Welcome to summer. Today was it--temperatures in the 80s with very high humidity (the dewpoint climbed to 75, about as high as it gets around here). An unstable atmosphere brought a thunderstorm in the late afternoon. The pattern may change next week to wetter, cooler conditions but until Tuesday, it's hazy, very warm and humid.

It's nice to be in the city on the weekend. Last summer I was out of town so much. While I have no complaints about my visits to Ogunquit, Quebec City, Vermont, the Berkshires and Montreal, it's been nice to settle in to the summer scene here.

I finally finished The Smartest Guys in the Room, which I wanted to complete before seeing the movie. There are too many unbelievable stories in this fascinating and compelling book to mention here. But I especially loved (in the portion I read today) when Ken Lay of Enron (with his company in complete disarray) insisted on calling the eventually-cancelled acquisition of Enron by Dynegy a "merger of equals." This is one of my favorite aspects of merger ego battles. "Merger of equals" is often misleading and is just used to placate hubris. Just like decisions about locations of corporate headquarters. Now it's back to A Short History of Nearly Everything, of which I finished 2/3 before leaving for Fort Lauderdale in April but left home because I wanted a complete book for that vacation.

It was also a good day to visit air-conditioned Armani Exchange at Time Warner to look for tops. A/X has become one of my go-to venues not only because it is close, but also because their medium-size shirts fit me perfectly so I don't have to try anything on. The floor assistants are extremely aggressive and asked me every five minutes if I needed help. I said no, but didn't want to do so impolitely and thereby discourage good customer service. Then the same person would ask again a few minutes later. I tolerated this minor irritation for the 20 minutes I was there and then left with some functional yet stylish summer gear.