weather war
n.— «In the States, they have a name for the media’s increasingly demented obsession with meteorological phenomena: “weather wars.” Anyone who has watched a US reporter narrowly avoid being blown off a rain-lashed balcony in the course of noting that there might be a tornado on the way will know that it’s more than rough out there: it’s a veritable arms race. Forget good men and women risking life and limb that viewers may know storms are a’coming; these turns are backed up with hardware marginally less expensive than the star wars programme. Up and down the Gulf coast and across the great plain stations now actually run attack ads on each other’s forecasting capabilities.» —“Comment is free: Tonight a climate of fear will be sweeping in from the west” by Marina Hyde Guardian (United Kingdom) Feb. 10, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Amid a 1796 heat wave, Jane Austen wrote to her sister, “What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Jane Austen’s Continual State of Inelegance in a 1796...
If you’re ever near a sundial, step closer and look for a message. Many sundials bear haunting, poetic inscriptions about the brevity of life. Plus, language development in toddlers: why and how little ones pick up the exclamation Uh-oh! And a new...