I'm writing about the El Nino of 1998 and listening to Janet Jackson. Wish me luck on both counts.

Here's what I've got so far:

El Nino means “little boy” in Spanish. The name refers to the infant Jesus, since El Nino usually crops up around Christmastime. It’s a disruption in the ocean-atmosphere system. It hails from the tropical Pacific, and it’s a hellraiser.

When the Little Boy comes around, he causes trouble: floods, droughts. He drags his destructive finger across the sea’s surface and commercial fisheries shrink back; so much for the water’s productivity. Tradewinds weaken and rainfall marches in step with the Little Boy’s path. He’s most threatening to the places still under scaffolding, the developing countries who need the sea’s gifts so they themselves can eat, can make money, can play that game called global exchange.

The Little Boy plays in erratic ways. You have to study him in order to predict where and when he might next deploy his havoc.