Forcast* (for Forecast*)

Monday's blog entry prompted me to learn a bit more about my wannabe namesake of sorts, Carol Reed, who presented the nightly weather forecast on WCBS-TV in New York City from 1952 to 1964. Prior to that, according to a 1996 article in the New York Times, the weather report had been duly submitted to television audiences by "military veterans, tweedy professors of meteorology, and former personnel of the United States Weather Bureau [who] barely cracked a smile as they stood in front of wispy maps and droned on about fronts and pressure systems." Once Carol Reed hit the airwaves, though, sexy "weather girls" began to be in high demand. ("Attractive, chipper, and blessed with eternal smiles," these women "scrawled weather maps on Plexiglas, donned hats to match the forecast or rose yawning from bed in skimpy lingerie...") Wikipedia has clearly bowed to the political winds of change by listing her occupation as "weather person"; however, she was always known as "Carol Reed, the weather girl." Despite having not been "trained in meteorology," her sunny disposition more than made up for that lack. Never one to rain on her viewers' parade, she would invariably sign off by saying, "Good night and have a happy!" Sadly, Ms. Reed died of cancer at the age of 44 in Mamaroneck, New York. Given that there were 74 cases of Forcast* (for forecast*) in OhioLINK today, and a blizzard-worthy 1268 in WorldCat, we predict you'll uncover a scattering of these in your own catalogs as well.

(Publicity photo of weather person Carol Reed, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid