People across the east coast took precautions last week against the dreaded Hurricane Irma. The most outlandish of these precautions? Probably the abundant Facebook events you’ve been seeing.
It’s hard to have missed them, but just in case you have, the phenomenon can be described as the creation of Facebook events that propose ridiculous solutions to deter Hurricane Irma. Ranging in fantasticality from “Spinning your arms really fast to push away Hurricane Irma” to “Nude power yoga so Irma will namaste away,” the events have taken on a meme-like status. One event, “Shoot at Hurricane Irma,” gained so much traction that Florida authorities were compelled to issue a warning against discharging firearms at the hurricane.
The events that sparked the most interest on campus were “Fidget Spin Clockwise to Cancel Out Irma” and “Shoot at Hurricane Irma.”
Sophomores Frank Godfrey, a finance and psychology major, and Alvina Yeung, undecided, wanted to wait out the storm by fidget spinning clockwise. First-year Rodrigo Dubon, a nursing major, and sophomore Thomas Causey, an economics major, voted for shooting Irma down, with Causey commenting, “Because the second amendment is important.”
More zany in nature but still of interest to students were “Tell Irma she's a strong independent woman who don't need no land,” a favorite of senior studio art major Cameron Kester.
“Summon the Space Goat to protect us from Irma” was the choice event of first-year economics major Rashmi Patwardhan. Luke Eggleston, an undecided first-year, preferred “Goth dancing to blow hurricane Irma away,” saying, “If dancing can make anything better then I'm down.”
The most endearing event was “Care Bear Stare at Hurricane Irma,” the clear winner for first-year biology major Prasiddhi Jain. She explained, “Care Bears were my most favorite show when I was little, and I used to have a Care Bear, and I wanted to be a Care Bear.”
Finally, the favorite of first-year biology major Meg Parmelee hit closer to home, making it all the more hilarious: “Give Irma the norovirus so she can't rush the southeast.”
