[Heineken]

I think summer is the time when it will starting crashing down, both for me personally and for "civilization," as we are so preeningly vain as to call it.

The withering sun, the panicky heat, the wheezing power systems, the droughts and the floods, the corn leaves shriveling into spikes, the cars creeping in baking, glittering, endless lines. The whole hyperextended, desperately complex, overtaxed system and its confabulated subsystems. Each summer is a little more suffocating and hostile to life, making our house of cards a little more unstable.

Remember the old song line, "summertime, and the livin' is easy"? Not anymore. For millions and billions, summer has become an ordeal to survive.

The summer is when the end will begin.

[frankthetank]

That last 2 days have been in the low to mid 90's up here (96F today) and very humid. Without AC, its nearly impossible to physically go anywhere without fear of heat exhaustion. Luckily for us above 40N, cold fronts still penetrate with cool air.

If i was living in Phoenix or Vegas, i'd be moving and fast. Without AC, these places should clear out fast.

Without searching, i'm guessing murder rates are higher in the warmer months of the year?????

[IntentionallyLeftBlank]

I know what you mean. Having worked in the tourist industry for several years now, I can't help thinking that every year will be the last big one. I've also noticed how unhappy many of the tourists seem, despite being on vacation. It almost seems like a chore now. How long will it take them to realize that it would be better just to stay at home rather than endure the gas prices, assorted rip offs, etc...? Or maybe it will never occur to them until TSHTF. Summer sucks now that I'm an adult, bring on the winter.

[Jack]

That could well be. The power grid could fail...and with this heat and no viable way to remedy the situation...the Olduvai gorge would beckon.

[Pops]

I don’t know, the Indians called spring the Starving Time. No stores, no harvest.

Historians say the constitution could not have been written in the summer when there was work and food, nor the fall or winter when the thought was mere survival, only in the late spring when hopes and dreams soared. Or some such…

The rest of the song goes:
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high.
Oh yo' daddy's rich
An' yo' ma is good lookin'
So hush, little baby,
Don't you cry. One of these mornin's,
You's gonna rise up singin'
Then you'll spread yo' wings
An' you'll take to the sky.
But till that mornin',
There's ain't nothin' can harm you
With your Daddy an' Mummy
Standin' by.-- The Gershwins

[Harlequin]

I agree that a summer is when it will begin, but I think this summer might be a little too soon.
Indeed, in a sense it already has began since I am quite certain that by now we're probably a year or so past peak.
But anyway, I'd say hold your breath, I think this old gal still has a year or two left.
Then again, it might be different where you live.

[gg3]

(OK, this was too easy, took about ten minutes. Pardon the trite rhyme schemes, at least they & the meter match the original...)

To the tune of "I Love Paris in the Springtime"
(with apologies to Cole Porter)

I feel doomish in the summer,
I feel like decline & fall
I fell doomish when the temperatures are rising
When the power goes off it won't be surprising

I feel doomish every moment
every news report I hear
I feel doomish
as I sit here in my room-ish
Because the end is near!

[I_Like_Plants]

This summer, of all summers, ebay sales are way DOWN. Usually it's the winter that gets hard, but things pick up in march and april, instead ebay is dying, a' la' Enron.

I agree, it can be very depressing when the weather's hot and no one wants to move. This is not well known in Northern European culture, which Real Americanism (tm) is, but well known to people from more southern climes. The siesta is one thing come up with to deal with it.

[IslandCrow]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') don’t know, the Indians called spring the Starving Time.

No stores, no harvest.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')here exists a large body of evidence indicating that subjects with mental illness contribute disproportionately to the overall incidence of suicide (1) and that the occurrence and severity of some affective disorders, such as depression and mania, are more pronounced in the spring and summer period

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') don’t know, the Indians called spring the Starving Time. No stores, no harvest.