Seriously, that was the first clue of the NY Times acrostic puzzle today.
I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for almost 35 years, and I’ve sailed boats on Puget Sound for much of that time, and I’m still waiting for my first warm Pacific Northwest wind.
Okay, chinook. Somebody who, I suspect, never lived out here looked up the definition. Technically, it’s a “warm” wind because it comes out of the southwest (vaguely from Hawaii) rather than traveling down along the coast and the frigid North Pacific current. But I doubt many people would actually think “warm” here. It also carries massive amounts of moisture. I mean, seriously wet even for the Seattle area.
Puzzles are not dictionaries, of course, and (unintentionally) misleading clues are no big deal.
But there are times when Pacific Northwest weather reminds me of the Haldane (or Eddington, or probably someone earlier than both) line: “Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine.” So’s the weather.
(It’s April, flowers have been blooming for three months, but the passes closed last night with over a foot of snow.)
Another clue in the acrostic today was looking for Martha and the Vandellas’ first top-ten hit. And right about now, I’m looking for a heatwave.