2005 Hurricane Season finally Ends (we think)

[marcusmarcusrc]

I SUPPOSE IT IS ONLY FITTING THAT THE RECORD-BREAKING 2005 ATLANTIC
HURRICANE SEASON ENDS WITH A RECORD BREAKING STORM. TODAY... ZETA
SURPASSED 1954 ALICE #2 AS THE LONGEST-LIVED TROPICAL CYCLONE TO
FORM IN DECEMBER AND CROSS OVER INTO THE NEXT YEAR. ZETA WAS ALSO
THE LONGEST-LIVED JANUARY TROPICAL CYCLONE. IN ADDITION...ZETA
RESULTED IN THE 2005 SEASON HAVING THE LARGEST ACCUMULATED CYCLONE
ENERGY...OR ACE... SURPASSING THE 1950 SEASON. SO... UNTIL THE 2006
SEASON BEGINS... UNLESS ZETA SOMEHOW MAKES AN UNLIKELY MIRACLE
COMEBACK... THIS IS THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER SIGNING OFF FOR
2005... FINALLY.

Comments

[farwing.livejournal.com]

Those poor overworked national hurricane center employees...

[philiptan.livejournal.com]

They have periods, dashes and hexes, but no commas?

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they thought they were in a job which had a 6 month season, and now they find it is year round. I wonder if there's a betting pool for when the first tropical storm of 2006 will happen.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Well, they ran out of commas halfway through Hurricane Beta, shortly after they used up the last of their lowercase letters. Exclamation points and interrobangs were actually the first to go, they hadn't stocked up nearly enough when the season began and there was much need for them this year...

pphhzzztt

[medyani.livejournal.com]

What's an interrobang?

;)

Re: pphhzzztt

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

You don't know what an interrobang is?!

From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves": "Before the advent of the internet, our punctuation system was very conservative about admitting new marks; indeed, it held out for decades while a newfangled and rather daft symbol called the "interrobang" (invented in 1962) tried to infiltrate the system, disguised as a question mark on top of an exclamation [...] Yes, the interrobang will find its place at last - especially given that its name has overtones of a police interview terminating in an explosion."

I don't think the author of E,S&L really likes the interrobang. Also, I guess if exclamation points are gone, it is redudant to say that interrobangs are gone too.