If we are passing through a sirocco of the soul. (The word "soul" blows, mais c'est juste)
All anyone can do is talk about the weather, and this time with purpose, no small talk here (even the shallow folk, moi, are waxing all philosophical and itchy). Ill wind, loves, ill wind. Okay, Southwest Michigan is not Southern Europe (shocker, indeed), but something is going on here, because no one feels right in their skin. It could be that outside any AC it feels like breathing through a wet rag (and there's no AC for me...well, I guess here at work, but moving in and out of it really hurts more than it helps). What we need is rain and negative ions. Something to lift the large weight of atmosphere that's pushing us all groundward and doing strange things to our brains. (I did start part three of the long poem last night, "Rose of Sharon" is the working title...this will be the paradise section, although what kind of paradise mandie invisions ultimatly will not be the kind a more thoughtful, sensitive person will invision. It's gotten weird, I felt possessed; so, in the end maybe the weight of gravity will be a good thing, I mean it don't make for happy poems, but it do make for serious strangenesses. BGN is off limits for me until the weather breaks, otherwise it will eat my soul and the sorrows will pile up on Winter's head like a soap opera of gaylicious proportions.) COME ON THUNDER!!! Who knows anyone who can do a rain dance? Call them, tell them it's not about crops or the water table, but something far more important.
IS something looming all wicked and contrary? Probebly not. But ain't we all chock full of miasma and anticipated misfortune? And don't that make us see misfortune everywhere, or at least plain dumb luck and poor circumstance? So really it's us maybe? and not the wind? But if we need something to blame I suggest weather as a scapegoat. Weather or astronomy (dog days of summer...dog star biz), yup, why not? I mean we are so completely sane and blameless. Or, I'm wrong and will be attacked by a legion of hot air ballooning spiders this time, and the giant quarter will hit me, and every magic shop in the immediate and outlying areas will be closed to me, and a big wind will blow me into who knows what (only that it's quite uncomfortable), and no one's finaid checks will clear, and no one will love us quite the same way ever because we are filled with dibilitating panic, and we will even forget how to spell dibilitating, and maybe our own names correctly...why not? (None of those things seem particularly tragic on a grand scale though.)
So...for those of you whose skin is crawling in Mid-August Kalamazoo, and those who want to sympathize: the OED's Sirocco entry.
1. a. An oppressively hot and blighting wind, blowing from the north coast of Africa over the Mediterranean and affecting parts of Southern Europe (where it is also moist and depressing). Usually with the.
1617 MORYSON Itin. I. 211 The South-East winde (which the Italians call Syrocco) did blow very contrary to us. 1667 MILTON P.L. x. 706 Forth rush..Eurus and Zephir with thir lateral noise, Sirocco, and Libecchio. 1756-7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 96 The woods south of Rome are kept up as a fence against the Sirocco, or south-west wind. a1791 WESLEY Serm. lxix. Wks. 1811 IX. 251 There will be no Sirocco in Italy. 1818 MRS. E. H. ILIFF Poems sev. Occas. (ed. 2) 120 When dire Sirocco..From Afric's burning sands mephitic vapours brings. 1859 HAWTHORNE Marble Faun xl, Where the sirocco steals away their strength. 1884 F. M. CRAWFORD Rom. Singer I. 21 The sirocco was blowing up and down the streets.
transf. 1848 J. S. ROBINSON Sk. Gt. West 17 The dreaded Sirocco..burns us even through our clothes. 1870 Weekly Standard (Buenos Aires) 21 Dec. (Suppl.) col. 6 The Sirocco on Wednesday was so terrible that in the effort to keep cool, the mind reverted to icebergs and Polar travels but all in vain. 1872 E. BRADDON Life India ii. 14 From the west blows a scorching wind, the sirocco of..the Daodpore desert.
1819 SHELLEY Lett. Prose Wks. 1880 IV. 134 My health is better so long as the scirocco blows. 1861 E. A. BEAUFORT Egypt. Sepulch. & Syrian Shrines II. 223 Under the balmy skies of the early spring, before the horrible scirocco begins to blow. 1866 HOWELLS Venet. Life iii. 33 The insidious heat of the scirocco.
b. With a and pl.
1700 J. JACKSON Let. 2 Feb. in Private Corr. S. Pepys (1926) I. 278 But the weather being changed and the Sciroccos now blowing into the place of the Tramontains, this design is become impracticable. 1820 BYRON Mar. Fal. I. ii. 572 The atmosphere is thick and dusky; 'Tis a sirocco. 1884 St. James's Gaz. 11 Dec. 10/2 The storm..was followed by a sirocco, which lasted until noon.
1841 FITZGERALD Lett. (1889) I. 71 We have incessant rain, which is as bad as your sciroccos. 1860 MRS. HARVEY Cruise Claymore vii. 134 A khamseen was blowing;..this wind, which is an exaggerated scirocco, brings clouds of hot sand from the desert.
c. fig. A blighting influence; a fiery storm.
1864 G. A. SALA Quite Alone I. ii. 40 Now Scandal's sirocco seized a spiteful anecdote, and twirled and twisted and sent it spinning. 1865 J. H. INGRAHAM Pillar of Fire (1872) 401, I..have passed through a sirocco of the soul.
2. ellipt. A sirocco drying-machine (see 3).
1890 Daily News 2 Sept. 2/5 When the hops have been sufficiently rolled..they are..placed in the drying machine or sirocco. 1892 WALSH Tea 105 In the process of ‘firing’ the leaves are..placed in layers in a hot-air machine, known as a ‘Sirocco’.
3. attrib., as sirocco blast, -dust, fog, gale, weather, wind; also sirocco fan, a fan for forcing a strong current of air into a mine, etc.; sirocco drying-closet, drying-machine, oven, a closet, machine, or oven for drying hops or tea-leaves, by means of a hot, moist current of air (cf. 2).
1894 GLADSTONE Horace III. xxiii. 5 Your vines shall mock *scirocco blasts.
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1885 C. G. W. LOCK Worksh. Rec. Ser. IV. 115/2 About a third of the tea..is cured in Davidson's so-called ‘*sirocco’ drying-closets.
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1890 Pall Mall G. 1 Oct. 2/3 The first ‘*Sirocco’ drying machine (in which hops are being made into tea).
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1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 266/1 The dust or sand of dried lakes..borne away into the upper regions of the atmosphere,..may descend again..in the form of ‘red-fog’, ‘sea-dust’, or ‘*sirocco-dust’.
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1861 E. A. BEAUFORT Egypt. Sepulch. & Syrian Shrines II. xxiii. 295 The mountains..were veiled in a dreamy, sad-looking *scirocco fog.
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1895 F. M. CRAWFORD Casa Braccio xxxvi, Then came November with its pestilent *sirocco gales and its dampness.
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1890 Daily News 2 Sept. 2/5 The machinery consists of a *Sirocco oven and a patent tea roller.
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1897 HUGHES Mediterranean Fever v. 193 It [sc. ice] will also be needed in warm and *sirocco weather.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1777 A. ADAMS in Fam. Lett. (1876) 253 The same effect..which..the *sirocco winds have upon the inhabitants of Sicily. 1794 SULLIVAN View Nat. I. 19 An enfeebling and unhinging power, like that of the Sirocco wind.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please rock me like a hurricaine,
Girly Lama
IS something looming all wicked and contrary? Probebly not. But ain't we all chock full of miasma and anticipated misfortune? And don't that make us see misfortune everywhere, or at least plain dumb luck and poor circumstance? So really it's us maybe? and not the wind? But if we need something to blame I suggest weather as a scapegoat. Weather or astronomy (dog days of summer...dog star biz), yup, why not? I mean we are so completely sane and blameless. Or, I'm wrong and will be attacked by a legion of hot air ballooning spiders this time, and the giant quarter will hit me, and every magic shop in the immediate and outlying areas will be closed to me, and a big wind will blow me into who knows what (only that it's quite uncomfortable), and no one's finaid checks will clear, and no one will love us quite the same way ever because we are filled with dibilitating panic, and we will even forget how to spell dibilitating, and maybe our own names correctly...why not? (None of those things seem particularly tragic on a grand scale though.)
So...for those of you whose skin is crawling in Mid-August Kalamazoo, and those who want to sympathize: the OED's Sirocco entry.
1. a. An oppressively hot and blighting wind, blowing from the north coast of Africa over the Mediterranean and affecting parts of Southern Europe (where it is also moist and depressing). Usually with the.
1617 MORYSON Itin. I. 211 The South-East winde (which the Italians call Syrocco) did blow very contrary to us. 1667 MILTON P.L. x. 706 Forth rush..Eurus and Zephir with thir lateral noise, Sirocco, and Libecchio. 1756-7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 96 The woods south of Rome are kept up as a fence against the Sirocco, or south-west wind. a1791 WESLEY Serm. lxix. Wks. 1811 IX. 251 There will be no Sirocco in Italy. 1818 MRS. E. H. ILIFF Poems sev. Occas. (ed. 2) 120 When dire Sirocco..From Afric's burning sands mephitic vapours brings. 1859 HAWTHORNE Marble Faun xl, Where the sirocco steals away their strength. 1884 F. M. CRAWFORD Rom. Singer I. 21 The sirocco was blowing up and down the streets.
transf. 1848 J. S. ROBINSON Sk. Gt. West 17 The dreaded Sirocco..burns us even through our clothes. 1870 Weekly Standard (Buenos Aires) 21 Dec. (Suppl.) col. 6 The Sirocco on Wednesday was so terrible that in the effort to keep cool, the mind reverted to icebergs and Polar travels but all in vain. 1872 E. BRADDON Life India ii. 14 From the west blows a scorching wind, the sirocco of..the Daodpore desert.
1819 SHELLEY Lett. Prose Wks. 1880 IV. 134 My health is better so long as the scirocco blows. 1861 E. A. BEAUFORT Egypt. Sepulch. & Syrian Shrines II. 223 Under the balmy skies of the early spring, before the horrible scirocco begins to blow. 1866 HOWELLS Venet. Life iii. 33 The insidious heat of the scirocco.
b. With a and pl.
1700 J. JACKSON Let. 2 Feb. in Private Corr. S. Pepys (1926) I. 278 But the weather being changed and the Sciroccos now blowing into the place of the Tramontains, this design is become impracticable. 1820 BYRON Mar. Fal. I. ii. 572 The atmosphere is thick and dusky; 'Tis a sirocco. 1884 St. James's Gaz. 11 Dec. 10/2 The storm..was followed by a sirocco, which lasted until noon.
1841 FITZGERALD Lett. (1889) I. 71 We have incessant rain, which is as bad as your sciroccos. 1860 MRS. HARVEY Cruise Claymore vii. 134 A khamseen was blowing;..this wind, which is an exaggerated scirocco, brings clouds of hot sand from the desert.
c. fig. A blighting influence; a fiery storm.
1864 G. A. SALA Quite Alone I. ii. 40 Now Scandal's sirocco seized a spiteful anecdote, and twirled and twisted and sent it spinning. 1865 J. H. INGRAHAM Pillar of Fire (1872) 401, I..have passed through a sirocco of the soul.
2. ellipt. A sirocco drying-machine (see 3).
1890 Daily News 2 Sept. 2/5 When the hops have been sufficiently rolled..they are..placed in the drying machine or sirocco. 1892 WALSH Tea 105 In the process of ‘firing’ the leaves are..placed in layers in a hot-air machine, known as a ‘Sirocco’.
3. attrib., as sirocco blast, -dust, fog, gale, weather, wind; also sirocco fan, a fan for forcing a strong current of air into a mine, etc.; sirocco drying-closet, drying-machine, oven, a closet, machine, or oven for drying hops or tea-leaves, by means of a hot, moist current of air (cf. 2).
1894 GLADSTONE Horace III. xxiii. 5 Your vines shall mock *scirocco blasts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1885 C. G. W. LOCK Worksh. Rec. Ser. IV. 115/2 About a third of the tea..is cured in Davidson's so-called ‘*sirocco’ drying-closets.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1890 Pall Mall G. 1 Oct. 2/3 The first ‘*Sirocco’ drying machine (in which hops are being made into tea).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 266/1 The dust or sand of dried lakes..borne away into the upper regions of the atmosphere,..may descend again..in the form of ‘red-fog’, ‘sea-dust’, or ‘*sirocco-dust’.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1861 E. A. BEAUFORT Egypt. Sepulch. & Syrian Shrines II. xxiii. 295 The mountains..were veiled in a dreamy, sad-looking *scirocco fog.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1895 F. M. CRAWFORD Casa Braccio xxxvi, Then came November with its pestilent *sirocco gales and its dampness.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1890 Daily News 2 Sept. 2/5 The machinery consists of a *Sirocco oven and a patent tea roller.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1897 HUGHES Mediterranean Fever v. 193 It [sc. ice] will also be needed in warm and *sirocco weather.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1777 A. ADAMS in Fam. Lett. (1876) 253 The same effect..which..the *sirocco winds have upon the inhabitants of Sicily. 1794 SULLIVAN View Nat. I. 19 An enfeebling and unhinging power, like that of the Sirocco wind.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please rock me like a hurricaine,
Girly Lama