JOE McGINNISS

Tornadoes ripped through central/western Massachusetts just south of where I live today.

I was out and about and came home to find my wife prudently taking cover in our basement.

Our twelve-year old Norwegian elkhund, Oslo, was out when the storms hit and we still can’t find him.

Yet we were spared. Look at what happened in Springfield and surrounding towns.

As The New York Times reports, at least four were killed and damage was horrendous.

The Sarahbus en route from New York to Boston made it through unscathed, as did the media scrum following in its wake.

The question now is whether Sarah will change her itinerary in order to “comfort” victims here, as she did in Alabama last month.

Two reasons why I doubt it:

1) Sarah could never win our state’s electoral votes.

2) Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Pursestrings’ film crews are not on hand to record her offering a helping hand, as they were a month ago in Alabama.

No doubt, she’ll continue on to New Hampshire tomorrow, for her seashore clambake with Republican leaders there.

That’s okay. We don’t need her or Graham’s religious-right wing “charity,” whose purse strings go both ways (mostly emptying directly into his pocket.)

Maybe Sarah’s dad, Chuck Heath, could use his tracking skills to help us find Oslo, who ran into the woods behind our house at the first sound of thunder, but that’s okay, too.

I have no doubt the old boy will make it back home on his own, once he knows the storms have passed.

But we get hit with tornadoes for the first time in decades, just when Sarah’s bus is passing through?

Please, Sarah:  stay away from my back yard and I promise I’ll never move in next door to you again.

Also, take mercy on poor little Piper and don’t drag her along on the next leg of your “family vacation” from hell.

UPDATE:

OSLO turned up this morning, wondering where his breakfast was.  Seems none the worse for wear.  Had no comment on where he’d spent the night.  Thanks from Nancy and me to all of you who so graciously expressed such concern.