How Cold Was It?
There is a certain stoicism that living in the upper Midwest gives you, that I miss. When people here in Utah were breaking out the parkas, I was breaking out the light jackets. When people here started complaining about lows in the teens above zero, I finally, grudgingly pulled out the parka. Life there can be breathtakingly beautiful and harsh in one fell swoop, as many back home have been experiencing in the last two weeks. This Neil Steinberg column in today's Chicago Sun Times sums up winter in the upper Midwest....
However, even a veteran Chicago reporter had to dig to find just the right way to describe this latest assault by Mother Nature.
But he closes with the stoicism and indifference to something that you get used to living in that part of the world....
So there is your answer when somebody complains about the cold. "Cold?" you say, with a rakish arch of the eyebrow. "Yes, I suppose some might consider it cold. But we've seen worse."
I miss the stoicism, I miss the sardonic sense of humor that many of my Upper Midwestern friends have, but I can honestly say I do not miss that cold and the layers of clothing that are necessary to survive it at all. I can live with and in it, but miss it......
Cold" is a paltry word to use in connection with the current extreme weather conditions in Chicago, a vague term that could just as easily describe tepid coffee or a somewhat drafty room.
"Like being in outer space" is the metaphor I trotted out Wednesday, one met with characteristic teen skepticism by my older son....
Chicago didn't come near the record of 27 below set Jan. 20, 1985, a date I remember because I got my Chevy Citation started by jamming an aluminum tray filled with hot coals under the frozen oil pan, a practice that is neither wise nor recommended.
But it worked.
However, even a veteran Chicago reporter had to dig to find just the right way to describe this latest assault by Mother Nature.
Grasping at an improvement on "cold," I pulled down Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World, an account of Robert Falcon Scott's fatal trek to the South Pole in 1912.
Cherry-Garrard did not disappoint. The temperature is "ghastly," it is "beastly." It is "dreadful."
At 66 below, he finds his entire body trembling so hard he fears his spine will break.
"They talk of chattering teeth," he writes. "But when your body chatters you may call yourself cold."
"Body-chattering" isn't bad, certainly an improvement on "nosehair-freezing," which came to me while walking to work.
But he closes with the stoicism and indifference to something that you get used to living in that part of the world....
So there is your answer when somebody complains about the cold. "Cold?" you say, with a rakish arch of the eyebrow. "Yes, I suppose some might consider it cold. But we've seen worse."
Today's chuckle . . .
"How cold was it?" Henny Youngman asks. "It was so cold I saw a politician with his hands in his own pockets."
I miss the stoicism, I miss the sardonic sense of humor that many of my Upper Midwestern friends have, but I can honestly say I do not miss that cold and the layers of clothing that are necessary to survive it at all. I can live with and in it, but miss it......
Labels: Winter In Minnesota
posted by The Lady Logician at
9:04 PM
3 Comments:
I miss the government assistance given to elderly trying to pay the heating bill.
But hey, if you can't pull your own weight, tough shit, right, Lady?
By
Anonymous, at 9:18 PM
It is obvious, my cowardly friend, that you know as little about how this is handled in REAL cold weather states as you are about my stands on bailouts.
But then again liberals never let stupid little things like facts get in the way of a good smear.....
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 10:50 PM
Once again the facts get in the way of the dismissive rhetoric of the Lady, not vice versa. President Bush has vetoed home heating assistance in the past with the only explanation being, "this bill spends too much." From a news story from just over a year ago about how her idol GWB deals with those pesky poor cold people:
Bush Veto Hits Heating Bill Aid Program for Poor
Reuters, Nov 13, 2007 - By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Low-income U.S. families planning to rely on a federal program to help pay expensive heating bills this winter are in jeopardy after President George W. Bush on Tuesday vetoed spending legislation that would have provided the financial assistance.
Bush rejected the compromise appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which also contained $2.4 billion in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, commonly known as LIHEAP.
Bush's veto puts "the health and well-being of millions of families at risk this winter," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, chairman of a House Education and Labor subcommittee, which held a hearing on Tuesday on the LIHEAP program.
"With energy costs consistently on the rise, more and more families must make the tough decision whether to heat their homes or put food on the table," McCarthy said. "We'll fight for the money."
With prices forecast to be up for all heating fuels this winter, the poor will need LIHEAP assistance more than ever.
The Energy Department forecasts that households that use heating oil will spend an average 26 percent or $375 more this winter compared to last winter, with costs for propane expected to be 20 percent or $273 higher, natural gas up 11 percent or $87 and electricity 3 percent or $22 more expensive.
Low-income families spend on average about 15 percent of their income on home energy bills, compared to 3.4 percent for all other households, said Mark Wolfe, who heads a group representing state energy directors.
"If energy prices increase at a faster rate or we have a colder winter than projected, then without an additional increase in federal funding, the purchasing power of LIHEAP will be dramatically diminished," he told lawmakers.
The bill that Bush vetoed would have boosted the LIHEAP budget by about $250 million. Even with the additional funds, the program would have had enough money to cover only about 16 percent of the estimated 38 million poor households eligible for help.
By
Anonymous, at 1:13 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home