Why would we believe it’s going to rain because Grandma said her knees ache when we could check the latest update at the National Weather Service?
When a prominent public figure once suggested that we could cure COVID by drinking bleach instead of taking advantage of expert medical advice, some people tried drinking bleach. Of course, they got sick. But this is how we learn.
As winter approaches, we begin to wonder, will it be cold?
In the past, winter has been cold, but does that mean this winter will be cold? Where could we look for answers? Sure, we could review meteorological records or tune into the local weather station. Or we could get a copy of the newest Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Okay, they don’t have doppler radar or satellites but they’ve been making weather predictions for 230 years and claim an 80-percent accuracy.
This year, the Almanac is forecasting a long cold winter for the Upper Midwest. How do they know? They say they study sunspots and historical weather patterns. Or maybe the wooly caterpillars are particularly wooly this fall or that geese are flying especially high lately.
Regular folks have been predicting the weather long before there were meteorologists. “Clear moon, frost soon.” And, “When chimney smoke descends, the nice weather ends.”A ring around the moon means precipitation is coming. When a cat washes behind its ears, rain is sure to follow.
If you want to know the temperature, count the number of cricket chirps over a 14 second period and add 40. (This may be less reliable in December.)
Deep down, we know superstitions are irrational but we go along with them anyway. For years we had an old horseshoe over our door. We finally removed it after somebody told us that we had it upside down. “You’ve got the points facing down!” they said. “All your luck is running out!”
The horseshoe superstition allegedly originated in England with a farrier named Dunstan who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 959 AD. The story goes that one day, Dunstan was shoeing a horse when the devil came up, demanding to get iron shoes for his tired feet. Dunstan obliged but in shoeing the devil, he placed the nails near the sensitive part of the hoofs, causing the demon great pain. Dunstan agreed to remove the painful shoes only if the devil promised not to enter any home with a horseshoe nailed over the doorway.
Either he kept his word and stayed away from horseshoes or the devil has been laughing at Archbishop Dunstan and the rest of us ever since for being a bunch of superstitious suckers.
Swami Chakrapini, a politician from India has been trying to convince his constituents that drinking cow urine will cure the corona virus. I’m guessing this method won’t work on the actual virus. But it might have an effect on malingerers.
My mom told us when she was little, her mother prescribed horrible-tasting cod liver oil for every ailment. My grandmother always knew when a child had been faking it when it came time for the next dose. “No thank you,” they’d say. “I’m feeling much better now.”