There's a lovely Jazz standard by Irving Berlin. How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Diana Krall interprets it perfectly. I hadn’t thought of it turning into How Hot is the Ocean? But there is the headline today.
“Ocean temperatures around South Florida hit hot-tub levels”.
I seem to have a sense of how things would go with the temperature rising. Or perhaps a fantasy sense - that ’s because I remember a Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode where the temperature was so high that an egg could be fried on the sidewalk and the paint melted on a painting.
The episode was The Midnight Sun. This is the opening narration - and doesn’t it come to life with Rod’s voice in one’s imagination:
The word that Mrs. Bronson is unable to put into the hot, still, sodden air is 'doomed,' because the people you've just seen have been handed a death sentence. One month ago, the Earth suddenly changed its elliptical orbit and in doing so began to follow a path which gradually, moment by moment, day by day, took it closer to the sun. And all of man's little devices to stir up the air are now no longer luxuries—they happen to be pitiful and panicky keys to survival. The time is five minutes to twelve, midnight. There is no more darkness. The place is New York City and this is the eve of the end, because even at midnight it's high noon, the hottest day in history, and you're about to spend it in the Twilight Zone.
And how does this segment end?
The scene cuts to the same apartment at night with heavy snow outside the windows. The thermometer reads −10 °F (−23 °C). Norma, who has been bedridden with a high fever, is being cared for by a doctor and Mrs. Bronson. The Earth moving closer to the sun is revealed to be only a fever dream, while in reality the Earth is moving away from the sun, and the world's inhabitants are actually freezing to death.
Here is another favourite front yard/garden for me. Bold shapes and colours make it seem very modern and stylish. Or perhaps it fits a notion of 1960s modern for me. Same time frame as Twilight Zone.
No comments:
Post a Comment