Is 12 Degrees Warm or Cold?

The other morning when I left for work, it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit outside. How you feel about that statement probably depends on where you live. Well, first, if you live outside the U.S., you might be wondering what that means, so I’ll tell you: it’s -11 Celsius. You’re impressed now, right? If, like my […]

Of Time and Turtles

On Tuesday two people who I met a few years ago posted similar pictures. One still lives in the town of Kiruna, north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, where I briefly lived; the other, last I heard, had moved even farther north, to somewhere in the Norwegian wilds. Each posted a picture showing the […]

A Snow Day

The first snow of the year, and the first noticeable snow of this winter, fell here in D.C. on Tuesday. Yes, we know that our reaction to snow makes no sense. No, we don’t have enough snowplows. No, we don’t know how to drive in snow. You’re very clever for noticing, People Who Live In […]

The Last Word, Dec 22-26

The People of LWON began a brief period of holiday rest by telling you what TV shows and movies you might binge-watch on your winter break, from the TV spinoff of a series of comic book movies to Scandinavian drama. A lot of Scandinavian drama. What do you like to read during the dark winter […]

Holiday Redux: The Hidden Carols of England

LWON is celebrating the holidays by re-running some of our favorite posts. This post originally appeared in January 2014, and I thought it would be nice to give it another outing during the holidays. People have been singing Christmas carols in the pubs in villages around Sheffield, in the north of England, for hundreds of […]

The Last Word, November 24-28, 2014

It was a week of thanks and turkeys. Scientists and editors claim not to like anthropomorphizing, but Ann did it anyway. With galaxies. Which breathe. No, really! Guest Nell Greenfieldboyce watched a spider go about its business in her window for weeks, then wrote about it, and it’s lovely. Those pronouncements on climate change? They […]