Well, I got off the plane from France yesterday and was almost staggered by the stifling heat and humidity. I often wonder why D.C. is inhabited at all, or at least, why anyone lives here in the summer and winter. (Spring and Fall can be nice, but summer is almost always close to unbearable and winter is frequently brutal or unpleasant.) Come to think of it, that’s what the Founders thought, too, which is evidently why they located the federal government here. Too bad they didn’t anticipate air conditioning, which has plenty of positive features (just ask the French), but some negative ones, too, such as year-round legislatures.
(Btw, I did manage to get through the entire Nibelungenlied [German/English] and substantially through Richard Epstein’s very good Principles for a Free Society, which offers an especially helpful treatment of the relationship between utility and natural law.)