The Eye of Earl

One of the best essays I’ve ever read, one that both Kris and I have enjoyed more than once, is E.B. White’s encounter — ahem, non-encounter — with Hurricane Edna. Anyone read that essay?

Here’s the skinny on the essay: He was up in Maine, the weather broadcasters had whipped the East Coast into a frenzy of what Edna might do, so White battened down everything in his home on the Maine coast. Got the windows protected; shut down the doors; took care of his little barn and all.

He spent a great deal of time listening to the radio hearing of warnings and threats and — by the time the East Coast was done listening they were ready for the apocalypse.

Then Edna came, or Edna non-came, and he got up the next day to a normal day with no evidence of a life-threatening storm.

That’s what I’m seeing with Earl. That true?