The Firefox weather add-on I use shows a little icon for each day's weather forecast. Thursday shows a flaming-hot thermometer, signifying "very hot" weather. This got me thinking about the origin of the term "dog days." I had no idea it had anything to do with astronomy and the alignment of Sirius and the sun. I truly thought that it just referred to the tongue-hanging-out-of mouth effect of the summer heat.
photo: Chicago Daily News. (1904). [Two black and white puppies standing next to each other]. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0002055. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society. Available from Library of Congress American Memory, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n002055))
1 comment:
yay--i learned something! :)
i guess i'd better check the alignment of sirius, next time i want to complain about the dog days of summer. hmph.
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