As the linked story relates, there was a small earthquake just south of Indianapolis yesterday. There’s nothing earth shattering in the article (get it, earth shattering???), but I had to share a nugget from the extensive coverage (slow news day) of the event on last night’s late local news. Contrary to what the IU geologist says in the Star article, another “expert” interviewed last night looked gravely at the camera and said, “It’s quite likely there will be a major earthquake in Indiana in the near future.” Naturally, he offered no evidence for his assertion nor did he put “near future” into perspective. Does he mean in the next ten years, or in the next 10,000 years?
No matter, I could hear the elderly, the sick, and people who just like to worry scampering out of their easy chairs and developing a plan to hoard water and food. “Agnes, the man on the television set said we’re going to have a major earthquake soon. Wake the kids! Make sure we have fresh batteries in all the flashlights! We’d better wrap the house in cellophane while we’re at it. It would be just like Al Queda to attack us when we’re trying to dig out of a quake.”
As an aside, I asked my wife where Shelby County was. She responded, “It’s wherever Shelbyville is.” I don’t get much help from her when I’m trying to learn my Indiana geography.