Why are the Dog Days of summer called the The Dog Days of Summer?
924792
Everyone knows that the “dog days of summer” occur during the hottest and muggiest part of the season. Webster defines “dog days” as...\n\n    1 : the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere\n    2 : a period of stagnation or inactivity\n\n    But where does the term come from? Why do we call the hot, sultry days of summer “dog days?”\n\n    In ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and smog, different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different pictures than the Europeans. These star pictures are now called constellations, and the constellations that are now mapped out in the sky come from our European ancestors.\n\n    They saw images of bears, (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), twins, (Gemini), a bull, (Taurus), and others, including dogs, (Canis Major and Canis Minor).\n\n    The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky (viewed from northern latitudes) during January.\n\n    In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.\n\n    The conjunction of Sirius with the sun varies somewhat with latitude. And the “precession of the equinoxes” (a gradual drifting of the constellations over time) means that the constellations today are not in exactly the same place in the sky as they were in ancient Rome. Today, dog days occur during the period between July 3 and August 11. Although it is certainly the warmest period of the summer, the heat is not due to the added radiation from a far-away star, regardless of its brightness. No, the heat of summer is a direct result of the earth's tilt.
498317
Summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and winter solstice is the shortest day of the year.
161416
It depends on your definition of summer.  Astronomically it begins with the Summer Solstice (~ June 21st).  To school kids it would be the day after school ends.  To most other people it begins right after the fourth of july or the first day of June.\n\nEDIT: I am assuming you mean the northern hemisphere, reverse answers for the southern hemisphere and adjust otherwise accordingly.
383253
The term, which has been around since the 18th century, is of unknown origin but there are several theories floating about, none of which has anything to do with thatched roofs!\n\nRain cats and dogs: If the rain is teeming down the it's said to be raining cats and dogs. This seems to be an odd way of describing weather. The expression first appeared in print in 1653.("It shall raine.....dogs and polecats").\nThere are three possible origins, one of which goes back to Norse times. In old Norse weather lore the cat was related to rain and the dog to the wind. If this were the origin then it is likely that the words would have appeared in print before 1653.\n\nThe second suggestion puts the basis in the Greek word Catadupa, "cataract" or "waterfall".\n\nThe final idea suggests that the drainage of medieval streets was so poor that cats and dogs frequently drowned during a heavy downpour. Swift's "Description of a City Shower" (1710) gives a good idea of what it was like. It's worth repeating.
835810
It is just a quote....\n\n"Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun"\n\ncan't remember who said it though....
47906
It was invented during world war 2 to increase production. It was called "war time".  Basically instead of keeping to one time frame it has you start your day earlier in the summer and the "normal" time it would start in the winter by one hour.  The idea was that if someone got to work earlier in the summer they would hopefully stay a little later since there was still daylight.  It helped production by %5-10.
937274
The phrase is supposed to have originated in England in the 17th century when city streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals. \n\nThe idea that seeing dead cats and dogs floating by in storms would cause people to coin this phrase is just about believable. People may not have actually thought the animals had come from the sky, but might have made up the phrase to suit the occasion.
79
There are a couple of reasons why this was done a few decades ago.  Dogs with curved tails are known to be chasing flies and fleas that got on their tails. Owners of the dogs found this a nuisance that all of a sudden a dog would keep chasing its tail for several hours in a week. Due to this dogs forgot their "job" which was to guard sheep, or pull carts, etc.\nSecondly, certain dogs go very wild if we pull their tails, even if its done playfully. They simply get mad at you, bite you or even kill you, if you are small.  Since little children always found it playful to pull the tails of the dogs and this meant a potential danger to their lives, the owners cut their tails short. \nEver thought of the word CUR-TAIL? :-)
290055
The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression.
682735
geez eddy you don't have to be so meeeeannn or serious!!!!  we party hardy like we're tardy...and we also drink a lot, swim in our pool, 'cause we have summer b=days...and eat really really good cake from a cake factory...and as far as my suspicion over the points are for null and the questions are for entertainment...i think i was right...thanks!  my dog can still kick you're butt.
201025
Sundogs, also called "mock suns" or "parahelia" (Greek for "beside the sun"), appear as one or two patches of light on either or both sides of the sun. Sundogs give the illusion that there are two or three suns in the sky. Sundogs may be white or colored, and often appear along the path of a 22 degrees halo (a thin ring of light around the sun).\n\nThese patches of light are occasionally seen around a very bright, full moon. In that case, they are called moon dogs.\n\nSundogs are produced by the refraction (bending) of sunlight through relatively large ice crystals
445153
because in old times, dogs and cats would hang out on the roof of houses, and when it rained, the roof would get really slippery and the cats and dogs would fall off. The people inside saw the cats and dogs falling past the windows and said it was raining cats and dogs =]
58893
maybe naming the animals lol
73497
"The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in seventeenth-century England.  During heavy downpours of rain, many of the poor animals who roamed the streets unfortunately drowned, and their bodies could be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets.  This situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression."
116801
WHY WAS IT CALLED D-DAY?\n\n“D” is derived from the word "Day". D-day is the unnamed day on which a particular operation commences or is to commence. (US Dept of Defence, Defence Technical Information Center)\n\nWHY IS D-DAY SO IMPORTANT?\n\nD Day was a fork in the road of history, a role of the dice which could have led the world down one of two paths - if it had failed Germany could have regrouped and secured its territory gains. Some claim Hitler, whose scientists were already demonstrating their achievements in rocketry, could have developed of the atom bomb. \n\nBesides the incredible courage, and brilliant strategy it was arguably only as a result of a combination of coincidences and mistakes that the Germans didn't succeed in resisting the landings. Never had world history had such a pivotal day (arguably the Cuban missile crisis deadline is comparable).\n\n- Rommel, the German commander, returned from his headquarters in Normandy to Germany for his wife's birthday on June 6th, removing the immediacy of a local army commander. He believed the weather conditions to be unsuitable for an invasion\n\n- Hitler, who succeeded early in the war by giving generals initiative, micro mangaged later in the war with-holding key tank forces that could have prevented the beach-head\n\n- Eisenhower needed very specific weather for the invasion - a late rising moon and a low tide. Meteorologistsof the day told Eisenhower these weather conditions would exist on June 5th, 6th, and 7th. Originally, Eisenhower chose June 5th as the invasion day, but due to an unexpected storm, he postponed it for 24 hours. Meteorologists then reported a new weather front that would cause some temporary clearing over the English Channel. The clearer weather conditions would last only until the morning of the 6th and then the weather would get worse. Rather than postpone the invasion, Eisenhower and his commanders decided to go through with the invasion on June 6th.\n\n- a double agent codenamed Garbo told his German coordinators at 3am on the night of June 6th that an invasion was occurring in Normandy, revealing the true invasion intentions. He knew they would be starting to receive reports corroborating this giving his intelligence great creditbility. Then after telling the truth he sold the German intelligence the really big lie - that the Allies were communicating to their forces that there was to be utter secrecy about 'other landings' (leading German intelligence to believe what they wanted to hear - that the Normandy invasion was a bluff and the real attack was in the pas de Calais) a bluff which succesfuly led to Hitler holding back his forces in the believe that the real landings were in Calias.\n\nThe outcome of D-Day was an early end to the war in both Europe and Japan. Had D-Day failed the allies would have needed to wait until 45 or 46 to reattempt the landings. \n\nThere is great debate as to whether if D-Day had failed Hitler could have used the extra time to develop the atom bomb. Some sides say he disputed this Jewish physics pioneered by Einstein, however he did develop heavy water facilities in Normandy. If D-Day had failed with the bomb he might have brokerered a peace securing his territory gains.\n\nIt must be pointed out that even if D-Day had failed the Russians would still have been likely to have succeeded and potentially secured a much larger amount of territory in Europe when peace was secured. Without D-Day the western allies would not have had control of France, Spain and England which might have fallen to communism and the Cold War would have been a very different story.\n\nImagine a world where Europe had been run by a brutal totalitarian state through the 40s and 50s. America would have become isolated. One can only speculate on the outcome but it would be hard not to imagine millions more dying and the implications affecting more than just those countries directly involved in the conflict.\n\nMa
509832
The term has been used for well over two centuries. The earliest known use was by French American writer St. John de Crevecoeur in rural New York in 1778. There are several theories as to its etymology:\n\n    * It may be so named because this was the traditional period where North American First Nations/Native American peoples would harvest their fall crops.\n\n    * In The Americans, The Colonial Experience, Daniel J. Boorstin speculates that the term originated from raids on European colonies by Indian war parties; these raids usually ended in autumn, hence the extension to summer-like weather was an "Indian" summer. This is unlikely, as the first recorded instance of the term happened in 1778, by which time such raids would have become uncommon.\n\n    * It could be so named because the phenomenon was more common in what were then North American Indian territories, as opposed to the Eastern seaboard.\n\n    * It may be of Asian Indian, rather than North American Indian, origin. H. E. Ware, an English writer, noted that ships at that time traversing the Indian Ocean loaded up their cargo the most during the "Indian Summer", or fair weather season. Several ships actually had an "I.S." on their hull at the load level thought safe during the Indian Summer.
1072976
Rocky Dennis, from the movie "Mask" said this quote:\n\nThese things are good: ice cream and cake, a ride on a harley, seeing monkeys in the trees, the rain on my tongue, and the sun shining on my face. These things are a drag: dust in my hair, holes in my shoes, no money in my pocket, and the sun, shining on my face.\n\nI always think of it when the sun is too bright in the dog days of summer. It might seem like an odd quote, but I thought this summarized summer very well.\n:-)