talking about the weather

Recently, i've had many brief conversations about the oddly spring-like days here in Chicago at the top of 2012. With many strangers i meet, especially grown white men in business suits, "the weather" always feels like it's on the cusp of a political discussion about global warming where we're both lying a little bit about what we don't believe, or what we blow out of proportion. But bringing up the apocalypse scheduled for next December is a sure-fire way to curtail any number of large-topic conversations, especially relating to the "current climate."