The Dog Days of Summer

By Scot Feldmeyer
BarryStaff of Cincinnati Weekly Newsletter 7/19/2011

Well folks it looks like we are in it for sure. “In what?” you ask. Why we are in the Dog Days of Summer.  That’s the hottest time of the year.  Called Dog Days because those star-watching Romans called this time of year, “diēs caniculārēs” which means Days of the Dog.  The name comes from the ancient belief that the constellation Sirius, also called the Dog Star, in close proximity to the sun, was responsible for the hot weather.  The Dog Days usually last between early July and early September. They are known as the hottest and most sultry days of the year.  Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by a dull lack of progress.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, Quinto raged in anger, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies” according to Brady’s “Clavis Calendarium”, 1813.    Don’t you just hate that when that happens? Especially that part about wine turning sour.  Wall Street even got into the Dog Days act.  With summer being a time when the stock market is typically slow, stockbrokers coined the phrase “dogs” for poorly performing stocks with little future potential.

Well, despite the heat, there is no “dull lack of progress” here at BarryStaff. We’ve been interviewing job candidates all day every day and we have lined up some exceptional candidates who are going to make terrific employees for some of our clients. If we don’t have the person or people you need, our professional recruiters know how to find them.   Just give us a call.

In a tribute to this week’s weather, we have from Jay Leno and David Letterman:

“Top Ten Signs It’s Too Hot”

10.) It’s so hot everybody on Facebook has updated their status to “sweaty.”
9.) It’s so hot, Meredith Vieira left The Today Show for a job at Dairy Queen
8.) It’s so hot, drug dealers are selling something called “Iced Crackuccino”
7.) It’s so hot, Jennifer Lopez just got engaged to Mister Softee.
6.) It’s so hot, Courtney Love has an excuse for being disoriented and unintelligible.
5.) “It’s so hot mob informants are actually looking forward to getting dumped in the river”
4.) “It’s so hot the Statue of Liberty is holding a slurpee
3.) “It’s so hot, Exxon is charging $4 a gallon for ice”
2.) “It’s so hot that Rupert Murdoch has been tapping kegs instead of phones (Jay Leno)
And the number one way to tell it’s too darn HOT
1.) “It was so hot in California today that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s clothes were out on the lawn setting themselves on fire.” –Jay Leno

Please stay cool, keep yourself hydrated and let BarryStaff do all of that hard recruiting work for you this summer.