Baby, It's Cold Outside

BOULDER, Colorado -- Every year around this time, I start to get an itch. As much as I love the summertime, every July I start pining for winter. I miss the cold and the snow. All I want is for hockey season and ski season to start again. And I get especially excited for Christmas. Luckily, we have the interminable NHL playoffs, followed by the entry draft and free agency, and now we have the start of bandy training to tide us over during these hot, hazy months. And soon it will be cold again.

To honor the long summer wait, here is a tribute to one of my favorite songs, Frank Loesser's hit, Baby, It's Cold Outside. So pour yourself a drink, and start dreaming of winter.

Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams performing the song in the 1948 film Neptune's Daughter, its first wide release:



Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell in Elf (2003):



And the story of how this song stirred the imagination of Sayyid Qutb, the founder of modern political Islam, during a visit to Greeley, Colorado in 1949, from the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear:



(I recommend that you watch this entire documentary).

So, enjoy the warm weather while you can, but take solace in knowing that cold weather is just around the corner.