The big news in Lake Woebegone this past week ... er, I mean, Seneca Lake ... was the cold. After coming in from taking the dog out last Saturday morning, I pulled up the national weather map. I wanted to see who was sharing that cozy 0 degrees (-21 windchill) with us. To my surprise the purplest splotch on the map was centered right here in New York. The purplest (meaning coldest) temperatures were in a region shaped like a dog’s head looking north, from northern Pennsylvania through the Adirondacks to Canada. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan and a little spine dipping down into West Virginia were also pretty purple.

Low and behold, two-thirds of the rest of the country was yellow and red (50s-70s). The Northeast was blue, blue, blue, and purple. Isn’t that strange how we can all be hanging out in the........

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