WORD DAYS is now available for the first time in paperback!

Today is the anniversary of an editorial by Charles Dudley Warner published in the Hartford Courant in 1897. The subject of the editorial is long forgotten, but one line from the article lives on as a famous quotation: Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

Although many credit Warner with the funny line, some argue that it really should be credited to Mark Twain, who was a friend and collaborator with Charles Dudley Warner. Ralph Keyes, the author of The Quote Verifier, comes down on Twain’s side, saying that the wording of the editorial reveals that Warner got the quote from Twain: “A well-known American writer said once that, while everybody talked about the weather, nobody seemed to do anything about it” (1).

Weather or not Twain said it (pun intended), there is no doubt that weather has rained down on the English lexicon. Many of our everyday idioms are weather related, and some of our common words have meteorological origins:

Astonish: Being struck by thunder would certainly be an astonishing experience. This word comes to English via the French estoner which in turn was derived from Latin ex = out + tonare = to thunder. Thus the literal translation of astonish is thunderstruck.

Window: This word comes from the Norse vindauge which comes from vindr = wind + auga = eye. Thus a window is the “wind’s eye.”

Lunatic: For centuries people have considered the effects of the moon on the weather and the varying moods of earthlings. Because the moon does affect ocean tides, it does have an indirect impact on the weather. There is less evidence, however, to prove the moon’s relationship to the human psyche. Nevertheless, the word lunatic is derived from Luna the moon goddess, who in myth would sometimes toy with the sanity of mortals (2).

Here are a few examples of weather idioms, where the weather is used as a metaphor for some aspect of human experience:

A port in storm, Chase rainbows , Cloud nine , Cloud of suspicion , Fair-weather friend , Head in the clouds , Greased lightning, Shoot the breeze , A snow job , Steal someone’s thunder, Tempest in a teapot , Under the weather

Today’s Challenge: “Over the Rainbow”

What are some songs that talk about the weather, either literally or figuratively?  What would you argue is the single best weather-related song?  Brainstorm a list of songs that deal with weather, and select your favorite.   Make your argument by explaining what makes the song great and by explaining how the lyrics reflect the weather, either literally or figuratively.

For example, in The Beatles song “Good Day Sunshine,” the sunny weather parallels the sunny disposition of the singer who is happily in love.  In contrast, The Beatles song “Rain” uses the weather to reflect philosophically on the capricious nature of humanity. (Common Core Writing 1 – Argument)

1 – Keyes, Ralph. The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006.

2 – Funk, Wilfred. Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1950.

WORD DAYS is now available for the first time in paperback!

On this day in 1986, Patrick Henry Sherrill, a disgruntled postal worker, opened fire on his co-workers at a post office in Oklahoma City. Before he committed suicide, he killed 14 people. This terrible incident along with a string of such incidents involving postal workers over the next seven years led to coinage of the phrase to go postal (1).

The U.S. Postal Service was understandably unhappy when this usage began gaining currency in the language. In response to this public relations nightmare, they created an independent commission to assess workplace violence in 1998. The Associated Press reported the commission’s finding that postal workers were not more prone to workplace violence than other works. Other categories of workers, such as retail workers, transportation workers, and public administration workers, were found to have significantly higher incidences of violence than postal workers (2).

It seems that the final fifteen years of the millennium could be called “The Age of Rage.” As chronicled in the book Word Spy: The Word Lover’s Guide to Modern Culture, the phrase road rage, meaning “extreme anger exhibited by a motorist in response to perceived injustices committed by other drivers,” began to appear in a few media stories in 1988. In the years that followed, the phrase became more and more common. The statistics below show the number of stories containing the phrase road rage that appeared each year:

1988-1993: 4

1994: 10

1995: 200

1996: 900

1997: 2,000 (3)

Expressions relating to angry, crazed behavior are nothing new in English. The expression to go berserk entered the language in the 19th century, but its roots go back much farther. Berserk is from Old Norse meaning “bear shirt.” It describes the Viking tactic of putting on bearskins and attacking and pillaging the enemy in a furious, crazed rage. British author Sir Walter Scott introduced the word into English in his 1822 novel The Pirate, and by 1940 it was being used in its present form to describe “crackpot behavior” (4).

Today’s Challenge:  Write A Rant

Writing is a great way to work out your problems and to blow off steam.  It also allows you to express your passion while working through and thinking about what’s bothering you. What are things that you think are worth complaining about, the hassles of life that frustrate you?  Brainstorm a long list of things to complain about.  Then, pick one complaint you feel passionately about.  Write your rant, expressing your passion but also explaining the reasons behind your frustrations in concrete terms so that your audience can understand them. Don’t just tell what frustrates you; show it. (Common Core Writing 1 – Argument)

Answers: 1. golf rage 2. air rage 3. concert rage 4. patient rage 5. sidewalk rage 6. sports rage or sideline rage 7. dot.com rage 8. work rage (or desk rage)

1 – Applebome, Peter.  Mail Carrier Kills 14 in Post Office, Then Himself.  The New York Times 21 Aug. 1986. https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/21/us/mail-carrier-kills-14-in-post-office-then-himself.html.

2 – ABC News.  Commission: ‘Going Postal’ Is a Myth. 31 Aug. 2000. https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95958&page=1.

3- Paul McFedries. Word Spy: The Word Lover’s Guide to Modern Culture. New York: Broadway Books, 2004.

4 – Metcalf, Allan. The World in So Many Words. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.