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Not to double down on the doom and gloom or suggest the Americas are slated to descend into Mad Max-style chaos and anarchy, but the latest in a recent flurry of North American earthquakes just rumbled across one of the most dangerous earthquake zones in the United States.

That's right, even as Hurricane Sandy, one of the largest storms in history, threatens to morph into a hybrid superstorm once it strikes the East Coast, the planet has let the middle of the country know it hasn't forgotten them with a 3.9  magnitude earthquake.

The quake struck about six miles southwest of Parkin, Arkansas and was immediately felt across Twitter--where it naturally prompted dark humor:

sm quake in Arkansas RT @vrbowski: @pathammer are there F5 tornadoes gonna hit the midwest soon? And what bout earthquake near Chicago?

— Patrick Hammer (@pathammer) October 29, 2012

Residents of western North Carolina felt a smaller 2.9 magnitude quake about 40 minutes before the Arkansas temblor.

Residents of more quake-prone regions may laugh at alarmed responses to relatively small events in the South and Midwest. However, the Arkansas quake took place in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which isn't as noisy as other seismic zones, but some geologists consider it the most dangerous earthquake producer in the U.S. since it produced two of the largest quakes in recorded history 200 years ago.

With so much disaster afflicting the mondo-budget adaptation of the beloved superhero comic, it's time to face facts: when is thing going to be scrapped?

Eight years and $65 million into the making, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark has taken its loftiest of expectations -- Bono! The Edge! Julie Taymor! -- and run them into the ground. It's now known primarily for its failures, its faulty, potentially fatal stage contraptions. And with each new injury -- how can there not be another -- comes a maelstrom of bad press. We'd be surprised if the thing makes it to its much-pushed-back start time of February 1. It's not a stretch to say it'd be irresponsible if it does. It may be Broadway's biggest musical of all time, but maybe it should never happen.

More than anything, this production is starting to feel like the Macbeth, the most cursed of Shakespeare plays, so dangerous that those involved call it simply "The Scottish Play" for fear of some sort of retribution. Could Turn Off The Dark be in need of its own euphemistic nickname? Let's go with "The Webbish Play." Hey, maybe it will stave off more injuries.

nfreeman at observer.com |@nfreeman1234

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