What to wear at a hot and humid funeral, US style. But no flip-flops, please.

USA fashion website advice: These days, a sleeveless dress and bare legs is appropriate at most American funerals, especially when it’s a very hot climate. Consider a lightweight cardigan if there’s a service inside the house of worship and a hat to protect yourself from the sun at the grave site. If your shoulders are bared, your neckline should be very modest, the fit not too tight, and the hemline at the knee.

Reader Comment: One thing that set me off at my Dad's funeral was the minister, a woman in her 30s, in flip-flops. She had on a black robe and I imagine she thought since she had that on that her feet didn't matter. 

funeral entertainment in Asia

Now there will be those who disapprove of the lack of gravity here, but they would be more surprised at village funerals in Thailand, where rock bands and sexy dancers are the norm, or in Taiwan, where even nude dancing is OK.

What to wear at a hot and humid funeral, US style. But no flip-flops, please.

USA fashion website advice: These days, a sleeveless dress and bare legs is appropriate at most American funerals, especially when it’s a very hot climate. Consider a lightweight cardigan if there’s a service inside the house of worship and a hat to protect yourself from the sun at the grave site. If your shoulders are bared, your neckline should be very modest, the fit not too tight, and the hemline at the knee.

Reader Comment: One thing that set me off at my Dad's funeral was the minister, a woman in her 30s, in flip-flops. She had on a black robe and I imagine she thought since she had that on that her feet didn't matter. 

funeral entertainment in Asia

Now there will be those who disapprove of the lack of gravity here, but they would be more surprised at village funerals in Thailand, where rock bands and sexy dancers are the norm, or in Taiwan, where even nude dancing is OK.

Thermal misery index: Bangkok v Phnom Penh

Having spent some time in Phnom Penh over the past month, it seemed to me that the Cambodian city was much more hot and glaring than Bangkok. So today back in BKK I checked this by compiling one of my favorite indexes for the two cities: Extreme Cooling Degree Days (CDD29). This was derived from the excellent web site degreedays.net which allows you to calculate cooling degree days based on any temperature base you like. In this case I used a base of 29C (84F) which is the maximum allowable temperature for comfortable (sweat-free) sleeping IMHO.

Cambodian expats escribe PP as insufferable in the hot season (April-May) and the above graph suggests it is a little but not much worse than Bangkok at that critical time of year.

On the other hand PP has many fewer high-rise buildings than BKK, and the shading seems to me much less there, the sun penetrating down to street level. A more accurate comparison would require a careful comparison of downtown urban microclimates, and also, I conclude, consideration of the degree that uncomfortable glare aggravates the subjective sense of thermal discomfort.

Thermal misery index: Bangkok v Phnom Penh

Having spent some time in Phnom Penh over the past month, it seemed to me that the Cambodian city was much more hot and glaring than Bangkok. So today back in BKK I checked this by compiling one of my favorite indexes for the two cities: Extreme Cooling Degree Days (CDD29). This was derived from the excellent web site degreedays.net which allows you to calculate cooling degree days based on any temperature base you like. In this case I used a base of 29C (84F) which is the maximum allowable temperature for comfortable (sweat-free) sleeping IMHO.

Cambodian expats escribe PP as insufferable in the hot season (April-May) and the above graph suggests it is a little but not much worse than Bangkok at that critical time of year.

On the other hand PP has many fewer high-rise buildings than BKK, and the shading seems to me much less there, the sun penetrating down to street level. A more accurate comparison would require a careful comparison of downtown urban microclimates, and also, I conclude, consideration of the degree that uncomfortable glare aggravates the subjective sense of thermal discomfort.

Pope Francis on air conditioning

Many people were surprised, some even outraged (in these parts of the world where SIN brings other things to mind) when His Holiness singled out air conditioning as a sin for our times in his recent Encyclical Letter, Laudati Si.  Here is what he had to say:

“People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity but it has not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning. The markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behavior, which at times appears self-destructive.”

Many papal critics harped on the idea that air conditioning is a necessity for "modern life" in the tropics. I suspect that most of the criticism came from the northern latitudes or tropical-based expats, and refers to themselves, not the locals. Perhaps  experienced equatorial native views, along the lines of The Thai King's "sufficiency economy", which call for restraint, a middle way, and mindfulness of behavior, including in hot weather, are a fair but yet unappreciated response in Western countries to these criticisms of the pope's advice and teaching. I suspect that contemporary US ideas on what is really "necessary" for life will be soon much influenced by Francis' fresh new views from the southern latitudes, which remind me of the idea of quality v. quantity that were suggested by one of my favorite books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, many years ago.

Pope Francis on air conditioning

Many people were surprised, some even outraged (in these parts of the world where SIN brings other things to mind) when His Holiness singled out air conditioning as a sin for our times in his recent Encyclical Letter, Laudati Si.  Here is what he had to say:

“People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity but it has not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning. The markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behavior, which at times appears self-destructive.”

Many papal critics harped on the idea that air conditioning is a necessity for "modern life" in the tropics. I suspect that most of the criticism came from the northern latitudes or tropical-based expats, and refers to themselves, not the locals. Perhaps  experienced equatorial native views, along the lines of The Thai King's "sufficiency economy", which call for restraint, a middle way, and mindfulness of behavior, including in hot weather, are a fair but yet unappreciated response in Western countries to these criticisms of the pope's advice and teaching. I suspect that contemporary US ideas on what is really "necessary" for life will be soon much influenced by Francis' fresh new views from the southern latitudes, which remind me of the idea of quality v. quantity that were suggested by one of my favorite books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, many years ago.