Lapham & Wolcott

Lapham has now entered our language as a term for reporting an event in the past tense before it has actually occurred. We have a similar opportunity presented to us by one James Wolcott, who writes:

I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong--Mother Nature's fist of fury, Gaia's stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own.

....

Hurricane Frances also has a heraldic quality. Camille Paglia observed on Salon in February, 2003 that the explosion of the Columbia shuttle on the eve of the war on Iraq was a "stunning omen," one that would make a Roman general think twice. A catastrophe strewing death, fire, and human remains across Bush's home state of Texas was inauspicious to our undertaking; and so it has proven to be. Frances is the second hurricane to afflict Florida, home of brother Jeb, in rapid succession.

The gods are not pleased.

Okay, so Wolcott is clearly nuts, a good 8.5 on the SDL* scale. But we need to define this new term better than that. A verb, perhaps: wolcott v. To wish for the mass destruction of one's fellow humans, in the smug assurance that this could never happen to you.

More at Tim Blair and Dave Barry.

* Standardised Delusional Lefty

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:08 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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