Ironically, i've been reading a book about David Crockett and he was talking about "the shakes," which followed the New Madrid,Mo., Earthquake of about 1811 and 1812. The original quake was so strong the Mississippi River ran backwards for a while and rang chuch bells in Philadephia. Crockett settled in a region of western Tennessee that was radically reshaped by the eartquake and tremors, and happened to be great for hunting bears.

When I was a reporter at the Princeton, Ind., Daily Clarion 25 years ago, I did reports about a major event along the New Madrid fault lines being overdue.

Jim Morrison