Everyone talks shit about people talking about the weather because there is a real discomfort with small talk.
While I could make a whole separate post about the function of small talk, humans care so much about the weather because it’s kind of a big deal to us!
Think of how much our natural environment plays a role in our moods and energy levels and overall health and well-being. Good or bad weather made a huge difference in our ability to survive and thrive, especially in a pre-industrial society without electricity or AC.
So yeah, it can feel a little silly to start so many conversations by commenting on how hot/cold it’s been lately, but given how sensitive we are to weather and our environments, it makes perfect sense that we’re all a little obsessed with it.
Mar 5, 2025
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YES ur so right!! i love talking about the weather, it’s been sunny the past couple of days and life has actually felt worth living 🙌🙌
choc_orange Sometimes when it’s maybe 74 degrees and sunny, after it’s been really hot or really cold, I feel emotional. A beautiful day can almost make me cry!
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it's an essential part of the human experience?
people who hate talking about the weather need to go find wherever they misplaced their childlike wonder at the variance of nature
Feb 13, 2024
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it's a riveting topic everyone has an unoffensive opinion on
Jul 20, 2024
Wind is awful.
This mostly goes for places where it gets cold, and there are specific exceptions – I’m not talking a cool breeze on a hot summer’s day here.
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It’s winter. You check the temperature – freezing cold but manageable. You step out, fully bundled. So far, so good. But wait! A massive gust of wind blasts you in the face, turning mild discomfort into complete misery, and effectively ruining your life.
It’s nearly spring. You’re trying to enjoy the false hope that this mild day will transition smoothly into warmer weather without being pulled back by winter’s long, frigid fingers. Lo! A cold wind picks up, makes your eyes water – a bully mocking you for naively foregoing that extra layer you considered.
It’s summer. Unless you’re flying a kite, windsurfing, or otherwise doing some specifically wind-related activity, the wind is mostly annoying as fuck. It blows your picnic items over/away, it thunders in your ears.
It’s fall. Basically like spring but the other way around. The wind spitefully reminds you winter is coming again.
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The adverse physical and mental effects of wind have long been anecdotally and folklorically documented, but several scientific studies have also shown a correlation between wind and hypertension and negative mood – even increases in murder rates. From Lyall Watson’s Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind:
“In 1968, Willis Miller of California Western University, collected statistics for homicides in Los Angeles county and compared them with weather records. There were 53 days during 1964 and 1965 when the Santa Ana blew and humidity, which is normally around 43 percent, fell below 15 percent. On 34 of those 53 windy days, there were more deaths than normal. And during the longest sustained Santa Ana, which blew from October 20th to 26th in 1965, the total was 47 percent higher than in any other windless week…In California’s early, and to this extent more enlightened days, defendants in crimes of passion were able to plead for leniency, citing the wind as an extenuating circumstance.”
Apr 6, 2024
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“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
— Fred Rogers
2d ago
I haven’t been on Twitter for years and hardly touch FB, but I had been an active user on Instagram since 2012. I really like taking and sharing photos, and that had always been a fun place to do it.
No more.
With the changes the content moderation changes they’re making, leaving LGBTQ+ folks vulnerable to be targeted; their rolling back of DEI programs; their willing participation in far-right rhetoric and politics; it’s all too much and I’m out.
As if Meta’s platform hadn’t already been increasingly enshittified, this was the final straw to announce how much worse it will get.
And you know what? It feels freeing. Better to leave it behind and find new platforms to connect with people.
Jan 22, 2025
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The guy got my attention with, “Hey, I like your shoes.” Just like that, he had me. We talked about where I bought the shoes and how I used to work in the shoe industry. He used to work in the beer industry but had recently become independently wealthy because of an investment opportunity he started with a few of his friends.
”You get to be your own boss,” he told me. Your boot could be on your own neck. We’re back to the topic of shoes.
He told me it’s a small investment to get started but things are really taking off and I could get in on the ground floor. I could quit my job. Work for myself. Had I ever considered doing something like that?
“No,” I said with a shrug. I walked away with my jar of peanut butter. I can’t remember if it was creamy or crunchy. Probably crunchy.
Nice guy!
Feb 25, 2025