Too Darn Hot (7/27/09)

Okay, so as far as I know, I am one of the only people in the state of New York who loathes the summer heat. Not for nothing, people, but miniscule apartments in the Northeast (I lovingly refer to my ant-size room as "The Cupboard Under the Stairs") don't have A/C. So heat = sweat, and I don't believe in sweating, unless you've got a very good reason for it.

Living space in The Cupboard Under the Stairs

Result: longing fantasies of life in the UK, where this week's weather forecast involves a diversified array of rain, light rain, and no temperatures over 72º Fahrenheit. Imagine the possibilities! Year-round wearing of svelte-making trench coats! Devising umbrella-centric dance routines en route to the tube! Donning jeans twelve months a year! Suede chaps being a perpetual option! (Weather-wise, that is. I don't actually recommend sporting chaps unless actual Western horseback riding is involved.)

My fave Britpopper Lily Allen lookin' all feline in a classic trench.

Alas, I am here in the NYC, where I'm finding the not-all-that-hot-really 80s pretty traumatic. But! When Filmi Girl was here a couple of weeks ago, she was rocking a folding fan, and between that and the dish on Victorian fan-usage over at Jane Austen's World, I think a little sumthin'-sumthin' to bat my lashes over is a fab idea. And so the heat is made palatable! Thanks, y'all!

James Dawson Watson, Woman with a Fan

All of that said, southern England apparently doesn't get too much snow either. I thought this video was hilarious when I saw it way back in February, and it's just as funny now. (Prepare for numerous dramatic shots of people standing around in a few inches of snow in stunning—stunning!—30º weather.)

Ruh-roh! Poor Lydia Bennet's beloved Brighton is buried in mounds of snow!

Sigh. I suppose I will have to suck it up and deal with all of this silly heat until summer's end. But I'll be dreaming of your sweet, sweet rain all the while, England. And one day we'll frolic in it together.