This volcanic disruption thing is getting old fast! My housemates' friend K, who was to have returned to Finland on Thursday, will be lucky if she can fly Monday. And my parents are stuck (if it's stuck when you're with some of your favorite relations) in Germany! Untold thousands on thousands of other people are stuck too. Europäer kommen nicht in den Himmel, as the Sueddeutsche puts it. Using "The Scream" to accompany my sense of almost Kierkegaardian uneasiness at all this - if this can happen, then what else can? - isn't just histrionics:[R]ecent research suggests that Edvard Munch ... painted “The Scream” while remembering a night in Oslo that had been much affected by the volcanic dust [from Krakatoa in 1883]. Indeed, the climatic records show that the swirling orange skies behind the terror-stricken face match perfectly those recorded that winter in southern Norway. (source)
