A disgruntled old man named Jack Cowan wrote The Columbus Dispatch this week lamenting the supposed weakness of today’s “snowflake” generation, due to the school cancellations in cities like Columbus and Cleveland related to the 90-degree-plus heat wave of the last two weeks.
Hell, the crotchety old man argued, he survived the hottest heat wave in Ohio history — the summer of 1934 when temps reached 106 degrees — so why can’t these kids just sit in school and roast like he did.
Of course, air conditioning units didn’t become a popular home purchase until after World War II, but Jack wants to remind everyone that back in his day, people could withstand the heat with salt tablets and that “hot classrooms were so far down on the list of discomforts as to be a non-event.”
THAT’S WHAT MADE HIS THE GREATEST GENERATION, PEOPLE.
Of course, school wasn’t in session during the heat wave of 1934.
And, of course, an estimated 160 people died during the 1934 heat wave in Ohio.
But hey, these friggin’ snowflake kids, amirite?
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2018.
Another commentary, rather than an actual story, based on the writing of someone else. Do you even know how old this geezer actually is? Probably in his 90s, maybe even more…and deserving of some respect, mainly because he’s lived through so much history. Don’t you even wonder why he’s lived so long? Because he hasn’t died yet!
Maybe you could track him down and actually interview him on your smartphone…or…heavens!…face-to-face. But noooooo, it’s just easier to regurgitate his letter and make a few snarky comments and get credit for a few more column inches.
By the way, the 1934 heat wave began in May and extended all summer…and back in the day, most schools were in session until at least mid-June. So maybe he actually knows what the hell is is talking about. better a disgruntled old man than an angry young woman. And how many depressions and world wars have YOU experienced,? Or even hot classrooms? Fess up!
But, “Snark’, ‘Angst’, and ‘Irony’ are all what we read The Scene for !
Just getting OLD and being a ‘Geezer’, Doesn’t deserve R-E-S-P-E-C-T, per se.
(Could just be lucky genes)
Why do you read The Scene ?
It obviously raises Your blood pressure, and precipitates GERD, or other serious health conditions which will shorten Your Life !
S o whey do I still read SCENE? Because it’s still a way of finding out about so many things that the PD ignores, that’s why. Mostly for the listings of the one-of-a-kind events and happenings that our only remaining daily never mentions.
Cleveland is not even a one-newspaper town anymore. It’s a half-a-newspaper town. The PD is shrinking away like an ice-cream cone in July. The SCENE , as an “alt-weekly”…as in alternative…is often the only source for finding out about many local stories and issues.
If you don’t read it, or at least peruse the website, you will be a lot less informed…”miss a week, miss a lot” should be its new slogan. Better than “Paper Covers Rock”…
I wish there were more news and politics. The majority of the restaurant and boozery reviews don’t interest me, because I’m not a foodie and I rarely drink. Same for the music and the band reviews. Not my stick of tea. Some of the writers, and their styles and their attempts at humor, tend to be annoying. As are the various ways that they will comment on stories written elsewhere and consider that to be adequate coverage, instead doing their own homework and research. There are names for that sort of thing…but journalism is not one of them.
Unfortunately, the print version of SCENE is also melting away, because ad revenues must be down…the demographic SCENE mostly targets does not read anything printed on newsprint anymore.
So one would expect a lot of replies and comments at this site, since so many young eyeballs are all looking at their screens…but that’s not the case. There used to be many more comments and likes and dislikes. Now? Not so much. So maybe SCENE is losing readership both in print and online? Perhaps.
Thanks for your concern about my health and well-being. The way things are going in these Untied Snakes, maybe I’m fortunate that my time, compared to most of the SCENE demographic, is relatively short.