So here in Minnesota we’ve had an unusually mild winter so far, unlike the rest of the US, which is kind of a first. Now, though, the temperatures are at last more typical of the season. Last night it was down to -6F (that’s -21C to the rest of you), and I had to go out for a quick run to the convenience store, so I bundled up and thought to make short work of it. The air was most bracing, and I thought that all in all it wasn’t so bad; we’d been spoiled, but we’re Minnesotans after all. Well, I’d forgotten it had snowed, and the car needed to be brushed off and the windows scraped, so this was going to take more time than I’d planned for. That done, now I was feeling the cold (I usually don’t wear head coverings), and I got in and made my way to the store, noting darkly that a week ago the heater would have warmed up by now. As I pulled into the parking spot, there in front of me were the manager and one of his workers on a smoke break, shivering and shuffling and looking for all the world like bums; good people - the best - but they’re pretty rough around the edges, and smoking out in the subzero made for an even sorrier tableau. “How’s it going?” called the manager as I got out. The cold being the topic of the day, I grumbled, “Remind me again why I love Minnesota…?” The other fellow wisecracked, “The sights?” - to which I replied, “Yeah, I’m looking at a couple of 'em right now.”
From the webpage: “A burglar falls for an heiress as she dies in his arms. When he learns that he has the gift of reincarnation, he sets out to save her.” Bloody hell. The only thing missing is a marching band.
Normally I don’t care for mushy; give me a good swashbuckler any day. And usually in either case, the less credible it is, the less I like it: “The gift of reincarnation”, fercryinoutloud. Gift? - It’s why I don’t like most Chinese wuxia movies where everyone’s fluttering diaphanously thru the air to deliver yet another out of countless mighty blows that will have no more deadly effect than a push, yet the receiver flies backward into a pillar and breaks it - and comes away unscathed by that, too. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was highly praised, but not even five minutes in I had to change the channel; I don’t sit still when having my intelligence insulted. But great cinematography does get my attention. On your recommendation, chas, I’ll keep the movie on my radar - I might find I like it in spite of itself.
I do like The Matrix, though, even though the action is pure wuxia. The reason for that is a difference of premise: The Matrix is about illusion, whereas wuxia asks me to believe that there could actually be a class of flesh-and-blood mortals so adept that they really can fly and resist impacts that would kill an elephant. Just can’t bring myself to run with the idea.
All this talk of wuxia has me wanting to wash my mouth out. I think I’ll watch 13 Assassins tonight as a palate cleanser.
The Novel, A Winter’s Tale, was an awesome read and one of my all time favourite books…read it a long time ago…for me, the movie was a big disappointment compared to the novel…I do agree that it was visually stunning though.
That’s two votes for the burglar. When I titled this thread I was loosely referencing Shakespeare, and didn’t know about anything else. A little further looking today, and I find that his play is instead titled “The Winter’s Tale”. One word makes all the difference.
I always think the dead of winter is a good time to revisit Dr. Zhivago. I don’t know if any service streams it. I bought the DVD a few years back and have yet to watch it. It astounded me in theaters in the 70s. With my local weather man referring to the weather that is coming into Chicago in a couple of days as “Barbaric Cold” (even to the point of putting those words in the 7 day weather forecast graphic), perhaps this is the week.
A low of -26F (-32C) is forecast for Tuesday in my patch. Ever since I can remember, it’s been a given that you’re going to have at least a couple of days like that - nights, more likely - so so far I haven’t heard anyone saying the sky is falling. If we have a week of days like that, that would be news; a week or so of single-digit subzero temps - not as much. What’s news is the recent wild mood swings.
Our forecasters usually use words like “extremely cold” or “dangerously cold”. Perhaps we take “barbaric” too personally.
I think our meteorologist was having a very good time. Our lowest recorded temp at Chicago’s Ohare airport is -27. I was 30 something and bundled up to take a walk with my roommates. Thirty years later I find myself thinking avoidance is an option. My son is in Duluth and my nephew in Montana. These temperatures are normal for them as they are for you. But for us lily-livered Chicagoans - 4 is a bit of a chill.
If our meteorologists can’t have fun, where would we be?
I take it you meant -4, rather than the hyphen being punctuation. But if not, even 4 above zero is cold, no doubt about it. My idea of ideal winter weather is nothing lower than the upper 20s F.
Years back I once (and only once, thank God) had to change a tire on a very big car when it was -25F outside. Think wrestling a trawler in liquid nitrogen. You can’t feel your hands because the metal sucks the heat away despite your mittens and gloves (those of you who’ve had the job of stocking walk-in refrigerators and freezers will know what I’m talking about), so it’s not just cold beyond description, you’re pretty hampered, too, which means you’re going to be out there longer than you would have to be on a warm day. Good times. I think that was the day I first started hating cars.
I went to college in Maine. Every winter there were a couple of stretches when it wouldn’t get above zero (F) for a week or two, and when it got up to 20, we all had our parkas open. I saw 30 below one winter. That’s COLD.
Avoidance: My #1 goal after college was moving South. This week we may have our fourth day this winter with the LOW below 10 degrees. As I always say, I didn’t move South for this.
Hs!t, you upper midwesterners, I just looked at weather.com ! Nano, you’re looking at close to 50 below wind chill Wednesday morning. That’s PAINFUL! Buster’s looking at 40 below wind chill.
I know I don’t need to remind y’all long-time residents, but bundle up! You have my sympathies (and those of my wife, who lived several years in Chicago growing up).
“Bone-breaking” is the word I use for such cold; thank goodness for insulation and central heating. Last night in honor of the impending temperature crash I watched a documentary, The Tundra Book, and I don’t know how the Chukchis do it. For most of their year it’s the deep-freeze, and they live in tents, fercryinoutloud. There’s a limit to how much tradition I can romanticize.
Yeah, chas, then there’s the wind chill. Even at no wind chill - it could happen - in weather like that you don’t go out unless you have to. And I’m going to have to. Starting in a couple of hours we’ll see around 15 hours’ worth of snowfall - until now, everything substantial has bypassed us to the north and south, which is unusual - and as caretaker to my apartment building, I’ll be out there manning the snowblower. I haven’t done that in so long that I’m going to have to re-learn how to start it up. It won’t be nearly as cold as the Tuesday and Wednesday to come, but I hope the accumulations will be light enough that I can say, “Ah, screw it.” The chances of that aren’t looking good, though.
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen coeds in only lace tops and miniskirts, and young men in only jeans and T shirts, trying desperately to hail a cab in downtown MPLS when it’s 9F (-13C) on New Year’s Eve. And you see it every year. Those folks are obviously not from here, where we value our lives and layering itself is fashion. It’s why we have cloakrooms.
Nah, mine went with Mantovani and Danny Kaye. Bit of a generational difference, there…
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is expected to see a low of -29F (-33.9C), but only three days later it’s supposed to be up to a comparatively tropical 39F (3.9C). Need I say more?
-24F. I’m putting off a grocery run so I can do it in the worst cold available.
Not just Minneapolis, but all over. When I was a kid (here it comes, they groan) in North Dakota, I remember waiting for the school bus one day when it was -50F. Seriously. That’s not wind chill. We spat in the air to see if it would crack before it hit the ground (it didn’t; I think it has to be -70F for that). The air was very still, and the smoke from every chimney was flowing downward. That was an uncanny sight. Looking back it seems pretty stupid, but back then it just never seemed to occur to anybody that a day off might be the sensible thing to do. No idea why; maybe it was the rationale that if the Postal Service was running, everyone else should too. You just bundled up until you couldn’t move, and soldiered on. Even though I survived all that very well, I think that “We were tougher in those days” is a reckless thing to say; a foolhardy adult is one thing, but our kids are quite another. Nowadays, leaving kids out in dangerous cold is unthinkable without at least some kind of plan, and even then I wouldn’t want to do it. Sure, I’d want my kids to be tough, but there are better ways to go about it. Some people call that coddling - we only used to call off school if the snows made driving an obviously bad idea - but I think closing schools for the cold as well is just a case of common sense finally dawning on us: Playing outdoors in weather like that is fine if you’re dressed for it and can take it, because you can quickly run inside to warm up; but if a bus broke down on an empty stretch you might end up with a lot of dead kids, and what is all your tough-it-out bravado worth then?
A vehicle without heating is extremely cold.. when I drive during winter in cold areas (outside of town) I always bring very warm clothing and a sleeping bag too. Just in case.
