WHAT TO DO IN SERIOUSLY BRR WEATHER

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At the moment, citizens of Little Macondo have no reason  to ask where  the snows of yesteryear have gone. The snow, my friends has returned with a vengeance. Yesterday,  snowflakes  nearly a large as popped corn poured from the sky   for six hours to cloak  the entire village in  glittery white. At my house, we spent part  of the time feeding voracious wood stove, Morsolino, our main source of warmth. In between trips to the wood pile, we read, drank tea, deplored the  shamefully bad articles in Newsweek and praised the excellence of the writing in  The New Yorker and Harper's.

Perhaps it is typical of those over fifty to mourn their salad days when journalist took their work seriously  and editors knew how to do their jobs. Again, it is quite possible that today's journalists target  readers whose attention span is briefer than their underwear. The effect of e-mail, instant messaging, texting and blogging, the immediacy of which often precludes reflection,  and care may account for a relaxation of old rules. A new language seems to be emerging from   text messages. That is very exciting. Linguistic evolution often is so slow it goes on unnoticed by all but academics. To keep track of  rapid change the  English language has undergone since the internet revolution  is to watch history unfold. To witness  the the emergence of new forms of expression is exhilarating. To see citizen journalists challenge the monopoly traditional media once had on the written word is at once alarming and fascinating. It is a pity, however, that in effort not be left behind, so many journalist  the traditional media dumb down their writing.

Being snowbound  is a chance to be more aware of  details we fail to notice unless we slow our pace--the way the setting sun suffuses grey clouds with a subtle lavender wash, the raucous cries of the blue jay in the snowy woods, the muted song of the creek behind our house. What we do on snowy days is to match our pace to that of the snowfall. We move go about our business steadily. We read and read--Orlando Figes on the dark days of Stalin's reign of terror, a lovely article by Jonathan Rosen on the poet Milton, Trailhead, a perfect  story by E. O. Wilson and we find delicious treats on the net, for example,

Let it snow!