A lot of people hate small talk, but not me. I love it, and I genuinely think it's important. It holds society together. If you can find some anodyne common ground with a stranger you'd probably hate if you knew anything more particular about him, then maybe we're not all doomed. I had a 30-second conversation with a guy outside the Midtown Global Market a year or so ago about the weather that was so generic and so friendly I still think about regularly.
So yeah, I'm gonna ask about the cold weather. What's your go-to response when people talk about the winter weather? (I'm an "Honestly, the early sunsets are we really what gets me" guy.) What do you do to cope when the weather drops into the singles digits (or—brrrrr—below)? Love it? Hate it? Are you a complainer or do you take pride in your winter stoicism?
As always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want. This is your open thread, after all.
