As always, dear Animals, it’s been a pleasure to guest-blog for you. Thanks to Ed Kilgore and Paul Glastris for having me in.

Tomorrow you’ll be treated to the musings of Elon Green.

Until then, a few tidbits:

* USA Today reports that some 650,000 people lost power in the storm not really named Nemo, and that four deaths are attributed to the blizzard

* Germany’s education minister, Annette Schavan, has resigned as a result of a plagiarism scandal. Seems her doctoral dissertation was not exactly original — at least not from her.

* John Brennan, the president’s nominee to lead the CIA, was pretty gung-ho about a widely panned surveillance program by the New York City police department that targeted Muslim students, writes my colleague, Tana Ganeva

* A poll released by the Women Donors Network predicts an increased turnout for women voting in the 2014 midterm elections because of the gun issue, writes TPM’s Evan McMorris-Santoro

In the meantime, snuggle up, because, baby, it’s cold outside.

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