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Getting my ash kicked over European volcano

The renewed volcanic activity in Iceland that is spewing a cloud of ash toward Europe is again causing me grief because of the name of my blog.

As with last year’s eruption, travelers looking for information about flight cancelations search Google for “volcanic ash,” find my blog and ask me for the latest news. When I politely say I can’t help, they call me names.

One Lady Gaga type from England who checked my blog for volcano info and instead saw Neil Abercrombie called me a “friggin’ idiot” on Twitter. Another fellow blamed me for his train being 10 minutes late.

As it happens, my wife is leaving on a trip to Europe this week and even she asks me about the ash situation. Geez, I can’t even pronounce the name of the volcano.

(If burglars or loose women have ideas about taking advantage of the knowledge that my wife is out of town, the former should be warned that I have protection and the latter should give a a few minutes to go to Long’s and get some.)

I am so dead if my wife joins the other Europeans checking my blog for travel information.

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This entry was posted on May 25, 2011 at 12:57 am and is filed under Volcanic Ash. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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7 Comments on “Getting my ash kicked over European volcano”

  1. zzzzzing Says:

    May 25, 2011 at 1:17 am

    That last bit left me nearly speechless…

  2. Earl of Sandwich Says:

    May 25, 2011 at 7:25 am

    Hilarious, Dave. 🙂

  3. Capitol -ist/WassupDoc Says:

    May 25, 2011 at 9:44 am

    David: What’s the backstory on your website? I know you grew up on the Big Island, but I am curious about your connections to Kilauea.

    RETURN TO AN EARLIER TOPIC: Interesting Letter to the Editor in today’s Star-Advertiser from a former Abercrombie supporter.

    However, unlike my experiences in trying to get appointments with staff who deal with specific topics, he was unable to meet directly with the Governor despite numerous attempts.

    Perhaps the Abercrombie Fifth (and Fourth) Floor Office Big Cheeses might want to work on establishing policies to help address some of these public communications tasks. I suspect that there are even highly-skilled individuals who would be willing to volunteer onne morning or afternoon a week.

  4. Cute Lunatic Says:

    May 25, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Hope your wife doesn’t see the Long’s comment. lol

  5. David Shapiro Says:

    May 25, 2011 at 10:03 am

    Cap,

    Here’s the backstory on how Volcanic Ash got its name, from a column on the last Iceland eruption. Again, my poor wife played a starring role:

    I should have been more clear when I started this column 15 years ago and said I wanted something acerbic in a name. I intended that it be sharp and biting, not associate me with the destruction of the airline industry and the European economy.

    There’s a lesson to be learned from the belching Icelandic volcano. When you’re named Eyjafjallajokull, you don’t get blamed by name for anything.

    I can point fingers at my wife, who actually came up with the column name after I enlisted her help in finding a catchy sig that reflected our Big Island roots.

    The way the creative process worked was that she gamely threw out suggestions and I kept rejecting them until she got tired of it, called me a “volcanic !@$&;%#” and stomped off. A few letters were subtracted and, voila: Volcanic As-h—.

  6. Cute Lunatic Says:

    May 25, 2011 at 10:49 am

    Dave,
    You should change the name of your blog. Vog As-h–.
    🙂

  7. Peter Kay Says:

    May 26, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    Hey, at least you’re not being confused with a UK Comedian “Peter Kay”. 😉


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