WE DIDN’T GET A WHITE CHRISTMAS, but on the other hand we got a green New Year, with temperatures getting well into the 60s today. I went for a walk on Cherokee Boulevard, and as you can see it was quite nice.

Snow is picturesque, but one of the nice things about the Knoxville climate is that even though it can get quite cold in the winter, it lacks the unrelenting character that I remember from places like Cambridge and New Haven. It always relents, at least for a few days, and that’s really nice.

Of course, hard-core winter sports enthusiasts may feel differently. But I’m not one of those, and I never have been.