# Happy first day of spring! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 1, 2000, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776 "2000-03-01T23:40:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2000, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/1 "2000-03-01T23:40:00Z")
Once a year I get to cite one of my all-time favorite columns: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_170b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_170b.html) Makes me happier than arguing when the millennium really begins… * * * “The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/2 "2000-03-03T00:05:00Z")
Um, that’s great, except it’s the first of **March** , not **May**. Still got two months to wait. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/3 "2000-03-04T06:04:00Z")
Actually, May 1 is the first day of Summer. Beruang is touting the first day of Spring, which makes her late, not early (by the Irish interpretation of the column). Sort of splitting the difference between Feb 1 and March 22, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/4 "2000-03-04T02:00:00Z")
Hey! In America, where we have ACTUAL summers–hot and miserable (what the Brits call “summer” we would call Spring), summer comprises June, July, and August. School is traditionally out in those months. > [@](#): > > … meteorologists define summer simply as June, July, and August. “For practical purposes, the meteorological definition is the best one, being very closely to the [weather] statistics,” [climate researcher Kevin Trenberth] says. Thus spring is March, April, and May–to an American meteorologist. Cecil is from Chicago, and many of his readers are Yanks–including me, & I suppose Beruang. Soo… SUMMER = Jun, Jul, Aug AUTUMN = Sept, Oct, Nov WINTER = Dec, Jan, Feb SPRING = Mar, Apr, May foolsguinea–not only do I READ the column, I **understand** it. So, Saltire, were you assuming an Irish definition of spring because a) you are Irish or British & assume we are too; b) you are Irish or British & assume that’s the “right way”; c) you carelessly skimmed the article; d) you are trolling, in which case it worked–got me! Irishman apparently either skimmed quite carelessly or is a troll. Of course, Irishman responds to as many of these as I do, so I suspect the former. foolsguinea * * * A new world order has been formed/between the cheque book and the dawn/A new renaissance man is born" Jim Moginie/Peter Garrett/Martin Rotsey (Midnight Oil), “Renaissance Man” ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/5 "2000-03-04T04:43:00Z")
**foolsguinea,** calm down and look at this again. I was assuming (perhaps a foolish thing to do), that when **Beruang** referred to the first day of spring in the same post with this column, she was celebrating the Irish or British date. As did **Irishman,** I think. So when I posted, I was using those dates. The whole point of Cecil’s column, in my opinion, was that there is no defined date when the seasons turn. So it’s a little silly to get upset about the dates some people decide to use. I wasn’t assuming any way was the “right way.” You seem to be pretty attached to your way, or this thread wouldn’t have disturbed you so. I think you and many others on the SDMB are a little too worried about ‘trolls.’ Their power to disrupt is mostly granted by these sort of quick and inflammatory reactions. I’m writing this from my home in Seattle, by the way. It doesn’t look much like spring yet. * * * “If you prick me, do I not–leak?” —Lt. Commander Data ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/6 "2000-03-04T13:39:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Saltire: > **Actually, May 1 is the first day of Summer. Beruang is touting the first day of Spring, which makes her late, not early (by the Irish interpretation of the column). Sort of splitting the difference between Feb 1 and March 22, I guess.** Well, Beruang hasn’t spoken up yet, but it would seem that Beruang took the column’s (USAn) definition of summer (June, July, August) and decided (appropriately) that spring started three months earlier. March 1. ## Splitting the difference between Feb 1 and Mar 22 is not Mar 1. rocks ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2000, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/7 "2000-03-05T06:05:00Z")
So we can wish GuanoLad happy first day of Fall? ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/8 "2000-03-04T20:24:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Splitting the difference between Feb 1 and Mar 22 is not Mar 1. Yes, of course. That’s why I said, “sort of.” You’re probably right about **Beruang’s** post. I’ve misunderstood. * * * “If you prick me, do I not–leak?” —Lt. Commander Data ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/9 "2000-03-07T23:11:00Z")
foolsguinea said: > [@](#): > > Irishman apparently either skimmed quite carelessly or is a troll. Of course, Irishman responds to as many of these as I do, so I suspect the former. Naw, I’m a troll. FEED ME! 😉 Actually, I think _I_ missed Beruang’s point. She was commenting that it’s all debatable, and decided to pick one. But I saw the OP say spring, but the article kept saying “summer” and “May 1”. That’s why I responded. (There was one little throw away line about spring somewhere in there, but hardly the point of the article.) ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2000, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-first-day-of-spring/776/10 "2000-03-08T08:45:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Irishman: > **But I saw the OP say spring, but the article kept saying “summer” and “May 1”. That’s why I responded.** And what a happy troll! I get it now. The article did say June 1–except when talking about the Irish. Duh. * * * rocks