An Appreciation of Zombies and Mount Saint Helens
I watched "
Shaun of the Dead" this weekend with my wife this weekend. It was a great movie for a number of reasons, the central one for me was the obliviousness of the average citizen. Great scenes of flipping through cable TV showed how even crucial messages can be lost when you are channel surfing. A few heavy hits on the self-absorbed behavior of people with cell phones are "fried gold" as well. If you see one zombie movie this year, you probably are a fairly well adjusted individual. You should see this movie anyway. Best British comedy in years and it is a real shame that this isn't saying much.
As a blogger, it was a revelation to me to look at my fellows in this perspective. The people around me are not particularly well informed or paying attention. My frustration in dealing with people who don't check Instapundit several times a day is reasonable. Most people are simply letting their routine and pettiness get in the way of understanding what is going on.
As an example of this, I live downwind of Mount St. Helens, which is showing every indication of being about to blow again in the next couple of weeks. Yesterday I went to Harbor Freight (six blocks away, to my wife's chagrin) to buy some filter masks and cheesecloth. To my pleased surprise, they were fully stocked. The clerk asked if I was going to do some painting. When I explained that the volcano within sight of the store was going to explode soon, he expressed surprise. It turns out that virtually nobody else in Portland had put together imminent volcano eruption and need to purchase filter masks and cheesecloth.
Thanks to
Cam at NRA News for taking my call on this today. He says he wants me to call again. I did stop talking before I made idiotic mistakes, and I thank Cam again for graciously allowing me to do so.
