I don’t care what it was lined with, it was only kept closed at the neck. My Mother has a couple of pashima cashmere shawls, but as nice as they feel, she still wears a down-fill filled coat when going outside below 40°.

That may have been of some warmth, but I think I’d still be freeeeeeeezing.

Stella, who keeps track of such things, insists the dress was specially lined with freezing weather in mind. I certainly hope that’s true.

“Everyone who took a guitar to Alaska kept it in a plastic bag with a damp sponge to avoid it coming apart,…”

String players I knew in my earlier years used a Dampit, a.k.a. a “limp dick,” for the same purpose. Are those still around? Google will tell you, but I’m going to bed rather than look it up right now.

Steve Bates´s last blog post..The Day After

If I had been Michelle Obama, I would have dumped that Isabel Toledo dress for a Carbela’s sledding suit and mukluks in a flash and told the “fashion police” to stuff it.

Everyone who took a guitar to Alaska kept it in a plastic bag with a damp sponge to avoid it coming apart, and that’s with the terracotta humidifiers on every radiator to try to provide some humidity in the barracks. The people in housing were constantly having their furniture fall apart, especially the guys who rotated in from Asia. My brother had to re-assemble all of the furniture he brought back from Hong Kong the first winter back in New York, and he has a humidifier built into his furnace. Wood and dry winter air don’t mix.

…and Dr. Gupta could do us all a favor by waking up tomorrow morning in the throes of a “I coulda had a V-8” moment and announce that he doesn’t really want to be Surgeon General. That would be a bit of Change We Could Believe In…

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester´s last blog post..At Last

Just the thought of putting metal to my face in temperatures like that makes me shiver. I don’t think I could maintain the air control needed for a flute or fife under conditions like that, even if I could normally play one. They should have used bagpipes – no one would notice the problem, and they are readily repairable. They are, after all, a battlefield instrument. The kilts would be a problem though.

McGill should NOT have taken his good horn out there. He would have sounded just as good on an intermediate horn. But I guess his Backun barrel wouldn’t fit (that was a blatant advertisement on his part).

Moi´s last blog post..Bye Bye Bye Bye ASSWIPE

That was instrument abuse. I know people want to be part of it, but there should be some common sense in the mix. There are going to be a lot of sick kids and people going home, and if anyone had a cold or the flu, it just got spread to the rest of the nation.

That’s one on the reasons my Mother won’t fly this time of the year – it’s too easy to pick up something in a airport or the aircraft, even with a mask. Too many people, too close together – it’s asking for an epidemic.

I felt really bad for the bandsmen today… and the clarinetist in the “Tashi”-style quartet. Wind instrument players face special burdens in cold weather, both hazards to their lips and fingers and hazards to their instruments, especially actual woodwinds like clarinets. I hate playing outdoors when it’s really cold, but wind players have it worse: they lose skin… and crack instruments.

Steve Bates´s last blog post..Afterthoughts