Regular readers know that TIME magazine funny man Joel Stein is a relatively liberal Democrat, but that doesn’t prevent him from issuing an occasional wisecrack that betrays some dissatisfaction with big government. His latest column includes one such jab.
[E]ven I got excited about winter storm Nemo, solely because it had an adorable name. I thought this was surprisingly good governmental work–until I found out that Nemo was generated by the private sector. Hurricane names are chosen by the world’s biggest bureaucracy, the U.N., which is why they always sound like kids sitting on a mat on a boring PBS show: Dennis, Irene, Andrew, Mitch. But Nemo was named by the Weather Channel, creator of the Fantasy Snowfall League, to get people excited about watching snow fall on TV. The National Weather Service, claiming that naming smaller storms will reduce the five-alarm impact of a Hattie, advised the media not to use the Weather Channel’s name, to which I say, Nemo, Nemo, Nemo, Nemo, Nemo.
Stein’s comment is humorous enough that I’ll ignore the insult.