We're all facing temperatures in the lower 90s, and high humidity Tuesday afternoon, so the National Weather has issued a heat advisory for Maryland west of the Chesapeake Bay. The stifling humidity will make it harder for our bodies to cool themselves by evaporating sweat from our skin, so it seems hotter than it is. The "feels-like" temperature is also called the "heat index." Heat advisories are issued when the index exceeds 100 degrees. It should be called the "misery index."

So stay cool, and wear loose clothing and get a fan to move the air around if you don't have air conditioning. Forget about the daily mid-day jog. Drink plenty of fluids and wear light-colored clothing if you have go out in the mid-day sun. Or, why not just play hookey and spend the day at the movies or the mall.

These are the sorts of days that sent Washington's lawmakers home for the season in the days before AC. Maybe we were all better off then. It was also the sort of weather that sent Baltimoreans into the parks at night to sleep out under the stars, where it was at least a few degrees cooler than in their airless rowhouses. And there was the hope of a breeze. That's one tradition in Charm City that's not likely to be revived.