New York City, May 17, 2015

★★★ The humidity oozing into the apartment made the question of whether it was cool enough to open a window irrelevant. On with the air conditioner, while grays and yellows churned slowly in the sky. Outdoors under the afternoon clouds it was not as bad as inside; the breeze moved slow and heavy. Children slumped in strollers. The sun brightened and faded. Glory streamed around the waist of an hourglass of cloud in the west. The pink and blue afterglow of sundown brought out the grain of the travertine on Lincoln Center. One or two people were outright asleep on the grass roof. Black puffs of incinerator smoke dispersed slowly in the darkening sky. The three-year-old sprinted along the turf in his socks. Other children barrel-rolled down the slope. Underneath, diners ate in the glassed-in dimness.