The Dog Days are upon us

On Saturday, we passed into “The Dog Days of Summer,” which will be with us for the Biblical length of time of 40 days, until August 11.

Why Dog Days? Some have said that this period of especially hot and sticky weather is the kind not fit for a dog. Other folk wisdom handed down is that in the depths of summer, dogs go mad with the heat.

According to our friends at The Old Farmer’s Almanac, these explanations, to give them their scientific term, are hooey. The name that designates the spell of hot mid-summer weather comes from the Greeks (like most things), who named the brightest star in the sky — still —  Sirius, or the “dog star,” which rose with the sun and, the Greek stargazers believed, added to the hot days.

EarthSky.org reports that, “As part of the constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog, Sirius also earns the nickname of the Dog Star.”

The Greeks weren’t right about Sirius causing wickedly hot weather, or that Fido was not altogether there because of the star. The Romans, more practical, and much more brutal, “tried to appease Sirius by sacrificing a brown dog at the start of the Dog Days,” according to the Old Farmers.

From Wall Street to baseball, “Dog Days” means the summer doldrums, when stocks stay stagnant and the long hardball season begins to wear on the everyday players.

If you’re up early, you can find Sirius easily, since it’s the brightest star, in the east just before dawn.

Stay cool, drink lots of water, and be sure your dog does, too.