Warmup act

The dangerous heat wave that took hold of most of the eastern half of the U.S. broiled millions of people, almost literally. The heat was blamed for at six least deaths.

From the midwest to the Atlantic Shore, temperatures were in the 90s. Baltimore hit 100° on both Saturday and Sunday, marking the first time that we've seen triple digits since 2016.

We had to run out to dinner on Saturday and traffic at 5 PM was more like it is at 5 AM...hardly anyone was out; most people were in pools or camped out in air conditioned rooms, icing themselves or each other down with drippy bags of ice right out of the Kelvinator.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, a woman was hiking a mountain path called the Billy Goat Trail and succumbed, apparently from the heat, on Saturday.

And on the national news, CBS showed a guy in New Jersey, all sweaty and thirsty. He was saying that he was running in the heat and said, "I thought I was having a heart attack a couple of times, but I pushed through."

Here is my message to this man.  Go right ahead and "push through," if you must.  If running and sweating in dangerous weather is that important to you, if your health and your future with the people who like you and love you and, one presumes, wish to have your continued presence in their lives means so little, and if you think that losing another gallon of water and half a lb. of gluteus maximus means more than being safe, then, by means, you just push on through.

But do us a favor. Young people might be watching, and they might see an adult on television advising people to keep running in 100° weather even if they feel that they are having a heart attack, and we don't want young people seeing that sort of thing.

Because we already have enough fools.