Shiver Me Timbers, That’s The Chilling Truth
Scientists are hoping to finally crack one of the great unsolved mysteries - how Geordies can go out in winter without a coat. Researchers from Newcastle's Centre for Life want to find out if the locals’ famed hardiness is anything more than a myth. The results will be announced next month.
FOOTNOTE: Lead on, Mac tough.
11 comments:
Oh give me our huddled masses swaddled in coats, who are yearning to breathe free! ;-)
As an adopted Geordie (Cumbrian born but all the schooling was over that side of the country - so was my accent at one time!) I can confirm it is not a myth.
However.
We are only that hardy when living in the North East. As soon as we move away we become as soft as the others in the place we move to. Therefore I need at least 5 layers of clothing in the winter and fuel bill is sky high. *sigh*
To demonstrate - one of my (boarding) schools required us to don wellies and walk across snow several inches deep (including drifts when they happened) wearing only a towel around our bodies to reach the "ablutions block" a few yards across a yard so we could wash.
Then, having stripped naked in the freezing ablutions, and washed, we would sort of dry down to don the wellies and (now) damp towel for the trek back across the snow to the dormitory (which WAS warm).
I kid you not. This is all true.
I dare them to come to the Snowbelt of Ohio about now. You can't put on enough layers or drink enough hot tea. Brrrrrrrr......
Ladies and gentlemen, your tax dollars at work...
They must be permanent teenagers. All the high school students around here are running around in shorts and t-shirts. And it's 22 outside. Farenheit. That's something negative in Centigrade.
Cath's story is terrifying.
Cath - you're so right. I find myself often wearing a coat and even own some gloves these days - I've turned soft and I've only gone down the country as far as Yorkshire. I think I'd die of hyperthermia if I moved to London!
Boarding school sounds like they had the old theory of building character through general torture - schoolife had some horrible moments like that I seem to remember - communal showers must be against some civil right or other these days!
Must be mad, the lot of 'em!
I had a classmate in college (down south) from upstate New York. Most of the winter he wore short sleeved shirts. When it got below 20 F, he might put on a sweater.
Good to know funding is available for such vital research, eh?
Where are they basing their research? I think in the big market it's actually illegal to wear coats, socks/tights or skirts which can't be mistaken for large belts! Also have they factored in the warming effect of an ice-cold bottle of Newcy Brown?
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