Steal One's Thunder

I came across this amusing tidbit on how the phrase "steal one's thunder" originated:

The story involves John Dennis, a literary critic and largely unsuccessful playwright.

In 1704, Dennis' play Appius and Virginia was produced at Drury Lane Theater in London.  Dennis invented a brand new technique to make stage thunder for the production.

However, Appius and Virginia was a flop.  It closed after only a handful of shows.  To Dennis' horror, his method of making thunder was soon used in a production of Macbeth afterwards.

Understandably, Dennis was not happy that his idea got purloined, and gave a colorful response.  Some say, recorded by the literary scholar Joseph Spence (1699-1768) and later quoted in W. S. Walsh's Literary Curiosities, 1893, Dennis proclaimed:

"Damn them!  They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder."

Still others said the actual words were:

"That is my thunder, by God; the villains will play my thunder but not my play!"
 

California's Next Big One?

Saw a "News from Barbara Boxer, US Senator from California" blurb in my inbox today.  It says California has 99% chance of having a magnitude of 6.7 or larger earthquake within the next 30 years.

Apparently, there's a new United States Geological Survey (USGS) report published recently. The summary of the report and the full report (with comprehensive maps) listed the most likely affected area.

In a gist, the following is the excerpt from the summary report:

The probability of a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake over the next 30 years striking the greater Los Angeles area is 67%, and in the San Francisco Bay Area it is 63%, similar to previous Bay Area estimates. For the entire California region, the fault with the highest probability of generating at least one magnitude 6.7 quake or larger is the southern San Andreas (59% in the next 30 years).

For northern California, the most likely source of such earthquakes is the Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault (31% in the next 30 years). Such quakes can be deadly, as shown by the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta and the 1994 magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquakes.

Am I worried?  Yeah, sure.  Even though my area isn't named as the epicenter, it's close enough.  But am I going to move?  Certainly not because of that!  But I do hope the house for which I'm slaving to pay the mortgage will be left standing after the BIG one blows over... Heh.