Beating the Heat

Today the mercury hit 100. By the way, that’s another phrase, like “dialing a telephone” that won’t make sense to future generations because mercury thermometers, like rotary dial phones, are no longer being sold. So we cooled off in the air-conditioned car and drove up to the City to run some errands near Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco was a good 20 degrees milder than the Peninsula, so we found excuses to dally at the stores and food shops. After lingering over lunch, we stopped at the Krispy Kreme outlet before heading home. The warm glazed doughnuts melted in our mouths, speeding the transfer of the molten sugar from the lips to the hips. I resolved to go to the gym…….tomorrow.

The youngster bought Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, book six in the series, with his own money. He’s read a few chapters, and I’m in no hurry to grab it from him. In fact, the last Harry Potter book I read was book four, the Goblet of Fire, in 2001. I didn’t do it justice by racing through to the end, so I’m re-reading it slowly, with the idea of tackling book five, the Order of the Phoenix, in August and book six in September. He should be done by then.

J.K. Rowling deserves all the encomiums thrown her way. In my pre-teen years (warning - geezer flashback!) I devoured series by English writers. Lofting's Doolittle, Conan Doyle's Holmes, and Christie's Poirot (I couldn't appreciate Miss Marple until later) were my favorites. While young readers were absorbed into the plot, they couldn't help but be exposed to the cadences and rich vocabulary of the Queen's English, as well as the culture from which the language springs. This generation can be led to Dickens, but they'd rather drink in Rowling.

How can you tell that "Dumbledore" and "Harry Potter" are the names of good guys while "Draco" and "Snape" are questionable characters? Well, if you've been sensitized to the language--even through children's books, you just know. With J.K. Rowling, little touches like character names show that we're in good hands. Time to turn off the tube, open the book, and turn on the fan.

Waikiki on a Sunday in June: the heat is tolerable when one must have a tan