The sound of gently, falling water was heard a few minutes ago from outside. It was bright and sunny out but we were still getting a quick downpour.
Knowing that you can find practically anything on the Internets (See #8 of Top 10 Bushisms), I set about looking for an the old saying about this meteorology phenomenon also known as a sunshower.
My dad used to say whenever it was raining and the sun was shining that “the Devil was beating his wife.” I had never given much thought to whether that was some wonderfully humorous absurdity he made up, as he was frequently known to, or if the saying was some colloquialism. It turns out the latter but it would be 40 or so years before I ever really considered whether Satan was even married. It also is apparent that Southerners aren’t the only ones with strange expressions for freakish events, although where I live a sunshower is likely to happen a couple of times a day especially during the summer or early fall. According to Wikipedia:
“In Poland: the saying is that ‘when the sun is shining and the rain is raining, the witch is making butter.'”
Unfortunately, I don’t really see it. It wouldn’t strike me that a witch, as in lore rather than those of today, would like or like to make butter. Maybe she was going to give it to the devil’s wife after the Devil finished beating her. I don’t know.