Monday, February 23, 2015

Weather Wizards

   It may not be true of other metro areas, but the Philadelphia TV news stations seem to have just a handful of stories, which they cover endlessly, repeatedly, every day. These are: Weather, sports, fires, shootings & robberies (in that order), and maybe, occasionally, possibly, perhaps, city government or state government, and if it's really really big big big, a national story.  But their primary interests, probably reflecting the interests of their viewers, are weather and sports.
 
   As for the propensity to name things, it's a truism that when you give something a fancy name, it becomes more important.

   And as for weather reporting, these days the broadcasters are emphasizing the "wind chill factor" (or as they repeatedly call it, the "feels like" temperature. This is, of course, more dramatic than the actual temperature, since the "feels like" number is often near zero or below. Fahrenheit, of course. Just think how much more dramatic it would be if they used Celsius.

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