Yesterday was summer. It started on the deck in the morning with coffee and the papers and ended at the bottom of the ninth, another Sox win. My friends invited me to dinner on the deck. We drank frosty Creamsicles, played Phase 10 and ate hamburgers and deviled eggs. We laughed as we always do together. Candles were lit and the smell of lemon filled with air. It was quiet everywhere else in the neighborhood but not on that deck.

Today is cloudy and chilly. I went out with my coffee and papers and came back inside two pages later. It may rain, and by the looks of the sky and the feel of dampness in the air, this afternoon will get wet.

An editorial in the Globe gave me a laugh this morning. A state senator has proposed a bill prohibiting homeowner associations and the like from restricting solar-clothes drying devices; however, the bill is not without controversy. Some associations demand the bill restrict these devices to back yards. Last year the city of Concord passed a right to dry measure, but it is in conflict with the current state law. The Laundry List, a national right-to-dry advocacy based in New Hampshire, has an on-line petition urging the First Family to put up a clothesline on the White House lawn. I have a vision of unmentionables blowing in the breeze near the West Wing.

I went hunting and found The History Bluff and an article about Presidential underwear. It came as no surprise that Harry Truman often liked to go commando or that Richard Nixon preferred whitey- Tighties. The only underwear conversion came when Calvin Coolidge, who wore whitie-tighties for the first two years of his presidency, switched over to boxers after being ridiculed by Vice President Charles Dawes. Although Coolidge admitted it felt strange for the first few weeks, he was glad for the change and was grateful to Dawes.

It seems that a President is required to write down his underwear preference for his staff so that they may purchase underwear for him when necessary. I’m thinking that’s going too far. Some things should just be kept private. My advice to the President is pack more than enough in case you have to stay longer. I always do.