Michael Palin has the best damn job in the world -- collecting royalties from youthful lunacy while traveling the world on the BBC's dime, on "business," including opportunities to go where tourists aren't allowed. I do wish he'd take his wife with him one of these days. Travel documentary producers, if you're looking for a couple to send around the world on an expense account, Rick and I are raising our hands.

But my new hero, at least in the Whack-Ass British Travel Documentary category, is professor/geographer/writer Nick Middleton. I caught half of his series "Going to Extremes" last night -- Cold and Dry. The concept is that the British are always whinging about their moderate climate, so ol' Nick went off to find weather conditions really worth bitching about. I've now seen this unassuming middle-aged academic go for a swim in Siberia in -30ish weather (Celsius, Farenheit, take your pick...do the math and you'll see it doesn't matter anymore at that point), eat reindeer tripe, march through the desert with Chilean commandos and just 1 liter of water, and happily drink his own pee. I really wish I'd seen this while I was bundled up in my ill-heated apartment during the Endless Winter 2003 Tour. What's seeing your breath in your home office compared to living in permafrost so impenetrable it takes two days just to bury someone?

On other weather-related notes (yawn) I find that, given identical moderately-chilly temperatures (say, in the 60s Farenheit) I'm less likely to put on a long-sleeved shirt or even long pants in southern California than I am in New England. I think I am dually trying to keep from getting soft and hoping to cultivate a reputation as a hard-ass from back east who feels no cold.

And they really do say "back east" here, as well as "right on" and "dude." Laugh all you want. It beats Siberia.