My friend Kirby is getting all uppity about the prolonged cold spell up here in the frozen tundra. Coincidentally George Stroumboulopoulos did a bit about this on last night's - The Hour (watch from 3:40 to 6:00).
Unfortunately, Kirby's rant got me thinking about the weather and the seasons. I live in a place (Edmonton) where the weather is not constrained by anything so arbitrary as the date on a calendar. Up here, anything goes, anytime. It is quite possible to experience *every* type of weather there is, all within the span of a long lunch. It keeps one on one's toes, er ... flippers.
Like Kirby, I too grew up on the Canadian prairie. I actually grew up even farther north than Kirby did (by about half a block), so I feel that makes me more qualified than he to speak out on this issue. I've never had much of a problem with Groundhog day, but something that has always bugged me (along a similar vein), is the notion that the winter solstice marks the *first day* of winter. Sorry, but in my books "Christmas-time" is the *middle* of winter. Always has been, always will be (... in this hemisphere anyways).
If we take it that the solstices and equinoxes mark the *middle* of the seasons, then the start of each season would be about 6 weeks before the corresponding celestial event. That means the beginning of each season corresponds pretty closely to the start of the months of May, August, November, and February (which, on account of my tusks, I am forced to pronounce as "febbie-airy"). Which is why Groundhog day makes some sense to me. I believe that some wise people "way back when" were thinking along these lines ...
"So does spring start at the beginning of February, or the middle of March?"
"I dunno ... I'm good with either one I guess."
"Well, what do we tell people?"
"Hmmm ... I've got it!! We'll get a groundhog, see ..."
I'm sure you can see where it went from there. It ended like this:
"So he sees his shadow, and then what? It's spring?"
"Nope. Winter, for 6 more weeks."
"Oh, ok. Yeah that works."
"Yep. And Toronto sucks."
And so ever thus it has been.
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LOL
ReplyDeleteCan't argue with any logic that ends with 'Yep. And Toronto sucks."!!!
Yeah, sounds good, 'cept that living in Edmonton as you do...when have you ever had less than 6 weeks of winter after Feb 2? so it might make sense for all those "eastern bums and creeps" but not out here on the prairie.
ReplyDeleteand, having lived there for 5 years, I feel the need to defend Toronto. It's not really a bad place. If you live there, you can get to like it. If you are just visiting and, worse yet, visiting and driving, I could see how you might not think so much of it. The next time you're there, go down to the St Lawrence Market and have a spicy chorizo with honey mustard from the Sausage King. You'll like Toronto a lot more after that...
My point about Edmonton is that I no longer confuse "spring-like weather" with the season of "spring". I would bet that if somebody analyzed the stats, they would show that Edmonton is the *least* likely to have spring-like weather during the months of Feb, Mar, & Apr!
ReplyDeleteNo fair! How can I possibly comment on the "Sausage King" and "sucking" and have any hope of keeping this as a family-friendly blog?