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Re: CHAT: Temperature (was: I'm back!)

From:Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Date:Friday, August 2, 2002, 7:03
En réponse à J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>:

> > "Deviously" using lotsa open windows, ceiling fans, oscillating > room > fans, cool drinks, etc 0_o? >
Yep! Or just suffering in silence :)) .
> > OBCONLANG/CULTURE: What are some idiomatic ways of describing > absolutely > miserable weather and what are some conventional and/or unusual > concultural > adaptions/survival tactics in regards to absolutely miserable > climates? >
Well, this is actually not a concultural, but a real tactic to fight heat. It can be summed up as: When it's hot, eat hot! That's something my friend explained me. He was in Greece, and the weather was awfully warm (about 45 degrees Celsius). He was staying at a hotel and everyone there was suffering from the warmth, drinking cold water and drinks to try to cool down. He was at the bar discussing of the awful warmth when the bartender told him that drinking cold drinks would only make it worse, and that he knew a way to cope with the heat without suffering for the rest of the day. But my friend had to trust him. He did, and the barman prepared him a strange red drink, probably based on tomatoes, but the spiciest thing my friend ever absorbed (and to tell you how much my boyfriend can stand hot food, he is the kind of people who can chew a bunch of Chili pepers and say: "Yum! sweet!" ;)))) ). After painfully finishing the drink, his mouth was on fire for half an hour. Luckily the barman provided him with pieces of fresh fruit (the best way to fight the burning feeling of spice by the way) and his mouth finally cooled down. And then he could check that the barman was right. The warmth didn't seem that unbearable anymore. Actually, it felt just nicely warm, and he could easily go out under the sun for the rest of the day while others fainted from the heat. I myself checked on a smaller level the truth of this technics after eating dinner in an Indonesian restaurant (the cook had made a little mistake, adding a bit too much spice - I'd say, half a can ;))) - in a part of our "mild" dinner :))) ). And suddenly I understood why the spiciest cookings in the world most often come from very warm countries... Christophe. http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>