arafinwean

"Si sol splendescat Maria purificante / maior erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante."
Or: "If Candlemas is fair and clear / there'll be two winters in the year."
Or: if the groundhog sees his shadow...six more weeks of winter!

I am dismayed that not only Punxsutawney Phil (overall accuracy: a dismal 35%) but also our local groundhog, Staten Island Chuck (overall accuracy: an impressive 85%), is reported to have seen his shadow this morning. Furthermore, the weather today was the nicest it's been in weeks. More winter it is, apparently!

My choir sang Arvo Pärt's setting of the Beatitudes this past Sunday, and I may be a little bit obsessed with this piece now - it's haunting! Here's my favorite version I've seen on YouTube:



We also sang at a special service for Candlemas this evening - all in Latin, with the church lit only by candlelight. (We sang, among other things, William Byrd's "Senex puerum portabat"; I love Byrd, so that was a favorite for me!) It was lovely, and was one of those moments in which one feels strongly a degree of continuity with the past - for how many centuries have people been celebrating this day in more or less exactly the same way? Though, of course, it's only to the modern eye that the candlelit church is an unusual sight! (Perhaps we should add in a blessing of the lightbulbs as well as the candles?)

1) We got a little over 10 inches of snow here in Manhattan, and that was enough for the Office of Court Administration to declare that all courts in NYC (except for criminal court arraignments) would be closed today - and my office closed as well. Which, in 2026, just means we all worked from home, but Queenie certainly enjoyed having me here all day!

2) Recent reads:

I finished The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin, over the weekend, and really enjoyed it - as I had expected to, given how much I generally like Le Guin! TLoH, which doesn't share a world with any of Le Guin's other works, is set in a near future (or alternate past, at this point, as it's set in 2002) ravaged by climate change and war, and centers on a man whose dreams can alter reality, and the psychiatrist treating him, who attempts to make deliberate use of those dreams - which, predictably, doesn't go according to plan.

This was my pick for the book club I'm in with some colleagues. The only rules restricting the book club picks are that they can't be (a) nonfiction about crime or law enforcement, (b) nonfiction about narcotics, or (c) procedurals - in other words, no books about work - so there's a lot of room for variety. So far, we've read Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (LitRPG), The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra (litfic, a collection of interconnected short stories set in Russia), and The Lathe of Heaven is our third book.

I wouldn't say TLoH is my absolute favorite of Le Guin's works, but it was excellent, and I would recommend it to just about anyone. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what my colleagues think of it!

My officemate lent me a book called Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases, by Paul Holes, an investigator who worked on the Golden State Killer case, and Robin Gaby Fisher, who has coauthored many memoirs. I thought it was all right; the parts about the investigations Holes has been a part of were interesting, though I frankly didn't care about his marital troubles. (And you very much get Holes' spin on things - he absolutely shouldn't have been romantically involved with his subordinate, and her colleagues were completely justified in worrying that she was getting preferential treatment, while his narrative seems to imply these were unreasonable concerns.) It was very interesting to read about what it was like to be working in law enforcement during the years when DNA testing was just coming on the scene in a big way, and a lot of cold cases were being cracked wide open all at once.

My officemate, before offering to lend the book to me, asked me if I like to read true crime; I'm not generally a fan. But while yes, technically, this is a true crime book, I would make a distinction between the kind of "true crime" book most people think about when hearing the phrase and a law enforcement memoir like this, which I think is a distinct subgenre. Anyway, the book was fine, I finished it, but I don't necessarily recommend it, and I think there are better books of this type out there.

Also, this is petty, but I feel the need to mention that at one point, when Holes is very pissed at the Orange County DA's Office (justifiably so, if his account is accurate), he comes out with this: "In all my years on the job, I had never had a DA's office intercede...Attorneys don't dictate investigations. They only get in the way." To which I can only say: Screw you too, buddy.

3) Alas! I still have not finished Mansfield Park.

4) Last post, I encouraged people who were able to do so to donate blood, and I've since found out about a very fun extra incentive: the "Blood Drive" prompt fest! If you donate blood (or any blood product); register as a marrow, stem cell, or organ donor; or volunteer at or help to organize a blood drive between December 1, 2025, and January 31, 2026, you can sign up and submit prompts for the fest; anyone can claim and fill prompts. (I'm not involved with organizing the fest in any way, but it seems like a fun idea, so I wanted to let people know about it.)

5) Finally, I doubt I have anything to say about what's happening in Minneapolis that everyone hasn't already heard from others. But I do want to share this list of organizations and mutual aid funds supporting immigrant communities in Minnesota right now, in case anyone hasn't seen it. (I've donated to the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund, the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, and La Guadalupana Community Support Fund.)