More English Than I'd Like to Admit

So, reading over my last two blog entries, I realize that I talk/complain about the weather a lot. I am obsessed! I think that I have become more English than I imagined. I read a book recently called "Watching the English" by Kate Fox. She is a social anthropologist who instead of conducting research on the rural tribes of the South African bush she does a thorough study of English behavior and conversation. The first chapter focuses on the weather, where the author quotes Dr. Johnson's famous quote, "When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather," to which the author adds, "this observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago." However, she argues that remarks like "Ooh isn't it cold," or "Still raining eh?" and other variations are "ritual greetings, conversation-starters or default fillers. In other words, English weather-speak is a form of 'grooming-talk.'" While I agree with this argument, I also believe that people here are REALLY obsessed with the weather because it is never exactly what we want. Living on the edge of an ocean and close to an entire continent means we get all kinds of unexpected weather. Of course, there is a lot more to her analysis than I am going to go into here but for now I guess I will try harder to focus my thoughts on other things and not let the weather dictate my mood...