by Pat Laster

                One other thing I’ve learned by listening to my highway-department employee son: The reason the plug of the old 12,500 BTU window AC is getting hot was at least three-fold. First, the appliance was old; second, it was trying to cool an area (three rooms) too large for its capacity; and third, “You are using a 3-way bulb lamp on the same outlet!” which pulled juice needed by the AC. Duh!

Solutions: First, move the lamp to its own outlet! Done. Second, buy a new AC to replace the old one. Third, add a 6,000 BTU window unit in the office to help with the cooling. Done and done, thanks to Jodie and Robert from McClendon’s Appliances in Benton.

Eighty years ago when the house was new, each room could be shut off with French doors. At some point, said doors were removed, which opened the living room, sunroom (my office) and dining room into one larger space. With 8 children in the house, the fewer doors to open and the less space needed for them when opened, the better.

As if that weren’t enough, the original swinging door from dining room to kitchen had also been removed. Beyond the narrow kitchen was the breakfast room (now used to temporarily store things bound for the back porch or the shed or for recycling). In later years, it was Mom’s sitting room. A window unit on the west would cool the room, but usually, she left it off. Even when her “help” was smothering, she was comfortable, so it stayed off.

The kitchen, with the refrigerator motor exuding heat, was never as cool as desired, even with a small ceiling fan. But who stayed in the kitchen for any length of time? Not me!

The back AC finally bit the dust. Of course, it would happen during this season’s extraordinary heat wave. But Son and Wife and Home Depot saved the day. And the unit even has a remote!

I shouldn’t complain about not having air conditioning. At least all of us have access to electricity.

 I read lately that some 300 million people in India have NO access to electrical power at all, and another 300 million have only sporadic access.

The recent blackout in India affected about 670 million people, according to G. Harris and J. Yardley, of the New York Times.

                Of all the books of trivia I own, I decided to investigate “air conditioning,” that modern appliance we think—at least Kid Billy thinks—we could not live without.

In Paul Dickson’s “From Elvis to E-Mail: Trends, Events, and Trivia from the Postwar Era to the End of the Century,” there’s one piddling entry:

During 1948, “crude air conditioning systems show[ed] up with … hoopla—in top-of-the-line Detroit cars.”

                Fred Worth’s “Trivia Encyclopedia” had nothing.

                But Reader’s Digest’s “The Origins of Everyday Things” gave me two sentences. “The first true air conditioner, featuring humidity control, powered ventilation as well as mechanical refrigeration, was patented in 1902 by the American inventor Willis Carrier.

                “The addition of a dust filter in 1906 to improve the air in textile mills led to the term ‘air conditioning’.”

                At least on this subject, President Obama is correct: we couldn’t have our quality of air conditioning without the astuteness of others before us.