This Week in Its Briefs - Heat Wave Edition

1. This recent heat wave has sapped me of the will to live. Not literally, but I find myself pre-occupied with staying cool, enjoying fleeting moments of actually being cool, and various other body temperature exigencies. Imagine how marvelous it is to start one's day standing on a subway platform, essentially a tunnel dug under the street which is already sweltering at 8:00 am, feeling the tell tale rivulets of sweat inching down one's spine- delightful! One's cool shower seems ever so remote.

2. As my patience with the heat has disappeared in a thin strip of haze at the horizon, so has my patience with the assorted office Cupcakes. One could be charitable and expect that their reactions to the scorching temps might mirror one's own, hence the shortness of tempers, but one is far too occupied with matters of weather (see #1 above) to cut the boss any slack. Besides, we all know who will be first against the wall come the Revolution, eh Comrade? (I've been reading far too many spy novels lately.)

3. The G8 Summit - just when you think our very own PresiDolt couldn't possibly behave any worse, he finds a way to raise (lower?) the bar. Talking with his mouth full - unaware or perhaps uncaring - that the microphones were still on; goobering with Blair as if they were shooting the shit at the local saloon rather than discussing matters of prime importance; the deeply egregious shoulder massage of German chancellor Merkel, which has provoked a worldwide collective shudder - I could go on, but it's already been beaten to death blogwide and I'm not in the avant garde report-wise. Still. Talk about Jesus wept.

4. On Monday I'm off to a Muslim country for two weeks - yay! I say that sincerely and with no sarcasm. Algeria is an absolutely beautiful country - I was stunned last summer by its natural unspoiled abundance and expect to be so again. It's not a place one barges into, at least not as an American - I am observant, decorous, and respectful, traits that go a long way in mitigating our country's recent sorry reputation abroad. Some people who know me in real life may find it hard to believe that I can behave that way, as it is quite opposite to my natural inclination, but I'm a firm believer of turf superiority, and I play by other rules when I'm not on home turf.

Sayonara for now (spy novels, I know).