Raining cats and dogs... what an image! What do they think is going to happen, we're going to get swept up in the wind and come pouring down? Ridiculous. Those humans sure have some imagination.
The phrase does come up twice in literature. The playwright Richard Brome wrote this line in his 1653 comedy The City Wit or the Woman Wears the Breeches: "It shall raine... dogs and polecats." My main question about Brome's line is this: what the heck is a "polecat"?
In 1738, Jonathan Swift (of Gulliver fame) wrote a long essay with a long title: A Compleat Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation. "I know St. John will go," Swift writes, "though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs." A few comments about Swift's line: One, learn how to spell "Complete", will you Jonny? Two, St. John was right not to alter his plans; no one ever knows what the weather's going to do. Regardless of the weather predictions, just go ahead (unless you're talking about climbing tall mountains and there is a threat of lightning). For example, members of the Run With Jan group ran anywhere from 4 to 18 miles this past Sunday on the Burlington Bike Path. It rained the whole way, and after the recent heat and humidity it felt great.
Lastly, Swift was no meteorologist. Let me set the record straight: despite the popularity of the phrase, cats and dogs simply don't fall from the sky.
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