Restate. Repost. Reminisce.
Rather than howl, growl, pant, whimper or bark at the return of summer Dog Days, we’re reminded of the definition of “re-“ as listed in the Random House Dictionary of the English Language. “Re-“ is a prefix used with a meaning “again” or “again and again” to indicate repetition.
“Ruff” is defined as a canine sound associated with joyful, happy dogs. So let us “re-ruff” with resilience for our longtime tradition of featuring the final 11 Dog Days with front page recognition in August.
Onward to bright stars of Dog Days
Dog Days are known as the hottest and muggiest period of summer – and touted to cover the 40 days and 40 nights from July 3 to August 11, year after year.
Some recent reports describe these oppressive days as sultry, sweltering and sticky. It’s nothing new. Since ancient times, observers in countries bordering the Mediterranean have recognized Dog Days as extending from 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction of Sirius and the Sun. Back then, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, located in the constellation Canis Major (meaning “Greater Dog” in Latin) was thought to provide heat to the Earth.
This dogged period coincided with hot days that were troubled with disease and discomfort. Do all the days since March 14, 2020, count?
In America, “Dog Days” have been used as names for independent films, dog groomers, dog daycare and songs. Locally, six-packs of beer produced by Two Brothers Brewery celebrate Dog Days.
And so it goes that during Dog Days in late July 2001, Positively Naperville launched its first rendition of three websites, back when there reportedly were about 29,250,000 websites.
For historical reference, we discovered the very first website ever was launched after a two-year trial on August 6, 1991, without much ado by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN, the huge particle physics lab in Switzerland. According to history.com, the next few years saw the launch of such websites as Yahoo (1994), Amazon (1995), eBay (1995) and Google (1998).
Compare the rapid growth from one in 1991 to more than 29 million by 2001 when PN entered the information highway. Then fast forward to 2024 when AI lists “ruff-ruffly” two billion websites during these Dog Days!
Imagine! Not millions of websites. Billions! Yet, the same reports say less than 200 million websites are actively maintained. Go figure.
Nonetheless, our website remains at www.positivelynaperville.com where we’ve been since July 2001.
And we consider ourselves doggone fortunate every time we think about the thousands of folks who find our website, sign up for the Square Scoop and visit every day.
While we know many of our friends have success with social media, as an independent, family-owned monthly newspaper in print and online daily, we’ve found the best use of our time is to answer our phone (hopefully with a smile) and try to manage our website with local news you can use.
And so we’ll repeat one more time as PN wraps up our 23rd year in print and online, aiming to begin again when we see you in September.
Thanks for supporting PN and your local business community as well as many new charity events that aim to meet unmet needs that make a difference. Thanks for reading PN in print monthly and digitally daily.
Stay strong. Stay informed. Stay safe. Continue to walk (and drive) on the right side, the bright side of life, to reignite the can-do spirit of longstanding traditions such as the Jaycees Last Fling, Aug. 30 through Sept. 2. Hot dog!
– Stephanie Penick
PN Publisher