About a year ago, on one of those dog days of August, I went into a hardware store and while paying for my stuff I noticed that the teenager cashier was really sweating because of the heat. So I gaily made small talk and said to him "Boy, you really look so hot!" He suddenly got red as a beet and fumbled about with the change and did not respond to my comment. My daughter who was also a teenager then explained to me that the word hot has another meaning.
One thing though, everytime I go to the hardware store I am promptly attended to.

chronist