Star Trek TV - John Milton - The Thing From Another World 1951 - Guinness World Records 2005 - George R R Martin - Charles Dickens - Noam Chomsky - Robert Tressell - Strange Rituals TV - How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson TV - The Big Freeze: Winter ’63 TV - Cold Comes tha Night 2013 -
Spock: We are in a wilderness of Arctic characteristics.
McCoy: He means it’s cold! Star Trek s3e23: All Our Yesterdays
The parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. John Milton, Paradise Lost 2:594
Hiya, Scotty. Cold enough for ya? The Thing from Another World 1951 starring Margaret Sheridan & Kenneth Tobey & Robert Cornthwaite & Douglas Spencer & James Young & Dewey Martin & William Self & James Arness & Paul Frees et al, director Christian Nyby, opening line in officers’ Arctic mess
A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine. William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew IV i 31, Grumio to Curtis
’Tis bitter cold
And I am sick at heart. William Shakespeare, Hamlet I i 6-7, Francisco to Barnado
A low of – 89.2 degrees C (– 128.6 degrees F) was registered at Vostok, Antarctica, on 21 July 1983. Guinness World Records 2005 (50th edition)
Nothing burns like the cold. George R R Martin, Game of Thrones
Morning drew on apace. The air became more sharp and piercing, as its first dull hue: the death of night, rather than the birth of day: glimmered faintly in the sky. The objects which had looked dim and terrible in the darkness, grew more and more defined, and gradually resolved into their familiar shapes. The rain came down, thick and fast; and pattered, noisily, among the leafless bushes. Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
I like the cold weather. It means you get work done. Noam Chomsky
The work they were now doing required to be down very carefully and deliberately, otherwise the glass would be ‘messed up’ or the white paint of the frames would ‘run into’ the dark green of the sashes, both colours being wet at the same time, each man having to pot of paint and two sets of brushes. The wind was not blowing in sudden gusts, but swept by in a strong, persistent current that penetrated their clothing, and left them trembling and numb with cold. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
And they worked on, trembling with cold, and with their teeth chattering, their faces and hands became of the pale violet colour generally seen on the lips of a corpse. ibid.
Wim Hof: they call him the Iceman ... ‘I got attracted to the water with a layer of ice on it ... it’s beautiful ... Inner fire: exercised by monks in the Himalayas ... I could do it too.’ Strange Rituals s1e4: Altered States, H2 2016
Imagine what life was like before we could make anything cold. Just a few generations ago we had no idea how to keep food fresh. How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson, BBC 2018
Frederic Tudor, a wealthy Bostonian … Tudor’s attempts to bring ice to the South end up landing him in a debtors’ prison … Tudor’s problem is how to move ice around without it melting. ibid.
[John] Gorrie brings all these ideas together and builds America’s first mechanical refrigerator. ibid.
Birdseye … wonders if freezing can help other types of food stay fresh for longer … it’s called multi-plate flash freezing. ibid.
Air-conditioned theatres … ‘On the hottest days of the year people are starting to come to the cinema’ … The idea of air-conditioning seems irresistible. ibid.
Imagine a winter equivalent to seven ‘beasts from the east’ one after the other. In 1963 this is exactly what happened. Britain called the worst winter for over two hundred and fifty years The Big Freeze lasting for ten long weeks. Tempers below twenty-two degrees centigrade. The Big Freeze: Winter ’63, Channel 5 2022
As temperatures started to drop and millions of Londoners sparked up their coal fires a freezing toxic cocktail of polluted smog smothered the capital. ibid.
Fuck it’s cold outside. Cold Comes the Night 2013 starring Bryan Cranston & Alice Eve & Logan Marshall-Green & Ursula Parker & Leo Fitzpatrick & Erin Cummings & Robin Lord Taylor & Sarah Sokolovic & Ashlie Atkinson & Robert Prescott et al, director Tze Chun, gangsta to gangsta