Red and Blue

Growing up in a warm, tropical country like the Philippines makes you wonder about a lot of stuff. Take the car thermostat for example. I remember thinking, for the longest time, why anyone in their right frame of mind would bother putting a "warm" setting. What, air outside not hot enough for you? I remember staring at that knob that goes from blue on the left to red on the right, and saying to myself, 'why even put a red side when nobody will ever use it?' In fact, nobody will even move the knob from the leftmost setting; if it were up to me I'd just glue it in place. Can't they just change it to blue on the right and dark blue (or even black) on the left? You know, "cold" to "frigid" (if that's even possible in the Philippines).

Of course, this was all before I realized there are some places in this planet where they actually value heat more than cold air, and inasmuch as car manufacturers would like to tailor their car models to the local market, customizing the car thermostat apparently isn't high on their list. But come to think of it, I guess it wouldn't be so bad to be prepared just in case of a global shift and the Philippines suddenly finds itself on the north pole (and then we can finally stop dreaming of a White Christmas).

And so, upon migrating to Upstate New York and experiencing winter for the first time, what an awakening it was for me to discover that yes, Virginia, there is indeed a use for that red side of the car thermostat.