It all seems so surprising

This morning I noticed I had too much stuff in my menu bar, so I decided to clean it up a bit.

That was a few hours ago. Since then, the poor little Mac has been having a hernia trying to obey my instruction to quit Tunnelblick (the highlighted one).

While I waited for neoMac to cool off a bit so I could use it, I read some recipe books. I'd kind of like to make stollen for dessert tonight, but the day is definitely too cold for breadmaking. I've found that when the kitchen is below about 15°C, it's impossible to keep a yeast sponge warm for long enough to properly activate the yeast, never mind trying to rise the actual dough in a reasonable time. Yet people have been baking leavened bread, and in colder climates than ours, since long before the invention of convenient heating. How'd they do it? Leave the dough next to the fire? Or did they do an overnight rise? And what about the activation problem?