The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1952-08-22
Just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment Considered or Ineonsidersis


light advertisers of modern airconditioners But the
weather never really vital topic, except among
farmers and special occasions of temperature
wave, drought storm, or flood. Weather has always
been teeing-on place for casual conversation; that
has been its chief Importance as far as talk is
concerned
II took TV to bring weather into real prominence,
If not in American conversation, at least in Amer
lean consciousness. II is still not quite true to say
that everybody talks about the weather apart from
the phrases which are more conversation than the
smile of greeting or the tipping of haD. But ey-
erybody is aware of the weather, and in some
what new and vaguely disturbing way.
Phrases such as ITS fine day" or Wasn't that
sitting night?" my, but we need rain" have
always been popular and easy entrances into the or
dnary small talk that marks the meeting of friends
acquantances. But the words have little meteor
logical significance They are Just agreeable and
friendly expressions They are phrases of greeting,
comparable to the words, How are your" the
more stilted equivalent How do you do?" And
there is a well known jingle that should be known
better it goes something like this
mo one is interested in your indigestion;
Hon. are you? is greeting not a question"
aa%
Indeed the hergreetng is often entirely out
of line with facts There friendly old in
our town who used to hail everyone with CHEEKY
Mice day." matter what the state of the wealth
er. Pranksters used to step into his shop par
tcularly villanous days to test the old mans fide
ity to his formula Fine day Ambrose" they would
call Invariably they would have his answer hearty
and wholly sincere, "Finel fine"
But we we're saying that TV has made Amer-
cans more weather conscious than they used to be
For heretofore the average American not con
scious OF much significance in his words Of greet
ing which happened to deal with the weather
But nowadays this average gentleman lady is
half aware of highs and lows and Storn-fronts
and air masses and movements Of atmosphere clock
wise and counter-clockwise.
You can hardly turn to the fantastic world of
teeyision without finding some beer salesman
cake salesman newscaster standing before map
of the country, crayon in hand full of information
and lavish with circles and arrows and the little
doodes that indicate rainfall thunderstorm. You
hardly avoid the thrilling story of high"
over Idaho bringing down mass of polar Canadian
air or new "low" in Tennessee whic, left-handed-
y induces rush of tropicalGulf moisture to carry
warmth, wetness and wailing up the seaboard to-
wards Cape Hatterss.
generation ago the browser through the
morning paper was entertained by brief statements
of temperatures al Medicine Hat and Miami. He
knew and cared nothing for highs and lows and
air masses and fronts His newspaper is still terse
and unyrcai in its weather reports. But not his
teIevsion set Despite himself, the teeviewer be
comes expert in the iargon of the weather
As we'll in the modern expression of coarse bur
lesque
We are no halfway exponents of any art or
activity we take up. We hammer the thing to death.
Matthew Arnold visited Chicago once on time and
he was shown the glories of big business. including
the stock-yard He did his best to express admira-
on and approval, but could not resist the question,
And what about culture?" well" said his host
I'VE haven't got around to that yet but when we do
well make IL hum" We Americans make things
hum We making the weather hum Just now.
And humming is sometimes a WEAKNESS and both
Grafton
We are interested in time. too. and indicators
of time We make the matter hum. A visitor from
overseas said that American cities are dotted all
over with public clocks. and yet Americans are in
variably late for events and appointments, Still il
is a, satisfaction to know just how late you are,
whether it be for the theater, date with the dentist
or for Mass on Sunday morning
The weather business has enlisted the active
interest of thousands of youngsters Perhaps it's
as well TO have Junior absorbed in the mysteries of
maps as 10 have him hopping with
Cassidy or spoofing with space cadets There are
worse things than weather lore even when it is
mere dabbling in amateur pseudoscience. But there
are times when feels like murmuring with Ham
let, Something TOO much of this"
There are times when the hum of popular
fad becomes the ho-hum of wearied victim II is
surely so with these continuous weather-reports.
But maybe there is silver interior to all these highs
and lows and centers and fronts, Maybe we should
learn the patter of the TV weather to squash
that semi-human individual who wants to know
whether IL is hot Tor cold enough for
Then we could silence the pest effectively
"H is hot enough for your" says he. Well"
reply right the heat is considerable but there
is high pressure forming the ponds
of Iowa and will likely into this territory
within the next few hours. bringing of
polar.Pacifie and polar-Canadan air with IT, and
sending a cold front preceded by squall-line,
which will considerably moderate the prevailing
situation And notice brother that the tropicalGulf
air which is whooping up from Mexico, charged with
humidity and humiliation. is being slowly forced
upward by the underseeping polar puff and will
move outward towards Mars before mid-Lent Yes,
it's hot enough for me-"