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If you live in a snowy climate, you’ve likely made at least one snowball — but how good was your technique? It turns out the process of snowball-making is more complicated than grabbing a handful of powder and squeezing it. To understand the nuance, Popular Science asked both a NASA astrochemist and a director from Montana State’s Snow and Avalanche Laboratory to weigh in. According to the astrochemist, a truly perfect snowball would need to be made in a lab or outer space. Those are the only places where you can achieve pressure high enough to melt the snow and refreeze to make a “meniscus” (aka “snowball glue”) throughout the ball. But if you don’t have a private lab or rocket ship, here’s the next best thing. HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT SNOWBALL With and Without Snow!
3 STEPS TO SNOWBALL PERFECTION
Candles Celebration Jingle Jolly
Mistletoe Ornament Present Santa
Sleigh Stocking Wassail Wreath
1. Test the snow for “free water.” You snow can’t be too soggy or too dry. You want what The International Classification for Seasonal Snow on the Ground calls “wet” snow, which is 3%–8% water by volume. To see if your snow is worthy, try the squeeze test. If it sticks together when you squeeze it without gushing water, you’re set! 2. Keep your gloves on. There’s no need to go gloveless if your snow passed the squeeze test. You may be tempted to try turning dry snow into wet snow with your body heat, but ignore the urge — at best you’ll create a fragile snowball with only a thin shell of snowball glue. 3. Crank up the pressure. The tighter you squeeze your snowball, the better it will be! At the annual Japanese snowball fight Yukigassen, players use molds to make extra- tight snowballs. You can buy one on Amazon for under $10. THE SNOWBALL YOU CAN DRINK If your backyard is snowless, we have good news: You can still make snowballs — the drinkable kind! The Snowball is a classic Christmas cocktail named for the dome of froth that appears when you stir it. It’s made by mixing one part lime cordial and two parts Warninks Advocaat Liqueur with ice, then straining the
THE LITTLE-KNOWN STORY OF THE HAYS CODE
If you’ve seen the classic movie “Casablanca,” you might be surprised to learn the original version was more risqué that what was shown on theater screens. The night Rick and Ilsa shared in Paris was more, ahem, explicitly passionate, but those lines were dropped on the cutting room floor. And it wasn’t because of artistic choice. There was an industry standard of the time called the Hays Code (or officially, the Motion Picture Production Code). This now-forgotten list of rules predated today’s movie rating system and governed Hollywood from 1934 to 1968. It was intended to clean up the violent, drug-filled movie business much like Prohibition — which preceded it — had been designed to clean up a drunken America. You’ve likely watched many movies and TV shows filmed under the restrictions of the Hays Code. For example, Mental Floss reports the code is the reason “I Love Lucy” never showed Lucy and Ricky sharing a bed or used the word “pregnant,” even when Lucy was expecting!
mixture and adding six parts lemonade. For more details and snowball trivia, visit
GoodHousekeeping.com.
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