This Side of the Pond

When I say the Brits can’t cope with the heat, I’m not kidding. While Wyoming baked in 104-degree weather last Monday, most of the UK was suffering through exactly the same temperatures.

But unlike us, my home nation had to get by with no air conditioning and bodies conditioned for light rain while relying on a countrywide infrastructure system that was not designed to handle a real summer. Why would it have been, when we’d never had one?

Our homes are built to trap the heat and don’t come pre-installed with AC, partly because so many of them pre-date the invention of electricity and partly be...