Infection By Light's Fun Fact O' the Day About the Planet Venus

Reading a short article by Alan Lightman in the December Harper's, I learned that on the planet Venus it rains sulfuric acid. You may have known this, I did not. But it got me to thinking...

When we were planning our move to Seattle, and while the move was occurring, and even after we got here, I can't tell you how many people who didn't live here said to me, you know, "How can you stand all that rain? I couldn't stand all that rain." Or, even better - "You do know it rains a lot there, right?" (Seriously: somebody said that to me, as though we would pick up and move our entire lives WITHOUT FIRST INVESTIGATING as much as we could (yes, including the weather) about our new home.) Anyway, to the first quote, what you want to say is, of course, "Well, it's a good fucking thing you're not the one moving there, then, isn't it?" But you don't; instead, you patiently explain that cities such as New York, San Francisco, Dallas (yes, Dallas) get more annual rainfall in a typical year than Seattle. You kindly explain to them that what they mean to say is that it's overcast a lot in Seattle.

But now if somebody starts going on about all the rain in Seattle, I think I'll try a different response, something like, "Well, it DOES rain a lot, you're certainly right about that; but did you know that on Venus it rains sulfuric acid? So, you know, we thought, what the hell, Venus isn't going to work, we'll move to Seattle and split the difference." Then I would smile at them beatifically.

So we'll see how that plays out...

IBL:mm