1.30 | it's brick out here!

✉️ letter #73

Hello all and welcome to much, much later than I had expected to restart this newsletter. I had a good list going of ideas about things I wanted to talk about, and it kept growing as IRL experiences made fodder for good content… except that those same IRL experiences were taking up too much energy to spare for actual writing.

And I’m shelving that long list for now because, quite honestly, all I can think about today is how cold it is here in New York City.

🎼 the soundtrack | I Did This To Myself - Thundercat ft. Lil Yachty

We are currently in the midst of what is currently the longest-lasting sub-freezing stretch since 2018 - consecutive days where temperatures dip and stay below 32°F (or, as a metric-user, 0°C). And today was one of the coldest of these cold days, with temperatures hovering around 15°F (-10°C).

This is a stark change up from what winters in New York have been like since I came back four years ago — in 2022, I landed in time for a magical February blizzard, followed by some of the warmest Januaries on record. I lamented the lack of snow. I grumbled about how little my winter layers were being utilized. I considered freeing up apartment space by donating them.

And then came January 2026.

Last Sunday, Winter Storm Fern dumped about a foot of snow onto Manhattan. The sub-freezing stretch ensured that it wouldn’t melt away. And now, apparently, we might be hit with another bomb cyclone this coming weekend. The City has broken out “Snow Hot Tubs” to try to get as much snow and ice off the streets before we’re potentially inundated with more.

Or as some stranger on the bus today put it, “I was thinking New York winters were getting kind of wussy, but I guess not!”

I’m someone who prides myself in loving cold temperatures, but I’ll admit that this is way outside my comfort zone. The minutes I had to spend outside today so thoroughly drained me of energy that it’s all I can do to stay awake while typing this. I swear something more substantial will come your way next week. For this one, let's focus on some cold-themed stories that are unexpectedly heartwarming?

🪢related threads:

• Snowstorms are always a test for NYC mayors, and it seems like our new one has been rising to the occasion. Both Bloomberg and deBlasio were felt to have botched their blizzard responses, so the fact that even the NYPost can’t find enough wrong with Mamdani’s to fill their Metro section is a good sign.
• The Winter Olympics are almost here, and I feel like I've only heard about it on airlines (Delta's "flying our champions") and through the sudden influx of ice skating videos populating my Youtube feed. Did you know that Milan is debuting a new sport? It's called "Skimo." [Time]
• Here's a piece that frankly gives me chills: The tech industry has been shifting from a consumer-focused, anti-authoritarian ethos toward a deep embrace of the military-industrial complex and national defense technology as global rivalries and profit opportunities in warfare grow. Written by someone I know - Tianyu, who used to be an intern at RADII and occasionally wrote for The China Project as well. I love when young journalists I've met succeed! [Noema]
• Let's hope what's happening in Minnesota is the last straw, because I don't understand how we can't all see how the Trump playbook of "distraction, disinformation, denial, and delay" isn't laid bare to everyone by now. [The New Yorker]
• I'll admit that one of the reasons it's taken a while for another newsletter to come out is because... I keep freezing up when I sit at the computer. Here's a timely list to get us all unstuck. [Austin Kleon]

✨enjoying: a piece of pop culture fun

As brick as it's getting here, it hasn't stopped me from enjoying watching mini-docs about places that are even colder. These missives from Yakutia, Siberia are both illuminating and very charming.

🗨️a final quote

They seem tentative and awkward at first, then in a hastening host a whole brief army falls, white militia paratrooping out of the close sky over various textures, making them one. Snow is white and gray, part and whole, infinitely various yet infinitely repetitious, soft and hard, frozen and melting, a creaking underfoot and a soundlessness. But first of all it is the reversion of many into one. It is substance, almost the idea of substance, that turns grass, driveway, hayfield, old garden, log pile, Saab, watering trough, collapsed barn, and stonewall into the one white.

-- Seasons at Eagle Pond, Donald Hall

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