I'm not sure that "Spotters" are as popular in my neck of the woods as they seem to be elsewhere. Our weather is innocuous enough to pretty much eliminate storm spotting, and we don't have the types of tornadoes that are so beloved on YouTube. Tacoma came into existence thanks to the Northern Pacific Railroad, but I've never seem anyone trainspotting. I used to see people watching planes come and go at Joint Base Lewis McChord, the nearby military base, but the threat of terrorism seems to have put paid to that activity, and besides, my husband says its illegal. Also, back in the day, people would sit at the border of SeaTac Airport to watch planes, but I haven't been there, lately and can't give an update. Wikipedia calls a person who enjoys watching activity on canals in the United Kingdom a gongoozler. Apparently, they "harbor an interest in canals and canal life, but do not actively participate." There are 18,241 canals in the United States but I've never heard of anyone watching them. But road geeks, aka Roads Scholars, 😁 like roads less travel and regularly take road trips. All this watching/spotting is by way of introducing the Cloud Appreciation Society, cloud spotters, as it were.
A British author named Gavinj Pretor-Pinney founded the society in 2005, and it has approximately forty-six thousand members in one hundred and twenty different countries. Their aim is to "foster understanding and appreciation of clouds." The society's homepage, cloudappreciationsociety.org has a gallery of photographs submitted from all over the world. Also, in 2005, Yahoo named the society the most weird and wonderful find on the internet." (I couldn't find Yahoo's list).
For authors and readers, how many books can there be that don't mention clouds? Whatever the weather--sunny, stormy, windy, etc. they are almost always part of the written text. TheAtlantic.com calls clouds "the most useful metaphor of all time." because they can shape-shift to meet any situation.
Joni Mitchell must have agreed when she sang about clouds getting in her way and going on to say:
"I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all."
Joni Mitchell must have agreed when she sang about clouds getting in her way and going on to say:
"I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all."
Interesting but definitely not a spotter here
ReplyDeleteI'm always spotting something but I never thought to create a society.
DeleteGreat blog, Karla. My mom used to be a WW2 airplane spotter. She knew the undercarriages of all those planes. When I lived in Kansas, there were storm chasers/spotters, whom I thought insane, but they saw things I'd never imagine. I clicked on the cloud watcher link. So cool.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I thought the idea was a hoot. Gotta love the Brits.
DeleteWe had a lovely 2-week family holiday on a canal boat years ago and talked to many 'gongoozlers' along the wya. I didn't know about the cloud spotting organization - that's fascinating.
ReplyDeleteWell, well, I never thought of cloud spotting but have to admit to watching them change shape while sitting in my car in a traffic holdup. They are fascinating in the way they constantly change. I do recall boys enjoyed train spotting in England years ago but reckon they are too engrossed in their gadgets today.
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