Page 44 - Aug 2022

Dog Days Cont inued from page 42
Before Canis Major had a Latin name, the
Egyptians referred to the star we know as Sirius,
the Dog Star, as the Nile Star or Star of Isis. Over
4,000 years ago, the Egyptians, dependent upon
the annual overflow of the Nile because of its
effect on agriculture, determined that just
around what we now call the Summer Solstice,
Sirius would appear to rise before dawn. This
also coincided with the time the Nile River
flooded each year. Too much water, disaster or
just the right amount, happy crops. The Egyptians
watched and recorded such things carefully and As the
kept good records.
The name Sirius stems from the Ancient Greek
seírios, meaning ?scorching.? Go back to the
Greek poet Homer and you see him referring in
The Iliad to Sirius as "Orion's dog rising" .
Greeks being dour, associated Sirius with war,
drought, and disaster as well as with men and
animals being driven mad by the heat ( see Noel
Coward, although decidedly not a Greek.) The
Romans, big imitators of the Greeks, shared their
aversion to Sirius. Virgil, the Roman poet, wrote
in the Aeneid that ?fiery Sirius, bringer of drought
and plague to frail mortals, rises and saddens the
sky with sinister light.?
It fell, then, to the Romans to give the world the
term di?s canicul?r?s, the dog days. The brightly
shining Sirius was believed by the Romans to add
to the heat of the sun when the two were aligned higher during the dog days. To our surprise, the
and this brought about the discomfort of myth was found to be true.? Take that
sweltering weather, specifically in the period of
44
Q. H ow m an y of these "ol d w i ves" tal es about the Dog Days of Sum m er have you hear d?
- Sn ak es m ove faster an d ar e bl i n d dur i n g the dog days an d w i l l str i k e at an ythi n g
about 20 days before and after July 23rd. Spoiler
- Sor es w on 't heal dur i n g the dog days
alert: depending on where you live on the planet, the - You shoul dn 't sw i m dur i n g the dog days because i f you have a sor e i t w i l l get i n fected an d then
actual dates of the dog days varied then and still w on 't heal
- You shoul dn 't w al k bar efoot i n the w et gr ass dur i n g the dog days because the m oi stur e
vary now. For practical purposes here in the US, July
betw een your toes, w oul d cause your feet to get gr oun d i tch, an d that coul d tur n i n to gan gr en e
3 through August 11th marks the spot. - If i t r ai n ed on the fi r st day of the dog days, i t w oul d r ai n a l i ttl e for the n ext 40 days, but i f i t w as
dr y on the fi r st day of the dog days, i t w oul d be dr y for the n ext 40 days
Thanks to science we know that it's tilt not rays that - Fi sh don 't bi te dur i n g the dog days because som ethi n g "ten der s" thei r m ouths an d they don 't eat
food
make the temperatures hotter ( this is not an
- H aun ts/hai n ts com e out dur i n g the dog days an d w hen the w eather i s both hot an d hum i d, evi l
argument either for or about climate change but pr esen ts i tsel f i n the heatw aves fl oati n g acr oss the fi el ds
about the mechanics of the earth's rotation). The tilt - Al w ays put your r i ght sock on fi r st dur i n g the dog days or you'l l fal l an d br eak your l eg..
- W ear your sock s i n si de out, a cr oss ar oun d your n eck , or your bal l cap back w ar ds to aver t
of the earth's axis as it rotates around the sun gives
bad for tun e or hai n ts dur i n g the dog days.
us the seasons and it also gives hotter weather
H ot W eather Can H ur t Your Car , too.
when the sun's rays hit the Earth more directly
because of the tilt-- North Pole tilted towards the - Check hoses an d bel ts. The m ost vul n er abl e ar e par ts of the hose n ear the cl am ps. M ost bel t
fai l ur e begi n s after 36,000 m i l es. Appl y bel t dr essi n g as n eeded.
sun--hotter in the northern hemisphere, reverse and
- A w axed vehi cl e r efl ects UV r ays. W ash your car fr equen tl y i n hot w eather . Pai n t dr i es i n the
repeat for the South Pole. heat an d fl ak i n g of pai n t begi n s.
- Check ti r e pr essur e. Un der i n fl ated ti r es use m or e sur face ar ea an d add heat to the ti r e.
universe is in constant but slow moving Over i n fl ated ti r es can cause the si dew al l s to bul ge; then , w i th en ough heat an d pr essur e,
bl ow outs can happen .
change, at least from our perspective, the dog days
- H ave an A/C un i t but sti l l can 't get an y sati sfacti on --check for l eak s ( duh)
of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans - In ter i or sur faces ar e al so effected by UV Rays. Keep your sun scr een up w hen the car si ts.
weren't the same as the dog days we observe Cr ack the w i n dow s so bui l t up heat can escape. Tr eat both pl asti c an d l eather sur faces to hel p
pr otect them .
now--not to mention the problems with the fact that
- Check the batter y. H ot w eather i s a m ajor com pon en t i n batter y fai l ur e.
a Gregorian calendar didn't exist then, so that date
The
thing is not so precise, either. The commonality
remains, however, that a period of sweltering
weather coincides with the year?s heliacal (meaning
?at sunrise?) rising of Sirius and the dogs get the
blame.
Along Came t he Finns
In 2009 a group of Finnish scientists conducted a
study to test the traditional claim that infections
were more prevalent and harder to cure during the
dog days. The results turned out differently than
they expected: " This study was conducted in order
to challenge the myth that the rate of infections is
cum grano
salis.