https://slate.com/technology/2019/09/parasols-better-than-sunscreen.html
"It’s truly strange that people don’t use parasols. Here we are, not long past
the planet’s hottest-ever month, and most of us still rely on second-rate
technologies for warding off the sun. We’ll put on UV-protectant creams and lip
balms. We’ll hide our faces under wide-brimmed hats. At times, we’ll even put
on pants and long-sleeve shirts in the middle of a heat wave. But no one seems
to think about the better, cheaper, older option: an umbrella.
Take it from a convert. I’ve remade myself, in recent months, into what the
Japanese refer to as
higasa danshi: a “parasol man.” Since midsummer, I’ve
been trotting through my New York City neighborhood underneath my purple Totes
umbrella, free of bulky clothes or greasy ointments, and rolling in a private
patch of shade. In pursuing this auspicious habit, I’ve learned (and felt)
firsthand what’s been known from lab experiments: Umbrellas are among the most
efficient means of staying safe and cool in the summer sun.
It’s only through a tragic rupture in the history of fashion that the parasol
ever disappeared from U.S. streets. Our first mistake was the relegation,
centuries ago, of the sunshade as a feminine accessory, and a frivolity best
used for flirting. “The parasol is the umbrella’s daughter,/ And associates
with the fan,” wrote Emily Dickinson. “While her father abuts the tempest/ and
abridges the rain.” But as the critic Marion Rankine points out in her splendid
book-length essay on umbrellas, Dickinson had the ancestry reversed: The
parasol’s the daddy here, by a space of several thousand years, and all that
abutting and abridging rain would happen later. In their early days, parasols
represented strength and masculinity—a kingly privilege to be shaded from the
sun. (Back then, of course, someone else would hold the king’s umbrella.)"
Via Sheila Nagig.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
