Dog Days Doldrums

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Doggedly deep into the depressive dog days of summer that Wiki says

Various computations of the dog days have placed their start anywhere from 3 July to 15 August and lasting for anywhere from 30 to 61 days.

and the Iliad describes as:

Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky
On summer nights, star of stars,
Orion’s Dog they call it, brightest
Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat
And fevers to suffering humanity.

 

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46 thoughts on “Dog Days Doldrums”

  2. Well, here’s what The Farmer’s Almanac has to say:

    We often hear about the “dog days” of summer but few know what the expression means. Some say that it signifies hot sultry days “not fit for a dog,” others suggest it’s the weather in which dogs go mad. The Dog Days of Summer describes the most oppressive period of summer, between July 3rd and August 11th each year. But where did the term come from? And what does it have to do with dogs?
     
    Why Are They Called the “Dog Days” of Summer?
     
    The phrase is actually a reference to the fact that, during this time, the Sun occupies the same region of the sky as Sirius, the brightest star visible from any part of Earth and part of the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog. This is why Sirius is sometimes called the Dog Star.
     
    In the summer, Sirius rises and sets with the Sun. On July 23rd, specifically, it is in conjunction with the Sun, and because the star is so bright, the ancient Romans believed it actually gave off heat and added to the Sun’s warmth, accounting for the long stretch of sultry weather. They referred to this time as diēs caniculārēs, or “dog days.”
     
    Thus, the term Dog Days of Summer came to mean the 20 days before and 20 days after this alignment of Sirius with the Sun—July 3 to Aug. 11.
     
    Sun: It’s All About the Tilt
     
    While this period usually is the hottest stretch of summer, the heat is not due to any added radiation from Sirius, regardless of its brightness. The heat of summer is simply a direct result of the Earth’s tilt.
     
    During summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the tilt of the Earth causes the Sun’s rays to hit at a more direct angle, and for a longer period of time throughout the day. This means longer, hotter days.
     

    So so what to do?  According to TFS, go to the beach and (of course) read the TFA recommendations for staying cool  
     

  3. Unfortunately, this sounds about right.  Coming from the west coast I spent two summers in DC.  My comment on the first day that the combination of heat and humidity combined for a total attack of misery, I staggered into work with, “You people forgot to put air in your air”.  It is no mystery why the citizens who can depart for other places do so.  

  5. from  NY Times Best of Late Night:

    After President Trump tweeted disparaging comments about Representative Elijah Cummings and his Baltimore district, the late-night hosts rushed to defend the city — and its rats, too.

    “What a thing to say about a city in America. The man who tells us ‘love it or leave it’ has now attacked more cities than Godzilla.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

    “[Imitating Trump singing] God bless America, except Baltimore. They’ve got rats there, no MAGA hats there. I avoid it because they are poor.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

    “Of course it has rats. But you know which other cities have rats? All the best cities in the world — Paris, London, New York — they all have a rat problem. In fact, I’m starting to think if your city doesn’t have rats it’s because you live in a boring-ass city and your food sucks because rats — rats want to have a good time, too. Everyone’s seen the photo of Pizza Rat. but people don’t realize later that night he changed into Opera Rat. He has many tastes.” — TREVOR NOAH

    “Many people say Trump’s words are clearly racist, but Trump says it’s the black people who are the true racists because they keep bringing up race every time someone says something racist.” — TREVOR NOAH

    “[As Trump] I’m not the racist, he’s the racist. After all, I wouldn’t have said anything racist at all if he was white!” — STEPHEN COLBERT

    “Trump has also gone after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and called the people of Iowa stupid. At this rate, he’s going to take the flag and replace half the stars with poop emojis.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

    Trump also took aim at former President Barack Obama on Friday, saying the Obama administration was to blame for faulty air-conditioning in the White House that made it difficult to work there.

    “Well, maybe it’s hot because you’re president, and this is hell and maybe it’s freezing, because when you were elected, hell froze over.” — SETH MEYERS

    “You see, this is what happens when you run out of things to blame Obama for. It’s almost as if Trump is looking around the room for new material. He’s like, ‘You know, this office wasn’t always oval. It used to have beautiful corners but Obama stole them!’” — TREVOR NOAH

    “Never in the history of the world has any black person wanted to make their office colder. That’s not a thing! When God was making the earth, he gave everyone winter and then he got to Africa and they said, ‘No, we’ll just take the sun, thank you very much!’” — TREVOR NOAH

    “It seems to me the president may be having trouble regulating his body temperature, which I looked it up and there may be a medical reason for that: drop in body temperature linked to dementia. I’m sure it’s a coincidence, though.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

  6. I live on a bit of land with the Chesapeake Bay on three sides.  The Bay is about eighty-two degrees, which is a bit of a cooling effect to the temperature.  Not much help when it is ninety-five around the house instead of ninety-nine on the mainland.

  14. CBS:

    A Democratic Virginia state lawmaker interrupted President Trump’s Jamestown speech Tuesday directly in front of the stage where the president was standing, declaring, “President Trump, you can’t send us back, Virginia is our home.”

     

    Ibraheem Samirah, who is Muslim, held up a sign with the words “Deport Hate,” sparking boos and chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump” from some in the audience. The president temporarily halted his speech, and Samirah was escorted from the event by law enforcement.  

    The interruption comes after the president has spent weeks deriding progressive women of color, and after he spent the last few days blasting Rep. Elijah Cummings, who is black, over living conditions in Baltimore. Multiple Virginia officials boycotted the Tuesday event commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first representative legislative assembly over Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney resigned from a committee planning the ceremony. 

    Samirah posted a lengthy statement to Twitter after the incident, declaring the president a “racist-in-chief” who “openly stokes hate against immigrants.” 

    “400 years ago today, a group of undocumented immigrants formed a government to rule this commonwealth, beginning a centuries long tradition of people from across the world immigrating here for a chance at safety, democracy, and prosperity; my parents, who are Palestinian refugees, included. The fact that the racist-in-chief, who so openly stokes hate against immigrants, was even invited to this event is insulting to Virginians and insulting to the history of our commonwealth’s democracy,” the statement said.

    Virginia’s Speaker of the House of Delegates, Kirk Cox, said the young lawmaker’s conduct violated House rules. 

    “I am disappointed by Delegate Ibraheem Samirah’s disrespectful outburst during the president’s remarks. It was not only inconsistent with common decency, it was also a violation of the rules of the House.”

    Mr. Trump’s rhetoric has sparked debate about how the president addresses minorities. A new Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday found 51% of Americans think the president is racist, compared to 43% who do not think he is racist. 

  15. yeah….  I think it’s like…  105 today….  no…  well it feels like it.  I HATE heat and humidity!

    Medicare….  yeah…  I start it on Sept. 1st.  How the hell did I ever get to be this old…

    I completely forgot about the debate tonight…  thanks for the reminder.

  16. Debate thread tonight at 7:20pm. Show begins 8pm ET on CNN. Could be Bernie’s last stand. Chance for Warren to passively yet aggressively steal more of his voters.

  18. the guardian:

    California governor signs law that would require Trump to release tax returns

    California’s governor has signed a law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns before they can be listed on the state’s primary ballot.

     

    The measure signed Tuesday by the Democratic governor Gavin Newsom is aimed at Donald Trump, who has refused to release his tax returns. Trump says his returns are being audited.

     

    The action further escalates California’s feud with the president.

     

    The law will likely face legal action and Trump could avoid the requirement by deciding not to compete in California’s primary. The major 2020 Democratic candidates have already released their tax returns.

     

    The new law requires candidates for president and governor to submit their tax returns to California’s secretary of state at least 98 days before the primary. The returns will then be posted online.

  19. Bernie! is definitely bleeding voters to Warren.  They are politically very closely aligned, but she comes across as likable and smart as hell while he comes across as, well, Bernie!  Same lines as 4 years ago, but a little crazier and little more strident.  I’m sure his grand kids find something else to do when he starts talking at family gatherings.

  20. I have 3 nieces in their 30s that grew up in Vermont.  Every one of them is a Democrat…  but none of them want to vote for Bernie this time.  Smart girls!

  22. Thoughts on what Warren should say: “I love you Bernie. Your heart is in the right place. I just wish you would join the Democratic Party and this time help us defeat Donald Trump in the general election.”

  28. Louisville courier journal:

    #MoscowMitchMcTreason trends one day after Mitch McConnell lashes out at ‘McCarthyism’

    […]

    Some on Twitter did not take kindly to McConnell’s speech. Just as the hashtag #MoscowMitch quickly began trending on Twitter following Scarborough’s comments, people were using the hashtag #MoscowMitchMcTreason to express frustration with McConnell on Tuesday.

    Scott Dworkin, co-founder of the Democratic Coalition super PAC, wrote on Twitter that “if Mitch McTreason doesn’t want to be called a traitor, then he should stop being one. #MoscowMitchMcTreason.”

     

  29. garland of garlic, silver bullet or wooden stake?

    in re “putting down once and for all”

    (and a political virgin on stage to do it)

  31. Ya know, I think we should stop dogging Bernie and discuss the steaks for tonight.
    Jack, grin duck and run

    No ketchup/catsup
     

  32. A silver forkful of wooden steak, heavy on the garlic, driven straight through the heartburn. 

  33. Tonight are steamed Chesapeake Bay crabs and rockfish fillets.  This is the beginning of the great feast that is the Chesapeake Bay region.  The farms are producing produce to enjoy fresh, the Bay is producing fish and crabs.  In a couple months the oysters will be fattening up.
    I like succotash.  But I use the Native American mix as a beginning.  To the corn and red beans I like to add Rotel tomatoes and chilis.  Talk about delicious. I am sure my ancient ancestors would have loved this if they had tomatoes.

  36. The ghosts of Francis Scott Key and Edgar Allen Poe will now haunt and hound trump to his shit hole grave.

  41. Mr Flatus,
    I sit corrected, sir. It was a thoughtless attack on shit holes everywhere. I pent and repent, in the hope of their forgiveness. Thank you for pointing out the error of my comment.
     

  44. Shot into outer space between the light bits, so he’ll never, ever, pollute anything else.

    On his way he can commune with the dim matter around him, just like old times.

  45. I was just reading about the Jamestown celebration that SFB injected himself into and tried to use to do damage control for his racist tweets about Cummings and Baltimore, but I digress.  I ran across this regarding the formation of the House Burgesses:

    The weather was so hot that one burgess died on the third day. Meeting with the governor, Sir George Yeardley, and hisappointedCouncil of State, the burgesses passed laws against idleness, gaming, drunkenness and “excesse in apparell.” They forbade giving Indians “any English dog of quality,” set prices for tobacco, requested funds to start a college and settled a few disputes — including punishing a “lewde and trecherous” servant for wantonness with a widow by having him spend four days with his ears nailed to the pillory.

    Sounds like a goddamn paradise, doesn’t it?  Who’d WANT to live with all those restrictions against anything and everything that might be considered fun?  And that 4 days with his ears nailed to the pillory?  OUCH!!!! All that for a little sex with the randy widow? Seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me.

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