In some places an additional fabric was needed to make blackout curtains. Once up, the heavy, dark curtains had a mournful effect, but (as with other problems), the media offered advice. One writer suggested that “funereal blackout curtains ”¦ will take on life with the addition of greenery. You might ”¦ do something giddy like big chintz roses cut out and mounted on them. “Kitchens might be made uncomfortably hot by blackout curtains during summer, but in winter their warmth would be appreciated.” Fuel oil, wrote Business Week in early September 1942, “is the most complicated rationing problem yet tackled.” The needs of each user had to be separately considered, with quotas imposed that varied “by regions and by periods of the winter, with constant adjustments based on ”˜degree days”™ of temperature.” Sixty-five degrees was considered the maximum allowable daytime temperature, with nights to be even chillier. Women found themselves constricting their households to one or two heated rooms, with no more attic or basement play areas for children and quick dashes to icy beds at night. (American women during World War II: an encyclopedia – Page 377