As three-fourths of the nation shivered under the bitterest cold spell in memory, most Americans set their jaws against the subnormal temperatures and simply carried on. TIME correspondents and writers were no exception as they struggled to report this week's cover story on the Big Freeze. Typical of the survival gear sported by many Americans to meet this challenge was that of two Chicago staffers: Bureau Chief Benjamin Cate, who wore his full ski regalia, and Correspondent Madeleine Nash, who donned suddenly fashionable long Johns and a quilted down jacket.

The editors in New York, often accused (they believe unfairly) of being somewhat less hardy than their comrades in the heartland, shared fully for once in the discomfort of their situation. As temperatures dropped to zero around the Time-Life Building, they endured delays of up to five hours in reaching work, were forced to seek out virtually unattainable hotel rooms and suffered all the icy vicissitudes common last week to so many of their fellow Americans. Cover Writer Ed Magnuson, who performed his duties in the comfortable 70DEG temperature of his 25th-floor office overlooking a frigid Manhattan, had no difficulty even in those circumstances in conjuring up the vivid sensations of his Minnesota boyhood, when winter temperatures could dip as low as --40DEG and cross-country skiing on the Mississippi River outside his door was a fairly common sport. The cold fact is that this is Magnuson's 65th cover story for TIME, another record for the week. For Associate Editor Peter Stoler, who wrote the accompanying box on how the Big Freeze fits into the long-term weather outlook, the worst aspect of the cold was not the temperature but the ice --which caused him to suspend his usual five-mile morning jog until the roads are safer. Some of his less active colleagues lost no time in offering personal tips on how to warm yourself up. In the Nation section, Robert Goldstein recommended the "Canadian Two-Step," a lively, though inexplicable, jig that he learned while writing in frigid Montreal. For some reason, more people seemed interested in the antidote offered by World Writer Burton Pines, who recalled how he survived a chilly reporting assignment on the midwinter Baltic Sea: "I found that hot, spicy red cabbage combined with lots of vodka will create a furnace in the stomach that will last for hours. Alas, we cannot in good conscience recommend this potion to our readers.

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