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Publishers, libraries poke fun at the cold

The publisher Consortium Books posts its own video of hot water being tossed in the air in frigid weather, while a library recommends keeping a book at hand when it's cold outside.

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Seth Perlman/AP
U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Jamie Jasmon delivers the mail in Springfield, Ill.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

As much of the US shivers through the polar vortex currently causing plunging temperatures, many have taken to YouTube to conduct experiments and demonstrations of just how cold it is, including throwing hot water in the air and watching it freeze.

As a friendly nudge at these videos, staff members at the publisher Consortium Books, based in chilly Minneapolis, Minn., ventured outside to demonstrate that their catalog can still be read in cold weather. The temperature, according to the video, was -20 degrees at the time and Consortium Books titled the video “-20 Makes Lovely Reading Weather.”

“We’re just going to demonstrate that even in this cold temperature that a print catalog can still be read in these conditions,” one unnamed staff member tells the camera.

After he carefully tosses it to the other staff member, he notes, “It didn’t freeze.”

The second staff member then carefully reads aloud an entry from the Consortium catalog. 

Check out the lively take on print’s viability in cold weather.

It also reminded us of the photo of a sign posted on the website of New York's Queens Library, which suggests: "Cold? Come check out a book! You'll still be cold, but you'll have a book."

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