I was just watching the weather and the meteorologist started talking about a low pressure system that is going to move in over the weekend. I can never remember which pressure means good weather, low or high, and I was reminded of a field trip I took in the fourth grade.
My class saw the Channel 4 meteorologist give a presentation on the weather. He explained the difference between low and high pressure systems, and to help us remember which one meant good weather, he told us to think of the Laurel and Hardy. The meteorologist said to think of Laurel when we saw the “L” on the weather map for low pressure, and we would know that that was good. Or bad. I forget.
But I ask you, did the meteorologist really think that a bunch of 9-year-olds in 1984 would be familiar with a comedy team from thirties? I think I was probably the only one in the group that had even heard of Laurel and Hardy, and I had no idea which one was Laurel and which one was Hardy. But even if I did, assigning their initials to pressure systems was, and still is, no help at all. Which guy is preferable? The fat, smart, mean one, or the dumb, skinny nice one?
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2 comments:
I'm guessing that Hardy is the fat one. I have this mental image of lots and lots of air molecules stacked on top of each other, "squishing out" the clouds. That's high pressure = good weather. I still don't get it though... like are you supposed to imagine Hardy sitting on the clouds and making them go away?
That's the thing! We were supposed to know whether Laurel or Hardy was "better" so that would help us know if Low pressure or High pressure equals good weather. So it's a really bad mnemonic, especially for 8-year-olds in 1984.
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