"I think there is something about the weather that reflects our natural awe of a natural world that is greater than us. People really enjoy a big storm. I think that all over the country, people are into weather. It's the number-one reason people watch the nightly news," says some guy in Seattle. We spent most of June bitching about the rain here in New York and making the obvious comparisons to the Emerald City, so I suppose it's only fair to note that it's very hot there right now! The temperature may exceed 100 degrees, which would be a record. Good luck!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
13
Living in and being from a place where "The Weather" is an absolutely mandatory conversation starter/topic, I can say it's popular because it is absolutely bipartisan. Oh, you think it's hot? I think it's cold. Oh man, this 100-degree-below-zero stuff sucks, no? Everyone is impacted by it, yet no one person's opinion of it really has any damaging effect on any other one person's opinion. The fact that you think humidity is great doesn't insult my hate for it. And, anyway, what are we going to do, vote for new weather? There's nothing anyone can do about it so who cares. It's the ultimate safe thing to talk about with friends and total strangers (even odd foreigners!). In this respect, it is for all of society what sports are to certain segment of the straight male population.
Unlike, say, abortion, gay marriage, hollywood, politics, taxes, education, unemployment, new yorkers, reimbursement, race, foreigners, sex, the president, war, terrorism, environmentalism, cars, etc etc forever.
Oh, Choire just chastised me for failing to note that it is the coldest July on record here in New York. So I am noting that.
To be fair, The last time it was this hot for this long Warren G. Harding was saying "Less government in business and more business in government".
Heh, heat KILLS people in Seattle. Passive-aggressive elitist snobbery is harder to do when you're wearing the only pair of shorts you own and sweating profusely. I'm sitting here in my underwear eating popsicles at 10:30 in the morning, and it's only 85* so far. I suspect I'll be laying under the sprinkler naked by noon.
Damn, now that's some grunge arcana. At which point do you start expecting to get paid for writing a blog meant only to be read by you?
The de facto music column hidden within the alt text is one of The Awl's best-- and most distinctive-- features!
I am in Seattle. It is very hot. Are we liveblogging this?
UPDATE: 1:23pm. Hotter than earlier, if that is at all possible. Sun the size of Jupiter; blotting out the sky. Twilight Zone music. Good-bye.
Update: 1:40pm My appointment for 3:00pm called to confirm. "How are you," I asked. "Warm," they replied. We both chuckled. After they hung up, I checked on the cat. Seems to be breathing somewhat normally. She is close to the fan. I don't have air conditioning. WHO NEEDS FUCKING AIR CONDITIONING ON FUCKING BAINBRIDGE ISLAND! Sorry. I don't know where that came from.
on this very special soon-to-be hundred degree seattle day I am taking slightly less offense at my office's overzealous uncontrollable air conditioning system.
I'm with belltolls, which means I am in Seattle and I am agreeing that it is very hot. My girlfriend and I just moved here a few weeks ago and the other night we had a nice snotty chuckle over a public-radio show that relied for the entirety of its content on people calling in to talk about how they were managing the heat. That was back in the eighties, though, and after today we are ready to start our own radio show. It will let people talk about how they are not managing the heat, because my informal bus survey suggests that they very much are not.
It was brutal and tomorrow we will do it again. Still 91 in the house and it got to 104 on the island. The pines were steaming; the cedars coughed.
My family decamped for the mountains, where it was a mere 85. Right after cooling off with a dip in the Stillaguamish, a thunderhead rolled by and fat, lazy rain started falling. It is actually quite pleasant -- and humbling.