| thoughts from a cunning linguist | |
I had dinner with an old, dear friend tonight who has just returned from Bathurst, New Brunswick. She was there as the Communications Director for the Canada Games (the Nova Scotia team's Director, that is). Maurice has been filling you all in on the coldness of life here in the last little while. But Adele remarked that the weather here was pretty balmy compared with the below 0F temperatures in Northern New Brunswick. We then talked briefly about the phenomenon of talking about the weather itself. Is it peculiarly Canadian? There is now an ad on Canadian television for Ford cars: "Built for life in Canada." It asks, for instance, "What is -10 and snowing in Winnipeg?" The answer: Spring.
But the fact that Canadians seem to be weather-obsessed can only be recognized, I think, by imagining places where the weather is not news at all. I can think of San Franciso, where, I'm told (I've not been there, unfortunately), there are not four seasons. And another friend, Jenny, who lived in Mexico for years, says that no one ever talked about the weather while she lived there.
Leave it to two Canadians to find the fact that weather is not news in a particular place worthy of conversation--one might even say "news to us."
Posted by Bush Whacker at March 14, 2003 11:26 PMWhen people have to always take measures to protect themselves from the elements, it becomes significant enough to be a topic of conversation...
Posted by: Maurice on March 16, 2003 02:12 PMWe only talk about the weather down here when something unusual happens. Annette and I joke that anyone could be meterologists in Florida because all you would have to do is say "today it will be hot with a 90% chance of afternoon thunderstorms". But I like hearing about other people's weather because it allows me to experience seasons vicariously through them. :-)
Posted by: Stephanie on March 17, 2003 01:18 AM