Happy Winter Solstice Day!

I was told this by my college German professor, so I cannot vouch for its
accuracy as I don't speak all the languages.

Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At least it
is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.



Jim

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
I was told this by my college German professor, so I cannot vouch for its
accuracy as I don't speak all the languages.

Can you at least vouch for its making any sense semantically?

Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day of the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

(Ignoring, of course, that the solstice is not a date, but a particular
moment in time...I'll take as granted that people often talk of the specific
date as the solstice even though technically that's not what it is).

Pete

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day of the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

From an engineer's point of view, the glass is WAY over-designed.

{;-)

Jim



"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...


Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

From an engineer's point of view, the glass is WAY over-designed.

{;-)

Jim

Or simply too large; but either way, a waste of resources.

;-)

Peter

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At
least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day of
the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

That's not the question I'm asking. I understand the difference between
looking at the solstice as the longest day or night versus the shortest
night or day, respectively.

The question is, what is it that Jim claims causes the Winter solstice to be
"the shortest day of the year" in English? It's just as much the longest
night of the year in English as it is the shortest day.

His post implies there's some optimism in English, German, and Russian and
some pessimism in French, Spanish, and Italian, but completely fails to
explain where or how this optimism or pessimism is represented. Personally,
I doubt there's any basis to his claim at all, but since his post isn't even
clear about what his claim is it's kind of hard to say.

Pete

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At
least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day
of
the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

That's not the question I'm asking. I understand the difference between
looking at the solstice as the longest day or night versus the shortest
night or day, respectively.

The question is, what is it that Jim claims causes the Winter solstice to
be
"the shortest day of the year" in English? It's just as much the longest
night of the year in English as it is the shortest day.

His post implies there's some optimism in English, German, and Russian and
some pessimism in French, Spanish, and Italian, but completely fails to
explain where or how this optimism or pessimism is represented.
Personally,
I doubt there's any basis to his claim at all, but since his post isn't
even
clear about what his claim is it's kind of hard to say.

Pete


For many of us, it's interesting trivia; while for others, just trivia.
For a very few, it could be very usefull; or not.
YMMV

Peter

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

The question is, what is it that Jim claims causes the Winter solstice to be
"the shortest day of the year" in English? It's just as much the longest
night of the year in English as it is the shortest day.

so what? it's redundant to say it's the longest night after saying it's the
shortest day.


His post implies there's some optimism in English, German, and Russian and
some pessimism in French, Spanish, and Italian, but completely fails to
explain where or how this optimism or pessimism is represented. Personally,
I doubt there's any basis to his claim at all, but since his post isn't even
clear about what his claim is it's kind of hard to say.

Shortest day, longest night, doesn't imply anything wrt optimism to me.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Winter is finally, officially here.

Yep, this is the deepest, darkest night of the year.

In summer, we'd be heading out the door to the hangar, or the
playground, or the beach, for four more hours of "life". Instead,
today we huddle inside around the computer monitor, because it's
already been dark for over two hours (as I write this) -- and the sun
will be just coming up when I head into work tomorrow morning.

But it's not the coldest night of the year, not by far. Thanks to the
heat-sink effect of the earth, that day is almost precisely one month
in the future. Today it's in the upper 30s here in Iowa, with 1/4-mile
pea-soup fog, and 100-foot ceilings. Far from the worst that Mother
Nature can dish out -- but certainly nothing to crow about.

We heard one single-engine plane pass over the airport today -- he made
a couple of half-hearted approaches, and then departed for greener
pastures (and an ILS approach) up in Cedar Rapids. (And even there he
must've been at-or-below minimums...)

Yep, this is the time of year we all dread in summer, and struggle to
get through when it comes. It's as bleak as it gets -- which is, of
course, why they put Christmas smack in the midst of it. Nothing a
little faux merry-making to curse the darkness, and ward off the
demons!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

which is, of
course, why they put Christmas smack in the midst of it.

No, it's why they put Saturnalia in the middle of it. And Saturnalia
may well have been a co-opt of some other holiday. Christmas was put
there in an attempt to drain Saturnalia of its pagan power, and get
people (who would be celebrating anyway) to at least do so in the name
of the latest god to achieve prominance.

Jose
--
"There are 3 secrets to the perfect landing. Unfortunately, nobody knows
what they are." - (mike).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.