NOR'EASTER.(The Talk of the Town)(storm naming)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 05-SEP-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

It won't be long now before the hurricane season has passed, and, with it, the volatility of coastal winds. Bring on the mono-directional storms--the unrelenting northerly gusts, the odd gale-force southeaster. For Edgar Comee, of Brunswick, Maine, this transition marks a heightened alert in his self-appointed role of storm-watch monitor. His ears prick, his eyes narrow, the better to flag inexcusable mentions of that most unfortunate contraction: "nor'easter." When he comes across the word, while watching a "cruddy local ABC news anchor," as he puts it, or in the pages of a national magazine (see Talk of the Town, March 14, 2005), he dispatches a ready-made blue postcard.

"Now hear this!" the card begins. "The use of nor'easter to describe a northeast storm...

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