He talked about how people could just open their windows like folks used to do and allow breezes in to cool things off. Use fans to circulate the air. No mention of how that would work in towns and cities with buildings where the windows don't open, but don't "sweat" (pun intended) the small stuff, right?
He bragged that he doesn't have an air conditioner in his house and does just fine. Come to find out later in the column that this guy lives in Connecticut, where the climate in the summer is very pleasant, I am sure.
He obviously has never lived in the deserts of Arizona where I lived for 25 years. Or in the insufferable heat and humidity of Florida, where I live now. Or in Houston, Texas, where an article in the Wall Street Journal years ago explained that the city would never have grown into a major metropolitan city had it not been for the invention of refrigeration or air conditioning. Why? Because it was so unbearable just to exist there, let alone live comfortably. Or many of the other places in this country in the south and areas that are hot and humid in the summer, where air conditioning is not a luxury anymore. It is a necessity to live and thrive in those locales.
Dude....I grew up in South Louisiana (childhood in the late 1940’s, early 1950’s) BEFORE air conditioning, went to a high school that was NEVER air conditioned (graduation 1965).
I think our family was the first in the neighborhood to have a window AC unit, which was, of course, installed in the parents bedroom, but did a fair job of cooling the house, and, more importantly, dropping the humidity inside.