Two more inches

Southern California now has a deadline to meet. It is remarkable in itself that this winter has been the "wettest" in a hundred and fifteen years but what makes all the rain we have been treated to so far more worthwhile is that we are only about two inches shy of the "wettest winter" of 1883-84 since meteorological records started to be maintained in 1877. It is an interesting fact that the two wettest seasons in Southern California before this year were both within 6 years of each other and in the late nineteenth century. I wonder if this means that since 1890 there has been an irreversible trend towards drier conditions and if this is indeed the case what could have been the factors that led to it?

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BBC humour

The BBC reports that:

Workers at a walnut processing plant in California ended their 13-year strike after ratifying a five-year contract, clearing the way for their return to work. "Nobody ever thought it would take this long," said Lucio Reyes, the union's secretary-treasurer.

Police in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh have been told to befriend stray dogs to aid their battle against Maoist rebels. The Andhra Pradesh police chief sent instructions calling on officers to share their food with strays and keep them in police stations during the day. The dogs would then be let out at night so that their barking could alert police to a rebel attack. He has also instructed his men to get in shape in an image-building exercise.

Obviously, a slow news day.

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Feels great to be back

As I write these lines in front of a silent television screen listening to a beautiful rendition of the timeless Mirza Ghalib ghazal "Dil Dhoondta Hai, Phir Wahi Fursat Ke Raat Din", Sehwag has hit 82 "chancy" runs in 102 deliveries; India has lost one wicket in its first innings reply to Pakistan's mammoth 570. Ever since Australia trounced India at home, cricket dropped off from the top of my watchlist to be replaced with American football. After having followed the agonising loss of NFL's very own James Stewart, Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts to the mighty Patriots and then being in the airport at Philadelphia boarding a flight with only twenty-odd other passengers the day the Eagles played and lost to the Patriots in Superbowl, it feels great to be back home watching with bated breath, hoping against hope that Sehwag will chill his nerves and opt for gumption over his usual manic aggression, praying that Dravid will not fall prey to excessive caution and attempt to pad the ball while Bucknor in a fit of exasperation decides to raise his pointy finger of doom.

Second-wettest

We could still get there

The records

13-year itch

Stray dogs and the Maoists

More BBC humour

Dil Dhoondta Hai, now a weblog too.

October 2004 - November 2004

July 2004 - September 2004

May 2004 - June 2004

April 2004

January 2004 - March 2004