Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc for thousands along the east coast this past summer, causing flooding, downed-trees and left many without power. The act of calling Irene, Irene, comes from a long history of humans personifying nature with boring ass names. These names in many ways represent hysterical ignorance. For example, hurricanes that hit the West Indies in the 19th and early 20th century were named after saints. Of course they'd be named after saints, as they were clearly a blessing in disguise. The US weather service only named hurricanes after females until the 1970s, when they finally decided that men could destroy homes too. Check that as a win for the women's rights movement. All the hurricane naming system really does is put a perfectly OK name out of commission. How many Katrina's do you think have been born since 2005? My guess is not many.
Enter the always hysterical and brutally honest Scots. Today Scotland was hit with a rare inland hurricane. With 100mph+ winds and serious storm surges it would seem nothing to make fun of. In traditional Scottish fashion that's exactly what they've done. The Scots endearingly named the storm Hurricane Bawbag. No one is really sure where it started but boy has it caught on. Not just the young, hip and twitter-obsessed are using it. Council members, meteorologists and Scots of all ages and types are referring to this storm as a nut sac - or an idiot, depending how you use it. It's moments like these that remind me of why I look back on Scotland so fondly and how much I often miss the country and people. The weather... now that's another story.
Good point about the name Katrina being out of commission. You can still call somebody a bawbag though, us Scots won't mind!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Adolf has gained any popularity since that whole hitler connection certainly sent its popularity into a free fall.
ReplyDeletei call someone a bawbag on a regular basis. i'm surrounded by them, joey.