I was at a party, talking to Polytropos when he got the good news about his brother in law’s father.
I hadn’t heard about the earthquake yet. Holy cow. My first reaction when told it was 8.9 on the Richter scale was “isn’t that enough to launch a chunk of the Earth into the sky as a new moon?” Turns out there hasn’t in fact been an 8.9-scale quake for over 40 years. Not a joking matter. 23,000 dead at last count. Some inhabited islands still submerged from the 30 foot tsunamis. Puts one’s troubles, and one’s own nation’s troubles, into perspective a bit.
Interesting note about we (being modern America) are quite spoiled in terms of communication. My uncle lives in Thailand and he received several emails asking if he was alright. He did not know of what the email authors spoke. He had not heard of the earthquake before informed by his friends here in America. He’s just fine, by the by.