friday celebrity-letter blogging
dear wildlife of the arctic and antarctic regions of the globe,
are you guys o.k.? because it's 60°F in boston right now, and i'm pretty sure it ought to be about 6, and i know it's only, like, -13 in barrow, alaska, but the average temperature there last month was about 8° higher than normal, and it doesn't sound like a lot, 8°, but i'm pretty sure it is; it's the difference between needing a sweater over your long-sleeved shirt and not needing one, right? and when i went outside today in my winter coat, which wasn't even zipped, i was like, damn, i might break a sweat just walking down these front steps. and you guys are wearing the winter coats zipped right up to your throats no matter what, and i just, i don't know . . . i got worried. plus, that little stuffed polar bear i've been sleeping with since i was three, i, um, i think he was crying last night. something woke me up, anyway; i guess it could have been the perspiration beading up between my skin and the inside of my heavy fleece pajamas, which seemed like a really good and sensible idea when i was getting ready for bed. so write back when you get a chance and let me know you're all right, that the fishing's fine, whatever. or that it's not; you can tell me anything, you know that.
all my unseasonably sweaty love,
joon
Labels: celebrity letters, environment, weather
posted by juniper pearl @ 12:16 PM
4 Comments:
At 12:55 PM,
Phila said…
The last winter I spent in NYC was like that. Clear and 60 degrees almost every day, with flowers budding in February.
At 2:24 PM,
juniper pearl said…
when i was in new york the december before last, it was warmer than i thought it should have been. i chalked it up to the structure of the city--it always seems a little toastier in there--but i chose not to let it chew at me at the time, since some other things were getting me down already.
i bet the natives were thrilled about the winter you're referring to. but i think that besides being discomforting on both physical and emotional levels, seasons like that rob the region of a big chunk of its character. the classic northeast winter is such a tried-and-true image, and anyone who's lived through one or two knows that the best thing about one is the moment when you realize it's ending and spring is starting. those months and months of icy torpor beat you into submission until you can't remember the world being any other way, but just as you're giving up, things start to come back to life, and it's better than finding a box of puppies and peanut butter cups on your front porch. when january is exactly like april--gray and damp and sort of chilly--it all just seems . . . bad.
am i being selfish? impractical? i'd feel differently, maybe, if i were an elk. i guess there's no way of knowing. i suppose that's why i was asking.
At 6:34 PM,
Mikey B. said…
JP, the anomaly that you are speaking about in regards to being warmer in the cities is something called "urban heat islands". NYC, Boston, Philadelphia are all well known heat islands.
I could write a whole blog post about this subject, but instead I'll just give you a link.
Urban Heat Islands
I hope HTML works in these silly things.
At 6:44 PM,
Mikey B. said…
Here is the official Wiki entry on UHI.
Wiki
Bah... blogger doesn't like targets. Anyways, it's interesting stuff if you are into that sort of thing.
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