freeform goodness

I guess today was the hottest day on record in London, at 100 degrees F (37.9 degrees C.) While scientifically the Celsius scale of course makes a lot more sense, it’s events like this that serve to remind why the Fahrenheit scale retains its adherents in the English-speaking world — in human terms, its milestones tend to occur at more dramatic intervals. The cutover between “really unpleasantly hot” and “damn, really unbearably dangerous to children, animals, and the elderly” happens around the same point where the Fahrenheit scale adds that crucial extra digit. That’s got to count for something. Likewise, when the Fahrenheit scale hits 0 degrees , you know that you’re dealing with some serious cold. In Michigan, when the Celsius scale hits zero, it just means it’s time to break out the sweaters.

Anyway, as is customary when momentous events overtake us, it’s appropriate to fall back on the words of those more learned than ourselves. Therefore, in the words of the immortal Mark E. Smith:

British People In Hot Weather
as performed by the Fall, from the album Extricate

Fill green envelopes and send them to ya
On train ride, read Marx tracts
Play walkmans loud behind ya
Demonstrate on Oxford Street
About what the Hell they couldn’t tell ya
British people in hot weather
Have a heart-to-heart with your sister
People in shorts drunk before ya
Beached whale in Wapping
His armpit hairs are sprouting
Serpentine ah…. Serpentine grrr…
British people in hot weather

Press hot houses waste tree statements
Compare your pearls before the King of Monks
I’m telling ya, oh
Do they know they can get cancer?
Designer tramp goes grrr…
Looking jolly from Stoke
As he walks through and makes up
Titles like this, to order
They’re well off their trolley
Smoking like a chimney
Bespectacled stare-out
British people in hot weather

I was a candidate for club 18-30
but I’ve been through all that shit before
British people in hot weather
That’s it, I’m looking straight for the car
If that’s how you feel, let’s go
British people in hot weather

:: Dave Walker 15:05 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/currentevents/international]
:: tags: international

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