Dog Days of Summer

In late summer, a muggy, gauzy heat blanket hovers over parts of the Northern Hemisphere -- the dog days are here. It's a time when a nap becomes an afternoon siesta, and all motivation slips through your sweaty fingers. This phrase is as old as skywatching, named for the "dog star," the brightest star of the constellation Canis Major, or "big dog."

The Egyptians first coined the phrase, as the period when Sihor, named for their dog-headed God Anubis, aligned to rise with the Sun. It was the hottest and driest season, but a prelude to the flooding of the Nile, and the fertile days that followed. The Greeks later called this bright star Sirius, and believed it amped up the solar heat. With precession of the equinoxes, Sirius' heliacal rise is later by a few weeks.

Dog days are a languid, lazy time, but also when frustrations rise, and there's a notable peak in urban riots, road rage and worse. Keep a cool head by slipping off to a matinee, carving an ice sculpture or just surrendering to the couch.