November 2005 Archives

I've been meaning to write about this for a while.

Earlier this year, I visited the historic Hotel Harrington in Washington, DC. Their web site is sort of interesting -- one thing they mention is that they were the first hotel in town to get air conditioning in 1938. I'm all about the air conditioning. So how does the climate control system work at this place?

This is how you operate the heater:

dc_heat_control.jpg

?? What does the asterisk mean? Is it OFF or ON or WARM or what? Is 1 the coldest or the hottest? How come I can turn the dial to the "Braukmann" position? Anyway, this occupied my thoughts for quite a while. Since it controlled a radiator, it was very hard to tell what effect (if any) it was having on the actual heat being produced.

Okay, so how about that sweet 1938 air conditioning? This is how you adjust the coolness:

dc_cooling_control.jpg

If you pull on it, it maybe gets colder? And this is what that control leads to:

dc_cooling_vent.jpg

Yum. I ended up opening a window, which was fine, and watching a whole lot of Queer Eye. (They have cable with Bravo!)

Los Angeles, CA - Water Bureau

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los_angeles_water_bureau.jpg

Blue water/sewer/something caps on the sidewalk in LA. What a lovely shade.

Contacting Chris Higgins

I'm a writer based in Portland, Oregon. I mostly write for Mental Floss magazine (and their website), though I just had a story on This American Life, and had a cover story a few weeks back in The Portland Mercury. You can follow me on Twitter for occasional jokes and complaints about the weather.

I'm also an iPhone developer. Working with Night & Day Studios, I helped create Peekaboo Barn, Peekaboo Wild, Big Fat Lies, Life in Short, Cocktail Compass, Nick Jr.'s A-Z With Moose and Zee, Quibble, Savage Love, and a bunch of other apps.

Need to contact me? Click the following link, follow the instructions, and you'll have my email address: get Chris's email address.

Note: I'm not the (apparently famous) hockey player with the same name! You'll have to find his homepage in order to contact him.