Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Odds and ends, 3/20/18


Happy first day of spring, everyone.

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Back about 20 years ago I was talking with a fellow reporter about her previous job. She said soon after she moved to that town, she was assigned to do a story about a community that had been hit by a flood (not one along the Ohio River). Her story was about what an awful thing had happened to these people. A few months later, the community was flooded again and her story was like, wow, what bad luck these folks have had.

A few months later, there was another flood. She wanted to write, but didn't, an article asking why these people aren't smart enough to move out of the flood plain.

In the case of people living along the Ohio River, this article answers part of that question.


“You just deal with it. You’re in your house more than you are out of it and it’s beautiful down here,” he said. “You get the mud in your blood.”


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Marathon Petroleum's marine transportation unit has won an award from the Coast Guard for its environmental improvement  efforts.

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The Washington Post has published an article and a photo essay about infrastructure on the Mississippi River. Some of the photos are pretty good, of course. Three decades ago, that would have been a bigger deal, as people like us didn't have access to media that could reach the masses. Now we do, and new photos of the Ohio River, its bridges and its other infrastructure are posted almost daily. Plus we can search for articles about whatever we're interested in.

It's a matter of searching until you find people whose work you appreciate and want to come back to.

One point about the Post article, and it's very, very picky. It mentions the "mighty Mississippi". TV people here in my part of the Ohio Valley talk about the "mighty Ohio River" constantly. They can't say "Ohio River" without sticking the adjective "mighty" in front of it.

But they never talk about the "almost mighty" Kanawha River, or the not-quite mighty Big Sandy River or the weak Shade River (no offense to Shade River fans; I needed an example) or puny Swan Creek.

It's just a peeve.

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And on another note, I spent part of Sunday afternoon trying to get an artsy picture of flood debris or something from the Ohio River that didn't have a boat, a bridge or a dam in it.

Remnants of a tree and other debris collected at the handrail for steps leading down to the river at Harris Riverfront Park in Huntington, W.Va. A thin layer of mud covered the parking area. Perhaps the city or the park district will remove the mud soon, or they may wait a while in case the river comes up again.

It didn't work. But I did see a good bridge shot that will have to wait for another day. The sun was at the wrong angle in the sky, so I need to get to that spot earlier.


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