Saturdays With Memento Vita

Just remember, it could always be worse.

I refer, of course, to the "Year Without Summer". I'd heard of this a while back but always assumed it was historical fiction, it's that nightmarish. Anything that can be referred to as "the last great subsistence crisis of the western world" in a non-hyperbolic manner would have to be.

The short of it is, abnormally cold temperatures brought about by a volcanic eruption so massive it altered the global climate killed the bulk of crops produced that year and caused food prices to skyrocket. After copious rioting, the ensuing winter set in, one of the coldest ever recorded. The waters around New York City froze so hard that a journey here:

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Could be made solely via a horse and carriage.

It was such a pivotal event in western history that it is believed to have influenced the creation of both the Mormon Church and the novel Frankenstein. Make of that what you will.

The point is, things could always be worse. Memento Vita. That's "know that you are alive," right? Also, what's Latin for "forgive my terrible Latin I've never studied the language?"