Yesterday we had a big snowstorm, today it is bright and cloudless. It's time to bring out the old cliché, "If you don't like the weather in Cincinnati, just wait a few minutes." This particular meme, so beloved around here as a "local saying," I have heard in all of the many places I have lived. A quick Google search reveals the following exact quotes for this "local saying":
If you don't like the weather in Texas... Just blink!
If You Don't Like The Weather in Chicago. wait a minute.
If you don't like the weather in Michigan, wait five minutes.
Mark Twain wrote, "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes."
And remember, if you don't like the weather in St. Louis, just wait ten minutes.
Yup, if you don't like the weather in Texas, wait five minutes -- it'll change!
If you don't like the weather in Melbourne, just wait five minutes.
If you don't like the weather in Washington, well, just wait a minute.
If you don't like the weather in Boston, just wait a minute.
Will Rogers once quipped, "If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a minute and it'll change."
If you don't like the weather in Missouri just wait 5 minutes.
"If you don't like the weather in Buffalo, wait five minutes." Famous quote from past resident Mark Twain.
If you don't like the weather in the Sierra…wait a minute"
Everybody knows that if you don't like the weather in British Columbia, all you have to do is to wait five minutes.
If you don't like the weather in Florida, stick around for a few minutes, it'll change.
I guess it's true what they say here "if you don't like the weather in Utah, wait 20 minutes".
If you don't like the weather in North Carolina, wait a day.
We also say, 'If you don't like the weather in Scotland, then hang around for twenty minutes'.
I wonder ... do they haul out this "local saying" in Europe as well? Are there French or German equivalents? And what did Mark Twain really say?
I say: "If you don't like the weather in Southern California, you're insane!"
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Google missed Minnesota? Lots of people in my native state would find it hard to swallow that they hadn't invented the phrase.
ReplyDeleteFrom Brewer's Famous Quotations
ReplyDelete--------------------------
Mark Twain
If you dont like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.
So attributed in "A treasury of Humorous Quotations",
eds Prochnow & Prochnow (1969), but this does not appear
in the text of Twain's speech on "The Weather" to
the New England Society (22 December 1876). On the
other hand Wolfgang Mieder lists "If you dont like
the weather in New England, just wait a minute and
it will change" as merely a 'New Englander saying in
his "Yankee Wisdow: New England Proverbs" (1989).
Perhaps this proverbial saying was assigned to Twain
on account of its similarity to this passage in the
1876 speech:
"There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels
the stranger's admiration--and regret. The weather is always doing
something there; always attending strictly to business;
always getting up new designs and trying them on the
people to see how they will go. But it gets through more
business in spring than in any other season. In the spring
I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of
weather inside of four-and-twenty hours."
that saying is so stupid. i have heard it in a few different states and people swear it's a local thing.
ReplyDeleteThats because the weather in minnesota dosent change. it's cold....... and it rains.......
ReplyDeleteAccording to Snopes (the debunking site), Twain DID say "If you dont like the weather, wait a minute" but did NOT say "Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."
ReplyDeleteToo bad, I really like the last quote.
On the other hand, Snopes does not provide any sources for their statements.
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/twain.asp
"Thats because the weather in minnesota dosent change. it's cold....... and it rains......."
ReplyDeleteNeither does the weather here in Florida...especially in the summertime...it's ALWAYS hot and humid, and we get horrendous and relentless lightning-infested thunderstorms practically EVERY DAY for MORE than five months out of the year (am I the ONLY one in South Florida who actually COMPLAINS about the weather?!).
i began today's attempts at a blog entry by googling the saying after a late for us snowstorm. oklahomans do claim the saying and sometimes attribute it to will rogers. my intention was to use the phrase but point out oklahoman's lack of ownership. your responders research nicely gets us back to mark twain whom we would like to think of as the country's will rogers. perhaps oklahomans can allow this snopes-like debunking of our precious belief. by the way i haven't found any real will rogers quote yet.
ReplyDeleteThe saying is also considered local in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Some people even think it's local to their home town.
ReplyDelete