This time of year, I’m always hoping for one last snowstorm or cold snap. I love winter, and am always sad to see it go. To give the season a proper goodbye, these links celebrate all things cold things cold and snowy:
At Brevity, Amy Butcher reflects on ice skating.
At The New York Review of Books, Ian Frazier reviews a new anthology of writing about the Arctic.
Did you know there is some debate as to whether or not bears actually hibernate in winter? Slate investigates—and also fills you in the sex lives of bears, in case you were wondering.
I live near a cruise ship terminal where the Queen Mary 2 docks, and so I’ve always been curious what it would be like to take it all the way to England. At the New York Times, book reviewer Dwight Garner describes a winter crossing.
Keith Gessen embarks on a considerably less luxurious wintry crossing when he travels with a bulk carrier ship on its journey from Murmansk, Russia, to China. The ship takes a northern route through the Arctic Circle—a route that has only recently been possible, as a result of global warming.
Finally, an elegy for snow.
Hannah Gersen is the Dispatches Editor of The Common.