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I’ve always been fascinated by people who’ve made it their mission in life to churn out kids at the same rate the folks behind the Now That’s What I Call Music! series pumped out compilation albums in the 1990s and I’ve devoted more hours of my life watching reality television shows that document the trials and tribulations of raising a gradually increasing double-digit number of children under the same roof than I care to admit.
The Duggars and their ilk would have you believe they love all of their children the same, and while I admit I can’t speak from experience (and likely will never be able to unless something in my life goes horribly, horribly wrong), I’m calling bullshit. I’m not saying it’s impossible for a parent to adore their kids equally, but when you have enough of them to field a starting nine in addition to a reliever and a backup catcher you can throw in the bullpen, there’s no chance they’re all receiving the exact same amount of affection.
Sure, I could be wrong, and again, I can’t speak as a parent because I’ve done everything in my power to avoid becoming one, which is due to the fact that I already have enough shit to deal with and am in no hurry to add “a human life” to my continually updated list of things to worry about.
In a perfect world, I’d be able to pay equal attention to every item on that list but there are only so many hours in a day, which means some issues are forced to take a backseat as other matters become more pressing. For example, climate change was something I was particularly concerned about heading into 2020, but in recent months, I’ve been a bit too preoccupied with trying to make it to the end of this year to fret about the state of the world a few decades from now.
However, I got a nice reminder of how fucked we are over the weekend courtesy of the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, which is home to around 1,100 people who’ve decided to call a place in the Arctic Circle with a record-low temperature of -93° F home.
Interestingly enough, summers in Siberia can be surprisingly temperate, but over the weekend, the weather was anything but that, as CBS News meteorologist Jeff Berardelli said Verkhoyansk set another temperature record on Saturday when the thermometer hit 100.4° F, which isn’t exactly the most thrilling development.
Likely the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic happened today-100.4 F- What's happening in Siberia this year is nothing short of remarkable. The kind of weather we expect by 2100, 80 years early.
For perspective Miami has only reached 100 degrees once on record. https://t.co/WDPRmLRD4d— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) June 20, 2020
This is fine.