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Should we talk about the weather?

Started by Eric V Arachnid, December 28, 2014, 12:28:25 PM

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Tank

I never knew the term Indian Summer originated in the US. I thought is was a colonial reference to the country of India.

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Randy

I don't know what the origin of the phrase is. I guess I can look it up.

Here it is:
QuoteEtymology and usage

Late-19th-century Boston lexicographer Albert Matthews made an exhaustive search of early American literature in an attempt to discover who coined the expression. The earliest reference he found dated from 1851. He also found the phrase in a letter written in England in 1778, but discounted that as a coincidental use of the phrase.

Later research showed that the earliest known reference to Indian summer in its current sense occurs in an essay written in the United States circa 1778 by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. The letter was first published in French. The essay remained unavailable in the United States until the 1920s.

Although the exact origins of the term are uncertain, it was perhaps so-called because it was first noted in regions inhabited by American Indians, or because the Indians first described it to Europeans, or it had been based on the warm and hazy conditions in autumn when American Indians hunted. In addition to such conjectures, a great depth of Native American folklore is attributed to describing this phenomenon.[citation needed]

In literature and history, the term is sometimes used metaphorically. The title of Van Wyck Brooks' New England: Indian Summer (1940) suggests an era of inconsistency, infertility, and depleted capabilities, a period of seemingly robust strength that is only an imitation of an earlier season of actual strength. William Dean Howells' 1886 novel Indian Summer uses the term to mean a time when one may recover some of the happiness of youth. The main character, jilted as a young man, leads a solitary life until he rediscovers romance in early middle age.

In British English, the term is used in the same way as in North America. In the UK, observers knew of the American usage from the mid-19th century onwards, and The Indian Summer of a Forsyte is the metaphorical title of the 1918 second volume of The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. However, early 20th-century climatologists Gordon Manley and Hubert Lamb used it only when referring to the American phenomenon, and the expression did not gain wide currency in Great Britain until the 1950s. In former times such a period was associated with the autumn feast days of St. Martin and Saint Luke.

In the English translation of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, the term is used to describe the unseasonably warm weather leading up to the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Indian summer

The quote and more about it can be found here: Indian summer
"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg

billy rubin

. . . . In the English translation of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, the term is used to describe the unseasonably warm weather leading up to the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Indian summer . . .

that's an odd cultural juxtaposition.

i remember reading a copy of steinbeck's grapes of wrath when i was a kid that had been edited for british readers. there was no "gas," the joads filled their truck with "petrol . . ." which is fine but not how okies talk.

other cultural "corrections" throughout. made for odd reading, to a native american speaker


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

hermes2015

This piece by Honegger, called Pastorale d'ete, describes our current weather very well.

https://youtu.be/4p2f3UTBcKI
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

Bad Penny II

Quote from: hermes2015 on October 21, 2020, 09:47:23 AM
This piece by Honegger, called Pastorale d'ete, describes our current weather very well.

https://youtu.be/4p2f3UTBcKI


It wouldn't do around here.
Maybe if you lively up the tune?
Add some expressive lyrics p'haps?
Fuck! it's hot
Fuck! it's dry
Fuck! the place is on fire!
Fuck! it's RAINING!
Fuck! it's RAINING!
Fuck! it's windy
Fuuckk! it's cold
Fuck! it's windy
Fuck! it's hot
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

hermes2015

Here it's been hovering around 30° with lowish humidity, so very pleasant.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

Ecurb Noselrub

Crikey! It's about average here for this time of year.  (Trying to spice things up).

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Bad Penny II on October 21, 2020, 10:22:55 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on October 21, 2020, 09:47:23 AM
This piece by Honegger, called Pastorale d'ete, describes our current weather very well.

https://youtu.be/4p2f3UTBcKI


It wouldn't do around here.
Maybe if you lively up the tune?
Add some expressive lyrics p'haps?
Fuck! it's hot
Fuck! it's dry
Fuck! the place is on fire!
Fuck! it's RAINING!
Fuck! it's RAINING!
Fuck! it's windy
Fuuckk! it's cold
Fuck! it's windy
Fuck! it's hot

It's fucking hot here  :'(
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Asmodean

Here, it's kind-of like the English winter. Cold and damp, with a good chance of rain.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Tom62

We had wonderful weather. 21 degrees Celsius. Spent the day with my wife in the Odenwald Thermen (thermal baths) and got sunburned.
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein

billy rubin

foggy in the morning.

then 80F in the sunny afternoon.

the calm before the storm


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Randy

65F with rain here. The temperature isn't supposed to change. On the other hand it is quite warm in here, slightly uncomfortable.
"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg

xSilverPhinx

I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


xSilverPhinx



It's because the magma-filled chasm opened up in the ground and is melting everything.
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Harmonie

It's snowing pretty heavy right now. Lets see how long it lasts. We've already got a dusting or more.

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"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony