Two Complaints and Some Acquisitions

Complaint #1: Why is it so darn cold? Now that it is the end of February, we should be easing into the mid-40s during the day. The air should start to have that fresh spring smell to it. The Charles should definitely not be iced over. I should be looking forward to the muck of mud season, and within a few weeks I should be seeing daffodils pushing their little heads up. Spring! Instead this morning I awoke to frigid temperatures (it was about 13 here in Cambridge) and I had to bundle myself into a heavy down coat, hat, scarf, hood, and ski gloves in order to comfortably leave the house. I marched like a penguin (although sadly without the dulcet tones of Morgan Freeman narrating my every movement) to the library, a walk during which I was frequently buffeted by 20-mile-an-hour winds. I'm thinking fondly of warmer climes.

Complaint #2: Why is Widener so darn cold? Having reached the refuge of the library, I expected warmth. It is true that it is warmer in than out, but as I type this I realize my fingers are stiff and cold (not to mention dry and scaly) and that my nose is starting to run (as it does when it is cold). There's a fine filigree of frost starting on the interior of my carrel's window. So I ask: would it hurt to turn the heat up a few degrees?

Cold weather and the discomfort of walking in the cold hasn't prevented me from book shopping though. Without further ado, this week's acquisitions:

Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father (OUP, 2003)

Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (Penguin, 2004).

Both of these books were courtesy of the fabulous remainder table at Harvard Bookstore (that's not the COOP but the independent bookstore right across the street from Widener).