidate. Here is a Forbes article that examines “Newt as Sleazeball.” I think that in the end most Americans do not care for crooked politicians and many care even less for pompous legends in their own mind who think they are the slickest thing since Butch hair wax. Wow, do you know they still sell that stuff? This Christian Science Monitor piece looks at whether Newt would be the most formidable opponent for President Obama. Many Democrats would d0 the Happy Dance if Newt were nominated, then again, the Republicans will elect just about anything, and have done so.

Finally, Newt paid a visit to New York today to kiss the ring of The Donald. What’s that all about? A new reality show in the making? The Newt Towers. He’p us. He’p us, please!

Kepler 22b: A nice place to be from

Scientists are all excited about the discovery of Kepler 22b, the Earth-like planet with a surface temperature of 72 degrees. Sounds good to me if it rains there.

Some foots-ball talk

It seems as if every year the list of college football bowl games get longer and longer. Bowls are not just the destination for collegiate teams which win their conference but now second and sometimes third and maybe fourth place teams get a piece of the action. Plus adding the name of the corporate sponsor just about makes me throw up in my mouth a little. The Viagra Erection Bowl, the Little Friskies Killer Cat Bowl, the Cruex There’s A Fungus Among Us Bowl, the Amish Quilt Bowl … the list goes on and on.

Finally, the Houston Texans are now 9-3 after beating the Atlanta Falcons using their third-string quarterback T.J. Yates. The win came at the cost of three key players injured with one gone for the season.

It doesn’t matter what Texans haters or Texans self-haters say. It is quite an accomplishment to come so far under so much adversity, including the loss of starting QB Matt Schaub and backup Matt Leinart last week. Star receiver Andre Johnson, unfortunately, went out in the Texans 17-10 win with recurring problems to his Achilles tendon. Johnson may be back in a couple of weeks but punter Bret Hartmann is lost for the season after suffering a tear to his left anterior cruciate ligament. Inside linebacker Brian Cushing also left the game with a hurt knee but is expected to return next week against Cincinnati. The team has signed a couple of backups, the Cajun Man himself, Jake Delhomme was signed as second-string QB. Delhomme played college ball at Louisiana-Lafayette. He played for New Orleans as well as Super Bowl runner ups Carolina Panthers. Former Texans punter Matt Turk has been signed to substitute for the injured Hartmann.

 

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If you could read my mind … Like it would make any difference

Last night I saw a TV spot advertising an upcoming Gordon Lightfoot concert at our local Julie Rogers Theater. Two thought struck me when I viewed the commercial.

First, Gordie is beginning to show his age. Aren’t we all? I guess you see someone in a picture on a record album and it just sticks with you. The man is 73 years old though and didn’t, from the brief shot on the tube, seem nearly as weathered as Willie Nelson. Of course, Willie has been around all that smoke and out in the sun playing golf. It’ll weather a man, for sure.

Second, I think about the venue in which Lightfoot will play being similar to the one in which I saw him perform back in 1978 at San Diego Civic Theater. The Julie Rogers, once known as the Beaumont Municpal Auditorium, has total seating of about 1,600. The San Diego venue almost 3,000. Both venues may have been different in capacity 33 years ago. I only visited the old municipal auditorium once and that was in high school for Jerry LaCroix and White Trash, after Edgar Winter had departed the band. Winter and his brother Johnny, are from Beaumont by the way. LaCroix and some of the other band members are also natives of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. Nevertheless, I think I stood up during the whole concert because they played music that would get you moving even if you were dead. The point is both facilities — in Beaumont and San Diego — are small enough for one to appreciate a mellow performer like Lightfoot. I can only imagine Lightfoot coming on for the Rolling Stones during the concert I saw at the Louisiana Superdome only a month or so after I saw Lightfoot in California. It just wouldn’t work.

I can’t remember how much I paid to see Gordie in 1978. I went with one or two shipmates and the fact that we were in the Navy back then, with me as an E-5 making about $600 a month, I can’t imagine the admission was too pricey. That is actually part of the reason I went to as many concerts as I did back in the 1970s. I was a real freak for music and, some would argue, a real freak. And rock concerts were abundant: The Doobie Brothers, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Fleetwood Mac (three times in two countries), ZZ Top, the Stones, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, Bob Seger, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, just to name a dozen.

Looking at Ticketmaster, about the cheapest seat I could find for the Lightfoot concert in January was about $50 on Ticketmaster for a balcony seat. That isn’t Himalayas-style nosebleed as when I saw the Stones, Doobies and David Lee Roth-era Van Halen at what is now the (oh goodness) Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Of course, $50 today has the same buying power as did $14.50 in 1978, according to my favorite little economic tool, the Inflation Calculator, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I would love to hear Gordie play “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” or, probably my favorite GL song, “High and Dry,” even though he might not even play the latter anymore on stage as it never was a well-known song for him. The truth is $50 is a little steep for a Tuesday night’s entertainment. I probably wouldn’t find being seated and unseated with 1,600 folks too difficult these days, but cavorting with 50,000 or 60,000 people as I did  at the Superdome to watch the Stones just would be something I can no longer hack.

Both Gordie and I are getting old(er), no doubt about it.