Flying down under with Sennett....

It has been bitter cold around Massachusetts and New Hampshire these last couple of days. Yesterday (Tuesday) it felt like the coldest days we experienced when living in Chicago in the late 1970s. Brrrr.... Today was not too bad, but the winds are expected to pick up again tomorrow while the temperatures remain in the teens or single digits (Fahrenheit, that is). Wind chill is really well below zero -- and you can feel it penetrate through all those clothes.... I provide this weather report because I am due to get on a flight to Canberra on Friday, and by Sunday (their time -- I will lose Saturday, of course) I will be transposed from late winter to late summer. Temps down under are running in high 70s, so I will have at least a few days of warmth before coming back on the 17th (I will have two Saturdays -- yes, an extended St Patrick's Day!). I will do my serious packing tomorrow, and have already set up my reading regimen -- three books by Richard Sennett -- his "trilogy" on the new economy: The Corrosion of Character, Respect in a World of Inequality, and The Culture of the New Capitalism. What brought on this renewed interest in Sennett (I have not read much by him in decades) was a two part interview in CBC's The World of Ideas (here and here) -- as usual, excellent stuff..... Tags: Richard Sennett, Canberra, weather, CBC World of Ideas, Mel Dubnick, accountabilitybloke