The weather report says the high in Oakland today was around 85 degrees. That may well have been true, but the Bay Area has made me a climate wimp, and a dry 85 makes me feel like I’m wilting. When I make my way out to a part of the country in which there is actual humidity, my wilting point is around 75. I remember a trip to New York back in 2002, during which the temperature rose to about 73 or 74. The combination of heat and humidity zapped all of my energy and I found myself trying to discretely catch a short nap in one of the side galleries of the Guggenheim.

All of this brings me to the man in this picture. He was standing on the curb, waiting for the rental car shuttle and, unlike me and everyone else who was standing outdoors, he was not sweating. With his short-short sleeved, form-fitting t-shirt, gold hoop earrings, and neatly trimmed hairline, I think this brotha was just too cool to be hot.

Ajuan Mance