Wednesday, June 1, 2011

There's a storm a brew'n!


Okay, so what's up with the weather? We have funnel clouds to the North!

So Kasa Kecky is just about finished. I have one big project left and that's the area at the curb. It's ugly. We'll do that after Adventure-Poppy gets back from her European vacation.



What, you might ask, will Fatass be doing while Leave'n-On-A-Jet-Plane-Poppy is gone? P.A.R.T.Y!!!

Well, not really, but I'll get my surgery on June 21. Then interspersed in the time Globetrotting-Poppy is gone, I'll be having my pals, Crin and John over for dinner, hanging out with Friend-Nancy, going up to Sacto for a few days to visit Very-Long-Time-Friend-Jeannie, visiting and cooking dinners for Seester, et. al., taking Jax-The-Cheese-Connesewer for incredibly long walks on the beach and anything else that comes my way. I'm hopeful the month Expedition-Poppy's gone will go fast...

What is the origin of "It's raining cats and dogs"? Let's consult Wikipedia...

Raining animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals "rain" from the sky. Such occurrences have been reported from many countries throughout history. One hypothesis offered to explain this phenomenon is that strong winds traveling over water sometimes pick up creatures such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles. However, this primary aspect of the phenomenon has never been witnessed or scientifically tested.

Sometimes the animals survive the fall, suggesting the animals are dropped shortly after extraction. Several witnesses of raining frogs describe the animals as startled, though healthy, and exhibiting relatively normal behavior shortly after the event. In some incidents, however, the animals are frozen to death or even completely encased in ice. There are examples where the product of the rain is not intact animals, but shredded body parts. Some cases occur just after storms having strong winds, especially during tornadoes.

However, there have been many unconfirmed cases in which rainfalls of animals have occurred in fair weather and in the absence of strong winds or waterspouts.
Rains of animals (as well as rains of blood or blood-like material, and similar anomalies) play a central role in the epistemological writing of Charles Fort, especially in his first book, The Book of the Damned. Fort collected stories of these events and used them both as evidence and as a metaphor in challenging the claims of scientific explanation.

The English language idiom "it is raining cats and dogs", referring to a heavy downpour, is of uncertain etymology, and there is no evidence that it has any connection to the "raining animals" phenomenon.

Who knew?

Happy Tuesday!

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