Ready to blame El Nino

Looking for a scapegoat for all the world’s ills?

We have a suggestion. Just blame El Nino.

That’s right, El Nino, that weird atmospheric anomaly that causes

overheating oceans, overeating fish and overbearing storms is

reportedly back and stirring up chaos once again.

The last major El Nino, a condition in which a big patch of warm

water in the South Pacific pushes toward South America, took place in

1998. El Nino typically changes weather and fishing patterns

dramatically. But it also becomes a convenient whipping boy for all

things out of kilter. Stock market gone crazy, it was El Nino. Too

much cream in your coffee, El Nino. Pants too tight or shirt collar

too stiff, that’s El Nino, too.

El Nino, which means Christ child in Spanish, was blamed for

flooding and then blamed for the fires that followed because the

flooding caused grass to grow and blanket local hillsides, turning to

instant kindling by the summer months.

Oh yeah, all those rodents, the rats, squirrels, rabbits, etc.

that seemed to flourish after El Nino. Well, they eat the seeds that

come from the El Nino grasses that came from the flooding.

It’s all one big vicious El Nino rinse cycle. We just hope we all

come out OK in the wash.