As a rule, summer does not "icumen in" ever in Berkeley, where my office is. Recall what Mark Twain said about the summer he spent in San Francisco: "the coldest winter I ever saw." Berkeley's almost the same--fog drip in the morning, followed by a cold wind, followed by perhaps a few hours of warm afternoon sun before the fog creeps back across the Bay. The image is of the lifeguards and swimming teachers at Berkeley's Strawberry Canyon pools wearing their neoprene semi-wetsuits in the pool, and enormous fleecy wraps out of the pool. (Lafayette, where I live, is different.)
But today is different. Today is one of the four days a year in which Berkeley temperatures get into the mid-90s. I find myself spending such days in one of two places where the air conditioning is powerful enouhg for the load: the bottom floor of the Doe Library stacks, and the Business School cafeteria.
Posted by DeLong at June 26, 2003 02:12 PM | TrackBack
"Today is one of the four days a year in which Berkeley temperatures get into the mid-1990s."
Very interesting. Are you using overzealous Y2K software? Is it a typo? An obscure joke?
Posted by: Paul Callahan on June 26, 2003 02:26 PMA tyo, alas...
Posted by: Brad DeLong on June 26, 2003 02:38 PMYou bring back memories (1969-1977, in the course of which I earned 3 degrees from Berkeley - including the third degree [no job]). To your list of adequately cooled places I would add the Lowie Museum. There are, in addition, some rather odd (and shiveringly cool) catacombs in the basement of the A-school's building.
Posted by: Bryan Pfaffenberger on June 26, 2003 04:14 PMOh thank god! Now I know where to go to escape this intolerable death heat. Not looking forward to the walks uphill, though.
Posted by: Walter on June 26, 2003 04:29 PMI thought they didn't have air-conditioning in the Haas school...
Anyway, the food sucks in that cafeteria, doesn't it?
Posted by: Tom on June 26, 2003 05:03 PMThey don't. But all the hot air rises up to the faculty office levels with the views, and the cafeteria stays remarkably cool.
As to the food, who eats food in this weather? Iced coffee, yes. Food, no.
Posted by: Brad DeLong on June 26, 2003 05:18 PM"...all the hot air rises up to the faculty office levels with the views..."
Does it displace all the hot air that was already there?
I also used to study at the bottom of the Doe stacks, as much for the quiet as the temperature. Also, being in the pre-retrofit late '70s, there was the visceral thrill each time you got out of the building without the Big One hitting, knowing you had cheated death from a few megatons of musty books.
Posted by: TomF on June 26, 2003 06:13 PM"...all the hot air rises up to the faculty office levels with the views..."
Does it displace all the hot air that was already there?
I also used to study at the bottom of the Doe stacks, as much for the quiet as the temperature. Also, being in the pre-retrofit late '70s, there was the visceral thrill each time you got out of the building without the Big One hitting, knowing you had cheated death from a few megatons of musty books.
Posted by: TomF on June 26, 2003 06:15 PM"...all the hot air rises up to the faculty office levels with the views..."
Does it displace all the hot air that was already there?
I also used to study at the bottom of the Doe stacks, as much for the quiet as the temperature. Also, being in the pre-retrofit late '70s, there was the visceral thrill each time you got out of the building without the Big One hitting, knowing you had cheated death from a few megatons of musty books.
Posted by: TomF on June 26, 2003 06:15 PM"...all the hot air rises up to the faculty office levels with the views..."
Does it displace all the hot air that was already there?
I also used to study at the bottom of the Doe stacks, as much for the quiet as the temperature. Also, being in the pre-retrofit late '70s, there was the visceral thrill each time you got out of the building without the Big One hitting, knowing you had cheated death from a few megatons of musty books.
Posted by: TomF on June 26, 2003 06:16 PM"...all the hot air rises up to the faculty office levels with the views..."
Does it displace all the hot air that was already there?
I also used to study at the bottom of the Doe stacks, as much for the quiet as the temperature. Also, being in the pre-retrofit late '70s, there was the visceral thrill each time you got out of the building without the Big One hitting, knowing you had cheated death from a few megatons of musty books.
Posted by: TomF on June 26, 2003 06:16 PMI remember back in 1989 it was over 100 for three consective days. Air con? We don`t need no stinking air con. That was wierd. Then that winter the pond east of Evans Hall was frozen for three days straight, barely reached 40 during the day. The rest is a fog...
Posted by: non economist on June 26, 2003 07:03 PMSorry for the multiple posts. Something was clunky with the message posting earlier, and figured mine didn't post at all (must be the heat!), and just checked back to see the posts above to my chagrin. Promise I'll only hit "post" once this time...
Posted by: TomF on June 26, 2003 07:08 PMOh, rub it in, you west coast elitist!
Here in Columbia, Missouri, we can eagerly anticipate about 40 days above 90 in an average summer, with the added twist being a dew point in the high 70s. I have a feeling this is why we fear God so much more than *some* people.
Posted by: Jonathan King on June 26, 2003 09:28 PMHigh 70s dew point... Reminds me of summers in Washington D.C.
Nope. Even when it's in the mid-90s at Berkeley, the dew point still stays somewhere in the 50s. It's a dry heat...
Posted by: Brad DeLong on June 26, 2003 09:33 PMIt was 90 here yesterday. While it was raining. Hard. It was like taking a hot shower. (Austin, TX, where everyone has the sense to have AC.) (Better than 3 years ago, when it was 110 in early July. But still, rain should COOL THINGS DOWN!)
Posted by: rvman on June 27, 2003 06:23 AMWe are headed for Santa Barbara and the Lindwall Boatshop Festival. Hoping for some fog and cooler weather. Dammed hot in Palo Alto without A/C.
Posted by: Dilbert Dogbert on June 27, 2003 07:53 AMBrad DeLong writes:
> High 70s dew point... Reminds me of summers in
> Washington D.C.
Good point (heh). Actually, the lore was that this is why people were so eager to get out of D.C. in the summer, and that this was a good thing since the less time Congress was in session, the better. And that's why the invention of air conditioning co-incides with the ruination of our public institutions. :-)
Posted by: Jonathan King on June 27, 2003 11:58 AM'Recall what Mark Twain said about the summer he spent in San Francisco: "the coldest winter I ever saw."'
Alas, this is apparently not true:
Twain's droll comment is widely repeated to the point that you can't read a news story that makes mention of the cold of San Franciscan summers and not trip over it. It's a great quote. It's a wonderfully crafted quote. And it's a darned shame Twain never said it.
Searches of Twain's writings, both his publications and his private letters, fail to locate this witticism. The closest resemblance to it appears in an 1879 letter in which Twain quoted a wag who, when asked if he'd ever seen such a cold winter, replied, "Yes, last summer." Twain then added his own comment, "I judge he spent his summer in Paris."
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/twain.htm