From the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast, America is struggling with ice storms and blizzards and general misery. The winter weather has been especially tough on Californians. Many of us don't own gloves, or forgot where we put them several years ago after we got home from Mammoth or Tahoe. Few of us have those scrapey things to get frost off the windshield—frost!—but I have witnessed our brave people making do with their credit cards or even the edges of their phones, which is probably not recommended by the manufacturer. But what do we know of frozen water outside? Frozen water goes in margaritas! Yet we are surviving this unusually chilly weather, together and mostly apart, like usual.

Both sides of the climate change 'debate' have decided that the snowstorm proves their case. 'Morons' argue that because it is cold, global warming is a myth. 'Scientists' counter that climate change means more extreme weather, not just warming. [NYT]

What the red robin is to spring or the Shagbark Hickory's brilliant flaming foliage is to autumn, dirty Craigslist postings are to winter. Every year near the first snow, the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist positively bristles with cold young men and women (but almost entirely men, and some of those women are also men!) looking to be warmed up. This usually involves some amount of sexual contact with strangers or as one 34-year-old man put it, "IT'S COLD OUT-LETS RUB OUR HOT BODIES TOGETHER TO KEEP WARM." I've always relied on the radiator, a good pair of slippers and tea but hey, what do I know?