Samantha wants to kill you...

GNUS INTERNATIONAL

Who the hell thinks up names for hurricanes, storms, etc.? After Katrina and Rita, we now have Tropical Storm Stan.

I'm sorry, but 'Stan' sounds like a bloke who comes round to fix your skirting board and ends up hammering a nail into his own thumb, not a massive hurricane which kills 250 or more people.

Quite why giving innocuous names to devastating natural phenomena came about, I'm not sure. It seems to undermine the whole gravity of the situation. I mean, if I was told that Samantha (say) was coming my way, I'd probably buy some more teabags and maybe a cake from M&S. I wouldn't expect her to rip the roof off my house and deposit me on a mudbank which used to be the Barnes Wetland Centre.

If you're going to have a catastrophic visit from a hurricane, typhoon or storm, let it be called something evil and mean, which reflects its full awfulness. Something like Mordor or Barad-Dur. Or Jim Davidson.