I admit that I'm not very good at small talk . When I'm with friends, I can just shoot the breeze all day long. But when I talk to a stranger or someone I don't know very well, I'm always casting about, searching for something to talk about. Politics and religion are definitely taboo subjects, at least here in the United States. But you have to chat about something, otherwise there are these [bad word] silences. 

So we end up talking about‚Äîwhat else?‚Äîthe weather. This usually begins with something like, "So, nice weather we've been having!" or "It sure is a warm one out there today." Of course, we have [bad word] on the temperature. My favorite is, "It's not the heat that's so bad, it's the humidity!" Actually, I think that's [bad word] ÄîI hate it most when it's muggy outside.

Back in my home state of Minnesota, everyone is obsessed with the weather report! Every TV station has it's own meteorologist with a high- tech radar giving you the 5 day forecast. They tell you when the temperature is rising or falling , what kind of clouds are moving in, and how cold the wind chill is. 

My favorite quote about the [bad word] from Mark Twain, who once said, that everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it!