Hot news: Foreign scribes sizzle as press club AC kaput
Insider reporters
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17 June 2019
upi reporters coping with 1952 heatwave in Los Angeles
ROME -- The annual Association of the Foreign Press in Italy barbecue evidently got under way unexpectedly this month as journalists battled to work in temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius while a team of engineers struggled to repair the air conditioning plant in Humility Street.
Hacks from around the world prayed for a cooling breeze as they sweated through their news agenda without even a simple fan being provided to alleviate the scorching temperatures. Each year the whims of the ageing AC plant at the press club palazzo takes Club authorities by surprise anew, meaning reporters benefit from a free sauna to get rid of some of the kilos put on during winter months of debauchery and dolce vita.
Media observers noted that while the Club's charming management may have helped obtain a beautiful audience with Pope Francis for club members the other day they will evidently have to ask His Holiness to pray for a miracle to enable the journos to enjoy cooler quarters in the coming days.
Like most stories in journalism the heatwave is nothing new. Reporters at the busy newdesk of United Press International in Los Angeles coped with soaring temperatures by taking off their shirts as pictured herewith, an acceptable solution back in the good old days when reporting was largely a male preserve.
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