Uff da! It’s really hot here in the Valley. Not that it isn’t always hot in the Valley in August, but this is hot even for Arizona. Soon, though, it will be September and the days will cool off a bit. The rest of the country is still baking, still without rain and still with temps way above average. I heard a weatherperson state that this year the U.S. averaged 3.3 degrees higher than normal. Now that’s a huge difference between 2012 and the average. No wonder the ice is melting north and south. I hope this doesn’t foreshadow the beginning of the end. Uff da! Not a pleasant thought. Which leads me to that curious Norwegian expression that was part of my upbringing in South Dakota. Anyone from North or South Dakota, Minnesota or Wisconsin knows what uff da means. Sort of a nice Norse way of saying “Oh shit!” These examples are from a website about this expression: Uff da is . . . discovering that your male dog is pregnant, forgetting your mother-in-law's first name, dropping your only egg on the floor, or eating hot soup when you've got a runny nose. Uff da!
The Olympics is winding down and I must confess I’m looking forward to the closing ceremonies. I’ve been watching the synchronized swimming, both pairs and teams, and the team rhythmic gymnastics, and couldn’t help but wonder what an alien observer would say about these curious activities. Probably something like this: “What in the world are these humans doing? Are these tributes to their gods, the twirling ribbons, the tossed pink balls?” And if we were to make it to an inhabited planet and observe the aliens, would they be doing equally strange things? Actually, I guess they’d be the inhabitants and we’d be the aliens.
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