Sometimes the old way is the better way.

I feel that we Mainers have many different old-timey ways of telling the future. Who says we don't have ESP?! And no, I'm not talking about the sports channel. I'm talking about how a lot of us know all sorts of things, likely taught to us by our grandparents, about how to predict things around us, just by simple observation.

allanswart
allanswart
loading...

For instance, my grandfather used to say that if you paid attention to the bottoms of clouds in August, you could tell if it was going to be a big snow year. He said the darker the bottom, the worse the winter would be. Or my grandmother was always ready with an old-fashioned saying like, "fog in the hollow, fair day to follow", and other awesome things like that.

Mother Nature gets in on the action too.

A while back, I posted a bit about using cricket chirps to tell what the temperature is. And then I heard someone talking about how Woolly Bear Caterpillars can also help predict the severity of the upcoming winter. Even the National Weather Service has weighed in on the subject. Here's how it's explained on their site:

Photo by Kayla Hughey on Unsplash
Photo by Kayla Hughey on Unsplash
loading...

The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest.  If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe.  If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. In addition, the woolly bear caterpillar has 13 segments to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter.

There's more than one way to skin a caterpillar.

And of course, there's more than one version of how the Woolly Bears predict the winter. One says that the "woollier" the caterpillars are, the colder the winter will be. As though they're building their coat. And another still, says that the direction they tend to crawl in, shows what type of winter it will be. If they're crawling south, they're trying to escape a cold winter. If they are moving north, then it will be a milder winter.

517229716
ViktorCap
loading...

Science would have us believe that there is absolutely no correlation between the severity of winter, and the life of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar. But come on....if people have been using them as an accurate forecaster for all these years, there has to be a shred of truth in there somewhere. Even if that truth is that everyone back then was just a little bit nutty.

Instead of thinking about winter, let's think about dogs!

WOOF: These are the most popular dog breeds in America

Stacker highlights the 100 most popular dog breeds in America based on data released March 15, 2023 from the American Kennel Club.

Gallery Credit: Sabienna Bowman

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

Gallery Credit: Elena Kadvany

LOOK: Here Are 30 Foods That Are Poisonous to Dogs

To prepare yourself for a potential incident, always keep your vet's phone number handy, along with an after-hours clinic you can call in an emergency. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center also has a hotline you can call at (888) 426-4435 for advice.

Even with all of these resources, however, the best cure for food poisoning is preventing it in the first place. To give you an idea of what human foods can be dangerous, Stacker has put together a slideshow of 30 common foods to avoid. Take a look to see if there are any that surprise you.

Gallery Credit: Rachel Cavanaugh

More From WWMJ Ellsworth Maine