Sunday/Dog Days

Sunday.

Just look at the word, a day–with sun. That’s pretty good. The word Sunday should conjure happy thought then, right?

Then, how come there are no happy Sunday songs. Let’s see; “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” by U2, “Gloomy Sunday” by Billie Holiday, “Sunday Morning” by The Velvet Underground, “Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Kris Kristofferson; all good songs but not what you would call uplifting. If anyone can think of a happy Sunday song, let me know, I sure can’t.

If you are looking for something to do on Sunday, go to Mr. President’s fine blog Textual Relations and check out Sunday Submissions. This is where the Pres features pieces of writing submitted by guest writers. This week he is spotlighting a piece that I wrote (and dutifully submitted), “The Culture Of More”. I posted the article here on Thursday but the version at TR has extra bonus content that is not in the original version.

It’s a good blog, Mr. President tackles a wide variety of topics and there are interesting comments as well. Go look.

The phrase “dog days of summer” crossed my mind as I went outside this morning. As it turns out, we are in the “dog days” according to wilstar.com….

The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky (viewed from northern latitudes) during January.

In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.

I find that interesting. It has inspired me to have the first ever “Trouble Ain’t Over” contest. If you know the name of the band that released this classic L.P. (band name has been edited out of the photo) click on the “Send me an email” link in the sidebar to your right or HERE. The first reader with the correct answer will win a copy of my C.D. “Trouble Ain’t Over”, shipping included.