Back in the Big Sticky
I’ve been away for 2 months, drying out my skin and escaping the worst of Singapore’s summer weather. I guess it’s not all that bad, compared to Taiwan, South India and Iraq – temperatures max out at 96, for instance – but still I needed some long stretches of cooler weather. My spouse found this completely unnecessary: why?
One reason is that I work from home, and try to be clean and green by not running the a.c. So while my husband is freezing to death in his over-air-conditioned office all day, I’m swigging ice water and tracking little runnels of perspiration down my spine.
But a paleontologist from Japan told me in May that there may be another reason: that the environment of an infant’s first three months determine the number and activity of her sweat glands. In other words, having been born in northern California makes me unfit for life on the equator! I am not sure I believe this completely, but it sounds good when I’m arguing for a long stint in temperate zones.