Frazz by Jef Mallett for November 12, 2018

Gee, I thought you just looked it up in the Farmer’s Almanac.

Weather is one thing you can depend on every day. Listening to the weather guy predict the weather used to be like listening to exit polls: a big effort with lots of info, but not exactly reliable. However, one of the two has improved its record in recent years. Your choice.

The weather isn’t that easy to predict anymore. NOBODY can deny the weatherpatterns have been changing.

Jeff, That story has already been written by Isaac Asimov “It’s a Beautiful Day”

This comic probably only makes sense here in southeast Michigan, where we always get Illinois’s weather half a day later. Weather in other parts of the country is much more random!

David Laskin in The Children’s Blizzard wrote a fascinating, concise history of how weather forecasting and reporting was done in the U.S. at the time of the 1888 blizzards. It really did rely heavily on gathering information from sites upweather from one’s location.

See Asimov’s “Caves of Steel.” In fact, see the whole Robot series. And while you’re at it, the whole Foundation series.

Duh, you open ‘apps’ on your phone. The ‘Windows’ brand hasn’t gotten great traction with phones.

Actually, when I was a kid, you picked up your (landline) phone and dialed the number for weather, and got the scoop for the day.

At one point I’d have family in TX, we were in GA and I had family in New England. Weather in TX would hit us the next day or so, then go to my family in the north a day or two after that.

I’ve never seen Frazz or Caulfield with a cell phone. No calls to friends to the west, no weather apps. So how do they figure the weather? (Not that the weather ever kept Frazz indoors.)

Canadians always have something to small-talk about….the weather!

I’ve been looking for an old strip but haven’t been able to find it. One of the students is looking out the class window complaining about a wet rainy day after the fall foliage is gone. Mrs. Olsen chimes in that it’s good because it isn’t snow yet. Does anyone remember or know of this strip?

Back in the day here in LaLa land we had a terrific TV weather-caster named Dr. George Fishbeck. Kind of a Bill Nye of the Cumulonimbus set.

We had a weatherman here on one of the TV stations who used an exceedingly accurate report. He called it the Forecast Fire Escape. Combine what you’ve already got with a synoptic chart and a bit of experience and you’ll be doing your own forecasts in no time.

Remember the difference between climate and weather —

Climate is what you can expect.

Weather is what you actually get, weather or not you like it….. 8^)

Back when I called a number for a forecast, I once heard the meteorologist cut it short with a swear, presumably because he had messed up too many times in a row. This was made funnier by the recording looping around to the opening “Good afternoon!”

Given climate change, Frazz’s last statement may be solid prophecy!

Frazz12 hrs ·

Generally speaking, and certainly self-centeredly speaking, I think I use the Electric Internetz responsibly and constructively and not too excessively, and without embarrassing myself too much, which is to say no more than I embarrass myself without technological help, which is admittedly a very low bar.

When I send text and e-mails, I write in complete sentences, spell out complete words and commit actual grammar and punctuation. I use social media sparingly, really only Facebook, and really mostly through the Frazz page (apologies to my FB friends hoping to see what I’m up to besides what’s in Frazz and the Frogg). When I put an opinion out there, I think it out and think it through, and then I write, not rant. When I use GPS, I scout my route in advance anyway and have a plan B in mind at the very least. I have an Amazon account but not an Amazon Prime account, and I buy my books and merchandise from real people in real stores whenever I can. But,

But,

I am totally, repeatedly and constantly guilty of checking the weather on my phone when I am within walking distance of a perfectly good window or door. I am still a work in progress.

“Before the breathin’ air is goneBefore the sun is just a bright spot in the night-timeOut where the rivers like to runI stand alone and take back somethin’ worth rememberin’”. — Three Dog Night. “Out In the Country”

“Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning.” —the late great George Carlin

Assuming the weather wasn’t blowing in from the north or south. And you didn’t have a television. Or a radio. Or a newspaper. Or just quit kvetching like everything is either Andy Griffith or Big Bang Theory with nothing in between.

Did he just predict Covid-19?