DECEMBER 5th - The Great Smog Crane-Kick



This day in 1952 was the first of the Great Smog or Big Smoke of ‘52. Not to get all meteorological on you, but an anticyclone and cold weather powered up like two rapscallions teaming up into a more sinister organized crime unit to collect a crapload of airborne pollutants to form a layer of fog thicker than Mr. Magoo’s glasses. Or thicker than Kim Kardashian’s posterior--just to keep things hippy--er I mean hip. Not that the Great Smog was any joking matter. In fact, it’s one of the worst things I can imagine happening from a health standpoint. Because Londoners were used to fog. So there was no panic. People were just kind of ho-hum ‘bout the whole thing, not realizing that the fog was actually deadly. It was basically The Karate Kid of weather events (the original with Ralph Macchio; not the mistake with Will Smith’s kid that I regret to say I actually watched). The smog came in all innocent looking like Daniel-san before he met Miyagi, but then it stalled in that anticyclone thing which was like when Daniel-san waxed-on and off for Miyagi, unknowingly becoming a karate master simply by performing household chores, and finally before the end that smog crane-kicked Londoners like they were the Cobra-Kai. Except that the smog was a tad more malevolent than sweet, little Daniel. It is estimated that the Great Smog proved fatal for about 12,000 people. Thankfully it led to multiple Clean Air Acts to control pollution similar to how Daniel-san ended up with Elisabeth Shue. Okay, not all that similar. But that was a good catch by Daniel-san. Totally outkicked his coverage on that one.

And just in case you were wondering, being the great humanitarian that he was, Thomas Jefferson would refuse to comment on such a tragedy. He was probably off not being impressed another of Ben Franklin's life-changing inventions anyway.

This day has been Marked.

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