INDEPENDENT NEWS

Irish Eyes: No Topic More Endearing….

Published: Tue 8 Aug 2000 03:30 PM
You'd have to drag the river of time to find any subject more endearing as a daily topic of conversation than the weather. It beats all others hands down, rain or shine, hail or snow, hot or cold. Writes Greg Meylan.
Not since the Waikato froze over in the fierce winters of the 1540s, or since Father Time took up with Mother Hubbard to deprive the little ones of a bone for the family dog has there been a better time to talk about the weather.
Scientists have drilled deep into the Antarctic ice to reveal the crumpled face of weather past, compressed as it is under the weight of time and the seven signs of aging. They took something that melts in the palm of your hand and turned it into understanding, into knowledge.
And of course in a knowledge-based economy you have to have knowledge-based knowledge. Nothing else will do. Indeed all else is trickery and emptiness - like the inside of Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard.
The weather is never empty which is why in moments of emptiness we turn to it for comfort in conversation. In this empty century, as yet still weightless in the palm of Father Time's hand, there has been no better time to talk about the weather.
Presidential son of star wars, George Bush junior goes to watch a film about a big storm out at sea and tells it like it is, straight up. Without even trying he comes across as one of us, an honest liar, a compassionate conservative, a clever fool.
There has been no better time to talk about the weather.
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