Everyone talks about it

When I was a bartender, the one topic I always fell back on when talking to a bored customer, was the weather. Usually, a remark about the weather was just a way to lead into a different subject, but occasionally on very slow days I would challenge myself to talk only about weather related topics. I think I am an expert on the discussion of weather.
Now wait. Before you think that I must have been a very poor, dull bartender I would like to mention that most people who sit at a bar especially in the afternoon aren’t there to talk. For this kind of drinker, weather is the perfect topic because it requires neither thought, knowledge nor even consciousness. Everyone gets to have an opinion and if there is a difference of opinion everyone is very respectful regardless of how unusual that opinion is.
So. In a bar on a dull afternoon in the company of people who only don’t want to drink alone, the weather is a fitting topic. In what other circumstances should we pay especial attention to the weather?
Global warming. Yes.
Extreme weather change in your own region. Yes.
Hurricane the magnitude of Katrina no matter what region. Yes.
Winter snow storm in somebody else’s region. No.
Weather front that changes temperature less than 20 degrees in your own region. No.
So. Why is it that ‘news’ programs now talk about the weather like they were keeping a bunch of drunks from falling asleep on their bar stools? We don’t need 24 hour storm coverage on every single cable and network channel every time the wind picks up over the Atlantic Ocean. I think this is just a ploy to get us to have another drink.
Nancy Sherer