Who taught: Al

Dog Days (source : http://literatehousewife.com/)

There are some expressions that are sort of universal. I have a hunch that today’s expression is one of them and you can easily understand what it means as you hear or speak.

A few days ago, I was watching Today show on NBC and Al, as always, was talking about the weather. On his background, there was a map of the United States. And, it marked the Southern states as “dog days,” with red color. Well, I had not heard of this expression but it totally made sense to me. Why? I don’t know. It just feels like it is universal. So familiar. Maybe, we do have a similar expression in Korea.

As I research about this expression, I realize that the origin goes far back than what I thought it would be. It was used by the Greeks and the Romans.

The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, in close proximity to the sun was responsible for the hot weather.

This is very good to know and makes you sound very knowledgable, right? But, I like this version of definition that I found from Urban Dictionary.

Time in the summer where it is so hot or humid that the dogs go crazy by barking or howling.

A few days ago, it was totally dog days of summer here in PGH. It is much better now. Hope this cooler temp stays for a while!

Here is a piece of advice for you. Eat watermelons this Summer. Not only is it a great hydrator during summer fun, it also helps to reduce your chances of getting burned while you play outdoors this summer due to it’s high volume of lycopene.