Locals, the next time you’re in Memorial Library, do yourselves a favor and stop inside the gate for a look at “Wind Chill Factor,” the latest display.
This has been the snowiest winter in Madison’s history, and as I think I said, it’s also been the worst I remember for sheer cold. So what the libraries did to commemorate the occasion was canvass a number of international students for their written reactions to the winter.
The results are funny, touching, familiar and defamiliarizing at once in the way of the best short writings, beautifully written in several languages (four of which I can read well enough to make this observation, though “four” is less than half the languages on view), competently translated into English, and attractively arranged (make sure to walk all the way around!). Don’t miss the back case, either, which has some cold-related rare-book and music gems.
Really, you owe it to yourself to stop for a moment and read. I guarantee you will walk away with a smile. In spite of the winter—or perhaps even because of it.
