What’s in those Wacky Brownies?

Don’t tell Jeb Banks it’s easy to jump in the Atlantic Ocean in January
just because the sun is out and the thermometer reads 50 degrees. Banks
and other members of the L Street Brownies, who participated in the
group’s 101st consecutive New Year’s dip yesterday, prefer colder days,
when the air temperature matches the nerve-numbing 36-degree water.

"It’s easier when it’s 30 degrees. It’s less of a shock when you hit
the water," explained Banks, who made his sixth New Year’s dip yesterday
in a festive red-white-and-blue felt hat. The balmy weather drew a record
600 registered swimmers and an additional 2,000 spectators who lined the
beach behind L Street Bathhouse in South
Boston for the granddaddy of New Year’s swimming events

from the Boston Globe