Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Too Cold inside in Summer

So, today as I sit here typing, I'm still coming off the effects of a summer cold, which has had me spending the last few days groggy, coughing, and sucking vitamin c tabs. I initially thought that the pain in my lungs might be related to high ozone levels, but apparently, NYC's been not that bad. Then, contemplating the upcoming, icy trip into Manhattan, I thought it might be the air-conditioning in the city's various libraries, theaters, restaurants and subways. According to at least one website, it might be. For people with low blood pressure and lower body fat especially, air-conditioning seems to be a health risk!
The fact that higher levels of body fat contribute to a desire for a chilled environment also makes me wonder if lower and lower indoor summer temperatures might somehow be connected to the increasing average weight of Americans. And then, as I thought about the especially frigid temperatures in the city's museums, snotty NYer that I am, I began blaming suburban tourists, who come to our land of pedestrians and public transportation from the land of driving, fast-food, and couch-sitting. I plan to discuss this over my lunch time salad with the nice woman from Central America who wears the heavy sweater to work behind the cash-register at my favorite mid-town lunch place. There is something so unnatural about these extreme interiors, something so galling about having to bring a sweater along when it's 90 degrees outside, that I get agitated just thinking about it.
If you want to complain to the MTA about how cold it is on the friggin' subway, here are some tips from the straphangers campaign.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From Yahoo: "Between 1987 and 2002, private spending on obesity-linked medical problems mushroomed from $3.6 billion, or 2 percent of all health spending, to $36.5 billion or 11.6 percent of spending"