It's British Friday! It's British Friday!

Helen Mirren trumps Harry Potter.  Helen Mirren trumps all.  Helen Mirren, sexiest woman alive.

Photographed by Perou for Esquire Magazine

In praise of parasols

Shiny!

While their methodology is suspect at best, the Weather Channel is not far wrong in naming D.C. one of the sixth hottest cities in the United States.

You don't have to tell me.  There's nothing like standing at the bus stop in the morning, hoping that salty tears and humid air will be enough to keep my flesh from bursting into flames.



But if there's one thing I learned from two winters in Chicago, it's that dignity and fashion have no place in extreme weather.  I finally took a page from my friend Irene, and embraced the parasol.  It's made all the difference.  Our great-great grandmothers so had it right.

Heat index of 102 you say?  Pshaw.

Easy like a Sunday morning

Still feeling awkward at the idea of popping open your umbrella when there's not a cloud in the sky?  It's okay.  You just need to start small and work up to it.

You can have my Oxford Comma

credit: Dona Nobis Pacem

when you pry it out of my cold, dead, and decomposing hands.

Although it seems that rumors of its demise have been exaggerated.  As Linda Holmes at NPR explains,

... there was a rumbling that the University of Oxford was dumping its own comma. As it turned out, this wasn't the case.  They haven't changed their authoritative style guide, but they've changed their internal PR department procedures that they use for press releases. The PR department and the editorial department are two different things, so this doesn't necessarily mean much of anything, except that it's maybe a little embarrassing to have the PR department of the university with which you're affiliated abandon your style guide.

You know who's really excited by this news?  Stephanie Meyer.  By Reasoning with Vampires' count, she's never met a comma she didn't like.

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