Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Turn Off Your Heat: Living in a cold home will make you a healthier, stronger, better person
Slate ^ | 23JAN2015 | Reihan Salam

Posted on 01/25/2015 8:57:51 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine

My dearest wish is to one day have the pleasure of living in a small cabin in the frigid wilderness. There I will spend my nights covered in heavy wool blankets, eating smoked fish and dried fruit. Over time, my beard will grow to the point where I’ll be indistinguishable from a medium-sized woodland creature. The villagers I’ll come to know during my rare visits to town will call me “the wolfman,” not least because I will communicate solely by howling and scratching out messages with my clawlike fingernails. For now, I live in a big city, where such unconventional grooming habits are frowned upon, but I make a point of using very little heat.

I’ve suffered for living the no-heat lifestyle.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: another; collectivist; idea; stupid
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-92 next last
To: Impy

I thought you meant “purported”


61 posted on 01/26/2015 2:15:58 AM PST by Theophilus (Be as prolific as you are pro-life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: chuckles

Reminds me of the old 11 room house I was raised in. There was no heat upstairs, rather a floor grate which let the downstairs heat up thru to my sisters bedroom....where we all slept when it was really bitter cold....sometimes even the inside of the windows had frost on them!

We use to stand over that grate to warm our nighties up, then jump into bed fast laughing! LOLOL... Plenty of blankets to stay warn all night,... but nobody wanted to get out of bed in the morning!

We’d run downstairs to the floor furnance and stood over it to warm back up.

When I think of how we handled winters growing up...as opposed to today. It’s quite remarkable.

When storms came, my mom would make potatoe soup with dumplings...so of course even today I associate that as a “comfort” in winter and still make during storms.

Some nights the wind would be so powerful the windows would shake...of course the back of our house faced an open farmers field, (even though we were in town), so the winds just howled through.


62 posted on 01/26/2015 2:36:15 AM PST by caww
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

My control freak father owned his thermostat. We were cold in winter and hot in summer.

I own MY thermostat. It’s set at 76, year round. Twice a year, I switch it from heat to cool, and vice versa. I’m an adult, I pay my utility bills, I couldn’t care less who approves or doesn’t.


63 posted on 01/26/2015 3:04:01 AM PST by ziravan (Choose Sides.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine
I fall somewhere in the middle on this. I think people that heat their homes at 72 in winter time are out of their minds. They can't throw on a sweater? Having a house that warm creates a breeding ground for disease in my opinion. I believe staying warm all the time makes you more susceptible to getting ill and the house eventually gets that same "sickly" smell that you see in hospitals.

Even in middle of winter, I'll occasionally turn the heat off for a bit and open all the windows to flush the stale ale out of the house. Of course, I'll leave the house when this flushing is going on and I'll crank the heat back up when I get back. I'm not completely stupid about it. But I do think getting fresh, cold air into a house from time to time is healthy. I almost never come down with the cold.

As for my thermostat, it's never above 68 during the day and it goes down to 59 at night. I do usually get a fire going in the living room and it gets rather toasty in there. Otherwise, you pretty much need to have a sweater on in my house all winter and you need to get under some quilts at night.

Keeps my heating oil bill down as well.

64 posted on 01/26/2015 3:28:00 AM PST by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JimSEA

Democrat build no fire. He wait ‘til Conservative cut wood, split wood, stack wood, gather tinder and light fire... then Democrat kill Conservative, sit by fire, eat Conservative food and lay with Conservative women, Kemosabe.


65 posted on 01/26/2015 3:36:47 AM PST by Rodamala
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: KC_Lion

I set my thermostat before bed at 63...yeah that’s cold in Georgia buy up North you easily get used to it. During the daytime it’s set at 67 when I’m home.

You can easily acclimate to these temperatures to the point that when it’s set at 68 or above you’re too hot.

Naturally, you where a sweater or a robe. But when I visit my Mom, in her 90s the house is like sweat box.


66 posted on 01/26/2015 3:59:32 AM PST by nikos1121
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
I prefer to keep the indoor temps down. We coddle ourselves too damn much these days anyway, and there are certainly health benefits.

Then there are those of us who exercise because we want to and don't need to be so cold that it becomes a necessity to generate body heat...

67 posted on 01/26/2015 4:21:25 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Impy

Nice!!!


68 posted on 01/26/2015 4:37:17 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (I'm with Steve McQueen: I live my life for myself and answer to nobody.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

I am the exact opposite. I don’t keep my thermostat too high during the winter, usually keep it between 65 and 68; for one thing it is the cost (gas heat) and for another, I don’t like it stifling and stuffy hot and like wearing oversized heavy comfy sweaters and heavy socks when it’s cold. Fortunately I currently live in a 2nd floor apartment so I get some residual heat from the downstairs neighbor.

But I can’t stand being cold. I can’t think straight when I’m shivering and my nose and fingers are numb.

I don’t really like air conditioning so much but living in an apartment with no cross ventilation, it’s a necessity.

But when I lived in my old house in Maryland, my 90+ year old house had lots of windows on all sides, it sat halfway up a big hill with a lot of trees in back providing late day shade. The first floor had 12 foot ceilings and the interior doors had transom windows and every room had a ceiling fan. The second floor would get hot during the day but I had a big window fans on both sides of the 2d floor of house that during the day, was set to exhaust the hot air out and bring the cooler air from the first floor in and at night it ran the opposite.

Unless the humidity became unbearable, I found it very comfortable not to run the air conditioner. Plus I loved all the fresh air coming in and sleep better with a fan running – the feel of the air and the white noise helps me sleep.

Sometimes when I am cleaning during the winter, even in my apartment, I turn off the heat for a few hours and open up the windows and the sliding glass door and run a big fan to circulate the air. But as soon as I’m done cleaning, I close everything up and turn the heat up to 70.


69 posted on 01/26/2015 5:13:14 AM PST by MD Expat in PA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine
"That's it! We're going off the grid!

70 posted on 01/26/2015 5:20:37 AM PST by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain
Is “ Reihan Salam” a him, a her, or an it?

The beard-growing part could be a clue. Then again, with those middle eastern women you never know...

71 posted on 01/26/2015 6:17:56 AM PST by Moltke ("The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

Well, that completely explains what has happened to National Review.


72 posted on 01/26/2015 6:29:24 AM PST by odawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: GOPsterinMA

I think you mean cold baths. You will get sick, very quickly, with cold showers.


73 posted on 01/26/2015 6:30:31 AM PST by odawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Yep, they really are preparing us for their neo-feudalism.

What was the temperature that ‘bammers was keeping the living quarters where he was? 80’s in the winter or something?


74 posted on 01/26/2015 6:31:28 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: odawg

The Left loves to undermine!


75 posted on 01/26/2015 6:39:48 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: ElkGroveDan

I’m in Montana now ... almost two decades since I bought the land.

I’ll take the snow and Ice any day over traffic. Any day.


76 posted on 01/26/2015 6:52:06 AM PST by Comment Not Approved (When bureaucrats outlaw hunting, outlaws will hunt bureaucrats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: odawg

What I read was about cold showers. Supposedly they boost the body’s immune system, among other benefits.

It may be quackery...I’m in no hurry to try it. But if I get as sick as I was the last time I had the flu, I most likely will.


77 posted on 01/26/2015 7:32:28 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (I'm with Steve McQueen: I live my life for myself and answer to nobody.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: theBuckwheat

This feels like a propaganda piece. Turn down the thermostat - it is good for you and the planet!


78 posted on 01/26/2015 7:35:58 AM PST by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: GOPsterinMA; Impy

“There’s scientific data that cold showers can be healthy. I was planning to try it out ghe next time I get a bad cold or flu.”

Yeah, what the hell......get it OVER with.


79 posted on 01/26/2015 7:40:38 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Theophilus

That word perhaps would have worked better.


80 posted on 01/26/2015 7:47:58 AM PST by Impy (They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-92 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson