Let's cool it with the hyperbole people

I was just reading a story on the NPR web site about warm weather in Alaska which begins thusly:

> Temperatures climbed to 90 degrees in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday, breaking the all-time heat record for the northerly city.


"All time," the story goes on to note, means since official records began to be kept, namely, 1952.

I was in high school in 1952—depending on what part of that year we're talking about either ending my first year of high school in Illinois or beginning my second in Minnesota. I already knew how to dance the waltz, the foxtrot and the jitterbug, I was trying out for the track team, and was trying to build a rocket in the back yard. The rocket kept blowing up. I wasn't much more successful with the dancing. But I ran pretty well.

It might seem like a long time ago to you but it doesn't exactly seem like "all time" to me. It doesn't exactly seem like yesterday, either. But somewhere in between.

Have a heart.