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A L S O__T O D A Y
- - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K Should companies be permitted to monitor their employees' Net use? Weigh in on individual vs. corporate rights in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y America Online vs. the "Net nobility" Going once, going twice and growing like crazy Where's the rest of me? Showdown at the HTML corral The little operating system that could - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE - - - - - - - - - -
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________the big chilly
IT HAS SPED UP OUR WORK LIVES, FORCED US TO WEAR SWEATERS IN JULY AND ROBBED US OF THE CHANCE TO SWEAT. DOWN WITH AIR CONDITIONING! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BY JULIE CANIGLIA
And I'm not the only one rubbing my hands together to keep warm. One co-worker says she can't concentrate on her job: The numbness in her body is spreading to her mind, she claims. Another dreams of throwing an ergonomic chair through one of the sealed, 18th-floor windows, just to get a bit of sun-kissed air. I'm a lucky part-timer, who, by Wednesday, is anticipating the toastiness of my apartment with all the glee of a 5-year-old who hears the ice-cream man coming. It's summertime, after all -- aren't you supposed to be hot? Apparently not. Air conditioning is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century; many glibly celebrate it as a marvelous machine that keeps us from sweating. This is significant, given Americans' phobia about such bodily functions, though I think there's something bigger at stake. Those millions of window units and central-air systems are so taken for granted, we can't see air conditioning for what it truly is: a subversive force that has robbed us of summer. Only a pop song would claim that just because it's summertime, the livin' is easy. It probably never was -- but at least it's different. Air conditioning resists this fact with unsubtle, often overdone blasts of cold air, negating the very essence of the season, eliminating the need for those activities and rituals that surround cooling off. To me, this is the most palpably appalling thing about it. Some would have you believe that life in the southern U.S. is not possible without AC (never mind all those even closer to the equator who make do without it). But generations of pre-AC Southerners developed an entire, quite civilized culture around keeping their cool -- even the architecture was designed to catch every stray breeze. And a single breeze should be a big deal in what ought to be a lazy, languid, sensual season. There should be continuous glasses of iced tea, and giddy gratitude for thunderstorms after a heat wave, and spontaneous soakings by any means possible (sprinklers, fire hydrants, kiddie pools and so on). Cooling down also includes the pleasure of walking from 90 degrees into a frosty grocery store or movie theater, which I enjoy as much as anybody -- at first. But then the novelty wears off, the chill sets in and the goose bumps pop up. That is, unless one remembers to carry a sweater everywhere, which is really fun when it's 90 degrees. Moreover, a routine series of icebox-to-oven transitions throughout the day is rather grating -- both environments become equally irritating. A whimsical friend speculates that if all the air conditioners in New York were simply redirected outside, it's possible we wouldn't need them inside. N E X T__P A G E .|. Sweat already -- it's summer, you're supposed to! |
