Those trend-setters in Minneapolis have been freezing pants and posing them outside their homes.
I have not witnessed such phenomena here in our primitive back country outpost, but it seems like a sensible shortcut, preferable to making snowmen, which tends to have painful, dangerous consequences here, in addition to requiring snow with properties that don’t exist in the icy powdery stuff we’ve got.
It’s a nice start, but they should expand to creating an entire “invisible man” with a full set of clothing. And where are the fantasy nerds posing black, empty cloaks with swords and screeching Nazgul audio recordings set to autoplay? Get in the game, folks.
There are some wonderful artworks I’ve seen done using a variation of this technique. What you do is soak an entire blanket in plaster of paris or forton mg. Then you drape it over someone, who has to stand immobile (you can use stakes for them to hold onto) and if necessary take stakes and hammer them down through the trailing edge. Let it cure.
I saw one that was super cool – it was sort of a cloak and cowl (with nobody in it) with sleeves (separately draped pieces of cloth over arms, trailing along the ground) and a front piece (presumably molded separately as well) it looked like some kind of creepy graveyard angel with nothing in it. Sort of like a Doctor Who effect from back in the day or something.
It could be done with ice and a couple of sheets! Make sure the model is wearing two wetsuits to keep warm, or something.
As a life long resident of the North, I am always bemused by other areas of the US acting as if we live on the arctic tundra anytime temperatures get much below the freezing point. Round these parts we call that winter, and it happens ever year without it being an apocalypse. I am also dissappoint in the quality of our snow. It’s either been practically slush that then freezes into sharp icy snow , or that light crystalline fluff that results from the thermometer dropping so low that all the moisture in the air freezes out. It’s pretty, but it doesn’t pack together at all.
Lol, I wanted to see more of this so I googled “frozen pants”…. Anna and Elsa leggings sure are popular!
This reminds me of the Dr. Seuss story “What was I scared of?”
Marcus Ranum
Hee! When the temperature is -18f the technique consists of donning multiple layers of clothing (including ice fishing gloves so they don’t freeze to your hands), wetting the fabric, and then you step outside and quickly shake it out into contact with the snow as if you are going to fold them. They freeze almost instantly. Then you run back inside where it doesn’t hurt to breathe the air and admire your handiwork. I hope that is our only bout of horrible below zero temps for the season, but if not, I will see if I can make a spectral caped figure out of a wet sheet and a balloon.
It’s cold and snowing here right now (southwestern Virginia) and I just threw out a pair of jeans that would have been perfect to try this with! Darn!
SnowPEOPLE, PZ, snowPEOPLE! Gender non-specific, please.
This reminds me of the big, ancient structure in Pratchett’s book, I think it was named “Lords and Ladies”
New massive snow penis made after small one cleared http://www.thelocal.se/20160121/the-snow-penis-is-back-and-its-bigger-than-ever
(the book, not the structure)
Wounded King @5:
The photo of the pants also reminded me of that Dr. Seuss story which I’ve read many a time. I especially like the story ending with the friendship between the empty pants and narrator.