Things That Make You Go, "Whaaaaaa...?"

Earthquake in...England? I usually end up rolling my eyes at some point in this kind of article, because they usually say something to the effect of, "The Kent incident is the largest recorded in Britain since an earthquake in Dudley in 2002." In other words, 'This event is the largest event to happen since the last one that was larger'! At a movie theater a while ago, one of the pre-movie trivia they put on the screen had to do with Actor X and Actor Y appearing in Film A, "their first appearance together since" their then-most-recent appearance together three years earlier in Film B. Wow! And you know what else? Tomorrow will be the first time I'll go to work since coming home from work the day before yesterday. I mean, really. It's always phrased that way, I assume because the notion of 'the first' of something is supposed to have great cachet. Except that one can always construe circumstances such that anything can be a first. What has cachet is a significant first, not the mere fact of first-ness. What would be vastly more interesting, even as trivia, is that 'Film A is Actor X and Actor Y's ninth appearance together in eight years,' or 'This is the umpteenth earthquake of this magnitude or greater in this area over the past 50 years.'

Canada Sets Reduced Climate Goal Yes, that's the headline, at least as of this posting. "Reduced climate"...what would that be like, I wonder? I can't imagine how one goes about reducing climate.