By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Patient readers, I am in the midst of making a stir fry of CDC’s latest guidance, which is taking much longer than I thought it would, so I must leave you without even any bird songs or charts, and ask you to talk amongst yourselves! –lambert PS I’ll make it up to you tomorrow!

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (JN):

JN writes: “First frost at CT/MA border. It was supposed to snow, instead it rained and froze. The ice on the trees with the full moon was amazing, but my camera wasn’t up to it.” Or maybe not ?

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the recently concluded and — thank you! — successful annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember , a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals: