Winter Is Coming

But not before the leaves

At 8:44 AM (EDT), we welcome the return of Autumn, also known as “Fall” (as in “Fall of Leaves.”  You’re welcome).

 NOTE:  The fact that the timing of Fall centers around Eastern Daylight Time is a bit East Coast-centric, don’tcha think?  What’s more, the fact we call it “Fall” is Northern Hemisphere-centric, don’tcha think?

 Atmospheric Fall (or Atmospheric Spring, for those south of the equator.  G’day, Mates) occurs when the sun is directly above an equatorial point 461nm South-Southwest of Monrovia, Liberia.

 

"Liberia is a small country, okay?  In a big continent called 'Africa,' okay?
  I don't know whether they have a middle class, but I'm sure they do. 
Which is how I grew up, okay?"

ANOTHER NOTE:  Why 461 miles southwest of Liberia?  I don’t know.  I mean it would make more sense if that equated to Zero degrees Longitude, or Greenwich Mean Time, but, it doesn’t.  It’s all just random to me.  If one of the two of you reading this knows the answer, please let me know.  To be honest, though, I don’t much care.

NOTE FOLLOWING THE NOTE:  We take this moment for those who are products of the American public school system:  Monrovia, Liberia, is the capital city of the African nation of Liberia.  Now the topic of Liberia is a post for another time.  Suffice to say it was the region of Africa to which American slaves were shipped during the presidency of…James Monroe.

 

"Pretty frikkin' clever, huh?"

To those technical in nature (i.e., nerds), today also marks the first day of the “Autumnal Equinox.”  This is a Latin phrase (thank you, Romans!):  “Autumnal” for “Autumn” (duh) and “Equinox” for “Equal Night.”

"Hey, any time!"

 Basically, what this means is that today we will have an equal number of daylight and nighttime hours.  This, actually, is a gross oversimplification of reality.  For instance, among other things, it doesn’t take into account the concept of twilight.

Wrong twilight

There’s a whole bunch of other scientific mumbo-jumbo about why daylight and nighttime aren’t really equal, but I didn’t feel like reading it with my eyes glazed over.  

Plus, football’s nearly on.

Or whatever the Giants call it.

Suffice it to say, there will be fewer and fewer hours of daylight as we lurch toward December and the Winter Solstice (a day which the Romans celebrated as the feast of Sol Invictus, or “Unconquered Sun.”  Again with the Romans).  

"Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Unconquered Sun.  Whatever.  Little busy here."

Then, winter will really be here and the hours of daylight will increase.

"Told you."

 

Of course, we may be over a month into our civil war by then, so it probably won’t matter much.

 

At which time, we should all start drinking heavily

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go give my trees the stink-eye.