Ees A Sweater... What Can You Say About Men Such As These?

We are hardly as cold as we will be but the scarves and heavy sweaters have made their first appearances of the season. The beenies, scarves, and cashmere sweaters are more a fashion statement than any protection against the cold but there they are. And I use cold very loosely here. Maybe 60 degrees (that's about 15 to the rest of the world out there) only counts as cold compared to our triple digit summers. But our Southern California Abercrombies can hardly wait to show us how extensive and casually luxurious their winter wardrobes are. So these first few days of the temperature dropping are very important. You need to be the first to wear the Wakely Mountain supersoft 100% sueded cotton Vintage Abercrombie Wash in Heather Gray or else what's the point?

Sometimes evil is described as having a negative existence-like darkness to light or like cold to heat. It's not what is- but a result of what's missing. That's a pretty good way thinking about it unless we think that means there's nothing to it. There are only a few days of the year here when we get to feel the power of cold- when the wind is sharp on our ears and the air cuts through lifted collars, but even that hints at what cold is and does. It is different from our warmth. It steals from us. It takes our heat, a product of our being, and dissipates it. And when we're dead, that's it. No more heat, just cold -we're the same temperature as whatever's around us.

I was in New York last January. I walked everywhere and wasn't particularly cold except for one morning. I've been in the cold before. I've spent winters in the mountains and visited San Francisco in the Summer (sorry Mr. Twain). But that visit to New York was cold. I don't know if it was because it's close to the river, but walking up Broadway from 116th St. to 121st I was dying. Every breath I took was like a cold shower, my gloves were worthless, my eyeballs hurt and my ears burned. My ears even hurt inside, then they slowly went numb. When I finally got into a building, my ears slowly warmed again. It seemed like I could feel my blood forcing its way through my frozen cartilage. They stung as they warmed. It hurt more then their freezing.

I know 60 degrees isn't 50, 40's not 30, 20's not 10 and so on. But when is it cold enough that we notice. When is it so cold we can't?

This feels a lot more pretentious then most posts. Whatever. Maybe it is cold, maybe it isn't. Maybe it's time to put on a sweater, maybe it's just a show. Maybe it all depends on what the definition of "is" is.

Oh, and does anybody get the allusion in the title?

Coming Soon: Answers to Our St. Augustine Sex Quiz!!

Some ELO Forced Into the Party Shuffle Just for Bob
Efil's God- The Eels
Papa Don't Take No Mess- James Brown
Hanging Around the Day- The Polyphonic Spree
Let It Bleed- The Rolling Stones
Thirty-Three- Smashing Pumpkins
Clint Eastwood- Gorillaz
Swlabr- Cream
We Want the Funk- Parliament
What Is And What Should Never Be- Led Zeppelin
Can't Get It Out of My Head- ELO
Do Ya- ELO
Livin' Thing- ELO
Flamenco Sketches- Miles Davis