MA tornadoes

[Joanne Despres]

Everything seems absolutely normal here at the office.  I was here at 4:30 yesterday afternoon and was completely unaware of what was going on downtown (perhaps a symptom of lexicographer's OCP?); I only found out when I arrived home and was informed by my friends, who, though 25-35 miles distant from the tornadoes, had been ordered to take shelter in the basements of their respective workplaces. It appeared to me that there were fewer than the normal number of cars in the parking lot when I pulled in a little while ago -- I wonder of some of those folks might be from Westfield, which apparently was hit hard.

Joanne

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Amy West
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 8:41 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: MA tornadoes

On 6/2/11 12:01 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Wed, 1 Jun 2011 23:31:57 -0400
> From:    victor steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: MA tornadoes
>
> Four tornadoes hit Massachusetts today during the day, all of them in the
> Springfield area. A couple were fairly minor, but two did major damage and
> caused casualties. The news are pouring nonstop over most local channels.
>
> A couple of minor observations. One reporter described a "tornastic storm".
> There are quite a few ghits for "tornadic" and OED and MWOL(11) list it
> (along with Wiktionary, but not many others). But "tornastic" only get 235
> raw ghits.

Yes, it was all very exciting for us here in Worcester.

But more relevant, Merriam-Webster is in Springfield. The tornado hit
downtown Springfield, probably a few blocks from Merriam, about the time
that folks would have been leaving for the day.

I'm waiting to hear from my former co-workers if everyone is okay.

--
---Amy West

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org