Happy 4th, Mari! I have been enjoying most of all the videos of European visitors showing up to random baseball games and getting excited.
Your "solve, rather than suffer" made me think of Hank Green's thoughts on refusing to do practical things because "something awaits for me in the divine for resisting": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXO5axomU7Q
Thank you for the link! I love the Green brothers—they really do focus on solving problems. I highly recommend Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green, for this reason.
Happy 4th of July. I am looking forward to the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Library in Medora, North Dakota this weekend. It is LEED certified to reduce its environmental footprint.
One remark or two: air conditioning DOES exist in Switzerland.
- most newer buses and trams have it (since about 2 years) as well as the newer trains.
makes having to pop into town a little bit more comfortable in the increasingly hot summers...
especially if one does not own an (air conditioned) car
- many of the larger shops are now also air conditioned. whew! provides some relief
in between shopping runs.
- AND: not to forget that most Swiss houses and building have cellars, which can be a nice and cool escape.
- in my earlier working days here in Switzerland, (about 35 years ago), our IT guy used to let us pop into the IT server room, which had to be air conditioned by default ;)
- many years ago already, I had a colleague who had to work at 30°C inside a concrete and glass government building for several weeks during summer. They were NOT allowed to purchase or use a private cooler of some kind during those hot summer weeks. Because of flexi work times, many came to work VERY early and left earlier, too, so they could go for a dip in our local river in Bern.
- not all apartments are or have windows on shady sides of the building, some only have windows on one side, which makes it stuffier and harder to get in a nice cooling draft with open windows.
thanks again for your entertaining and enjoyable posts!
Thanks for this great comment. That poor colleague of yours—those glass walls are pretty I the winter, but in the summer they turn houses into ovens. We are lucky that our apartment doesn’t have a southern exposure, so we can keep it comparatively cool.
And thanks for making the point about the newer busses and trams. I rode a Post Bus up to Grosse Scheidegg this morning and was relieved that it had AC, because the sun was really streaming in!
How nice that this was the first real thing I read today (if you don't count skimming through work emails - which I don't!). I think it set my mood for the day, so thank you!
One thing that always stays in my mind even though it's been about 15 years now is my good friend visiting the US for the first time. She remarked to me that she did not expect everyone to be so outgoing and talkative. A cashier raving over her bracelets, someone she asked for directions excitedly explaining the optimal way to get there and wishing her a great day. She was slightly taken aback by their friendliness but she also loved it. So much so, I guess, that she made it her goal to move to the US and eventually did :)
I read this anonymous comment on the AC contretemps, highlighted on her substack by Helen Pluckrose, who herself was chiefly arguing that the preference was cultural, not particularly imposed from above:
“I think Americans misunderstand why AC is less common in Europe.
For a lot of Europeans, comfort is not about controlling everything artificially. It is about opening the windows, letting air circulate, using shutters, living with the seasons, and keeping life simple.
It is not necessarily backward. It is just a different relationship with comfort, energy, and everyday life.”
My bona fides on this subject are: born and reared in Houston, TX, which I was one time delighted to learn was a consular posting for which British ambassadors received tropical hardship pay.
And there is one truth I will brook no opposition to: Americans at least below the Mason Dixon line have lost their ability to live other than in one extremely narrow temperature band.
It has absolutely had a coddling and weakening effect.
They have forgotten all the ways to ameliorate the heat, and in some sense, forgotten what actual heat was.
I’m certain that most of my relatives have never opened a window in their lives. Nor walked anywhere rather than drive, except when they are on European vacation!
People in Texas* on pleasant days in the low 70s, sitting even in the shade of a tree in their SUVs, waiting for their kids to come out of whatever activity, will all have their engines running, filling the air with fumes. Ditto people sitting in parking lot while somebody shops, on a breezy day in the 80s.
Admittedly, I am not so keen on central air though I do miss it when it’s completely broken. Less because of the temperature than the extreme humidity that has risen in my region in recent decades (so much so that the swamp coolers people used to use no longer work). I dislike the noise and I quickly find the blowing irksome on my skin.
My AC is frequently broken because I live in an old condo-ized apartment. The guy who regularly comes to deal with whatever is its latest problem - most recently “ants arc’ed on the contactor” - indicated to me that my poor landlady would’ve definitely had to replace her whole system if we ran it like “regular” people - much harder than we do. We happily make do with a fairly small “split” (AC lingo!).
This is partly out of compassion for our landlady, at this point a friend - she already has tossed what averages to about $1000 a year at the system; and when she eventually has to replace it, she will have to rent not an ordinary crane but a huge one, to swing new units over the carport and the rear patios to the top of this 2-story building .… the whole thing was very misconceived. Having AC units on the roof is stupid from an efficiency standpoint and also very inviting of ants.
Also, when clueless upstairs tenants let the condensation line clog - the result is often water damage below.
(By the way, I uttered the words “ants on the contactor” before the AC guy did. We too have become buddies at this point. I never meant to live here this long!)
My mother recently spent $10,000 on a new AC, 1/2 of her two systems, on a house that I’m pretty sure will be torn down in the next 18 months to 2 years. The guys during annual maintenance had topped it off with $250 worth of the now mostly illegal freon, a very slow leak which had not impacted its function; but they came back to give her the hard sell when her daughter was not around.
You can bet they drained out that freon to resell! I was not a happy camper. I dislike when people take advantage of old ladies, as when a few days after my father died, she wanted to be helpful and so she went off to get the $7 annual vehicle inspection. She returned from the filling station having been relieved of almost $500. “They were so nice” she said. Beware of Greek mechanics bearing cabin air filters (!).
(A car that is garaged all the time and has about 15,000 miles on it …)
Simple, AC is not.
Unfortunately, for Europe, my favorite remedy for the hottest months is I think also not technically common there: the late afternoon, early evening swim.
No, people have lost the ability to sit in their homes doing no more than watching TV; meanwhile, the road crews are out there in the blazing sun, pouring asphalt.
There’s a big gulf between the cocoon of AC and working outside in my state’s brutal heat, a gulf where lot of life could be lived, but it’s not.
Anyway, energy use after this fashion cannot go on forever and will not. I guess it makes no difference whether Europe aids us in blowing it out.
It’s just funny that the cure so thoroughly contributes to heating up the atmosphere.
*Fun fact: there was actually an early sprawl single family home subdivision on the interstate here called Air-Conditioned Village. So maybe it can be incorporated into European village life!
Thank you so much for this fun and thoughtful comment! I actually mostly agree with you. In Switzerland, where we don’t have high humidity and where it usually cools down at night, we can mostly get by with opening the windows at night and closing the shades during the day. And we definitely cool down by floating downtown in the river—I call it Aare conditioning.
But this heatwave has been something else. It hasn’t been cooling down enough at night, and the heat builds over consecutive days. It has been brutal, and it’s much worse in other countries.
Of course I agree that we should minimize our AC use, set the temperature at 77, open the windows to air out the place, and take cool showers. AC doesn’t have to mean the frigid temps in US offices that require women to bring in blankets. It doesn’t have to mean shops blasting the cold air out through open doors. It doesn’t have to mean turning on the AC the minute the outside temp goes above 75. But as climate change worsens, some amount of AC is going to become a necessity throughout Europe, and it would behoove them to adopt it sooner rather than later.
It doesn’t have to mean that, in theory; but if it becomes widespread and doesn’t - it will be another example of European difference. Of their being made of better sterner stuff.
But then Americans were once made of Europeans!
Anyway, it’s difficult for me to imagine dealing with climate change (I guess I always need to caveat, if you believe in it) or continuing to pretend we want to and are going to and also hold in my mind, the idea that Africa and India and Asia and tropical South America will also get widespread AC.
Happy 4th, Mari! I have been enjoying most of all the videos of European visitors showing up to random baseball games and getting excited.
Your "solve, rather than suffer" made me think of Hank Green's thoughts on refusing to do practical things because "something awaits for me in the divine for resisting": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXO5axomU7Q
Also, I agree with him about progressive lenses. I will never get them!
Thank you for the link! I love the Green brothers—they really do focus on solving problems. I highly recommend Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green, for this reason.
I'm looking forward to reading it - I have followed their charitable work for years and read many of their books, but haven't picked up that one yet!
Happy 4th of July. I am looking forward to the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Library in Medora, North Dakota this weekend. It is LEED certified to reduce its environmental footprint.
https://www.trlibrary.com/
Very cool! I will have to visit the next time I’m in Minnesota. It’s a day’s drive away from us.
❤️ Vermont is awesome and so are Americans. Happy early Fourth!
Same to you!
Hi Mari, thanks for the US update.
One remark or two: air conditioning DOES exist in Switzerland.
- most newer buses and trams have it (since about 2 years) as well as the newer trains.
makes having to pop into town a little bit more comfortable in the increasingly hot summers...
especially if one does not own an (air conditioned) car
- many of the larger shops are now also air conditioned. whew! provides some relief
in between shopping runs.
- AND: not to forget that most Swiss houses and building have cellars, which can be a nice and cool escape.
- in my earlier working days here in Switzerland, (about 35 years ago), our IT guy used to let us pop into the IT server room, which had to be air conditioned by default ;)
- many years ago already, I had a colleague who had to work at 30°C inside a concrete and glass government building for several weeks during summer. They were NOT allowed to purchase or use a private cooler of some kind during those hot summer weeks. Because of flexi work times, many came to work VERY early and left earlier, too, so they could go for a dip in our local river in Bern.
- not all apartments are or have windows on shady sides of the building, some only have windows on one side, which makes it stuffier and harder to get in a nice cooling draft with open windows.
thanks again for your entertaining and enjoyable posts!
Thanks for this great comment. That poor colleague of yours—those glass walls are pretty I the winter, but in the summer they turn houses into ovens. We are lucky that our apartment doesn’t have a southern exposure, so we can keep it comparatively cool.
And thanks for making the point about the newer busses and trams. I rode a Post Bus up to Grosse Scheidegg this morning and was relieved that it had AC, because the sun was really streaming in!
How nice that this was the first real thing I read today (if you don't count skimming through work emails - which I don't!). I think it set my mood for the day, so thank you!
One thing that always stays in my mind even though it's been about 15 years now is my good friend visiting the US for the first time. She remarked to me that she did not expect everyone to be so outgoing and talkative. A cashier raving over her bracelets, someone she asked for directions excitedly explaining the optimal way to get there and wishing her a great day. She was slightly taken aback by their friendliness but she also loved it. So much so, I guess, that she made it her goal to move to the US and eventually did :)
Oh this is lovely! Thank you for sharing your friend’s story!
I read this anonymous comment on the AC contretemps, highlighted on her substack by Helen Pluckrose, who herself was chiefly arguing that the preference was cultural, not particularly imposed from above:
“I think Americans misunderstand why AC is less common in Europe.
For a lot of Europeans, comfort is not about controlling everything artificially. It is about opening the windows, letting air circulate, using shutters, living with the seasons, and keeping life simple.
It is not necessarily backward. It is just a different relationship with comfort, energy, and everyday life.”
My bona fides on this subject are: born and reared in Houston, TX, which I was one time delighted to learn was a consular posting for which British ambassadors received tropical hardship pay.
And there is one truth I will brook no opposition to: Americans at least below the Mason Dixon line have lost their ability to live other than in one extremely narrow temperature band.
It has absolutely had a coddling and weakening effect.
They have forgotten all the ways to ameliorate the heat, and in some sense, forgotten what actual heat was.
I’m certain that most of my relatives have never opened a window in their lives. Nor walked anywhere rather than drive, except when they are on European vacation!
People in Texas* on pleasant days in the low 70s, sitting even in the shade of a tree in their SUVs, waiting for their kids to come out of whatever activity, will all have their engines running, filling the air with fumes. Ditto people sitting in parking lot while somebody shops, on a breezy day in the 80s.
Admittedly, I am not so keen on central air though I do miss it when it’s completely broken. Less because of the temperature than the extreme humidity that has risen in my region in recent decades (so much so that the swamp coolers people used to use no longer work). I dislike the noise and I quickly find the blowing irksome on my skin.
My AC is frequently broken because I live in an old condo-ized apartment. The guy who regularly comes to deal with whatever is its latest problem - most recently “ants arc’ed on the contactor” - indicated to me that my poor landlady would’ve definitely had to replace her whole system if we ran it like “regular” people - much harder than we do. We happily make do with a fairly small “split” (AC lingo!).
This is partly out of compassion for our landlady, at this point a friend - she already has tossed what averages to about $1000 a year at the system; and when she eventually has to replace it, she will have to rent not an ordinary crane but a huge one, to swing new units over the carport and the rear patios to the top of this 2-story building .… the whole thing was very misconceived. Having AC units on the roof is stupid from an efficiency standpoint and also very inviting of ants.
Also, when clueless upstairs tenants let the condensation line clog - the result is often water damage below.
(By the way, I uttered the words “ants on the contactor” before the AC guy did. We too have become buddies at this point. I never meant to live here this long!)
My mother recently spent $10,000 on a new AC, 1/2 of her two systems, on a house that I’m pretty sure will be torn down in the next 18 months to 2 years. The guys during annual maintenance had topped it off with $250 worth of the now mostly illegal freon, a very slow leak which had not impacted its function; but they came back to give her the hard sell when her daughter was not around.
You can bet they drained out that freon to resell! I was not a happy camper. I dislike when people take advantage of old ladies, as when a few days after my father died, she wanted to be helpful and so she went off to get the $7 annual vehicle inspection. She returned from the filling station having been relieved of almost $500. “They were so nice” she said. Beware of Greek mechanics bearing cabin air filters (!).
(A car that is garaged all the time and has about 15,000 miles on it …)
Simple, AC is not.
Unfortunately, for Europe, my favorite remedy for the hottest months is I think also not technically common there: the late afternoon, early evening swim.
No, people have lost the ability to sit in their homes doing no more than watching TV; meanwhile, the road crews are out there in the blazing sun, pouring asphalt.
There’s a big gulf between the cocoon of AC and working outside in my state’s brutal heat, a gulf where lot of life could be lived, but it’s not.
Anyway, energy use after this fashion cannot go on forever and will not. I guess it makes no difference whether Europe aids us in blowing it out.
It’s just funny that the cure so thoroughly contributes to heating up the atmosphere.
*Fun fact: there was actually an early sprawl single family home subdivision on the interstate here called Air-Conditioned Village. So maybe it can be incorporated into European village life!
Thank you so much for this fun and thoughtful comment! I actually mostly agree with you. In Switzerland, where we don’t have high humidity and where it usually cools down at night, we can mostly get by with opening the windows at night and closing the shades during the day. And we definitely cool down by floating downtown in the river—I call it Aare conditioning.
But this heatwave has been something else. It hasn’t been cooling down enough at night, and the heat builds over consecutive days. It has been brutal, and it’s much worse in other countries.
Of course I agree that we should minimize our AC use, set the temperature at 77, open the windows to air out the place, and take cool showers. AC doesn’t have to mean the frigid temps in US offices that require women to bring in blankets. It doesn’t have to mean shops blasting the cold air out through open doors. It doesn’t have to mean turning on the AC the minute the outside temp goes above 75. But as climate change worsens, some amount of AC is going to become a necessity throughout Europe, and it would behoove them to adopt it sooner rather than later.
It doesn’t have to mean that, in theory; but if it becomes widespread and doesn’t - it will be another example of European difference. Of their being made of better sterner stuff.
But then Americans were once made of Europeans!
Anyway, it’s difficult for me to imagine dealing with climate change (I guess I always need to caveat, if you believe in it) or continuing to pretend we want to and are going to and also hold in my mind, the idea that Africa and India and Asia and tropical South America will also get widespread AC.