Today's brief respite not withstanding—that’s right, Boston,
I’m calling this afternoon’s miraculous temperature rise above freezing a
“respite,” because after this week, it really, really feels like one—this
winter has been brutal. It’s given us the coldest New York City February day on record,
made us succumb to sickness,
sparked a new approach to car theft in not-used-to-this-kind-of-weather Atlanta, Georgia, and froze parts of the East River, among other teeth chattering incidents.
So I ask you, besides giving
us a good reason to wear leggings and lots of fun layered scarves and sweaters,
what is this blasted cold and piles of snow good for?
One
word: Pandas. Red pandas from the Cincinnati Zoo, to elaborate, who are having
more fun playing in the snow than we may have had doing anything, ever.