A little AP nerdiness

As Hurricane Irene hurtles its way up the coast, it's all the rage in D.C. (After the earthquake was all the rage on Tuesday. Darned natural disasters!) So a journalism friend of mine posed the question on Twitter: Do we refer to hurricanes as "she" or "it"? Luckily, the AP Stylebook (style bible of journalists) had an answer: it. But the rest of the "hurricane" entry is the best part:

"And do not use the presence of a woman's name as an excuse to attribute sexist images of women’s behavior to a storm. Avoid, for example, such sentences as: The fickle Hazel teased the Louisiana coast."

Priceless. So glad I looked that up.

In the meantime, I really haven't been too worried about this storm. A few days ago, I read something that said it would pretty much just mean lots of rain for D.C. But now some people are freaking out, so I'm wondering if I'm downplaying it. But really, I'm not overly concerned and don't think I should be.