{"id":82837,"date":"2015-02-18T16:11:54","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T21:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=82837"},"modified":"2015-02-19T10:44:06","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T15:44:06","slug":"the-cold-snap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cold Snap"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Max Klinger, Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove\u00a0<\/i>(detail), Second Etching, 1881.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Now \u201chappy\u201d is something extremely subjective. One of our sillier Zemblan proverbs says:\u00a0the lost glove is happy<\/em>. Promptly I refastened the catch of my briefcase and betook myself to another publisher. \u2015Vladimir Nabokov,\u00a0Pale Fire<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Much of the USA is in the grip of a cold snap, and so too the season of lost gloves. While some might rejoice<\/a> at this random harvest, and the liberated gloves may be delirious with joy, it is dispiriting indeed to reach into your pocket and realize you\u2019re going to have to brave winter temperatures with a bare hand. Every year I consider swallowing my pride and buying some of those elastic mitten-clips little kids wear\u2014a small price to pay when you consider the accumulated cost of replacement gloves over the course of an adult lifetime. At least for the scatterbrained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whenever I am tempted by the sepia-toned lure of nostalgia for an earlier time, I remember gloves. I remember that clean, well-kept gloves were an indication of grooming and prosperity and self-respect\u2014and that one wore them year-round!\u2014and I imagine how quickly the jig would be up: the world would take one look at my soiled, stained, torn gloves and know me for a slattern and a fraud. Besides manifold other advantages, modern life has complicated the language of respectability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But on one glove-related front I maintain what I consider unimpeachable standards. Only this morning, I was in a small drugstore, and I asked the woman working there if she carried any loofahs, or textured washcloths.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about these?\u201d she said, producing a pair of those exfoliating gloves. \u201cThey work really well, and they\u2019re great for winter skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, no!\u201d I cried out, before I could stop myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t like the gloves?\u201d she said, confused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cI just think it\u2019s kind of weird to be naked, in the shower, wearing a glove.\u201d Her face exhibited incomprehension. So I expanded on the argument. \u201cIt makes me feel creepy. Like a murderer. Or, you know, someone in a piece of bad erotic fiction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, let me tell you<\/em>,\u201d I said, \u201cyou\u2019ll never be able to forget it.\u201d This was true; since having the revelation during a long-ago shower, I\u2019d been repelled by the idea: not just that we\u2019re all bathing like secret Michael Jacksons, but that our lives are full of these bits of unexamined strangeness, and how many are we missing<\/em>? What are we? What is utility? To say nothing of the symbolism of gloves in history et cetera, et cetera. It was all more than I could handle first thing in the morning. However much I might relish the fact that this was the one pair of gloves I would never lose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I bought a single large textured mitt. \u201cIs this okay?\u201d she asked. It wasn\u2019t, really, but I figured I didn\u2019t need to put my hand in it in order to reap its exfoliating benefits; I could just use it like a cloth. And I had made enough trouble; you do want to look reasonably normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now \u201chappy\u201d is something extremely subjective. One of our sillier Zemblan proverbs says:\u00a0the lost glove is happy. Promptly I refastened the catch of my briefcase and betook myself to another publisher. \u2015Vladimir Nabokov,\u00a0Pale Fire Much of the USA is in the grip of a cold snap, and so too the season of lost gloves. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[12511,17093,9926,17092,125,16824,6664,17094,10033],"class_list":["post-82837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-city-life","tag-exfoliating-gloves","tag-gloves","tag-lost-gloves","tag-new-york-city","tag-pharmacies","tag-shopping","tag-toiletries","tag-winter"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLost Gloves, Strange Gloves, and Other Gloves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein reflects on the season of lost gloves, with special attention paid the strange undertones of a new kind of glove, the exfoliating glove.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cold Snap by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 18, 2015 \u2013 Now \u201chappy\u201d is something extremely subjective. One of our sillier Zemblan proverbs says:\u00a0the lost glove is happy. Promptly I refastened the catch of my\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-18T21:11:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-19T15:44:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2389\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1806\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"The Cold Snap\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-18T21:11:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-19T15:44:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/\"},\"wordCount\":562,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"City Life\",\"exfoliating gloves\",\"gloves\",\"lost gloves\",\"New York City\",\"pharmacies\",\"shopping\",\"toiletries\",\"winter\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/\",\"name\":\"Lost Gloves, Strange Gloves, and Other Gloves\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-18T21:11:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-19T15:44:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sadie Stein reflects on the season of lost gloves, with special attention paid the strange undertones of a new kind of glove, the exfoliating glove.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Cold Snap\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lost Gloves, Strange Gloves, and Other Gloves","description":"Sadie Stein reflects on the season of lost gloves, with special attention paid the strange undertones of a new kind of glove, the exfoliating glove.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Cold Snap by Sadie Stein","og_description":"February 18, 2015 \u2013 Now \u201chappy\u201d is something extremely subjective. One of our sillier Zemblan proverbs says:\u00a0the lost glove is happy. Promptly I refastened the catch of my","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-02-18T21:11:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-19T15:44:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2389,"height":1806,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"The Cold Snap","datePublished":"2015-02-18T21:11:54+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-19T15:44:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/"},"wordCount":562,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg","keywords":["City Life","exfoliating gloves","gloves","lost gloves","New York City","pharmacies","shopping","toiletries","winter"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/","name":"Lost Gloves, Strange Gloves, and Other Gloves","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg","datePublished":"2015-02-18T21:11:54+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-19T15:44:06+00:00","description":"Sadie Stein reflects on the season of lost gloves, with special attention paid the strange undertones of a new kind of glove, the exfoliating glove.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/the-cold-snap\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Cold Snap"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82837"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82861,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82837\/revisions\/82861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}