weather forecasting

When I was little, the neighborhood kids and I followed an ancient, kids-only tradition for forecasting the next day's weather. We would loosen the shoes or sandals on our feet, and kick one of the pair into the air. If the shoe landed right-side up, we knew that tomorrow would be nice and sunny. If it landed upside down, it was a sign of bad weather looming on the horizon. If it landed on its side, we had to prepare ourselves for a mixture of good and bad weather.

Those forecasts were so much easier to understand than the highly sophisticated weather forecasts I hear on the news these days. And frankly, I don't think the shoe-forecast method was wrong any more often than the current scientific method. I really don't.
(The writing on the etegami says otenki uranai, which basically means "a trick for prophesying the weather.")