The Bad Right Side
It seems to me that the right side of things is usually the trouble side. I wonder if it's the same for most people. My right foot is often the source of pain, my left very rarely. My right eye is weaker than my left. My hernia was on the right. And then of course there's politics, in which nearly all the abominations and the consequent threats and difficulties of existence stem from what is called, for various reasons that don't occur to me at the moment, the Right.
I was reminded of this by Hurricane Katrina, which, after having already made one damaging pass across Florida, is back over warm waters in the Gulf and steadily strengthening again, before it will take another whack at a much larger chunk of the mainland, and it is becoming a big threat to the fabled city from which my parents came but which I have never visited, New Orleans. And quite often the storms that hit Louisiana continue up this way, to my western part of Virginia, or they send their offspring. A classic case of this was Camille in 1969, which, after having hit the Gulf Coast hard, took special aim at just this one small county hundreds of miles to the north, taking over 100 lives here by filling the mountain coves with 25 inches of rain in one night. And it looks as if Katrina won't be stingy with its rainfall either, in places.
The Weather Channel is at pains to tell us that those in the path of Katrina's right quadrant, on the east side of the furiously whirling saw blade, are in the greatest danger, as in all or at least the great majority of hurricanes.
What is it about the right that makes it the most used and often damaging side? Something as basic as the Earth's rotation?
Curiously, its sister planet, the beautiful one with the deadly atmosphere, Venus, rotates in the opposite direction, as do a couple of others, too -- Uranus and Pluto, I think. But which ones got off on the wrong foot -- or the right foot, as the case may be? The majority of the planets, or the minority? And what caused the difference? Did the Intelligent Designer just like to mix up things? These are questions worth pondering while we on a hurricane's right wait as it draws closer.
I was reminded of this by Hurricane Katrina, which, after having already made one damaging pass across Florida, is back over warm waters in the Gulf and steadily strengthening again, before it will take another whack at a much larger chunk of the mainland, and it is becoming a big threat to the fabled city from which my parents came but which I have never visited, New Orleans. And quite often the storms that hit Louisiana continue up this way, to my western part of Virginia, or they send their offspring. A classic case of this was Camille in 1969, which, after having hit the Gulf Coast hard, took special aim at just this one small county hundreds of miles to the north, taking over 100 lives here by filling the mountain coves with 25 inches of rain in one night. And it looks as if Katrina won't be stingy with its rainfall either, in places.
The Weather Channel is at pains to tell us that those in the path of Katrina's right quadrant, on the east side of the furiously whirling saw blade, are in the greatest danger, as in all or at least the great majority of hurricanes.
What is it about the right that makes it the most used and often damaging side? Something as basic as the Earth's rotation?
Curiously, its sister planet, the beautiful one with the deadly atmosphere, Venus, rotates in the opposite direction, as do a couple of others, too -- Uranus and Pluto, I think. But which ones got off on the wrong foot -- or the right foot, as the case may be? The majority of the planets, or the minority? And what caused the difference? Did the Intelligent Designer just like to mix up things? These are questions worth pondering while we on a hurricane's right wait as it draws closer.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 7:04 AM
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