Claire, a word please?

Notwithstanding a little griping from some corners, I am pretty much ok with being ignored by the national media during our epic flood last weekend. Generally when you are ignored by the national press, it is because you are acting properly. We had little looting. The water shortage was initially handled by the unsung heroes in the Metro Water valve crew and subsequently through meaningful conservation. Everyone pitched in for rescue and clean-up. As far as disasters go, there is a whole lot of which we can be proud. That sort of thing doesn't get you on network news.

So, I was not too distressed to see that my recent issue of Time dedicated just 200 words and one picture to our flood. I was a little miffed, however, to read this line: "And the stage of the Grand Old Opry, the spiritual home of country music, once graced by legends like Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, is now waterlogged."

The flooded Opry house opened in 1974. Hank Williams died in 1953. Patsy Cline passed 10 years later. I was told not to give the writer, Claire Suddath, too hard a time by a mutual friend because the kid probably wasn't even born when all the things in the preceding sentence happened. But I will ask this: is it too much to ask that when the national media slights us during our region-wide tragedy, they do so accurately?