Nobody ever mentions the weather
Can make or break your day
- Oasis, “Hello”
Every morning when I wake up, I try to check the weather on my laptop, or, lately, my phone (I recently made the major leap to an iPhone from a t-phone, the t standing for “taped-together”). Every morning, I’m surprised how large an effect it has on my mood. 72 degrees makes me smile. 27 degrees makes me gird my loins and attempt to tap into my New England roots. A raincloud makes me angry that I have an irrational hatred of umbrellas.
Unless you’re boycotting CubMail, you probably received an email on Wednesday from Columbia Housing entitled, “Unseasonably High Temperatures.” This missive surely sparked some tired global warming jokes, and the line “Most university buildings are not able to supply both heating and cooling simultaneously” probably qualified as the understatement of the year for anyone who has lived in Columbia housing for more than three months.
For me, the humor of this email from Housing (beyond its roundabout recognition of our centuries-old temperature management system) came in its assumption that Columbia students needed to be reminded about the weather. And you know what? This assumption wasn’t entirely wrong.
