Forget the letters to Santa, get your mailbag questions in to Matthew Miranda and The Strickland this December!

It’s 13 degrees with the windchill today in Rochester, New York. After about 25 winters up here you build up something of an immunity. I used to laugh at people on Long Island wearing hats and gloves when temps were in the 30s. But as a Puerto Rican who grew up on LI, it seems some things are inescapable, no matter how long or how far they seem to be; my blood is still a bit too thin for this Arctic hell. All I want today is a big warm hoodie, to binge Castelvania, and for my dogs to never need to go to the bathroom again. Alas, none of that will happen.

It’s been a month since our Strickland mailbag premiere. A month seems like a very very long time ago sometimes, especially in the year of our quarantine. But no matter how long or how far November seems, December will soon be behind us. The Knicks, like Rochester winters, can seem unendingly cruel and hopeless. But as anyone who’s seen sunlight sparkle on an ice-rimed naked tree knows, life is always worthwhile, even if it isn’t exactly what you wish it was in the moment.

The Knicks are midway through the preseason. We don’t know how the season will go, or if the season will go, and even if it does this year already looks and sounds a lot like a lot of years of late, i.e. no playoffs and uncertainty over the short- and long-term future. But there’s sunlight peeking through the grays: Mitchell Robinson’s defense; Obi Toppin’s future; RJ Barrett’s steely professionalism; Tom Thibodeau’s gravitas. The rest of the roster is mostly hopes, dreams and expiring contracts. But if you lived through the Isiah Thomas years, when the Knicks were saddled with bloated un-tradable albatrosses, an absence of draft picks, and Isiah Thomas, you know all winters are not created equal. Seasonal depression isn’t about the cold. It’s about the unceasing absence of light.

What do you want to talk about? Post your question or thought below, or at The Strickland’s Twitter page. Be safe, loves.