CCC- Snow Day Snow Play

I just went outside for an hour. It was wonderful to check out the campus. There are a couple amazing things:

1. Penn facilities maintains open sidewalks better than the city of Philadelphia.
2. Septa buses and trolleys are still running
3. The snow is absolutely beautiful.

Please go outside but take safety precautions (*see below)

Some facts:
9.3 % of Penn undergraduates never saw snow in real life before coming to Penn
58% of Harnwellians have never been in a snow storm that had accumulation over 3 inches
99% of of Penn undergraduates have never been in snow this deep in Phialdelphia.

This is your chance to beat the odds. Snow Days are for Snow Play. So go outside and play in the snow. We have not have a snow storm like this in Phialdelphia for more than 20 years. Enjoy it. Please take pictures. (**see below). This is your chance to smile. Playing in the snow causes infectious smiles, red cheeks, and joy.

Snow technicalities:

This is dry snow. You can’t pack it right now. This means no snow men and no snow ball fights. Sorry. The Inuit, Inupiaq, and yupik add suffixes to snow to create the sayign that the indigenous of the arctic have more than 50 words for snow. I add words before the snow. Dry snow, Wet snow, Dirty snow, melting snow, cold snow….Whatever you call it, right now, there are no snowballs. There are also no igloos unless you add water, to make ice blocks. And I don’t recommend this. I saw some Drexel students trying to do it in front of the Palestra. I don’t think they understand dry snow.

But dry snow is valuable for sliding, skiing, sledding, and snow angels. So go out and make some snow angels on the Hamilton Village green. We will see you from Harnwell (if you have a north west side window). If you are going to sled, most West Philadelphias sled in Clark Park. Center City people sled down the art museum steps. When we used to have trays in the dinning hall, they were all stolen because they made great college student sleds. When I was young and in DC, I went sledding down the Lincoln Memorial Steps. I went out walking today and saw some Fitler Square people sledding down the hills in Penn Park.

*Snow safety for the 90.7 percent of people who don’t knwo snow and the 99% who have never had snow this deep in Philly:

1. Wet and cold do not mix. the goal is to stay dry. Wear snow pants. If you don’t have snow pants, put rain pants over your clothes. If you don’t have rain pants, wear a waterproof coat. If you don’t have anything waterproof, don’t stay outside too long. Jsut make one snow angel adn come back in.
2. Cotton sweatpants and joggers do not insulate when wet. So keep them dry. See #1. Also, wear thermals, a base layer of synthetics, wool. These all can insulate some when wet.
3. Shorts do not insulate, protect from snow, protect from wind. Please do not go outside in shorts in weather that is 16F, windy, and snowing.
4. Don’t go too far from Harnwell. The best way to deal with wet and cold is to go inside.

NOTE: the snow just changed to sleet. The weather says it will change back to snow. Let’s hope. There is a chance it can change to rain. That is the magic of a big snowstorm. it is a line. To the South, it is rain, to the north it is just cold. We are in teh middle but the storm shifted a little north which means we risk rain. When it rains, snow turns to slush and that is not good. So in the mean time, go outside now before anything changes. And if it keeps snowing, go outside tonight when the snow is over 16 inches.


**If you have read this long, here is the invitation. I have bought the ingredients for 20 dozen cookies. I bought the powder for 80 cups of hot chocolate. Fresh baked in Harnwell cookies and warm hot chocolate. At about 7:30PM this evening, I will open up the Harnwell RTL kitchen, and make some hot water. You are invited to come and make some cookies, and eat some cookies. We will be up there until the ingredients run out. **Admission Ticket*** HOWEVER, to make a cookie, eat a cookie, or have hot chocolate, you MUST bring a picture of you playing in the snow. you can show it on your phone. Images that are considered to be AI generated, whether actually AI generated or not, will be rejected and will not be considered a valid ticket. Determination of AI generation is the sole, arbitrary, capricious, uniformed, determination of the Harnwell faculty. There is no appeal, there is just showing another image of you playing in the snow. So bring multiple images on your phone.

If you want to bring an AI generated image of you playing in the snow, make sure it looks real. If not, it will be rejected. If your actual image is so unbelievable it seems AI, it will also be rejected. Have fun, and take some pictures.

Enjoy the snow. This may be the only time you ever see it in Philly. Stay dry when you are outside, wear wool or synthetics to stay warm, and join me, with your snow pictures, in the RTL at about 7:30PM. This time is an estimate. It takes about 20 minutes otherwise make cookies. So plan to hang out for a bit. Bring yoru own mug and napkin. For vegans, we will have about 15 mandarins.

See you this evening, come warm up in the RTL