Wearied by the Sun

I write these lines on Wednesday, July 28, and the столбик термометра зашкаливает за отметку 35 градусов (the mercury in the thermometer topped the 35º Celsius mark).

As I have written frequently in this space, weather is a sacred topic among Muscovites, and this historic Moscow жара (heat) will surely be the talk of the town for many decades.

Since mid-June, the capital has been struggling with аномальная жара (abnormal heat), and the expression носиться с мокрой задницей (run around with a wet butt – i.e. hurry about in a hassled state) has regained its original meaning. Call it global warming (глобальное потепление) or the парниковый эффект (greenhouse impact), the current погода in Moscow sure makes Climategate (климатгейт) skeptics look bad.