Lambs, lions and quandaries

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Lambs, lions and quandaries

By S.K. Bardwell
Posted Monday, March 8, 2010

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Our March came in like a lamb. Now I’m in a quandary.

It isn’t unusual. I spend so much time in quandaries that I entered a new one trying to finish this stupid metaphor. Now I’m in multiple quandaries.

Back to my original quandary, is the “March-lion-lamb” proverb an either/or proposition, or is it one-way?

If March comes in like a lamb, is it supposed to go out like a lion? Or is it only supposed to go one way, with March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb?

If the former, then we should have some harsh weather coming up at the end of the month.

If the latter, then our March is busted, man.

The first time I remember seeing that particular weather proverb in print, the “comes” was left out, for some reason. This caused me to read “March” the noun as “march” the verb, and struck me as being an instruction: “march in like a lion, out like a lamb.”

Sounded like defeatist propaganda to me. It would be better, I thought, to march in like a lamb, lull them all into a false sense of security, THEN turn into a lion and march out triumphantly.

I tried to research the March-lion-lamb conundrum, and found several online debates about the subject. None of them knew either.

I think maybe it’s an either/or thing, because that would fit in with another weather proverb that holds, “If March is like April, April will be like March.” Meaning, I suppose, that if March is particularly spring-like, April will revert to wintry weather.

Here in South Texas, though, March is usually spring-like, with April bordering on summer-like. Sometimes, although not this year, March is summer-like.

Which leads me to complain, again, of weather proverbs that were all invented by Easterners or Europeans and based on the weather they knew.

The reason there aren’t so many old weather proverbs about our weather is, you simply can’t count on seasons staying where they belong here. I have pictures of my boys when they were small, playing in the yard in shorts – with their Christmas presents.

So if we wanted to make up traditional weather proverbs, they’d have to be things like, “March is the third month of the year,” or “Summer is hot, and sometimes winter.”

How about, “Rain all winter, drought all summer”?

The only local weather proverb I know that has any meaning is, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”