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What's Your Thermostat Set to?
February 1, 2009Our thermostat has two readings - the numeric reading (this is usually made up of a number) and the descriptive reading (this is usually a description.) I like keeping it set on the descriptive reading because it involves less math.
Right now it's winter in State College, Pennsylvania. As a result, the thermostat is set on "Arctic Blast." That's about 68-70 degrees. If you were to go outside one fine February morning and it was actually 70 degrees, you would likely burst into flames. At least in Pennsylvania. But indoors it seems quite chilly.
But setting things to Arctic Blast in the winter does help with the gas bill. And, it also helps save the planet, which I'm very much in favor of because it's the only planet I have. I'm on. You know what I mean.
I was able to share - with great pride and to much fanfare - my thermostat setting during the U.S. Presidential Campaign, because of what then candidate (now President) Obama said:
Ha! 72 degrees! Please! In our house the thermostat description of that would be "Orchid Growth." At least, that's what I would have called it until I saw this:
“He’s from Hawaii*, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”
Hopefully all of the other countries, like Mongolia, Russia, Canada and Oregon (which coincidentally can all be seen from Governor Palin's house) won't notice that bit in the New York Times, because they probably wouldn't say OK. In fact, they might even call the President, or Mr. Axelrod, and say something like "This is SERIOUSLY not OK and we're going to keep calling to complain about it until you send us some nice orchids. Preferably some nice cattleya intermedia."
*This asterisk, which is on loan from Oregon, does not belong to the New York Times nor does it - like journalistic integrity - appear anywhere in the article cited. I put it here because I thought the President was from Chicago, Illinois. A quick Google search reveals that President Obama hasn't lived in Hawaii for 20 years. Chicago, also known as the Windy City or the Dang It's Pretty Cold Out City, is not a great place to grow orchids. In fact, one would think that 20 years would be sufficient time for one's internal temperature to moderate from Orchid Growth Warmth to Arctic Blast Cold. I mean moderate in sort of an apolitical, scientific, temperature sense.
