At around 06:30 it was -20°C. That's -5°F. Note the minuses, the negative signs. Of course, the "real feel" temperatures were even colder (but are they really "real"). Just as I figured out that anything above 30°C is uncomfortably hot, so I figured out — not more than a couple of weeks ago — that anything below -13°C is bitterly cold. Like, if you are walking more than 12 minutes from Point A to Point B, eating nacho cheese chips without a glove on the hand diving into the bag to retrieve the next chips, that hand could feel like a pound of ground beef looks, defrosting on the kitchen counter.
But this is Estonia, where there are no snow days, and if the temperature drops to -20°C, school may be cancelled for students in primary schools, -25°C for students in middle school.
This particular Sunday though — yes, I had my coffee, but I drank it from the orange, Iittala (note the Finnish language's double i and double t) Origo mug that I had purchased Saturday in Tallinn, one of the few items at the Kaubamaja that was, of course, not on sale. With my coffee I had, reminiscent of Sunday mornings on 7th Street NE in Brookland, a copy of the Wednesday, December 10, 2025, Chicago Tribune, a Christmas present from my cousin. Just as we meet up with old friends over the holidays, so I read about Johnson/Lightfoot, Preckwinkle, Madigan, Pritzker, and Obama, not my old friends but Chicago and Illinois royalty. (I can't write "Obama" without hearing my dad tell his stories about working alongside Obama on the floor of the Illinois Senate.)
Back in the day, in one of my other lives, writing grants for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago meant writing grants for the Y's Street Intervention (2001-2006) and Youth Safety and Violence Prevention programs (2016-2020). Just as things change, the more they stay the same, the December 10th Tribune had the editorial "Why we continue to support, and worry about, community violence intervention in Chicago" and the complementary guest letter-to-the-editor "Community violence intervention is working in Chicago" from Arne Duncan. CVI is what they seem to be calling street intervention/violence prevention today, and from just a brief online search I found that CP4P, convened by MPI, is a coalition of 15 CBOs focused on reducing gun violence in 28 of Chicago's 77 communities. While an executive directors of one of the Y's programs is now the executive director of the Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago's Crime Lab, I didn't see the Y listed as one of the 15 CBOs.
Sunday morning, German coffee from a Stanley French press (another Christmas gift), the Chicago Tribune — what was I missing? No, I hadn't forgotten to pick up some cinnamon rolls from the bakery in the food hall at the Kaubamaja, which was unbelievably busy for 17.00 on a cold Saturday afternoon. People were coming down the escalator like a flight from Brussels had just deplaned. Clearly, I have lived in this town of only 15,000 for too long. I understand how Istanbul's winding Büyükdere Street with the M2 subway line beneath it and the Cevahir Shopping Mall with metal detectors at its entrances overwhelm me at first but a department store grocery store in Tallinn? There were too many people rushing and thinking they did not have to wait in line like everyone else. OMG. Is it this small town or old man!
BTW, it's about 13.30 now. The sun has been shining brightly for a few hours, and the temperature is, well, only -16°C. I refreshed my phone a couple of times and still got -16. So what force is it that prevents the temperature from rising even though the sun is shining?
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