imagined-community

Finally, the temperature has dropped! I can turn off my fan (unfortunately, I don’t have air conditioning), and pick my groggy self off the futon/sofa. As the weather has been HOT across the nation, I can’t gripe specifically about the northeast *today* (as a non-native, I find complaining about New England’s mercurial weather to be one of my favorite stress relieving activities : ) I WAS surprised to discover that there is a blog about New England weather, The New England Weather Blog. And for all you weather-obsessed peoples — whose ranks I appear to be joining ☺ there are plenty of weather blogs to chose from: Capital Weather in DC is interesting,even if you don’t live in DC, as is Gothamist, a New York based blog with a great weather blog. You can even start your own weather blog at Wunder Blog Directory: Weather Underground.

But it is not just East Coast Americans who are weather fanatics. Here is a quote from across the atlantic…

Apparently now to get your English Citizenship you have to sit a test to determine your Britishness! … the test is thus. A chap with a very British accent asks you the following,

“I say old chap, what’s the weather supposed to be doing this morning|afternoon|evening?”

If you cannot talk for over 30 minutes, coherently (insane mumbling is an automatic fail), about the state of the weather and what it is likely to do this morning|afternoon|evening then you fail! If you can hey presto they put a stamp on your forhead saying “I am British” and give you a job at the BBC weather centre!!

– An Australian in England

So what does all this talk about crappy weather have to do with globalization and global citizenship? Aw, you already know the answer… GLOBAL WARMING!