TANGERINE, TANGERINE, LIVING REFLECTION OF A DREAM: The talk about how chilly it's going to be for today's World Series gamelet reminds me that what I love most about winter is absolutely nothing. I get that if you're an avid skier, ice skater, hockey player, or dogsledder, this is your favorite time, but I'm not and it's not. I don't like winter coats, hot toddies, dangerous road conditions, brown snow, or forced-air heat. I am a known Scrooge. When I lived in Chicago and Connecticut, I hated choosing between travel chill and destination sweat; when I lived in Seattle I hated the never-ending light rain and gloom; when I lived in Los Angeles I hated the 50-degree nights. I hate weeks like this one, when it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home. About 90% of everything I have ever said about astronomy is that I hate Orion, because you only see it in winter.
"Absolutely nothing" is an exaggeration, of course. As far as I can tell, there are exactly two things to like about winter. One is the NFL playoffs, and the other is the easy-to-peel sour-sweet orange family. The first batches of clementines (the ones that come in the orange mesh bags tucked into blue boxes) are in the stores now, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I will eat 8-15 of these every day for the next few weeks. My fingernails are already yellow with pulp, and again, I'm not exaggerating. I will stop only when the main event gets here -- the organically grown satsuma oranges, with their tenuously-attached peels and overstuffed wedges and peppery undertones. I can understand why people raised on the Florida navel and box-of-juice variety of orange would be skeptical, but if you like things like flavor, refreshingness, and joy, you ought at least to try a satsuma this year.
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