Thursday, July 8, 2010

Intolerable heat II

The Big Picture featured photos today of people "beating the heat," including this one from Berlin:
Yes, it's a swimming pool that floats on a river. Overkill?

Possible excuses for this otherwise-affront-to-common-sense:
  1. The river is so polluted that giant, mutant river-dwelling predators now pose a serious threat to swimmers, but not so serious a threat that swimmers can't go right up to the edge of the predators' territory, tempting fate and plot-developers to have a huge river shark jump out of the water and catch people. (Or airplanes.)
  2. Some people prefer swimming in chlorine.
... and honestly, excuse 2 is pretty bad. I swam this morning in a (chlorinated) pool and it was as odorous and desiccating as usual.

Follow the link to The Big Picture now (I even repeated it!) and see if you can find which of the photos is not like the others. One of the photos just doesn't fit in...

I am moving to Switzerland when I grow up. Or maybe I'll do a winter-to-winter migration, wintering in the northern hemisphere and "summering" in the southern.


This post's theme word: heliolatry, "worship of the sun." Heliolaters are my enemies.

2 comments:

masha51 said...

Reason #3 - and should probably be ranked higher than either of your reasons: Currents. River swimming pulls the swimmer downstream. Maybe miles away. Maybe over Niagara Falls. Maybe into swift-moving boat traffic. Maybe to the sea. Possibly beyond national borders. Certainly away from the point from which she left the shore. The pool offers a convenient way to stay put. Upon exiting the water, the swimmer finds her car - still parked conveniently nearby. No passport required to return home for barbequed bratwurst.

Lila is a complex system. said...

What if the pool breaks loose and travels downriver in one big chunk? ... and eventually gets sucked into a time vortex somewhere in the twists of the river. Then we have the sequel to "Hot Tub Time Machine": River Pool Time Machine!