Well, now a month's worth of The Economist is read. There was a great piece on Houston and then a stupid letter a couple of issues later, from someone who has obviously never been there but still says bad things about it. There was a great piece on the U.S.-Mexico border, much better in one article than the long special section that Time magazine recently published on this subject. Perhaps the best piece was on the death of the rain queen. H. Rider Haggard is supposed to have based the notion of She upon an ancestor of hers. This afternoon another telephone guy's around toting a ladder from yard to yard, poor guy--in this heat. Messages to several members of the listserv are bouncing. Two have been tracked to new e-mail addressed and resubscribed. When will summer be over?