maverick_weirdo: (Default)
maverick_weirdo ([personal profile] maverick_weirdo) wrote2009-12-04 12:58 pm
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Snow!

Quote Patty: "Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue. It’s fun."
Lucy Van Pelt: "It’s too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January."


It snowed yesterday and unlike Miss Van Pelt my tradition is to catch a snowflake on my tongue during the first snowfall of the season, when they are freshest. This is not as easy as it sounds.

First challenge: a person's mouth is quite warm, so smaller snowflakes will sometimes melt before hitting your tongue.
Second challenge: the heat rising out of a mouth creates a thermal which tends deflect snowflakes away from the mouth.

To deal with these challenges it helps to breath in while sticking out the tongue, but breathing in too hard will cause the snowflake to hit the back of the throat instead the tongue, which is not nearly as pleasant an experience.

The final challenge in catching snowflakes is patience. Bobbing and weaving to catch a snowflake seldom works, and is often counterproductive. It is best to wait and let the snowflake come to you.

Final note in case anyone is curious. I did not detect any difference in the flavor of an Illinois snowflake compared to a Massachusetts snowflake.

[identity profile] varianor.livejournal.com 2009-12-04 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Good to know there's no flavor difference!

(I wonder if you could cover your tongue with plastic to reduce the...oh wait, then there'd be no flavor. Nevermind.)
ext_4792: (Torii)

[identity profile] saraphina-marie.livejournal.com 2009-12-04 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
As I am reading this the jazz piano arrangement of "O Christmas Tree" from that special is playing here at Crema.

[identity profile] coat-of-brown.livejournal.com 2009-12-05 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
"They sure look ripe to me!"
:-)