### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/21 "2010-03-03T12:49:46Z")
If the lion sees its shadow then there are six more weeks of basketball.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/22 "2010-03-03T13:10:53Z")
March Black Ram is originally an astronomical reference to Aries and Leo that has been transferred to a weather reference by the general public. Nowhere in older texts have I found it reversed for a weather reference to be in like a lamb out like a lion. It however is just as incorrect for a weather reference either way and I hear it both ways by people.
Here is a text with many interesting sayings. I quote the most relevant for this thread, but there are a lot more just about March.
[
Weather lore: a collection of proverbs, sayings, and rules concerning the weather](http://www.archive.org/stream/weatherlorecolle00inwauoft/weatherlorecolle00inwauoft_djvu.txt)
by R. Inwards, F. R. A. S. Fellow of the British Meteorological Society 1869
> [@](#):
>
> Dutch.
>
> (winds) March comes in like a lion and goes out like a
> lamb.
>
> „ March, black ram,\*
>
> Comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.
>
> „ March comes in with Adder’s heads and goes out
>
> with Peacock’s tails. Scotch.
Here’s one more I have to put here, just because.
> [@](#):
>
> So many mists in March you see,
> So many frosts in May will be.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/23 "2010-03-03T13:13:35Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#):
>
> Yeah, isn’t the beginning of March the tail end of winter for most of us? I’ve never experienced a March that began like anything resembling a lamb.
Wool is very irritating.
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### Author:  [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/24 "2010-03-03T14:00:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> To which I offer this stunning rebuttal:
>
> Oops.
It sounded very convincing and clever to someone like me who is also a bit hazy about the order the star signs come in!
Anyway, I didn’t know what the OP was talking about until I saw the poll, but as soon as I read the options it was obvious to me that the first one was “correct”. And thanks for the entertaining thread!
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/25 "2010-03-03T14:26:44Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#):
>
> It sounded very convincing and clever to someone like me who is also a bit hazy about the order the star signs come in!
>
> Anyway, I didn’t know what the OP was talking about until I saw the poll, but as soon as I read the options it was obvious to me that the first one was “correct”. And thanks for the entertaining thread!
I aim to please.
Occassionally the wife and I get into insanely stupid arguments and I just wanted to prove her wrong. I did. Ha!
Of course, then I showed her this thread and she said “I’m not saying you CAN’T say ‘In like a lion out like a lamb’ just that SOME people say it the other way. And so I’m right.”
But she’s not. Because that saying is clearly incorrect. Because I said so. And you did too. And the SOME people are just wrong. So there.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/26 "2010-03-03T14:32:11Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Unlike the Malay Peninsula where March comes in like a worm-eating fernbird and goes out like a worm-eating fernbird. In fact, their whole year is like a worm-eating fernbird.
I may have discovered a new sig. Or at the very least a creative insult.
\
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/27 "2010-03-03T15:45:12Z")
So…we’ve sort of established that March goes out like a lamb. How does that tie in with April showers?
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/28 "2010-03-03T15:58:39Z")
Don’t get wool wet.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/29 "2010-03-03T16:02:42Z")
In first grade I vaguely remember being taught that if it went in like a lion, it went out like a lamb and then vice versa. But then after ward, I never heard the lamb then lion. It was always just lion then lamb, so I figured it was another example of never trust anyone over 30.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/30 "2010-03-03T16:19:06Z")
> [@blondebear](#):
>
> So…we’ve sort of established that March goes out like a lamb. How does that tie in with April showers?
Weather lore: a collection of proverbs, sayings, and rules concerning the weather
by R. Inwards, F. R. A. S. Fellow of the British Meteorological Society 1869
> [@](#):
>
> 26 WEATHER WISDOM.
>
> Times and Seasons.
>
> March
> and April When March is like April, April will be like March.
>
> French,
> „ March winds and April showers,
>
> Bring - forth May flowers.
> [@](#):
>
> A peck of March dust and a shower in May,
> Make the corn green and the fields gay.
> [@](#):
>
> Portuguese.
>
> „ A cold and moist April fills the cellar and fattens
>
> the cow. Portuguese.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/31 "2010-03-03T17:13:22Z")
> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> I may have discovered a new sig. Or at the very least a creative insult.
> \
[Giving credit where credit is due…](http://whatsit2you.blogspot.com/2008/02/march-comes-in-like-lion-but-goes-out.html) (to John Belushi)
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/32 "2010-03-03T19:20:37Z")
There’s no “vice-versa” to the saying. It’s not a prediction of how the month will end up based on how it starts. It’s simply an aphorism, that March starts out wintry and ends spring-like.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/33 "2010-03-03T20:17:52Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Right answer.
Both. Absolutely the correct answer.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/34 "2010-03-03T20:48:34Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> There’s no “vice-versa” to the saying. It’s not a prediction of how the month will end up based on how it starts. It’s simply an aphorism, that March starts out wintry and ends spring-like.
Then you’ve never lived in the upper mid-west. We’re just as likely to have a snowstorm on March 1st as we are on March 31st. Same with a mild 40F sunny day. It’s a vice-versa old wives tale predictor that I’ve heard since I was a kid.
March doesn’t always start out wintery and end up spring like. It can and often does start out springlike and end wintery.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/35 "2010-03-03T21:00:10Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> There’s no “vice-versa” to the saying. It’s not a prediction of how the month will end up based on how it starts.
A quick google on the subject disagrees with you. The first couple of hits talk about the “vice-versa” thing. And that’s what I was taught. So it’s not all that cut and dried.
But when I was a kid, I always got them mixed up. March comes in like a lamb – white, like snow – and goes out like a lion – yellow, like the Sun.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/36 "2010-03-03T21:09:07Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#):
>
> Weather lore: a collection of proverbs, sayings, and rules concerning the weather
> by R. Inwards, F. R. A. S. Fellow of the British Meteorological Society 1869
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > When March is like April, April will be like March.
Perhaps the only truly reliable weather proverb! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/37 "2010-03-03T21:12:52Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> Perhaps the only truly reliable weather proverb! 🙂
That’s what I thought.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/38 "2010-03-04T15:58:42Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> Then you’ve never lived in the upper mid-west. We’re just as likely to have a snowstorm on March 1st as we are on March 31st. Same with a mild 40F sunny day. It’s a vice-versa old wives tale predictor that I’ve heard since I was a kid.
> March doesn’t always start out wintery and end up spring like. It can and often does start out springlike and end wintery.
Well I lived in Chicago for 13 years – I’m familiar with April snow showers. We always joked that “in like a lion, out like a lamb” wasn’t true for Chicago, it was usually “in like a lion, out like a lion.” And I know that March could sometimes start gently. But “in like a… out like a” was always an _observation_, not a _prediction_.
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### Author:  [@KittenKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KittenKat)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/39 "2010-03-04T16:54:28Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> We use both. It means that if the month starts off with mild weather it will end with harsh weather. If the month starts off with harsh weather it will end with mild weather. Supposedly.
This is the way I learned it, too.
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-in-like-a-xxx-out-like-a-yyy/531043/40 "2010-03-04T17:03:18Z")
If April showers bring May flowers, and Mayflowers bring pilgrims, then what do… hey LET"S GO RIDE BIKES!!!
BTW, I have never encountered googlefight before.
Galaxy Class Starship beats Imperial Star Destroyer
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