The Katrina-Fetus link

First of all, I wanted to steer you in the direction of Eve's Apple, who posted this e-mail Monday. She brings light to perhaps the grossest capitalization on disaster I've ever seen. It's become a Rorschach Test for the extremists among us.

See, apparently, that little space between Katrina and the eastern coast of Texas looks like a 6-week-old fetus.

Now, I ran a Google Image search for a 6-week-old fetus, and I came up with this little beauty on the left. Okay, so the hurricane slightly resembles a deformed fetus. So let's all read landforms like tea leaves.We'll look to the man in the moon with as much regard -- maybe he is a symbol that all men should hover above the Earth nightly. ... Or, more likely, it means nothing at all.

By the way, some of the comments at the Eve's Apple fetus post are pretty interesting. When you visit, scroll down and skim through other people's ideas about the photo.

Now that I'm done ranting ...

Memphians who read this blog: Get gas. One radio station, 98.1 The Max, is reporting that the city will be out of gas by Friday. I don't know where they got that information, because I can't find it anywhere on the Web. But I'm afraid that it's going to spark enough panic that gas supplies will run short.

WMC-TV has this story posted Tuesday reporting so-called "gasoline worries." And Memphis Gas Prices (which is having connection issues today -- I assume it's being flooded by requests) is reporting several stations with gas above $3 a tank.

One more note for the Memphians -- I received this press release from the local Red Cross:

The Mid-South Chapter of the American Red Cross has opened another shelter for incoming victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Grand Casino Hotel graciously offered their convention center last Sunday to be used as an American Red Cross Shelter. As of last night, approximately 400 people were being housed in that shelter and it is at capacity.

In light of this situation, Trinity Baptist Church, located at 7200 Swinnea Road in Southaven, MS, has opened their doors as a shelter to aid the local Red Cross Chapter in housing more victims as they come into the Mid-South area.

“As always, there is a need for financial donations to help supply the assistance needed for the victims of Hurricane Katrina,” stated Rick Roberts, Director of Communications for the Mid-South Chapter of the American Red Cross. “But we are beginning to see a need that is growing among the victims for toiletry items…deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, wash rags…donated items of that nature would be extremely helpful.”

Mid-Southerners wishing to donate these items can deliver them to the Mid-South Chapter office located at 1400 Central Avenue (next door to the University Country Club).

In addition, I just called Trinity to see if they had any other specific needs. The (very nice) woman with whom I spoke said they are running low on paper products (e.g. plates, cups, etc.), blankets, pillows, baby items (e.g. wipes, diapers, formula) and clothes.

My boss said she and her hubby are going to Sam's to buy supplies AND buying gas while they're there. (Sam's is still among the lowest prices in the city.)

[EDIT: Fixed a couple of typographical errors, reworded some strange phrases, and added a link. See what happens when you post without proofreading?]