06/11/2026
The Sarasota Sage
About 700 years ago. . .
the name "Summer"for the hot season of the year appeared in Old English. It migrated from the Norse and ancient German peoples, who were given to meddling and coming up with names.
Before the name surfaced apparently the English of the years 400-1100 didn't know what to call that season, didn't care, or had not yet noticed seasons. After all, people generally were dull and unobservant back then, possibly distracted as well by intestinal parasites.
Anyway, Summer will be here June 21. Get out and have fun in it but try not to be a gazingstock or laughingstock ( I am up to no good, trying to reintroduce those two words I suppose.) And for Pete's sake, throw caution to the wind and sunburn a little. In Summer the air of the entire Florida peninsula smells like coconut-tangerine-almond sunscreen and among other things that medley of heavy aromas causes mad bee disease and red tide, and some feel it explains the rising number of problem pregnancies in the state's goat herds. I am 2 hours from the nearest beach and smell that noxious wave of sunscreen all Summer. It makes me want to shatter store windows like an understandably crazed left wing Democrat. And it makes my friend Gideon Cochrane's call for the er****on of a wall along the state's northern borders an increasingly appealing idea.
But wait, I wander! I intended to say have a good summer. Laugh (especially at yourself) and play. Get behind on bills, to hell with creditors.
-Ranger Joe
