6 What in the world

How embarrassing!
A dead man has been elected mayor of Tracy City, Tennessee. Carl Robin Geary died several weeks ago, but he received 268 votes in a two-candidate election last Tuesday, beating out the incumbent mayor, Barbara Brock, who received only 85 votes. Geary's death had been widely reported in this corner of southeastern Tennessee.

And more earthquakes
Last Thursday evening a 4.9-magnitude earthquake hit near Randolph, Utah, in the northeast corner of the state. It was felt throughout parts of Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports on its Web site two earthquakes 6.0 or greater in the past week: China 6.9 on April 13 and Papua New Guinea 6.2 on April 17. For the same period it listed an additional 33 quakes in the 5.0 to 5.9 range in such diverse places as Afghanistan, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile, Indonesia, south of the Fiji Islands, Mexico, the Solomon Islands, Japan, and the Alaska Peninsula.

An Associated Press story out of Beirut Monday quoted "a senior Iranian cleric [saying] women who wear immodest clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes." Iranian media quoted the Tehran cleric as saying, "Many women who do not dress modestly . . . lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which consequently increases earthquakes." Why is it always the women's fault? As my mother-in-law used to say, "It takes two to tango."

And volcanoes
The most recent eruption of Iceland's volcano has closed airports across much of northern and western Europe, including the British Isles, and has canceled or interfered with flights across the world. President Obama, for example, had to cancel his flight to Poland to attend Sunday's state funeral for Poland's president and his wife, who were killed last week in a tragic plane crash that took the lives of many top Polish officials. Some flights are now resuming.