Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Some time last year, I bestirred myself to look up what, exactly, is meant by the phrase "dog days". Wikipedia tells me that it "refers to the sultry days of summer[citation needed]". It seems we get this from the Roman diēs caniculārēs, the hot weather associated with the dog star, Sirius.
I don't agree.
To me, the phrase "dog days" always means this gap between Christmas and New Year. The dog days are the nothing days when everyone is sunk in comfortable indolence. In the past few days, I've heard a number of otherwise on-the-ball people ask what day it is. Because at this time of year, no one knows: every day is like Sunday, and we drift along with a vague idea that it might be the 29th today. Or the 30th? Who knows. Who cares?
Someone told me a few days ago that the Ethiopian calendar has 12 months of 30 days, and the leftovers are collected together in a vague dog end of a month which lasts for 5 or 6 days (depending on leapage). Disappointingly, due to their calendar being offset from ours, this happens around the beginning of September. But I think it's an excellent idea that we should adopt, a thirteenth month after Christmas; spare days that don't count, where nothing is expected to happen.
This year, I've run out of leave and am working 29th-31st. As a result, I'm just about aware that today is Tuesday. The office is quiet and sparsely populated, though, and my room has only me in it (and 9 empty desks). There's considerably more of a holiday vibe than there was in the frenetic, festive-jumper-wearing let's-go-for-a-drink days before Christmas.
I am not working like a dog. I'm getting quite a lot done, but in a quiet and lazy sort of way. I'm working like it's a dog day.
I don't agree.
To me, the phrase "dog days" always means this gap between Christmas and New Year. The dog days are the nothing days when everyone is sunk in comfortable indolence. In the past few days, I've heard a number of otherwise on-the-ball people ask what day it is. Because at this time of year, no one knows: every day is like Sunday, and we drift along with a vague idea that it might be the 29th today. Or the 30th? Who knows. Who cares?
Someone told me a few days ago that the Ethiopian calendar has 12 months of 30 days, and the leftovers are collected together in a vague dog end of a month which lasts for 5 or 6 days (depending on leapage). Disappointingly, due to their calendar being offset from ours, this happens around the beginning of September. But I think it's an excellent idea that we should adopt, a thirteenth month after Christmas; spare days that don't count, where nothing is expected to happen.
This year, I've run out of leave and am working 29th-31st. As a result, I'm just about aware that today is Tuesday. The office is quiet and sparsely populated, though, and my room has only me in it (and 9 empty desks). There's considerably more of a holiday vibe than there was in the frenetic, festive-jumper-wearing let's-go-for-a-drink days before Christmas.
I am not working like a dog. I'm getting quite a lot done, but in a quiet and lazy sort of way. I'm working like it's a dog day.