Unpleasant weather is thought to improve concentration and productivity, in part because a rainy day or
snowy day kills the potential for leisure time outdoors; if we aren't distracted by the sunny possibilities outside our window, we're free to focus on the task at hand.
In the
days before Christmas, when I lived there, Moscow took on the mythical characteristics of the East, as old women wrapped in black took up station on street corners, selling fresh -
killed geese raised in
snowy clearings.