When I got home last night my husband Rich was sitting in the living room with a new lamp on his side table. Ok so far, it's his little domain next to easy chair, right? It was shinning very bright which is an improvement, right? He bought it at an Amish store, of course. It's a very heavy brass table lamp in a stained glass Tiffany style, with a huge gigantic overwhelmingly large lamp shade that extends way way way beyond the size of his table top. The glass shade has bright iridescent cherry red trim around the bottom and around the top. Red is his favorite color. The huge glass panels in the middle are mostly solid white, allowing a lot of light through.  But it's way too much light, like a lighthouse beacon as you look towards the living room from the kitchen. Really!

Then I see the same bright red color on the design of the red/white lamp. No other colors at all. The 3 panels with a design are of a simple red object pointing upwards. It think it's some kind of insignia as I walk closer.  Is it Red Wings hockey? That's big here in Michigan. One step more and I get it fully focused in my eyes. It's a bright red glowing symbol that I've never seen before. He innocently doesn't know what it means and thinks it's just a pretty design in his favorite color. Then I look towards my chair. He has removed my favorite very old brass lamp that reminds me of my dear Dad and has given me a shinny new lamp to match his! OMG!!! X 2 -

What is this design? At first it makes me kinda think of a Jewish menorah. No, those aren't candles.  They look more like letters. IU or UI? Ah ha, University of Indiana! Since we don't watch football at our house, we're only familiar with Michigan State and U of M. So, I guess we've become Michiganders that are rooting for Indiana?

I immediately have a decision to make. Do I laugh hysterically? Do I faint? Get mad as Hell and start swearing at him? All of these thoughts are swirling through my head so fast that I can't even think straight. Out of the fog I hear his voice say: "Hi Nan, how do you like the new lamp?" Oh no, I'm now expected to talk, to reply, to compose words? The only thing that comes to my mind is to ask advice from the wife of the man in the old movie A Christmas Story. He opened the box containing his wining prize and found the famous lady's leg lamp with a fringy shade! If only I had that bratty kid's BB gun, I'd shoot Rich's damn lamp!!!

For hundreds of years, hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. An Australian meteorologist began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the 19th century. In 1953, the U.S. National Weather Service, which is the federal agency that tracks hurricanes and issues warnings and watches, began using female names for storms.

In 1979, both women and men's names were used. One name for each letter of the alphabet is selected, except for Q, U and Z. For Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, the names may be French, Spanish or English, since these are the major languages bordering the Atlantic Ocean where the storm occur.

So who decides what names are used each year? The World Meteorological Organization uses six lists in rotation. The same lists are reused every six years. The only time a new name is added is if a hurricane is very deadly or costly. Then the name is retired and a new name is chosen.

In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on.

There is a list of hurricane/cyclone names that are unique for different parts of the world.  For a complete list of all worldwide names, see www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml.  For a United States list of Atlantic, Pacific and retired names, see www.fema.gov/kids/hunames.htm.  

Is your name on the list?  Mine isn't.  Was anyone born during a hurricane or named after one?