When the going gets tough … you know the rest

We Northern Hemisphere folk, with Beijingers being no exception, recently passed a major meteorological milestone on June 21, the start of summer north of the equator. It also closed the curtain on two other seasonal bookends — spring and sunshine.

It's not that our closest star stops shining on the advent of summer, indeed our solar overlord bludgeons us even more brutally with its bright beams for the next three months or so.

But the duration of the photon bombardment is shortened, beginning of all days on the first day of summer. It may seem counterintuitive to the unstudied observer, but it is an example, dear reader, of the "dark humor" this world sometimes metes out. So as the days — and nights — get hotter, the days get shorter and the nights longer. It's akin to a Rosie Ruiz phenomenon. You arrive near what you think is the finish line for spring only to instead find yourself standing on the finish line for extended daylight.