A snowy winter is coming, but don’t worry. It’s good for you.

Get this, everyone: You really can freeze your butt off.

It’s that time of year again, when — although it’s still very obviously summer out — we start getting little annoying signs that winter is just over the horizon. The city’s finance director says on social media he just approved a purchase of road salts for the public works trucks, and the Farmers’ Almanac grabs headlines with predictions of heavy snow in the winter ahead.

Well, I’m here with a positive spin on the old “Winter Is Coming” message. Researchers are now looking more closely into whether you can lose weight, albeit perhaps indirectly, by being cold. The old shivering-to-burn-calories idea may still be shortsighted — it distresses the body and increases your blood pressure, neither of which are good for you — but being a little chilly could have benefits.  

One study found that after a month of sleeping at cool temperatures, five men increased their stores of leaner, more healthy “brown fat” by 30 to 40 percent and metabolized sugars more efficiently after a meal, the Washington Post reported.

So much for the old “winter weight gain” excuse.

What we’re talking about

Certainly the biggest national news over the weekend came from Charlottesville, Virginia, where racist neo-Nazis held a demonstration. At least one person was killed and many more injured when one white supremacist drove a car into a group of counter-protesters. Here in Maine, several rallies were held around the state in solidarity with the Charlottesville counter-protesters, including ones in Portland and Bangor.

Speaking of demonstrations, anti-abortion protesters returned to Portland on Friday, just three days after the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous legal victory for the group’s leader. The appeals court threw out a lower court ruling and found that Portland police can, in fact, arrest protesters for being too loud without infringing on their constitutional rights of free expression.

The Metro bus service is planning a major, $4.5 million expansion, the Portland Press Herald is reporting. The expansion will include the creation of a “Husky Line” between the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham and Portland campuses, as well as new bus lines to Westbrook and the Maine Mall.

Today was the first day candidates for city offices could turn in signatures to get on the November ballot, and many did so. Incumbent City Councilor Jill Duson announced she would be handing in her paperwork to get on the ballot, as did one of her challengers, Bree LaCasse. Among others getting their signatures in early were at-large school board candidate Mark Balfantz and District 5 City Council hopeful Kim Cook.

In the latest piece in Troy R. Bennett’s weekly series on Portland history, the BDN journalist takes a look at the landmark Portland Observatory, which is not a lighthouse, but rather the last remaining historic signal tower in the country. Read more and watch the video here.

Last week in this newsletter, we mentioned that Boston Celtics basketball player Jaylen Brown would be on hand at tomorrow night’s Portland Sea Dogs game to sign autographs and throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Today we learned Brown canceled his appearance in Portland, and will be replaced by former Celtics player and current television analyst Brian Scalabrine.

Tweet of the day

From local Sicilian pizzeria Slab:

The Big Idea

Your friends may not actually care about you. According to the New York Times, recent research indicates that only “about half of perceived friendships are mutual.” Some of this is pretty nuanced and boils down to different ideas about what “friend” means — some people may count anyone they know and are vaguely friendly with as a friend, while others use the term more sparingly to describe someone with whom they’re very close. Hat tip to Portland exile Dan MacLeod for finding this one for us.

Got any interesting story ideas, suggestions or links to share? Email us at jbleiberg@bangordailynews.com or skoenig@bangordailynews.com or tweet @JZBleiberg or @SethKoenig.

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