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I’m On Cloud Nine
Who wouldn’t want to be? On cloud nine, I mean. How could you not that feeling of elation, euphoria, and intoxicating exhilaration that fills your heart once you’ve achieved a great accomplishment?
But why cloud nine?
Is being on cloud eight so pedestrian? And if cloud nine is better than the previous eight, wouldn’t cloud ten be even better?
In fact, the other clouds have been mentioned. In A. J Pollock’s book The Underworld Speaks, cloud eight was not a good thing.
He also lists cloud blowers as opium smokers, dope fiends, and hopheads. Apparently, the criminal underworld didn’t take kindly to clouds, although I can understand how you might pass through cloud eight on the way to cloud nine. It’s possible I may have even experienced cloud eight personally, but I digress...
It has been suggested that the term cloud nine originated from the International Cloud Atlas published in 1896 which listed the cumulonimbus cloud as cloud number nine. Cumulonimbus are the towering clouds associated with thunderstorms and can reach tremendous heights. This same theory was also attributed to the U. S. Weather Bureau and their atlas. While this may have been the origin, it loses some credibility as it has been noted that numbering in both atlases went to…
