COLD COMFORT

Are we psyched up yet for the Game of Thrones season premiere tonight?

Much has changed since last summer, when Season 6 ended. The Obamas were in the White House, and some determined stabs at social progress were still being made — like the international Paris Climate Agreement — despite the torporous just-say-no congress here at home.

But now everything has changed, to the point that our so-called "real" life has begun to mirror George R. R. Martin's art in sinister ways. The tagline for GoT Season 7 is "Winter Is Here," and boy do we know how that feels!

Winter has been here in our political landscape since January, and now that it's mid-July, it just keeps getting colder. That's just a metaphor, of course, as abnormal heat waves continue to ravish large pockets of the planet.

But in the GoT universe, the threat is very literal. A vast, unstoppable army of the undead, led by giant, frozen, immortal White Walkers, are advancing out of the North with but one objective — to obliterate every mortal in its path until the entire known world is reduced to frozen wasteland.

Jon Snow: blade-wielding

As metaphors go, this one is pretty acute for the destructive power of Nature unleashed on petty humans who have failed miserably as caretakers, and continue to ignore the warning that — yes — "Winter Is Coming." (Which dedicated Thronies will recall, was the tagline way back in Season 1.)

(There's actually a second tagline for Season 7, the even more ominous,"The End Begins.")

So now, along with the usual fear of fan-abuse that comes with every new GoT season, as we wait in dread for which of our favorite characters will be killed off, we also have to worry about the whole of the Seven Kingdoms getting overrun by the white menace.

Meanwhile, back here on Earth, what armorer has forged the Valeyrian steel blade to vanquish our own White Walker-in-Chief, and his ghoulish, giraffe-killing sons? And where is our Jon Snow to wield it?

And who will step up with the savvy wit and the brains of Tyrion Lannister, and the passion for justice of dragon-girl Daenerys Targaryen, to lead us out of this morass?

Daenerys, Tyrion and company to the rescue!

Season 7 will run for only seven episodes (instead of the usual ten), followed by an even shorter final Season 8, next summer, which will be reduced to only six episodes. The days are literally numbered for the GoT universe.

Let's hope the same is not true for us!