Dean Dad is complaining about the heat and wondering how people in the South stay cool. I’ve got three words for you, Dean Dad: Working air conditioning.
The last time it was this hot in Nashville, I can remember going to Target and seeing the parking lot full of running cars. I both knew it looked familiar and couldn’t quite understand what was going on. But just as we “Yankees” leave our cars running in the winter when we need to run in and pick up just one or two things, folks in Nashville were leaving their cars running with the air conditioners going in heat like this*.
It seems to me that one thing Nashville does well is keep things a reasonable temperature in doors no matter how hot it is outside.
And, in all fairness to the heat, this week has been a lot easier to get through, I think, than last week, because even though the temperature is higher, the humidity seems much lower. It’s not a dry heat, but you don’t feel like you’re hanging out in a sweaty arm pit.
Anyway, Mrs. Wigglebottom has another way to keep cool in the heat. She pretends to be distracted by something at the edge of the yard full of flowers on our walk and then, just as the sprinkler gets near her, she leaps up into the water and bites at it and wiggles in it.
Perhaps, Dean Dad, you could take a lesson from Mrs. Wigglebottom and “accidentally” get soaked by the sprinklers during lunch. Then you could wear whatever you felt you had to wear in order to be properly dean-like, but also stay cool because you’d be wet. Plus, if you played it right, you could look extra dedicated, because where others might have gone home to change after being caught in the sprinklers, you’ve soldiered on in order to “be there for the school.”
Mrs. Wigglebottom, solving problems one wiggle at a time.
*I haven’t seen that as much this year, probably because back in 2000 we were paying just around a dollar twenty-five for gas and now we’re paying almost three. Shelling out three dollars for a gallon of gas makes you a lot less likely to leave your car running while you go in to get some laundry detergent.
Tiny Cat Pants 
One thing that I noticed in this vein last time I was down your way was that people in the South not only use their air conditioners, but they keep it *really damn frigid*. I guess I noticed this most in public buildings, like grocery stores and restaurants. I think I got a cold from all the drastic temperature and humidity changes. 95 degrees and humid on the outside to 60 degrees and dry on the inside. Even the little country store we stopped at in Fly, Tennessee, was freezing. Dr. J
That’s true. Things are very cold here. I can wear sweaters all summer long, as long as I never leave the office.
Hmm. I’m not sure that winning the "Wet Oxford Contest" would do much for my career. Not a bad thing to do once I get home, though.And kudos to Mrs. Wigglebottom.
Given the insanely cold A/C settings, I think being in wet clothes indoors sounds dangerous and uncomfortable. But, I’m inspired to modify a friend’s idea. She thought that, on rainy days, we should be naked outside, then when we go inside we have dry clothes to put on. Maybe this would work on hot days too. That would solve the problem of having wet armpits from living in a giant wet armpit.
Ah, Professor, that would work wonderfully here. But the poor Dean Dad is up north and his air conditioning is broken. He’s trying to find some way to keep cool and still be appropriately dean-like. I thought soaking wet might work. One of his readers suggested a kilt.I’m convinced that, if more men really understood how cool it is to have a skirt that lets air get up under and circulate, there’d be a lot more kilt wearing in the summer.
ah, then I recommend both a kilt and a fan!
Here in the Midwest we like to set our AC to 65 in the summer when everyone is wearing short sleeves and skirts and sandals and at 72 in the winter when everyone is wearing wool sweaters and pants and boots. So you’re freezing your ass off all summer and dying of heat stroke all winter. The commuter trains were the worst — you couldn’t breathe in the winter and had to carry a parka in the summer. Fucking geniuses. Aunt B — I will never understand this whole idea that somehow dry heat is better than humid heat. In Dallas they would all bitch about the heat and then some dope would say, oh but it’s a dry heat. But I think 105 is 105 is 105 is just hot as hell! Now 85 degrees with 90 percent humidity versus 85 degrees with 40 percent humidity — does anybody really notice? But somehow when it gets to 90 everybody is all about the humidity. Maybe 90 is just hot? And while I’m musing on this — does that mean damp cold weather is better than a dry cold? "It’s freezing out!" "Yes but it’s a freezing RAIN so it’s not nearly so bad." I was gonna write "and who cares anyway?", but by the length of this post, clearly I do.
I think hot is hot, definitely, but the humidity is just an added layer of insult. It’s like if you found out that your shoes were on fire with you in them. That would suck enough. But then, if you bumped your head, hard, as you were trying to stomp out the flames?Humidity is just that hard bump on the head.