'Perfect storm' is a way overused term, but ...

My daughter and I used to go to movies whenever we could, despite the fact that at times I embarrassed her with an outburst at some failure of  the movie  we were watching.  

For instance we still disagree on the first "Matrix."  I was fine with the movie through most of it, I mean, you accept the fantasy premise and it all works, but what got me was toward the end.  After the hero had gone through a period of doubt, he came back from an injury and as he was coming out of what appeared to be a coma, the heroine kissed him and it was then he realized he was THE ONE and assumed his semi-super powers.  At that point I said something like "oh come on" right out loud.  I was outraged that a reasonably good science fiction movie turned on the oldest fairy tale trick in the book, where the princess kisses the prince and all is well with the world.  Good grief.  My daughter disagrees, of course.

Another movie we saw where I did it again  was "A Perfect Storm," although we don't totally disagree on this one.  I had written a book in which I called the criminal-looking crew on a crab-fishing boat "thugs."  Early in the movie as the Andrea Gail was heading out to sea there was a shot of the crew standing on the work deck.  My daughter elbowed me and whispered "thugs."  I had to smile, so warming when something you wrote made an impression on your kids.  But that wasn't my outburst, and, it is not one we disagreed about, except for my impolite statement out loud in a movie theater.

When the storm the book and movie were named for, showed up, there was a still shot, which I assumed was a real satellite photo of the storm.  In it the entire East Coast of North America and the ocean offshore from Florida into Canada were covered by clouds.  Three low pressure systems came together to form that storm and at the center a spout of clouds rose from the otherwise flat layer, indicating a huge low pressure center.  That photo brought the mariner out in me as I looked at what was going on and without thinking I said way too loud, "Jesus Christ."  That got me another elbow in the ribs.

The photo looked a little bit like this one:

Hurricane Sandy centered off the coast of the Carolinas Saturday afternoon.  NOAA/NASA

 That's Hurricane Sandy approaching the East Coast with a path forecast to take it inland aimed straight at Western New York where I grew up and where I still have family. It's not a perfect storm in the sense of the one from the book, but the photo elicited almost the same response. I hope all the folks in the path of it along with my family take it seriously.  Like we used to say in the world of oil spill response, even if it doesn't happen, it's good training to respond. Too bad my daughter isn't here to throw another elbow into my ribs like she did the first time.

AN AFTERTHOUGHT: Because elements were predicted to come together to form this storm, some media outlets started calling it "Frankenstorm."  Cute, but given the seriousness of the potential damage this one can cause, the National Weather Service discouraged the use of that term and it has slowly faded away. Agreed.  Cute names tend to diminish the seriousness of events and these need to be taken seriously.