It’s been an egg-frying-on-the-sidewalk kind of summer here even for the nation’s capital, but the other day, we got a refreshing break as the temperature mercifully stayed in the 80s. But when I got out of the car and hit the black asphalt in the parking lot of a local shopping center, I swear the temperature jumped 10 degrees.

I’ve often thought we could make a major dent in global warming if someone invented a kind of paving that would actually reflect the sun rather than invite it in to roast us even more. Those sunscreens for the car and truck windshields really do a fine job, so this reflecting principle can work. Trees and the shade they give also help cool things down in some places, too, and I enjoy the neighborhood park near our house for this reason.
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The nation’s commercial airlines deserve a little credit for consistently carrying out their jobs. Rain or shine, their 35,000 daily flights ferry people of all kinds — the college graduate, the business executive, the vacationer — throughout the country and around the world.

Of late, the major carriers have had a few bumps in the road: plunging revenues, an unpredictable and seemingly never-ending volcano eruption, heightened security and regulation due to terrorism, disastrously long ticket lines, flight delays and even cancellations. ...