Snowy fun!

My mother and my mother in law came over this weekend. For months my mother has been waxing about taking Evelyn to the American Girl Store in downtown Chicago. I for one, would generally avoid the American Girl Doll Place.

It’s not that I have a problem with the fact that the dolls, probably mass produced somewhere in China by child slaves, cost over $100 each. It’s not that they’re probably one of the best examples of our American obsession with the ideal, our rabid consumerism, or the spoiling of the next generation. I for one, would rather hang out at H & M.

Oh well. Evelyn decided on Kit. Kit is from Cincinnati, but moved to Chicago. Kinda creepy eh?

The Back to the Future timeline on Wikipedia (and two other sources I checked) indicates that the national weather service is merely able to predict the weather down to the minute. I would argue, however, that Doc indicates that the NWS actually makes or controls the weather. I’ve thought this ever ever since I saw the movie in the theater as a kid, and it really irks me to think otherwise. It can’t be true! It was like the time when I discovered that Calvin’s friend’s name was pronounced “Hawbs” and not “Hobbees”. These types of things can crush entire world views! The original script as found online (which is slightly different than the film) reads as follows:

DOC: First you’re gonna have to get out and change clothes.
MARTY: Doc, it’s pouring rain.
DOC: Oh, right… (Checks his watch) Wait 3 more seconds.
(Rain stops, sun comes out)
DOC: Right on the tick. Too bad the Post Office isn’t as efficient as the weather service.

Doc doesn’t say that the NWS is “accurate” which would refer to a prediction ability. Rather, he says, they are “efficient.” Weather forecasters in the 1980s were never known for their “efficiency” or inefficiency”: They’re not thought of in that way at all. They are often chided, however, for their lack of accuracy. Furthermore, he specifically compares their “efficiency” to that of the post office. The post office brings things. As a third piece of evidence, as soon as the rain ends the sun comes out, in a magical and very unrealistic way. I believe, because of this, that Doc was referring to the weather service having the ability to control the weather. In the future, the weather service is not just accurate, but efficient, in that it brings us the weather, and right on time too!

What do you think? What is he indicating?