# Cold Blooded People **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925 "2009-12-20T04:16:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/21 "2009-12-20T16:43:23Z")
Despite the male fantasy of having lots of skinny, slinky women around the house wearing next to nothing even when it’s not hot as an oven, real world skinny women like to bundle up in sweaters because they are always cold. Fat is an insulator, as all Eskimos and the sea mammals that they dine on know very well. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/22 "2009-12-20T17:58:25Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > There are lots of interesting replies here but this is very close to answering the question I had in mind when I started the thread. I was actually in the lunchroom at work and most of the guys were either comfortable or too warm; the women were all cold. Good luck trying to set the HVAC to make everyone happy in a setting like that! For that particular issue, men vs. women, look mostly to clothing. It’s winter here, daytime temps are in the 30s. The office is heated, of course, but cold spots & drafts are common. A thermometer on my office floor says 65 most of the day, and more like 60 when I get in in the AM. I wear wool dress pants, a cotton long sleeve dress shirt, & dress shoes with lightweight silk long underwear underneath. I’m comfy. The woman in the next office is wearing sandals, no socks, capri-length pants, and a sheer silk-like short sleeve blouse. I don’t know exactly what her underwear is like (a pity that), but it ain’t thermals. She is not comfy, and makes sure we all know it. ---
**Author:** ![Coalcracker0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b38774/32.png) [@Coalcracker0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coalcracker0)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/23 "2009-12-20T18:34:12Z")
salinqmind , Are you, me?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/24 "2009-12-20T18:39:05Z")
That particular piece of idiocy isn’t exclusive to women, though - I do agree your coworker is an idjit, mind you. One of my mother’s neighbors (3rd floor) always complains of the house being too cold in the winter. He stopped complaining to me on the day he asked if we were cold at Mom’s (10th floor penthouse), I said “no” and, when he expressed surprise, I specified “well, I’ve been sleeping with three wool blankets and the jammies tucked in between the first and second pair of socks; that’s two blankets and a pair of socks less than the winter the radiator in my room was broken.” Turns out his lordship wants to sit around the house in his underwear in January. ETA: you know, thinking about it, I see women dressed like that a lot less in places where the dress code considers things like “jeans” and “pantsuits or slacks on women” acceptable. Maybe a way to moderate the Thermostat Wars would be an attack on the Dress Code? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/25 "2009-12-20T18:39:39Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > There are lots of interesting replies here but this is very close to answering the question I had in mind when I started the thread. I was actually in the lunchroom at work and most of the guys were either comfortable or too warm; the women were all cold. Good luck trying to set the HVAC to make everyone happy in a setting like that! You also have to look at clothing choices in a scenario like that. In a typical office, men are wearing long pants, long-sleeved shirts, ties and jackets, while the women are wearing knee-length skirts and blouses with open collars and lower necklines. So the men are dressed perfectly for 68 F and the women are dressed perfectly for 75 F. Even if they were identical in all other respects, there’s no way to please both. This is often the case in other environments as well. Just look at what a man wears for a night on the town compared to what a woman wears. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/26 "2009-12-20T19:24:50Z")
Ah, I should have specified. We’re in an industrial setting, the women in this case are all machine operators, all wearing the same uniform as the men. Sorry, I keep forgetting that other people have “normal” jobs (and hours, the effect sems more noticeable to us in the middle of the night). In an office setting that would make a lot of sense though. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/27 "2009-12-20T20:19:35Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > For that particular issue, men vs. women, look mostly to clothing. > > It’s winter here, daytime temps are in the 30s. The office is heated, of course, but cold spots & drafts are common. A thermometer on my office floor says 65 most of the day, and more like 60 when I get in in the AM. > > I wear wool dress pants, a cotton long sleeve dress shirt, & dress shoes with lightweight silk long underwear underneath. I’m comfy. > > The woman in the next office is wearing sandals, no socks, capri-length pants, and a sheer silk-like short sleeve blouse. I don’t know exactly what her underwear is like (a pity that), but it ain’t thermals. > > She is not comfy, and makes sure we all know it. When I did go into an office, I wore essentially the same thing every day all year long, long sleeved polo shirt, and deva palazzo pants in a heavy deva cloth [sturdy woven cotton, almost a canvas weight thread not a light tshirty material, The stuff wears better than denim.] I also had a duster length sweater. I hate refrigerated workplaces, where I like my bedroom refrigerated. It is sort of hard to snuggle under a comforter at work. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/28 "2009-12-20T20:50:23Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > Not literally cold-blooded of course but what are some of the factors that go into people’s sensation of temperature in a room? I can be in a room with twenty people and some are just right, some are complaining about the heat, others are pulling on sweaters. Why such a difference? Lots of reasons for the difference, as other posts have pointed out, but have you noticed that the ones complaining about the heat seem to get involved romantically with the ones pulling on the sweaters? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/29 "2009-12-21T16:07:30Z")
well it is christmas lest talk aboutit ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/30 "2009-12-21T17:36:36Z")
> [@missred](#): > > Lots of reasons for the difference, as other posts have pointed out, but have you noticed that the ones complaining about the heat seem to get involved romantically with the ones pulling on the sweaters? 😛 Yep, but never knew the _why_ behind it. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/31 "2009-12-21T17:50:54Z")
Sorry, I left the window open and my daughter started typing. I’m pretty sure my son did this last year. sorry again. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/32 "2009-12-21T18:12:42Z")
I’ve read a few books about “feral children” and one of the things they all seem to have in common is indifference to cold and heat. “Genie” probably the most famous child, in the USA, that fits the condition, was shown to have this too. I don’t know how true it is, but if so, it makes for some interesting thought ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/33 "2009-12-21T19:16:59Z")
> [@JFLuvly](#): > > Sorry, I left the window open and my daughter started typing. I’m pretty sure my son did this last year. sorry again. You make your children crawl in through the windows? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925/34 "2009-12-22T01:26:52Z")
> [@Mr.Duality](#): > > A relevant Zen koan: > "A monk asked Tozan, “How can we escape the cold and heat?” Tozan replied, “Why not go where there is no cold and heat?” “Is there such a place?” the monk asked. Tozan commented, “When cold, be thoroughly cold; when hot, be hot through and through.” > > So, it’s all in the mind. I was freezing as I was walking back from the Mt. Everest base camp and nearing the Tengboche Monastery ( 12,600’ ) in the dead of winter around sundown. As the monastery came into sight, I saw a monk up ahead. He was only dressed in some kind of thin robe and was barefoot! It had to be in the mid 30’s F., but it didn’t seem to be bothering him in the least. I don’t know how long he had been walking, but the last settlement that I went through was hours behind me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-blooded-people/521925.md?page=1)