The great outdoor fridge

[lsanderson]

Kicked it into high again after sputtering along with a couple of 40 degree days. It's a cool -14.1 degrees fondly Fahrenheit at Minneapolis Washburn High School. With a WSW wind of 8 MPH, 78% humidity, and a dew point of -19, the wind chill is -32. We'll warm slowly today to a mild high of 5 degrees, and then cool back down to -7.

It's a great day for chilling white wines, making ice cream. Speaking of ice cream:



Special Flavor: The Big Rhubarb
By ABBY GOODNOUGH

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

COOL-HEADED intellectualism may prevail here under most circumstances, but not when ice cream is at stake.

Two weeks ago, when the Massachusetts Revenue Department shut Toscanini’s, a revered ice-cream shop, for nonpayment of taxes, customers were livid — but not at the shop’s owners, who the state said owed $167,810, mostly in sales taxes but some payroll taxes.

They rose in defense of Toscanini’s, donating more than $30,000 in one week to help the owners, Gus and Mimi Rancatore, make enough of a payment to reopen. Sam Mehr, a college student who works there and set up a Web site to solicit contributions, said that about 300 poured in between Jan. 18, the day after the shop was seized, and last Friday.

They came from students at Harvard and M.I.T.; alumni living as far away as Hong Kong; bike messengers who stop at Tosci’s, as the shop is known, for coffee and conversation; children and retirees who cannot live without their weekly Tosci fix; and more. More