Another View: Enjoy "The Dog Days of Summer"

The “Dogs Days of Summer.”

It’s an interesting phrase. As we head into the sunset of this summer, this phrase takes on even greater meaning.

You hear the phrase so often. Don Henley had a big hit with a turn of the phrase, capitalizing on the baseball translation with “The Boys of Summer.”

So I figured we’d do our own translation.

“Dog Days” — according to information on the Great World Wide Web — are supposed to be the hottest, most sultry days of summer and take place in early
July into early September. From some of the weather we’ve had in Wayne County and the region this summer, that’s certainly true.

I wouldn’t call them sultry though; maybe sizzling would do.

That’s the thing about weather: People are always talking about it.

I remember getting into a discussion with one of my former reporters who is now an editor at one of the papers in our company that the weather wasn’t news. Of course, I called him crazy.

When temperatures soar toward triple digits, that’s news. When the region gets blanketed by a foot of snow, that’s news too.

When tornadoes strike — as they just did here — that’s some major news.

The “Dog Days” are also defined as a time when things slow down.

I find that hard to believe as I’m sure you might in your everyday lives. It seems like there’s never enough time to get things accomplished and that everything doesn’t slow down until you are kicking up your heels on a beach in the Bahamas.

No one is really doggin’ it around here.

According to research, though, some people believe the phrase reflects on the laziness of pet dogs who hang around in the heat. They get “dog tired.”

What’s so cool about “The Dog Days of Summer” is how the phrase has caught on over the years.

First off, the name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, was somehow responsible for the hot weather. The Romans associated the heat with the Dog Star. The Greeks did as well.

“Dog Days” got a bad reputation too when the time was believed to be evil, “when we the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing burning fevers and hysterics.”

Give the dogs a break. And give yourself a break.

Kick up your feet and enjoy these last days of summer, these “Dog Days,” before we’re getting whacked by Old Man Winter.

These are the days when we drink iced tea or lemonade, go to a picnic or fire up the grill, watch a sunset, take in a baseball game, go on vacation or just watch the days slowly pass on by.

As children, we lived for these days, hoping that the “Dog Days” would last forever. We wanted each day in August to stretch out into two months so we wouldn’t have to go back to school. I remember that final day of freedom — usually Labor Day — growing up in New Jersey, knowing that the start of school was the next day and that summer was over.

Spending my early life in Delaware, I always loved these days. I can recall the summer of 1975 playing in the backyard of friends’ houses when The Eagles’ “One of These Nights” and “Take it to the Limit” were topping the charts.
Summer isn’t over yet.

So let’s roll out “those lazy, hazy, crazy days” of summer just a little longer.

We still have time to hit the beach or watch another sun drift over the mountains. Let out a sigh; we still have our “Dog Days” to enjoy.